You nod, holding out your hand. Khalid grabs you by the hand, and stares into your eyes.


"This'll be simple enough. Just don't resist. Understood?"


"Got it," you say.


"With the Dark Gods, the Corpse-Emperor himself and anyone else out their with the power to oversee this bargain, I pledge these two souls together by the binding contract, that we will remain allies into all ways possible. Should we break this contract, let our souls be forfeit."


You hear the chattering of thousands of daemonic voices as they watch your deal. You feel your mind be flooded into by Khalid's, as consciousness, in the way normal humans feel it, fade.


You find yourself floating in a void, surrounded by an ever-shifting mass of golden energy, that seem to make up Khalid. You look around, as you see his thoughts floating around you. You reach out your hand, touching the thought screams as you hear Khalid's voice boom.


"Is the big freak literate? Is it even sentient? I would think not. If I had to look at that face in the mirror every morning I'd kill myself."


You frown, touching another.


"Is the dumbass seriously using Kyros' former lieutenants, those who enslaved his people, as his lieutenants? He saw them betray Kyros! And now the dumbass is reading your thoughts, no doubt learning that while I'll remain loyal to him, he's a fucking wanker."


You touch another one.


"You, Karth Uwais, are ugly. See? I'm not even slightly lying."


Well, you've got what you need from his thoughts. Still, in the golden fog of energy, you can see what you assume are memories drifting around. You see his staff floating through the void before disappearing, before you see a wolf bound through the fog. You can hear distant screams emanate through the fog from some horrifying memory. You see Kyros march across the fog and step back nervously despite knowing he's only a memory.

You follow the screams

You walk after the sounds of screams, and find yourself surrounded by chaos. Khalid stands alongside his fellow space marines, although they writhe and convulse in pain. One of the space marines screams as he tears his helmet off, revealing dozens of eyes growing on his head. Another marine looks in horror at the spine-like tumors growing from your arm, shattering his armor. You notice Khalid's mutations as his skin bubbles and blisters as if exposed to a flame, as his eyes melts out of his face as tiny mouths replace them, tentacles emerging from his back and flailing desperately.


Suddenly, you see a blast of magic run through the area. You turn, seeing a space marine with black horns coming out of his helmet reading a tome.


The men begin to course, as their mutations begins receding. Khalid's mutations retreat into his body or burn away from the magic, as the youthful Khalid is remade. Still, not everyone is as fortunate. The space marines around him have their mutations burn away, but the psychic energy doesn't stop. Their bodies begin to shift and fall apart as they turn to dust. They power armor reforges itself around them, trapping the dust inside.


For a moment, Khalid seems relieved as he looks down at his unmutated form. Then, he sees his brothers. He grabs a space marine next to him, holding him closely.


"Narmer! Narmer, what's become of you!? NARMER!"


The room once more fades to darkness.