The one who awoke

M41,987----

A Thunderhawk Gunship suddenly burst out of the ever-shifting Warp.

The gunship looked battered by the ages, its hull covered in scars from magical bombardments and bullet holes, yet it stubbornly kept flying.

Even from a distance, it was clear that the Thunderhawk belonged to the Space Marines, but its insignia was a hawk clutching lightning.

The Rebel Company.

A legion of Thunder Warriors founded by the Emperor during the unification of Terra, it had won great renown defending Terra.

But for unknown reasons, the entire Thunder Warriors legion slipped from the Imperium's control during the Scouring after the Horus Heresy. Fierce conflict followed with three Chapters-the Space Wolves, Ultramarines, and Dark Angels. After their First Company Captain was slain by the Ultramarines' Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, they departed for the Warp in fury.

The Inquisition thus branded the entire legion as traitors.

Yet judging by their subsequent actions, the Rebel Company likely owed its loyalty not to the Imperium, but to the Emperor and humanity. They often appeared when battles hung in the balance, repelled the enemy, then departed without a word.

Now Dakan, the Rebel Company's Second Company Captain, kicked apart the Thunderhawk Gunship's jammed door and stepped out carrying a Heavy Bolter.

"It seems we've shaken off our pursuers and reached the designated location, honored Inquisitor."

An Inquisitor wearing a rosette emerged from the gunship behind him, accompanied by several storm troopers. Her eyes held a keen, guarded look.

Arlith, Inquisitor of the Ordo Originatus.

The Imperial Inquisition.

Arlith ignored Captain Dakan's mockery. After all, no one hunted the Rebel Company more zealously than the Inquisition.

She fiddled with the mysterious instrument in her hand, then surveyed the sky beneath their feet and the ground overhead.

"Good. We don't have much time. Let's advance toward the sanctuary."

Captain Dakan gave a meaningful glance, and a Thunder Warrior dragged out an iron box covered in Purity Seals.

The party set off across this fantastical landscape.

"Honestly, when an Inquisitor came looking for us, I thought it was a trap all along," Captain Dakan said.

Arlith continued walking at the head of the group.

"If it's to confront the great enemy, Chaos, I don't care about such things."

"Hmm. A traitor legion and a traitor Inquisitor. What a perfect combination."

But Arlith seemed uninterested in Dakan's probing remarks. He said nothing more and continued onward.

At last, after a long trek, the party reached the legendary Sanctuary of Eternal Wrath.

Once they arrived, the number of Warp creatures and daemons around them dropped noticeably. A massive statue was visible in the distance.

The man depicted in the statue was bound in coil after coil of heavy chains, with thorns covering the ground beneath his feet.

But most striking of all were the skulls arrayed beneath the statue.

They ranged from human, Ork, and even Aeldari skulls to a daemon's head.

The one at the very top belonged to Skarbrand. He had already died here three times, and now seemed to be counting down to his next resurrection.

Arlith frowned slightly and picked her uneven way over the skulls.

As a member of the Ordo Originatus, Arlith had long investigated and studied the stories of that magnificent age ten thousand years ago.

Though the Imperium's authorities had deliberately concealed the truth, uncovering it was only a matter of time for an Inquisitor.

After all, tales such as "the great Emperor fathered nine sacred sons to oppose nine Greater Daemons of Chaos" could only fool the ignorant masses. Inquisitors all knew what the Horus Heresy had really been.

According to scattered reports and echoes within the Warp, long before that age ten thousand years ago, a terrifying being had wounded the Blood God and slain countless Greater Daemons. Most importantly, he had been human.

Later, he killed so many Greater Daemons in the Warp that he forced Kairos, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, and the supreme sorcerer Ahriman to work together to seal him within the sanctuary.

Now an unseen terror was approaching. The Inquisition had already foreseen the disaster looming over Cadia, and Arlith was determined to do something to salvage this mess.

Even if working with the Rebel Company meant being branded a heretic.

"We're here."

Arlith stopped before the heavy stone doors.

Blasphemous Eight-Pointed Star arrays covered their surface. Whoever had created the seal was deeply afraid of its being broken.

But there was a flaw here...

Arlith had visited this place before. Only after spending a great deal of time had she finally worked out how to unravel the array.

She simply could not understand why such an intricate array contained so glaring a weakness. It was as absurd as a rotten wooden gate inexplicably appearing in an impregnable fortress.

Almost as though someone had done it deliberately.

"Bring the holy relic over."

The heavy iron box was dragged before the doors. After a complex series of procedures, a human hand bone radiating a cold white light was taken from within.

After a brief prayer, Arlith placed the hand bone against the heavy stone doors.

The previously dull, unremarkable doors suddenly erupted with countless arrays in mesmerizing colors. In response, the human hand bone began moving on its own, tapping ceaselessly with its knuckles.

At that moment, roars began rising one after another in the distance beyond the sanctuary, and figures flew across the sky.

"They're coming," Captain Dakan said.

"I need time."

Captain Dakan said nothing more. He simply loaded his Heavy Bolter.

The other Thunder Warriors silently readied their weapons as well.

Their outdated, battered armor was riddled with craters and dents, symbols of their glorious feats in battle-unseen medals.

Whether the Black Legion's veterans of the Long War had truly lived ten thousand years was uncertain, but the Rebel Company had fought all the way from the Unification Wars to the present.

Captain Dakan led several brothers out to meet the enemy, while Arlith remained kneeling, murmuring something.

At last, the stone doors loosened.

The layers of sealing arrays upon them began shattering one by one. Then came what sounded like the screams of ten thousand people being torn apart, before the arrays disintegrated into dust amid the violent turbulence.

"Quick, push the doors open!"

The storm troopers set down their weapons and joined Arlith in pushing open the thick, heavy doors.

But when she saw what lay inside through the thick dust, she froze.

The chamber was pitifully small. Unknown incantations and murals covered its walls, and rows upon rows of candles illuminated a stone coffin at its center.

A Chainsword stood embedded before the coffin. It looked ancient, but Arlith sensed something chilling about it.

The ever-closer sounds of Bolt fire and daemonic shrieks outside interrupted her thoughts.

There was no time left.

At last, she rushed forward.

Outside, the daemons held back by the Thunder Warriors went berserk, charging inside without restraint, heedless even of blades and Bolts striking their bodies.

But in the end, Arlith pushed aside the stone coffin's lid.

And from within, the sound of breathing rose once more.