The smell of things in here felt weird, ethereal in a sense that I couldn't quite decide whether I was actually feeling the scents in my nose or if I was just imagining them. Thankfully sounds still worked just as well and so did my psychic senses which I spread out further ahead of us to scout out the way.

A gentle yellowish light came from fluorescent moss covering parts of the hallway, bathing the whole space in a warm light.

As a mostly intact statue came into view, I let myself be distracted by it for a moment. It was obviously male and its lithe form and tall stature which was characteristic of an Eldar was easy to recognize. It wore minimal armor, only greaves, some gauntlets and some small pauldrons with some cloth covering his privates which left his muscular chest on open display.

Said chest was crisscrossed with cracks and looked like it was molten before but on closer inspection that was intentional, the cracks had reddish paint while the rest was mostly left with the material's dark colour. What gave away the identity of the being the statue depicted was the head, flaming red eyes and a maw filled with razor-sharp teeth opened like the being was releasing a constant war cry while the rest of his head seemed to have melted together with a large helmet that had two upward curving spikes as long as the beings arms and as sharp as the bastard sword held in the figure's right hand.

"Query: Is there something outstanding about this specific statue Inquisitor?" as I glanced at the tin can interrupting my thoughts I think I saw some form of curiosity in his one organic eye.

"Not really," I shrugged, "You could probably find many other statues depicting Eldar gods if you search a bit and I told you to call me Echidna."

"Understood," he buzzed, "So this is one of their gods?"

I just nodded.

"Do you know which one?" Selene asked, maybe looking for a distraction from our already boring walk.

"Khaine," I said, "the Lord of Murder, he is said to have been one of the strongest of them but since his soul is shattered his power hasn't been the same."

"It still exists?" she asked back, her brows pulled together into a frown.

"Yes," I shrugged again, I was doing it an awful lot, "he is the reason the Eldar can still throw his Avatars at especially annoying enemies like Astartes and such. Take a good look at that statue as his avatars tend to look the same as that, though by the time you two see one of those I don't think you have much chance of escaping."

"What about their other gods?"

"I believe the only other one alive is the Laughing God," I said with a tilt of my head, no way I have any way of knowing Nurgle is using Isha as a personal plague tester, "who coincidentally resides in the depths of the Webway."

"Is that going to be a problem?"

"Maybe," I glanced at Selene, she didn't look too worried, not sure why though, a God was still a God, "I think he has an entire Harlequin Masque dedicated to protecting Webway Gates and dealing with interlopers just like us but then again, the Webway is already overrun with Demons and Orks in some places so if we don't wander too close to his precious library we shouldn't be in any major trouble."

"You speak of the Black Library?" the Magos perked up at my mention of it, was this guy obsessed with the Eldar or something? I mean, I can understand, I can't deny my own ... appreciation for sexy space elves, "I always assumed it was just a legend, so many Eldar legends and myths carry only an abysmal fraction of the truth."

"It must annoy you greatly," I rolled my eyes at him, "the way Eldar record their history is through tales and songs which is the exact opposite of what your Mechanicus likes to do."

"Agreement."

"Say," I glanced at the arachnoid cyborg, "why exactly did you call us down onto the planet? Just exploring some ruins wouldn't need my help, much less the Captains."

"My calculations put the probability of the repairs being done before the Xenos arrived at 1 in 987541 and the likelihood of you being able to get the Gate to work before then at 1 in 345123."

"What did you base those calculations on?"

"Data," he stared at me lifelessly, like I was a monkey asking him to teach it calculus, "you must know that gravitational anomalies are the first sign of an incoming Tyranid invasion, I've analyzed the records of earthquakes and natural catastrophes in the governor's records."

"You used the time of the last disaster to predict when the fleet would arrive?" I raised an eyebrow, "that should be less than accurate."

"I calculated the fleet being a smaller splinter-fleet and due to having lesser Narvhal class bio-forms, it's reduced gravitational effects. The results were indeed inaccurate but the magnitude of difference between the two probabilities was a good guiding point to form my decision."

