133 – Play Stupid Games …

133 – Play Stupid Games ...

“Who are you?” I asked, trembling in fury as livid arcs of power jumped over my skin. “And what have you done to Selene?”

My aura was flaring and I could tell everyone on the ship with even a nick of psychic potential could feel it. The ... thing in front of me was Selene. Every cell of her body fit, every strand of hair, even the expressions, the way she liked to half-smirk and let her eyelids fall halfway when she teased me. Everything was hers.

But it stank. And I couldn’t tell why ... the link. Of course. How could I be so stupid? I had a damned Telepathic Bond with her, and it was missing.

No. Not missing. It’s still there, but not linking me to this fake. I calmed down instantly as I felt Selene, the real Selene’s shock at my outburst from somewhere above me. A flush of embarrassment ran up my cheeks, then I huffed out a breath as I glared at the stupid fucking thing.

That was all the warning it got before I lashed out. It danced out of the way, but a blast of furious energy tore off its shoulder and then I was on it. My fingers closed around its neck in vice as I moved faster than ever before even as my Custodian-grade muscles tore from the strain and mended themselves a moment after.

“You are going to pay for that scare.” I tightened my grip and flooded its body with the most painful electricity possible. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

It screamed, eerily still sounding like Selene as it did and I couldn’t help the shudder that rushed down my spine from that. Even just a fake mimicking its voice, imagining the real her being made to scream like that tore at my heart.

Then it started giggling, transforming into a full-blown cackle even as I was running a whole-ass industrial generator’s worth of electricity frying its nerves. What, the, fuck.

“What a bust.” It croaked out between giggles. “What gave it away? Hey, tell me? Can’t just be that your love wouldn’t have said what I said? I know it wasn’t. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”

“Daemon.” I said, my eyes widening for a moment and I saw glee in the thing’s eyes as it saw my surprise. Then it must have seen the cruel glint flash behind my eye as its grin fell away.

I didn’t say anything. I just infused the electricity with Smite.

I thought it was screaming before, but that was merely an imitation. This stupid thing mimicking a human’s reactions. Now, though? Now the Daemon was screaming from the depths of its infernal soul as my energy tore into it and annihilated it part by part. Slowly. Oh, I went slow and enjoyed the sheer agony in its eyes as it tried to twist itself out of my grasp.

It was like a hundred people screaming as one. Like a hundred pigs getting slaughtered, a concerto of chalk screeching on a hundred blackboards. The voices fluctuated from young to old, human to alien.

It went slack, bones melting, flesh softening and skin turning liquid in my grasp, but I wrapped the whole disgusting goop up in a psychic barrier and squeezed it into a ball and continued to ever so slowly fry its soul.

“Echidna?”

I turned my head to her. I could tell this Selene was the real one, I felt our Bond as clearly as a physical thread wrapping around my throat. She must have rushed down here after she felt my outburst, maybe even Blinking. Did she learn how to Blink in my one month of being a shut-in? Or was it Val who teleported her down? “Yes?”

“What are you doing? What’s up? I felt-”

“I know.” I set my jaw, returning a seething glare at the shrill daemon goop. I wrapped a field of soundproofing shield around the already existing Barrier. “This ... thing. Dared to impersonate you. It- I’m going to kill it. Slowly.”

“Oh,” she just stared for a second, lips pulled into a thin line as she watched the churning goop as it formed hands to claw at my shields, nails digging in surprisingly deep, but tearing off as I tugged at the shields just so. “Wh- What did it do? I mean- the-”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “It just ... spouted the typical Daemonic bullshit. Wanted me to become some monster and ‘shed off my facade of humanity’. Well, I’m curious how much of a human it thinks I still am right now.”

“You are ... torturing it.” Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

“It died pretty easily ... hmmmm.” I frowned in confusion. That thing was supposed to be on the level of a Greater Daemon and should have been capable of fooling even the mightiest of beings in existence. I think I remember it being at the council of Nikea, hiding under the nose of the Emperor and half a dozen Primarchs ... then there was that time it snuck into Khorne’s throneroom and put a ... fartpillow on his throne? Or was that just a silly meme? Hmmmm.

“What are you thinking?” Selene asked, sliding up next to me and wrapping a hand around my waist. She rubbed my side comfortingly, as if trying to calm an angry cat by scratching it behind the ears.

“I’ve heard of a shape-changing daemon before,” I said, leaning into her half-hug. “But this thing died too fast, too easily for it to have been The Changeling.”

“Wait,” Selene said. “‘The’ Changeling? As in, this was supposedly a unique one?”

“As far as I know,” I shrugged. “There are other shape-changers in this galaxy that I know of, but none of them even come close to the perfect mimicry the Changeling supposedly has. Plus, it was a daemon. I’m sure of that, at least.”

“So, hypothetically, what would the consequences be if you really did kill that unique daemon?”

“Nothing much,” I said, my lips curling into a smirk. “I just killed one of Tzeentch’s favourite daemons, he’ll probably laugh his ass off and leave me alone, right?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “‘Oh’, indeed. We might be fucked.”

And here I was, thinking I could avoid them messing with me this early on. I’ll have to speed my plans up. That base outfitted with anti-daemon sigils and more needs to be ready yesterday.

“Worse yet,” I closed my eyes as I felt my little Realm. “I just wasted almost a fifth of my entire Soul Energy reserves.”

“Meaning?” Selene asked, and I could feel her worry spiking.

“Meaning we have to speed things up if we don’t want to get caught with our pants down,” I said. “With this thing dead, I doubt it’ll take long for a stronger daemon to come after me. Or a horde of them, even. If there is one thing these fuckers fear, it’s oblivion and I just showed them I can make even a daemon as strong as the Changeling face it. They’ll want the threat I pose gone as soon as possible.”

Well. The Greater Daemons will. If I know one thing about Tzeenth, it’s that he enjoys anything that spices up the Great Game and I am a whole fucking bucket of chilli poured right into it. But that just means he won’t put in any personal effort into getting me killed.

Selene squeezed me tightly, worry flowing into her aura like a riptide. I understood, really. Daemons were the ultimate boogeymen in this galaxy. They warped the mind, never died and their masters were powerful enough to orchestrate the Horus Heresy and put the Emperor himself out of commission.

“It’ll be fine,” I said, my emotions shown clearly through our Bond. I was worried, true, but I was annoyed more than anything. “We just need to prepare and get ready. Daemons aren’t omnipotent and they can’t just materialise on a thought. We have some time.”

“What do you need me to do?” She asked, staring up at me resolutely.

“Keep up your training,” I said. “And try to pry whatever information you can out of Val. I know there are Daemon wards, sigils and whatnot that obstruct them. I’m not sure if he knows of them, but if he does, I don’t have to hunt down some Imperial Inquisitor to get my hands on them.”

“Okay, sure. What else?”

“Nothing yet.” I shrugged, cracking my neck. “We need to get these fish heads to hurry the hell up. But I’ll handle that. Aside from that ... I don’t know yet.”

“Okay,” she said. “If you need me to do anything, just ask.”

“Thank you,” I squeezed her a bit tighter. “You are perfect. We’ll handle this. No need to worry overly much. Worst case scenario, we run and hide under a random Tyranid Hive Fleet’s Shadow.”