Gardinaal Prime, the capital.
Silven Deka entered the interrogation chamber. He walked to the guardrail, looking down at the warrior stripped of armor below. His head was as large as the mediator's torso beside him.
Blood loss left his otherwise lustrous skin somewhat pale, yet his body still displayed remarkable resilient to injury.
Confined within golden amber, both arms crushed by industrial clamps, he still appeared stronger than an hour ago when brought in.
His body was slowly regenarating.
Under the bright lights of gem-diodes and flat-lined radium lacquered gauges, he squinted down.
Deka observed the Shadow of Order, reflecting on the testosterone-driven, fury-fuelled warrior-caste and the emotionally deficient law enforcement-caste.
They shared the same ideal obedience, yet lacked such glaring congenital flaws, a superior design evident even to his genetic-caste's psychic abilities.
The mediator unfastened the leather holster restraining his wolf-tooth club, preparing to strike the giant.
But Deka smiled slightly, psychically compelling him to step back.
Time was short now. High Lord Uriah awaited his results, expecting solutions to the current crisis.
The Librarian watched the mediator retreat, then shifted his gaze to Deka.
Besides his Gene-Father and the Chief Librarian, he had never encountered such a powerful telepathic psyker.
After a series of psychic clashes, he had been overwhelmed.
"I will tell you nothing."
His voice was low, carrying a faint echo.
Daika descended along the peeling metal of the guardrail, bending forward as if the weight of his thoughts pulled him towards his goal.
His mind flickered. The subconscious key, granted permission, unlocked his consciousness.
Deka's thoughts expanded outward, immediately sensing a luminous consciousness entity, radiating a dazzling glow.
The Librarian frowned slightly. He felt something touching him.
The Librarian immediately elevated to the third layer of Thelema mindstate, constructing psychic defenses.
Deka concentrated his thoughts, utterly focused.
When the full weight of Deka's consciousness fell upon the Shadow of Order's mind, he immediately felt impact against an iron wall.
Along trembling, pure threads of thought, he concluded this warrior received specialized training, sufficient to resist his assault.
Deka focused intently, lips pursed tight, straining to exert pressure on his psyche. His voice was as soothing as a lullaby.
"Let us begin here. What are you?"
Deka increased pressure on corresponding regions within the Shadow of Order's mind, repeating the question.
A minute aneurysm ruptured in the Librarian's left eye, splattering crimson. Yet he still didn't answer.
"Eh?"
Deka was stuned. As the foremost among the psyker-caste, he hadn't expected the Shadow of Order to resist his psychic lash.
His brain was designed with greater intricacy and resilience than the Gardinaal's high consuls could comprehend.
Deka's green eyes grew increasingly cloudy as he advanced step by step.
His spine twisted, skin mottled with age spots and crisscrossed by wrinkles.
"My name is Silven Deka."
As the old man stepped onto the floor, he placed a hand on his chest, gracefully bowing.
"I am Gardinaal's High Consul, representing the High Lords and eleven worlds."
He straightened. Grey hair and beard intertwined with silver strands near ears and nose.
A square had been shaved out of Deka's beard, replaced by a small black X mark with a flickering red diodein the center.
He enunciated each word, asking once more:
"What are you?"
As the old man approached the surgical trolley, the Shadow of Order felt each word carried immense weight, more oppressive even than his Chapter Master, though less than his Gene-Father.
The Librarian felt itching at his temples. His lips were about to part when an image flashed in his mind: his Gene-Father opening his palm, him taking a vial.
The vision shifted again, showing him standing on the deck as his father pinned a medal upon his chest, patting his shoulder encouragingly.
The Librarian's consciousness, on the verge of collapse, suddenly cleared. He clenched his teeth so hard the veins in his right eye burst under the strain, blood staining his sockets crimson.
Deka's eyes were filled with shock. His gaze flashing with lightning, his temples throbbing violently.