"I guess," I shrugged but narrowed my eyes at him, "next time tell me before you pull something like that."

"The loss of the ship was inevitable as it couldn't have entered the Gate, I requested the maximum number of troops and personnel I predicted to fit inside this section of the Webway."

"Which is smart," I nodded, "but not my point, it shouldn't be your decision to sacrifice the crew of an entire ship that is not even your own."

Selene stayed silent next to me, listening in on our conversation as she brooded over all the new information she got.

"Understood."

The boorish silence returned after that and even though I didn't feel like interrupting it at the moment, I felt played. The feeling persisted and I decidedly disliked the sensation, it sent my stomach twisting in knots as I ruminated on a way to keep the Magos from even considering doing something like this again without my permission. I'd have probably done something similar but I might have managed to learn how to influence a ship through its Machine Spirit and made it go through Warp Travel without a problem even if it was damaged.

He made an educated decision based on all the data he had but he had no idea of my full capabilities. Cooperation was another possibility but that required trust and I was reluctant to trust anyone in this galaxy, especially after I went through thousands of human minds with my telepathy. Sure there were good ones but holy shit, were there a fuck load of deranged lunatics hiding behind a facade of normalcy? Even the good ones were fucked in some way, some were religious fanatics which gave me the ick on a personal level and some were just broken in a way that kept them seemingly good.

Maybe that was why I felt so attached to Selene, aside from her looks, she was the most normal person I met in this galaxy. I still didn't delve into her mind but her surface thoughts and emotions drifted over to me at times and I couldn't help but find them somewhat endearing. She was young, unbroken by war and yet she was strong. If it was me from before reincarnation, what she went through in the last few weeks would make me a depressed mess sobbing under my bed and yet, here she was, striding forward in an alien environment with only a slight frown on her face.

I knew she mourned the loss of Orion and his men while the betrayal from the Vice-Captain still felt like a scalding knife plunged into her back but despite it all she still fought on.

Is this the famed indomitable human spirit?

I smiled ruefully as I considered that, to survive all the horrible disasters and atrocities humanity went through they had to become stronger, evolve in a way and while I had my suspicions about there being a genetic part to this I couldn't rule out that it was something more esoteric like the collective will of humanity to survive having reinforced their souls and minds or something like that. They were certainly different from most humans I knew in the 21st century but I was rather certain that I wasn't from the past of this universe.

I remembered that golden space where I watched a shimmering white river of souls drift off of the illusory Earth and into faraway places beyond my sight, I couldn't move but I had more than enough time to engrave that scene into my soul. It wasn't the Warp and neither was it the Immaterium, it was oppressive and held such overwhelming power that even discarded and forgotten as my little soul was at the bottom of it, I couldn't even turn my sight or move an inch.

I was so helpless, so vulnerable ... so weak.

A new fear started haunting me at that thought, what if they noticed I was gone? If I was placed where I was for a reason, maybe punishment? Did they think I escaped and would they punish me more harshly if they caught me again?

'If' I snorted, I didn't see a single being other than the docile souls in that place, all of them just flowed in that great river to carry them to a presumed afterlife. Whoever was the Warden of that place should be more than capable of crushing me even with all my newly learned powers. I need to strengthen my soul, I have no way of knowing whether they'd care that I escaped or if they'd be either willing or able to track me down but all I can do at the moment is grow strong enough to make any attempt at taking me back as troublesome as possible and with time I could maybe even beat them back. I just hope they are lazy fucks.

This would be called an 'inner demon' if I reincarnated in a dumb cultivation world wouldn't it? I wondered as a smirk made its way onto my face, something that would have been impossible to the mortal me from another life if she had to carry all my fears.

That young woman could barely handle it when she fell out of college and yet the woman I've become could smile as she considered what the future held not as dreadful fates preordained by destiny but as a challenge.

A challenge I will overcome.