Against the World Ender of Fifty-One Worlds
The webway vessel marked D-52 by "Shadow of Order."
The steam from the Teleport dispersed in the corridor, and the unsettling stench inside Lady Hera's ship seeped faintly through the breathing grilles into the noses of Fourth Legion lord Adams and the members of the Honor Guard.
They had once walked the paths of "Corpse Collector" and "Gravedigger," had tempered themselves in far fouler places, and felt not the slightest discomfort.
Around the Cataphractii Terminator Armour of the "Gatekeepers," countless shadows seemed to be hidden, layer upon layer, deep and cold.
Adams's intuition was suddenly stirred, and he snapped his right arm up.
The "Gatekeeper's" palm split open, and in an instant illusory light burst forth before him, then rapidly spun around a single point.
The light collapsed inward, forming a slightly blurred pair of Bronze Gates.
The Bronze Gate was covered in mysterious patterns, carrying an indescribable sense of deathly silence and depth.
Creak!
A crack opened as the gate swayed, and within the gap was boundless darkness, like the deep night sky.
A hurricane so cold it could freeze an ordinary person's bones stiff sprang up out of nowhere, and green-black vines hung with faces extended from within.
Withered palms, split open and filled with teeth, opened and closed, sometimes shrieking, sometimes laughing.
Amid the clamor, the right half of Adams's upper body swiftly turned illusory, as if he had become a vengeful spirit.
His upper arm and forearm kept stretching, limbs generated out of thin air spreading rapidly like stacked blocks.
Amid shrill howls, pale hands grabbed at Lady Hera's tentacles as they appeared from nowhere.
Along with Sonem VIII, when Adams became a "Gatekeeper," the Evil Spirit that had willingly thrown itself into his body manifested, and Lady Hera