The Librarian struggled to hold on, his brain feeling as though it were on fire, his consciousness itself growing hazy.
At that moment, a buzzing sound filled the mediator's earpiece. He answered, his expression changing instantly as he strode swiftly towards Deka.
"My Lord, we are under attack. The guards have been overwhelmed."
The lightning in Daika's green eyes flickered and disappeared. He drew a deep breath; the High Lord's safety outweighed intelligence reports.
He strode rapidly towards the exit, no longer concerned with the prisoners behind him. His pace quickened as he sensed a shift in the surroundings.
Upon pushing open the door, his green pupils dilated sharply. Stunned, he witnessed countless tendrils slithering into the chamber like giant serpents.
The entire grey structure had transformed into a lush green space.
Deka saw several vines shooting down from above, coiling around the guards and binding them tightly.
He heard the sound of their bones shattering. Without pausing to comprehend the cause, he scanned the surviving figures for the High Lord.
Deka relieved hastily untied the staff at his waist. Gripping its pommel tightly, he felt the runes glow.
Deka aimed the staff at the figure in black armor, marked with green patterns, with plants drifting at her sides.
Marlena's tea-brown eyes flashed. She sensed the heavy pressure emanating from the grey-haired old man.
She immediately elevated her mind to third layer Thelema mindstate, resisting psychic assault.
Deka felt his consciousness collide with a flesh-and-blood barrier.
Amidst the relentless impact, lightning flared within his green pupils.
Deka's consciousness transformed into a massive hand, pounding relentlessly upon the barrier, blow after blow.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The barrier shook, chunks of flesh falling away.
Deka beheld the exposed mind and thought inwardly.
'The mental defence has been breached!'
Just as a flicker of triumph crossed Deka's mind, tendrils suddenly spread from the gate's cracks, coiling around his consciousness.
While Marlena relied on the multi-layered Thelema mindstate to withstand the assault, she recalled the grey-haired, green-eyed old man mentioned by the Black Emperor as a powerful telepathic psyker.
His potent psychic abilities could even briefly affect a Primarch.
Marlena knew her psychic defenses wouldn't hold long.
Though her psychic energy was now entirely focused on constructing that defence, she remained, above all, a "Biologist".
The "Biologist's" mind stirred. Plants filling the reserved space in her side surged wildly under the nourishment of her spiritual energy.
Simultaneously, her hybrid creatures lunged towards the grey-haired old man.
Serpents surged forward their gaping maws snapping at Deka.
Deka instantly felt his thigh tear apart, followed by numbness spreading through his body.
'Poison!'
Deka's left drew a vial from his left side, plunging it into his neck as his staff swept downward, targeting the advancing serpentine horde.
Psychic shockwaves struck the snakes, causing their bellies to swell.
Deka's arm suddenly froze as he felt something writhing rapidly within him.
The "Biologist," sensing diminished psychic attack, realized her mutated creations had successfully injected larvae.
The creature, a hybrid of Catachan viper and venomous worms, bore only the snake's appearance. Yet upon biting an enemy, it secreted mucus, injecting it into the victim's body.
The victim first experienced numbness, mistaking it for mere poisoning, before all sensation faded.
The worms would burrow through the enemy's skin, entering the bloodstream to lay their eggs.
By then, the enemy was doomed. Once the venomous worms entered the bloodstream, no known cure existed.
As a biomancer, Marlena already sensed eggs spreading throughout Deka's entire body.
"AAAH!"
With a piercing scream, the larvae hatched.
Deka excruciating pain in his brain, heart, and every bone in his body, while his neck was tightly constricted. Then his conciousness faded.
Marlena watched Deka's body crash heavily to the ground, exhaling softly before raising her hand to unleash a bolt of lightning that struck
As Marina retreated with the captured High Lord and the rescued, gravely wounded Librarian, Arsena simultaneously launched an assault upon Berithor, the High Lord overseeing the psyker-caste
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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