Chương 14: A Suspicous Paradise

Half an hour after Atreus left us, other defenders arrived, consisting of five heavily battered Blood Angels and Maria, who had her own severed arm slung over her back. But despite their appearance, I was glad we had more serious protection that was untainted by Chaos. And I could feel that their souls were still pure and unmarred by the influence of the Ruinous Powers. Some of the Space Marines radiated unpleasant emotions, as if they had been induced upon them, but nothing connected to Chaos.

Mutants and daemons tried to break through to us several times, but they were dealt with in literally seconds. After all, the Astartes knew their job and reacted with superhuman speed. Maria was also back in action, as Zerbe had managed to reattach her arm in a couple of minutes, not without the help of psychic power. Using Biomancy, he miraculously knitted the flesh together so that a minute later it was perfectly fine and moved almost without issue.

This psychic discipline interested me particularly strongly, as the possibilities of this ability were simply limitless. How about immortality? Curing diseases? Increasing physical strength to the level of Space Marines? So many ideas, and each one could be incredibly useful. We had to wait several more hours for Atreus to return. He came back covered head to toe in blood, but judging by his calm demeanor, everything was fine.

"All daemons on the path to the field generator have been eliminated, and a guard consisting of Aaron and the remaining winged ones has been posted there. But the surviving serfs pose questions. If we kill them all, we won't be able to operate the ship and will remain stuck in the middle of the Warp. But if we leave the cultists alive, the problems will multiply exponentially." Zerbe instantly perked up and sounded as focused as ever.

The psychic shocks had long ceased, and he had almost fully recovered from their effects. Before me once again was an unbreakable individual, capable of bending steel with sheer will.

"Proceed with the purge, I will figure out how to sort them. First, we need to establish contact with the Astropathic Choir, and then reach the bridge. What is the status of Saviy and the Mechanicus?" Atreus looked at him silently and very sternly for about five seconds before answering harshly.

"Saviy was subjected to the influence of Chaos and subsequently eliminated."

"Confirmed. Most likely, it was his experiments that caused the field to falter." Khoron, as usual, simply appeared out of thin air, this time stepping out from behind Atreus. And judging by the fact that the Praetorian didn't even flinch, he knew the invisible man was there. Zerbe shifted his gaze to him, nodded, and then they began creating a plan to establish control over the ship. The next few hours could be described in one word: slaughter.

The Space Marines purged the ship of all mutants, cultists, and hiding daemons, while simultaneously trying to rally the crew and create at least a semblance of order. Surprisingly, I even walked alongside them. Zerbe and I were still surrounded by the psychic barrier, but Atreus, Maria, and the Space Marines also walked alongside us, meaning any threat around us died almost instantly. Atreus agreed to this tiny risk because my ability was critically important here.

I was needed as a corruption scanner, pointing out hidden cultists and concealed daemons. And there were very, very many of them. I detected over a thousand "sleeper" Chaos worshippers among the surviving serfs—the menials—and even a few daemons hiding near the ceilings, in the walls, and other places. They were personally eliminated by Atreus, who I saw fight for the first time. And he was anomalously good. Anyone could see the difference between him and the Blood Angels, and it wasn't just experience.

He moved much faster than them, reacted before anyone else, and could cleave a daemon in half with a single strike. I was also able to get a particularly clear look at his blade—a golden edge across which barely visible lightning occasionally danced. And this sword didn't care what was in front of it; it chopped any daemon to pieces and passed through the cruiser's steel without resistance. Although I tried not to create overly crazy theories, I simply had no choice here.

Psychic resistance, immense strength even by Astartes standards, the absence of Chapter heraldry, and vast experience? A very narrow circle of individuals possesses such a combination. And if you also recall that he threatened an Inquisitor and walked away alive, the options become even fewer. But it's best to keep these thoughts to myself for now, as there's no telling what might happen to me on this ship...

Ultimately, we—or rather, Zerbe and Atreus—managed to calm and organize the remaining crew to prepare the ship for its return to realspace. But most importantly, our Navigators were still alive. The Navigator's Spire or tower was the highest point on the cruiser, resembling the mast of an ancient wooden ship. An obvious target in a space battle, except, as Maria told me, this place was also incredibly heavily fortified, arguably better than the rest of the ship.

