40 – The Bird

40 – The Bird"Armor up," I said as I placed my palm on Selene's shoulder, a single microscopic tendril of white flesh slipped out of my palm and sewed itself into the woman's hair, "and stay here; I'll handle this." "But," she started, indignant at my dismissal. I placed a finger at her lips just as she was about to continue, smirking at the gobsmacked expression on her face, "These are demons, big bad demons that are far out of the pay grade of you and your guards." "Fine," she said as she slapped my hand away, "hurry up then." "Sure, sure," I waved as I jogged off, which turned into a full-powered dash as soon as I was out of sight of the woman. I rushed past Shadows so fast their puny minds couldn't even register my passing. I reached the first wave of little monsters and jumped right into the fray as a thin exoskeleton of armor covered my body; it was far from the symbiotic living armor I had in mind, but it'd work for now. My bio-sword grew into my hand, and I grabbed ahold of its handle, not wasting a second before I coated it with psychic flames and lashed out with it, sending a respectably sized inferno into the giggling little monsters. They burned by the hundreds as I jumped over them, firing off bolts of bio-electricity that jumped between the Horrors and burned whatever they had for a nervous system right out. They fell over and started dissolving into warp energy, but I didn't care at the moment; I sensed much more of the same energy in a far more condensed state in the back. My soul energy rushed out to cover the armor in a film of psychic shield just before a ball of warpfire smacked into me and covered me in iridescent flames. I glanced curiously at my flame-covered hand as I felt the chaotic flame try to eat away at my shield; it tried to corrupt the energy fuelling it and turn what I used to protect myself into fuel for itself and incinerate me by using my own power. I let out a burst of soul energy from my skin, banishing the flames as they clung onto the newfound energy like starving piranhas, and I held back a chuckle as the still-alive flames fell onto the horde of Horrors below me. I was still grinning as my gaze zeroed in on the monster that was responsible for that destructive spell, finding a man-sized monster similar to the pink Horrors. Its eyes held the same glee but contained a calculating malice as it weaved its next spell into being with its inky eyes holding me in its sight even as I moved faster than a normal human could see. "Well," my eyes narrowed as I grabbed ahold of myself with Telekinesis and launched myself out like a bullet, my protective shield pulping any of the little horrors jumping in my way, "fuck you too." My sword burst into a brilliant white fire as I infused the same smite into the psychic flames that I used before and ran the little monster through before it could even understand that I wasn't three hundred meters away but right in front of it. My flames did what this thing's warpfire was trying to do but with much more success as it screeched out in a horrifying exhale of pain. The flames ate through its flimsy attempts of shielding itself, and I ripped my blade out of it in an arc, leaving its thin torso barely connected to its other half, but the flames, by now eating most of its form, were far too distracting for it to even offer a reaction to my action. I slashed one last time, cutting the Herald's head off along with its scream as its body dissolved into nothing; my soul energy in the flames using itself to destroy the very warp energy making up its being. I turned my gaze towards the dark tunnels behind my latest foe, seeing the last of the Horrors amble out of it. I glanced back at the battlefield; my previous attack decimated the enemies' numbers, and by now the Shadows were only outnumbered around five to one, but I saw arcs of electricity and gauss fire join the las fire and meltas of the Shadows, signifying that Zedev finally made up his mind and sent his underlings into the fray. I threw one last slash behind me, thinning the backline of the horrors before I turned and rushed into the dark tunnels. My stomach felt like a knot as I felt my mind glower in distaste at the presence I felt in front of me; I didn't find any other monsters aside from five more Heralds. I didn't waste much time and cut the first's head off without effort; after that, two were together, and one of them managed to nick my back a bit with a spell that sent me smashing into the wall even if I took half of his comrade with me. An Eldritch Blast dematerialized him for that, and I was running further down into the tunnel even before his body fully dissolved. Then came three of them, I didn't try to play it cool and blasted them from afar with Smite-infused Eldritch Blasts just to be safe; if the spell aimed at destroying anything physical with chaotic energy infused with the energy-eating 'enchantment' if you will didn't kill them, I didn't know what would. Then there were five of them, and I started to feel a bit weird; five Heralds of Change. I felt like I was playing some game where the difficulty increased with each fight. 