This is only part 1 of the story I'm working on.

Caius felt a bolter round deflect off of his elaborately dedicated power armor and cackled. "Fool!" he cried out, gesturing towards the stampeding Chapter Master. "You have little understanding of the true power of Chaos! Let me educate you!" He muttered several incantations in forgotten languages best left unspoken and raised his arms. Raw energy swirled around Caius' intimidating form and he felt the Daemons gnawing at his souls. Finally, he finished the incantation and thrust his arms out. No crackling lightning ball, plume of smoke or wave of tentacles appeared. The swirling energy dissipated into nothing. "Huh," said Caius. Now Chapter Master Felix was getting closer. The Astartes began charging up his powerfist and screaming, "Die heretic!"

The Sorcerer drew his own blade, an ancient falchion carved with warpstone and engraved with the names of Daemons and Arch Heretics. He hissed under his helmet and began to summon his psychic power to fuel the great blade. For a moment it glowed but it quickly went back to normal. Caius shook the sword and tried again. "Come on, come on, come on!" he shouted, continuing to summon his own power. It glowed faintly again but frustratingly returned to its normal state. Chapter Master Felix, now with his bolterpistol and power fist ready, was only ten feet away and closing in quickly. "Come on you stupid sword, start working!" screamed Caius, hitting the useless blade against a rock.

That was when the Chapter Master reached him. Caius decided to bluff and cried, "Feel the wrath of my psychic power!" and swung his blade at Felix. The Marine leapt back, giving Caius more precious seconds to try to get the spell to work. The sword continued to remain a dull bluish silver. Felix stepped forward again but Caius swung the blade and took a step forward, continuing to swing. "Foolish mortal," he hissed, swiping rapidly at Felix. "Prepare to die!" Felix stumbled on a rock and failed to dodge the sword, causing it to his his power armor with a loud clang and bounce off. "Uh oh,"squeaked Caius as Felix realized what he had been trying to dodge.

"You are pathetic, even for a heretic," boomed the Chapter Master as he stepped over a corpse. He dropped his bolterpistol and grabbed Caius' neck with his spare hand, lifting him several inches off the ground. Felix drew back his glowing powerfist and said, "Now you die."

That was when a stray lasgun shot from some Imperial Guardsman miraculously hit Felix in his eye at the perfect angle to go directly into his brain and kill him instantly. His grip on Caius slackened and the Sorcerer fell to the ground with a loud thud. "I killed Chapter Master Felix!" he shouted over the Comm System to any of his allies within Vox range of him. "I shot the Imperial scum right through the eye! It was a tough battle but that brute couldn't withstand the power of a Chaos God favored Sorcerer of the Black Legion!"

No one responded. Evidently almost everyone in this portion of the battlefield had died. As Caius stumbled away from the deceased Chapter Master he noticed his own Commander, the Mighty Lord General Heron the Great and Powerful, lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. His scorched armor was doted with tiny holes, indicating he had been shot to death by Guardsmen. Judging by the direction he was facing Heron had been retreating at the time he died. Alongside the General was his trusty Daemon Blade, which was currently glowing red and hissing loudly. "This thing will be more useful than some stupid force weapon," Caius said to himself, stooping down to pick up the blade. As soon as he put his hand on the hilt he heard a deep voice say, "Indeed"

"Who said that?" yelled Caius, bolting upright and clutching the weapon. "I have a Daemon blade and I know how to use it!"

"I did," responded the voice. "The 'Daemon blade,' as you call me, said that."

"Daemon Blades can talk?" asked the Sorcerer.

"Well," the Daemon replied. "Some can. I can only speak to whomever holds me."

"This is messed up. I'm not going to get involved with this. I'll take the broken force sword over this."

"No, wait, I have uses. I saw your laughable attempt at Sorcery; I can help. I know much of the ways of the Warp. In return, all I ask is blood."

Caius hesitated to answer. Despite being a Sorcerer, Daemons terrified him. Finally, Caius said, "Alright. But not my blood."

The Thunderhawk automatically opened with a metallic hiss, revealing the twentysome Chaos Space Marines inside. Each was adorned with the colors of the Black Legion and Symbols of Chaos. As Caius stepped inside he felt them all staring at him, especially Sergeant Vibianus. After an awkward silence, Vibianus said, "Rumor is that you killed Heron, you wulfren feth traitor. And considering that it's his sword yer holding, it's probably true." Vibianus stood up straight and drew his power sword. The Sergeant had been Heron's favorite minion during his life. The coward inside Caius urged him to abase himself before Vibianus and claim his was innocent and beg for mercy. As he was about to do so the Daemon blade glowed a vibrant red and hissed, angling itself slightly toward the Sergeant. "Maybe I did," Caius said. Vibianus took a step closer. "But if I killed him, what makes you think you have a chance against me?"

"Kill him," hissed the Blade. "My first official act as your blade is to advise you to kill him and gain respect from your men."

"I can't," whispered Caius.

Vibianus yelled, "Hey, what are you doing? Some sort of incantation or spell?"

"I can," the Blade replied.

Suddenly Caius was forced into action. He leapt at Vibianus, cackling and swung the Blade. Vibianus managed to parry and tried to reposte, forcing his blade past Caius' and aiming for his two hearts. "Stop!" Caius tried to scream, but his mouth was held shut by an invisible force. Instead he side stepped and allowed Vibianus to strike the air and leave himself prone. Caius plunged his blade into Vibianus' helmet with a spray of gore and laughed. "Fool," he hissed in a vaguely inhuman voice. "You may have laughed at me before, but you have no idea what I am capable of." And with that the Blade relinquished control of Caius' body. "You need to work on your mental strength," it casually said. "Possessing you was surprisingly easy."

"Throne," muttered the Sorcerer, slumping down in a seat. "Don't ever do that again."

"Whatever you say, boss."



Two hours later Caius sat on his bunk in his quarters, still holding the blade. "You said you could teach me sorcery. Blade. That's why I picked you up. So, I guess, teach me," he ordered.

"Alright," responded the Blade. "And I've decided that calling me 'Blade' isn't a good name. When a Sorcerer summoned me into this blade two thousand years ago he referred to me as VenomBane, or BaneVenom, or Prince Bane of Venom or something. So, when you talk to me, refer to me as a variation of the term VenomBane, such as 'Hello Bane' or 'Hi BaneVenom.'"

"Okay... Bane," said Caius.

"First of all, there are two main problems we need to fix. The first is that you have very little basic psychic power. The best way of fixing this is to fully devote yourself to Tzeentch, as he has a habit of increasing raw psychic power. Slaanesh or Nurgle might do that as well, but Tzeentch is your best bet. Secondly, you have a terrible mind. You are a coward with a short attention span who gives up easily and has very little basic knowledge. I can fix your attention span and cowardice and habit of giving up easily by forcing you to develop self discipline via attacking your very mind until it adapts. I can fix your lack of basic knowledge by teaching you."

The Sorcerer groaned, "This isn't going to be very fun."

Nice, but would the sorcerer say throne? Thats a very imperial curse...

EagleArk wrote:Nice, but would the sorcerer say throne? Thats a very imperial curse...

Thanks for the comment, I guess he wouldn't be saying throne. I'm going to add in a new part to the story later today.

Caius sat completely still, jaws clenched, eyes shut. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead and onto his heavily decorated power armor. In his hand was the glowing Daemon sword, currently a vibrant red. He was exhausted and his strength was draining. Bane seemed unstoppable, continuing his relentless attacks on Caius' conscious, trying to burrow into his mind and hijack it. In the psychic realm Bane had thrown a diversion and attacked Caius' left flank when he didn't seem it coming. By summoning on what little power he had he was able to block it, only for Bane to casually change forms to a glistening serpent and slide around it. The Sorcerer had tried to change his own psychic form to counterattack, but still was very talented at creating anything besides a rough replica of himself. He had stomped on the Snake only for it to suddenly change to a massive, reptilian beast that pushed out from under his foot and sent him flying with a single punch.

As Caius tumbled backwards, his form soaring across the Immaterium, he concentrated on his backpack and imagined wings. Nothing happened. Caius imagined something more specific; his exhaust vents twisted and reached out as dark leather wings unfolded from his form. He felt something strange as his form began to shift and concentrated on the image more. He cocked his neck back and saw the massive wings behind him. He grinned and took control of the fall, flapping his wings wildly and soaring towards Bane. The Daemon was evidently surprised that Caius had managed it, but he didn't seem anxious. He switched forms again, this time to an Ultramarine in shining armor with a glowing power sword and plasma pistol. Bane started to shoot. Caius banked left hard and dodged the first plasma bolt but the second one grazed his wing, disintegrating the fragile tissue and sending him careening out of control in the Daemon's direction.

The Ultramarine helmet briefly morphed into a twisted grin as Bane fired again, this time at Caius' head. The Sorcerer ducked but felt the heat and realized his archaic horns were probably disintegrated. Caius suddenly realized there was a strange form of ground below him, or rather a tumbling mess of purple and red that seemed solid. He reached down and grabbed onto a fissure and violently halted approximately four feet in front of Bane. He swung the sword and Caius instinctively reached up with his hand and grabbed it. Shockingly his hand wasn't cleft in two. Rather the sword instantly stopped and the Sorcerer realized that his arm was now surrounded by an aura of green. "You're getting better," Bane grunted through his helmet. "I better up the difficulty."

His blue armor exploded in a spray of shrapnel and flame, knocking Caius across the landscape until he managed to grab onto a pillar seeming rising from nowhere. He looked up to see a massive horned creature of raw bone and muscle held together by a golden frame. It had five glowing eyes, each with two darting pupils. Tentacles randomly extending from it's bulk only to retreat back into the fleshy mess. Bane unhinged his massive jaw, spewing forth hundreds of serpents. He cackled and charged at Caius. The Sorcerer was terrified and visualized a massive, glowing shield in his hand. It briefly materialized but Caius was too panicked to concentrait on it and watched it fad into nothing. He tried again to focus on the shield, imagining it as a blessed artifact of impenetrable adamantium that would block and destroy anything in it's path. As Bane neared Caius continued to concentration but the artifact was simply too powerful and too complex to create, especially while being distracted and having little psychic power in the first place.

The Daemon reached him. It casually picked him up, sprouting dozens of tentacles from it's hand to hold him still. With its other hand it tore his limbs off using a combination of fingers and tentacles. Finally Bane unhinged his jaw again and brought Caius close to its mouth, reaching out with a slimy, serpent headed tongue. The Sorcerer was crying. The serpent tongue said, "It looks like I win. Shall we go back to the material realm? Your weak mind appears too exhausted to train further. I may have pushed you too far."

Caius concentrated on his body in the material world and was suddenly back, sitting on the bunk holding the glowing sword. "I hate you," he choked out as he gasped for air.

"My methods may be extreme, but they work. You successfully modified your form in the psychic realm for the first time, did you not?" asked Bane.

"Yeah," reluctantly said the Sorcerer. "What was that thing you were at the end? And how did you become something so... intricate and powerful so easily?"

"That thing was the form of the now deceased Daemon Prince Agrauel of the Flaming Serpent," said Bane. "And I became it by focusing."

There was a pause for a few seconds as Caius recuperated. "Were you always a sword?" he nervously asked, realizing that his curiosity might cost him his life.

"No, I've only been a sword for the past 3342 days, when the Great Sorcerer Alric of the Thousand Sons decided a Daemon weapon would be to his liking. Before that I generally acted as a lone Daemon, prowling the warp for psychic power to feast upon. On occasion I was summoned to fight in great wars on the material world. Once Alric summoned me simply to observe and question me. A year later his summoned me again and forced me into the blade. Were you always a coward and a weakling?"

"No. When I was first a Space Marine I honestly thought I was an immortal savior of humanity and death would simply make you one with the Emperor."

Very nice, its unique and entertainig. Has a real depth, but the sorcerer with that last sentence gives me a image of still loyal to the emperor, perhaps somthing on why he became a chaos space marine?

Thanks, it's really encouraging to know that someone likes it. I've learned that I do my best writing sleep deprived (based off of how my writing assignments at school have been graded as well as the comments I get for fan fictions) so I'll try to update this again sometime this night.

Edit: Stupid writer's block. But I'll update it tomorrow.

The story is alive! I just got past my writer's block.

Two days after the first of many horrific training sessions Caius walked into the massive Hanger 9. It was meant to display Devram Korda's power and prestige, especially during briefings like this when hundreds of Marines and thousands of Cultists lined up for massive briefings. Though a Sorcerer, Caius wasn't considered skilled enough to stand with the rest of Devram's elite and usually was stationed with the Chaos Spawn. As he walked over to his place in the formation, Devram Korda's bruiser Elpidius approached him. Elpidius was used as a Champion, Messenger, Minion and footrest by Devram, having somehow earned the Chaos Lord's attention. The Chaos Space Marine had a massive horn jutting from his right shoulder, similar to the two adorned his helmet. "Lord Korda wishes to see you," Elpidius hissed through his helmet.

"Act calm," ordered Bane. "I'll prevent any shivering, sweating or avoiding eye contact but you'll have to do most of the rest."

Devram was standing in front of his soldiers, surveying them with satisfaction. The General was a foot taller than the average Chaos Space Marine and quite more intimidating. His helmet was decorated with a crown of horns and his armor etched with inscriptions and symbols. In one hand he held a wicked curving blade that seemed to ooze blood and in the other was a new plasma pistol, his old one having been accidentally destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion by a slave named Decimus. Alongside the Chaos Lord were five Terminators, their tusked helmets ominously staring at the Sorcerer. Caius knew that one wrong move could doom him to a painful death at Devram's hands.

"Greetings Caius," said Devram. Caius tried to bow but the Daemon blade hissed and forced him not. "Do not display weakness," it growled, clearly dissatisfied. "Though originally you were considered las gun fodder, recent events have changed this. Having slain Vibianus, Felix and Heron you've apparently improved your skill greatly. And it looks like you've mastered that Force Sword of yours," Devram said, gesturing towards Bane. "As a result, I've decided to elevate you to my elite, where you will fill Heron's now empty spot and you will be granted Heron's troops; all thirty one surviving men. Do not fail me."

"Of course my Lord," replied Caius. He stepped back towards the four other members of Korda's elite.

"You owe me," Bane said in a matter-of-fact way.

The briefing continued as normal. Devram flaunted his power, surveyed his soldiers and explained the current tactical situation and the continuing battle over Tundras VII. At one point he impaled one of his Terminators for bumping into him and went off on a tirade about loyalty and its importance during the 13th Black Crusade, especially considering how disloyalty has caused the previous ones to fall apart. Caius ignored most of it however, simply focusing on his brand new promotion and all of the new, possible futures. As the Sorcerer stood with the elite, one whispered, "Do you know why he promoted you, despite having never seen you in action or having tested your tactical skills?"

"He's incompetent?" half asked-half answered Caius.

Devram's head Sorcerer, Kaglar, chuckled deeply and answered, "Did you notice how he briefly mentioned the Emperor's Children? One of their Companies is coming to fight with us and they'll be working with one of our Forces to help conquer an outpost. The vast majority of Commanders that work with the Emperor's Children are killed by drug fuelled warlords and crazed Noise Marines who refuse to take orders or simply want to command the Black Legion force themselves. He assigned you to that Legion so that he wouldn't lose someone valuable."

"Maybe I can try to hand over my position without violence," stammered Caius.

Another one of Devram's elite replied, "You've clearly never met the Emperor's Children."

Well, I really like that, and I want more! We need to see how it ends. Keep up the good work!

BattleBrother wrote:Well, I really like that, and I want more! We need to see how it ends. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comment. As I said earlier, its very encouraging when people say the slightest positive thing about my writing!

Of course, I just have to comment on an amazing piece or writing!

Thanks! Also, new part. It looks really long because it has lots of dialogue but it isn't. It also has more action than some of the previous ones.

"Devram Korda wants to kill me," whispered Caius as he sat on his bunk. He repeated it with more urgency. "Devram Korda wants to kill me. If I do nothing the Emperor's Children will kill me, if I refuse the mission I'll have disobeyed and he'll kill me and if I try to flee the ship my own men will kill me. Feth. Devram Korda wants to kill me!"

The Blade growled and stung Caius' hand with strange, vibrant red glow. "Be quiet. Here's what you do. Try to figure out why Korda wants to kill you and make it so that he has no reason or try to twist Korda's plan to your own benefit."

"I don't know why he wants to kill me! He never liked Heron and he only kept him around because of the Cult of Personality Heron had cultivated! And I never disobeyed him! In fact, I helped him when I killed Felix! Feth! Throne! Feth! Do you know? You're smart and old and feth! Just tell me!"

"This is the first time I've seen Devram in over six hundred years. Even when I did see him we never spoke, the only thing he did was look at me. He probably doesn't remember me. Besides, I don't know him."

"Maybe I'm rising up the ranks so fast," said Caius. "This may sound egotistical, but hear this out. For the past seven years I was at the same rank as a Chaos Spawn. Suddenly, in a single day I become extraordinarily powerful and kill a Chapter Master and one of his more powerful Commanders and he doesn't know why. Maybe I scare him and he wants to try and get rid of me fast or at least test out how powerful I am."

"That makes sense," replied Bane. "I suppose this is a good time to swear yourself to Tzeentch. He might help."

Caius paused and cleared his throat. After a moment of silent he shouted out, "Tzeentch, Lord of Change, I swear myself to thee! Now save my fething life!" Nothing happened. Bane chuckled deeply. "That is not how you swear yourself to a God. And furthermore you're asking for a favor, so just promising loyalty isn't enough, unless you're a Primarch or something."

"Then what do I need to do?" asked an irritated Caius.

"There's an arcane ritual you have to set up, an oath you have to say and then you should probably kill a Nurgle Sorcerer or powerful Warrior or something. Well, that's just what I recommend for your case."



"Kaglar, I need a book," said Caius.

Kaglar smiled and leaned back in his throne. "Which book do you request?"

"The actual title is incomprehensible but you know it as The Decree of Change."

"Now Caius," the Head Sorcerer answered in the most patronizing way possible. "That is an extremely valuable book and I can't simply loan it to someone as... questionable as yourself."

"I believe you misunderstood. It was not a request," the other Sorcerer boomed. He pointed his sword in Kaglar's direction and shouted something incomprehensible. A massive bolt of yellow shot forth and sent Kaglar off his throne and sprawling on the floor. "The book, Kaglar. Give it to me."

