[Time epsed sihe start of the battle: 24h31m12s]

  Huh, okay. That was … fun? My part of the deal was done and Dante already gave me most of what I wanted, whether he would actually hold up his part when the big blue man arrived would be ahiirely though. Let’s hope I scared them just enough to respect me, but not enough to drop a cye torpedo on the po kill me.

  It wouldn’t work, but it would be a pain. Plus, losing Zedev — the only person whose soul I haven’t yoinked yet — would be disappointing. I sort of liked him. He was willing to experiment and i, even with the usual abhorrence of such things by his peers pressing down on him. I still owe him some Swarmlord samples too.

  After I was done on Baal, I’d o set aside some free time. I o pn, to think about my moves more carefully. I’d been going off of whims and hasty calcutions, predis.

  There is still much to do here, though. Whatever was down in the caverns needed killing and a quitrodu to death. Then Guilliman’s arrival was also looming closer and closer, and most importantly, whatever Selene was worried about would o be resolved.

  Let’s see what be done about the st. I Blihe ripple iy was truly just a ripple, not the veritable tsunami I sent crashing through the ’s surface when I started using the Spell. It did little for its speed e, but the smoothness would go a long way, keeping me from notice.

  “Hi!” I chirped, appearing behind Selene, who disappointingly just turo stare at me with about as much disapproval as she could manage. I sort retted givihe enhanced senses. Her little yelps when I teleported behind her were precious. “We should tell the ahat we are out, and then we do whatever?”

  “Alright.” She nodded, huffing as she let her frown drop. “Do you want this?”

  I g where she ointing. A good dozen ifexes and other more unique forms of Tyranids id on the ground. Dead, one and all.

  “I wo your kills.” I smiled at her. “You have just as much use for them as I do now.”

  “If you say so,” she shrugged. “Won’t you starve? You’ve lost most of your energy when that Ne kidnapped you, haven’t you?”

  “I’m doing just fine.” I gave her a smile. As I said that, a siterfly nded on the bay hand and transferred all the bio-energy the swarm has collected around here. I still had a bunch of them fluttering about, colleg energy uhe Blood Angel’s hey had much more pressing s than some weird new fauna.

  I was almost bay previous stores already, and that was if I didn’t t the bio-energy I retrieved from my Soul Pond. I was doing just fine.

  “o worry your pretty head about that.”

  She just raised an eyebrow at me, a smile slowly tugging at her lips. She ristine, not a drop of blood on her armour, and even the silky cloth parts of it looked brand new. Her hair was a touch disheveled though, and sweat was trig down her cheeks.

  “Let’s get that talk with Dante over with, and we throw you into a bath and a bed.” I said, giving her a nudge. “Before that, though, absorb these.”

  “Yeah, right.” She nodded, giving me a grateful look as she turo the corpses and one by one absorbed them. She was doing it at a snail’s papared to me, but just that she could do it was a great thing. This was something that’d keep her alive even when I couldn’t.

  “Before bed, I want to talk to you about something.” She said over her shoulder.

  “Should I be worried?”

  “No,” she drawled, thehrew a g smile my way. “I don’t think so.”

  “Alright.” I nodded. I’d have been rather worried had I not felt the care in her voice. ‘We o talk’ was always what foreshadowed ‘we are breaking up’, but that ’t be right. She cared for me, on some level at least, that was clear. Did I do something to upset her? Think … think … was it that I bossed her around in that cultist cave? Did my human experiments set her off?

  “Don’t worry so much,” said Selene, giving me a swift side-hug. “It is nothing bad, nothing you should worry this much about.”

  “Okay,” I said, trying to banish those thoughts, but I fucked up more than enough retionships for the trauma to lihis deep into another life. The doubts wouldn’t go away that easily. Not to say that I had ay to dwell on all my life decisions as I floated aimlessly in the void before being dragged over to this gaxy. “Ready to go?”

  “As much as I ever will be.” She said with a grimace, but I just formed a portal in front of us instead of Blinking. “Oh.”

  “After you?” I waved her forwards, and she gave me a smile before striding through the portal. I stopped, thinking of something. Flig my hand backwards, a hundred droplets of eldritch flesh transformed into flying drones as they fell, catg themselves with white feathered wings before they dashed off into the distan every dire.