The generators and the bridge are located deep inside the ship, so reaching them is not that simple. The Astropathic Choir and the Mechanicus workshops are technically also very well protected, but in our case, they were the unluckiest of all. The Tech-Priests took the brunt of the daemonic assault, and none of them survived the field deactivation. Furthermore, there were no mutants or cultists among them; everyone simply died. Dozens of bodies lay on the floor without a single wound.

The Astropaths were equally unlucky, as the daemonic incursion caught them right in the middle of conducting a psychic choir. From what I understood, they died instantly; their heads simply exploded due to exposure to pure Warp. Not the worst fate, honestly. I think many of those whose bodies and souls were seized by daemons would have gladly chosen that fate over eternal torture. I wasn't taken to see the Navigator himself, as the chance of him going insane and turning traitor is astronomically small.

Even I could feel the powerful psychic barrier erected around the spire, breaking through which would be quite costly. Navigators are not psykers, but their power lies in their ability to see the currents of the pure Warp without losing their minds. And they are definitely capable of identifying me as a psyker. I'm sure Zerbe has ways of silencing even him, but there is still no need to attract unnecessary attention.

I was left with Atreus and Maria, while Zerbe, Khoron, and the Blood Angels went to see the three-eyed psyker. We were left in the medicae deck, where only a single chirurgeon remained alive. The medicae examined us for the consequences of Warp exposure, such as hidden diseases or mutations. And while he fiddled with some medical instruments whose function I didn't even remotely understand, Maria turned to me, speaking in a whisper. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"After we arrive on Lehida, I will no longer be able to accompany you, but that does not mean I will stop being on your side. If you need my help, know that you can always turn to me. And I even have a gift for you that will help you greatly one day." She reached for her neck and with a deft motion removed something from it. She held out a pendant shaped like a brass sword surrounded by red-gold flame.

"This is the mark of Saint Drusus. When the hour of the sun's fall comes, go to his main shrine and you will receive answers. The Emperor has blessed you with great gifts, capable of very much." She placed the pendant and its chain around my neck, then smiled and stepped aside. Atreus saw all this but did not react in any way. I, however, continued to stare at the pendant, for it was not just a piece of metal. I could feel the Warp barely perceptibly permeating it, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

The power was in no way connected to Chaos; no, it was almost its complete opposite. Pure and merciless. And only once before had I felt something similar. I was ready to swear that the power of the knight I had encountered long ago in the Warp was identical to this.... Zerbe managed to reach an agreement with the Navigators, which allowed them to begin bringing the ship out of the Warp in the shortest possible time.

The three-eyed psyker plotted the paths our cruiser would take to avoid the major hazards of the Immaterium, but that was only half the work. To ensure the ship didn't emerge in the middle of a meteor field, specific calculations were required, which are handled by specially trained Tech-Priests. And since all our cog-lovers were dead, the risk of the operation increased significantly... if Atreus hadn't simply walked up to the cogitators—the local advanced computers—and started calculating the necessary route.

I wasn't even surprised by the sheer array of skills the old transhuman possessed anymore; I just tallied in my head how much I would have to learn from him. And considering his training schedule, I could forget about sleeping. It took only a few hours for our ship to escape the Warp. Reality ahead of us trembled once again, after which a passage into my native dimension opened. The cruiser passed through it without issue, and now we could breathe a sigh of relief.

The threat of Chaos never truly disappears, especially if you are a psyker, but in the Warp, that threat only magnifies and becomes many times more dangerous. As our ship moved toward the planet, I kept staring at the screen, trying to memorize the image of the new world as clearly as possible. Even from a distance, the difference between it and Scintilla was striking. My homeland looked from afar like a grey-brown ball, where even the water was dirty from the waste dumped by the giant hive cities.

Lehida Ten, on the other hand, was a green and blue planet, featuring several dozen different continents divided by a clear blue ocean. Honestly, I think even the Earth of the third millennium looked dirtier than this place. There was nothing in orbit except a single space station, and the surface of the world itself seemed to have never known human influence. This is what Earth might have looked like before the appearance of mankind and its first civilizations.

The journey from the Mandeville Point to the planet took us several times longer than last time, due to the death of most of the crew and the damage to the ship. But we still managed to get there and didn't even die in the process, which is already worth celebrating. However, when we reached orbit, Zerbe told us we would be taking shuttles down to the surface.

