The Silent Hearse

Time lost its meaning here.

There was no sunrise or sunset, no roar of the Hive City, and not even that ubiquitous, reassuring hum of machinery was spared, swallowed whole by the heavy soundproofing armor.

Li Wei sat in a single cell measuring less than four square meters.

The walls were cast from pitch-black Suppression Metal, densely engraved with countless hexagrams and High Gothic prayers.

These runes were not meant to imprison a prisoner's flesh, but to shackle their soul.

Yet he needed none of this. Because he had no soul.

"Eat." The food slot was rudely yanked open, and a metal tray holding an off-white paste was shoved inside.

Li Wei walked to the door and, through that narrow slit, caught sight of a pair of eyes.

That was no ordinary gaoler.

She was a tall woman clad in golden Power Armor and draped in a red cloak.

She wore a fully enclosed helmet, the lower half of her face concealed by a metal mask, leaving only a pair of eyes as cold as ice.

She gripped a massive two-handed greatsword, blue lightning of a disruption field rippling along the blade.

A Sister of Silence.

The Emperor's direct "witch-seekers," every last one of them Pariahs just like Li Wei.

They were the only two beings on this ship capable of making Li Wei feel a sense of "kinship"—though that sense of kinship stemmed from their shared "emptiness."

Yet the other party clearly did not see it that way.

The Sister stared at Li Wei for a second, her gaze devoid of any peer recognition, holding only the contempt one might reserve for a feral, inferior specimen.

To a rigorously trained Sister sworn to the service of the Emperor, a wild breed like Li Wei, who had rolled around in the mud of the Bottom Hive, was akin to an untamed stray dog.

Clang! The food slot slammed shut with a vengeance.

Li Wei took the tray and sat back down on that freezing iron bed.

At least the food here is better than in the Bottom Hive; there's no sand mixed in. He smiled self-deprecatingly, digging out a spoonful of that cement-like substance and pushing it into his mouth.

He had been locked in this Black Ship named the Angel of Death for God knew how long.

Ever since he had been heaved aboard by that Ultramarines sergeant, he had been quarantined as a "special asset."

This ship was unimaginably colossal, resembling a flying city.

Deep within its holds, tens of thousands of Psykers captured from various planets were imprisoned.

To these sensitive Psykers, the ship itself was hell.

And Li Wei's existence was like dropping a continuous broadcast noise source right into that hell.

Even through the thick walls, Li Wei could occasionally faintly hear the distant screams, the thud of bodies slamming against walls, and frantic wails.

Those were his cellmates, driven to the brink of collapse by his aura.

Suddenly. The hull violently vibrated.

This tremor was no physical impact, but rather a twisting of spatial geometry.

The tray on the table bounced, and that starchy paste quivered as though endowed with life.

The lights overhead instantly extinguished, replaced by unsettling red emergency lighting.

No alarm klaxons blared over the intercom (the ship still maintained an absolute decree of silence), but Li Wei felt the air grow viscous, that sickening stench of rust and ozone permeating the space.

Warp jump.

This ship was tearing through the veil of reality, plunging into that alternate dimension composed of emotions and nightmares—the Warp.

To an ordinary person, this was merely a nauseating journey.

For the thousands of Psyker prisoners aboard, however, this was being tossed straight into a meat grinder.

"Aaaaaah!!!!" Piercing shrieks instantly erupted, even piercing the soundproofing armor to drill straight into Li Wei's ears. That was not the cry of a single person. That was the Choir of thousands upon thousands.

They screamed because, while the Gellar Field protecting the exterior of the ship blocked the physical forms of demons, it could not bar out the whispers and gazes originating from the deep reaches of the Warp.

They beheld nameless terrors prowling just outside the hull, heard the calls of deceased loved ones, and felt their own souls being tugged by some colossal straw.

Li Wei set down his spoon.

He felt nothing.

Aside from a slight ringing in his ears and the roller-coaster-like sensation of weightlessness in his stomach, he felt nothing at all.

No whispers, no hallucinations. Within that churning, kaleidoscopic ocean of the mind, he was like a foul and stubborn stone; any wave that crashed against him simply shattered.

