Deep in the Warp, the eternal Chaos storms still churned in silence.
Vashtorr floated amid a throne woven from searing metal and twisted reality. Thousands of mechanical tendrils extended from the carapace on his back, sinking into the roiling void around him. The end of each tendril connected to an invisible signal link that reached into the dark corners of the entire Materium.
Yet at that moment, one of those links was trembling violently.
Vashtorr's massive body paused slightly, his metal components colliding with a dull clank.
He sensed that his connection to the Ferrus Manus replica currently in contact with Zahurash on Sotha was being severed by an unfamiliar force.
The link went from stable to indistinct, from indistinct to dim, then began to fracture with a series of faint, continuous cracks.
Vashtorr extended several mechanical tendrils to try to reconnect it, only to discover that the severing force had enveloped the entire link in a way he could not decipher, isolating it from the inside out.
He stopped moving.
Vashtorr knew who it was.
Only the C'tan, sealed away billions of years ago, could interfere with his control links so forcefully within the physical universe.
This being named Zahurash was unlike any Chaos entity he knew. He did not rely on the power of the Warp, but directly commanded the fundamental laws of the physical realm—the power of reality itself.
In theory, that Ferrus Manus replica was a creation forged using Warp technology, with Vashtorr assisting the original. Each replica was a pawn meticulously designed by Vashtorr, and each bore a portion of his technological imprint.
But now, the power flowing from Zahurash was stripping those imprints from Ferrus Manus's body, bit by bit.
That Ferrus Manus replica was now on the very brink of slipping free of