As soon as I stepped on the surface of Nocturne, I realized I may have made a big mistake.

The Emperor Nihilus was not my friend, and his consumption of C'tan Shards had transformed him into a creature much too similar to myself.

"Ah, Pef Lancefire and his loyal Canis! Come join us." the Emperor commanded with immense force, outmatching the blue mollusk and anything I have encountered so far, even the Starchild.

Canis huffed and puffed, covering himself in a golden aura to keep standing. I sighed inward and punched my breastplate. "Sire, I have returned, as ordered!" I proclaimed in a normal voice, then stored my dear wolf with my Silent Sisters.

The Custode-General took Valerian away for debriefing, while I remained face to face with the Emperor and Primarch Vulkan.

"Care to explain what Perturabo is doing in the Pariah Nexus, with a horde of corrupted Iron Warriors and a Dissonance_Engine ?" the Emperor of Man asked in a suspicious tone, as I walked the last meters to their holotable.

Shit! So that's what he cared about. "I sent Perturabo to find the Lock, and then open the passage towards the Weapon. It is Wolftime and things are heading for an end." I answered in a cautious tone.

"Did you hear, Vulkan? From the man's own mouth." the Emperor told his Primarch, who nodded sagely.

"Brave and foolish, but he did manage the same in the Hidden Library. Once more into the breach..." Vulkan spoke in a grave voice, and measured me with his red eyes like I was a curious ant trying to eat a cake too big.

"I suppose Janice will be useful as a new Goddess..." the Emperor mused to himself, his mighty pressure reducing to barely painful. I left out my Breath and resumed breathing normally. Damn Gods!

I brought Canis back, and ruffled his soft fur instead. "Pretty sure that prophecy needs a wolf, not a Sister of Battle. I trust Canis." I said in a softer voice, and Canis glanced between me and the Emperor in a confused manner.

Vulkan snorted at my absurd claim, but the Emperor saw the truth. "If Leman Russ was here, I would agree more easily. But Canis lost his humanity completely, and..."

'Show him, Canis!' I urged my hybrid wolf friend with a mental transmission.

"Woooouuuu!" my wolf howled, and the golden waves of his howl shifted in midair to form words. "...the last fortress is truth"

Vulkan paled and dropped a knee, as the memories of his stasis cell in the Omega Vault resurfaced at full strength.

"Don't break my son with your theater, Lancefire. That was Ordo Malleus overstepping their mandate, like they always do. And you Canis! Anubis was the god of afterlife. Are you sure you want that job?" the Emperor asked my wolf with a calm voice.

The huge wolf frowned, while his front claws sprang out and back with green flashes of C'tan blades. "Worf!" he declared a minute later.

"I will need the Old One's engine back after this. The Imperial Webway will finish much sooner once I have it." The Emperor demanded with a glance at my tesseract glove, and 2000 Grey Knights popped out of my storage and froze at the sight of their God. Everyone saw the Emperor differently, but Grey Knights possibly saw a golden giant with a flaming sword in hand, like depicted in many paintings in the Imperium.

"Well then. See you later, Emperor." I said with a careless shrug, and returned to my ship. Only 2000 Grey Knights was a small tithe to pay...I began to think, when I checked the tesseract to find half of my Blackstone reserves and all the Eldar ships and weapons had vanished as well. Harsh. Could have been worse, though.

I visited Mars for an hour to construct a planetary Hexshield, then sped away for the end of times.

Lash rejoined me on the bridge as the Singularity was over 100 light-years from Mars, which was quite wise of him. The Emperor of Man was known to snack on C'tan Shards after all, and being in my entourage was no protection from that. I might grumble a little, but I would never oppose the Emperor directly, for I was quite clear where the balance of power placed me.

"You're still alive, even after your Emperor learned of your plan. And you got robbed again." Lash noted in a casual tone, and an audit of my dimensional inventory, then went to headbutt Canis in a wolf manner.

