C204: Quick Chats and Departing
Alt Title teaser: New playground
Date published: 3/31/2025.
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As the Eye of Terror is rendered until nothing remains, a strange calm takes over all fighting forces. For the cultists and daemons, it is fear, they have lost, their connection to the warp momentarily cut in the awe inspiring shockwave of the black hole.
For the humans, the lack of access to the warp would be an oppressive sensation and while many remain clueless to the events of the here and now. The leadership quickly moves to snap their people out of their revere, capitalizing on the fact that they could permanently kill all the daemon here until the warp and psychic energy regains its reach here.
But for a select few beings, they share different reactions, Khorne is pleased by Axels battle with the daemon prince, he is not even concerned about the true loss of his subordinate. He simply wishes to push Axel and everyone with him further, to the edge of the battlefield, one he ordans.
Slaanesh grinds 'their' teeth in irritation at the nearby trophy having repelled her forces with ease. Khorne got the closest but the chaos god of desire can tell that there will be many chances. Yet even when the target of 'her' admiration repelled her and even killed her people she had remained calm but the real fact that a seemingly normal 'girl' had endured their desirable creations.
But Slaanesh has a new target in their mind, Ais Wallenstein, a girl oh so pure, so delectable, and surely much more worthy of being under their command than Axel. Slaanesh cant help but froth a bit at the idea that they duo are not engaged in coitus which means that there is a third or more under Axels banner. They begin their work, orchestrating the most perfect downfall for this new variable.
While the other 2 bicker amongst themselves to corrupt, Tzeentch instead has been in a state of Euphoria, so many variable he could not account for, so much that is not under his control, and the very center of it all is the new pure alternate timeline that Axel has made through his actions.
The lord of change is most sensitive to things like these types of events unlike the others. The lord of fate already deemed Axel his own most pious believer as otherwise he would not have come here and sundered the very existence of fate for Cadia.
"Ah, so wonderful, always change, never end, Keep going" The whispers of admiration are silently heard throughout the Crystal Fortress [1]. Many ignore it as all of it's inhabitants have regularly heard the mewlings of their lord from time to time when a promising prospect arose to their lords senses.
"Grr, ARGH, buuuu WOHOHHOH, Flay him, AHHH, mutilate under every ,grah, vat of poison I can make, For all eternity" The musings of the lord of decay are much more contrary to its brethren as it's current greatest joy is the end of Axel, once and for all. His past admiration and interest in the outsider is long gone.
The 5th and final being is composed of two constructs, one which resides within the warp, a beacon of purity and goodness, taking on a golden haired form is a child who is intensely surveying the destruction of the eye of terror and humanities continued 'safety'.
With a gentle and caring tone, they say "Cadia stands". Yet contrary to the child's caring tone, a firmer and deeper voice in the material voice calls out at the same time. The second construct lies in a splendorous castle and within the castle lies a cybernetic golden throne. A rotting corpse placed atop it's seat, yet the red eye adorned atop the face of the 'corpse' lies up with powerful psychic energy that shocks the attending mechanicus drones as they receive the first words in thousands of years since the Horus Heresy.
"Deliver HERE, the two outsiders, Axel Gram, Ais Wallenstein."
The decree is heard and the full force of the imperium moves, reinforcement to support Cadia against any new chaos trickery, inquisitors to suppress any traces of heresy as well as find and capture the two so called anomalies directly to the emperor. Amongst these Inquisitors is the sisters of silence as well as the Adeptas Sorotias order of my Martyred lady who pursue Saint Celestine.
"Cadia Stands!!" An elderly veteran man with plentiful scars across his face and wearing a thick suit of armor takes up the emperor's flag which was nearby him. He quickly sends out investigatory drones to find out what created that black hole and how the eye of terror was sealed. The mystery lays heavy on Ursarkar E. Creed's shoulders and even heavier still as not too long after he gives orders for investigation, he receives direct orders from Terra for containment of two unknowns that might have intervened in Terra. He let's out a heavy sigh as he gets to work.
Axel who is still on Cadia and simply resting, recovering his expended energies. Though anyone who could tell would be able to tell that his own Psyker powers are rapidly growing as he absorbs the core of energy from his black hole that had devoured the Eye of Terror as well as the Tower of Eternity.
