13th Black Crusade - The Despoiler's Wrath: The nodal cavern shook with the fury of war. The bedrock of the planet trembled at the clash of immeasurable wills. As in the Elysion Fields above, this was no battle of tactics, of grand strategy calculated and unleashed. It was a brawl fought at the closest of quarters, the dying near enough to see the hatred in their slayers' eyes.Lieutenant-Commander Cerantes of the Ultramarines Legion knew something was amiss. The broad strokes of the battle were correct, but the details were wrong. It seemed obvious that the foe was some nest of Traitors, fallen from the Emperor's light, but their heraldry was unfamiliar. Even the wargear of his allies was wrong, somehow... cruder...than it should have been. But one certainty overrode those doubts: the foes of the Imperium had risen, and would be put down by the might of Ultramar.The thunderclap of a demolisher shell ripped Cawl from his binharic reverie just as the last synapse connection snapped into place. Many-faceted eyes took in the losing battle in the cavern; his cerebrum slipped into war mode. It would take time for the pylon node to process his instructions, for the schema he had fashioned to unfurl. His carapace crackled as tertiary life-support bled power into his weapon-augments. Vox-grilles cleared, the syllables of the Lingua Technis rising without conscious thought. Around the chamber, the voices of Electro-priests and Skitarii took up the chant, and wavering lines found strength in the Omnissiah's blessings.The hunched figure of Belisarius Cawl quickened an unfamiliar uncertainty in Abaddon's black heart. Had the Adepts of Mars at last divined the strategy of aeons? Uncertainty blossomed into doubt. The Despoiler had sought to break Cadia's defenders before ushering them into oblivion. The brutal hierarchy of the Black Fleet required a show of strength; the Dark Gods demanded it. But had he erred? Horus had failed in his grand design by succumbing to bravado, for seeking battle when none was needed. Had he, Abaddon, now fallen into the clutches of pride?Recognising the battle for Cadia had reached its last, deadly crux, Abaddon commanded his sorcerers to breach the Immaterium. No sooner had the first cracks torn reality's veil than a host of blood-hungry daemons burst free into the cavern. With a snarl not entirely directed at his foes, the Despoiler dredged up every last scrap of his Warp-granted strength, and hurled himself into battle anew.The last Contemptor Dreadnought fell, ripped apart by a trio of Helbrutes, and the Ultramarines' fate grew bleak. Fire danced through the air, coalescing into the sombre shadows of the Legion of the Damned. Unyielding, they marched to the Ultramarines' rescue, Bolters spitting soulfire to consume the corrupt. A many-armed Slaaneshi daemon led a capering horde into the Vostroyan ranks, false and blasphemous promises spilling from its lips. Cawl's Solar Atomiser flared, and the beast disintegrated into glowing dust. Scions of the Kappic Eagles collapsed, retching bloody bile through their rebreathers as the bountiful gifts of Nurgle found purchase in their lungs. Kataphron Battle Servitors converged their fire, melting a pack of Maulerfiends to scrap. The cavern trembled, dust scattering from newly opened fissures. Colossal stalactites, millennia in the making, fell like stone rain, pulping Traitor and Loyalist alike."Cadia stands!"The battle-cry thundered across the ruin of the breached cavern wall. It issued from a thousand voices, searing forth from a quarter the Black Legion assumed tight within their merciless grasp. The Cadian 8th Regiment fired again, then with Creed's battle-cry -- the call to arms that had kept Cadia defiant for those past weeks -- still upon their lips, they surged over broken stone and bloody corpses to avenge their comrades.Howling shapes came with them, blurs of fang and slate-grey armour, the Ironwolves' sigils upon every pauldron. Wulfen led the charge, Battle-Brothers lost to the Space Wolves' ancestral curse since Cadia's encirclement. Even those who followed, Highfell amongst them, fought with a feral wildness in their eyes, their humanity slipping away with every blow struck. The Ironwolves had embraced this knowledge. They knew with certainty that the savagery of war would only accelerate their devolution, but they loosed the beasts in their souls all the