"It's a feudal system, Lash. My freedom isn't for free." I educated the simpleminded xenos, then took out the Ghostwalk mantle and a spare chronoblade. "Fit them to Canis and teach him their use. For a God has no need for a spaceship."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Indeed. At most a Webway tunnel, not waiting a month to reach another star." Lash answered with an amused voice, then vanished with Canis to upgrade him in another dimension.

The Singularity soon arrived in the Prospero_System , the former home system of the Thousand Sons and the current location of Wyrmwood, with a large host of Iron Warriors under Primarch Perturabo.

Here, more Chaos forces under Ahriman were conducting rituals on their new planet of Sortiarius , which had emerged from the Warp with numerous psykers and mutants ready to be used as sacrifice. Their Kingdom_of_the_Sorcerers was a pale reflection of what the Thousand Sons once had, but even so they were fighting Perturabo and his remaining Space Marines on even ground. Psykers were a powerful force multiplier, while Ahriman himself was stomping about eagerly on two metal legs. Ah, right. Patrocles mangled his other leg when Ahriman attacked Terra.

'Outer Void Shield inverted, Captain. And without a Warp wake, they shouldn't see us coming.' the Blade whispered in my mind as our battleship moved closer, invisible and silent.

I was a realist, though. Even if invisible, our presence here changed the future, and the more we waited, the more time the Archtraitor would have to prepare his escape.

'Girls, it's time. Ella, you take the lance now.' I told my Silent Sisters just as I deployed the remaining 1000 Grey Knights and the Psi-Titans on the Wyrmwood.

Canis and Lash appeared as transparent ghosts at my sides, now that the Ghostwalker mantle was embedded into my wolf's power collar. 'See you on the other side, Rogue Trader' Lash spoke in my mind when Canis blurred forward as an invisible, immaterial assassin.

The last thing Ahriman saw was a wolf paw bursting through his chest, one of the claws draining his lifespan away while the other C'tan claws minced his Space Marine organs, while a golden howl froze the entire ritual in pure fear and terror.

"Why? I was so close.." the Chief Librarian groaned in despair as the wolf jaws clenched on his head and Ella stabbed him with a red-glowing Daemon Lance.

The Iron Warriors took advantage of their frozen enemies to unleash bolter and autocannon fire on the remaining cultists, terminating their ritual in blood and gore.

'That ritual was aimed at the Solar System, Captain. There should have been a Vigil of Silent Sisters here to...nevermind. We are here now.' The AI muttered as the future she saw began to divert.

Ella returned to her quarters with a rictus of pain on her face, and soon her body began to bubble in black sores and twist in unnatural ways, and despite her Sisters trying to help, the death curse of Ahriman claimed her life. Canis stood at her side and inhaled the black smoke, then howled in grief.

Dessima sobbed in silence, her head held by Ordella while their Sister transformed into a puddle of black goo.

"Rest at the Emperor's side, Ella. Now you walk in the valley of the shadow of death..." Ordella whispered with a heavy voice, while Canis sighed and sat down, with his eyes closed.

I clenched my fist, and brought Perturabo in front of me. "Primarch, is this the right place?" I asked in a cold, deadly voice.

"Warmas...Lord Lancefire! The Lock is a separate subdimension, not in realspace. But we should be able to drill from here. The boundary to the Warp is weaker." Perturabo answered after adjusting to my presence quite rapidly.

"I brought some help. The Grey Knights have great expertise with Warp stuff." I said with a milder voice, and sent him on the Wyrmwood to prepare the Dissonance Engine for drilling.

'Necron forces inbound. Three fleets from the Szarekhan, Nihilakh and Oruscar Dynasties . They might have the Silent King with them.' Lash warned me while the Grey Knights began their own psychic rituals on the Wyrmwood.

Of course, the Necrons would show up as well. All we lacked was a few Eldar Craftworlds and Tyranid Hive Fleets, to make for a giant free for all.