"This is a unique place, perfectly suited for your training. But it has its own rules, and violators face a great punishment. There is only one base on the planet's surface, where Lady Jaya resides with her servants. Due to certain peculiarities, it is forbidden to establish a settlement or use any complex technology here. However, what is much more important is that the forces of Chaos are significantly weakened in this place, and the Warp is unusually calm."

"Therefore, remember the two main rules of life on this planet: do not contradict Lady Jaya, and do not severely harm the local ecosphere." I didn't argue and simply nodded silently. Compared to all the spy games I'd had to participate in lately, following these rules would not be a problem. Simple and understandable laws; strange, of course, but still better than the hundreds and thousands of explicit and unspoken ones on Scintilla. We spent the next couple of hours preparing for the descent.

Accompanying me were Atreus, who had swapped his bloodied clothes for an identical grey robe, and Zerbe with his Acolytes. Maria had fully recovered from the battle but never stopped looking focused and ready for a fight. Khoron continued to stand silently nearby, away from everyone else, but he no longer looked so categorically suspicious of me. The assassin had stopped watching me oppressively, as if I were the embodiment of evil ready to orchestrate a massacre at any moment.

The shuttle descent took us about another hour. Down here, we could get a closer look at the planet. I couldn't say for sure how its size compared to the Earth I was used to or Scintilla, but the endless forests and waters, devoid of a single trace of human life, were striking. Interestingly, no other biomes were visible here besides various types of forests. No deserts, no valleys, not even an ice cap.

If you looked closely for a long time, you could spot mountain ranges, but they were also almost completely covered in vegetation. The oceans were crystal clear, making this world even more beautiful. Suspiciously beautiful, honestly. Nature cannot arrive at all this by itself. And if you recall the peculiarities of the local Warp, it only gets more interesting. As we descended, the planet's surface grew closer, and I finally managed to spot the only human habitation on this world.

It was a dozen massive metal containers, each the size of a five-story building. If you looked closely for a long time, you could even spot tiny dots gathering in one place. The landing was soft. There were no pressure drops or anything of the sort. We quickly gathered our delegation and began heading toward the ramp. The moment the doors opened, the first thing I realized was that the trees here were several times larger than normal, both in height and width. But despite all this, the picture was still beautiful.

I hadn't seen real vegetation since my past life, which seemed like an eternity ago. And here, nature looked like someone's constantly tended garden. The grass was only a few centimeters high and looked like a perfect lawn, rather than something natural. Lowering my gaze and stopping my survey of nature, I looked at the people greeting us. The delegation consisted of twenty people, half of whom were ordinary Imperial Guard soldiers. Well, if you consider the formal elite of the human army ordinary.

Yes, compared to Space Marines they weren't that impressive, but compared to the Planetary Defense Forces, which made up over ninety percent of the Imperium's armed forces, these were battle-hardened professionals. Each of them had been through several wars and possessed vast experience fighting a wide variety of enemies. But standing out above them all was the old woman standing at the front. I would have put her at about sixty, judging by her grey hair and wrinkles.

She looked at us with a smile and appeared quite friendly. I could sense that she was a powerful psyker, only slightly inferior to Zerbe, but at the same time an order of magnitude more experienced and dangerous. She had dozens of different artifacts concealed on her person, each of which radiated no less energy than the item I had found on the cultists. Zerbe hadn't said what had happened to her, and I hadn't asked. But here I felt truly incredible power, woven from the intertwining of dozens of Warp waves.

We descended the ramp, and Zerbe was the first to speak. I felt a warm breeze, free of pollution and exhaust, but I still didn't tear my eyes away from the upcoming meeting.

"I am glad to see you in good health, Lady Jaya. Our journey was rather unpleasant, and I will be needing a new ship with a new crew."

"Do not worry, you may stay with me as my guest. Besides, I will need to pass something on to Caidin. And we will also be able to discuss everything you have been through." She had a soft, inviting voice. She turned her head, and our eyes met. For the first time ever, I could not feel the soul of the person opposite me. The woman was closed off in the Warp, and it felt as if I were looking through clear glass. But I had a feeling that something was wrong.

"And you, I suspect, are Gabriel. I see you truly are special, just as Anton said. I have had many students, and rest assured, I will be able to teach you some interesting things..."