same, for Russ and for the Allfather.The Black Legion ground on. Ten thousand standard years of hate drove them, ten thousand Terran years of pride and fury. The Bringers of Despair tore at the time-lost Ultramarines with blade and fist, rending Cataphractii Armour and pulping the flesh beneath. The Talon of Horus ripped Cerantes' sword arm from its socket; Drach'nyen split him in two. Their captain's loss only stiffened his Battle-Brothers' resolve, and they met the fury of the Black Legion with discipline instilled at Roboute Guilliman's own hand. But even as the Kappic Eagles poured their fire into the Black Legion's flank, it became apparent that discipline and fury alone would not overcome ten thousand standard years of blessed hate. Something more was needed.With a yawning groan, an area of ceiling the size of a landing field gave way. Cadians and Kappics scattered, or were crushed beneath the debris. The Black Legion fought on. Abaddon, Cerantes' sundered corpse lifeless at his feet, sought out the soul whose obliteration would at last break the defenders' will. Pride had led Abaddon to this hour; it could not be ignored, only sated. His black gaze settled on the heavyset general who had barely escaped him on the plains above. Ursarkar E. Creed. Cadia had stood too long through his efforts, and the Dark Gods would now take his soul. A bellowed command, and gore-slicked daemons sprang screaming at the Cadian 8th, the Chaos Terminators of the Black Legion close behind.Golden light spilled through the sundered ceiling, flooding the nodal chamber. Celestine, the Living Saint, corpse-bride of the eternal Emperor. She showed no hesitation, no doubt. Fire streaming from her wingtips, she swooped to confront the Despoiler. Daemons pounced, but a sweep of the Ardent Blade cast them, broken, to the ground. Winged Possessed soared, talons clawing at limb and blade, but the Geminae Superia clove them from the air. Soon they faced one another: spiritual daughter of the beneficent Emperor, and heir to the greatest Traitor in the history of Mankind. No words were spoken. None were needed. Soulfire roiled as the Ardent Blade struck Drach'nyen, the wail of hope and despair shivering the spirits of all who heard it. Abaddon was the mightier by far. Alone, Celestine had no hope of triumph. But she was not alone. The Geminae Superia were ever at her side, the three fighting as one against the Despoiler of legends.At the cavern's edge, Katarinya Greyfax beheld Celestine's arrival with revulsion. How long had she been gone that such heresy could take root? Battle-Sisters suffused with the power of idolatry? Warriors of the Adeptus Astartes revelling in the corruption of their own mutations? Spirits wreathed in hellfire? And yet the loyal soldiers of Cadia and Ultramar, known across the galaxy for their unswerving devotion, their purity, embraced these evils in the name of victory?It was a cornerstone of Greyfax's Puritan certainty that evil had no shades, no lesser forms that could be tolerated in service to a larger goal. Purity was perfection, uncompromising, ideal. She had killed thousands for lesser sins than this. She had killed her own kind for wavering from the path. What victory could there be if adamant precepts were torn asunder?The shadows reformed around her. Green eyes blazed. Greyfax aimed the muzzle of her Condemnor Pattern Bolter squarely between them. "Abomination.""That word again." A metal hand gestured lazily across the cavern. "Stop me if this sounds familiar, but I suspect your priorities require re-evaluation.""You sow corruption wherever you tread. Your reckoning is overdue." She pulled the trigger. Or she tried to. Her finger didn't respond.Trazyn opened his palm, a ﬂood of microscopic machines ﬂowing over his fingers. "I'm not a fool. The Mindshackle will not let you harm me."Bile ﬂooded Greyfax's mouth. Anger seared it away. "You've corrupted me! As you did Valeria!""A precaution only. As for Valeria ... She had a remarkable brain. You robbed me of the opportunity for study."Again Greyfax tried to pull the trigger. Again nothing happened. Useless."I brought you here out of common cause," said Trazyn. "I am not yet done with this world, and nor is your Imperium. If you seek to save it, I suggest you focus that formidable certainty of yours elsewhere. Our reckoning will wait."With a snarl, Greyfax turned away.At last, slivers