Stone cracked beneath my feet as I launched myself forward, a barrage of flesh-eating worms was already heading in my direction but with a slight TK wave, all of the ones that could have struck me were diverted just enough for me to dash through the slight gap. I had no armor on and had my hair tied together in a ponytail so it wouldn't be too annoying while I held an unpowered bio-sword in my hand.

Unpowered so Selene would feel when she got struck but not lose limbs in the process with my armor protecting her. Of course, I was going painfully slow compared to my maximum speed but I was using only as much soul energy as Selene had Warp energy while my body was intentionally just a bit beyond a normal human's.

As I got through a gap I threw up an illusion, a copy of myself continued on in a straight line and got ready to strike at Selene while I dashed to the side and circled around her. I wanted to see how good her senses were and whether she could see through my illusion if I only put this much energy into it and didn't use my Mind-Cores to make every fraction of it as realistic as possible.

Another swarm of flesh-eaters left her bio-shotgun if you can call it that and passed right through my illusion. That is one way to figure out that it was a ruse but it seemed Selene didn't quite realize it just yet as she sent an arc of lightning at the image as it raised its sword to slash at her. The vicious Warp sorcery latched onto the Soul energy making up the illusion and deconstructed it in a second, eating up the pure energy like a voracious beast and I imagined if the energy could, it would have barfed as it finished its meal.

Finally, Selene realized she's been had and snapped her head around but as she turned my blade smacked into her side and sent her flying and rolling over the stone. Before she even came to a stop I sent two beams of flames at her prone form, I arced them from both sides like that bird did with me and I myself barrelled forward like a bullet propelled by my TK.

Selene must have sensed the incoming attacks, the fiery ones at least as she sent her body back a few meters with a burst of TK as the two beams of flames burst into each other right in front of her in a violent explosion of flames and heat. I coated myself in a flimsy film of energy and dashed through the firestorm, my blade slashing out even before Selene came into view. My eyes and infrared vision might have been impaired but my hearing enhanced by a trickle of soul energy wasn't.

My blade met her fist, her strength paled in comparison to mine and she got swiftly pushed back. She rolled along with the force of my slash and as she did so she aimed the Devourer right at my face. The weapon fired, in that split second between seeing a swarm of ravenous worms hungering for my brain and having them coat my face I used one of my new tricks.

My body flickered, not from speed but because my body for a split second wasn't entirely in realspace but in an in-between halfway into the Immaterium. The swarm passed through my afterimage and I was back a moment later a bit disoriented, my physical senses told me that no time had passed but my soul knew that I was gone for a moment, the contradiction gave me what humans would call nausea.

My slight disorientation gave ample time for Selene to get onto her feet and launch her fist ending in a monomolecular stinger at my stomach. With the weapon's pointy end being one centimeter away from sinking into my soft flesh I let out an omnidirectional Shockwave powered by a sizable amount of Soul energy.

Selene was pushed back but her armor kept her anchored to the ground so she only slid back a few meters but that was more than enough time for me to recollect myself and send an Arc of Lightning at her before launching myself after her. Val's teaching methods might have been questionable in their effectiveness with how long-winded and esoteric his explanations were but I always got the gist of it, maybe because my brain was mostly of Aeldari make.

Selene sent herself out of the Bolts' way but they turned and arced toward her new location, I smirked as I saw her body become paralysed from the electricity running through her nervous system. Val's favorite trick was Chained Arcs of Lightning that homed in on targets, he mostly used souls as a way to home in on them but he also told me that through Biomancy you can target specific types of living beings too and that is exactly what I did.

His attacks were more focused on frying his enemies from the inside out but I turned this attack into merely a paralyzing bolt. Of course, I didn't want to turn Selene's insides to ash, that'd be a rather rude thing to do in a spar.

I walked up to her lazily and tapped the point of my sword against her neck and pushed a bit. Her rigid body fell back with a small hole in the neck of the armor.

"I think I win this one," I said as I sent a wave of soul energy into her body to banish the remains of my spell and any warp taint that might linger from her use of it quickly followed by another wave of bio-energy to heal up her strained nerves.

"Yeah," she said tiredly as her helmet retreated and revealed her face, "when did you learn that?"

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"You know I did listen to Val's lessons," I said as I pulled her to her feet, "I can multitask quite well."

"You are such a cheat," she sighed.

"I am," I smiled, "but so are you, Val said you learn faster than some Eldar geniuses."

"Really?" her voice was laced with doubt.

"I can hear it in your voice, you don't believe it," I smiled, "just wait until we meet a sanctioned Psyker, tell one how long it took for you to cast your first effective combat spell and watch them cry themselves to sleep."

"Right," she rolled her eyes, "like any Emperor-sanctioned Psyker would be worse than me."

"They would be," I shrugged, "strong Psykers aren't sanctioned Selene. They are hunted and killed, considered too much trouble for what they are worth."

