It Is Watching You

No sooner had the words fallen than Iron Father Wayland entered from outside the room.

"I heard a disturbance and detected a high-energy reaction. Did something happen?"

Iron Father Wayland held a boltgun in his hand, his voice emerging electronically from his helmet.

"Nothing much. Just a minor problem." Lox did not elaborate, merely using a small problem as an excuse.

"We can help. Astartes are the most experienced warriors, and that is what you lack." The Iron Father's voice carried immense confidence, making people feel remarkably secure.

He took several more steps, his power armor producing heavy footfalls against the floor.

Nykona raised his head, his black eyes fixed on the Iron Father's steps. He sensed something wrong. Wayland's footsteps were... far too heavy.

Though an Astartes wore heavy ceramite power armor, whenever the situation demanded it, they could approach an enemy in utter silence and carry out an assassination.

Wayland kept drawing closer, extending his steel prosthetic arm toward Lox.

Lox watched the Iron Father's forceful manner suspiciously and immediately retreated several steps. Nykona at his side had already moved with shadowy footwork, drawing the power sword from his back in an instant.

The disruption field activated as he swung, and the crackling power sword blocked the steel hand's path.

"Nykona! What are you doing? I saved you on Isstvan V! Is this how you repay me?" Seeing Nykona bar his way, the Iron Father immediately rebuked him harshly.

"You are not Wayland!"

The Son of the Raven answered only with a merciless slash. The power sword wreathed in an energy field showed no hesitation, easily severing Wayland's arm.

Metal snapped. Built-in cables spilled sparks and lubricating oil. Wayland stared at Nykona in utter disbelief, as though he had uncovered a traitor who had concealed himself for far too long.

Nykona's sword looped through the air before thrusting from another exceedingly tricky angle, this time aimed directly at the Iron Father's head.

"Don't attack, Nykona!" Even Lox felt that Sharrowkyn was being overly agitated, and he continued trying to stop him.

When the power sword's disruption field pierced the Iron Father's electronic eye, a blue-violet flare exploded. Wayland's appearance swiftly twisted and changed, turning into a four-limbed monster draped in dark blue robes, its face completely hidden beneath its hood.

The monster held a Deceiver's Staff in one hand and conjured pale magical flames with the other. The dancing flames clung to the staff, blocking Nykona's power sword.

"What the fuck is that thing?!"

Lox watched a towering Astartes warrior turn into a swift-moving creature of deceit with his own eyes and could not help crying out.

The arc emitter controlled by the cogitator rapidly melted beneath the scorching flames, yet several arcs still pierced its robes. Any organic being should have been reduced to ash by such electricity, but the monster did not slow in the slightest.

Nykona and Tassa stood before and behind Lox. The Son of the Raven's twin power swords flashed and danced, weaving a curtain of sword shadows like rain. Their disruption fields shredded the foul thing's robes and, in a flash, cut off one of its arms.

"It's one of those damned things the Word Bearers used! The malice from the Warp!"

Nykona Sharrowkyn immediately connected the thing before him with the creatures summoned by Word Bearer warriors on the battlefield of Isstvan.

Those Word Bearers possessed by Warp daemons had their bodies and minds strengthened by the evils of the Warp. The traitors called them Possessed Marines.

The Possessed Marines could slaughter their former comrades with an almost crushing advantage. Whether in speed, strength, or defense, they far surpassed their former cousins.

However, the vast majority of the Possessed Marines had already fallen beneath the Lightning Claw of the Raven Lord, Primarch Corax of the XIX Legion.

The Salamanders warrior Tassa raised his power hammer high and smashed it toward the daemon with incomparable force. His broad, sweeping attacks worked with the Son of the Raven's swordsmanship to suppress the enemy's movements.

The power-armored Salamanders warrior stood before Lox like a mountain, and the fury of Nocturne boiled within him.

One still, one moving; one swift, one slow. Power sword and power hammer worked in perfect harmony, displaying the exceptional understanding the two had forged upon the battlefield of Isstvan.

The Warp abomination under siege emitted sounds that unsettled mortal minds. It realized that two detestable Astartes had entangled it. That would not do—it had come with a mission.

It shrieked and unleashed its Warp flames. Completely unlike the flames of the material universe, they were an extraordinarily dangerous weapon that could burn directly upon a human soul.

Terrifying brute force churned the air. A flickering disruption field covered the power hammer, but when it touched a magical flame released by the enemy, a mechanical wail rang out. The Machine Spirit of the finely crafted weapon fell into extreme agony.

The Salamander felt the Machine Spirit's pain. His scarlet eyes locked onto the enemy as he drove it into a corner without regard for himself.