of data congealed in the mechanical recesses of Cawl's mind. The nodal grid was ready. A labour that might yet overshadow ten thousand standard years of lesser works was prepared. And yet the Archmagos suffered an onset of doubt. What if the Necron had lied? Cawl's delvings had only scratched the surface -- there was still so much about the pylons' function that he could only guess at. As the last of the time-lost Ultramarines struck his dying blow, Cawl's priorities snapped back into focus. Logic dictated the unmistakable danger before his eyes take precedence over unsubstantiated premonition. Offering one last prayer to the Omnissiah, Cawl sent the command.It began slowly. The resonant pulse of the Cadian Pylons -- normally unheard by all save Warp-sensitives -- grew steadily in pitch and volume. Louder it pulsed, a dull rumble consuming the roar of battle all across the Elysion Fields. Black lightning crackled along the pylons' flanks. Combatants from both sides collapsed, blood streaming from ears and noses. Psykers froze as their connection to the Immaterium faded, their conscious minds dragged into oblivion.Black light leapt from the pylons' pinnacles -- not just from those upon the Elysion Fields, but every functioning pylon yet on Cadia. The beams converged in the upper atmosphere, the outer edge brushing Phalanx's golden flank. As the battle-fortress' engines flared in evasive action, the monolithic beam seared across the stars, a sable lance aimed at the heart of the Eye of Terror. Slowly, the shift too small for even the most sensitive of instruments to tally, the Warp rift known as the Ocularis Terribus began to shrink.Though none in the nodal cavern knew the scope of Cawl's undertaking, its effects were immediate and pronounced. Abaddon's host of daemons, their hold on reality already made fickle by the pylons' formerly dormant state, slipped further into the abyss that spawned them. Daemon-fused Traitors bellowed their last as their cursed halves were torn into the void. Possessed war-engines fell silent.Greyfax screamed wordlessly as the Immaterium-purging grasp of the pylons clawed at her mind. Righteous anger her anchor on reality's shores, she clung to the precipice, refusing to yield. Even Abaddon staggered under the assault, but the Despoiler had ever stood as much apart from his dark patrons as at their side, and he endured the fading of their blessings with snarling fortitude.Others were not so fortunate. The Legion of the Damned, their presence in the mortal world ever inconstant, blinked out like wind-guttered candles, their flames snuffed by the pylons' power. Even Celestine, the manifestation of the Emperor's will, grew dim. The golden light faded, and with it the hopes of Mankind.Faith -- the same faith that had sustained Cadia's defence in those darkest of hours -- began to recede. Valour faded alongside, not just from within the ranks of Lord Castellan Creed's swollen regiment, but also among the Kappic Eagles and the Vostroyans so recently set loose from Trazyn's ancient prison. As for the Black Legion, they cared not that the better part of their daemon host was swept away, and the remainder weakened. They saw only the physical proof of their ancient belief -- the False Emperor's light was fading -- and took new strength from the sight.The battle for the nodal cavern shifted, its pace quickening. Orven Highfell died amongst his snarling brethren, gauntlets locked about a Bloodthirster's throat even as the beast tore him apart. Wulfen avenged him, ripping the daemon asunder with fang and claw. But one by one, they too succumbed to their wounds, the wake of dead and dying Traitors one last offering to the Allfather.Creed stood firm, the 8th Cadian with him, as always. Their example spread to the stern men of Vostroya. The Kappic Eagles, determined that the Scions of the Schola Progenium would not be outdone by mere Imperial Guardsmen, found their courage in pride. Through it all, the duel of ideologies wore on; the Despoiler on one side, the Living Saint and her Geminae Superia upon the other. What had begun as an equal battle now favoured Abaddon. Before the Dark Gods had blessed him, he had stood amongst the greatest of the Legiones Astartes, seldom bested in battle. Bereft of the Emperor's Light, Celestine was a mortal shell, reborn too many times from the tides of the Immaterium. Her handmaidens