Black Hole

We're going to die! Don't block it! Get out of the way!

These three thoughts flashed through Miriael's mind in succession.

With the keen senses and reflexes granted by the Chaos God Lord of Pleasure, now heightened to a remarkable degree, Miriael realized something was wrong the instant Rowan plunged his hand into the plasma.

But she had never imagined Rowan's attack would be so fast, or so... immense.

The raging plasma truly formed a towering wave that surged straight toward them. Wherever it passed, the once-solid Ceramite floor vaporized and fused with the air.

Countless plasma bursts spread outward, each striking with the force of a cannonball and scattering like shrapnel. Their attack range was so vast that they covered most of the Bridge.

How could she dodge?

There was no way to avoid such a wide-ranging attack by normal means. She would surely suffer damage severe enough to tear her to pieces.

She had to jump!

Miriael made her decision at once and stamped down hard on the floor without hesitation.

In an instant, her figure vanished from where she stood like an illusion. Like a rocket shooting skyward, she rose higher and higher, forcibly evading the oncoming torrent.

Of course, that was only a desperate, short-term fix.

Suspended in midair, Miriael stared blankly down below.

What filled her vision was an ever more violent tide of plasma, turning everything into nothingness. There was only one thing missing.

Her legs.

The moment the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince leapt, Rowan's thoughts shifted. He redirected a patch of plasma and sent it streaking toward the ascending Miriael.

It had not hit her completely, but her two twisted, Xenos-like legs, clad in the Armor of Ecstasy, had still been scorched to cinders and shattered for the most part.

It was over.

That was the answer given by an inexplicable intuition, the thought that welled up in Miriael's mind.

She sensed something wholly unfamiliar to her since her ascension to daemonhood:

The scent of death.

For some reason, her consciousness seemed veiled in mist. After suffering such devastating injuries, her thoughts began to grow confused.

I'm going to die?

Not like before, when she suffered grievous injuries, her body shattered, and her consciousness returned to the Warp, where she waited for her next descent into reality and her next bout of pleasure.

Earlier, Miriael had sensed that the souls of the Warp's unliving, as well as those of the Chaos Astartes who had made pacts with her, had all fallen into nothingness. None had returned to the Six Rings of the Lord of Pleasure.

Miriael had originally thought the Living Saint was responsible.

Now she suddenly realized it was this... "person" before her.

This being who might be a Warp Minor God, or perhaps some other kind of extraordinary entity!

No. She had to save herself.

In less than 0.01 seconds, Miriael made her decision.

Before the artificial Gravity Field could catch her and send her plunging into the plasma sea below, she immediately swung the Painbringer in her hand.

But this time, the blade was aimed not at any foe hated by the Lord of Pleasure, but at her own head.

That's right. Miriael was going to kill herself.

All that talk about experiencing death and gaining a kind of pleasure she had never known was just empty words.

At the thought that her consciousness might soon vanish into nothingness and her eternal life come to an end, Miriael, the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince, immediately lost her nerve.

I can't die!

I have to return to Slaanesh's Six Rings!

That's right. I have to tell them that a new formidable enemy has appeared in the material world. I have to let the other Warp Demons know that The Accursed has gained a new ally!

Even so, she still failed.

The blade abruptly stopped, as if sealed in amber or bound fast by an invisible force.

Who was it?

Following the source of the psychic disturbance, Miriael slowly turned her head. She saw a figure who had appeared behind Rowan at some point.

It was Sibyl, who had just finished dealing with the Chaos Lord and returned through the Warp to reinforce the battlefield.

The moment she appeared, she received Rowan's message and understood his intentions. She immediately unleashed her Psychic Power.

Sibyl released the full force of her Alpha-level psychic might. An invisible hand of psychic force clenched the Painbringer tight, preventing it from advancing any farther for a brief moment.

Of course, given the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince's resistance to psychic powers, this should not have been able to stop her for long. But even delaying her for an instant was more than enough.

"Well done."

Rowan praised her, then immediately raised his hand and pointed lightly toward Miriael.

Then, for the first time, he fully unleashed his newly ascended Reality Warping Ability.

"What is that?"

Miriael's pupils suddenly widened. A deep blackness blossomed before her eyes, as if a bottomless Black Hole had torn open the canvas of the universe, or like the eye of some Daemon God, arrogantly devouring all matter and color.

Including, of course, her body!

Inside the Bridge, the raging currents of air stopped spreading outward and instead swept violently inward, rapidly being drawn away. The plasma and everything else rushed into that darkness, too, until they were utterly consumed.

Then the Micro Black Hole began to tremble, as if it were about to spew forth all the matter compressed within its powerful Gravity Field.

Rowan casually snapped his fingers.

Along with the matter inside it, the Black Hole, on the verge of losing control, silently vanished the instant his snap rang out.

"What... was that?"

The Adeptus Custodes Leonardo had been ravaged by the terrible poison of Slaanesh. Now he knelt on the ground, swaying, but his firm will kept him upright and prevented him from falling. His voice trembled as he asked.

"Oh, that was just a little trick. You can think of it as a Black Hole I imagined."

Rowan answered casually.

With the Adeptus Custodes' knowledge spanning every field, Leonardo clearly had a whole host of questions he wanted to ask, but in the end he forced himself to hold them back.

He asked only one question, one that seemed obvious.

"Is the Demon dead?"

"Of course she's dead."

Rowan glanced at the Adeptus Custodes with some surprise, as if he hadn't expected him to ask such a question.

"This is only the beginning. For the countless debts of blood that fallen creature has incurred, and for the humiliation she brought upon the Battle Sisters, we'll continue the hunt and make her pay an even greater price."

The Living Saint was clearly in much better shape than Leonardo. She stood upright, her gaze fixed on the place where Miriael had disappeared, and spoke solemnly.

"No. You may think she was banished back to the Warp, but that isn't what happened."

Rowan seemed to realize Lucia might have misunderstood something, so he calmly repeated himself.

"That Daemon Prince is dead. She's gone for good. And you're right—this is only the beginning."

"The days of those Warp unlivings who treat reality as their playground and do whatever they please will soon be over."