As I fly ran my hand up and down on Selene's back, I felt her try to pull away from me once her aura calmed down. I gave her a final squeeze before I stepped back to let her recollect herself. "Thanks," said Selehout looking at me. She sighed and shook her head. "Sorry." "It's alright," I smiled at her, keeping the sigh of relief out of my voiot feeling like worms were crawling under my skin anymore was exhirating. Though even if my tendrils are doing just that, it's never been this unfortable. "It's the least I could, and you've dohe same for me." "You didn't just turn into a tig bomb then." Her lips curled down self-depregly. "Self-induced misery doesn't suit you," I poked her in the forehead. "It's not self-induced," she gred at me as she spped my hand away. "But it is," I nodded, "we are in the Webway, demons hardly reach you here so there is no pce better than this to get a handle on your powers and with both me and this kni- *cough* Val here it shouldn't be too hard to manage," I looked into her eyes, "have some fiden yourself... or in me if you 't mahat." "Alright," she shook her head weakly, "I'll try." "Do not try," Valenith interrupted, having observed our iions until now silently, "to trol your powers you ot even aowledge the possibility of failure, doubt is a seed that grows into weakness with time, and weakness is what the horrors of the tto." "What he said," I nodded, "by the way, how far should that gate be from here?" "I suspect these Orcs used the temple surrounding it as their base," said Val, as his hand rubbed his thoughtfully. "We should reach it in an hour or five based on the bends we take." "Is there any use in taking a detour?" "Not that I know of," he shrugged, "Especially with the octs most likely gone." "Well, stay there for a bit then and help Sele used to being a Psyker," I nodded. "Any objes?" "ive." Zedev's voice came devoid of emotion. He disregarded our versation until now in favor of disseg a handful of Orbsp;"Wasn't I supposed to just guide you there?" Valenith asked with a raised eyebrow, but I sensed ance from him. "You wao stay with us anyway, didn't you?" "I might have," he shrugged. "Well then," I eyed him carefully, "you are wele. You tio bask in my presence for a bit longer." "Much appreciated." the edge of his mouth twitched as sarcasm leaked into his tone. "With that done," I cpped, "I'll be right back. Let me see what the fuck that fungus used to mess me up this badly." "It's most likely a-" Val started, but I cut him off, "Yeah, I know." I left the sulking Eldar and the brooding Selene behind with the distracted Magos as I flickered over to where the few remaining pieces of the Orc Boss littered the ground. That reflexive bst might have been a bit much for him. There are barely some bone shards and blood remaining but oh well. As an afterthought, I sent out a swarm of flies to collect the geic sample of a bunch of orks and collee juicy bio-energy. My eldritch powers had limits, but I could work around them. One was that I could only absorb new biomass with my 'true' body, — the eldritch twisty tendrily one — but if I just stuffed a tiny tendril into a fly drohen it could go around, gobble up biomass for me and fly its tiny ass bae loaded with bio-energy. This made it so I didn't have to walk around a everything while looking like some knock-off vampire or Flesh Tearer. Bio-energy was another curious thing with a few rules behind it. It was both the sustenany True Body and the fuel for most of its powers. Whether I wao shapeshift, regee or anything like that, it'd e bio-energy, but that didn't mean only my True body could use it. Bio-energy was closest to eople called Vitality in many fantasy books I've read, if you had a lot of it in your body it'd keep you alive longer, help you heal faster, reach your body's limits and maybe reach beyond it or even regee from otherwise incurable wounds. That was for people who couldn't bend it to their will. I could make it do all those things, be it inside myself or in others. I could, for example, fill Selene up with enough of it to keep her body in top dition for the millennia. Not that I have enough of it at the moment to do that, and there are easier ways to extend her lifespan too. It owerful toolkit. A very powerful one, not to say versatile, but it had rules and limits. For example, bio-energy had to have something anic to anchor to. You couldn't store it in a pieetal, but you could in a single flower petal. It wouldn't be much, but you could store some in it. heless, it had rules. We will see whether I bend or break them iure. Sustehat was the main part, though. Even in a basic human form, my body used up enough vitality to sustain a thousand humans. And now I've been deprived of all the bio-energy I had in my previous body. I o get out of this dimension. My vision phased and the sight of my Soul Puddle came into view, interced over my real vision. My eyes flickered over the white ball orbiting my soul, brimming with enough bio-energy to sustain me food few turies, at least at maximum bat capability. It was almost a whole bio-ship's worth of energy, after all, from one of the most biologically advanced species in this universe. How long? [Non-bat operation time of 'Form: Psyker' estimated at: 7days.]