"So noisy," Li Wei rubbed his ears and complained.

At that moment, he noticed something strange.

The runes upon his cell door were glowing.

The pitch-black Suppression Metal was now exuding condensation that looked suspiciously like blood.

That was no condensation phenomenon. That was a harbinger of the breach of reality's veil.

Wait... is the Gellar Field leaking? Li Wei stood up, retreating defensively into the corner.

If the Gellar Field failed, even through the most minuscule malfunction, the things within the Warp would seep in like quicksilver.

This ship was packed with delicious canned Psyker meat; to demons, this was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Bzzzt— Out in the corridor, the rhythmic pace of the patrols devolved into chaos.

Li Wei heard the barking discharge of a Bolter, followed by the roar of a Chainsword chewing through flesh.

And... a wet sound, like foul mud being dragged across the floor.

"I won't look... I won't listen... I won't..." A man's hysterical, broken babble drifted from the adjacent cell.

Followed immediately by a squelch. That voice vanished, replaced by the sound of chewing.

The thing was inside.

And it was right next door.

Li Wei held his breath, staring unblinkingly at the heavy iron door.

He held no weapons whatsoever—even his food tray was made of soft plastic.

His sole weapon was himself.

Bang! The iron door took a heavy strike.

A protrusion shaped like a human face actually pushed outward from the sturdy Suppression Metal.

Bang! Bang! The impacts grew increasingly violent.

Purple vapor began to seep through the gaps in the door, evidence of Warp entities attempting to squeeze their way through.

Li Wei did not back down.

He knew that in a confined cell, retreating meant death.

He drew a deep breath and approached the door.

He pressed his palm flat against that deforming, bleeding iron door.

"Whichever god or monster you are," Li Wei closed his eyes, summoning up that sensation of utter "emptiness" from the depths of his being, and shoved it outward through his palm toward the thing beyond the threshold.

"This is my single room." "Get out."

Hum—!!!

That violent, repulsive reaction inherent to a Pariah took place.

The impacts from the other side abruptly ceased.

That mass of purple vapor instantly dissipated like smoke caught in a gale.

The creature that had been devouring the prisoner next door let out a shriek as though scalded by boiling water: "Void... Nothingness... Pain!!!"

Followed immediately by a frantic, stumbling scramble of flight.

The entity preferred to plunge back into the Warp storm rather than spend another second near this door.

Silence reclaimed the corridor.

Only sporadic gunshots continued in the distance.

Li Wei withdrew his hand.

A thin layer of frost coated his palm.

He leaned back against the door, drawing ragged breaths.

"Looks like even on a Black Ship..." Li Wei surveyed his trembling hand, a cynical smirk curling the corner of his mouth.

"I'm still the least popular guy here."

Suddenly, the food slot was shoved open once more.

Only this time, what appeared outside was not a Sister of Silence.

Instead, it was an eye.

A clouded, bloodshot eye belonging to an elderly human.

"I saw it..." The owner of that eye spoke in a raspy voice laced with frenzied excitement.

"In a burning sea of fire... you alone were a block of black ice."

"Young man... care to make a trade?"

Li Wei frowned.

He leaned closer to the food slot, seeing that no one stood outside.

Only a corpse in prisoner garb lay upon the floor—the servitor responsible for meal deliveries, its head now cleanly twisted off.

And that voice issued from the intercom strapped to the corpse's chest.

"Who are you?" Li Wei asked.

"I am a piece of 'cargo' on this ship. Just like you," The voice let out a raspy, cackling laugh.

"But I'm worth more than you. I am an Alpha-level Psyker."

"That little demon just now was scared off by you, wasn't he? Interesting... truly interesting."

"Listen to me, Soulless. Something's gone wrong with this ship."

"The Gellar Field didn't malfunction; someone shut it off on purpose."

"If you don't want to be swallowed by the Warp, come find me in the containment block on the lowest deck."

"I have a way... to keep you alive in this hell."

Bzzzt— A wisp of blue smoke curled from the intercom, and it died completely.

Li Wei stared down at the headless servitor corpse.

Tens of thousands of madmen were locked aboard this vessel.

And now, the strongest and maddest of them all had issued him an invitation.