Face death, then transcend it.
Hess stood quietly in the center of the Engine Room. Those words echoed in his mind like the lingering toll of an ancient bell, refusing to fade.
He finally understood. Lorgar's guidance had never been about how to defeat an enemy, but about how to face death.
Death was not the end, nor defeat, nor oblivion.
Death was a trial, an ascension, an opportunity to transcend oneself.
The moment you no longer feared death, the moment you could face it calmly, you had already transcended it.
The shadows drew ever closer, seeping through the gaps around the door like the night itself, devouring the light in the Engine Room bit by bit.
The once-bright emergency lights dimmed beneath the encroaching shadows, as though suppressed by some invisible force, their glow growing weaker and fainter.
The temperature began to fall. A cold, suffocating pressure spread through the air, making breathing difficult and every heartbeat heavy.
The door was ripped open.
With an ear-piercing shriek of tearing metal, the heavy Metal Door was torn to pieces.
The fragments scattered in every direction, clattering against the walls and floor.
Corax strode inside. His silhouette looked immense and menacing beneath the dim lights, his pitch-black wings spreading behind him to fill almost the entire doorway.
Blood still dripped from his Talon Blades. His armor was covered in scraps of flesh and blood, and his eyes swept over everyone in the Engine Room like two burning dark-red flames.
Metal screeched as Corax dragged his Talon Blades across the floor.
The Mortals around him snatched up their weapons in panic and fired short bursts at Corax.
Laser beams rained down on Corax, but the instant they struck his body, they vanished into the shadows surrounding him without so much as a