Passing through the Gates of Varl was much like passing though an airlock, if that airlock was made of screaming souls, trapped daemons and murderous C'tan Shards.
Zath collected three of his own Shards and absorbed them, and pointed to me a single shard of the Potentate, used as a door stop into the Webway. From the real world into the Webway and from there into the Warp, and directly inside the Crystal Labyrinth. Quite a phenomenal feat of metaphysical engineering, to be fair.
"See, I taught the Necrons how to access the Webway via Dolmen Gates, and this is what the ungrateful bastards made with that knowledge." Zath complained as a ring of Pylons reinforced the first gate behind us.
Trazyn collected a few Shards for his Deceiver and Nightbringer collection, then shackled the rest and sent them deeper into the Crystal Labyrinth as scouts and mine sweepers. I would have kept those 42 C'tan Shards as back-up weapons, but Trazyn had his own ideas. Or was simply vengeful for being burned alive in the furnace of bio-transference. More of this than that, possibly.
"You can be Lash Two" I decided as Canis smacked the Potentate Shard into a wolf shape.
"You're too merciful with these betrayer C'tan, Lord Lancefire. Eternal torture under the lash sounds much better." Trazyn the Infinite observed in a cruel voice, making Lash Two suddenly a hundred times more obedient.
"I don't have the stomach to eat innocents, Overlord Trazyn. Norn detonation in 5 solar seconds. 4, 3, 2, 1, boom!" I announced as my Norn Queen prisoner splattered against the Webway wall and killed a billion daemons with her death scream.
Canis howled and took a big gulp with his spiritual golden jaws, leaving only a few million souls for the C'tan wolves.
Lash Two howled as well, while his fluffy tail lashed right and left in satisfaction. Getting a bit stronger, after starving for eons inside the armored door of Varl.
"I expected the Warp Gate to be assaulted from the other side, but it's strangely quiet." Trazyn noted as his ship pushed through and entered the Labyrinth first.
"Yeah, someone might have invited the Hive Mind to this Thanksgiving feast as well. Release the Kronos Hive Fleet, Lord Trazyn." I urged the Necron Lord as the walls of the Chaos Labyrinth began dripping blue horrors.
"Of course someone did. I might even know this someone, right?" Trazyn quipped in a metal voice, as millions of bioships and trillions of smaller Tyranids emerged into the Labyrinth.
'You can begin the Angron gambit, Lord Trazyn.' I added with a noosphere message, as the huge Silence in the Warp collapsed the Third layer of the Labyrinth, and we fell down into the Fourth.
Our battleships and cruisers opened up with Lance fire and plasma cannons, while the Blackstone Forts drilled towards the Fifth layer at full strength.
The Hive Mind must have been keeping the majority of the Tzeentch daemons busy, as the Armada had an easy ride until the Eighth layer, barely losing a few dozen Missionary ships from the Sisters of Battle escorts. They were crap ships to be fair, meant to spread the Imperial Faith to barbarians, not fight head-on against daemons.
But in the Eight layer the real fun started as 9 Space Hulks, three Leviathan daemons, nine Krakens and 999 Chaos ships awaited for us, with a trillion smaller daemons and 66 Great Daemons with blue feathers.
'I will release Angron now.' Trazyn sent back, and his obliterator staff tapped the floor. I knew the Butcher Nails inside Angron's head will be useful one day. Like today, for example.
An angry Angron rushed forward and punched right through a moon-sized Leviathan daemon, then began ripping wings and biting through feathers, and made it look easy.
Perturabo frowned as our Blackstone Forts fired upon the second Leviathan with the Immaterium beams, and the thing just blew up from 5 concentrated beams of unreality. "Warmaster, weren't we supposed to be tested and redeemed?" he asked, a bit perturbed.
"Angron seems happy, though." I commented with a glance at his other brother, Mortarion.
Trazyn took out the corrupted scythe used by Mortarion in the past, and shook it a little to make it drip acid and poison. "Want some?" he asked in a perfect hive world slang.
Mortarion's arm reached for the scythe, then drew back. "So this is your test, Warmaster. Give us the power we crave, and kill us for the failure." the Death Guard Primarch spoke as he realized the truth, and grabbed his hand with the other.
Corax and Khan nodded towards me, then teleported ahead, fighting the Great Daemons in melee with great skill.
