Artellus Numeon - Deliverance: Imprisoned on board of the Demagogue, a Hunter-class Destroyer belonging to the fleet of Dark Apostle Quor Gallek, and tortured over several months by the Dark Apostle's lieutenant -- a daemon-possessed Word Bearer that answered to the name of Xenuth Sul. Numeon's mind was stretched to its very limits and beyond. It became quickly apparent that the Unburdened sought information on the whereabouts both of the fulgurite stone -- the esoteric weapon created by the Emperor's divine power -- and of the traitor Barthusa Narek, which had been tasked with retrieving the fulgurite but had since betrayed his Legion for unknown reasons. Artellus Numeon witnessed first hand the depths in which the Word Bearers had sunk as the Demagogue resembled more a flying sacrificial altar for Xenuth Sul and Quor Gallek to conduct their unholy blood-rites, than a warship of the Legiones Astartes. Fortunately for Numeon, the Demagogue and its sister-ship, the Dark Sacrament, were attacked by a Strike Cruiser of the Ultramarines Legion later identified as the Defiance of Calth.The Defiance of Calth’s attack having disrupted whatever blasphemous ritual had allowed Quor Gallek to manifest himself onboard the Demagogue, Numeon succeeded in freeing himself from the restrains chaining him to the sacrificial altar and although very weak, he decided to seek out revenge and retrieve Vulkan's sigil from the dead hands of Xenuth Sul who had taken it from him. Freed, Numeon was surrounded by the corpses of Loyalist legionnaries which were already dead. As he looked around the grim abattoir, he encountered one survivor of the Iron Hands who was had been mercilessly tortured and brutalised by his Word Bearers captors. Numeon ended up killing the grievously wounded Legionary as a final act of mercy, promising him that he would make the Word Bearers pay, before seeking out his chosen target. Meanwhile, the Dark Sacrament was burning as the Ultramarines of the "Red-marked" company, led by their charismatic and battle-hardened leader, Sergeant Aeonid Thiel, had also boarded the Demagogue. Discovering the sacrificial altars within the torture cell, Sergeant Thiel quickly realized that one of the prisoners had escaped. Thiel led his squad for the bridge, realizing that whoever had been imprisoned, would likely seek to settle their score with the commander of the ship. Having scavenged a Bolt Pistol and a Combat Blade from dead Word Bearers, Numeon had thus far managed to head to the bridge unopposed, but was now blocked by a Legionnary in full battle-plate standing guard in front of the bridge. Half-naked and ill-equipped, Numeon prepared himself for a futile, if glorious, charge when the Word Bearer was killed by disciplined bolter-fire from Thiel's strike-team. Storming the bridge on his own, Numeon found Xenuth Sul alone and prepared to confront him, when Thiel and his Ultramarines interrupted him, seized Xenuth Sul and retrieved Vulkan's sigil without a fight. Numeon was then transferred to the Apothecarion of the Defiance of Calth to have his wounds attended to, while the ship made its way to the heart of Ultramar, to Magna Macragge Civitas and the Fortress of Hera, were Vulkan's body had been entombed since his death at the hand of Bartusa Narek.During the shorty journey, something akin to friendship quickly developed between Aeonid Thiel and Numeon. The Ultramarines' Sergeant informed Numeon of the events that had taken place since the Battle of Calth, and of the struggles the Realm of Ultramar now faced and of Roboute Guilliman's initiative to declare Terra as having fallen and the Primarch's proclamation to begin Imperium Secundus. More importantly, he told Numeon of Vulkan's apparent madness following his month-long torture at the hands of his former brother Primarch, Konrad Curze -- the murderous Primarch of the Night Lords -- and his Primarch's eventual death. Despite this dire news, Numeon refused to believe in Vulkan's demise, convinced that Vulkan lived, and might ultimately still be restored to life. However, Thiel did warn Numeon that the Ultramarines had Vulkan's presumed killer in custody and that their new prisoner, Xenuth Sul, would soon suffer a similiar fate.