were extensions of her faded psychic light, weakened by the Immaterium's recession. Though their resolve didn't waver, the outcome was never in doubt.Eleanor spiralled away from the duel, blood oozing from her lips. Black Guard closed around Genevieve, a wall of Terminator Armour and roaring Chainswords that even her blessed sword could not pierce. Again and again, the Ardent Blade clashed with Drach'nyen, but Celestine's efforts were now given over solely to her own defence, and even these desperate parries grew weaker with every stroke. At last, a backhand blow cast Celestine to her knees.Creed saw the Living Saint fall, and knew at once that her death would mark the end of all they had striven for. Bellowing orders, he threw the 8th Cadian forward in one last, desperate charge. Drach'nyen slashed down. Celestine screamed and convulsed. As Abaddon raised the Daemon Sword for a second strike, the Living Saint clambered unsteadily to her feet, one hand clamped over a bloody gash in her armour's side, but her gaze unfaltering.Celestine knew no fear as she met the Despoiler's black gaze. All unfolded according to the Emperor's Will. He would catch her if she fell, as He had before. "You cannot win. Mankind will be free of your masters."The pale brow heightened with unreadable emotion. "There is no freedom."Drach'nyen speared forward.Agony exploded behind Abaddon's eyes. Searing pain arced across his synapses. Neurons flared and died, consumed by an attack channelled through the fading skeins of the Immaterium. His Daemon-blade, meant to pierce Celestine's heart, froze mid-strike.Katarinya Greyfax gritted her teeth, channelling into her psychic assault all the rage she had known since her reawakening. Though she was loathe to admit it, Trazyn had been correct -- her priorities had strayed. An Inquisitor's duty was to the Imperium, not to her own slighted being. Moreover, while all heresies must be purged by flame, some clamoured for its caress more urgently than others. Retribution would find the false saint -- of that Greyfax was certain -- but Abaddon's sins held the prior claim.Blinded and staggering, the Despoiler fought back, his indomitable will meeting the psychic fire with some of its own. Strength already sapped by her constant battle against the pylons' pull, Greyfax's hold on his mind snapped. But she wasn't yet done. As the malediction faded, the Inquisitor's Condemnor Bolter roared.Shells scattering off his armour, Abaddon started towards Celestine once more. A rush of bayonets blocked his path. The Cadian 8th were determined to preserve their beloved saint, even at the cost of their lives. And die they did, by the dozen, by the score, hacked apart as the Despoiler strove to reach the wounded Celestine. With their blood, they bought the saint precious moments.The chamber shuddered. The nodal pylon flared again. Ceding war mode functions to his secondary and tertiary consciousnesses, Archmagos Cawl interrogated the datastreams from his surviving Servitors. It was working. The impossible was coming to pass. The Cadian pylon fields, dormant for thousands upon thousands of Terran years, were actually pushing back the Eye of Terror's warped embrace. Across the cavern, daemons lost their last foothold in realspace, cast back into oblivion by the pylons' black light, leaving behind naught but the bodies of their victims.In space above, Navigators lost their bearings. The Cadian Gate, a legend of becalmed Warp-tides since the earliest days of the Imperium, grew motionless as a frozen millpond. The layered Void Shields of Phalanx collapsed to nothing as their connections to the Immaterium faded. Teleport relays flickered, their transit corridors defusing as the Warp receded. From Phalanx's strategium, Commodore Trevaux took in the rush of reports, and wondered what it all meant. Ahead, beyond the jet-black utterance of Cadia's pylons, Chaos Cruisers broke cover from amongst the Will of Eternity's debris field and drove hard for the safety of the Black Fleet's big guns. As reconnaissance Thunderhawks burned towards the Blackstone Fortress' grave, Trevaux kept a suspicious eye fixed on the Auspex holo-grid. His instincts screamed of imminent danger, but his conscious mind saw none. Unprepared to embrace one over the other, Trevaux watched and waited for new data.Abaddon stood like a rock jutting in a river of flesh and