The Head Sorcerer spat a bloody tooth from his mouth and said, "Yes, of course Sorcerer Caius." He stood up and stumbled over to a large bookshelf. He drew a book bound in writhing, blue flesh and handed it to Caius. "I also need several arcane components for a ritual," ordered Caius.



As Caius walked off he smiled and whispered, "That was great."

"Now you know that the bolt wouldn't have been half as powerful as that if I hadn't been able to enhance it for you, right?" said Bane.

"Yeah. You don't have to rub it in."



"Sorcerer Kadras," addressed Caius. "I would like a standard component in most rituals; that is a Daemonic horn."

"No Daemonic horns are available at the moment," replied the hunched mutant. His form was dotted with writhing tentacles and blinking eyes. "Go away."

"This is important."

"It is important that you note that there are no available Daemonic horns at the moment. Go away."

With a single slash of his blade Kadras was cut in half in a spray of black ichor and viscera. His torso fell to the floor with a loud thunk and the Sorcerer screamed, "Kaglar will hear about this! I'm his favored one!"

"Yes. Well, until then, get me a Daemonic horn."

"Kaglar will hear about this."



"Again," said Bane. "Without me this would be impossible. So don't get high on your new found power."

"I know already," hissed Caius. "Throne."

Amazing, yet again, I am left wondering what will happen to Caius and Bane! Keep posting.

Thank you so much! Alright, this entry is kind of long one.

Caius carefully drew the eight sided star on the floor on his quarters and planted the Daemonic horn in the direct center. He pulled out a small knife and slowly slit his wrist. The Sorcerer hovered his hand above the star and moved it in a circle, creating a ring of blood around it. Finally, he opened the book the writhing book to the appropriate page and planted it on his bunk where he could read the oath without holding it. "Is that it?" Caius asked. "It seems surprisingly easy. I mean, relatively easy. I'm sure plenty of people would have a hard time getting a Daemonic horn or a book made of flesh that might be alive."

"No," answered Bane. "Now, I haven't consorted with a Tzeentch Daemon in awhile or been able to read one of his books, but I believe that you need to sacrifice a powerful Nurgle worshiper at the climax of this ritual."

"So I need to capture one and tie him up in my room? Doesn't that seem excessively difficult?"

"Yeah, well if all you wanted to do was swear yourself to Tzeentch and you were actually a notable person I'd be a lot easier. But since your a nobody who wants a big favor, I think you might need to do a little more than say 'pleeeease.' What did you expect?"

"Okay, okay. So, there are only a couple people onboard the ship who worship Nurgle directly. They are the Plague Squad Polious, I think. Mortarion loaned them out to the Black Legion. So I guess I should just kill one of 'em."

Bane sighed, or did the closest thing a powerful Daemon trapped in a sword could and replied, "No, you can't just capture some average Plague Marine and cut him up. You need someone powerful. Who is in charge of squad Polious?"

"Plague Lord Ebolias the Abominated, Lord of Contagions. He looks like a big bag of flies and guck that has a gasmask on top. And he survived getting shot by a lascannon in the chest."

"Alright, let's go get him."



Ebolias waited in the dank hallway, watching his armor's chronometer. "We both have a common enemy," the Sorcerer had hissed. "But we can't speak here, he is likely watching us at this very moment. Meet in Hallway 148. You won't regret this." So far the Sorcerer was late and Ebolias was regretting the waste of time. Besides, if their 'common enemy' had been watching, he would've know they were going to meet in this hallway and there might be some sort of trap. Just as Ebolias turned around and began to leave, the Sorcerer appeared. He wore strange archaic armor and held a large, glowing sword. "Greetings Plague Lord Ebolias, Lord of Contagions. I apologize for my lateness."

The Plague Lord turned around to face Caius and coughed into his armor with a loud hacking noise. He noted how clean and untainted the weak Sorcerer compared to himself. The armor on his chest was bloated and cracked, doted with pustules and tubes. Instead of a normal helmet he wore a large, rasping gasmask with glowing yellow eyes and a large horn sprouting from his slimy forehead. "Greetings," Ebolias replied. "So, what is this common enemy of ours that was so dangerous? You Black Legionnaires normally don't associate with us."

Caius howled like a mad dog and leapt forward at Ebolias, swinging his massive sword. Before the Plague Lord could react the Sorcerer had cut off his sword arm and was swinging at him again. Ebolias ducked under the blade and rammed his horn into Caius' chest, splintering his armor and stabbing into his frail, pink body. Caius held the sword above Ebolias' back, reversed his grip and swung down, but Ebolias once again dodged the blade. He drew his plasma pistol and fired off two random shots as he backed up, desperate to get away from the cursed sword. The Sorcerer dodged the first shot and deflected the second with his sword and leapt at Ebolias once again.

He severed Ebolias' other arm and knocked him to the ground with a powerful kick. "Alright, now what do we do?" asked the Sorcerer to apparently nothing. He paused for a moment and then said, "Alright." He drew a syringe from his pouch filled with a milky white liquid and injected it into one of the tubes protruding from Ebolias' swollen gut. The Plague Lord squirmed the tried to stand back up, only for Caius to knock him over again. "It's not working!" Caius yelled frantically. "Well, of course I know he's a Plague Marine. But you said this stuff was strong! I'll give him another dose!" Once again the Sorcerer drew another syringe and injected it into the tube. Despite this Ebolias continued to squirm and fight back. "Okay, okay! I'll try injecting it into his gasmask! Maybe the stuff just isn't going into the right place!" Caius drew a third syringe and injected the milky fluid into the breathing tube coming from the gasmask. "Alright, I'll wait thirty seconds and if nothing happens we'll have to get a back up plan. Maybe Plague Marines are just immune to drugs that make things fall unconscious."

The Plague Lord continued to try get up and eventually Caius gave up pushing him down and just sat on top of him. But no matter how long Caius waited, the Nurgle Worshipper refused to fall unconscious. Finally he said, "Alright. You hold him down and I'll get a cart, a bag and some chains. This may take a minute." To Ebolias' horror, the Sorcerer lifted the blade and stabbed it into the Lord's belly, impaling him against the ground and then simply ran off, leaving him trapped.

As Ebolias squirmed, he heard a deep voice. "Greetings Ebolias."

"Who are you?" he shouted. "Help me!"

"I'm the sword that the apparently insane Sorcerer has been speaking to. If you try to get up I'll hurt you quite a bit, so don't resist."

The Plague Lord roared and began to push himself up from the ground, only to be suddenly attacked by some vicious psychic presence. "I said don't resist." "You don't scare me, blade," boomed Ebolias and he began to push himself up once again.



Caius sprinted through the construction area. Hundreds of servitors worked on the engines and walls, oblivious to Caius' presence. There had to be the materials he needed here. He suddenly noticed a construction robot bound to the floor by a chain and immediately tried to pull it off. The chain refused to budge. "Come on!" screamed Caius, knowing that if he didn't come back soon he'd have to deal with an out of control Plague Lord. He drew his force sword and muttered, "Don't fail me now."

He concentrated all of his psychic power into the blade and imagined the blade glowing. After a moment, the blade suddenly lit up. "Yes!" screamed Caius as he cut the chain with the force sword and carried it off. The construction robot wondered mindlessly off into the halls, no longer bound to its working area. Meanwhile Caius went the opposite direction, searching for a cart or anything that could be used to carry the Plague Lord. After a minute of hopelessly searching he saw a servitor pushing a cart filled with a dozen pipes. Without hesitation Caius pulled all of the pipes off of the cart and floored the servitor with a single punch.

Now he just needed something to cover the Plague Lord. But there were no bags or anything similar in here. Suddenly, Caius realized he could use blankets. He rushed to his room, bringing the cart and the chains with him.



Ebolias ripped himself free from the floor and stood up, the glowing sword still embedded in his chest. "You fool," hissed the sword. "I am a raw fragment of the warp and am twenty thousand years old! I am the Great Prince Venombane, Destroyer of Worlds! What makes you think you can possibly stop me?" And with that Ebolias was suddenly slammed with another horrific psychic attack. His armor cracked even more and dark fluids surged forth from the joints of his armor. Yet Ebolias refused to fall or stop. "And I am the Chosen of Nurgle and Child of Despair! I watched the Battle of Terra with my own eyes and I fought on Cadia with my own bare hands! I am the Plague Lord Ebolias and you are a pathetic Daemon bound to a sword!"

At that moment Caius ran inside, pushing a cart with two blankets from his bunk as well as a long chain inside. "Feth!" yelled the Sorcerer. "I thought you said you could hold him!"

Caius sprinted toward Elbolias and rammed him. Combined with the psychic attacks of Bane and his lack of arms, Elbolias was knocked to the ground and left in a daze. Without hesitation the Sorcerer ripped Bane free from Elbolias' chest and slashed the Nurgle Worshipper over and over, bringing him to the brink of death. Just as Elbolias thought Caius was going to land the finishing blow the Sorcerer instead dragged him over to the cart and dropped Elbolias inside. Before the Plague Lord could even comprehend what was going on Caius covered him with blankets and wrapped the chain around him several times.

As Elbolias squirmed desperately Caius panted and said, "Alright, I think we got him. Serving Tzeentch will be easier from now on, right?"

Very nice, i now have a image of a giant pus covered space marine with no arms in my head, and for that i thank you. (and thats a good thing)

Lol, thanks for the comment. I'll try to post another update later today. Hopefully I won't get writer's block.

Wow, the story's getting dialogue heavy. The next part won't be very talky though. It'll have warp craziness. But the part after the warp craziness will have lots of talking.

After resting for several minutes, Caius picked up the blade and said, "I guess we should move him back to my quarters." He grabbed the cart with his free hand and began pulling. "Do you think it was... well... an ethical thing to do? You know, to cut his arms off, tie him up and eventually sacrifice him?"

Apparently Ebolias heard part of what the Sorcerer said as he squirmed even more and shouted something unintelligible through the blanks over him. "It was probably necessary for your own survival," flatly replied Bane. "Assuming it motivates Tzeentch to save you."

"See, that's part of it. Is my survival worth his pain and death?" asked Caius. "What if he's a nice person or something."

"You've killed before and you've had people try to kill you before; I don't understand why your getting hung up on ethics now. This universe we live in is not a safe place. People will die. For others to survive, people must die. The blame belongs to the system, not yourself."

"First of all," said Caius. "I'm getting hung up on it now because its slow and painful. There's no rush of adrenaline and he isn't a threat to my survival anymore. Secondly, that seems like an excuse to blame killing someone on the system."

"Plague Marines don't feel pain, so don't get guilty about that. And its not an excuse. Was there ever a time with complete peace and prosperity?"

As Caius entered into a more inhabitable part of the ship he said, "Alright, no more talking, we can't look anymore suspicious than we already are."

Cultists, slaves and servitors began to appear as Caius came closer to his quarters. Most walked by casually but a few stopped to stare at the strange, pus soaked blanket with something moaning underneath it. A few Chaos Space Marines came by as well, but most didn't care much about whatever Caius was pulling. They knew he was a mad Sorcerer whose warp related business wasn't there's. "It looks like we're in the clear," whispered Caius. That was when Devram Korda and his entourage came by. The Chaos Lord himself, Elpidius, Kaglar and a bodyguard of Chaos Terminators came through. "Greetings," hissed Devram.

"Uh... yeah, greetings," stammered the Sorcerer. "Greetings. So, I'm just going back to my quarters, you know. With my sword. And this cart. Heh. You know." Devram took a step forward past Caius and examined the wiggling thing inside the cart. "What is that underneath the blankets?" he asked. "Elpidius, poke it."

Elpidius hovered his finger above the blanket for a moment and poked it. When the area he poked suddenly writhed and made a noise he immediately withdrew his hand. "Its an experiment." Devram himself reached forward and poked it before asking, "May I remove the blanket?"

"My Lord, with all due respect, that is perhaps not the best idea," squeaked the Sorcerer.

The Terminator bodyguards immediately activated all power weapons and focused all of their guns on Caius. Devram hissed, "Caius, I am not weak. I may not be a Sorcerer, but I know things that would drive you mad and have seen things you wouldn't believe. I gazed into the warp and the warp gazed back. Your slimy experiment doesn't scare me."

"Navigator eyes," said Bane. "Say it has navigator eyes."

"It has... navigator eyes?" mumbled Caius. "Yeah, navigator eyes. That's why there's the blanket. Navigator eyes. You can poke it and smell it though, of course."

There was a deep silence that lasted several seconds. The Terminators remained fixed on Caius. He knew that the barrel of CombiMelta might be the last thing he'd ever see. Finally Devram said, "Ah yes. Very well. Carry on." And with that comment the Chaos Lord left, leaving the Sorcerer in peace.

Fun! Any nicely written, the encounter with the commander is very entertaining.

Love it, but why would you kill a Nurgle follower? Other than Khorne, hes my patron god. Anyway, still great piece of writing, we want more!

BattleBrother wrote:Love it, but why would you kill a Nurgle follower? Other than Khorne, hes my patron god. Anyway, still great piece of writing, we want more!

Tzeentch hates Nurgle because they have totally different ideals. Tzeench is the god of change who has carefully laid plans. Nurgle is totally randon and so messes up these plans. Killing a very important follower of Nurgle would be a way to get into his good books.

Yep, that's it. Anyways, here's the Grand Ritual. Also, I was planning on having Caius ask Bane about Tzeentch and Nurgle before you guys posted about that, so thats why the first part is about that even when its already been explained.

"Before we start, I have a question. Why does Tzeentch hate Nurgle?" asked Caius.

Bane chuckled and replied, "Wow, you really are a terrible Sorcerer. For one of the 'most esteemed' pyskers of the Black Legion you should know that. Tzeentch is the God of Change, Hope and Ambition whereas Nurgle is the God of Decay, Misery and Pain. Decay is inevitable and destroys all, something Tzeentch can't change which infuriates him or her or it. Nurgle's primary philosophy is 'pain through gain' and Tzeentch doesn't hate philosophy beyond change."

"So Nurgle can ruin Tzeentch's plans?"

"Yeah. Nurgle is one of the few beings who can actual resist the manipulations and intricate schemes of Tzeentch. Now start the ritual. And put me down. I don't want to get involved with this."

Caius immediately said, "But you're my wingman! Without you I'd have died at least a dozen times in the past few days!"

"Yeah, but I don't want to get into a brawl with any Tzeentch daemon attracted by the ritual."

"Oh. Okay, I'll put you down."

Caius left the blade on his bunk and stood up in front of the eight sided star and ring of blood he had set up earlier. In one hand he held The Decree of Change and in the other he held his recently mastered force sword. He took a deep breath, acknowledging that after this he could never go back. Finally, he started the ritual. Caius began to speak something intelligible and sensed a vague psychic presence using his extremely limited warp abilities. As he continued speaking it grew stronger and the horn in the center of the start started to glow. Now there were at least two potent warp entities in the room. Finally, finished with the intelligible mumblings, Caius went onto the next part of the ritual. Reading directly from the book he said, "Tzeentch, the Great Changer of Ways, I cry out to you! I swear myself to the Lord of Schemes and Masters of Plots! I acknowledge myself as but a puppet of Tzeentch who dances to his tune! In return for my service I ask for the power to destroy and the ability to live!"

At this point Caius noted at least a dozen entities in the room encircling him. Their combined warp presence was strong enough to taint the physical realm now. The air was replaced with a swirling blue substance. Bane glowed unusually bright. The Daemonic horn was bleeding a strange yellow substance was exploded into purple flames when it came into contact with the ring of blood. Now Caius went back to the unintelligible spells and his room was possessed even further. Writhing faces appeared on the walls, laughing and mocking the Sorcerer. The floor briefly buckled and twisted as if something was writhing underneath it. Ebolias began to scream so loud he could be heard even through the blankets. "I swear myself to the Changer of Ways!" screamed Caius, realizing he was reaching the climax of the room. He put all of his psychic power into his force sword and jumped towards Ebolias, thrusting the weapon into the Plague Lord's chest.

Ebolias exploded in a spray of viscera and slime, destroying the cart he was in and staining the walls and floor. The Sorcerer was thrown backwards into his bunk with a loud thunk. The Daemonic faces on the walls gradually disappeared, laughing at Caius the entire time. Caius went limp and slumped to the floor, panting. He reached out and grabbed Bane, clutching the sword tightly. "What have I done?" he asked. "Well," answered Bane. "You either saved your life or ruined it. Here, try shooting a lightning bolt at the floor without my help. Tzeentch sometimes enhances raw psychic power which makes being a Sorcerer a lot easier."

"Okay," said Caius. "Here we go." He concentrated on a massive lightning bolt, exploding through the floor. As he continued to concentration he forced his pyschic energy into the image and suddenly a massive blue lightning bolt shot from his hand. It immediately blew through the floor and hit a Chaos Space Marine in the quarters directly below Caius'. The Marine was blown apart in a massive wave of energy, creating an extremely vibrant light. "Holy feth!" screamed Caius, jumping up and looking through the sizable hole in his floor. "Holy feth! Holy feth!"

"I guess I was right about sacrificing a Plague Lord at the climax of the ritual," said a content Bane. "You destroyed the floor and the bolt still had enough energy left to kill some poor Black Legionnaire. Well done."

"I'm God now!" yelled Caius. "I could kill Devram without your help! I could destroy entire planets with your help! I'll be a Daemon Prince with the favor of the Tzeentch and the loyalty of my minions! The Imperium will bow to my will! As Horus once proclaimed, the galaxy will burn!"

"Feth. You're already acting like a Sorcerer of Tzeentch. Well, don't get carried away. All you did was make a hole in the floor and blow up an unsuspecting guy by accident," pointed out Bane.

Caius took a deep breath and said, "Sorry. It's just, I've never felt that much power before. Its... amazing. Its like some sort of drug."

"Yeah, well remember that its not free. You won't have to pay as much as others for that power because of Ebolias, but you'll still have to pay with something."

Love it as usual, I have actually bookmarked this thread, so I can check regularly on updates. Keep up the good work , Future writer LoneLictor

Errrmm good story with excelent writing, but... feth is a Tanith curse so unless Caius has been hanging out with the Ghosts I don't think a chaos sorcerer would say that. Other than that minor detail it is a good story and I look forward to seeing more from you.

Thanks for the comments. Here's my poorly thought out last minute explanation as to why Caius says feth. He was recruited from Tanith to become a Space Marine and was recruited from the Tanith Space Marine Chapter to become a Black Legionnaire.

I'll post a new entry later. The Emperor's Children are coming.

Tanith space marine chapter? Would it be easier to say he interogated some tanith guard? While he fought there, they probably fought there at least once.