'Acute' I felt the word reverberate through the tunnel as much as it did through my skull; soul energy flooded into my mindscape and into my body through my soul thread, reinforcing and shielding every part of my being with as much power as I could. 'Curious' This time I only heard the word as the air vibrated in the tunnel, but it didn't enter my mind like that one uninvited uncle at the family gathering that always told racist jokes. I was much more apprehensive now, but I still blasted the Heralds away with five parallel Eldritch Blasts. I could go for flashy combat when I had the leeway, but whatever was behind these Heralds was dangerous; I thought back on the people behind me and all the things I knew Demons liked to do with captured enemies. A pit formed in my stomach, but I knew I could abandon them if the danger grew too high; heroism for me was below my own survival by several grades in importance. I walked into the darkness with my guard raised as high as it could be with the shield covering me extending into a capsule around me instead of a thin film. It shimmered in a white colour and gave off a little light, but mostly it was translucent as I wished it to be. My sword was alight with white flame as my body was flooded with both bio-energy and soul energy; I saw dust particles flow in the air, and I could count the strands of hair in my vision every fraction of a second. I moved, reality flowed around me as my body swam through the air faster than sound; there was no thundering explosion following behind me as the air parted in front of my shield and flowed seamlessly back into its place behind me as I passed. I didn't move for longer than a second as I felt the disgusting presence less than fifty meters away from me. I didn't lessen the energy flowing through me; I was ready to run away if I needed to, but I really didn't want this thing on the same planet I was on if I could help it. The Shadows danced along the decrepit walls as the feathers along the Demon's body were set alight with everchanging flames flickering in and out of reality. The Lord of Change was leaning on a large staff made of seemingly wood which had branches around the top of it twisting in a protective sphere around a burning orb of flame. "We meet, at last," it spoke, I think; one of its heads did, at least, while the other was tilting its vulture-like head curiously in my vague direction, "Greetings." "Hi," I said uncertainly as the vulture head extended forward while the eagle-like one stared at me thoughtfully. They said looking into the eyes of a Lord of Change was one of the easiest ways to go insane in the galaxy; these beings could understand not only your whole life and your past but also glean into your possible futures and understand your entire society with a single glance. People tended to go insane as all this information flowed back into their minds as they stared into the abyss-like eyes of these Greater Demons. I stared into those mythical eyes and saw confusion, curiosity, and interest along with what I thought was reluctance. "Test yourself," the eagle head spoke, "or be tested." "You were testing me with those Heralds," I stated. "Perhaps," the eagle said, "perhaps they were tested; they failed to change, to adapt to reality. Perhaps it is you who failed to adapt? Did change curse you or did you curse yourself with change? Will you bring change or adapt to stagnation?" I couldn't help but smirk as I remembered how the Changer of Ways was portrayed in fan fiction and the silly riddles he spoke in. "The future is yet to be forged," I said, "why do you ask me what it holds before it came to be if it is susceptible to change up until the last minute?" "The possibilities are infinite," the vulture croaked, speaking up for the first time as it retreated a bit, still hunched while the eagle was raised gracefully, "but infinity can be trimmed, it is still infinite, but it does not include fates that we don't wish to be." I spent a silent second evaluating; I felt the amount of energy coursing through this oversized bird and then myself. I didn't like my chances, to be honest; my smite only worked if I could overwhelm the enemy in energy throughput. "So you wish to test whether I need trimming?" "Perhaps," the eagle spoke again, earning the side-way glare from the vulture, "perhaps trimming shall be done unto you, or you shall do it unto me; fate is uncertain, clouded, annoying, interesting, curious, distasteful, delightful, deplorable, I will kill you." He didn't move as the flame in the tip of his staff danced and split, leaping into the air in five different directions and rushing at me in arcs of destructive force. I quickly threw out thick psychic shields to intercept the incoming arcs of energy before they could reach within ten meters of me as I threw myself sideways and consequently into the wall twenty meters away; the arcs exploded against my shields; three stopped, but two might have been stronger as the arcs continued on after shattering my shields and turned, smashing into my personal shield from the front just as I jumped out of the me-sized hole in the wall. The energy burned at my shields, and I flooded the capsule-like shield with extra energy to hold for a bit longer; it still shattered a