The void was quiet.
Too quiet, Captain Kaelos Drathen thought as he stood on the command deck of the Vigilant Ember, watching the starfield stretch across the hololithic displays. Silence, in the grim darkness of the far future, was never a gift. It was a warning. The galaxy was a constant howl of war, a chorus of bolter-fire and daemon screams. Quiet meant something unnatural was coming.
Kaelos's fingers tightened around the railing. His ceramite gauntlet scraped the metal with a low growl.
"Shipmaster," he said, his voice low, disciplined. "Report."
The vox-officer swallowed, his brown eyes flicking nervously between readings. "The warp storm ahead has… stabilized, Captain."
Kaelos turned slowly. "Warp storms do not stabilize."
"Y-Yes, Captain. I mean...this one has stopped expanding. Its energies are… contained. As if something is holding it in place."
"Or someone," came a calm, sharp voice from behind.
Inquisitor Seraphine Vale stepped forward, her rosette glinting under the deck lights. Her black coat moved like a shadow behind her, trimmed with crimson threads that mirrored the faint blood-red of her eyes. She always looked as though she had stepped out of a battlefield and into a courtroom—beautiful, severe, and terrifyingly intelligent.
"It is not a natural anomaly," she continued, folding her arms. "It is a scar. A wound in reality. And something is holding it open from the other side."
Kaelos met her gaze. "Ezekren."
Seraphine nodded once. "The psyker's readings confirm it. He is… connected."
Kaelos didn't like that. Ezekren did not like it either, judging by the way he trembled where he sat tethered to the psychic dampening throne.
"I-I can hear it again," Ezekren whispered, eyes strained wide. "Voices. Too many. And not from this world."
His voice cracked. "They're speaking in languages I don't know. Yet I understand them."
Kaelos walked toward him. Despite the primaris marine's towering form, the psyker didn't flinch. A strange bond of trust had formed between them over the last few months...unexpected but steady.
"Focus," Kaelos said, kneeling beside him. "You are strong. Stronger than you believe."
Ezekren laughed weakly. "That's what scares me."
Seraphine stepped closer, lowering her voice. "What are the voices saying?"
Ezekren's breath shook. "They're telling me to run."
The Storm Opens
The lights flickered.
The deck trembled.
Alarms blared.
"Contact!" shouted the vox-officer. "Warp energies spiking...by the Throne, it's opening!"
The impossibly still warp storm suddenly twisted. It writhed like a serpent being forced awake. Tendrils of sickly violet lashed outward, wrapping around the Vigilant Ember like the hands of a drowning god.
Kaelos rose in a single, fluid motion. "All hands! Brace for impact!"
The ship lurched violently. Tech-priest Loran-5 toppled sideways, mechadendrites flailing.
"Heresy! Heresy! Heresy!" the tech-priest screeched, stabilizers clicking as he righted himself. "This storm violates seventeen hundred known warp laws...EXPLAIN!"
"Later!" Seraphine snapped, grabbing onto a railing as the deck tilted. "Captain, we're being pulled!"
Kaelos planted his boots, activating the mag-locks with a thud. "Divert all power to void shields!"
"They're collapsing!" another officer cried. "Something is draining them...like an anchor pulling us inward!"
Kaelos glanced at Ezekren.
The psyker's eyes were glowing.
Not the usual dim blue.
Not even warp-corrupted purple.
They glowed multicolored, like pieces of fractured glass reflecting worlds none of them had ever seen.
Seraphine leaned toward him. "Ezekren. Listen to my voice. What do you see?"
The psyker's voice came out as a whisper of awe and terror.
"I see worlds."
Visions of Elsewhere
The deck dissolved.
Not literally...Kaelos could still feel the metal beneath his feet...but visually. A thin, translucent layer of shimmering light rippled across the bridge like a mirage. Through it, shapes formed.
A mountain topped with a wisteria forest.
A village of strange, smiling blocky people.
A neon city drowning in rain.
A dark castle floating above lava.
A boy with a black-and-green checkered haori, eyes bright with determination.
A dragon made of obsidian cubes.
A sun breathing flame that wasn't fire.
