The air congealed like lead.
The eerie glow of the emerald Cube in Trazyn's palm clashed with the golden psychic energy burning on Lorgar's Greatsword like two rival laws of existence, colliding and compressing each other in the silent, cavernous hall. The invisible pressure made space itself groan faintly under the strain.
But at that critical instant—
Riiip!!!
A strange, ear-splitting shriek, like fabric being torn apart by an invisible giant hand, erupted without warning in the center of the hall!
The sound did not originate in the material world. It was more like a brutal violation of the structure of space itself.
Above the empty ground between Lorgar and Trazyn, an indescribable force tore an opening in the "curtain" of reality!
It was no ordinary warp rift. There was no seething Chaos energy, no blasphemous whispering.
The edges of the opening were chillingly neat, their cold precision resembling a geometric incision. Within lay a strange, ever-shifting void, flowing with colors beyond the spectrum, as though an utterly alien dimension had been "inlaid" directly into this place.
There was neither matter nor conventional energy inside the rift, only a dizzying abstract vista of ceaseless calculation and collapse.
Then, before anyone could react, a deathly pale beam, perfectly straight and utterly devoid of heat, shot silently from the spatial opening like the gaze of death!
The beam moved faster than biological nerves could respond, faster even than some sensors could register.
There was no whistle through the air, no spill of energy. It was terrifyingly quiet, yet carried an absolute stillness that froze the soul.
It cut with flawless precision between Lorgar and Trazyn, attacking neither of them, but instead "plowing" through the ground between them.
Hiss—
There was no explosion, no roar.
Along the line swept by the pale beam,