In the depths of the Warp, at the edge of Slaanesh's realm of ecstasy, lay a region that had been temporarily cleared and stabilized.
This should have been a domain filled with extreme sensory stimulation and twisted desires, yet it was now shrouded in an atmosphere far deeper and more unsettling.
Countless captured Eldar—from Craftworlds inhabitants to Exodite warriors, even including large numbers of Drukhari betrayed by their own kind in the early days of the madness—were bound by invisible forces to the nodes of a massive ritual array like livestock awaiting slaughter.
Their eyes were filled with boundless fear, despair, and bone-deep hatred for their fallen kin, but all those emotions had now become nourishment for this evil ritual.
Darth Vader floated above the heart of the array, his black armor appearing all the more sinister against the surging Chaos energy and the aura of Eldar despair around him.
His eyes were tightly shut, his masked head slightly lowered as he focused on adjusting his condition and communing with the terrifying power within him—power that belonged to him, yet far transcended him, power from the Abyss.
Around him, the enormous projections of the four Chaos Gods stood silently like four oppressive mountains.
Their wills, like tangible gazes, were fixed upon Vader and the sacrifices below, filled with greed, anticipation, and a trace of barely perceptible wariness.
At last, Darth Vader abruptly opened his eyes!
An unprecedentedly dark radiance erupted from his crimson lenses!
He slowly raised both hands, his armored fingers moving as though playing a symphony of death.
In an instant, the power of the Abyss—which made even the projections of the four Chaos Gods ripple slightly in alarm—erupted from Vader like a breached flood, spreading throughout the entire ritual array!
"Urrrghhh—!!!"
Below, every bound Eldar instantly let