The images flickered rapidly, bleeding into one another like a painting melting.
Kaelos felt his hearts skip.
"What is this?"
"A breach," Ezekren whispered. "A doorway. But it isn't opening to just one world. It's… searching."
"Searching for what?" Seraphine asked.
Ezekren looked up, and for the first time since Kaelos had known him, genuine fear lived in his eyes.
"For one of us."
The warp screamed.
The Break
The deck shattered with light.
Not physical light...warp light...like a sun exploding and collapsing into a starless void. The ship was lifted, spun sideways, folded, then stretched like taffy. Space bent the wrong direction. Reality twisted inside-out.
Kaelos held onto Ezekren, anchoring him with sheer force of will.
Seraphine grabbed the railing as her coat whipped around her like a storm-wrought banner.
Tech-priest Loran-5's vox speakers blared a long, continuous mechanical scream.
Then...
BOOM.
Silence.
Complete, deafening silence.
No alarms.
No screaming warp.
No ship engines.
Just… air.
Still, warm, breathable air.
Kaelos blinked. Once. Twice.
The command bridge was gone.
They were standing...somehow...on grass.
Green grass.
A forest surrounded them, tall and serene, lit by pale moonlight filtering through the leaves. The air smelled of clean soil and soft wind, utterly unlike the chemically sterilized scent of starships.
Ezekren collapsed to his knees, gasping. Seraphine rushed to steady him.
Kaelos scanned the area, bolter raised.
"Where are we?"
Loran-5's lenses rotated wildly. "THIS ENVIRONMENT CONTAINS—oxygen levels stable—carbon ratio typical—gravity consistent...NO SIGNS OF MECHANICAL INFRASTRUCTURE...NO STARSHIP...NO IMPERIUM DATA...IMPOSSIBLE...IMPOSSIBLE...IMPOSSIBLE."
Seraphine ignored the tech-priest's meltdown. She kneeled beside Ezekren. "What happened to the ship?"
Ezekren's voice quivered. "It didn't come with us."
Kaelos stiffened. "Explain."
"I...I think the storm only took us. The rest of the Vigilant Ember is still in the warp."
Kaelos felt a rare pang in his chest. His brothers. His crew. His ship. All left behind.
He forced the emotion down, locking it away. It would surface later. For now, survival mattered.
Seraphine rose slowly, scanning their new surroundings. There was a calmness to her expression, though Kaelos could see the sharp calculation behind her eyes.
"This world is… too peaceful," she murmured. "Too quiet for the galaxy we know."
Kaelos nodded. "We move. Find shelter. Gather resources. And determine whether this world is hostile."
Ezekren swallowed. "It is."
Kaelos looked at him. "How do you know?"
Ezekren lifted a trembling hand and pointed deeper into the forest.
A figure stood there.
A boy.
Young...no more than sixteen or seventeen. Black hair tied back, checkered green haori gently shifting in the breeze. A wooden box strapped to his back. A sword at his hip.
His eyes were soft with compassion, yet sharpened with battle experience.
Kaelos had seen countless warriors. This one was different.
The boy stepped forward.
"You don't belong here," he said softly.
His voice was human. Warm. Steady.
But Kaelos could sense it...this boy had survived horrors.
Seraphine narrowed her eyes. "Identify yourself."
The boy bowed slightly.
"My name is Tanjiro Kamado. And this forest… it is not safe for people like you."
Kaelos kept his bolter lowered but ready. "People like us?"
Tanjiro's eyes darkened, sorrow flickering across his face.
"The demons smell you."
He unsheathed his sword. The blade gleamed under the moonlight.
"And they're coming."
The First Attack
The ground trembled.
Leaves rustled violently.
Branches snapped.
Growls echoed from every direction.
Kaelos raised his bolter. Loran-5 activated his mechadendrites. Seraphine stepped protectively in front of Ezekren.
Tanjiro shifted into a stance Kaelos couldn't place...fluid, graceful, almost gentle.
The first demon burst from the trees with a feral roar.
Kaelos fired.
Tanjiro dashed.
The demon screamed.
And the collision of two worlds...Warhammer and Demon Slayer...began under the quiet moon.
End of chapter 1
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