His ever growing senses and due to devouring the eye of terror, he got a free link with the Warp which he is currently using to momentarily reduce it's connection to cadia and that is how all the chaos folk are dying. A lucky few demons might be able to snuggle onto the thin thread connection that does exist but they can only be daemon princes or the weakest psyker you have ever seen. Granted it's not Axel's problem.
Ais is still recovering from Nurgle's plague marine poison. Not because he has not extracted it already but that Ais had asked him to feed the poison back to her to strengthen her body to it, essentially making herself tougher as well as a resistance to the toxins.
While the two are resting and giving an impression of holding a picnic, complete with blanket and snacks, a small group of astra militarum approach.
"Greetings, command has requested the presence of you both at Orcana's reach. A secondary base that had been reclaimed these past few Cadian hours."
"Coordinates" Axel speaks up and while a bit confused, the soldier gives them and Axel snaps his fingers. With a shimmer of space around them, the duo as well as the group of soldiers (including their vehicle which was a bit further away) find themselves at the entrance of this small scale base which faces a relatively thinner mountain path.
The soldiers on the walls draw their weapons at them and Axel lets the escorting group clear things up while he packs up the snacks and blanket. Ais is at attention with her hand on the hilt of her sword for any surprises of which there are none. Everything gets sorted out and while some people are confused how a powerful Psyker could utilize his abilities like this when the warp is still suppressed.
While the two are led inside, Axel's attention is attracted to the central command post of this mountain valley fortress. He can sense a powerful psychic presence within but it's weird because it's fleeting. Though thanks to having the Rhongomyniad, he recognizes the powers at work.
Causality, and its current possessor/instrument is the Saint Celestine herself, likely given a blessing by the emperor to elongate her stay just a bit longer due to Axel and Ais' arrival to this world and intervention.
The escort group separates from the duo as they return to their station while the commander of this fort acts as the escort to the command center which had been refurbished for a certain guest's usage.
The commander opens the door to a vibrant light emitting from inside, Axel has his physique and Ais has her divinity and thus neither are blinded by the 'radiance' that belongs to the halo upon Saint Celestine's back.
While Ais only possesses her own swordsmanship and divinity, Axel who now possesses psychic energy, can tell that the light has an extra purpose of purging any taint from them. The light would at most blind a regular daemon but for stronger ones like the bloodthirsters or daemon princes, it would be no more than a light show while being a saving grace for anyone in the middle of being corrupted. In essence, the greater the taint, the less effective the light becomes and is no more than a little trick against them.
She was checking if either of us had been afflicted with any taint, Ais' injuries do flare up a little but that is because she is still feeding herself bits of poison and that very poison was now expelled from her body. She frowns in response to this intrusive light and the saintess recognizes the need to stop before alienating either of them any further.
With the mystical light receding, Axel gets a clear look at the room. It is a very spacious location but other than the living angel in the middle of the room is the collection of various artifacts, mostly weaponry and bits of armor from daemons that have fallen to the Saintess' blade. In fact, her own ardent blade lies within one of these cases, showing that the saintess has no intention to harm either of them but can very likely summon it to herself at a moment's notice.
The most prominent display is the corpse of a powerful daemon who Axel theorizes is Urkrathos, the front line leader of the Black Legion, sent here by Abaddon (horus half clone/child) to take down Cadia and would have succeeded if the Saintess before them had not shown herself and slayed the daemon prince of Khorne. The demon's corpse had already been stripped from its armor as that is all that remains now in the display.
The raven haired Saintess rises from her seat, still wearing her signature armor as it is a gift from the emperor to protect her from the taint of chaos.
"Greetings to the two who have saved Cadia." Celestine greets them both and then follows up by saying, "I do apologize for the strange reception, I was simply being cautious. I identify as Saint Celestine, though from what I have overheard, you already knew of me".
Axel gives some side eye to Ais who notices this and rolls her own eyes. Thanks to being so close to her mother via her divinity, Ais has spent many years alongside Axel and his family, her human side having long made it's proper appearance which makes her reactions more vibrant than when she was with the Loki Familia as well as understanding more social quips which she can accurately respond to.