split second later, but by that time another ten shields were between me and the murderous bolts of warp energy. Three broke in the first tenth of a second, another five in the next fifth, and the bolts bore through two more before they fizzled out of existence with only a single shield protecting me. "Interesting, curious, it lives, We failed to kill it," I glanced warily at the feathered Demon, it stood languidly, leaning on its gnarly staff. Its vulture head tilted curiously while the eagle had its eyes narrowed; you know what? fuck you. My soul-thread thickened as energy barrelled through with nothing more than a wish; my body creaked, and my eyes went bloodshot as energy far more than it could handle even with the upgrades rushed through it. It condensed into tiny orbs at the end of my fingers as I raised my right hand while reality blinked, remaining unknowing of my actions before it sprang back, and five blots of condensed soul energy fired out like lightning. My vision went pure white as the energy overwhelmed my natural senses as well as my psychic ones, the density of the energy I unleashed was far beyond what I've ever experienced. Bio-energy was used up in obscene amounts as it regenerated cells dying by the billions and muscles withering every second from the strain I placed on them, but I couldn't help but grin through the muted pain as I heard the Lord of Change screech; it was the most beautiful duet of agony put into sounds my ears ever had the misfortune of experiencing. My ears bled, but bio-energy would fix that in a second. "Test, each other, we did," the eagle wheezed, "the future remains uncertain, but our next meeting is preordained, prepare yourself, Unseen One, for your existence shall remain clouded no longer." I forced my jaw and raised a shaking hand at the Demon, another round of blasts being held at the ready, but it seemed the Demon was retreating. "Remember us, We will find you, Unseen One, you may hide from fate but destiny twists around you, We will find you." Reality fractured behind it, and the avian Demon stepped back, his form getting lost in the twisting glass-shard-like pieces of the veil separating realspace from the Warp. I let myself breathe as his psychic presence no longer assaulted my mindscape just by existing near me; I realized I hadn't taken a single mouthful of air since I first sensed the Greater Demon. Throughout our conversation not for a moment did I have much of an idea what the demon was going to do, it was chaos manifested. I don't think even it knew what it was going to do before it did it. I stared down at my shaking right hand as my bio-sword slipped out of my grasp, being mostly useless in my confrontation. My knees buckled as my strength deserted me, existing hurt. Every pore of my body felt like a scorching inferno, I felt like my nerves were being electrocuted even if my senses told me that all of my pain receptors were withered. The pain was both real and unreal, striking at my strained body and my abused psychic pathways. I took a shaky breath, more to calm my jittery nerves than for the need to breathe. Soul energy swirled around and inside my body, gathering the dispersed warp energy in the expanded hallway to replenish some of the energy I've spent. I grabbed onto my fallen sword and used it as a crutch to stand back up. My legs shook under me but I took a shaky step, stabbing the sword into the stone before me as I did so and leaning onto it. One step at a time, it is gone now, I just need to get back to the others. My body was still breaking down and repairing itself, cells withering and regenerating every single second as I started limping back toward the others; that Gateway needed fixing. I was really into getting out of this place before that dumb bird decided to have another play session right as the splinter fleet arrived. The Lord of Change and famed weaver of fate stumbled through the haphazard gate and fell into the gentle embrace of the Warp. "What," its regal, eagle-like head's beak parted to speak, "were we doing?" "The past escapes me," its ragged vulture-like head croaked, displeasure radiating from its glare, "the future is clear, but somehow wrong." "Curious, I remember a mission....a mission....what were we supposed to do?" The vulture didn't deign to answer, it had already forgotten what they were talking about after all, only the future mattered to it. The eagle continued to ponder, the past should be an open book to it and while it was for the most part it couldn't remember the last day's worth of his activities. Flickers of memories rushed past its ephemeral mind, just a touch out of reach but they painted a confusing picture. A meeting with one he couldn't see, its form was clouded, its voice reverberated with power but its presence was non-existent and yet it hurt him. Unseen One. Unseen by fate, unshackled by destiny, and immune to stagnation. The Lord of Change shivered, such a being...too dangerous...perfect...a herald of change...but the Great game...it doesn't matter...Change will remain... "Curious...curious...." "Destiny is shifting, Fate is being defied, The Game remains but the stakes mount ever higher." "Sure...Sure...whatever you say...."