Slau Dha activated the personal psychic teleportation device built into his Warp Spider Aspect Armor, and in an instant, vanished from where he stood. The explosive shells from the Honor Guard members hit nothing but air.
The two sharpshooters didn't bother searching in vain.
Nareth had already sent the Honor Guard detailed information, dozens of transmissions, about each Aspect's traits, armaments, origins, and footage of his battles along the way.
The Shadows of Order absorbed this knowledge quickly in combat. They were now humanity's foremost experts on the warriors of the various Aeldar Aspects.
The sharpshooters knew that the Warp Spiders, unlike most Aspects from the side of Khaine, originated from tiny but fiercely aggressive spiders within the Infinity Circuit.
Warp Spiders could make short-range jumps, vanishing without a trace and reappearing an instant later, striking unexpectedly.
They were the bravest of all Aspect Warriors, traversing She Who Thirsts' realm unprotected while the Great Enemy's hunger clawed at their very souls.
After a short-range jump, they would instantly reappear and launch surprise assaults on their foes.
The sharpshooters immediately fell back into formation with five Honor Guard members armed with power swords. After several exchanges, they had learned how to counter such tactics without Nareth's direct intervention.
But as they retreated to a certain spot, they suddenly realized the red-armored warrior, whose breastplate bore the symbol of the Autarch, wasn't targeting them at all. His prey was the Primarch himself.
He flashed into existence behind Nareth, raising a sword blazing with dazzling light, and brought it down toward his back.
Through the psychic link, the Honor Guard instantly sent a warning.
Before the thought had even finished forming, they saw their Gene-Father move as if he had foreseen the strike, sidestepping without turning his head, and thrusting his sword backward into the Autarch's abdomen.
Nareth wasn't relying on foresight. His eyes flickered with light and shadow; the Autarch's short-range, high-speed jumps were laid bare to him, crystal clear within his Warp Insight.
The charged blade tore through Slau Dha's Warp Spider Aspect armor, leaving his abdomen bloodied.
With a thought, Slau Dha leapt into the Sea of Souls. The piercing death-screams of his kin rang in his ears.
His body trembled slightly; he could feel the presence of the Great Enemy.
The Aeldar called her She Who Thirsts.
A psychic warding array of his design flared in iridescent light, erecting a mental barrier in the Warp.
Terrifying screams battered at the barrier like soul-tides. He knew his time was short.
Donning the War Mask, he mastered his rage, suppressing the fear welling from instinct. In this battle-trance, thought and movement came swifter.
His ritual unfolded faster than usual, spreading into the material realm and finding his psychic anchor.
He jumped back into reality, yet before his feet even touched the ground, he sensed a blue force field.
He leapt back into the Warp, thinking in disbelief:
*How is this possible? How can he pinpoint my location?
The first time he countered my ambush, perhaps that was just combat instinct.
The second time, he struck preemptively; he knew exactly where I'd reappear.*
Bitterly, Slau Dha realized the truth: his chosen loadout for assassinating a Primarch was wrong.
He had avoided facing the Primarch head-on by selecting the Warp Spider Aspect armor.
His battle plan had been to wear down the Primarch's patience with countless flicker-attacks, forcing Nareth to reveal an opening.
But he was wrong; the Spider's tricks were useless here.
Though he had walked all six Aspect Paths and had better options, he had chosen the wrong one.
Banishing doubt with practiced control of the War Mask, he let fury sharpen his mind.
He was a warrior; he would find a way to win.
Slau Dha leapt back into reality and instantly saw a black afterimage rushing him. He parried the charged blade.
His eyes narrowed, his instinct noticed the tiniest detail.
At the moment of clash, his own sword had inflicted a faint, almost imperceptible rune-scratch on the power sword.
A mortal's senses could never detect such minute damage, but as Khaine's incarnation in this realm, he knew every weapon, including the mon-keighs, intimately.
He instantly shifted into Howling Banshee mode, letting out a piercing scream.
Lion's mane sprouted from the helm's crown, and the Banshee rune on his brow pulsed.
Amplified by the helm's psychic projectors, the shriek became a mental shockwave aimed at Nareth's mind.
