After a soul-searingly long walk, we'd finally found the end of the maze-like building. The space expanded into a large dome-like hall, which was illuminated by makeshift light-posts in a clear Mechanicus design. It contrasted the softly curving architecture of the ruins, on which they were made to shed light.

I took in the collapsing walls, intricately carved pillars that looked like they grew out of the ground like trees, with crevices in their barks depicting ancient battles long forgotten. It made Greek marble pillars look like the work of children trying to please their parents.

At the center of it all stood a half-circle made of the same material as all the other buildings, and in front of it loomed the large form of Magos-Dominus Zedev, hunched as he was, making sure none of his pointy spider legs scratched any of the shapes depicted on the marble-like foundation under the half-circle.

My companions didn't gawk at our surroundings, but I could practically taste their confusion and surprise. I levitated a finger-sized rock that was once part of a building here, finding it responding to my order almost joyfully as it soared through the air and landed in my outstretched palm.

I was dying to examine the little rock in detail, but I glanced around at all the people here. If it was what I thought it was, then I'd really like to go all out on it, using both the third eye and my white tendrils if need be.

Aren't all of them already stuck with me though? Still, human stupidity is infinite. Them turning on me, despite the action of signing their obituary, wouldn't be too far-fetched, especially with humans of this galaxy.

Oh, well. I started examining the rock with a touch of soul energy first, and unsurprisingly it flowed through it with barely any obstruction. The little rock was like an extension of my body...were it not for the whole of it being made up of pure warp energy?

The little thing was static (it was a rock, duh), so it wasn't as enthusiastic about corrupting my soul energy as free warp energy, but it was still corroding it ever so slowly. I threw the rock away, watching it sail through the air and clang against the ferrocrete a few hundred meters away.

Selene looked at me weirdly, along with some of her men who had balls made of pure steel, as the action — if I were a real Inquisitor — would have been extremely likely to earn them a burst of plasma through the head.

My next test would have involved yanking a tendril of my soul through the little corridor connecting my body to it and checking if I could purify the bit of Wraithbone, but I didn't know how my ... weird soul would affect everyone around me. Whatever, there were plenty of rocks here to play with later. Let's see if that half-circle is what I fear it is.

"Hey Magos," I called out, snapping the mechanical arachnid out of his staring contest with the equivalent of hieroglyphs.

"Greetings, Lady Echidna...Captain."

He even noticed Selene, how observant of him. I almost snorted. He was using my name at least; I asked him to do that last time instead of calling me Inquisitor all the time. It felt a bit uncomfortable, to be honest.

"I'd have asked what got you so absorbed, but I guess I can see it now," I glanced at the paintings, carvings, and the overall tale impressed upon the immaterial stone that all of this ancient building was made of.

"Query: Do you know what this is?"

He showed no sign of emotion, neither suspicion nor interest or curiosity, but I felt like if he allowed himself to feel the latter, it would have been the cause of his question.

"A Webway Gate," I said, running my gaze over the thing, "It seems intact, though I have no idea how to tell if it's functional."

"Your observation matches mine. I've been trying to find acceptable answers to that question since I found this ruin."

"How did you find it anyway?"

"Answer: Old records, recorded legends...and the previous governor's journals."

"What is a Webway Gate?" I turned my gaze onto Selene, who was snapping her questioning gaze between the two of us. I noticed the Magos' red eye stared at me in what I felt like an urging to handle the question.

"Eldar technology," I shrugged, "it is what they use to get in and out of the Webway, which they use as an alternative to warp travel."

"So you think we could use this to escape the Tyranids?" she asked Zedev.

"Affirmative. If we can get it to work."

"Alright, we will rely on you to do that."

I slumped down on a fallen pillar, resting my chin in my hands as I watched the Magos get back into his staring contest with a bunch of wall carvings. I didn't like our chances, if I was being honest. Not that I doubted the intelligence of the Magos; the dude was a supercomputer on legs. But the Eldar were protective of any working Webway entrance.

I think there was a group of Harlequins that just went around and messed up anyone that managed to get a gate, and then there were the Farseers. I didn't know whether those hare-brained Eldar could see me or fate twisting around my presence, but even if they just got a glimpse of my existence, I was sure they were going to throw as many wrenches in my plans as they could.

