"My lord, my Warmaster, please calm your anger," the witch Moriana soothed Abaddon at his side.
"You are the greatest Chaos Warmaster in history. Every one of your thirteen Black Crusades achieved its objective. You even destroyed Cadia, which held the Eye of Terror in check, allowing the Great Rift to cut across the Galaxy and the power of Chaos to enter reality."
As she spoke, the witch Moriana knelt, raised both hands above her head, and chanted.
"You are the strongest, mightiest, most domineering, most ferocious, and most ruthless being in the entire Galaxy. Your greatness surpasses all others. Even your father, the mighty Horus, could not match your power at this moment."
The witch Moriana's words pleased Abaddon greatly, and his anger subsided.
"How much longer until the Vengeful Spirit is repaired?"
"Only about six standard Terran hours, Warmaster." Moriana stood and bowed her head submissively. "The technology provided by the demigod Vashtorr is excellent. He ingeniously fused the power of Chaos with the warships."
"He brought the machinery to life, turned daemons and the power of Chaos into the warships' energy sources, and allowed the ships to repair themselves and grow stronger... these are the Arks of Omen."
"Shut up!"
Abaddon's roar frightened Moriana into dropping to her knees at once, trembling and not daring to say another word.
"That Vashtorr is far too cunning. I don't like hearing you praise him. In our latest deal, he demanded that I help him obtain some artifacts left behind by the Old Ones before he would agree to keep expanding my Arks of Omen fleet."
"I was just about to discuss terms with him, and he ran off without so much as a word. He's clearly driving up his price! He can't be relied on either."
"But..." Abaddon glanced