"And I would be a strong one?"

"Not yet," I said with a tilt of my head, "maybe in a few years, I don't know why and how your soul became stronger but as you are you are right in the range of the type of Psykers the Imperium likes to brainwash into Sanctioned Psykers."

"I can barely use anything besides Telekinesis," she said disparagingly.

"Selene," I sighed, "most Psykers can barely use a single School and you can use three even if one of them is much stronger than the rest."

"But you-"

"I am a cheat," I placed a finger on her dumb lips, she really didn't have anyone normal to compare herself with, "and Valenith is an old Fogie who was born with a golden spoon up his ass...along with a thorny tentacle but that is another story."

"Why?" she asked with a frown as she removed my hand from her mouth.

"Eldar were made to be Psychic powerhouses that could rival Primarchs by beings that mastered bioengineering and the secrets of the Immaterium," I said steadily. "Even if they are barely a fragment of what they once were they are still master-crafted Warp conduits which is why my body is mostly based on theirs."

"Really?" she looked me up and down, "You look human enough."

"Do I?" I smirked as my body grew to 190cm, my ears grew longer, my cheekbones rose higher and my jawline became chiselled and my face gained an androgynous feel to it. "My human facade is only skin deep," I said as my voice gained a strange trill to it as my posture shifted to be more graceful. "The Eldar form is the optimal one if I want to use Psychic powers... it still leaves some things to be desired but it is better than any alternatives I have at the moment..."

When I turned back to look at Selene her face was flushed and her eyes were wide open as she stared at me, I was confused for a moment but then I saw a few emotions grow stronger in her aura and I couldn't help but chuckle. Someone has an elf fetish it seems...can't fault her, to be honest.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face, with an amused smile. She blinked and her cheeks went a shade redder as she snapped her head away from my gaze.

"You can stare all you want you know~"

"Urgh," she groaned as she covered her face.

I opened my mouth to tease her a bit mor- "Noosphere connection established; Communications with Baal Secundus; Requesting your Presence Lady Echidna."

A sigh escaped me as I looked at the still embarrassed Selene, such an opportunity wasted.

"I'm coming," I answered the servoskull as it floated closer to me, "let's go Selene."

"Yeah," she nodded, relief evident in her voice as duty relieved her of the continued embarrassment but she still cast sideways glances at me as I didn't turn back into my more human appearance just yet.

As we headed back I contemplated our spar, from my side I obviously focused on my sword as my main way of delivering my fatal strikes.

Sure, my Sorcery might be powerful, but a psychic powersword was another thing entirely and even if it failed if I was close enough I could just say 'fuck you' and eat them. With my tendrils, which had about zero counters, every other ability in my toolkit was just so I could get close enough to my enemies.

But there were enemies where getting close could prove... sub-optimal, like most of the Greater Demons for example. The thing I had to fear the most were attacks that struck either my mind or tried to invade my soul. That should be my greatest weakness, as it showed in my fight with that bird. I didn't have any finishing attacks that were ranged and usable against more powerful Warp beings or non-organic enemies like the Necrons.

I gave the task of coming up with something to my other Mind-Cores for now. I stilled a moment later as it didn't even take a second for my super computer-like minds to come up with a viable alternative. I quickly received the information package and shut my eyes to go over it but they flew open again as I finished.

I smacked myself over the head for being such a moron. Yeah it wouldn't work on Necrons for sure but it'd also be devastating against biological enemies. The main part was stuffing my white tendrils into something like the Devourer and shooting them as bullets.

I could make them eat through the enemies like the fleshborers or just phase into their body and detonate their carried bio-energy. The second one was my Mind-Core's recommendation against Necrons, though they were also adept at phasing technology so its use was tentative at the moment.

It's worth a try, I don't know how I never thought of using those as ammunition. Maybe having an Eldar brain makes you technologically inept?

We hopped back up towards the Gateway and quickly reached the Magos who had a bunch of holographic windows floating around it, each flickering in and out of existence as he operated dozens of them at a time.

"There is an anomaly," he said without looking at us, "Baal, Baal Prime and Baal Secundus are all under Siege by Tyranid and Daemonic forces, sending voidships to retrieve us has been curtly rejected on the basis of being both encircled and in heavy need of every capable ship."

"Oh," I said, my mouth making sagely O, right, time is a bit fucky, we shouldn't be too late though. "Anything else?"

"The Daemonic presence is restricted to Baal Secundus at the moment and they have engaged in combat with the Tyranids...aside from that there are thousands of combat reports, what are you interested in?"

"What is the status of the Knights of Blood?"

"...Lost...marked as a valiant last stand against the Great Enemy."

"Great," I got some confused glances but to me, this was just enough to know that the 'Devastation' part of the 'Devastation of Baal' was soon starting and we might be late if we don't do something, "We are late."