The command vehicle smashed through the Forge Temple's perimeter wall, and the Sicaran Longbow raced toward the source of the Crimson Light.
Bukayo Arshavin, Chapter Master of Shadow of Order's Third Legion, swept his gaze across the video screen. Data workstations stood in neat rows on the floor, their trailing cables connected to one seething furnace after another.
A platform shrouded in waves of heat seized his attention.
At the heart of the flowing flames stood a colossal beast.
A Saturnine Dreadnought.
Blasphemous machinery surrounded its silhouette, engraved with profane inscriptions and radiating an evil crimson glow.
Bukayo, a Soul Assurer, suddenly felt a stirring in his spiritual intuition. He stared at the roaring black behemoth. Within its ruined body, a soul howled in fury, seemingly warning him of something.
His obsidian eyes narrowed. Hundreds of souls clustered around that blazing soul, shrieking and screaming.
"Bukayo Arshavin!" A low voice rang out. Before the platform, a crimson figure slowly turned.
"The Gods foretold your arrival."
"I am Ishaan Tul Koriphas, and you, Nimrod's Dark Lord, shall bring about my ascension."
He raised his staff high, and crimson light surged upward.
The Saturnine Dreadnought roared. It took a step forward, and dazzling Warp flames rose from its Destruction Cannon.
"Your death shall be an offering to please the Gods."
Koriphas swept his staff through the air. Like a puppet on strings, the warped Saturnine Dreadnought raised its arm and aimed at Bukayo's Sicaran.
Bang!
The hatch opened, and Bukayo leaped out.
He walked slowly toward the rising, dazzling light, reciting a poem in Dunnish: "Ah, the shadows of fear quietly recede, and crimson hope spreads across the night sky.
Let the soul drift with fleeting time, peacefully into sleep."
Koriphas watched Bukayo warily as he seemingly walked to his death. Even