With a thought, Nimrod took a step and arrived in the Seventh Layer Space.
A crystal coffin slowly materialized beside him.
Nimrod raised his right hand, and a massive corpse slowly floated out.
Hannibal's brown eyes were dim and lifeless. The thick blood pooled in the upward-curving hollows at the corners of his lips had completely congealed, as though it had always been there.
His spine was broken, the bones at the horrific fracture Leman Russ had inflicted twisted and warped. Dark blood clung to Lecter's soil.
"To travel through and operate within the Warp, powerful Psionic Energy is still more convenient."
The shadow avatars created by "Shadow Exploitation" could be formed from nothing, or they could use a body—even a corpse—as a medium.
But what Nimrod needed was a shadow avatar with Primarch-level combat strength, allowing him to act on multiple fronts.
Although Hannibal had gained powerful Psionic Energy by devouring xenos, his soul was not within his corpse.
Nimrod's gaze swept over the urn of ashes, and he shook his head slightly.
"The corpse and the urn of ashes are fairly compatible in appearance, but what I want is the fusion of soul and flesh."
The soul fragment lingering around Prospero was the part Magnus hated most deeply. It shared a certain occult connection with Hannibal, whose spine had likewise been broken by Russ. Combined with their similar components, they could merge perfectly.
A heavy book appeared out of thin air in Nimrod's right palm, its pages turning.
As he chanted an incantation, a phantom shadow leaped from the book.
A sea of flames surged into the sky, only to be swallowed by black mist without stirring the slightest ripple.
The Magnus soul fragment opened its crimson cyclopean eye and looked around. He saw neither his offspring, Menes