Amidst the fractured ruins of Blackrock Fortress, Moska ran frantically, tears streaming down her face as she reached out to the cold, shattered stone. She cried out for her father repeatedly, her voice cracking with desperation, but he had already vanished through a warp-teleportation rift. Her beloved guardian and master had disappeared into the shifting etheric disturbances, leaving her behind in the wreckage.
"Why did you abandon me? I fulfilled your request! What kind of father would stand by and watch his daughter die?" Moska shrieked into the void. She had indeed found the "wolves," but the victory was hollow; the wolf pack had ultimately led to the destruction of the fortress.
Yes... yes, this must be his punishment, she thought, wiping her eyes with trembling hands. He is holding me accountable. Moska forced herself to stand, her gaze hardening. She would clean up this mess. She would prove herself.
"I am still useful, Father! I am still useful! I will never let you down again..." Moska began to pick her way through the smoldering debris, her voice a feverish whisper. She began commanding the remaining Chaos thralls to scavenge and repair the Blackstone remnants. She would rebuild. She would justify her existence to the Warmaster.
On the Spire Plains, the warriors of Cadia were locked in a fresh cycle of slaughter. High above, the Aiur fleet had begun a rapid tactical withdrawal, pushing their engines to the limit to break the atmosphere. Aboard the flagship, Brand barked orders to his bridge crew, "Push the reactors! Maximum thrust! We need to clear the gravity well now if you don't want to become a falling star!"
The Vengeful Spirit and a significant portion of the Black Fleet, driven by the absolute fury of their commander, had broken through the primary Imperial blockade. They were risking total destruction just to hunt down the "despicable" small fleet that had humiliated them.
"Strange... so many of them? It seems we've made quite an impression," Brand muttered, eyeing the swarm of red icons flooding his tactical display. "We'll have to lead them on a chase around the star system before we can circle back to retrieve the Master for the final extraction."
The smoke from the previous bombardment had barely begun to clear when the roars of a daemon-tide surged across the plains. The mindless servants of the Four Gods threw themselves at the Cadian lines with renewed fervor. However, the morale of the Cadian defenders was at an all-time high. Having witnessed the miraculous destruction of the Titan Legion, they fought with the fanatical belief that total victory was within their grasp.
The surviving Knights of House Taranis limped forward once more, their battered chassis joining the Astartes in a desperate bulwark against the warp-spawned horde.
Lord Castellan Creed, standing atop the high bastion, had regained his composure and resumed command of the planetary defense. Reinforcements from the eastern and southern sectors had finally merged with the main body, and the precision fire of the El Legion continued to detonate in the heart of the enemy formations, staggering the Chaos offensive.
Alexei stood at Creed's side, his gaze sweeping over the shifting front lines. Celestine and Garadon had already descended into the fray, becoming golden and yellow blurs of divine and martial fury. Suddenly, Alexei's instincts flared. He turned his head toward a section of the fortress wall not far away, snapping his power sword from its sheath. The blue disintegration field crackled into life instantly.
Before Creed could ask what was wrong, a bolt of jagged purple lightning struck the high wall with the force of a tectonic shift. A massive rift in the fabric of reality tore open before the High Lord's astonished eyes. Daemons spilled out like a ruptured cyst, but they were merely the heraldry for the terror that followed: Abaddon the Despoiler.
The Warmaster's furious gaze locked onto Alexei and Creed in an instant. With a guttural roar, over a hundred Justaerin veterans in massive Terminator plate stepped through the rift, charging toward the command duo.
"ENEMY ATTACK!" the Cadian interior guards screamed, unleashing a desperate barrage of las-fire. The beams splashed harmlessly against the Despoiler's ancient plate like rain against a mountain.
Amidst the screams of dying men, Alexei grabbed Creed, forcing a retreat, but Abaddon was not a predator that allowed his prey to escape. His pace accelerated from a heavy stride into an unstoppable, earth-shaking charge. He didn't even need to swing his weapons at the guards in his path; merely brushing against his armored bulk reduced men to a fine red mist.
"ROAR!!!"
The Despoiler's fury was a physical weight. To Alexei's grim surprise, Abaddon ignored the Castellan, focusing entirely on him.
With a deafening bellow, the Talon of Horus swung in a wide arc. The speed was so immense that Alexei, even with his heightened senses, could barely track the movement. CLANG! Alexei's power sword met the Talon at the last possible microsecond, but the sheer kinetic force was overwhelming. He was blasted off the high wall, plummeting to the blood-soaked ground below.
"Cough... hack..." Alexei used his sword as a crutch to slowly push himself up from the dirt. His ribs felt like shattered glass, and he spat a thick glob of blood onto the earth. He had underestimated the gap. He had believed that his recent evolutions might allow him to stand against the Warmaster, but he had been discarded in a single blow. This was the monster who had slain the greatest heroes of the Imperium for ten millennia.
THUMP!
A heavy landing shook the earth nearby, clearing the dust. The towering, shadowed figure of Abaddon stepped forward, his eyes burning with the fires of the Warp. He had abandoned the hunt for Creed; his singular purpose now was to end the life of the architect who had burned his Legions. Alexei braced himself, his golden pupils narrowing as he prepared for a final stand.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from above, "Face me, Traitor!"
A golden streak of light accelerated from the sky, the Ardent Blade pointing straight at Abaddon's head. Saint Celestine descended like a falling star.
"You seek your death, little bird!" Abaddon roared. His daemon-blade, Drach'nyen, moved as a phantom blur, parrying the Saint with a force that sent her tumbling through the air.
However, the opening was enough. Alexei triggered his internal time-acceleration, his perception of the world slowing to a crawl. He vanished from his spot and reappeared directly in front of Abaddon, his power sword whistling toward the Despoiler's throat.
BANG!
The sounds of the Warp screamed as Abaddon, fueled by the favor of the Four, ignored the temporal distortion. He caught Alexei's blade in the Talon of Horus, his bloodshot eyes staring inches away from Alexei's face. At that moment, Celestine recovered, charging back into the fray to lock her holy sword against the Warmaster's cursed blade.
The three were locked in a trembling stalemate of raw power. Alexei's arms shook violently as the claws of the Talon ground closer to his chest. Cold sweat poured down his face under the crushing pressure. Then, a thunderous shout broke the tension: "MOVE!"
Alexei and Celestine threw themselves backward just as Tor Garadon, Captain of the Imperial Fists, leaped from a nearby ruin. He brought his massive power hammer down with both hands, the disruption field screaming at maximum capacity. "FOR THE PRIAAAAAARCH!"
BOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic, a strike powerful enough to cave in the glacis of a super-heavy tank. The hammer caught Abaddon squarely in the chest.
The Warmaster was sent flying, his body smashing through a reinforced metal bulkhead and leaving a massive crater in the fortress wall. The three heroes stood their ground, chests heaving, as the dust began to settle. To their horror, the terrifying silhouette of the Despoiler rose slowly from the rubble. He wiped a smear of blood from his lip, his voice a low, melodic growl of pure malice.
"Three ants," Abaddon hissed, his power radiating in waves of shadow. "I shall tear the meat from your bones and feed your souls to the Void."
Alexei, Celestine, and Garadon exchanged a single, grim look of understanding. Without a word, they charged from three different vectors.
"Then let us see if you can stop us all!" Alexei shouted, his golden eyes blazing with defiance.