Contamination

The Webway still looked as ruined as ever, teetering on the dangerous edge of shattering without quite breaking. A Void Mine fired from beneath the Void Phoenix Fighter, striking a mass of sluggish flesh that had completely blocked the Webway.

This thing was obviously from the Warp.

The flesh was annihilated, and the Void Phoenix Fighter continued onward.

The Aeldari seers were constructing a ritual, attempting to use the Eye of Psychic Power to scout the VK-01 system.

The system was empty. Forget bugs—there was not even a small meteorite to be found.

When they turned their sight toward the planets, they found no traces of battle either. The fortress garrisons were simply sprawled across the ground in every direction, as if they had fallen unconscious.

The situation puzzled the seer. He focused his mind, sacrificing the breadth of the Eye of Psychic Power's search to gain greater depth.

He swept inch by inch over the damaged sections of the fortress. Finding nothing useful, he shifted his gaze toward the silent void.

Whispers came from beside his ears...

He felt that he had found the source of the problem. After deciding it was not the power of Chaos, he gathered his courage and continued scanning the void.

Finally, in a pitch-black region where no stars shone, the whispers in his ears suddenly grew deafening.

The runes maintaining the spell's stability became unfamiliar. That should not have been possible. He had studied these runes for hundreds of years. He might forget what he had eaten for lunch, but he could never forget the meaning of every rune.

His memories were slipping away, and his understanding of the world was gradually collapsing. He remembered that he was carrying out a scouting mission. He remembered that he was... *I am a blade of