bone, Drach'nyen carving a bloody swath with every strike. The Despoiler and the wounded saint became the battle's focus -- every soul within the nodal chamber, living or damned, knew that victory or defeat turned upon the fate of those champions. The Chaos Terminators of the Black Legion regained their master's side, only to come under renewed fire from Hot-shot Lasguns. The Vostroyan XXI were torn apart by a counter-charge of Power-Armoured Chosen. The stalemate ground on, a battle bloody enough to whet Khorne's appetites, had only the Lord of Battles been able to peer through the growing dead zone of the Cadian Pylon field.Slowly, the fate of the northern flank turned, the Black Legion driven from the beleaguered Kappic Eagles by the massed fire of Cawl's maniples. Seizing the opportunity, Greyfax rejoined the embattled Storm Troopers, her every barked order laced with unambiguous threat. More afraid of the grim Inquisitor than the guns of the Black Legion, the Eagles advanced.Taking command of a Kasrkin platoon, Creed led another charge across the bloody ground. The Lord Castellan had no doubts about his ability to match Abaddon might for might, but the Astra Militarum's way had ever been to overcome with numbers that which could not be bested through skill.Trazyn the Infinite watched the battle from a rocky perch, aware that history unfolded before him. His taste for glory had faded, replaced by the urge to claim a trinket from the momentous hour. Perhaps a thief was all he was meant to be. Metal fingers toyed with a Tesseract Labyrinth, its unfathomable dimensions fit to carry a single trophy from embattled Cadia. But what should that trophy be? So many prizes worthy of preservation clamoured for attention. A stray Culverin blast shuddered Trazyn's stalagmite, and he retired to safer ground. The Tesseract would wait. Whatever his prize, its historic value would only increase as the course of victory tipped one way or the other.Creed sighted along his pistol, and sent a laser burst through a Chaos Terminator's cracked eyepiece. Before him, a gout of Warp-tainted Promethium immolated a file of Kasrkin. A dark shape loomed through the flames, eyes burning like coals. The Talon of Horus roared, snatching the rest of Creed's escort into oblivion.The air was thick with the screams of burning Kasrkin, the roar of gunfire and the Black Legion's harsh oaths. Creed twisted around, searching for allies in the dust and smoke. He found none, only the dead."Cadia stands!" Creed bellowed the mantra. No other voice took up the cry.Mocking laughter cut across the cacophony. Creed raised his pistols, sending shot aftershot into Abaddon's path. One raised a livid wound upon the Despoiler's pale brow. The others refracted across his baroque armour."Cadia is dead!" thundered Abaddon. "Even now, its doom comes."The monstrous Lightning Claw lashed out. Creed fell amongst the dead, blood oozing from a ravaged arm, electricity arcing across his armour. His pistols had gone -- one cast aside by the claw's strike, the other slipping from a bloodied hand whose fingers had been sliced away. Yet Creed felt no fear, only defance. "Cadia lives while but one of its soldiers fights on."Crackling talons closed around Creed's neck, hoisting him effortlessly into the air. "Iset this world's fate in motion before I even made planetfall. But for hubris, I wouldnever have set foot here at all. Your games with the pylons have only reinforced the follyof pride."Creed clawed at the talons with his one good hand. They might as well have been carved from stone."But now?" rumbled Abaddon. "The corpse-bride has ﬂed. The will of Cadia is broken. The Imperium will follow. I do you the honour of being the last to die by my hand. Take solace in the knowledge that this benighted world will not long outlast you." Abaddon drew Creed in, choking off his attempts to speak. "Cadia has fallen."Abaddon's grip tightened. The vertebrae of Creed's neck ground together. As darknessclosed in, the Lord Castellan knew only shame. Cadia had stood proud for ten thousand standard years only to fall under his watch. The humiliation of failed duty was worse than any death.A roar of pain dragged Creed out of the darkness. A golden figure, pale as death, stood behind the Despoiler, her sword thrust deep into his spine. The talons snapped open, and Creed fell."The Emperor protects," breathed Celestine.