Not that I had many plans aside from growing, evolving, and surviving. That thought stumped me. My lips curved down in a frown as I realized I didn't have any normal goals that went beyond the ones given to me by my body's instincts. Yeah, I was interested in tech and stuff, as well as checking out the Tau, but those were interests, not goals. Even with the tech, I only wanted to upgrade myself further.

"What got the great Inquisitor all frowny?" said frown didn't lessen as I raised an eyebrow at Selene, who clanged down next to me, her bulky power armor not making the best impression on the old Wraithbone as it cracked under her.

"I realized that I don't have a single goal aside from surviving," I said. It wasn't some big secret I had to hide, and I wasn't exactly the type to care how others perceived me.

"Isn't serving the Emperor usually the only goal you Inquisitors have?"

"The ones shat out by a Schola maybe; those sad sods are broken down and built back up as nice little drones, little more than Servitors."

I didn't hold back my words for once; Selene had nothing she could give me anymore, no leverage over me. She was just a human with a few hundred weaklings serving her that couldn't prove to be much of a threat to me.

"It's a human need to have a goal in life, isn't it?" I asked without giving her a chance to answer me, "Without a goal, humans waste away pointlessly. Does life have a meaning without goals?"

"I think I understand you," Selene said as she leaned back onto the wall behind us, "all my life I always fought and learned just so I could be the one to win, to be the only one remaining and become the one inheriting the Warrant."

"At least you had a goal," I shrugged, "you even reached it."

"It's not much different afterward," she turned her head to stare into my eyes, "I've been swept around by the currents of fate like a helpless ragdoll for the last decade of my life. I did what a good Rogue Trader should, but with no goals in mind, I just did what would keep my head on my shoulders and my ship running... the ship I lost even with all that effort."

"Life can be a pain," I hummed in response, earning a snort from the woman, "I think I'd need a long-term goal and a bunch of short-term ones, you know, to keep me occupied. But the long-term one should be something grand."

"Like revolutionizing the Imperium?" Selene asked, and I could hear the smirk in her tone, but her joke was giving me ideas.

Wouldn't that be a good goal to strive towards? I'd never reach it, especially if fate or anything that kept this galaxy as a mess for thousands of years exists, but I think I could put myself behind something like that.

But let's not keep it just to the Imperium; instead of trying to make something from this rotting carcass, I should make something new. If I didn't have a futuristic sci-fi Empire in the galaxy, the only option I had left was to make it myself.

Empress Echidna has a nice ring to it... But maybe I should come up with an original title? Imperator, no, that's just translating it to Latin. Hmmm....

"It was a joke," Selene said with a hint of worry in her eyes as she watched me snap my mouth shut before drool could escape it.

"Thank you," I smiled at the woman, which only widened as her aura gained the slightest tint of embarrassment.

"You are welcome?" she asked uncertainly with a cute tilt of her head, which made me decide that I was keeping her. Even if I let her entourage die horribly, I'd make sure she stayed alive.

"Now, I should go check up on the good Magos," I said with a smile and a light wave at the ex-captain still looking at me like an exotic animal.

No more moping, I should help that tin can kick this Gate into working order.

Just as I was heading toward the Gate, I noticed the Shadows flying into a frenzy of movement as Orion started shouting orders in a clear voice over the Vox.

I raised an eyebrow but still extended a dozen tendrils of soul energy from my body. They rushed into the tunnels and in less than ten seconds reached the site of the disturbance. A flood of knee-high little monstrosities was rushing at our outer line of Shadows. Pink ones giggled as they threw balls of fire at Shadows, which caused them to burst into flames, increasing the number of eldritch cackles and giggles echoing through the tunnels.

Among the waves of pink monstrosities came blue ones; these were silent but much more numerous than the pink ones. Instead of throwing warpfire around, these used their four spindly arms ending in savage claws to ambush any Shadow distracted by their pink variants. I watched as five jumped onto a shadow and ripped him apart, somehow managing to keep him alive even as he lost all four of his limbs, and his entrails were dragged out of his body.

The next moment, a Pink Horror caught my eye, this one just caught a lasgun round with its body. It released a final screech filled with glee as it dissolved into a blob of condensed warp energy out of which crawled two blue Horrors, their eyes filled with malice and searching for an enemy to rip apart.

Fucking hell, it seems the shitty demons can't leave me alone even in realspace.