"Open it."
Abaddon's voice was decisive, carrying an absolute dominance that brooked no question.
"I want to see for myself... what lies beyond that door."
"As a sage of Mars, you are more qualified than any of us to open this door."
The reason the Despoiler had been able to dominate the Eye of Terror for so long without falling was not merely because he was powerful. More importantly, he was cautious and careful.
He had seen too many cases where everything went smoothly at first, only to collapse at the final step. The closer one came to the end, the more cautious one had to be.
Unless he learned what lay beyond that door, Abaddon would never dare pull Drach'nyen from the Bloodling's body.
"Y-Yes, Warmaster..."
"As you command."
Ezekiel's electronic voice rasped dryly, while his enormous metal body trembled faintly under the violent conflict tearing through his mind.
On Mars, he was a lofty Grand Sage, his authority unmatched save by a select few.
But before these Black Legion Chaos Space Marines, he was merely a helpless grease monkey.
The weapons hidden beneath his heavily mechanized body might have been enough to deal with a few Chaos Space Marines, but before a butcher like Abaddon, they offered him only one road: death.
More importantly, these people held his weakness in their hands. They possessed proof of his dealings with Vashtorr. If they exposed it, he would have no choice but to flee to the Eye of Terror.
Ezekiel did not want to go to the Eye of Terror. Unlike those fools of the Dark Mechanicum, he understood better than anyone that the modern technological community remained the cradle of the most advanced science.
If he fled to the Eye of Terror, he would be entering a desert of