…[Non-bat operation time of 'Form: Psyker' estimated at: 41days … please wait for the energy colle to plete.] I watched the rickle up for a bit longer as the tiny flies zipped to and from the corpses, melding into my body and loading their energy into my gapingly empty stores. The dumb interface my Mind-Cores came to use to unicate with me put a smile on my fabsp;It will have to ge sadly. They were trying to alert me really damned hard that a dumb Ork was trying to snipe me but I didn't notice the alerts. I was somearanoid about developing several personalities or splitting my mind into separate parts with my Mind-Cores so I had them under rather strict regutions, the simplest of which deprived them all of emotion and had them be entirely static without my say-so, they were basically aniputers. This interface was supposed to be a buffer between me and them, but my paranoia seemed to have backfired. I o put on an emergency alert … a ping system, maybe? Yeah, I'll make it so they send high priority messages which will draw my attention. Should be easy enough. With that done, I returned my attention to reality and my prospective oy. Gng around, I sed the hallway. The walls seemed to be made of several yers of simple stone bricks. I noted as I saw three yers' worth of bricks colpsed onto the ground into piles. I tapped into my aura for a moment, letting my subscious uanding of my surroundings flow into my sind. My eyes snapped open, and my head turowards one of the piles of debris. My eyes couldn't see it, but I knew a glimmerial on hid u with fshes of sick green energy flowing through it. This aura-sensing thingy I had was for, from an accurate sense, I could only tell that these two colors were ed around each other in the shape of a tube and that they trasted the dull grey of the stone bricks. I stepped bad carefully grabbed hold of smaller piles of bricks with Telekinesis and got started on unc that on. Hopefully from this far I'd have enough time to protect myself if it was somehow damaged and decided to blow up in my face. You never knew. I threw tonnes of stone aside when finally my eyes caught the glimmer of metal. My eyes brightened as I ever so slowly freed the on of its fines aated it into the air. I held it a good teers away from me as I sed it for any visible defect n of immi explosion, but to my delight; it looked as good as if it just rolled out of a factory. Livial. Did it heal itself, or was it just that resistant to damage? With a bit of trepidation, I ed two yers of psychic shields onto my skin in films and then I walked up to the floating on. To be ho, it was rather crude for what was the main infantry on of the most teologically advanced species in the gaxy, but who was I to judge? It had a simple metal hahat visibly didn't bother to to the palm of an anic being and was instead shaped like a brick. From it extended a tube that ected the main part of the gun to the transparent green barrel extending out from it, supposedly transp ammunition maybe? The green barrel ended in a dull metal ring from which extended an... axe, for whatever reason, and even from the ring, four spikes extended forward like viscous cws with no visible fun aside from stabbing them into something that came too close. If anything wasn't a pile of carbon, by the time they came close to anyone wielding their ons, an axe or some spikes won't do much to stop them. I shrugged. Whatever, it looked sorta cool, which robably the reason it existed. Weird fug gaxy. I carefully ed my fingers around the handle ahe metal running uhe barrel with the other as I felt a smile form on my lips. I held the on at the ready and poi toward a pile of bricks. With giddiness bubbling in my stomach, I pulled the trigger. The on trembled in my hands as energy flew through the tube and before I k, a green beam of un-life shot out of the on and turhe bricks lying helplessly in its way into atomized ash. Yep, this is cool. I shot of another few beams, how much matter got disied by a single shot. It fluctuated a bit. Sometimes the created crater in the wall would be 1 meter across and sometimes two, but when I turhe on on an Ork, it only obliterated a third of its body. Preliminary testing is plete. If I have some armour on and run soul-energy through my body, it shouldn't disie me i. A Psychic force-field and enhanced evasion would be handy too. I'll have to ramp up the speed of iing the Patriarch's and the Lictor's reflexes into my Psyker Form. I turned around and saw my three panions watg me with varying expressions standihay meters behind me. I coughed in embarrassment as their gazes bore into me. My Mind-Cores helpfully reported that they'd been doing that for the st ten minutes, ever since I extracted the on from the pile. "Are you ready to tihen?" I asked as I hung my oy on my waist, a siendril ing around it to hold it against my thigh even as I moved. "Affirmative." "Yes." "Yes..." "Great," I cpped, "Val, if you'd lead the way." He strode forward with his held obnoxiously high. I just shrugged and stepped up behind him, with Selene falling into step o me. I heard Zedev's araoid feet k on the floor behioo. Did he get bored with Val? "You're more ied in my oy than the Eldar?" "Affirmative: Ne onry tends to...disappear when they fall, so having a w on is a great boon... especially without an Inquisitor here to take it away before I could study it." "I think many Imperial Assassins have Ne onry in their arsenal," I shrugged. "A phase sword is quite a tool." "But what you have is a ranged Power on." "Not quite, but close enough, I guess." "How so?" "Power ons disrupt molecur cohesion and use the on itself to break them, but this one breaks down Molecules by itself and leaves behind nothing but their stituent atoms." Zedev released an inhuman shrill, which I thieo be a 'Humm'-ing sound. I grimaced at it. With my ears being much better than a human's, him making sounds like nails on a chalkboard is far from appreciated. "So what is that thing?" Selene spoke up as she gnced betweeoy on my thigh and my fabsp;Why is yaze wandering, though? I don't think I attached it to my ass, Selene. "A Gauss Fyer," I patted the on, "this is the primary infantry on of the Nes like the Lasgun is for your Imperium." Zedev stilled for the briefest moment at me saying 'Your Imperium' but he quickly recovered, I wondered what I'd have to do to make him front me about it, it was getting tedious to worry about him backstabbihe mome out of