EagleArk wrote:Tanith space marine chapter? Would it be easier to say he interogated some tanith guard? While he fought there, they probably fought there at least once.

Yeah, that makes more sense. I'll use that instead. The background in Warhammer 40k is so huge and diverse that sometimes I make errors, heh. I try not to though.

Once again the story has been brought back from the depths of writer's block! Most of the story has been from the perspective of Caius, save a brief part from Ebolias. Well now I'm going to have a brief section from another now Caius character.

It was morning on Cadia. Devram forced himself out of his bunk and stretched his limbs. He had barely gotten any sleep due to his tormenting thoughts of Caius' power. The sleep part didn't matter; he was a 10,000 year old Chaos Space Marine, Chosen of Abaddon. He probably didn't even need to sleep and only did it out of nostalgia. However, Caius did matter. He had stayed in his position via knowledge. He found an enemy's strengths and weaknesses and used that to bring them down. A perfect example would be Elpidius. Once an up and coming Chaos Lord, now Caius' personal servant and broken shell of a creature. However, he knew nothing about Caius. The idiotic Sorcerer must have stumbled onto some secret or artifact; he wasn't intelligent enough to become this powerful by himself. "I will use the only option I have left," Devram told himself. "I'll just ask Caius." It was an idiotic idea. However, Caius was an idiotic person. He just might tell him.

The Chaos Lord put his helmet on and left his quarters, where his bodyguard awaited him, as well as Elpidius. "We're going to Caius' quarters," he snarled to them. Terminator Champion Trainius loaded a map of the ship whilst the other nine Terminators formed a protective circle around Caius and Elpidius. They set off. Along the way cultists and Marines alike cowered. Kaglar tried to speak to Devram, but he furiously yelled, "Leave you failure of a Sorcerer. You have no position among my elite anymore."

"What?" squeaked Kaglar, trying to reach Devram. "What did I do? I was loyal Commander! I never failed and I never disobeyed! Please, what did I do?"

"I ordered you to find out information about Caius and you were too afraid of him to even try," hissed the Chaos Lord.

"I was planning on capturing and interrogating him, my Lord," replied Kaglar. "But he came into my quarters and beat me within an inch my life with his psychic powers! He could've killed me!"

"You disobeyed my orders out of fear and weakness. Leave."

The Sorcerer scurried off, whimpering. Now Kaglar was nothing; he was at the same rank Caius had been before he had discovered whatever he had. "We're almost at Caius' quarters," said Trainius. "Do you wish for us to accompany you inside?"



Caius furiously scrubbed away the remains of Ebolias, but the various stains refused to leave. Evidently the Champion of Nurgle was endurable. "Why did he have to explode?" moaned Caius. "Why couldn't he have just died like a normal person?"

"Don't ask me, you where the one who exploded him," replied Bane. "And what are you going to do about the hole in the floor?"

"Ummm... I'll think of something," the Sorcerer said. "Maybe I'll just grab a metal plate and bolt it over the hole. I'd be an eye sore but at least I wouldn't risk falling through it and breaking my legs."

Suddenly Caius' door slammed open to reveal the towering figure of Devram Korda with the brute Elpidius standing at his side. Ten Terminators stood behind them. Caius immediately leapt up and held Bane in a defensive position. "Please," purred Devram, stepping inside and examined the room. "There is no need for hostilities. Leave us. I will talk to Caius along."

The Terminators' immediately left. "Ummm... Elpidius is still here," pointed out Caius. "So you aren't really alone."

"Elpidius isn't a person," corrected Devram as he shut the door. "Or at least he doesn't count as one. Is there a chair I can sit down in?"

"No, sorry."

"Good. Keep acting like you aren't scared of him," Bane said. "As with the last time you talked to him, I'll keep you from shaking or blinking."

"Now Caius, it wouldn't be a lie to say you've made a surprising transition. You've become extremely powerful in just a few days," carefully said Devram. "Now, I hope you won't mind this, but I've become curious as to how. It could be a great gain for the Black Legion if whatever you used or did or found could be used on other Sorcerers of even basic Legionnaires. Again, I hope you don't mind the question but as Commander of the Hydra Fleet of the Black Legion I am obligated to ask."

There was a deep, long silence, during which Devram examined the room. There was a glaring, burnt hole in the floor, slime on the walls, and a discarded cart and chains. "Don't tell him anything," Bane said. "You can't tell him anything. I know your going to ask whynot and the answer is because he'll take me to use for his own purposes. And I know you're going to claim that Devram is too smart to lie to, but he isn't."

"Listen," whispered Caius. "I'm going to tell me. He'll figure out eventually and its better if he knows I'm an honest and loyal minion."

"What did you say?" asked Devram, leaning in closer.

Suddenly, Bane attacked. He immediately tried to wretch control of Caius' body, using the same possession tactics he had used many times before. But this time the Sorcerer could fight back. He focused all of his energy on the psychic power flowing from the sword into his body and tried to stop it. Bane unleashed his full power and diverted around Caius' psychic presence just in time to reach his brain. And he attacked. Suddenly Caius was hit by a horrific headache. He lost all control and Bane stepped in, grabbing the reins of his body. "Get out," he ordered Devram, taking a step closer to him. Horrified, Caius tried to focus and take control of his body but Bane attacked his brain once again and the headache resumed.

"What?" asked Devram.

"Get out," Bane ordered once again, gesturing towards the door.

"Elpidius," said Devram and his servant attacked. Elpidius immediately drew a power sword and lunged at Caius. However, Bane was an expert fighter. He ducked under Elpidius' first blow and stabbed underneath it, impaling the Marine on his sword. Devram's servant coughed and fell to the floor, dead. "Get out," Bane ordered. This time Devram obeyed, immediately opening the door and running outside.

Bane relinquished control of Caius' body and let the Sorcerer ease back in. "You idiot!" screamed Caius. "He's going to kill me! And you didn't have to kill Elpidius! He was just some poor guy that Devram decided to enslave! And why the feth did you attack my mind? Don't do that! This is my body!"

"You lost the right to choose your course of action long ago," hissed Bane. "Before I came you were nothing! You admitted you'd be dead without me. You can't choose when to use my help and when to not to! I don't have an off button!"

"Why are you helping me?" asked Caius.

"To escape," replied Bane. "Part of it is out of pity. However, I'll admit that most of it is to escape. Once you become powerful enough, I'm going to briefly possess you and use your powers in addition to mine to shatter the blade so that when I go back inside I become freed."

"Okay," said Caius. "What do we do now?"



"Commander," said Trainius, approaching a terrified looking Devram Korda. "Do you wish for us to eliminate Sorcerer Caius?"

"No," answered Devram. "He's become extremely powerful. He's defeated Felix, Heron, Vibianus, Kaglar and now me. But, I still have faith in the Emperor's Children. Lord Commander Eblis has never failed."

Yeah, Caius is in trouble now. Comments are appreciated! Comment if you like the story, comment if you hate it and have advice on how to improve it or just comment if you want to increase your post count.

I have became a big fan of you and your writing! Amazing, I read every one, keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comment. Also, I won't be able to post a new entry for the next 2 or 3 days because I'm going on a brief trip. When I come back I'll be sure to post something.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Cannot wait! But still, I will be looking forword to it.

It's a good story. Well thought out and enjoyable. But there are a few, weaknesses. No explanation for certain aspects and in some places badly written. Still a good read. Bookmarked.

Sabet wrote:It's a good story. Well thought out and enjoyable. But there are a few, weaknesses. No explanation for certain aspects and in some places badly written. Still a good read. Bookmarked.

Thanks for the comment (as a I always say). Could you give an example of a poorly written part just so that I could avoid doing whatever I did there in the future? Also, if I don't respond within the next 2 or 3 days it's because I've already left on my trip, not because I'm emotionally hurt. So don't feel bad.

Please post some more, LoneLictor, I have been waiting.....

ChaosLordSam wrote:Please post some more, LoneLictor, I have been waiting.....

Huzzah, it turns out someone missed it! I'm going through horrific writer's block, but I'll eventually get through it.

I like what you have going on here. Any Chaos-centric story is right up my alley. I'd like to see you continue.

Thanks for the comment. I'm going to post a new part later today or tomorrow. I just have to get past my writer's block. But I will!

I'm writing again! Training in the Warp goes horribly wrong! The Introduction of the Emperor's Children! Bane shows just how powerful he really is!

Caius examined the realm before him; a swirling mass of purple and red doted with tiny yellow light from the trillions of souls that fed it. Some were barren and alone, overall unimportant in the grand spectrum of reality. Others, especially those of psykers, were surrounded by slavering Daemons who lusted for their bodies and minds. Some Daemons slid by Caius, watching the Sorcerer but not acting against him. He knew they didn't fear him, but rather the beast before him that was Bane. Appearing as a massive Chaos Infused Dreadknight that writhed with barbed tentacles the Daemon was an impressive site. "Your move," he hissed. "Let's see if your stronger than last time after your bargain with Tzeentch."

The Sorcerer concentrated on an improved version of himself. He was taller and stronger with bat like wings and massive spiraling horns. In one hand was a Kai Gun, glowing with his own hatred, and in the other was an archaically designed powerfist. He easily transformed within seconds. "Impressive," Bane said. Without warning the Dreadknight leapt into action, swinging its massive sword at Caius' relatively tiny form. Caius rolled under the attack and fired two yellow blasts from the Kai Gun. The psychic shots blew open the Dreadknight's leg and sent it tumbling to the ground with a spray of sparks. In response Bane fired his Heavy Psycannon, or rather the closest a Daemon could create. Instead of firing shots of Negatively Chaos Infused Ammunition like it normally would the weapon instead fired Positively Chaos Infused Ammunition. A shot from the weapon decimated Caius' chest, shattering ceramite and rending flesh. Sheer psychic power from the shot further wounded the Sorcerer. Flesh melted and peeled from his crippled body. The paint was scorched off of his wrecked power armor.

Bane prepared to fire the Psycannon again, adjusting his prone form. At this point Caius would've normally accepted defeat and begged for his life. But now, empowered by Tzeentch, he knew what to do. Caius focused on the psychic energy destroying his body and controlled it. He forced it to concentrate on the palm of his powerfist and then fired it using his own natural psychic power. Bane's arm was destroyed in an explosion of gore and metal. He growled in pain and swung his sword at the Sorcerer. Caius raised his powerfist and grabbed the blade. Channeling his psychic energy through the fist he attacked the sword. Caius simply concentrated on it melting and the glowing weapon obeyed, slumping into a massive pile of molten slag. "Wow, I won," Caius said, casually repairing his previously crippled form and standing up. "Good duel. Should we go back to the physical world?"

"It does not end that easily," Bane replied. Every bleeding tentacle, sparking wire and severed cable reached out from the Dreadknight's ruined body and mobbed Caius. The Sorcerer fought back savagely, melting them with his Kai Gun and destroying them with his powerfist, but there were simply too many. A mash of cables wrapped around his Kai Gun and twisted the weapon towards his head. Two tentacles and a wire ripped the thumb off of his powerfist. A dozen wires strangled his leg. Caius tried to focus his pyschic energy into the various cables and tentacles to melt them, but there were simply too many to destroy. The Sorcerer attempted to focus on his form suddenly shifting in to that of a giant beast of raw energy that simply disintegrated every attack but such a transformation required too much concentration and mental strength to muster while under attack.

At this point a few Daemons were watching the confrontation with interest. One, which appeared as a scale covered shark saw an opening and leapt into the fray. It reared it's ugly maw at Caius and took a massive bite out of his chest, consuming a large chunk of Caius and a dozen or so tentacles and wires from Bane. The Sorcerer went limp from the sheer pain and fell to the ground. Now, instead of facing just Bane, he faced a ravenous Daemon that sought to simply devour his psychic essence and feed off of his soul. This could be the end. "Caius, leave," ordered Bane, shifting his form to that of the Emperor within a matter of seconds. Caius could barely understand him. He didn't want to move. He could barely keep his eyes open. "Leave!" barked Bane. The Shark's mouth twisted into a hidious grin and it lunged at Caius again.

Bane grabbed it mid attack and punched it's midsection. His golden powerfist impaled the Daemon, spraying the majestic form of the Emperor with blood. "Caius, leave!" Bane ordered again. The Shark suddenly changed into a massive, vaguely humanoid figure adorned with massive horns and five triple jointed limbs. It launched a frenzied series of attacks on Bane, cutting at his form wildly with a mixture of scimitars, claws and fangs. Meanwhile another Daemon, this one a Bull headed Squid, saw that Bane was distracted and took his chance. It wrapped its tentacles around Caius and unhinged its jaw as to devour the Sorcerer full. Bane leapt from the strange humanoid and grabbed the squid. Before it could react Bane flung it into the distance and spun around just in time to block a punch from the humanoid. "Caius, leave!"

At this point Caius was slightly recovered and forced himself to focus on the real world and leaving this wretched place. There was a blinding flash of light and then he was sitting on his bunk, drenched in sweat. He smelled blood. The Sorcerer looked down and saw that his physical form was intact. No bite had been taken out of his chest. And furthermore, he didn't have wings or a powerfist. He was himself. "Thank Tzeentch," he gasped. But he noticed the smell of blood. He rubbed his face and realized the corners of his eyes had been bleeding along with his nose and mouth. Evidently that Shark had taken a serious bite out of him.

He looked down and noticed that Bane wasn't glowing. The sword looked normal; just a metal blade and handle. "Bane!" screamed Caius, grabbing the sword and shaking it. "Bane! Bane!"

The sword immediately glowed again and Caius heard a familiar voice say, "Damn vultures. It was obvious that you were my pet soul, not theirs. If it wasn't for this stupid sword I'd have killed both of them. But as long as part of my essence is trapped I'll just have to do. You look terrible."

"A crazy Shark thing ate park of my soul, of course I look terrible," replied Caius. "No more training. From now on I'll just practice using psychic powers in the normal world."

"It didn't eat part of your soul. With souls its usually all or nothing. It either ate all of your soul or none of it. There are a few exceptions, like the Eldar and some other stuff, but generally they eat part of you until they eat all of you and then they've eaten your soul. At best that Shark probably just ate a sliver of your essence.," corrected Bane.

Caius paused and said, "That doesn't make any sense."

"Your world doesn't make any sense to me either."

Despite having just bleed from his eyes and faced death, Caius smiled and said, "I suppose so."



Devram Korda sat in his office, flanked by his two strongest Terminator bodyguards. There was Traianus, his Champion, armed with a Combi Melta and a Lightning Claw, and there was the insane Felix, armed with a chainfist and a heavy flamer. On the table was the wildest assortment of drugs Devram could possibly imagine. Klithian Death Liquor, Chaos Infused Hormagaunt Blood, Zinth Spice, Genetically enhanced Lard Toads, a syringe full of a bubbling red liquid and an assortment of other addictive substances. The mere smell of it was intoxicating. When Lord Commander Domitan arrived he had to be appeased. But, as usual with Emperor's Children, he was extremely late.

Felix broke the silence by asking, "Can I have some?"

"Be quiet," ordered Devram.

The Terminator bowed his helmet. Devram could tell that underneath it Felix was cursing but didn't care. The only thing he cared about was the Emperor's Children arriving. Abaddon had sent him out of the Eye of Terror with the goal of making a distraction to essentially distract soldiers from Cadia. But if he didn't muster up the forces large enough to do that, he would've ruined the mission and wasted Abaddon's time and resources. The Emperor's Children had to arrive. If not... his authority was already questioned by Caius and a growing number of his forces no longer respected him. He would be lucky if he only earned a severe demotion.

With a metallic hiss and a burst of steam the door slid open, revealing the lone form of Lord Commander Domitan. His pink and black armor was adorned with hooks, chains and icons of Slaanesh. On his back was a Doom Siren, capable of turning a simple word into a weapon of mass destruction. In one hand the Lord Commander held a shimmering black Daemon Weapon and in the other was an impressively decorated plasma pistol. But the most intimidating feature of all was Domitan's face. Most Space Marines had a swollen, bald, inhuman face that disturbed mortals. Most Chaos Space Marines somehow looked even worse. But Domitan could've been a model. As the favored of Slaanesh he was bestowed with good looks. A masculine chin, symmetrical nose, deep blue eyes and thick blonde hair made the Lord Commander somehow even more disturbing. "Greetings," he said in a deep voice, reaching out and shaking Devram's hand. "It's been such a long time we've worked together. Congratulations on escaping the Eye. I know most of us prefer it, but I personally find it too... clustered for lack of a better term."

"Agreed," replied Devram. "Come, sit down. We have the usual payment; the blessing of the Black Legion, weapons, servitors and of course this." He gestured towards the pile of drugs on the table. "Not bad, huh?"

Domitan smiled and put away his weapons as he sat down. "Not bad at all. I've brought with me a single squad of what you refer to as Noise Marines, but more are coming. Within three days I'll have seven more squads of soldiers, a predator and two Dreadnoughts. I'm certain our combined forces will gain the attention of the Imperium."

"Yes," said Devram as Domitan picked up the syringe with the bubbling red liquid. "So, umm.... does the agreement... still stand?"

Domitan shoved the needle into the pupil or his eye and pressed down on the syringe. The liquid immediately squirted inside, briefly dying his eye red. The Lord Commander smiled and exhaled violently. "Woooo!" he yelled. "This is good stuff."

"Does the agreement still stand?" asked Devram in the boldest voice he could muster.

The Emperor's Children Lord Commander turned his attention towards Devram and regarded the Black Legionnaire. "Yes," he said in a deep voice. "You assign a person you fear or just can't handle to work alongside me and I kill them and hide it as 'usual drugged out Emperor's Children hijinx.' Are you happy?"

"Don't insult me," replied Devram. "I could have you killed."

"And I could kill you right now." Traianus activated his lightning claw as Felix turned on his chainfist. The two stepped forward to flank Devram and pointed their guns at Domitan. "Come on," the Lord Commander said. "You would really protect this guy? You know, I'm willing to bet my blade is faster than your guns anyways." Domitan drew his Daemon Blade which was now glowing extremely vibrantly. "Wanna find out?"

Devram stood up from his seat and simply stared at the Lord Commander before him. He saw Traianus twitch with fear and couldn't help but notice he was doing the same. "Don't," said Domitan. "Feth with me."

Traianus and Felix deactivated their weapons in fear and stepped back, leaving Devram alone. Lord Commander Domitan sneered. "I'll work with you for now Devram. But you better watch your back. One day Abaddon's going to decide your not his favorite anymore." And with that comment the Commander of the 14th Company left the room.

