Donatos War - The Power of the Warp: With his Knights arrayed behind him, Oath of Flame advanced to the front. It was joined moments later by Sword of Heroes, the Knight of Luk, for the newly proclaimed Freeblade had a personal interest in the outcome of the exchange. Although the Chivalric Code prohibited Luk from calling a mere consort and the daughter of a disgraced House his mother, Alicia Kar Manticos was precisely that. The High King spoke first and formally denounced the Renegades as Traitors to Adrastapol and the Imperium. Yet Danial urged the Renegade Knights not to tarnish their honour any further by endangering the life of a non-combatant. As leader of the opposing Knights, Sire Hectour flatly refused, countering Danial's offer with a demand of his own -- the full and complete surrender of House Draconis and its allies to the true and rightful ruler of Adrastapol, High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros.The Loyalists were shocked by the Chimaeros Knights' audacity, and none so much as Luk Kar Chimaeros. Was this the reason for his father's treachery? An ill-advised grab for the throne? Outraged shouts filled the personal Vox channels of many Knights, their focus on Danial. Sire Olric desperately asked for the permission to take a shot at Blade Aggressor, confident he could take out the Gallant's brachial actuators and thus disable his Thunderstrike Gauntlet. On another Vox channel, Grandmarshal Gustev requested the right to duel Sire Hectour for the life of the consort. But Danial dismissed these ideas as too likely to end in failure.Honourbound not to surrender, Danial had no choice but to refuse the Renegades' conditions. Instead, he offered the three Renegades their lives, promising them only imprisonment for a crime whose punishment would normally be public execution, if not by the hands of their fellow Knights than at the hands of the Imperial Inquisition.With the negotiations at an end, the Knights tensed in their Thrones Mechanicum, ready for action. After a short silence, Blade Aggressor’s palm opened, leaving Alicia Kar Manticos to stand by herself. Shredding all pretense of fear and weakness, ignoring the rain and wind that tugged at her clothes, Gerraint's consort stood regally, facing the Adrastapolian Knight. She began to speak, and impossibly each and every Knight, even those stationed at the precinct's destroyed gatehouse, heard her.To the puzzlement of all Knights -- including her own son -- the consort sounded amused. She gently scolded herself for having gambled to high, for which of the patriarchal Knights would have truly placed the life of a mere women over the fate of one of the Emperor's wars? Turning to her son, she reassured him of her personal well-being and expressed her sorrow at her child's fate. For a moment she stared at Sword of Heroes’ new Freeblade livery before congratulating herself for her excellent judgement, for never would Luk have joined his father's and his mother's rebellion.Luk Kar Chimaeros reeled at the implications of his mother's words. Not only was she a willing Traitor, but she openly proclaimed her adoration of one of the Emperor's greatest enemies, the Chaos God Tzeentch. Too numb to move, Luk did not follow Danial's order to open fire, but when the noise and smoke ebbed he stared on in horror as Alicia and the three Knights at her back stood unharmed, sheltered by a wall of shimmering blue flames. The Knight of Ashes had a final realisation -- his mother was not only a Traitor and a vile adoratrice of Chaos, but also a psyker, a dangerous Sorceress.With a cry of rage denouncing Alicia as a witch, Thunderhym, Grandmarshal Gustev Tan Minotos' Knight Crusader, charged at the trio of Renegade Knights, firing every weapon at its disposal. Yet even Thunderhym’s mighty Avenger Gatling Cannon proved powerless against the orb of psychic energy protecting the consort.In response, Alicia Kar Manticos muttered a series of dark incantations in a proscribed tongue. Rising amidst a howling vortex of whirling energy, the witch unleashed a searing beam of blue and purple lightning which sheared mercilessly through Thunderhym’s Ion Shield, striking the great warmachine straight in its helm. Rippling shockwaves of energy danced across Thunderhym’s armoured hull. Wherever the baleful energy struck, the Knight Crusader underwent an impossible transmutation. Adamantium and plasteel were replaced by twisted flesh and jagged bone.The Vox-link picked up a panicked "Emperor protect me!" from Gustev before being replaced by some horrible gurgling sound as Gustev's own body was consumed. Where once a proud Knight had stood, the ever-mutating flesh of a gigantic Chaos Spawn now squirmed on the ground, dozens of fang-filled mouths tasting the air through serpentine lips or belching streams of lurid fire. Spars of bones and tentacles of rubbery flesh emerged from the twitching masses of flesh, the agonising face of the Grandmarshal -- still screaming -- was repeated at the end of some tentacles and on the Spawn's body itself.Horror struck, the Imperial Knights under High King Danial's command opened up with every weapon at their disposal but still failed to penetrate the psychic shield summoned by Alicia Kar Manticos. With a final invocation of Tzeentch's name, the witch summoned a geyser of pink flame which engulfed Blade Aggressor and its two companions, teleporting far away. As soon as the Traitors had left the scene, blinding light and thunderous booms overloaded the Loyalist Knights' sensory inputs.The enemy had laced both the Adeptus Arbites precinct and the cliff overlooking it with Demolition Charges. The roar of the explosions grew into a throaty, powerful rumble as whole portions of the cliffs came tumbling down upon the fortress and the Loyalist Knights still inside. Feeding all their power to their locomotive systems, the Loyalist Knights scattered, desperately trying to outrun the wave of crushing debris about to hit them.Sire Markos and the rearguard made it to safety, but the others were not so lucky. The thing that had once been Grandmarshal Gustev and his Knight was left behind, its gnashing tentacles and pseudopods still reaching for the Minotos Knight closest to it. Grabbing onto Thunderclap’s leg, the Chaos Spawn let the Knight Gallant topple, consigning Sire Jeremial to a horrible death. With their Ion Shields angled upwards to shield them from smaller pieces of debris, the Knights ran on.Pushing their generators into the red, Sword of Heroes and Oath of Flames came from behind. Before them, they saw Sylvest Dar Draconis' Knight speared by the Gothic spire of a collapsing tower. Several large boulders, each weighing several hundred tons, flattened the other fleeing Knights. Almost miraculously, both the High King and the Knight of Ashes made it out alive, but twenty of their comrades had been slain by the Renegades' treachery. The Loyalist cause had been dealt another terrible blow.