"That's not the test, Mortarion. Take your weapon and kill those daemons. Or run and hide. The Labyrinth is large enough that we will never find you." I answered and shifted the Manreaper scythe into his hand.
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Perturabo watched his brother teleport into melee, then looked at me. "And the real test, Warmaster?"
"Everything is a test, Primarch. Tzeentch has 999 Great Daemons, and we don't have many Primarchs to spare. Choose your battlefield wisely." I allowed while hugging Morvenn with my left and Valyene with my right hand.
"I guess I can send the Nightreaper now. No shackles either." Trazyn spoke from his metal throne as his scythe wielding C'tan appeared on the battlefield.
I glanced in surprise at my Necron friend, just as my wolves howled and rushed forwards as well.
Valyene leaned closer and kissed my cheek. "Go, Lancefire. Have some fun before you die."
I stretched my arms wide, and appeared on the crystal floor inside my Psi-Titan. Valyene was mostly right. A warm-up fight would do wonders for my morale.
"Soulless abomination!" a Great Daemon accused me as I grabbed his neck with my Titan's power claw.
So I stepped on its feathered chest and pulled with my mighty Titan muscles, then threw his head beak-first into a Chaos Battleship, blowing up the prow like a giant torpedo.
"Come, Perturabo! Your blood will rust if you don't play a little." I urged the last Primarch.
"I hate you, Lancefire!" the Iron Primarch shouted as he teleported beside me.
So I drew a big breath, filling my temporal cache with Cosmic Fire then released it into the Chaos Fleet and burned it all to ash like a solar flare. I guess Lionel won't be so pleased I burned a million Fallen Angels alive, but such is life. I wasn't too keen on redemption arcs.
My chest filled with a familiar golden warmth, so I turned and punched the last Leviathan daemon with my Titan, while the sirens howled to match my wolves.
Half-way though the big daemon my energy was spent, so I fired the Sinistramanus Psi-cannon and blew the thing apart from the inside. Three Alpha psykers inside the battery cells began to spasm from too much drain, so the fun was over. I'll need to ask the Emperor for a better Titan.
Then I leaned back and returned to my Command Throne, while Sabaktes returned to his slot inside the tesseract. Fun was well and good, but I did have more to do than just having fun.
Being a Warmaster meant extra duty.
"Ordella and Dessima, end this circus!" I ordered as the two Omega Silent Sisters emerged from the good tesseract.
"Lord Captain!" Ordella spoke while her mute Sister nodded in silence.
Their Pariah powers became visible as black holes sucking in Warp energy and daemon souls, and they both accelerated to incredible speed, faster than even Angron.
Great Daemons blew up and died at their touch, while lesser daemons melted from miles away.
"Strategic assets, Warmaster?" Shield Captain Valerian asked as darkness devoured the Chaos Labyrinth.
"Only the key to next level, Custode. You'll see the strategic assets soon enough." I answered as the Eighth level collapsed, and the Armada fell towards the Ninth and final level.
I collected the Primarchs and the wolves, but the Nightreaper C'tan just stared after the fleet with dark alien eyes.
"You freed him?" I asked in surprise.
"Freedom is relative, my human friend. The Nightbringer wants revenge on the Necrons, as well as the Eldar and the Orks. And you showed me how to train my C'tan." Trazyn said with an amused voice, while his green right eye blinked like a hidden wink.
"The other Necron Dynasties. But why now?" I asked, a bit confused.
"The Silent King has returned, Pef Lancefire. My Phaeron will bend the knee, and join the annihilation army. Unless more Tyranids arrive, and without a powerful enemy..." the ancient Necron warned me with a sad voice.
"You'll be safe at my side, Lord Trazyn. I can kill anything." I whispered as Trazyn lined up 999 Norn Queens right in front of the Singularity.
"Of course you can, Pef Lancefire. " Trazyn the Infinite answered in a metallic whisper, as the Blade of Infinity fired the singularity beam through the lined-up targets.
The Labyrinth broke in half, revealing the Impossible Fortress in the center.
'Gellar Ramparts at maximum. Overloading. Beta plus temporal event. Gamma...shutting down.' the Blade AI sent to my implant before she vanished.
A second later, the Astronomican light went out, and the duty Navigator's head exploded.
Oops? I may have overdone it this time.