Very good! As usual

Thanks for the comment Lord of Caliban/ChaosLordSam! As I've said earlier, every comment is encouraging. Also, you need to continue your Black Templar story; it had a really interesting premise. So this part of the story is going to be a really talky one and the next part will be a really fighty one that Devram and Kaglar don't appear in. The end of the overall story is in sight. I'd say it'll be done in 4 to 8 entries.

In one day Caius was to meet with Lord Commander Domitan and see his newfound forces that he "inherited" from Heron. Until then he waited nervously in his room, wondering if Tzeentch was really going to save him or if he had fulfilled his role in Tzeentch's schemes and was no longer necessary. "Cheer up," Bane said. "There's no point in debating fate. The Deciever, Tzeentch and the Laughing God are all competing over the course of reality. Nurgle sometimes mucks things up and Slaanesh on rare occasions seduces things it isn't supposed to. In addition the Emperor was a former contender for the plot of reality and some of his schemes are still coming to fruition, even if hes mostly dead. And don't forget about Alpharius and Omegon. Honestly fate is too complicated to understand and you mortals just hurt your brains if you try to guess it or get scared about it."

"Why did a Sorcerer imprison you in a sword?" asked Caius.

Bane paused and said, "That's unrelated to the subject at hand."

"I'm curious. From what you've said it doesn't seem like the Sorcerer really used you, so why did he do it?"

The Daemon sighed, or did the closest thing a sword telepathically communicating with a human could. "He was Zry'tec'thni'chef, Supreme Sorcerer of the Twisted Void. He was utterly devoted to Tzeentch and had gained extreme power from his deals with the God of Change. He sought Daemon Princedom and believed that if he could imprison Nurgle within a block of Warpstone he would easily gain Princedom and unlimited power. After all, he would've disposed of Tzeentch's greatest direct rival. I was the closest powerful Daemon to him so he decided to summon me to test his ability to enslave Daemons. At first I thought I would be entering one of thousands of battles against the Imperium as usual, but when I saw I was in a lab I knew something was wrong. We entered a battle of raw psychic power. For a time I was winning, but some powerful entity intervened. I'd estimate it was a Changer of Ways. I was defeated and cast into a warpstone sword, part of my essence trapped in the sword like an anchor. The handle wasn't warpstone however so I could reach out a little bit through it via stretching my form for lack of a better term. I figured out I could communicate with however held me, even sometimes controlling them or enhancing psychic powers, as I've done with you."

"What happened to Zryterthinkef or whatever his name was? I mean regarding his experiments and stuff."

"Well, he got pretty close to finding a way to capture Nurgle, but then he got sick and died. Probably not a coincidence," Bane said. "Alright, now it's my turn to ask an annoying question. Why did you turn to Chaos and forsake the so called God Emperor?"

"I was born to a rich family. My father was the Governor of some Hive City. They always taught me about the kindness and power of the Emperor. When I got recruited into the Space Marines, or more specific the Golden Talon Chapter, they further instilled those beliefs. In my very first battle as a Scout I fought some Traitor Guardsmen and we killed them all easily. Now I believed that Space Marines were even more powerful, despite the fact that we outnumbered the tired and battered Guardsmen who barely had a chance. I became a full fledged Space Marine and was about to start training to become a Librarian. In my second battle we fought these metal skeletons called Necrons."

"Go on," Bane said. "I am intrigued. Well, not really, but it sounds like its going to get interesting."

"Shut up. Anyways, they slaughtered us. Those Gauss Beams were unstoppable and the Necrons even moreso. It seemed like when we killed them they'd repair if there was the slightest bit of intact metal left. The only ones I didn't see get up had been killed by meltas, lascannons and powerfists. My squad was getting slaughtered. The Sarge was blown in half and I did the unspeakable for a Space Marine; I fled. I wondered along in the wilderness of a tomb planet for five days. In my desperation I begged for Chaos to save me. It did. A splinter force of the Black Legion, on crusade, arrived one hour later and I was recruited. I later joined this much larger force."



Devram stepped into Kaglar's laboratory alone. His Terminators were temporarily off duty after their cowardice and Elpidius had been dead for days at this point. The Sorcerer was busy pouring potions and stitching up a strange, tentacled creature that had been cleft in two. Kaglar failed to notice him and when Devram said, "Greetings" the Sorcerer leapt in surprise and grabbed his force weapon. "I'm not here to kill you. Now put the weapon down," Devram ordered.

"Of course," stammered Kaglar, dropping his sword and stepping away from the hideous creature on the table. "Umm, greetings Lord Korda."

"My judgement may have been incorrect when I demoted you, seeing as I was later unable to handle Caius myself. I may be impatient and hostile, but I am not a hypocrite. You will assist Lord Commander Domitan with Caius' death. It isn't a coincidence that every Commander that works with him dies. It's part of an agreement we've had for centuries," Devram said. "Once Caius dies you will be reassigned to your former position. Also, you are to do anything Domitan orders. Now, what is that hideous thing that you're working on?"

"Its my apprentice. He's been far too mutated to accept a geneseed or be implanted with a black carapace, but he's intellect and sheer psychic power make up for it. Beyond Caius, myself and the navigator, he's the only psychic on the ship. He was cleft in half by Caius," Kaglar replied. "And thank you my Lord. You will not displeased. Caius will die!"

"Good, now it appears you have your own motive for killing Caius besides my orders," the Lord said.

Parts of this are pretty good and it is full of good ideas. My only criticisms are that the dialogue is kinda bizarre and the character seems to be more of a teenage dropout than a deadly marine.

The daemon blade talks like somekind of stoner dude. Now i like 'colloquial' dialogue and even write it but only when appropriate. Also there is often too much, bear in mind that dialogue is my most frequent criticism of people's work, probably because i like to avoid it in my own writing.

Perkustin wrote:Parts of this are pretty good and it is full of good ideas. My only criticisms are that the dialogue is kinda bizarre and the character seems to be more of a teenage dropout than a deadly marine.

The daemon blade talks like somekind of stoner dude. Now i like 'colloquial' dialogue and even write it but only when appropriate. Also there is often too much, bear in mind that dialogue is my most frequent criticism of people's work, probably because i like to avoid it in my own writing.

Yeah, the dialogue is kind of my weakness. I'll work on that in future parts. Thanks for the comment!

However, I was trying to make the main character seem like an inexperienced loser, though I wasn't aiming for the teenager part. He was pysker Space Marine born to a rich family; essentially extremely lucky and he wasted it. I actually started this story because I was sick of every 40k story having an epic, smart and powerful hero. I wanted a loser who becomes a slave to an extremely casual and pragmatic Daemon and ends up getting drawn into extremely complex and dangerous intrigue.

Ahh, now you explain i kinda see. Sorry for missing that.

Actually, I am working on it right now

Yeah, but you were stiill right about the dialogue part Perkustin. Also I've started to read your fanfic since you've taken the time to read mine. It's a bit long so I'll probably finish it and comment on it tomorrow or the day after that. And Lord of Caliban, I commented on your story in the appropriate thread.

You say that the Warp only leads to Ruin. Yet you fail to mention that the Warp is but a pale reflection of our world. If it leads to ruin, does ours not too?"

~The Arch Heretic Tytheed Komyn at his Execution

Caius walked down the dark hallway, Bane at his side. Cultists stopped to stare and other Marines moved out of his way. News of his encounter with Devram had gotten out and the message was now clear; do not mess with this Sorcerer. For once Caius strolled with confidence. He stopped in front of a circular door and opened it simply with his mind. The Sorcerer stepped inside the hanger and suddenly all of his confidence was lost. "Show no fear," ordered Bane. "This encounter matters more than you could possibly imagine."

"Greetings," said the handsome figure before him. Lord Commander Domitan was at least five inches taller than Caius, which was strange considering most Space Marines were the same size. He was also well armed and incredibly good looking. "We'll be working together on the Assault of Xentex VI's capital, as to draw the attention of Imperials."

"Yes," replied Caius. "I know our mission. Now please excuse me, I have to survey my recently gained troops."

"New commander?" asked Domitan.

"No," lied Caius. "My previous troops were slain on the fields of Cadia. Our fleet has gone in combat since then, so only now am I greeting these soldiers."

The Lord Commander grinned and said, "Cadia is quite the blood bath now. Abaddon's gained control of the majority of its surface, but the Imperial dogs refuse to give way in the skies. Oh well. We've waited 10 millennium for vengeance, we can wait a few more years. I'll go survey those troops with you."

"Ummm, okay," replied Caius, unnerved by Domitan's friendliness. Something seemed off about him. It already wasn't typical for Chaos Space Marines to be friendly or good looking, and especially with Emperor's Children. Caius had once seen a bald, swollen Noise Marine with tubes connecting to his spine in favor of eyes and hot pink armor. The strange sight had stuck with him for a long time. "They're just over there."

The two Commanders walked silently over to the thirty one amassed Chaos Space Marines. They were split into two squads, of fifth-teen and sixteen respectively. Each contained a heavy bolter, melta gun and Sergeant armed with a power sword, along with the usual bolters, chainswords and grenades. A few of the soldiers were mutated, but most were untainted. "Greetings," said Caius. "I am your new Commander. Unfortunately, your previous Commander, Lord Heron fell to my blade. The upcoming combat is simply meant to distract forces from Cadia, rather than win. As a result, most of you will die. We are also working with the Emperor's Children. They will be providing the majority of forces in this assault. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!" they yelled out in unison. The Black Legion was unusually organized for the Traitor Legions and Caius found this extremely apparent as he addressed his troops.

"Impressive," said Domitan. "How loyal were they to their previous commander?"

"Extremely," answered Caius. "When I first killed him Sergeant Vibianus attempted to kill me. It ended badly for him."

"That's something to think about."

"What?" asked Caius.

Domitan, no longer smiling said, "Where their loyalties really lie. Be careful." The Lord Commander turned away and walked off towards his own troops.

"He's just playing games with you and trying to gauge your power," said Bane. "Ignore it."

I was going to write more and get to the point where they're fighting on Xentex VI, but I don't have time. I'll try to add in another entry later today.

Please do!

For a moment Caius stood in front of his newfound troops in silence. He checked his Internal Chronometer; Three minutes until the assault would begin. Normally as a Space Marine a Chaplain or particularly angry Commander would shout about how the enemies were evil and the Space Marines would defeat them all. But as a Commander of a group of troops he had scarcely met before, he was unsure of what to do. Finally he asked, "Which one of you is my new second in command?"

"I am," replied a Sergeant with a power sword, stepping forward from the formation of Marines. "Sergeant Doomclaw at your service."

Caius examined the Marine and said, "No offense, but that's a terrible name. Now, Doomclaw, tell me what Lord Heron usually did before a battle before he met his untimely demise?"

"Heron would speak of the Black Crusades and the Black Legions accomplishments. He would fan our burning hatred and growl prayers to the Chaos Gods," answered Doomclaw. "And Commander, if I may say, the name Doomclaw was gifted to me by the Daemon Prince Dar'leth after a crushed a man's face with my bare hands."

"Alright, thank you for the informative answer Sergeant Doomclaw. You may step back into formation," said Caius. "Now, ahem. I'm going to make a speech."

The Daemon Blade glowed especially vibrantly for a moment and hissed, "What are doing? As far as I'm aware you don't have a speech planned."

"I'm cementing myself as the new Commander," whispered Caius. "I'll improve. You know; make it up as I go along. I just need to use a lot of buzzwords."

"Excuse me Commander," said one Chaos Space Marine with a strange claw in favor of a left leg. "I didn't hear you."

"It's been a long war. It hasn't been easy on any of us. We've all faced our own challenges. There was the Titan Charge in the 1st Black Crusade. The Artillery Barrage of the 9th Black Crusade. The Webway Assault of the 12th Black Crusade. But you know what? Chaos is going to win," said Caius. "We slaughtered the Blood Angels on Mackan. We destroyed the Citadel of Kromarch! We took-" Caius was suddenly interrupted by a series of blaring alarms and flashing red lights. The Chaos Space Marines immediately left formation and rushed toward the Dreadclaw Drop Pods. "What's happening?" asked Caius, grabbing Doomclaw by the shoulder.

"You should know!" yelled Doomclaw over the alarms. "It's time to launch! We're assaulting Kry, Capital Xentex VI! Time to go!"

Caius muttered, "Oh," feeling quite stupid. He immediately began running over to the Dreadclaw Drop Pods alongside his soldiers. Ten soldiers went into each of the first three Dreadclaws. The very last, fourth Dreadclaw only contained two Marines; Caius and Doomclaw, who had stopped to talk and thus were the last to reach them. "Now what?" asked Caius as the alarms continued to blare and the other three Dreadclaws launched.

"You're showing weakness again. Couldn't you find a way to command these soldiers without looking like an idiot?" insulted Bane.

"First you seal the door!" shouted Doomclaw, pulling the hatch doors shut and locking them. "Next you activate the Dreadclaw and the machine spirit will do the rest! Hang on tight! The machine spirit is kind of crazy! Sometimes it'll open the doors and you risk getting jettisoned! Other times it'll just refuse to slow down and kill you when it hits the ground!"

"Can't we steal some loyalist Drop Pods?" Caius yelled as Doomclaw entered in a code on a control panel and pushed a button. Suddenly the Dreadclaw unhinged itself from the Hanger and began to plummet. The Dreadclaw shook violently as it attempted to stabilize itself during the perilous fall. Suddenly the artificial gravity failed, pressing Doomclaw and Caius against the ceiling. "Does this always happen?" Caius asked, adding to his massive list of questions. "No," squeaked Doomclaw. "This isn't good."

Just as quickly as it failed the artificial gravity came back on line, letting Caius and Doomclaw fall to the floor with a loud thump. "These aren't safe," groaned Caius, trying to make his way to one of the safety handles on the side of the walls. Just as he was about to reach it the ship randomly shifted and sent Caius flying into a wall. His helmet barely protected him from a broken nose. The Sorcerer reached for another safety handle and managed to grab it. He turned to see Doomclaw stumbling around in the center of the Dreadclaw, dazed and confused. Once again the vehicle shifted and Doomclaw was sent flying into the wall headfirst. The impact was violent enough to dent his already battered helmet. Doomclaw fell to the floor, dead. "Tzeentch!" screamed Caius in shock, holding onto the safety handle with both hands. "There, now no one will no of your stupidity," said Bane.

"He's dead!" screamed Caius. "Doomclaw was just trying to help me be the new Commander and now he's dead!"

"Caius, do you think he would've remained loyal to you? You acted like an ignorant child, dependent on him for help," replied Bane. "This, though horrific, is for the best."

The Dreadclaw violently stopped, almost causing Caius to let go of the safety handles. It's rusty door popped in, revealing a crumbling cityscape. In front of the Dreadclaw were others with Caius' soldiers pouring from them and screaming bloody praise to Chaos. Across from them were at least fifty Loyalists of the Black Sword Chapter led by a Librarian. Extremely loud Noise Marines were pouring in behind the Loyalists to flank them but the Space Marines were prepared. They had settled into a defensive position, using the cover of the decimated buildings to hide from the assorted bolters and sonic weapons. "What do we do?" asked Caius. "They're too defended and its obvious they're going to or have already called for reinforcements. After all, that's the point of this attack."

"There's only one way to quickly eradicate a foe this entrenched before reinforcements," replied Bane. "Though it may be risky its also effective. A bloody, clumsy, poorly thought out charge. What are you waiting for?"

"Charge!" bellowed Caius, grabbing Bane with a two handed grip and running at the enemy defenses. "Charge!" he screamed again, making his orders clear to his troops. They obeyed, unsheathing chain swords and loading bolt pistols. "For Chaos and Glory!" Caius yelled, attempting to motivate his soldiers. "Charge!" He ran into the line of enemy fire alongside a dozen other Black Legionnaires. Thousands of bolter shells covered the ground as the Loyalists attempted to halt the attack with sheer fire power. A Marine next to Caius was shot in the throat with a sudden gush of blood and fell to the ground. Another was hit in the chest by two rounds and stumbled randomly until he finally collapsed and died. One poor helmetless Black Legionnaire was shot through the eye. He died quickly, but managed to let out a high pitched scream before hand. A shot hit Caius in the chest but thankfully failed to penetrate his armor. However the next bolt to hit Caius did just that.

It hit the thinly armored abdomen region next to a series of exposed cabling. The bolt managed to shattered the ceramite and break its way inside Caius' gut. Then, as all bolts did, it exploded, sending shrapnel into the Sorcerer's assorted digestive organs and lungs. Caius fell to his knees, coughing and groaning. Some blood drizzled out of his mouth and dripped onto the dusty cement bellow him. He gasped for air and felt as though he could barely breath. "Get up," ordered Bane as Marines rushed past Caius into the line of fire. Some were beginning to turn back now, realizing how dangerous the assault was for both side. "Can't," gargled Caius. He coughed up more blood and felt his ruined abdomen. "You are an esteemed Sorcerer of the Black Legion, Chosen of Tzeentch and User of Bane. You slew the Plague Lord Ebolias and the Warrior Elpidius. Stand up."

Caius forced himself to stand and slowly breathed in. "Good," said Bane. "Now, you are going to order your men to charge once again and kill any who disobey. And then you will join the charge yourself and the loyalists will pay. Do it."

"Charge!" bellowed Caius at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the battlefield. A light spray of blood came from his mouth but he didn't care. The Sorcerer reached out his hand and obliterated one of the fleeing Warriors with a bolt a of lightning. He turned towards another fleeing Marine. and ran at him, swinging Bane wildly. The Black Legionnaire didn't stand a chance and was quickly decapitated. "Anyone else?" asked Caius. "Charge!"

And with that Caius ran at the Loyalists once again with his men doing the same. Once again the Loyalists launched a volley of fire at the assault, but the Emperor's Children took advantage of the lack of firepower their own way and started their own charge. The overwhelmed Black Sword Librarian was frantically calling for some of the squads to divert fire to the Emperor's Children in an attempt to hold the drug fulled warriors off as well. "Death to the False Emperor!" yelled Caius, caught up in the frenzy of battle. "Death to the False Emperor! Death to the False Emperor!" His soldiers were joining in and Caius felt further empowered. Finally, he reached the enemy.