  Those little doves would look around the p for me and see whether there were any other s like the one I found.

  I followed after her a moment ter, casually disregarding the sea of butchered Tyranid corpses littering the white sand as far as the eye could see. My little rabbit has been busy.

  Oher side, what greeted us was ay ste room deep ihe fortress, possibly abandoned because it was so far out of the way. I could have teleported us right into our room, but a bit of a walk could help us unwind.

  “Sooooo, how was your day?” I asked as we walked. B twisting hallways were quickly being one of my least favourite things.

  “It was nice,” she hummed with a happy lilt in her voice. “It is … rejuvenating, fighting like that.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “Didn’t you grow tired of fighting in the Guard?”

  “I grew tired of fighting with fshlights and under idiots.”

  “Fair enough,” I giggled at the nostalgic frown on her face. “How are you doing, by the way? I hope that … procedure didn’t leave any side effects.”

  “Oh, it did.” She gave me a long look before shaking her head. “Though none of them are ive per se, and I’d have traded those whispers for anything, really. Thank you for that.”

  “Mind sharing what those are?” I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me as it usually did. Plus, maybe I could help her, maybe I could even remove those side effects.

  “I feel you now.” She wasn’t looking at me now, just staring in my dire, her gaze looking somewhere far deeper. “The real you, I feel it, always and stantly. Even with that barrier you put up, I feel your presence whenever I draw on that realm’s power.”

  “Oh?” I was fused for a moment, didn’t she already feel me through our telepathiion before? My internal question must have been written all over my face, as she took it upon herself to answer.

  “You know, there is a reason that Eldar started worshiping the ground you walk on.” She said. “I think all of us feel the quality of your soul now, and the stark trast between it and our own. You are powerful. We khat, I khat, but this is something else.”

  I gave her time to speak, just walking beside her as I listeo her talk, drinking in every word.

  “I have felt the Space Marines in this Fortress, I have felt Librarians and they are so mubsp;less than you.” She frowned. Frustration? “How do I say this?” she murmured, before sighing. “You are … different from everyone else, you are just more in a way I ’t really describe. You- You feel like a God.”

  The st word was barely a whisper, but I heard it as well as the tremble in her voice as she said it. I pulled her in for a hug, our armour dissolving into thin silky robes. She stiffe first, but rexed into my arms.

  “There is nothing godly about me,” I said. “And even if there was, the term would be ‘Goddess’.”

  “You are-” She snorted. “You are weird.”

  “Goddess of Weirdness, that’s me.” I shrugged with a smile. “Ay, don’t fet Beauty.”

  “You certainly have a level of narcissism b on the divihis time, she hugged me bad id her head on my chest.

  “I aim to please.” I raised my in mock pride, but then I dropped the act. “Does it worry you?”

  “Of course it does.” She said after a moment of sileurning her head to look up at me. “I don’t know how exaggerated the Emperor’s and the Primarch’s feats were, but from what I saw from you, you aren’t far behind and you just keep getting stronger.”

  “Hmm.” I smiled to myself. Could I take a Primarch? A weaker one, like Lar maybe? Hmmm, once I incorporate the Swarmlord’s genes into my Forms I probably could.

  “I don’t know what you are thinking about, but please don’t.”

  “I don’t know whatever you might be talking about?” I tilted my head in mock fusion. “I could certainly take a Custode though, even if Primarchs are beyond me.”

  “Urgh.” She groaned. “Could you stop thinking about killing demigods for a moment?”

  “Custodes would be a quarter god at most. Is ‘Quarter-God’ a word?”

  “It isn’t.”

  “Unfortunate.” I shrugged.

  “Anyway.” She gred at me, but with her still being ed up in my arms and having her on my chest, it was really just adorable. “What makes me … worried, is that I feel how only a fra of your true strength be elled through this body of yours.”

  “Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “I ’t really tell, to be ho.”

  “How?” She looked incredulous. “Don’t you feel, I don’t know, suffocated in this body?”

  “Nope.” I said. “If anything, this body grounds me. When I was just a soul, everythi so very distant. I was detached from everything, I still am. Living through this avatar is what makes me alive.”

