Laster silently observed the sleeping figure with his psychic eye. He could see no colors, no fluctuations whatsoever. It was entirely unlike the profound black hole surrounding an Untouchable.
Yet this complete absence of psychic traces still struck Laster as strange. The thing was like a soulless stone. If examined with psychic-detection instruments, they would not produce any readings at all.
But when Laster's psychic eye locked onto the object around that thing's neck, he felt an inexplicable fear.
To the naked eye, it was a nonreflective metal disc. But under his psychic eye, it resembled a black hole, endlessly devouring the psychic power projected toward it. Laster could even faintly feel his soul being tugged.
He swiftly withdrew his gaze and forcibly directed his psychic eye downward. There, he saw the bloodstained Aquila icon.
Golden holy flames and blood-red, foul mist surged across it. Those different powers battled atop the icon, neither able to overcome the other.
The power was so vast that even the slightest leakage sent all the psychic energy in Laster's body into two states at once: rage and indifference. He suppressed the fear rising from his soul.
He saw the thing's head shrouded in dense blood mist. Those bizarre substances coiled around its head, then pounced toward Laster's irreverent gaze.
No! Such power!
Laster could already see the moment when he would be completely tainted by that bloody, evil, blasphemous force. At that point, he would lose control, and the psychic energy throughout his body would boil over.
His flesh and soul would become a Warp portal, ceaselessly drawing more daemons to rush into this world...
No! This cannot happen! I made an agreement with Inquisitor Omar! I cannot let that child down! I have to! I must self-destruct before I lose control!
Laster began