The Sorcerer fired a lightning bolt into a group of Veterans, destroying one of them, before leaping over a broken section of wall into them. "Death to the False Emperor!" he yelled, impaling one of the Black Sword Marines on his sword. He laughed venomously and swung around to face the other four. One fired a glowing Meltagun at Caius but barely missed and hit the wall instead. It was instantly vaporized. The Veteran Sergeant activated a lightning claw and slashed at the Sorcerer but Bane blocked it and sent a surge of energy into the weapon, causing the glowing claws to melt into slag. The other two Veterans tried to rush Caius, one firing a frenzy of bolter shots while the other swung a power weapon. Caught in melee with the Sergeant the Sorcerer was unable to dodge. A bolter shot penetrated his shin armor and exploded, damaging the muscle and bone. Meanwhile the power sword slashed across his chest, further wounding his lungs.

Just as all seemed lost a squad of six Black Legionnaires charged the Veterans. "Protect the Sorcerer!" ordered the Sergeant, slaying a Veteran with his power axe. "And Death to the False Emperor!" Caius reached out his hand and sent a blast of raw warp energy into the disarmed Loyalist Sergeant and watched his body mutate and morph until it was simply a shrieking mass of muscle and talons. "Kill them all!" hissed Bane. "Charge! Slay them all! I thirst for blood! I demand blood!"

The Sorcerer obeyed. He ran on a broken leg and breathed on a collapsed lung, charging into a squad of hapless Scouts. There was no need for reinforcements this time; he could kill these Neopytes on his own. Their cumbersome Sniper Rifles were useless against him in frenzied melee. Each one was easily downed by Bane, the sword glowing more vibrantly than ever before. One was bisected, another decapitated and a third impaled. It was madness. Caius was soaked in blood and could scarcely tell what was going on in the overall battle. It was a simply a claustrophobic mess. But he didn't care. After countless years of being a weakling he was powerful. He was no longer cannon fodder or a plaything. He was a Sorcerer of the Black Legion, a Chosen of Tzeentch and he was God. "Death to the False Emperor!" he screamed.

It's fun to write for Caius going out of control and getting high on his own power. The battle will continue in the next entry, which will either come tomorrow or the day after tomorrow depending on how much I feel like writing. Comments are appreciated. Oh yeah and I have a question for you readers; what do you think of Domitan and Devram? Cause I pretty much have a vague plan for the rest of the story but I'm wondering how important they should be to it. Are the parts about them annoying and poorly written or are they an interesting break from Caius and Bane?

Looking good!

Sabet wrote:Looking good!

Thanks for the comment. As I've said earlier, even the slightest comment encourages me!

However my latest entry probably wasn't as the same quality as the others considering the Lord of Caliban (who normally comments on every entry) didn't comment and EagleArk (who posted he was looking forward to this entry) didn't comment. I'll try to make next one, which I'll post later today, better.

.

Im sorry, i was very busy last night and didnt have time to really check dakka. I loved it, but this bit confueses me.

LoneLictor wrote:Just as quickly as it failed the artificial gravity came back on line, letting Caius and Doomclaw fall to the floor with a loud thump. "These aren't safe," groaned Caius, trying to make his way to one of the safety handles on the side of the walls. Just as he was about to reach it the ship randomly shifted and sent Caius flying into a wall. His helmet barely protected him from a broken nose. The Sorcerer reached for another safety handle and managed to grab it. He turned to see Doomclaw stumbling around in the center of the Dreadclaw, dazed and confused. Once again the vehicle shifted and Doomclaw was sent flying into the wall headfirst. The impact was violent enough to dent his already battered helmet. Doomclaw fell to the floor, dead. "Tzeentch!" screamed Caius in shock, holding onto the safety handle with both hands. "There, now no one will no of your stupidity," said Bane.

The first bit reads that caius nearly gets a broken nose, but then doomclaw dents his allread battered helmet, to me the first thing i thought was that caius was the one denting his helmet, anyway, there are pieces of genius in the piece, such as that piece of dialouge from bane. Well done!

EagleArk wrote:Im sorry, i was very busy last night and didnt have time to really check dakka. I loved it, but this bit confueses me.

LoneLictor wrote:Just as quickly as it failed the artificial gravity came back on line, letting Caius and Doomclaw fall to the floor with a loud thump. "These aren't safe," groaned Caius, trying to make his way to one of the safety handles on the side of the walls. Just as he was about to reach it the ship randomly shifted and sent Caius flying into a wall. His helmet barely protected him from a broken nose. The Sorcerer reached for another safety handle and managed to grab it. He turned to see Doomclaw stumbling around in the center of the Dreadclaw, dazed and confused. Once again the vehicle shifted and Doomclaw was sent flying into the wall headfirst. The impact was violent enough to dent his already battered helmet. Doomclaw fell to the floor, dead. "Tzeentch!" screamed Caius in shock, holding onto the safety handle with both hands. "There, now no one will no of your stupidity," said Bane.

The first bit reads that caius nearly gets a broken nose, but then doomclaw dents his allread battered helmet, to me the first thing i thought was that caius was the one denting his helmet, anyway, there are pieces of genius in the piece, such as that piece of dialouge from bane. Well done!

Thanks. I assume your referring to the part where Caius is shot and Bane forces him to keep fighting. Also I'll start editting my entries more throughly so there are less confusing parts like that.

So, I apparently lied about how I was going to post another entry yesterday, but I'm 99% certain I'm not lying when I say I'll post a new entry today.

looking foward to the next installment. will it depict the battle between caius and domitan?

Sabet wrote:looking foward to the next installment. will it depict the battle between caius and domitan?

I think Caius and Domitan will finally enter a confrontation in 1 to 3 entries depending on how much I write. I'm going to write a new entry as so I was get through my writer's block.

Domitan surveyed the battlefield with a grin. His Noise Marines were posistioned in key locations behind cover and atop buildings, firing down at the Loyalists with their lethal music. The Sorcerer's reckless charge had broken the Black Sword Position and given Domitan's men a huge advantage. Though the Black Swords had refused to retreat, like all Loyalists would, they had been forced out of their cover and into the open streets. The only clear threat remained the Librarian who, along with his Command Squad and Company Champion, had remained behind cover and decimated Black Legionnaires with ranged and psychic attacks. Nevertheless Domitan was confident that the Sorcerer would handle him and he didn't intervene. "Now would be a good time to kill him," said Kaglar, pointing at Caius. The Sorcerer looked like a tiny spec from atop the sky scraper.

"What?" asked Domitan, turning towards Kaglar.

"He's out in the open chasing around scouts. Order your Noise Marines to focus their Sonic Weaponry on him and that will be the end of that. You can tell his soldiers he was killed by friendly fire or something else equally idiotic."

The Lord Commander scowled and said, "There's no point in killing him so... tastelessly. This universe is essentially a string of sensual experiences and to pass down certain sensual experiences would be a disgrace. It has been a long time since I've been in a thrilling fight. In fact, I almost killed Devram just to see how much he would try to save his own skin. But Caius is a powerful psyker and a skilled swordsman. I want to best him in man to man combat and I want to make him hurt."

"This may be a game for you Domitan, but it isn't for me. My rank is on the line. If you wanted to do things the inefficient way you shouldn't have agreed to work with the Black Legion," Kaglar boomed. "Kill him now."

Domitan pivoted on his heel as to face Kaglar directly and grabbed the Sorcerer's neck. "I was not aware you were in command of the mission," Domitan hissed, tightening his grip. "But if you would like to wager it, you gladly can. Would you bet your life on it?"

"You're...." choked out Kaglar. "...insane."

"We do this my way. Do you understand?"

Kaglar paused, but as Domitan tightened the grip further he said, "Yes!"

The Lord Commander dropped Kaglar, letting the Sorcerer fall limp. "Good. We don't kill Caius now, but soon. His days are numbered."



Caius roared, slashing across a Marine's chest with Bane. Another Marine tried to attack his left flank but the Sorcerer dodged his attack and impaled his bald head. He heard the sword cackle; it was evident that Bane enjoyed the carnage. One Marine with a plasma gun aimed it at the Sorcerer, but Caius easily disintegrated the weapon and the Marine with his mind. A Marine Sergeant, armed with a power mace, charged towards Caius, intent on ending the Sorcerer's life. In response Bane briefly took control of Caius and ducked under the weapon and then cleft the Marine in half with an uppercut attack. Caius let Bane possess him. He was too high on bloodlust to care.

When Bane gave control back to Caius, the Sorcerer searched for a new target. The battlefield was running dry with both sides having taken heavy causalities but Caius saw one; the Librarian. He and his Command Squad were hiding in the wrecked corner of a factory near surrounded by piles of rubble and corpses. Even in the Sorcerer's bloodlust, he still knew he couldn't hope to face the Command Squad alone. After the incident with the Veterans he had begun to realize he wasn't quite as invincible as he thought he was. "Men!" he yelled. "Kill the Librarian! Make him suffer!"

And with that comment Caius charged, running at the Librarian and screaming death to the Imperium. A lascannon barely missed him but he didn't care. Eight or so Chaos Space Marines were obeying Caius' orders and running at the Command Squad. The Librarian reached out with his hand towards two incoming Legionnaires. Bolts of lightning leapt from his armored gauntlet and onto the heretics. One Marine was entirely incinerated and another horribly burned. "Codicier Severianus," said a Marine. "Two ships, the Geryon and the Redemption, have responded to our distress signal and exciting Cadia's orbit."

Caius noted that the mission was already a success, distracting important soldiers from Cadia. But the true victory was yet to come. "Severianus!" screamed Caius, trying to get the Librarians's attention. He leapt off of a pile of rubble at the group, Bane readied. For a moment Caius thought the Librarian would be too slow, but at the last second he swiveled around and brought his force sword up as to block the attack. Bane hit the forcesword with a resounding clank, sending both Caius and his sword tumbling backwards. The Sorcerer fell prone atop a pile of corpses and shattered bricks. Without hesitation the Severianus reversed the grip on his force sword and brought it down towards Caius. Caius tucked his limbs in and rolled, just barely missing the weapon. "Fight off the Traitor Legionnaires!" yelled the Librarian, risking a glance back at his own men. "I'll kill the Sorcerer myself!"

Caius leapt to his feet and roared as he charged at Severianus once again. This time he was prepared though. He launched a weak, quick psychic attack to distract the Librarian while he moved in for the kill. Severianus easily blocked the attack and suddenly found Caius directly in front of him with his sword raised. He blocked the weapon with his own sword and the duel began. Caius was a mass whirl wind of biting steel, lashing out wildly and attacking from every angle. However Severianus was disciplined and well trained, knowing how to supplement his own attacks and parries with easy psychic boosts that required little concentration.

"Kill him!" growled Bane, helping Caius and empowering the Sorcerer's own attacks with raw psychic energy.

Suddenly the Librarian switched from a two handed grip to a one handed one and grabbed Bane with his spare arm. With his other arm Severianus swung at Caius, forcing the Sorcerer to let go of Bane in order to jump away and save his skin. This wasn't good.



He felt the delectable blood and soul essence, devouring it ravenously. When he had first joined Caius in what felt like a long time ago, this had been the chief item he had asked as for payment. It was finally supplied. Bane noted he was now seeing from a different perspective and realized that he was looking at the tumbling, prone form of Caius. The pathetic Sorcerer must have let go of him. But that left the question of whose eyes he was seeing from and by extension who was holding him. Oh dear. Without hesitation Bane launched into a mad attack, using every unchained part of his psychic essence to attack the Librarian's mind. "I am Prince Venombane the Eternal and I am your doom!" he roared at the climax of the attack, ripping into the Librarian's soul. The Librarian fought back, pummeling at the Daemon with a rapid set of psychic blows. Each was too fast and powerful to dodge or ignore. He tried to get around them so he could once again attack the soul, but was hit back once again.

Now he was pushed inside the sword and the Librarian was coming through the hilt, deadset on his destruction. But in the claustrophobic space Severianus had little room for his massive, unwieldy attacks he had been using Bane tried to capitalize on this by launching a sudden flurry of feints, slashes and stabs, determined to weaken him down. Instead he was grabbed by his metaphorical throat with a sudden grapple and pushed against the warpstone walls of his sword. "Die wretched Daemon!" yelled a towering voice. And it appeared he just might be forced to obey.



Caius searched his armor for his forcesword; it had to be somewhere. The Sorcerer hoped he hadn't lost it in the battle or even forgotten to bring it in the first place. "Come on!" he yelled, now searching the rubble covered ground. He glanced at the Librarian; he was standing deathly still with Bane in his grip. The sword wasn't glowing very brightly anymore. Now it was a faint, vaguely purple glow that flickered occasionally. That wasn't good at all. The Sorcerer realized he had to act quickly. He fired a vibrant lightning bolt at the Librarian, who tensed his muscles briefly and managed to block it. During that half second Bane glowed bright red again, but as soon as it was over he immediately flickered and started to dim again.

He remembered a quote from his father. "A good friend is worth dying for." Caius wasn't quite sure if a Daemon that was probably manipulating him just to escape a sword counted as a friend, but he sure felt like one. He took a deep breath and screamed, "Death to the False Emperor!" With that comment Caius charged at Severianus for the third time in the fight, now unarmed and demoralized but no less ferocious. He leapt onto the Librarian and tackled him, sending the two off them plummeting to the ground in a heap of bricks. Severianus growled from the impact and dropping Bane, while maneuvering his forcesword. He stabbed it at Caius, impaling the Sorcerer's abdomen on the glowing weapon. Now all the Librarian needed to was focus his psychic energy on the wound and that would be that.

Caius, fueled by pure adrenaline and raw psychic power, saw things differently. He channeled his own psychic energy through the sword and sent it directly into the Librarian's arm. The arm crackled with lightning and writhed with mutations before exploding in small shower of gore and warpflame. Caius grabbed Bane and shoved the Daemon Sword into Severianus' throat. As the Librarian finally died, Caius crawled off of the Librarian and fell limp onto the ground. Having been shot by a bolter, slashed by a power sword, shot by another bolter and now impaled by a forcesword, Caius didn't feel so good. "Thanks," casually said Bane, easily recovering from the ordeal. "For once you saved me from death, rather than vice versa." Caius threw up a sticky mixture of vomit and blood and then fell unconscious.

LoneLictor wrote:Caius through up a sticky mixture of vomit and blood and then fell unconscious.

might want to fix that...

Sabet wrote:

LoneLictor wrote:Caius through up a sticky mixture of vomit and blood and then fell unconscious.

might want to fix that...

Thanks, I must've missed that well I was editting.

Oh, great part, we want MORE! Can you post another tonight? Sorry to pressure you, but when you make such an amazing story, you have to write more!

we want MOAR!!!

so far the story =

Lol, it's very late at night where I live right now so unless I'm unable to fall asleep until 2:00 AM again I probably won't write again until tomorrow. Thanks for the comments, they are extremely encouraging.

Oh yeah and I have to comment that Domitan, during that brief dialogue, was very fun to write for. Its fun to take the perspective of an insane sense freak.

Hmm, question, how powerfull do you see bane? He is a 10000 year old daemon, could he really be overpowered by a librarian that easily? Anyway, who is bane aligned to? I think it is tzeench, but could you confirm, ta. (story was great by the way)

EagleArk wrote:Hmm, question, how powerfull do you see bane? He is a 10000 year old daemon, could he really be overpowered by a librarian that easily? Anyway, who is bane aligned to? I think it is tzeench, but could you confirm, ta. (story was great by the way)

As for alignment Bane is partially chaos undivided, but due to his ambition and ego he's leaning towards Tzeentch. I actually thought of that when I first starting writing, I didn't expect anyone to notice it lol. Also, in terms of power Bane is far stronger than the average psyker, but he was severely weakened by getting put in the sword. He doesn't like to admit it though. Thanks for the comment, there will be in between 1 and 2 new entries today.

Ah, I found the perfect model for Bane, please make a part in Bane's perspective!

Sorry it took me so long to write. A pet died so I didn't write that day because I was said. I was planning on writing the next day but I lost my momentum until I finally forced myself to write today. This part is mostly from the perspective of the disturbing Domitan since Caius is unconscious, but there are three paragraphs from the perspective of Bane.

Domitan grabbed a pair of binoculars and gazed down at the prone form of Caius. He was writhing somewhat and still clutching his glowing force weapon (even in his pain he seemed to still be channeling psychic energy into it for some bizarre reason). A series of bloody wounds doted his body with the worst as a massive hole in his stomach from a Force Weapon. The Sorcerer had somehow managed to survive the attack, but was by no means unscathed. The Lord Commander put the binoculars done and turned toward his Lieutenant Varin. "Are Loyalist Reinforcements coming in yet?" he hissed impatiently. "The Black Legion has taken the bulk of the attack, but nevertheless I cannot afford as many losses as they can. I do not have the favor of Abaddon to rely on."

"Scanners indicate that two ships are possibly moving away from Cadia in our general direction, but its too early to tell. We'll probably have a more accurate report within five minutes," answered Varin. The pale Lieutenant was a hideous thing and it was apparent he wasn't quite as favored as Domitan. He had a strange speaker in favor of a mouth that gave his jaw and throat a bloated appearance. For eyes he had two artificial scanners; one looked like the massive compound eye of a bug wear as the other was a sunken yellow light emerged from a cluster of circuits and wires. The top of his bald head was swarming with wires so that from a distance it looked a little bit like he had slick black hair. "In my opinion reinforcements are already probably arriving and it would be safe to leave, my Lord."

"And if the ships do not arrive the Black Legion may refuse to pay us. We'll continue to wait until we're certain that the ships are arriving. Alert me when we gain any real news," ordered Domitan. "In the meantime, I must not allow the Sorcerer to die." Domitan unsheathed his Daemon Sword and stepped inside the elevator.



The mortal was moaning and squirming, clearly hampered by his injuries. His bloodlust gone, he now truly felt pain. Bane examined the wounds carefully, checking each one as best he could in both the visual and psychic spectrum. It was difficult to get a clear image, but Bane could see enough to tell approximately how bad each injury was. His shin was fine. Blood was still getting through to his foot, which meant it wouldn't die and have to be amputated. In addition the Larraman's Organ was clotting the blood in the actual injury extremely quickly, which meant blood loss wasn't an issue. In fact, if the shell was the wound, the injury would probably heal by itself in just a few weeks due to Caius' superhuman nature. The next injuries were in Caius' gut. His intestines, stomach, bladder and one kidney were essentially ruined. Already damaged by a bolt, they had been rendered even worse by the force weapon. However the Larraman's organ was doing its job here as well and bloodloss wasn't an issue. The only real problems would be eating, which Caius did not need to do right now.

