"Bang!!!"
A dull boom, like a massive hammer striking a mountainside, echoed through the empty, deathly still metal corridor, leaving their eardrums numb.
Beneath his Power Armour, the muscles in Hercules's arms bulged like steel cables. All ten fingers dug deep into a huge, twisted piece of alloy wreckage whose original purpose was impossible to tell.
With a low growl rolling in his throat and his power pack screaming at full output, he wrenched the metal hulk—clearly weighing well over a hundred tonnes—out of the mountain of rubble and ruined machinery. He hoisted it up, then hurled it like a toy in a brutally graceful arc, slamming it into an open space dozens of metres to one side.
"Boom!"
Another earth-shaking impact rang out. Metal shrieked against metal, sending clouds of rust dust flying.
The passage entrance, previously choked solid with wreckage, had finally been cleared by sheer strength, leaving just enough space to pass through.
Severed cables dangled like dying snakes, and twisted metal frames gleamed coldly, but a path wide enough for several people abreast now led into the deeper darkness.
Lorgar did not hesitate. His hawk-sharp gaze swept over the dust hanging in the passage and the unknown darkness beyond. He raised his left arm slightly, ready to draw his blade at any moment.
He strode forward, his powered boots clanging, about to be the first to enter those shadows, sealed away for untold ages.
"What's the rush?"
A slender, fair-skinned hand, utterly out of place amid the heavy, rugged machinery, suddenly reached across and rested on Lorgar's armoured forearm with just enough pressure to stop him.
It was Anna.
At some point, she had come up beside Lorgar, her silver eyes glowing faintly in the gloom.
"Brute." She gave a soft snort, her tone somewhere between