  “That’s-” She frowned, lips pulled into a taut line. “I ’t really uand how that might feel.”

  “You don’t have to.” I gave her a pe her forehead. “It is more than enough that you are even trying to. Thank you for that.”

  “Of course.” She said with a slight flush rising to her cheeks.

  I just stared intlimmering grey eyes, and she stared bato mine. By then, I’d long fotten my stupid worries of her wanting to break up with me. Doubting her felt stupid. She was so good to me, she wouldn’t leave me just because of some annoyanbsp;That doesn’t mean I ’t be a better partner.

  “We should probably go.” She whispered, but she didn’t move and nor did she remove her gaze.

  “Should we?” I pyfully raised my eyebrow.

  “I’m tired and I stink.”

  “I fix that.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “No.”

  “Alright.” I pulled back as she twirled out of my hold. I watched on thoughtfully as the tension that settled into Selene’s body when she said the word ‘No’ drained out of her.

  I see. I thought sadly. She was nervous about saying no to me. I had no idea what to do about that. I didn’t know how to reassure her. This wasn’t a situation where something along the lines of ‘trust me bro’ would be enough.

  The power dynami our retionship was rather skewed, and there wasn’t much I could do to fix that. The most I could do was give her a body simir to my avatar, but she’d refused any biological modifications before. Maybe she’d ge her mind, maybe not. Even that wouldn’t ge the fact that my soul is basically a god pared to hers, if her senses weren’t pying tricks on her.

  Maybe just seeing for herself would be enough, just me accepting any boundary she sets as an iron hard wall. As spoke louder than words, and when words weren’t enough, all that remained was a.

  We walked briskly, our talks turning into mundane small-talk from there on. The hallways slowly grew more poputed. Some people threw us wary and fused gnces, but most of them had no idea ere. All they saw were two women walking down the halls in far too pristine clothes for the situation and with little regard for any of them.

  Sele ooic mask as she always did, seeming unapproachable and cold while I utting a soft pressure on everyone’s minds to not bother us. It wasn’t anything that would keep them from notig us, but merely a suggestion that not being annoying was for the best.

  Soon we reached the parts where instead ed humans, the t transhumans scuttled about. The Space Marines were harder to influeheir minds were thid tough, but even a rock could be moulded by a geream.

  I only dropped the telepathic suppression when I knocked on the open doorframe of the and room.

  “Hi.” I smiled as a dozeuries old veterans engineered for war turo me. “The day is up, I thought to give a report?”

  “Yes.” Dante said as he turo face me, his expression hidden behind his goldeh-mask. “Is there anything that would need my attention?”

  “Maybe.” I said as I thought about the thing hiding in those caverns. I wasn’t sure about killing it, and throwing some named Space Mari it to see what it’d do could be a good idea. It’d also show Dante how nid cooperative I was. Which he would hopefully report to Guilliman once he arrived. “I did find something iing.”

  Maybe I could even throw the big blue man at the problem. Whatever that is, there is no way it could handle a Primarch’s plot armour.

  “So be it.” Dante heuro the others who were watg on ily. “I will be back within the hour.”

  I gave a single nod towards Seth, whom I saw standing menagly in the back, looking at us like we were both mud on his boot and the most iing animals in a zoo. He had su expressive face, though he might just have mastered frown-gring.

  I let Daake the lead. It was as much a show of respect as me not knowing the pce where we could safely chat was.

  Selene followed a step behind me and I just trotted after Dante like a little dug following her mother. Pride. That was what would demao stand shoulder to shoulder with him, or even have him aowledge my superiority.

  I was disregarding that pride rather easily now; I suspected it’d be much harder if there wasn’t a purpose for me ag like this. Hmmm. If this fucker doesn’t pay me bae showing respect ter though …

  I was even ag like he was my superior in front of his mee us merely having made a deal. There was a fine liween looking subservient and respectful, and I wasn’t willing to step over that line. Subservience was … revolting to a primal part of me.

  “Here.” He spoke and headed into a room with a circur table with far te chairs around it. “Sit.”

  “Sure,” I hummed, flopping down into a chair I pulled out with a touch of TK, both for myself and Selly. She stayed standing behind me for a moment, but sat down with a soft sigh.