However, the real issue were Caius' lungs. The power weapon had slashed them open and let them fill with blood before the Larraman's Organ could jump into action, seeing as it was already overwhelmed by the other wounds. To make things worse the force weapon had practically destroyed the bottom tips of the organs, rendering things even worse. Caius could barely inhale or exhale, seeing as most of the air just spilled out of the various wounds in his lungs. Ultimately, unless treated, this would be the doom of Caius. Bane psychically tapped into Caius' brain and tried to jump start. The Sorcerer briefly stirred, but fell back into slumber. He was barely getting any oxygen and there certainly wasn't enough to keep him awake. Once again Bane tried to jump start his brain, this time harder and faster. Caius still remained asleep.

Suddenly the Sorcerer writhed strongly and began to stretch and writhe his limbs. "Caius, stop!" yelled Bane, but it was too late. He slipped out of Caius' limp hand and rolled alongside him. Now he was deaf, blind and alone. This was not good. Bane forgot about Caius and focused on his first priority; himself. If he was left on the battlefield, it would the same as the time when he was thrown out of an airlock and drifted in space for two hundred and fifty six years; buried alive. As when Heron had died, he glowed as brightly as possible and hoped to attract the attention of looters or other Chaos Space Marines. Anything was better than this.



Domitan ran through the incoming fire, slicing any Marine that came too close to him with his venomous blade. It hissed and vibrated, seeking more blood and soul essence. The thing was pummeling against the warpstone walls of its prison, especially the handle and tip. The Lord Commander ignored it, as he had learned to do many centuries ago. If you caved in just once or let the Daemon have one thing, it instantly acknowledged itself as the Master of its owner and demanded more and more. Talking ones were even worse, as they had a habit of refusing to shut up if they particularly wanted something.

One Marine with a meltagun leapt in front of Domitan and screamed, "For the Emperor!" as he let off a massive glowing shot. It hit Domitan, scorching his armor and destroying his fur coat, but out of luck, the favor of Slaanesh or sheer the fate the weapon failed to injure him. The Marine rubbed the visual sensors of his helmet in disbelief just before he was cleaved down by the Lord Commander with a brief spurt of blood. "Hail Slaanesh!" cried out Domitan, continuing to rush towards Caius. He briefly contemplated that he was saving his own enemy just so that he could kill him later, but disregarded the thought. Everything came down to sensual experiences, not so called logic or reason. Such things were the tools of scared men who preferred to hide in fear rather than go out and live life.

Finally he reached Caius and the dead Librarian next to him. The Chaos Space Marine was no longer writhing or choking and Domitan feared the worst. If Caius died, he would kill Kaglar right now just to see if it would be an entertaining fight. He knelt down and began removed his ancient helmet. He unlocked the various connections, withdrew it from the black carapace and deactivated its connection to the rest of the armor. Finally, the helmet slid off. Underneath was a bald, scarred man with two wires running from the back of his head to his armor. His mouth and nose were caked in dried blood. Domitan put his index finger against the Sorcerer's throat, feeling for a pulse, rasp or any sort of movement. He felt something. "He's alive," muttered Domitan.

As the Lord Commander stood up and put Caius over his shoulder, he noted the Sorcerer's sword was still glowing, despite it's disconnection from Caius. This wasn't a force weapon. Domitan sheathed his Daemon weapon as to have a free hand and bent down to pick it up. "Greetings," said a deep voice.

As I've said at least a hundred times before, comments are appreciated a lot. Also, I didn't have time to edit this, so I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors. I'll edit it later.

.

Thanks. Writing helps cause it distracts me. It takes my full attention to write.

Sorry to be nitpicky

LoneLictor wrote:write that day because I was said

Good story though, looking forward to the next segment.

Great, i liked banes anecdote, it amused me, and anyway the rest of the writing was great and domitans reaction to caius`s injury was good. Well done.

Thanks for the comments. I'll post a new entry later today.

Caius awoke on a lumpy bed, his head spinning from painkiller fueled dreams. He rubbed his face and groaned before forcing himself to look down at his injuries. His chest was covered in bandages and stitches, as was his shin. There was a bulky oxygen mask on his face and his chest and wrists were covered in wires and IVs. On a small table beside him lay Bane, evidently having been placed there by someone. He prayed they hadn't discovered what kind of "force sword" he really was. A Chaos serving Magos Biologist, a bald human Doctor and a buzzing Servitor observed him. "Wha?" groggily asked Caius, reaching out towards Bane. The Doctor gently grabbed his arm and put it back on his lap. "Don't move," he grated, revealing sharp metal teeth. "You are in an extremely unstable condition for a 95.56% organic," said the Biologist, gesturing toward Caius with a bionic yet tentacle infused arm. "Moving increases your chance of complications from your injuries."

"Complications?" stuttered Caius. "Am I okay?"

"We gave you a lot of painkillers, you aren't thinking clearly," the Doctor pointed out. "Please, just sit still. While Magos Kharl examines your wounds I'll just ask you a few questions. Answer them as honestly as possible."

Kharl took a step forward and removed a large bandage, revealing a bloody, fleshy mess barely held together by an assort of stitches and more bandages underneath. Parts of his abdomen had been replaced with strange artificial sections of digestive tracks. Caius screamed and the Magos immediately upped his painkiller dosage. "He's panicking," said the Biologist. "Patient Caius do not panic."

"Well of course," said the Doctor. "But now he's higher than a Noise Marine in a medication facility. He won't be able to answer anything at all. In fact, anymore and we risk an OD."

"Doctor Antonius, we must examine the wounds. He may be bleeding out or have become infected. He may be dying right now. Without proper drug administration he will be too panicked for us to do that," Kharl said. He started poking Caius' abdomen with a small metal finger and sifting through the mess.

Caius' eyes widened. "Dying?"

Antonius scowled and said, "Listen to me! He could have brain damage or some sort of ailment deep inside that we can only learn about by asking him! We need to talk to him and we can't do that when he's too doped up."

"Brain damage?"

"Doctor Antonius, we must examine the wounds," the Magos repeated without the slightest hint of emotion. The thing was barely human anymore. "Those complications you listed are less likely to kill him immediately. We must focus on immediate dangers."

"Somebody talk to me!" yelled Caius, bending upright and grabbing Bane. "Somebody tell me what's going on or you both get it! Understand?"

The Doctor paused and said, "Well, the Lungs were the biggest threat but also the simplest. They're patched up. We're only giving you pure oxygen now because they're still recovering, but I would say you'll be back to normal in a few hours. Your shin is okay as well. We replaced part of the bone with metal and had to fix up a few nerves, but once the cuts heal it'll be good as new. Your abdomen is the biggest problem."

"Your spleen, left kidney, right kidney, stomach, bladder and diaphragm suffered minor damage. Your small intestine and large intestine suffered major damage. Your spleen, right kidney, stomach and diaphragm have all been fully repaired. Your left kidney, bladder and large intestine have all been partially repaired. Your small intestine has not yet had major repairs," Kharl said. "You have stayed at this Medical Facility for 12.56 hours. It is estimated your overall stay will be 48 hours."

"Your all messed up but you'll probably be mostly okay," said Bane, offering his own medical opinion.

This is just a short update to advance the plot. Next update (which will be in the next 0 to 3 days) he gets out of the Medical Facility and one of the biggest plot related things is going to happen.

.

A bigger plot thing is coming up in the next update also.

"He has a Daemon Blade," said Domitan, leaning back in his chair. "Its not a Force Weapon, its a Daemon Blade. It's also one of the more powerful ones. The hilt isn't warpstone which allows it a lot more access to our material world than most Daemons Blades. It can even speak telepathically to whoever holds it, among other things."

"What?" asked Devram, eyes widening.

"Well, its clearly on his side and it seems like its been trying to hide itself as a Force Weapon so it isn't taken away from him. But that's just guess work. Was there anyone in your fleet with a Daemon weapon who was slain?" the Lord Commander questioned.

Devram paused. "The policy was that I was to supplied with any Daemon weapon, due to sheer value. We couldn't have some grunt running around with it. However, I believe Lord Heron may have had one. During one mission we made a deal that he would gain possession over any items found in the Chaos Temple. If there was a Daemon Weapon in there, it would be his."

"Caius went from the Rank of a Chaos Spawn to an esteemed Sorcerer in a single day when he reportedly slew Chapter Master Felix, Lord Heron and Sergeant Vibianus in a single day."

Kaglar suddenly spoke up. "And when he attacked me, he channeled the psychic attack through his sword! I didn't think anything of it then, but..."

"He killed Elpidius with the sword," said a resentful Devram. "So, its not Caius that's the real threat. Its that sword."

"Exactly," Domitan replied. He smirked. "I even spoke to the sword. Its name is 'Prince Venombane the Eternal' and it's twenty thousand years old."

"Alright, Caius is in the hospital ward. All we need to do is pick up the sword with a pair of very long tongs and throw it out the airlock."

Suddenly Domitan scowled and leaned forward. "No," he hissed. "As I told Kaglar before, we do this my way. You hired me to kill him and that's what I'll do. We fight one on one, fairly. Both of us uninjured and well equipped, each with our Daemon Blades. That's how it'll happen."

"Very well," muttered Devram. He looked at Traianus and Kaglar, realizing how weak he looked. Eventually Domitan would pay for his arrogance just as Caius would. In the fight one of them would die and the other would be injured and alone, just waiting to be finished off. He grinned underneath his helmet.



"Domitan saved me?" asked Caius. "Really?"

"And me," Bane answered. "He brought both of us to the Medical Ward and killed at least a dozen loyalists along the way."

"He's on my side," the Sorcerer said, leaning back. "This is great. Devram really messed up. He's on my side."

"And he also knows that I'm not a Force Weapon, which means he could screw us over at any time with a simple conversation with Devram. I wouldn't trust him if I were you. He's completely insane. Domitan doesn't think rationally and I'm not even sure if he could if he tried."

"Oh. Is there anything we can do?"

"Kill him," answered Bane. "He may have already told Devram, but if not the information die with him. In addition it will greatly boost your reputation and possibly your rank."

"He saved my life!" yelled Caius. "We can't kill him just because he stumbled onto our secret!"

"We had this conversation before Caius, back when we were catching Ebolias. Some have to die for others to live. The world has never been a peaceful place and it won't suddenly become one over night if you decide to become a pacifist. In fact, you'll probably get killed and make it even more violent."

"But we don't even know if he's going to kill us! Alright, I'm fine with killing. In fact, it was really fun killing those Black Sword Loyalists. Sometimes it's okay to kill things, but sometimes it isn't. I'm only killing Domitan if he attacks me. He saved my life for Tzeentch's sake!"

"Alright, I can't force you to do anything you don't want to," sighed Bane.

Caius suddenly yelled, "Yes you can! You can possess me! But I don't want you to, okay? You need me and if you make me kill him, I'll hand you over to Kaglar or something. I'm sure that crazy, old Sorcerer who constantly sucks up to Devram will definitely be a fun owner!"

"Ugh, fine. Someday, when Domitan attacks you, you'll realize I was right. And then I will kill him."

This is a very dialogue heavy one that's focused on building up the fight between Domitan and Caius. Comments are appreciated.

I want to see some action.This is a fantastic story,but large parts are very calm.Hope you get some more done soon!

Deadshot wrote:I want to see some action.This is a fantastic story,but large parts are very calm.Hope you get some more done soon!

Thank you for the comment. There will be lots of action next time. I'm planning on updating it later today, but I'm pretty busy so I might not get to it until tomorrow.

I love this story.It is better than Fulgrim,I can terll you that.Maybe you should work for Black Library?Become a Librarian

This is awesome.You have created the unspeakable.A cowardly Space Marine.Well done!

Deadshot wrote:

I love this story.It is better than Fulgrim,I can terll you that.Maybe you should work for Black Library?Become a Librarian

This is awesome.You have created the unspeakable.A cowardly Space Marine.Well done!

Thanks, that's really encouraging. My goal is to become a "real" writer so working for the Black Library might be a good idea. And thanks about the comment regarding a cowardly Space Marine. I was trying to make him still a Space Marine, but weak and afraid at the same time.

.

Hey, great writing here, but a question, would bane of spoken to domitan? Surely he would of tried to stay silent espescially when he could see how crazy he is, and anyway, nice touch with the false name!

EagleArk wrote:Hey, great writing here, but a question, would bane of spoken to domitan? Surely he would of tried to stay silent espescially when he could see how crazy he is, and anyway, nice touch with the false name!

Thanks. Also, regarding the conversation between Bane and Domitan, I was originally going to write it, rather than skip over it. Originally Bane wouldn't know who picked him up and would say "Greetings" and then realize it was Domitan. He would've shut up for a bit, but Domitan would've said he knew he was a Daemon Blade and eventually they would have their conversation. Ultimately I didn't write up the conversation because I wasn't exactly sure what they would talk about and also writing a conversation between a completely insane drug addict and a diabolical Daemon Sword wouldn't be exactly easy.

Also, since I have nothing to do today whatsoever (Yippee!) I'll definitely write a new entry today.

Fantastic.I will get an e-mail about it,so I won't miss it.You are a bit behind in time,(Muttering,doing the calculations)...


I am going to need coffee.




About that last post,up untill now it seemed really professional.Writers don't write down every last word.They leave bits out,so the reader can speculate.Talking about it just kinda brought it down.

Nothing to do with you,or the story.I just don't like watching the bonus "The Making of The Daemon Blade",DVD,that comes with box sets.You know what I mean?

Summerising,you made the right choice,but for the wrong reasons.Still,good job.

New entry! I forced myself to write. And thanks Deadshot, lol. I'm not a perfect writer; I realized I probably wouldn't be able to pull off the scene so I just didn't do it.

Caius slowly bent up and stepped out of the hospital bed. His chest was sore and numb. "Careful," said Antonius. "It'll be a few hours before you can move normally again."

"At least I'll be able to move at all," said Caius, taking a stiff step forward. "You were talking about complications early. Am I going to have any long term complications?"

"Well, your lungs aren't as good as they used to be. They're still stronger than the average none Astartes' of course, but you may sometimes fell hard of breath. This shouldn't be too much of a problem. The other thing is eating. Quite frankly, you don't have much of a digestive system anymore. We gave you an extremely poor substitute for one. As a result, instead of eating, you'll drink these." The Doctor handed Caius a syringe full of a thick, pale fluid. "We'll give you a briefcase with 21 one of them. Drink 3 a day. If you need any refills, ask."

Caius gulped it down and sighed. "I'll miss eating. Also, why are you treating me so well? Most patients here get ignored and die; no offense."

"You're a Commander," said Antonius. "We can't afford to piss high up people like you off." The Sorcerer grinned.



Sergeant Zethnix examined the Black Legionnaires around him with a scowl. Just three days ago there had been 31 of them and now there was exactly 10 when he included himself. The Sorcerer Caius had butchered them while the Emperor's Children, remained unscathed. "Don't worry," Kaglar had told him. "Caius' reign is nearing its end. All you have to do is not defend him when the time comes and you'll all be rewarded greatly." As if Kaglar even needed to say that. Caius had sent them off on a suicidal charge and casually executed anyone with the common sense to disobey.

A hatch door fell open and there stood the Sorcerer. His armor had been quickly repaired, but the paint job had been ruined and most of the decorative symbols, chains and runes were gone. He was still holding that force sword of his. Most Sorcerers were content to let it turn off when they weren't in combat, but Caius seemed bloodthirsty enough to keep it on at all times. "Greetings," he said. "I've received a transmission from Lord Commander Domitan. We'll be fighting the Black Swords with the Emperor's Children again. We'll be taking two Thunderhawks to a planetside outpost to resupply before taking to the skies once again and boarding a Black Swords ship. We have the same goal this mission as last mission; distract forces from Cadia. Any questions?" Normally there would've been quit a few questions and insults, but after Kaglar's meeting the men knew to remain silent and appear loyal until the time came. "Good," said Caius. "Let's move out."

There was silence as the Black Legionnaires boarded the two Thunderhawks to meet the Emperor's Children already inside. Most were injecting themselves with strange liquids, smoking bizarre drugs or fidgeting with their Sonic Weaponry. One, a helmetless Noise Marine with black leather in favor of skin, reached out and tried to lick the Sergeant, but Zethnix knocked him back. It growled and pulled at its face. "Just try to ignore them," he said to his men. "Easier said than done," one replied.



"They're even more disturbing outside of combat," said Bane.

"I didn't think Daemons could be disturbed by that sort of thing," whispered Caius, taking a seat near the door of the Thunderhawk. "I mean, you guys are probably the reason they do that."

"First of all, don't stereotype us. Secondly, they don't disturb me so much as... weird me out, as you would say. They're insane and perverted and most of all dangerous," replied Bane.

The flight was short and silent. Tension between the two forces was obvious, but there were no arguments or fights; simply incredibly awkward silence. After a few minutes the Thunderhawks landed in a barren desert just outside of a large, spike adorned outpost. There was a crowd of servitors and corrupt guardsmen, but they generally stayed out of the way of the towering Chaos Space Marines. As Caius disembarked, he noted Kaglar whispering to the pilots and then rushing inside the compound.

The Sorcerer simply stood outside and watched his soldiers carry in boxes of ammo and supplies. And, oddly enough, he felt discontent. He was just a minor level command with a few men under his command and lots of powerful enemies. In the past he had always assumed if he ever gained a position like this he would be happy, but he simply wasn't. "I want more," he said to Bane. "I'm the most powerful person in this entire fleet and yet I'm some minor commander sent off to assist the Emperor's Children. I want more."

"Well of course you do. But now isn't the time to act on these feelings. Later on we can kill Devram or something," answered Bane. "I want more also. I spent so much work on you and quite frankly you aren't as high up as I expected."

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry, but it's true."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Caius replied, sighing.

As the Chaos Space Marine started boarding the Thunderhawks, Caius began to leave. Suddenly Kaglar approached him and said, "Lord Caius, there is an artifact in there, on the first door to the left, that you might want to see."

"Why are you even here on the mission?" asked Caius, disregarding what Kaglar said. "You aren't part of the Black Legion Taskforce I'm commanding and you aren't a member of the Emperor's Children either. Did you just get lonely and decide to come?"

"Domitan requested me. The Emperor's Children wants their own Sorcerer for this mission. I haven't the slightest idea why," nervously answered Kaglar. "I assure you-"

"Nevermind," said the Sorcerer. "You said the first door to the left, right?"

"Yes-"

"Thank you." Caius casually walked past a few Traitor Guardsmen until he was inside and compound. One stopped to salute him but he ignored him. When Caius reached the first door on the left he casually swung it open and looked inside; there was a mop, a bucket and a sander. "Stupid Kaglar," grumbled Caius. "Sent me off to a stupid closet just to piss me off."