the Webway and reached Imperial territory. "And that thing nearly killed you?" Selene was dubious from the look she was giving me. "Yep," I nodded cheerfully. I had a fancy sci-fi toy after all. "It's not much of a surprise, really. Do you know what rock-paper-scissors is?" "No," Selene raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's a simple children's game in some parts of the gaxy," I shrugged, spewing bullshit as naturally as I breathed, "the essence of it is this: Rock beats Scissors but loses to Paper, Paper beats Rock but loses to Scissors and Scissors loses to Rock but beats Paper." "And?" "Well," I just shook my two fists thrid made a rock with my left and a piece of paper with my right, "my left hand is a rod the right is paper," I ed my right hand around my closed left fist, "So the paper wins, but whatever, what I meant to say is," I sighed as I stopped with my overly fusiaphor, "While I fuck Tyranids in the ass with little effort the Nes do the same to me if I'm not careful." "How does care save you against that?" she raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't pee, and the beam doesn't destroy matter fast enough to be a problem if I put somethiween me and it." "It seemed instant from my perspective, though." "Because you are a human Selene," I patted her shoulder, "I'm sure if Zedev jacked himself up on some drugs he has stored in isters in his body he would have seen the beam creep closer and closer to its target before it hit it." "How could it hit you, then?" "Do you want the simple or the plicated answer?" "Ummm, Simple first?" "I was a moron," I shrugged. "If it hit you, you'd have survived. Do you know why?" "The Armor...." she blinked, "why weren't you wearing armor?!" she gred at me. "As I said," I smiled at her adorable gre, "I was a moron. I didn't think they had anything that could do more than scratch me." After a few seds of tinued gring, she shook her head and sighed, maybe notig that I was looking at her with a slowly growing smile. "What are 'Nes' anyway?" "Oh," I blinked, "right. I assumed you knew based on how well-informed you were about other existential threats to the Imperium. Didn't you mention Ne Words before?" "I only know the tidbits I mao gather from my grandmother's journals," she shook her head, "I only met Eldars and the Tau personally, and well, I heard Ne Worlds are some of the most dangerous pces in the gaxy and that some are even poputed by humans but not much else." "Well," I rolled the world around my tongue, "you were quite lucky then." I gave her a smile. "You met the two species that are not deplorable assholes in this wide gaxy of ours." "What do you mean?" "There is a reason you Imperium say that every Xenos is evil and o die on the spot," I shrugged, "which is that they are right in doing so more often than not, there are more than a few species that have nht to exist." "Would you sider yourself to be among them?" Zedev's voice was emotionless and echoed through the hallway. I tilted my head as I threw a g him over my shoulder; he wasn't readying any ons and was staring back at me inquisitively. "Depends," I shrugged, "Am I a dao the Imperium? Hell Yes. Am I as bad as some of the others? Far from it." "What... others do you refer to?" "Have you heard of the Khrave? The Sugth? The Hrud?" I asked, and I noticed both Selen and Valenith hanging onto my every word. "I am not familiar with the tter two, but I have heard of the Khrave and their raids e worlds." "Oh, e on," I shook my head, "Selene?" I looked at her, "The Sught are the sourany legends in the gaxy. Never heard of them? Lanky men covered in decrepit robes with their whole bodies made up of maggots. Their entire existence is only made valid by all the malice they mao spread?" Her eyes widened, and I knew she heard of them. "The Maggot Men," she whispered, "my grandmother's journals spoke of them, but she didn't believe the tales of their existeo be real." "Many don't," I shrugged, "As for the Hrud, I am not surprised, they were exterminated during the Great Crusade along with the st Old Ohey worshipped as a God." "Impossible," Val stumbled, "the Old Ones died sixty million years ago." "Not all of them," I shrugged. "The Hrud were masters of time sorcery. Even Space Marines succumbed to their age uheir spells and colpsed into piles of dust." "I have never read of this." "Of course, you haven't," I smiled, a cold smile filled with anticipation, "After all, the one who extermihem now serves the 'Great Enemy' even if he was born a Primarch." "So no," I stared into Zedev's eyes, "Just the fact that I be reasoned with, iated with makes me miles above 90% of the species and subjectively above humanity too, your kind only iates when you 't kill your enemy like the bloodthirsty xenophobic little ts you are." Zedev fell silent: I saw emotions rush past his suppressors, but he stayed silent and still while Selene gulped at my rather severe tone. "At least there are some good ones among you," I g her, showing her a gentle smile, "Which is the only reason I bothered iing myself into your little group." Selene was truly a diamond in the rough. Whatever her childhood was like kept her open-minded and clear of the rampary and xenophobia of the Imperium. Oher hand, Zedev was just far too self-absorbed and self-serving to care about those does, but I could tell that he was by far the more relut of the two when it came t with me. We will see how you hahe truth, you either bend or you break… either from the truth or under my boots. I sent an indifferent g the Magos. I might feel guilt again from killing is, but Zedev's death wouldn't weigh muy sbsp;… [Non-bat operation time of 'Form: Psyker' estimated at: 367 day.] … [Recalg based on 'user' behaviour … ] [Predicted operation time of 'Form: Psyker': 24 day.] P3t1

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