It felt like having mountain-sized claw stuck inside your heart, gripping you by the balls and sucking out our eyes. But within the soul as well.

Not pleasant, believe me! A burst of energy emerged from my heart, or rather some special gland inserted there by the Emperor, just in case.

I drew a little energy from Amberly to resist for a second, while Canis wailed with a visible golden howl. A second was short, but I was already mentally accelerated by the implant and my own pain. My own Bonestaff landed in my right hand, while my mind linked with the tesseract to bring Silent Sister Dessima out.

A black sphere of dead silence covered the Black Lament, making Inquisitor Vail throw up at once. So I took mercy on her and displaced her inside the Gellar generator vault, where reality was somewhat normalized. It would still suck for a psyker, but she'll live.

"Damn thing is quite strong." I observed while spiting out clots of blood.

Dessima was sadly vowed to tranquility, so she couldn't speak, but she did thump me on the head with her fist. Right! I should have prepared better.

Taking an enemy lightly wasn't my style, but perhaps I did coast too easily lately. Greater Daemons were not a danger with my Fortress around.

Canis fell on the floor, looking rather spent with effort. My implant ran a health diagnostic on him, finding the wolf had lost 5% of body fat and nearly all vital signs, from that single Soul Shout or whatever spell that golden howl was. Brave Canis...go rest in the tesseract. I won't make this mistake again.

'And that was your puppy, acting out?' Trazyn asked curious.

'That was Canis. My other puppy is chasing mice on the first Omen Ark.' I answered a bit tired and definitely injured.

'...You let him run around free?' the Necron Lord asked a bit confused, and perhaps worried at the lack of living chains to control my C'tan.

'Free is a special word. Who is actually free in this world? You are bound to your race and Dynasty, as am I.' I mused thoughtfully, as I kept the Immaterium Beam on this Tech-Daemon, burning though numerous shields and Mechanicum contraptions.

'Even so. Your real puppy would die for you and be happy. This one...' Trazyn warned me as his own Fortress began to fire at my target.

'Eh, worst case I might sell you a wolf-shaped C'tan that knows tricks. Like this Cosmic Fire.' I added as the Omen Ark blew up from the inside, once the C'tan had enough fun tormenting the helpless crew.

'Let me bring out my own C'tan shards. I'm getting outscored by a flesh human...' Trazyn countered with his own brand of robotic pride.

"Foolish mortals! I will wear your skulls as my trophies!" our mighty Daemon target yelled with angry words, filling the void.

"He seems a bit distraught" I observed out loud, earning an honest chuckle from my crew.

"And very loud. The Warp Beam hurts him, but not enough." Valerian observed more tactically.

Fine! Nova cannons, resume firing!

Two Nova mines inside the third Ark, to cripple the engines and ammo bunker. Then all my Orks and their silly meks or whatever weapons they magiked up, spread inside every deck. The chaotically-acting Orks would cause some chaos with the Chaos crew.

Stolen story; please report.

"Valerian, you will deploy on the command throne. And pick a nice name." I continued in a calm voice, as I produced my second Blackstone Fortress, and moved Valerian inside.

Sadly, the new behemoth wasn't fully operational, and only had the Necron Pylon as an add-on defense against Chaos. But as the Pylon was now active, it would prevent or drastically reduce all psyker powers in the system, just like it did at Octiss. Furthermore, it did have an Immaterium Beam of its own, thus increasing the firepower we could concentrate on this Vashtorr.

"Cheating! Shameless cheating!" the Daemon complained as some kind of power hammer blew off in his hands. Must have been important, perhaps.

Farther into the system, past the second fort line, a glowing Psi-Titan appeared and punched an Omen Ark straight on, blowing a giant hole in its prow. Sabaktes and his Princeps pilot were having fun as well.

Corvette wings dove under the giant ship and launched thousands of torpedoes, gouging massive holes into the Ark, without causing much damage internally. So I helped a bit, and added my own gifts, inserting a few Nova Mines at critical spots.

Was it cheating? Was I playing fair with the poor Chaos Armada? Who knows? The victor writes history, and I knew what the history will say.

'...You have another Fortress, Lord Lancefire? Maybe, somehow we could find something you want, among my precious exhibits.' Trazyn proposed with infinite greed.

'This Vashtorr is still alive, Lord Trazyn. This reminds me of Cadia.' I said in a warning tone.

'... I have began to compile a list of things aboard this Arks which include temporal and probability-based weapons, neutron shielding, quantum communications, counter-ballistic teleportation batteries, and many more. If I am worried, you should be more so. Our tesseracts are locking the timeline now, but if this thing escapes, you were not around to defend yourself a million years ago. Humanity itself was still living in caves.' the Necron warned me in a dour voice.

'Lash, you have anything to take down this creature?' I asked with feeble hope. The C'tan was feasting on the crew and Tyranids infesting the second Ark, so I recalled my Tyranid Auxilia now. There were more Arks to board with expendable bugs.

'Not as I am, Pef Lancefire. I need to fuse with a thousand shards to match this Etheric Demi-God. The beams are weakening him. Slowly.' he explained in a careless tone.

'Could you bring Victor and his third Fortress here?' I wondered curious. Another Fortress might be enough to kill this Demi-God Daemon. He surely was strong enough.

'I have just replenished my energy...' the C'tan complained in a lazy voice.

'No problem. Your former owner is just asking me what could I want from his museum exhibits. These glowing green chains must be quite painful.' I warned him in a gentle voice, as Trazyn produced a Transcendent C'tan to summon a lightning storm and clear thousands of pesky Chaos ships away from his fleet.

Sure, Trazyn couldn't care less about a single shard now, with his wealth of shards, Transcendent and even an intact C'tan Dragon in his vault. And as it happens, this particular Transcendent C'tan wasn't paid for yet.

Meanwhile, I directed my fleet to engage the next Ark, while we kept Vashtorr under constant beam attack.

Sadly, I also did not have my intact Crusade fleet from Stygius anymore. Half of my capital ships were repairing in dock, a quarter were away with Victor...the Chaos Armada was beginning to take a toll on my ships and people, and even the Necrons began to suffer a bit.

'All right! I admit I don't feel comfortable beside this insane Necron Lord. I will go help your son.' Lash grumbled a little, then exploded in Cosmic Fire again and vanished at superspeed towards the galactic edge.

'Now he's running away! Told you a leash was better than mere promises.' Trazyn gloated for a second.

'Nah, I gave him a task, might help us with this Daemon.' I countered with a grim voice. Holding the beam was getting painful. More so, as my insides were likely mush, and I kept spitting blood clots. It couldn't be healthy.

"Apothecary on Bridge!" I heard Teresa demand on the internal comm. No! Don't use comms...even if you need help, send a messenger. Or tell me! Damn it girl.

A strange helmet exploded on the head of Vashtorr, but it was too late.

"Found you! Sneaky Blacksoul...I will avenge my precious Helm_of_the_Cyberphage" the Daemon gloated in triumph, then powered through the beam towards my Fortress.

Damn my luck!

I ordered the Machine Spirit to open fire with lance baterries and the Nova turrets on the Demi-God Daemon, but they had little effect. Even Greater Daemons could tank so little damage.

"Dessima, buy me some time." I ordered with a heavy heart. She won't be enough.