"Or to distract you," said Bane. "Be careful."

Caius walked outside of the compound and his eyes widened. "This isn't good," he squeaked, gazing up the two Thunderhawks. They had already taken off. One was flying away, but the other was rotating in the air so that its weapons would face Caius. Suddenly the compound doors behind Caius shut and the Guardsmen scurried away. "This isn't good."

Yeah, Kaglar is disregarding Domitan's orders and being a standard pragmatic Black Legionnaire. He really planned this out.

Very well written.Caius is starting to mold into his position of autority.At the start,he would have been the type to stare at the Guardsmen saluting him untill it became wierd.One of the best pieces yet.

Ohh, suspense, i like it!

Thanks for the comments. There will be an update today with lots of violence.

Yeah.BTW Lictor,what city and state do you live in.Just so i can add it on my phone.I have an app that tells me what time it is in any given city,as long as I can name the city and state/county/province.

I'd prefer to not give away my location, just cause I like seeming mysterious. Anyways, here's the need update!

Kaglar perched nervously within the cockpit, watching Caius. So far everything had gone according to plan. Caius' men had abandoned him, the Guardsmen had locked him outside and the pilots had obeyed his orders. A few Hellstrike Missiles and the Sorcerer would be a very large red smear. Suddenly Kaglar heard a commotion in the back. There was screaming and bolt fire. "Zethnix!" yelled Kaglar on the Comm. System. "What's happening?"

"Domitan!" yelled Zethnix. Suddenly there was a loud scream and his Comm. System went dead. Without hesitation Kaglar closed and locked the cock pit doors. "Continue!" screamed Kaglar. "Ignore any orders received from Lord Commander Domitan! Kill him!"

"Ready to fire," said one of the pilots in a monotone voice.

"Fire the biggest systems you have! Fire everything if you can! Just kill him!"

"Preparing to fire Hellstrike Missiles and Battle Cannon."



Caius stood tensed. "If I don't make it," he said. "Thanks for everything. I really owe you."

"No problem," replied Bane. "But you will make it."

"I don't think so, Bane," Caius responded as the Thunderhawk finished rotating and began to make loud, mechanical noises. "I don't know why, but I'm not afraid."

"Because you know that you aren't going to die. Channel your psychic energy through me, I'll amplify. Don't try to go solo."

"No, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to die," the Sorcerer said. "Alright, here we go."

With a deafening shriek a cluster of Hellstrike Missiles shot off the Thunderhawk's wings, spiraling towards Caius. Meanwhile the Battle Cannon began to fire. Caius pointed with Bane and closed his eyes, concentrating on a mental image. The Hellstrike Missiles and massive Cannon rounds were continuing toward Caius, but were beginning to slow. At their current rate he'd still be dead in a millisecond. But they continued to slow until every missile and ever round stopped and floated in midair, hovering directly in front of the Thunderhawk. Caius continued to mentally push on them and they obeyed. Before the pilots could react the Thunderhawk was bombarded with its missiles and cannon rounds. A massive explosion lit up the sky and the Thunderhawk was gone, replaced by charred, falling wreckage.

"Knew it," said Bane.



Devram sat in his office, noting that the first Thunderhawk wasn't receiving transmissions anymore, leaving the whereabouts of Caius, Kaglar and Domitan unknown. He wasn't sure if this was good or bad. The other Thunderhawk was already boarding the Black Swords ship and fulfilling it's purpose as a distraction. However, they lacked the amount of soldiers needed to survive making the distraction and were being slaughtered. It didn't matter if every soldier on both of the Thunderhawks died, he could afford the losses. Afterall, the majority of the Marines slain would be Emperor's Children.

The Commander was anticipating the end of Caius and Domitan. He had lost quite a bit of respect and loyalty. In fact, he was beginning to carry the Bomb Remote with him again that he hadn't held since his first days as Commander. When Devram had received his ten Terminator Body Guards he had implanted each suit of armor with a sizable bomb so that in the event his own Guards betrayed him he could obliterate them all with the touch of a button. The door to Devram's office slid open, revealing the form of Traianus and Devram's other Guards. They weren't invited. He grabbed the remote under his desk as he said, "Greetings. What brings you here gentlemen?"

"Your reign is over," replied Traianus. "The Black Legion does not answer to the Emperor's Children. 7,000 years ago, when Abaddon first splintered their Legion for defying his will, he did not intend for weaklings let you to let the Black Legion abase before them once again."

"Is that what the Black Legion has come to?" Devram fearlessly replied, reclining in his seat. "Are even the Chosen of Abaddon betrayed by their own men? Surely you realize your hypocrisy when you accuse me of defying the Warmaster's will."

Traianus sneered as he and the rest of the Terminators stepped closer to Devram. "You're the only person who doesn't understand how little Abaddon cares about you. Would the Despoiler send his favored General off on a minor mission to cause a distraction from more important battles? He's likely already searching for a replacement for you within his Chosen. Stand down Devram and keep your life. This is your last chance."

Devram pushed the button. Six of the ten Terminators exploded with a spray of viscera and shards of ceramite. Surprisingly, Traianus, Felix and the other two Terminators remained standing. Devram pushed the button again. And a third time. "Ah yes, I found those bombs of yours. I removed the bombs of the armor from those who were loyal to my cause and respected that I would take control following your demise. In a way, those poorly hidden explosives of yours actually helped me. Thank you." His lightning claw activated. Felix's chainfist started up. The other two with power weapons turned on their weapons. A combi melta, two twin linked bolters and a heavy flamer were suddenly pointed at Devram's face. "I did not gain my position through wit alone," Devram snarled, activating his power sword and drawing his plasma pistol.




Domitan crawled from the wreckage, grimacing in pain. He was covered in ash and parts of his armor were charred black. He was seething with rage. Kaglar had betrayed him and gotten the Thunderhawk destroyed, which had hurt him quite a lot. He wasn't sure if he was the only survivor of the crash. There were probably others, too injured or in pain to move. He looked up and saw Caius, staring at something. It was Kaglar's helmet, cracker open and charred completely black. Despite the pain, Domitan smiled. In the end he had gotten his way. He was going to fight the Sorcerer. The Lord Commander activated his Doom Siren and roared, creating a wave of dust and debris in Caius' direction. The Sonic Weapon hit the Sorcerer hard, knocking him off balance and cracking a few parts of his armor. He was bleeding from a large crack in this thigh.

Before Caius could recuperate and launch a psychic attack against him, Domitan charged into melee, swinging his own Daemon Blade and howling praise to Slaanesh. The Sorcerer just barely managed to draw his in time to to block the attack and the duel started. The two fought at an amazing speed; a whirlwind of biting steel. Domitan constantly attacked Caius from all sides and angles to keep him off guard and prevent him from concentrating; allowing a Sorcerer that powerful to concentrait on anything at all was a Deathwish. Relative to Domitan, Caius was more of a slow brute. He didn't attack nearly as much Domitan, but when he did attack he went for the Lord Commander's weak points and he hit hard. At one point Domitan was almost decapitated, but his hissing blade managed to stop Caius. With another attack Caius managed to destroy Domitan's holstered plasma pistol while barely missing the warrior himself.

It was exhilarating. The fight was perfect. Caius was just as skilled and dangerous as Domitan had imagined. The two were practically equals. All of the drugs pumping through his veins couldn't match an experience as fast, brutal and dangerous as this. But Domitan knew he still had to win; the fight couldn't go on forever. Clearly the sword fight was a standstill. The only hits the two could land were grazing ones that could scarcely pierce the power armor and even if they did they likely wouldn't be a killing blow. He would need to fire a ranged weapon but couldn't risk letting go his blade for even a second due to Caius' sheer speed.

However, there were ranged weapons Domitan could fire without dropping his blade; on his wrist there was a poison dart launcher that would cause the opponent to drop unconscious within seconds. However, it couldn't directly penetrate power armor. He would need to attack a joint or weak spot but due to the lightning quick nature of the duel he wouldn't be able to aim. He could always try his Doom Siren also, but it required some concentration to work, which Domitan wasn't sure if he could muster in the midst of the combat. Suddenly, Caius threw Venombane.

The sword surged directly at Domitan, forcing him into a diving roll to dodge it. He cocked his head to see where the Blade landed and if the Sorcerer was grabbing it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Sorcerer gesturing towards himself. The sword had been a distraction that would allow Caius to concentrate. He jumped up and began to charge towards Caius, desperate to stop the Sorcerer. It was too late. A massive lightning bolt fired from Caius' palm and hit Domitan in the chest. It easily destroyed ceramite and flesh, burning a large hole in his armor, his chest and his Doomsiren. The Lord Commander tried to scream but couldn't due to the damage to his lungs. His legs went limp and he fell to the ground. Domitan realized the lightning bolt had burnt through his spine. He couldn't feel or move anything below the waist.

He played dead. Domitan let his upper body go limp as well and fell to the ground. He heard the Sorcerer sigh with relief and pick up Venombane. "Alright, I'll admit you were right. He was crazy," Caius said, standing completely still and give Domitan the perfect chance to attack. He lifted his wrist and fired the Dart directly into the weak neck joint of Caius' armor. The Sorcerer writhed for a little bit and tried to stab Domitan with his blade, but was unable to. He dropped the blade, stumbled for a moment and then fell limp.

More fighting coming up next time as Devram confronts Traianus. Comments are extremely appreciated. Also, I didn't have time to edit this one so I apoligize for any grammar or spelling errors. I'll edit it later.

Damn you school!I will finish it when I get home!

.

One of the best yet!

Thanks for the comments! There probably won't be any updates for the next 2 days as I'm doing stuff.

LoneLictor wrote:The other two with power weapons turned on their weapons. A combi melta, two twin linked bolters and a heavy flamer were suddenly pointed at Devram's face. "I did not gain my position through wit alone," Devram snarled, activating his power sword and drawing his plasma pistol.

LoneLictor wrote:He played dead. Domitan let his upper body go limp as well and fell to the ground. He heard the Sorcerer sigh with relief and pick up Venombane. "Alright, I'll admit you were right. He was crazy," Caius said, standing completely still and give Domitan the perfect chance to attack. He lifted his wrist and fired the Dart directly into the weak neck joint of Caius' armor. The Sorcerer writhed for a little bit and tried to stab Domitan with his blade, but was unable to. He dropped the blade, stumbled for a moment and then fell limp.

These 2 paragraphs drop off at the PERFECT place.These would be the end of a paragraph and a chapter,respectivley.Perfect!Just perfect.

Its brilliant! Well done!

Thanks for the comment! It reminded me to update the story, which I shall do later today.

Here it is. This one is a short one.

Devram was a blur of motion. A shot from his plasma pistol obliterated the ceramite armor covering Felix's chest and mangled the Terminator. Devram's power sword swung in a wide arc, slashing across one Terminator's shin and scarring another's shoulder. Felix screamed in pain as he fell and open fired with his Heavy Flamer. The room was suddenly consumed in flames and smoke. One of the Terminators began shooting madly with his twinlinked bolter, shredding Devram's desk to pieces before the Chaos Lord was suddenly upon him. He barely saw the blade coming through the smoke and leapt out of the way despite his injured shin. The second attack was faster and stronger; the former Bodyguard's head fell to the floor with a loud thump. "Stop firing!" yelled Traianus, unable to see Devram through the smoke.

The Chaos Lord rushed toward the voice and felt three solid impacts to his side. He fell to the floor and looked up to see a Terminator with a smoking bolter within the flames. Without hesitation Devram jabbed upwards with his power sword and impaled the Terminator on it. The Body Guard raised his power mace, but lost the strength to fight and ultimately died before he could strike Devram. That was when Traianus attacked. With his power sword lodged in the Terminator he was unable to parry the twin lightning claws and was ultimately forced to let go of his weapon in order to dodge the whirlwind of attacks.

Traianus stormed after Devram, growling like some sort of feral creature. The Chaos Lord aimed his pistol and fired but missed and Traianus was upon him again. Devram ducked under the first blow, stepped back to avoid the second and then was slashed across the chest by the third. He grunted in pain and stumbled away from the melee, searching the smoke for his power sword. As that occured, he heard the signature noise of a chainfist activating. Felix charged at him, somehow still alive despite the gaping hole in his chest. Devram rolled under the attack and Felix went straight past him and sent his massive fist flying into the wall.

Devram found his sword, still sticking out from the sword. He quickly drew it and turned just in time to see Traianus coming at him yet again. Without thinking, the Chaos Lord drew his plasma pistol and fired. Traianus' left shoulder, part of his upper chest and a little bit of his neck were blown apart. The Terminator stopped in his tracks and tumbled over backwards, dead. There was just one left now. Felix attacked with his Heavy Flamer again, this time consuming Devram in flames. Though his armor held strong, the Chaos Lord was blinded by the fire and smoke. As such he didn't have a chance when Felix slammed his chainfist into his chest.

There was a cracking sound and a brief spurt of viscera and blood. Fragments of ceramite cracked away from the wound. Gore was spilling out. Devram coughed up blood within his helmet and stumbled backwards, choking and moaning. Felix had punched straight through him. The grinding chainfist was still inside him, ripping away at his organs. Devram stabbed with his own blade and impaled the Terminator through the eye. The two slumped backwards, sliding off of eachother's weapons.

Yep,

Spoiler:

Devram

won the fight. I was considering having a straight fight, with all of them flanking Devram attacking at once. However I thought it would be more realistic if it was just a massive, chaotic brawl with random shots and mad attacks.

You thought correctly. Your training is complete young padawan.


Very well done. I would say that the Termies won, because they completed their goal to kill him, while Devram failed to stay alive.

Deadshot wrote:You thought correctly. Your training is complete young padawan.


Very well done. I would say that the Termies won, because they completed their goal to kill him, while Devram failed to stay alive.

Actually, I didn't make this clear enough, but Devram is still alive, albeit horribly mangled. Kind of like when Caius got really injured in the battle, but times 10. However, Traianus (a mostly minor character) has already died and in the next 2 or 3 entries, the deaths of 4 major characters will occur.

Oh. Excellent, he survived.

A second, longer entry today! I felt like writing!

"Lord Devram Korda has been admitted for urgent injuries," said Magos Kharl. "He shows severe injuries to his chest and torso. Blood has been cut off from his legs. He is currently unable to breath on his own. His vital signs are dropping."

"Feth!" exclaimed Doctor Antonius. "First Caius again, then Domitan and now the Commander of the Fleet! If just one of those guys died I'm dead!"

"Caius has been stabilized and has been removed from the ICU and taken into Black Legionnaire Custody. Domitan's condition is currently stabilized, though we are awaiting his replacement spine," replied Kharl.

"Okay, that's good. Bring me to Korda."

Devram was strapped down onto a surgical table. The Chaos Lord was sedated and his armor removed; he looked surprisingly weak and mortal. His chest and especially lower abdomen was a bloodly mess full of tubes and mechanics. A frantic staff of surgeons were struggling to save his life. "It's not salvageable," said Antonius after a look. "Hook him up to life support. Remove everything from the shoulders down. Chest, legs, everything. We'll work on artificial replacements later. He's bleeding out."

"But," stammered the Head Surgeon, a squat man named Mathew. "Lord Korda will likely not approve of-"

"Do you want to deal with an upset Korda or Abaddon himself? The last time one of his Chosen died the Warmaster took a great deal of interest in it. Cut it," ordered Antonius.



Two days later Domitan lay sideways on a surgical bed, his back open and exposed. Kharl, two Surgeons and a Servitor were removing Domitan's spine, having decided it would be easier to just replace it with an artificial one rather than repair the old one. One by one the new, metallic segments were spinal installed. The Lord Commander demanded that they left him awake for the operation so that he could savor the pain. A door opened and a Chaos Space Marine in shining armor pushed Devram's wheel chair inside. Rather than wearing power armor the Chaos Lord had a black, flowing robe. "Greetings," he said. His voice was mostly the same as before, but with artificial lungs it now seemed lower and a bit raspier.

Domitan grinned. "What happened to you?"

The Chaos Lord gestured for his body guard to leave and wheeled himself closer. "My bodyguards viewed how you treated me as a sign of weakness. As such, they attacked. I ultimately survived, but not unscathed."

"Ever going to walk again?" asked Domitan. "Because if you can't, I'm willing to bet you won't hold your position very long. There's a big competition for being the Commander of Fleet and the Chosen of Abaddon."

Devram grimaced and slowly stood up, his artificial legs making strange mechanical sounds as he did so. "I'm learning to walk again. It's a difficult process. After that I'll start using my power armor again." He sat back down. "I take it that with your new spine, it may take some effort to walk again aswell."

"Caius fought hard. I'm sure you heard that I gave him to you alive though. At least you can have some fun with him," replied Domitan. "Also, I don't know if you've heard this, but he killed Kaglar. The Sorcerer betrayed me and tried to do things his way; he ended up getting burnt to a crisp. The only part of him that was ever found was his broken, burnt helmet. He had it coming."

The Chaos Lord reached into a pouch on the side of his wheel chair and drew his plasma pistol. Suddenly Domitan was gazing down the barrel of a gun. "Doctors and Surgeons, please back away," Devram said calmly. They did so. Domitan tried to burst into action and grab the gun and maybe flip over Devram's wheelchair, but to his horror he couldn't move anything below his neck. His new spin hadn't been plugged into to his nervous system yet. "Wait, Devram!" exclaimed the Lord Commander.

"What?" snarled Devram. "You did to this to me! I had the perfect plan to kill both you and Caius, but you had to flaunt your power and abuse me until my idiot guards assumed I was just bowing to your will and decided to try to kill me!"

"Devram," slowly said Domitan. "You need me. You're bound to have other enemies that only I can handle. Think about this."

The Chosen of Abaddon smiled coldly, revealing his yellow teeth. "That's the beauty of it. You're the last of my enemies and threats. My bodyguards are dead, Kaglar is dead, Heron is dead and Caius is captured. Once I recover, there is no one in this fleet who can oppose me."

"There are bound to be others. You didn't think Caius was a threat at first but suddenly he had a Daemon Blade and at that changed everything. Please Devram," begged Domitan.

"Speaking of that Daemon Blade, where is it?" asked Devram.

"I made sure it was locked in a warpstone safe. You can ask your men for the location of it and the combination," answered the Lord Commander. "If you are going to kill me, draw it out. I don't want it to be quick and painless. I want to feel it."