There was not the slightest superfluous ripple in Nykona's heart. He simply swung his sword, swung it again, and kept swinging. More and more sword shadows tore through the enemy's body. Under the sword master's all-out assault, the Warp creature known as the Changeling was finally cut completely to pieces.

It Is Watching You

Amid eerie shrieks and laughter, Lox suddenly heard a crazed, muttering laugh by his ear. Then the creature's body rapidly caught fire, turning into a pile of ash with no remaining warmth at a speed impossible to halt.

"We didn't kill it. It has already escaped."

Nykona's voice rang out.

"Good thing we were by your side."

The Salamanders warrior lowered his war hammer. Though he was an Apothecary, he was also a battle-hardened Astartes warrior.

"Did any of you hear something?"

Lox turned around in confusion, but Nykona and the others shook their heads in denial.

"That was a daemon from the Warp. We witnessed their power on Isstvan V."

"Thank you. Without you, I would have been in serious trouble." Lox still felt lingering fear.

"I once heard of travelers who had passed through the Warp claiming that daemons watched them from beyond the Gellar Field. Some overly curious people vanished from sealed spaces after answering the daemons' whispers."

He did not know what would have happened if that daemon had touched him, but in the face of that unknown existence radiating some kind of evil power, his heart had pounded with intense alarm and overwhelming terror.

Lox was a Perpetual, but he had not encountered many supernatural events. He knew there seemed to be other Perpetuals like himself, yet he had never met any of them.

He was not unique. According to the rumors, most other Perpetuals were Psykers capable of wielding powers akin to magic, whereas he was an utterly ordinary man.

Other than having lived long enough and seen enough, Lox felt he had nothing in common with those other Perpetuals.

The disturbance aboard the starship quickly subsided.

But when the real Iron Father realized that some strange daemon had impersonated him, the enraged warrior immediately ordered his men to remain vigilant at all times.

This was a desecration of the Sons of Ferrus!

Lox, meanwhile, learned his lesson. He realized there was a reason the Emperor had created Astartes warriors: melee weapons such as power swords inflicted far more noticeable damage on Warp daemons than arc weapons controlled by a cogitator.

He guessed this was because the concept of daemons had always been associated with flames, blades, and swords in human civilization. Thus, weapons imbued with occult power possessed greater effectiveness.

After that frightening incident, Red Alert finally proceeded safely toward its next destination.

Four more standard Terran days passed, and this Warp voyage finally came to an end.

"Attention, all hands. We are about to transition out of the Warp. Prepare for impact!"

Accompanied by an intense, unreal flicker, the laws of two worlds intertwined once more.

Lox felt the familiar sensation of being pulled away. When he opened his eyes again, what lay before him was no longer the chaotic, disorderly ocean of the Warp, but a star system containing celestial bodies.

Only those who had experienced Warp travel could understand how stable and orderly the material universe was. Here, every atom had to obey the laws of physics and move along its own orbit.

A massive star ceaselessly released light and heat. This sun, in the prime of its life, was exceptionally stable, and it was precisely this star that had fostered such prosperity.

After leaving the Mandeville Point, Red Alert headed toward a planet reflecting the star's radiance. It was a vibrant pale blue, with countless tiny glints faintly flashing across it.

This was the result of starlight striking transport ships and being reflected onward.

Even with the naked eye, one could see a magnificent, awe-inspiring planetary orbit surrounding the world, shining brilliantly beneath the sunlight like intertwined ribbons.

Vast spaceports held scores, perhaps hundreds, of gigantic ships. Like leafcutter ants, countless vessels transported supplies from the planet's surface to the spaceports, then onward to those enormous warships.

"After ten thousand years, I've finally found something that feels familiar again. In my time, worlds like this were almost everywhere—space elevators, planetary rings, and incredibly convenient planetary transportation."

Lox felt somewhat wistful. But clearly, they had come to the wrong place. This was not their destination, Terra.

The cogitator's star map showed that they were still in the eastern reaches of the galaxy. After analyzing the dense electromagnetic communications signals in space, he finally learned the name of the thriving planet before them: Calth.

Nykona looked through the starship's viewport while swiftly comparing what he saw to the memories in his mind. A Space Marine's extraordinary memory soon allowed him to speak the name of the largest vessel in the spaceport.

"That is Macragge's Honour, a Gloriana-class Battleship of the XIII Legion Ultramarines. Emperor above, we have reached the Five Hundred Worlds."

Macragge's Honour was a full twenty-six kilometers long. Its hull was covered in ceramic and steel armor, while vast numbers of broadside cannons and lance emitters filled its Gothic structures, gleaming like the teeth of a beast.

Eighteen silver-bright battleships the size of towns surrounded it, along with even more troop transports, cruisers, and Adeptus Mechanicus starships.