The core of the Blackstone Mine was filled with the sickly-sweet scent of forcibly twisted Warp energy and the dust of shattered ore.
Abaddon, the Chaos Warmaster, stood atop a carefully constructed psychic node, embedding the last few Blackstone Crowns—radiating dim light and carved with blasphemous runes—into a massive pedestal.
These devices resonated with similar ones scattered throughout the mine, weaving an invisible net meant to completely seal the Nachmund Gauntlet and transform this region of space into an amplifier for Chaos.
Victory was within reach.
Dark satisfaction stirred within Abaddon's rotten heart.
Once he completed the final steps, Guilliman and his expeditionary fleet would become trapped prey, while the power of Chaos would flow through this place unimpeded!
Just as he focused on adjusting the angle of the final Crown, the space beside him suddenly rippled without warning.
Like a stone cast into still water.
A Terminator guard noticed the anomaly first. He spun around sharply, the Heavy Bolter mounted on his Power Fist rising in an instant. His helmet lenses locked onto the center of the disturbance—a little girl floating in midair, dressed in an exquisite black dress and looking utterly harmless! With her head tilted, she watched Abaddon with fascinated interest, as though he were some novel toy.
The Terminator did not hesitate. Driven by his instinctive hatred for anything not of Chaos and his duty to protect the Warmaster, he opened fire without restraint! The massive bolt screamed forth with devastating momentum!
Yet the expected sight of the little girl being torn to pieces never came.
Several meters from Pandora's body, the bolt seemed to strike an invisible, absolutely unyielding wall. It twisted and warped in an instant, then turned into powerless metal fragments that clattered onto the ground.
The bizarre sight made the other Terminator