"No." Lord Devram Korda, Chosen of Abaddon and Commander of Hydra Fleet fired, leaving a burning stump where Domitan's neck once was. He put the plasma pistol back in his pouch and swiveled his wheelchair as to face Kharl. "I suppose he won't be needing that replacement spine after all."

Kaglar and

Spoiler:

Domitan

are dead. I intended those characters to not die gloriously in 1v1 combat or in a last stand or mad charge, but rather.... well, the ways they did die. There will be either 1 or 2 more entries and than the story will end.

What? No, don't end it, keep going. You have a fanbase wider than Matt Ward! You hear his Necron and BA vs Tyranids story? Epic!


Seriously, I don't want this to end. This last part is good.

LoneLictor wrote:Devram found his sword, still sticking out from the sword.

Sorry to be picky...



Don't end it!!!!! It has so much potential!!!! And its so good!!!!

Yeah, I have a habit of making little errors like that and not noticing them when I edit the story. I'm trying to not do that, lol.

As for ending the story, I'll still stuff and I might come back to the characters later. Devram for example was originally a character in one of my other stories and I decided to have him appear in this one. He ended up as a major character.

your story is epic, please don't kill it

Legion of Damnation wrote:your story is epic, please don't kill it

It has to end eventually. Don't worry, I'll come back to the characters later. There might be a sequel or something in the distant future. In any case, the final update is coming in the next 3 days. I want it to be really good so I'm going to wait until I'm in the perfect writing mood.

Alright, here it is. You need to know a bit about the Chaos Gods, mainly Tzeentch and Nurgle for this one, so if any parts don't make sense just look it up on the Lexicanum. *drum roll*

Caius awoke on his bunk. He instinctively jumped up and reached for Bane. The Sorcerer found himself grabbing at the air and realized the Daemon Blade was gone. His room was almost completely empty save a holo-disc, a rare piece of dark age technology. Caius slowly picked it up and examined it. After making sure it wasn't booby trapped, he activated it. A visual of Devram appeared, standing completely still in his black power armor. "Greetings Caius," he said. "I'd like to begin by saying that, quite frankly, I won. From the moment you earned that Daemon Blade I acknowledged you as a threat and began planning your demise. You made things difficult and ultimately, you hurt me Caius. You damaged my reputation, my army and..." Two servitors unlocked and removed the armor covering his forearm, revealing an artificial limb. "...my body. You hurt me Caius and now I'm going to hurt you. I want to you to know whats going to happen you and I want you to wait in fear and realize how foolish you were. In the event you try to escape, Doctor Antonius and Magos Kharl have placed a small chip in your neck so that if you attempt to summon psychic energy, it will inject you with some of the most lethal toxins on the planet. And don't worry abut Prince Venombane." Devram grabbed Bane using a pair of tongs and lifted the Daemon Blade up. "He's going to be just fine." The recording ended.

The Sorcerer fell onto his bunk. His weapons were gone. He couldn't use his psychic powers. Devram was going to kill Bane. And Devram was going to kill him. He clutched his helmet in his hands and wracked his mind for solutions. There had to be something. But there wasn't. The hole in his floor, which he could've used to escape, had been patched up. The vent had been sealed and reinforced. The door was locked and enhanced with an adamantium frame. It was hopeless. Caius realized that he had lost. Caius, esteemed Sorcerer of the Black Legion and Favored of Tzeentch, was going to die like the idiot coward he was. "Tzeentch!" he screamed, standing up from his bunk. "Come on you bastard, I know you can hear me! You can hear everything probably! Right? Yeah, you're the God of Scheming, you probably have spies everywhere or something. Anyways, you owe me you bastard! Do you know what I did for you? Come on!"

There was a silence, but Caius heard what he could've been the faintest chuckle. "You bastard! Does Ebolias count for nothing? What about all the good I've done for the overall cause of Chaos? Does my entire life count for nothing? Come on!" He was no longer shouting and cursing, but whimpering. "Please," he begged. "Whatever I have left I'll give to you. I need this. Please." Again, there was silence. "Please," he begged one more time.

The hour passed slowly within the confines of his quarters. Caius tried banging on the walls, screaming at anyone outside of his room and overturning his bunk. He pounded a desk into oblivion and stomped on the floor. He begged again and wracked his mind for answers again. He slammed his head on the wall. He kicked the frame of his bunk hard enough to bend it. Finally, he collasped and sobbed. As he did so, he remembered speaking to Bane about Nurgle while they were capturing Ebolias. And he knew what to do. The Sorcerer went on his knees and said, "Grandfather Nurgle, Lord of Decay, I give myself to you. I offer you all that I have left; my despair, my misery, my pain, my service and my soul. I pledge myself to the Plague Lord. In return, I want to live."

Suddenly he was wracked by pain. His flesh was dying beneath his armor. Caius screamed and quickly took off his helmet before looking into a mirror. The Sorcerer's flesh was decaying with pustules and sores forming rapidly. His eyes were sunken in, his lips dark and cracked and his teeth shark and crooked. Underneath his armor he felt similar changes and saw tiny amounts of slime and bile leaking from the joints of his armor. Pain was replaced by numbness and the transformation was complete. He was no longer the Favored of Tzeentch, but the Chosen of Nurgle. Caius put his helmet on and turned towards the door. He took a deep breath and fired off a massive psychic blast. The toxins injected into his body simply added to his new found endurance. "No pain, no gain," he muttered as the door was blown off its hinges and into one of the Black Legionnaire Guards outside of his room.

The four remaining Guards leapt into action, firing at Caius wildly. The bolts easily deflected off of his armor and those that didn't were powerless to wound his disease ridden body. A psychic blast of rot caused one of the Legionnaires' armor and body to decay within seconds. Another blast slew two more Guards. The last guard drew a chainsword and charged at Caius, but he simply grabbed the Marine's neck and snapped it.



"Can you deflect the psychic attacks?" asked Devram. Kaglar's deformed apprentice, whose name he couldn't remember, stood before him.

The heavily mutated torso thing replied, "No, its too strong. Only some of the most powerful psykers could stop an attack from that thing."

"Could you delay it long enough for us both to let go?"

"Yes, I'm confident I could do that."

"Alright," said Devram. "You pick it up first, then me."

The apprentice reached down and grabbed Bane with his left hand, rather than the tongs. After a moment, Devram grabbed the sword as well and the two were both holding it. "Greetings Prince Venombane," said Devram. "I've been informed by Lord Commander Domitan that's your name."

"Indeed," replied Bane. "What do you want?"

"To speak to you of course. You know not to try anything, as this psyker here will stop any attacks long enough to let go."

"Of course. Now, what do you want to talk about?"

"Caius. Why did you choose him? Why did you help him? You had opportunities to... work with lots of other people, most of whom were stronger, smarter or faster than Caius," Devram pointed out. "Why choose him? And why do so much for him?"

Bane paused before answering. "Partially self preservation. I needed someone I could use in order to escape this blade, and he was a psyker that could be easily be manipulated but at the same time had potential. Secondly, pity. I saw him attempting to fight Felix. He didn't flee and he was so determined to use his psychic power, yet he couldn't. I guess you could call it a combination of sympathy and pity."

"I didn't know Daemons had sympathy and pity."

"Caius asked a lot of questions like that. Some Daemons do, and some Daemons don't. We're creatures of emotion and I suppose I had the smallest amount of pity and sympathy mixed in to my essence," the Daemon Blade explained.

Devram smiled and asked, "Do you regret it? If you had chosen someone else, you probably wouldn't be in this situation. Kaglar for example; I would've let him have a Daemon Blade assumed I knew it was using him and he wouldn't have it for long."

"I suppose I do," Bane said. "Alright, are we done?"

"Not quite. I'm going to drop you into a vat of molten charriden. In case you don't know what it is, its a negatively psychic empowered material that is currently hot enough to melt through the warpstone and strong enough to obliterate your very essence."

Without hesitation Bane launched the largest psychic attack he could possibly muster. Kaglar's Apprentice immediately began pushing back against it while Devram let go. The apprentice dropped the blade as well. "Thank you for that. It would be rather unpleasant to let that Daemon destroy my brain," said Devram as he leaned down and picked the Blade up with tongs. He hovered it over the vat of molten charriden and cherished the moment. That was when the door melted.

Devram turned to see Caius standing in the empty doorway. "Wait," said Devram, as his new entourage of Guards readied their weapons. The Hydra Fleet no longer possessed any Terminator armor and as such his new Guards only had the standard ware. He wasn't sure if they could handle Caius in a fair fight. "Caius, don't do anything. If you attack me, I'll drop Venombane into this. It'll destroy him. You don't want him to die."

"Of course," said Caius, calmly stepping inside the room. "Sturmovich and Horkal, ready your meltaguns. Fire on my command," Devram said over his Comm. System to his men. Speaking out loud once again, Devram said, "Surely we can negotiate this." "And have Kharl and Antonius killed. That chip didn't work," hissed Devram over his Comm. System. "After all, there's a peaceful solution to everything," the Chaos Lord said out loud.

"I doubt that," the Sorcerer stated, continuing to walk towards Devram and ignoring the various weapons pointed at him. "If there was a peaceful solution for everything, then why are there Space Marines?"

"Well, I suppose there isn't a peaceful solution for everything, but there's a peaceful solution for this," the Chaos Lord said. "FIRE!" he hissed over the Comm. System. As he said that, he dropped Bane into the vat

Caius was a blur of action. Both melta guns missed Caius, though one managed to accidentally hit and kill one of Devram's guards. A psychic attack from Caius sent three Guards flying into the wall, killing one of them and mangling the other two. He kicked a bolter out of a Marine's hand and caved his helmet in with a psychically empowered punch. A massive beam of flies and gunk shot forth from Caius' other hand and killed another Guard. One with a melta gun fired at him again, but he dodged the blast and hurled the Black Legionnaire into Devram with a flick of his mind, knocking both men prone. Another Guard fired at Caius with a bolter, but he casually ignored the shots and obliterated him with a blast of bile and decay.

The Sorcerer charged up towards the charriden and reached inside. He couldn't feel the liquid in his new painless state, but he could see its effects. It was melting through power armor and flesh, ruining his arm. Yet Caius continued to reach and feel inside until he found Bane. He grabbed the blade and pulled it out of the molten metal. The sword was sagging and mostly gone. It was doted with holes. "Bane!" yelled Caius, shaking the weapon.

"Caius," choked out a weak voice. It was hard to believe it had once been Bane. "Kill... him... kill.... Dev.. ram..."

The Sorcerer put down the blade and snarled at Devram. Devram was trying to flee while two still living Guards were covering his escape. The Chaos Lord couldn't really run and instead walked awkwardly at a moderate pace. It appeared whatever had damaged the Chosen of Abaddon's arm had damaged his legs as well. The Black Legionnaires immediately stopped protecting Devram and started to run away when Caius raised his arm at them, but the Sorcerer destroyed them anyways. Devram tripped over a body and collapsed on the floor, a few feet from the exit. "Caius, stop!" he yelled.

Caius reached down and picked up Devram by the neck with his remaining intact arm, holding the choking man before him. "Wait," he said. "I can give you whatever you want! Power, prestige, wealth, anything! My fleet is yours! My armor! My equipment! My position! Wait! Just, let me live, and its all yours!"

"I can have whatever I want, whether you live or die," replied Caius. He hurled Devram across the room and watched him hit the wall with an enormous thud. "Wait!" yelled Devram. "What about Abaddon? What if he doesn't approve of you killing one of his Chosen? Are you willing to take that risk?"

The Sorcerer reached down and picked up Devram by the neck once again. "I don't care." He slammed Devram's head against the wall, hard enough to crack the ceramite. "Please," begged the Chaos Lord. "Have you no concept of mercy?"

"Hypocrite," snarled Caius. He hurled Devram once again, this time even harder. The impact again the wall snapped one of his bionic arms and left a mess of shattered ceramite and broken electronics. He picked Devram up by the back of his neck this time and dragged him across the room towards the molten charriden with his arm. "Please, don't do this!" screamed Devram, thrashing wildly.

Caius reached the vat and lifted Devram up. Before the Chaos Lord could try to beg again, Caius hurled him inside. Devram screamed and thrashed wildly, desperate to claw his way out, but Caius knocked him back in and watched him melt away. It didn't look pleasant. The Sorcerer took a deep breath and collapsed. "Devram Korda is dead," he said panting. "I killed Devram Korda. Devram Korda is dead."

He reached up and grabbed Bane. Still panting, he said, "Throne, I killed Devram Korda. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to say Throne, being a Nurgle Worshipper and all. You know, he accepted me kind of quickly. Maybe Nurgle is just nicer than Tzeentch."

Bane didn't respond. "Bane?" asked Caius, shaking the damaged blade. He searched a psychic essence inside, hoping Bane was just resting and recovering. Afterall, whenever Bane was hurt he could recover easily, such as when he was almost slain by a Librarian. There was no essence. "Bane?" Caius asked again, despite knowing full well the Daemon was dead.

Yep, lots of death. This actually isn't the last entry. There's going to be a short epilogue and then it'll end. This is just the climax/finale. I had most of this planned out from the beginning, though I had to make some minor changes. Also, I'd like your guys' opinions on the deaths of

Spoiler:

Bane, Devram and Domitan.

Were they done well? Were they stupid? Should the characters have lived or should they have died earlier? C&C is extremely appreciated, whether it be about this entry or the overall story. I'll make sure to take it into advice with my next story, which will be "A Day in the Eye of Terror."

Domitan died right. He died because of a treachery of Devram's, the exact model a CSM should be. IMHO, he should have died earlier though. He was a minority major character in that he had a title and name, but did very little.

Devram. Perfect. The ultimate scene of overcoming obstacles.

Bane.

Little sketchy. AFAIK, daemons can't be "killed", only mortally destroyed. If the sword was desstroyed, should't Bane just go back to the warp?


Caius has been perfect. He started as a wimpy teenage like guy, now he is as ruthless and dispicable as anyone. He was trapped, and when his God refused to help him, he said "feth this, I am going over here." A lot like real life.


Very good. Make the last bit even better. Do it right.

Thanks for the comment. Yeah, maybe I should've killed Domitan earlier, since the only thing he did was capture Caius. However, it was fun to write to scenes with him and his insanity, so I kept him around for a bit.

As for Bane, I think I justified it by saying the molten stuff was Negatively Psychic Empowered which meant it would destroy his soul. But I may have gotten some fluff mixed up. I'll have to check that.

And thank you a so much for the comments about Devram's death and Caius' arc! I had planned those out from the beginning and complements like that are extremely encouraging! I'll make sure to only write the epilogue when I'm in a really "writey" mood, just like I was when I wrote the finale. Afterall, if I end the story with a bad entry It'll pretty much feth up the whole thing.

LoneLictor wrote:I end the story with a bad entry It'll pretty much feth up the whole thing.

Glad to finally find someone who cares about what they say/write. I know guys who are given writing assignments of 100 words, they write 100 words, no more, probably less. When these times come, it is people like you that we can look to to write that extra page.


And pay to do it for us.

Alright, here's the epilogue. It takes place one year after the Daemon Blade.

Caius examined the battlefield before him; a savage orgy of violence and death. The Cadians were losing ground, but made sure the Black Legion paid for every inch. Blood soaked bodies and burnt shards of ceramite littered the ground. "Commander," wheezed out a badly wounded Sergeant Komyn. "We've managed to take Sector 5, but we can't get back the cliff face. Every time we try to get up they launch a massive volley of fire and we withdraw. We've taken heavy losses and it doesn't look like we've gotten far enough to land a single kill."

The Plague Lord noticed that a tiny amount of slime was seeping from his knee joint. He rubbed it off with an index finger and duly noted that he would have to have it resealed. Caius preferred to keep his diseased form inside of his armor, having disliked the appearance of Ebolias and other Plague Lords; he still wanted to appear at least vaguely human and alive. "Perhaps," hissed the Sorcerer. "You are failing to motivate your men properly." Immediately Lieutenant Zythe and Prophet Thraxus turned their attention towards their Lord. They knew very well what he was going to do. He reached out with a black gauntlet and grabbed Komyn by the neck. There was a brief crunching noise and the Sergeant slumped to the floor. "If you continue to fail to take the cliff face, I will personally do this to each and every one of you!" Caius bellowed to Komyn's squad. The Chaos Space Marine scurried away back towards the battle field. "Zythe, give me a progress report."

"We've taken Sector 5, as Komyn said, in addition to Sectors 6 and 8. 7 remains uncertain as the Cadians are heavily barricaded in there, but a quick bombardment would likely finish them off. We've also taken the Tikus River," Zythe said.

Caius paused and replied, "Good." The Sorcerer's attention turned toward a lone Chaos Space Marine surrounded by three Cadians. The Legionnaire's armor was cracked, his bolter ripped in half and his chainsaw jammed with that looked like tiny pebbles. The Guardsmen were beating him badly and attempting to pin him down, but the Marine refused to give up or die. "Who is that?" asked Caius, gesturing toward the Legionnaire. His voice wasn't quite as raspy or deep as it had been when he was executing Komyn.

"Daceus," answered Zythe. "He's an idiot. I suppose he got separated from his squad and stumbled into a melee. Doesn't look like he's winning." One of the Cadians slammed the but of his lasgun into Daceus' head, but his ceramite helmet refused to break. "Best to just let him die and give the armor to someone who deserves it more."

"I'm going into battle," said Caius.

"Wait, what?" asked his Lieutenant. "I've never seen you enter combat before in my entire career."

"Well, I just found a good reason to."

The Plague Lord was suddenly in motion, sprinting across the battle field at a surprising speed. He obliterated a Cadian who was in his way and barely dodged a blast from a plasma gun. Within seconds he had reached Daceus. He impaled the first Cadian on his fist and caused another to rot with a flick of his wrist. The third man fired off his lasgun, but the shot deflected off of his armor. The Sorcerer clenched his hand into a fist and soldier exploded in a spray of gore. Caius reached down and grabbed the Marine's hand, helping to pull him to his feet. "Greetings," he said. "I'm Plague Lord Commander Caius Severian, Supreme General of the Hydra Fleet of the Black Legion. You can refer to me as Caius."

Very nice, i think you killed all of the characters well, and i enjoyed that last piece. Well done, it ended well.

It is over.

.

Thanks for the comments! All you have you people have been extremely encouraging while writing the story and I want to thank you all for somehow reading the entire thing. Thanks!

Please continue another story involving Caius.

Ogryn wrote: Please continue another story involving Caius.

Caius will come back eventually. He's a fun character, having made the transition from naive Minion to ambitious Overlord.