"It's not your turn yet..."
Before Archmagos Somado could finish speaking, a green light flashed.
The light was like a bolt of lightning drawn from the void, tracing an arc of almost no thickness through the air of the great hall.
It appeared without warning, slipping from the hand of one of the four attendants like a snake's tongue springing from a sheath, and slid silently across the Archmagos's neck.
The next second, Archmagos Somado's head was sliced in two.
He would never finish the rest of his sentence, for his jaw and the crown of his head had already parted.
The mechanical head spun once in midair before striking the metal floor with a dull thud, rolling several times and coming to rest beside a pipe.
The severed surface exposed mechanical structures that had stopped functioning and neural interfaces leaking green liquid.
His body remained standing for a moment, like a statue that had yet to realize it was dead. Then a mixture of dark red liquid and sparks sprayed from his neck cavity, and he toppled to one side, crashing heavily beside the control console.
The four attendants shed their disguises the moment the green light swept out.
Under the effects of Polymorphine, their bodies rapidly transformed and reassembled. Bones crackled beneath their skin, muscle fibers lengthened, compressed, and reshaped, and the features of Adeptus Mechanicus servants melted and peeled from their faces like wax.
Their tattered work robes tore open from within, revealing close-fitting black bodysuits that could protect them against most small-arms fire and assist their bodies in moving at extreme speeds.
They discarded their cleaning tools, replacing them with Phase Swords rising from their arms, their blades lighting up with an eerie green glow in the air.
Four Callidus Assassins in black bodysuits charged at