  She wao py the bodyguard, and while that was sorta cute, I didn’t need bodyguards. I needed my cute fort rabbit sitting close to me.

  “I appreciate your help. You have possibly saved the lives of hundreds of my men today.” He started out. “Now, what have you found that you believe would need my attention?”

  “I don’t know.” I tilted my head. “I don’t know what it is, but there is some sort of advayranid Bioform hiding out in an expansive cave system some way around in that dire.”

  He just nodded, gng in the dire I poihere was a question in his aura. I could tell he wasn’t too pleased about being pulled away from his and, so he was waiting for something worth his time. As if just talking to me wasn’t enough.

  “From what little I could gleam, it seemed strohahe Swarmlord we fought.” I said with a mental eye-roll that mao grab the a warrior’s attention.

  “Are you sure?” He asked, audibly holding himself back from sounding demanding, but there was still a bite to his tone.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’d say it is siderably stroaller, tougher, stronger, stealthier. It is an all around menace. Plus, those caverns were eye-catg too, covered in Tyranid gestation pods and other simir stuff.”

  “Where exactly was this?” He asked, now deathly calm. That was some professionalism.

  “I’d say about … “I thought about it, calcuted and tried to e up with the best way to tell the exact position I was referring to. “Don’t you have maps here?”

  “We have some in the war room.” He said after a moment. “e.”

  “Wait.” I stopped him as he started to rise. Selly was tired already, I wao be doh this quickly and head for a bed. Being hung up in a and room with a dozen giant transhumans talking about bat strategy for hours was not what I wao be doing. “This one?”

  Illusions were unfortunately something that got pushed onto the sidelines in favour of more explosive psychic Spells, but they shined when a problem couldn’t be solved by blowing it up. So despite my g training in this school of psionics, I could easily replicate the same map I could see through my aura in the and room.

  “Yes.” He sat down, only taking a brief moment to stare at the illusion before he just accepted it being there and disregarded the ‘how’. Though, he is probably rather used to seeing weird space magic bullshit.

  “This region.” I drew a red circle around the region where I saw the cave openings. “Is where I saw at least fifty cave openings scattered around the deep ges and wherever else. I desded into this one.”

  A si lit up in blue.

  “And this is what I saw.” This time, a hologram lit up that repyed what I saw through the Drone’s eyes. I blurred the image a bit and modified some things on it so it was impossible to tell that it wasn’t actually me there.

  The repy stopped right as ‘ I ‘ id eyes on the giant Tyranid. Then I cut it.

  “That was my ‘report’ ander, do with it what you wish.” I said as I stood up to stretch. “If you send a kill team down there, I’d reend waiting a few days. Or just dropping something big and explosive on top of it, not sure if that thing is something that be killed by anythihan a cyic torpedo.”

  “Thank you.” Dante nodded, he too stood up and gave us a nod. “If we send a kill team down there, would you be willing to apany them?”

  “If the kill team is sent … “ How much?

  [Indomitus Fleet ETA: 2d1h3m]

  Wait what? How?

  “More than two days and one hour from now, then yes. Before that, no and I don’t reend sending anything, but scouts either,” , mentally thinking over whether I was losing track of time. Maybe my initial calcution was way off uilliman was dumb enough to -jump ihe system? Thoughts for ter.

  “Very well.” His demeanour revealed nothing, but fusion marred his aura along with a touch of frustration. “I’ll be in the and room if you ge your mind.”

  “Sure. Ah, and by the way, I killed that worm thing that’d been b you along with a tiny Chaos cult I found along the way. You are wele.” I gave him a smile. “Anyway, remember, two days, ander. You’ll see that there are still some miracles to be had in this dark gaxy of ours.”

  With that we departed, heading separate ways. Dante dashed off to his buddies to pn, and I headed bato our room with Selene.

  “A bath sounds nice.” I hummed, giving Selene a side-eye. “You know, sihey are rationing water here, shouldn’t we just take a bath at the same time to not waste water?

  “No.” she said without even looking at me. There was still a tension in her shoulder as she said that, but signifitly less so than before. “You probably just jure up some water anyway.”

  “Killjoy.” I rolled my eyes, smiling to myself as her stoic mask melted away with our room’s door ing into view.

  P3t1

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