The instant Lorgar seized Corax, Bella reacted.
She moved without the slightest hesitation, leaning back the moment Lorgar focused his attention on Corax.
The darkness on the Bridge floor, which had gathered again after being scattered by the golden psychic glow, silently swallowed her.
Lorgar caught the movement out of the corner of his eye.
His pupils contracted slightly, but he neither released Corax nor turned to pursue her.
His fingers remained clamped around Corax's neck, holding the fallen Primarch suspended in midair.
He could feel the trembling beneath Corax's Adam's apple, could feel the Chaos energy hidden between his armor plates churning violently.
But he also knew Bella had retreated into the shadows. If he let go to pursue her now, he would lose his hold on Corax.
He chose to keep his grip on his prey.
Beyond the radiance where blades and golden flames intertwined, Corax saw the instant Bella slipped into the shadows.
For a moment, his gaze softened, and an almost imperceptible sense of relief rose within him.
Bella had escaped.
Now I can finally fight Lorgar without holding back.
As that thought settled, Corax's body began to change.
Lorgar felt a strange writhing between his fingers.
Corax's neck armor softened like wax held over a flame, cracking between Lorgar's fingers to reveal a layer of black fragments that drifted away like feathers.
The next second, Corax's body dissolved into a mass of roiling black mist and shattered raven feathers, slipping through Lorgar's grasp like sand.
The darkness did not fall. It flowed toward the shadows deeper within the Bridge, taking shape again several meters away.
Corax's feet touched the metal floor. His figure rose once more from the black mist, his wings spreading behind him before folding again.
He retreated into the darkness, standing in