Ais speaks up, offering her own greetings and introduction, she then explains how she wanted to save people more than clear up the strange misunderstanding. Afterall, the two look like polar opposites, akin to ratatoskr separating his emotions into their own various clones but here is both appearance and emotions.
Celestine is one who has always known only the path of the Emperor, originally being a 'oh martyred lady' member before falling and consequently being revived as the next saint to do battle against the chaos. Ais on the other hand was the impossible love child of a human champion and a great spirit of the wind. Born as a half spirit, she had long felt detached from her human emotions with the exception of vengeance and rage against all dragons and especially OEBD.
Black hair versus blond, tall versus short (relatively), Power weapon versus Rapier, black armor versus silver armor. Any one of these descriptions would have made it clear that they are not connected in any way shape or form. It was a combination of hope, the soldiers lives being saved and an accidental wording which had led to this misunderstanding. The two spend some time chatting as they already put the whole situation behind themselves. Axel spends most of his time just admiring the various pedestals.
"And you, do you have anything you wish to speak of me about? In the few moments I still have to spare?" Celestine turns her attention to Axel as he admires the daemon lords armor for the third time in his little walk around.
"Hmm, not particularly, no, wait, can you perhaps purify this little thing for me. I could do it but I feel i've done enough for today" Axel cups his chin for a moment before remembering and then opening his pocket before activating a small looney tunes illusion as the Saw chained halberd is taken out of his pants pocket. He holds it out as Celestine's eyes widen in shock before accepting the duty whilst speaking.
"The 'War Fiends' Grinder! Impressive to the best one such as it. To not have one such as that roaming around and hunting the people of the Imperium is a great duty, it would be my honor to cleanse it" She gathers her light again and begins to purify the weapon as it's original red state as if it was born from the blood of thousands of people turns to a proper black and gray steel like weaponry, reminiscent of a space marine chainsaw in terms of coloration yet with the lack of insignia on it, it remains black and gray throughout the whole thing.
"Excellent, now if the two of us can be on our merry ways, we will allow you and the Ynaari believers to resurrect Guile-boy and the imperium can return to it's rightful state."
"Resurrect? Wait please!" The saintess gets up and rushes towards Axel who teleported Ais to him, taking her waist, the two disappear from the room, leaving celestine all by herself once again.
Axel brings Ais into his 2nd magic 'warp gate' as they begin to rapidly travel a long distance away, far from the standard chaos ensemble as Axel has a proper destination in place for himself.
Days pass and in this time, many legions spread out in search of Axel and Ais. While many are disappointed that Saint Celestine could not detain the duo further, they would never harbor hatred or annoyance towards the Saint who continues to dutifully protect them from Chaos.
Many search parties are enacted upon the neighboring sectors of space, every planet has at least a few inquisitors searching high and low for anyone matching the description of them both, a bounty on their heads, 'ONLY ALIVE' signed on their bounties.
As for Cadia, it's importance had been greatly diminished due to the pylons no longer having a proper target against a warp storm like the Eye of Terror which served as an important gateway for the forces of the black legion and chaos to step in from the warp. With the preliminary destruction of the 13th black crusade, chaos forces are scattered around, attempting to lay claim to smaller star sectors and planets and simply be a thorn in the imperiums side.
During the safety of this time period and under the urgings of the saintess who has oh so little time left before dissipating to wherever her next duties take her. They reach an accord with the Eldar servants of Yneead, bringing about the return of the 'Avenging Son', Roboute Guiliman, who quickly recognizes the undeniable peace of the current situation and thus turns his attention to liberating the imperium of deficiencies or despotism wherever he may find it.
As for Axel and Ais, they find themselves in the decrepit stone halls of an unknown world and possible threats.
"Where are we now?"
"The original location I had planned for you, the place where you will be allowed to fully move on your own accord"
"The hive city within the world of Necromunda"
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Alt Title: Poison Training, Taints Talk, Necromunda
Word count: 2728
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.
[1] The Crystal Fortress and the impossible labyrinth make up the headquarters of Tzeentch the god of Entropy within the Immaterium.