The next second, the enormous Cross Hercules had guarded so fiercely behind him suddenly changed.
It was no longer a motionless relic radiating nothing but solemn majesty.
As though awakened by Lorgar's blood and will, and by the intense hostility of this blasphemous place, the white patterns flowing across its surface erupted with blinding white light!
There was no warmth in that radiance, only an absolute, exclusionary power of cold purification directed against every manifestation of the Warp and Psychic Energy.
An invisible suppression Force Field, powerful enough to send ripples through space itself, burst outward from the Cross!
The Force Field had neither shape nor substance, yet it was deadlier than the most violent energy blast.
Wherever it passed, Saladin's psychic "dust" suspended in the air instantly dissolved and evaporated like mist under searing heat.
The projections of ancient warriors formed from sand, soul-fire flickering in their sockets, gave silent wails as their bodies crumbled inch by inch, reverting to ordinary grains that pattered to the floor.
Even the Hall's strange psychic atmosphere, dry and stagnant, as though deep within a desert, was violently purged!
Saladin himself bore the brunt of it.
"Aaargh!"
The instant the invisible purification Force Field swept through him, Saladin reeled as though struck by a crushing blow!
He grunted, the amused composure of someone who controlled everything shattering on his face, replaced by unbearable pain and horror.
He felt the ceaselessly flowing power within him, vast as the Sea of Sand, seized and stripped away by an invisible giant hand!
His intimate connection to the warship beneath his feet and the surrounding sand-transformed domain was brutally severed. The authority that had allowed him to transform matter as effortlessly as moving a limb suddenly grew sluggish and faint.
He staggered backward several steps, nearly losing