Nareth knew the Banshees' origin, from Morai-Heg, the crone goddess who coveted all the wisdom in his blood. Only Khaela Mensha Khaine could harm her.
So she had her daughters scream into the War God's ears, tormenting him until he severed his lover's fingers, granting her the wisdom within his blood.
Thus, the Howling Banshees were among the most feared warriors, descended from those who once tortured Khaine himself.
Though the Craftworlds had no gender bias, the Banshee shrine was unusual in admitting almost exclusively women.
In myth, the Banshees were the crone's daughters, but rare males could walk that path. Slau Dha was such an exceptional case.
The shriek reverberated through Nareth's skull, but he passed beyond the first layer of the Thelema States of Mind and stepped directly into the second.
His bodily energy instantly transmuted into psychic force sealing the scream away.
In Banshee mode, the Autarch became a whirlwind of close-combat speed.
Primarch and Autarch clashed in blinding melee; the Shadows of Order could only glimpse afterimages.
They saw only silver-white and deep-blue arcs left in the air, and the dazzling sparks of steel on steel.
Slau Dha drew on every shred of power, agility, and skill from every Path he had mastered, yet the Primarch parried them all, carving sword-wounds into him.
His body bloodied, his speed at its limit, Slau Dha could no longer sustain the frenzy,
But he had succeeded: the Primarch's power sword was now webbed with cracks from repeated impacts against the Sword of Vaul.
With a sound like shattering glass, Slau Dha smiled.
Raising a dragon-fusion gun, he unleashed Khaine's destruction, forcing back the Honor Guard.
Pouring his last strength into the Banshee, he screamed again, sidestepped a power fist, and lunged at Nareth.
When the blade was but an arm's length away, he saw the ring on the Primarch's middle finger flare with a light of blue laced with searing white.
In the next instant, Nareth's form dissolved into streams of flame, and Slau Dha's strike hit nothing.
Alarmed, he twisted desperately to evade the six flame-streams clawing toward him.
Two missed, but he wheeled back mid-flight, searing his arm.
The other four merged into a great flaming sword that severed his limb.
Before pain could register, his right arm was ash, and the Sword of Vaul lay in Nareth's grasp.
Shocked, Slau Dha stared. This strange, flame-formed attack was swifter and more elusive than any pyromancer he had ever seen, Aeldar or otherwise.
*The intel from our agents, even the cult's divinations, showed no sign he could control flame at will. If the fire came from that ring, how could it make him into fire itself?*
He had felt it; Nareth's body was pure flame.
Confusion faded into the crushing weight of failure; the Sword of Vaul lost, he could no longer threaten the Primarch.
Nareth's right hand gripped the sword as the blood-red chain on his little finger replenished his drained spirit.
He had used the ring, forging a tentative link with it; its primary function was clear: to unleash fire.
He identified it as a beyonder item of the Red Priest Path, Sequence 4: Iron-Blooded Knight, based on the fire's hue and its ability to transform him into flame.
With one swing, Nareth cut off Slau Dha's remaining arm, then deactivated the runes on his power fist and knocked the Autarch unconscious.
Scanning the battlefield, he saw only 131 Honor Guard left alive.
Sorrow flickered in his gaze. 'This is the greatest loss my Legion has suffered since my return.'
Yet he knew the sacrifice had meaning.
"From this day forth, we establish the Aeldar Hunter Order. You are its first members. Take this knowledge and experience back to your Chapters, share it with your battle-brothers."
When his spirit was fully replenished, he cast Judgement Imprisonment, encasing Slau Dha in amber-like fluid.
"Bring the fallen back to the flagship for burial."
"Take the Aeldar corpses for dissection, the Order members will participate to deepen our understanding."
"Gather all other spoils of war as well."
Tw ostandard days later, Nareth ordered Wilsheer and a squad to remain behind and rebuild order in Arlenis, then commanded the Throne of Shadow's Sovereignity to depart.
As the battleship made for the Wheel of Fire, Nareth brought Slau Dha into the third layer of the Kingdom of Disorder.
There, he looked at the black wolf lying on the ground, motionless and dejected.
...
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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