999.M41 Minutes before the fall of Cadia || Folx IV; Sector Darkspire; Segmentum Ultima; Imperium Nihilis ||"Are we ready?"The question resounded around the spacious room, carrying a tone of nervousness and childish excitement. While it would have been endearing if the question came from a child but as it had not. Azkaral, a proud member of the Word Bearers Legion was astounded hearing the deep emotion hidden in his Borther-Sergant's voice. He was a man who stood against the Corpse Emperor ten thousand years ago and was among the first to be enlightened. Now this several millennia-old monster who has ducted innumerable rituals in service to their Gods without anything other than cold determination and satisfa was barely taining himself from jumping iement. "Yes, Brother-Sergeant," he kept his thoughts to himself and answered, "the ritual preparations and the sacrifices have been gathered and aplished per your dires." And what sacrifices they were. Azkaral felt a simir excitement well up in him at the thought. Never before has he been part of a Ritual sacrifig the entire popution of several ps at once. Folx IV was a Hive World too, with billions of inhabitants. What great goal could they aplish with such a grand ritual? He sadly wasn't privy to it, nobody was, only the Sergeant. Even summoning a greater demon wouldn't take this much effort, maybe they were aiming for a Demon Prince? Or something eveer? "Good," the a voice whispered, its excitement barely hidden this time, "We shall start at ohen, we haven't got much time." And they did. At the order of the Sergeant, all Brothers kneeled across the fifteen different ps and sang. Their song was filled with zealous devotion and their demonically gifted psychic might reverberated across the . Their souls linked and resohrough the rituals, filling each Brother's soul with the strength of the billions of the reaped souls. As their song s cresdo Azkaral felt an enormous shockwave travel through him. With the shockwave came a deepening of his e to the . Azkaral pulled this newfound e to its limit as he felt many of his Brothers do so as well. He didn't know the reason but this must have been the reason why the Sargent wao perform the Ritual at this exact time. Soon enough the cresdo arrived and Azkaral felt a pull on his soul, it was a familiar sensation he associated with getting banished. Now, though the pull wasn't ing from his e to his Gods, nor the but the Ritual. A normal person would have been horrified in his position but Azkaral only felt two things at this moment. A regret, for not seeing what magnifit result this ritual would achieve. And joy, at the knowledge that he would tribute his very being to this goal. He didn't even attempt to resist as he felt himself being pulled into the grand Ritual with the Sergeant at its ter. His st individual thought was etion at feeling his many brothers be pulled along with him. Machias felt the unimaginable power well up inside him, threatening to tear his soul apart. He has taken many precautions against su occurre it seems it might barely be enough. His soul wouldn't st much, but it should be enough. It 't have all been for nothing. Su opportunity came on history and never again, nor before would it repeat itself. Machias was known as the Apostate, well one of the things he was known as was the Apostate for his exceptionally accurate visions of the future. They were irregur and came without his prompting but he weled them all. Such visions were seen as the blessings of the Lord of ge and he felt nothing but gratitude for them. Especially for this one. A crack appeared in space above him and a small tainer fell out of it. The crack, which revealed a dark ste oher side closed just as quickly as it appeared but it left behind a gift. Machias smiled as he held the orb-shaped tainer maybe a fourth of his size. One of the dearly kept relics of the Shadowkeepers just fell right into his hands, straight from the most impregnable vault below the imperial pa Holy Terra itself. Moments before this tainer sat somewhere below the very throne of the corpse emperor. A chuckle left him briefly followed by a wince. He couldn't st much longer. He pced the tainer in the middle of the Ritual circle he was kneeling on and tihe song. With all his power he reached out, far away as he could and he searched. The has never been so powerful yet so weak at the same time before, its sudden expansion weakes barriers momentarily. This didn't make much differe for his goals, it would be essential. His reach extended beyond the and out into the deep immaterial, his soul brushed against the great sea of other universes and examihem. He felt them, tasted them and he discarded them to search for another. None of them were what he wahere were many powerful souls and iing beings in all of them but he wanted more. Something that would throw the Gaxy, no this Reality into Chaos. He coughed out blood and his eyes were bloodshot, barely holding his physical form together to tether his enormous amalgam of a soul but he found it. He briefly felt it, not quite knowing how or where but he felt it. He tched onto that feeling and pulled himself along like a drowning man clutg a thrown rope. He dragged himself along even if he couldn't quite prehend how or where he was going. How could he? If he was searg left and right before then the current dire he was going in wards. Something alien and he felt like he didn't belong. Reality itself was trying to force him out of this pce, this pne of existenbsp;With a st smirk, he grabbed at the first soul he seo his delight it didn't resist, he felt even in his state if it did he couldn't have done anything t it along as he ulled back down into his reality. He clutched the soul as if his life depended on it as his surroundings bleogether. In a single moment that felt lohan his whole life up until now, he was babsp;Without a single sed of hesitation, he plunged his hand into the tainer a it shatter under his strength. Good, he thought as that was the st of it. He gently guided the soul into what was ihe tainer. A perfect body for a perfect soul. His greatest masterpieo this was the greatest masterpiece that has ever existed and ever will. A bioo over from the Dark Age of Teology that even the Corpse Emperor couldn't destroy infused with the should a higher dimensional being. "For...Chaos," Machias murmured as both his physical body and soul started to disie, this wasn't just banishment, this was oblivion. He barely saw snow-white tendrils sh out of the broken tainer before he finally perished.