In a world where the Dark Gods literally exist, are atheists the flat-earthers of the grim dark universe?

Alone in the darkness, she continued to run.

Experiencing Syrine’s memory from a first person view, my vision was illuminated by the barest of lights as she continued her lonesome journey through a long and dark passage. All around I saw sophisticated piping, wires and panels crawling on every wall surface available. Everything looked high-tech yet the extreme dilapidated state of the whole place reminded me of the inside of an ancient tomb.

Looking at the incongruous scene of what could only be described as a fantastic ruin, I was struck by the possibility that this place might carry more historical weight than the old wonders of the world from my time. As I pondered on these unsettling notions, Syrine’s soft footsteps continued to echo in the endless darkness, her anticipation increasing with every step.

The journey through the passages eventually ended as she reached her destination, a dimly lit clearing in the middle of nowhere. Whatever they were using as illuminators had survived the ages, a testament to the level of technological sophistication achieved by the people who built this place.

As Syrine stepped into the dim light I glimpsed down and was shocked to see a dirty rag covering her frame. Even with the limitations of a first person view I could tell she was clearly a child at this point in time. She looked surprisingly frail and even borderline malnourished, not in the slightest state to hint at her status of being a transhuman heiress of a galactic empire.

Oblivious to my observations from the future, she continued walking, looking for a perfect spot. While the place did not look out of the ordinary, an impression from her memory informed me it was a carefully calculated location after many trials and tribulations.

Eventually she selected a spot to sit down on the cold stone floor, brushing random rocks away as she did so. Her mind was still hot with anticipation as a vivid thought imprint seeped into me. Finally after all this time, I can talk to my father again. She soon settled down into a controlled breathing rhythm.

There was a brief moment of disorientation, and I suddenly found myself looking down at a girl from a slight elevation and almost freaked out, that was until I recognised the platinum hair. Syrine? But how?

It took a moment before I realised what happened. This must be a form of astral projection. As far as I knew, a certain famous inquisitor who was bound in a life sustaining armoured chair used this technique a lot. I could not help but feel flustered again as I realised just how little I knew of her capabilities. I need to ask her for a comprehensive list when the next chance comes around. While I was making a mental note on this issue a floating feeling took over and my view started levitating up, she was moving.

As her consciousness drifted upwards, she looked up and an incredible sight came into view. For a moment, I could not comprehend what I was seeing. Above was the rapidly approaching ceiling, but beyond it with my psychic sense I could clearly see a dark void with many shining, blinking lights. In the middle of it all was a titanic, blinding ball of light. For the lack of better words, it was like looking at a very large sun in the night sky.

My mind quivered at the eerie sight but Syrine was unperturbed and continued to climb upwards. Soon her consciousness flew into the solid looking ceiling and passed through it like a ghost. Layers and layers of rocks, earth and unknown material were soon whisking by, but the strange psychic sight remained in view.

Syrine continued to climb, getting closer and closer to the still distant radiance until suddenly something barred her way forward. Like hitting an invisible wall on a no-clip flight, something stopped her ascent. This seemed to be within her expectation as Syrine showed no signs of being surprised. She looked longingly at the huge ball of light for a few seconds before going the other way, towards the other shimmering but much smaller lights on the other far end.

As she moved closer towards those lights in the distance, it felt like deja vu as if I had seen lights like these before. Digging into my memory, a single mental image emerged, it was the astropath when I entered a psychically active state for the first time.

So all these are souls of psykers?

It was then that I recalled an old lore of this universe, it mentioned that powerful psykers shone like stars in the immaterium. Looking closer, those small shining lights did remind me of Arradus the astropath I had witnessed in my psychically active state. All those shining little lights were psykers in the distance, and they all had a different degree of brightness. Supposedly the more powerful they were the brighter they shone.

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I then looked back at the huge ball of light in the far distance and had an epiphany. That meant… my mind froze as I realised what, or rather who, the titanic ball of light was all along. Dwarfing all the others by his sheer magnitude of power, glowing like a supernova in the darkness of the psychic space could be only one person – the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, Big-E himself.

While my mind shuddered at the realisation, Syrine had finally moved close enough to the cluster of lights for me to see them properly. Men, women and even children of all ages were clustered together, their souls flickering in the void.

As Syrine flew into the throng of glowing souls, the details of her plan seeped into me. There was a powerful barrier blocking the way forward so she planned to go through it by attaching herself onto another mind. Looking around, she soon found a target with the correct resonance and dove into the mind of a girl. Instead of taking over, she hid herself behind the host’s lethargic mind and waited.

The girl whose mind Syrine had latched on was unaware of what happened and continued on her journey. She continued to walk for a long time until she approached the barrier.

Just when the girl was about to cross the barrier, Syrine forgot herself and became… Naloria Jarius, and the memories from the host started pouring over. Naloria, no, I was born on an agricultural world and lived a mundane life.

One day I started manifesting weird powers, it started as a silly thing and the local priest took notice. Soon some powerful people arrived and I was picked up by a ship from the sky. Little was said and nothing was explained but I was going off world, it was exciting yet scary at the same time.

That was when the nightmare started, everything was a blur but I knew we travelled for a long time on board a starship. There were others who were like me on the ship but I never saw them. Sometimes in my delirious confinement I could hear whispers, most were gibberish and curses. Amongst the voices there was one which kept saying we were heading towards Holy Terra, but I doubted it since the Throne world was so far away and even wealthy pilgrims were known to die while waiting for their turn to visit the birthplace of Imperium.

Finally the starship arrived at its destination. After making it to the surface of the unknown planet and participating in more tests, I and the others were moved to a featureless facility. It was huge and we had been walking for a while now. My feet ached, my feeble limbs were shaking with exhaustion. The excitement had long since died, I was scared and wanted very much to just go home, but I no longer even remember what home looked like…

Barrier passed. It worked.

Awakened from my trance, I detached myself from the poor girl’s mind and flew away from the throng of fledgling psykers. Ahead was the target destination just a distance away. A great mixed feeling of unease and unparalleled joy rose together on the uncertainties ahead, but I steeled my resolve and before long reached the edge of the titanic glowing globe.

The sight was both breathtaking and terrifying. In front of me was a wall of psychic light pulsing with immeasurable intensity, sending otherworldly brightness into the infinite ethereal abyss. Even at this close a distance, when I tried to get hold of His consciousness it was no use, like so many attempts before it felt like He was here but also everywhere at the same time.

I stepped forward into the light, the depthless power in this space filled me with unease, it felt like sacrilege just to be here. I gazed into the blinding and pulsing lights and called out in point blank range.

+Father.+

No reply, so I tried again.

+FATHER! I am here!+

Again nothing happened. I was about to attempt a third time when suddenly the pulsing of lights stopped for a microsecond before the space around me exploded with psychic wind. With that, an impossible voice spoke, +who?+

He responded! I shivered with joy upon recognising the voice that reverberated from everywhere. Before I could respond further, the titanic globe of psychic light snapped into focus and glowed brighter still. It was like witnessing a sentient sun waking up. Immediately my surroundings shook as an ultra dense psychic pressure hit me like a truck.

I was stunned by the impact and got pushed back out into the void. With some difficulties I regained my bearings to witness an impression of a man forming at the core of the blinding radiance. I trembled with equal parts anticipation and astonishment as the visage of an impressive figure started to solidify.

It was a tall, towering man encased in an impossibly imperious golden armour. Motifs of proud-looking double-headed eagles were edged all over the emerging armoured form that was wreathed in a holy aura. There were impressions of long, black straight hair flowing from a head obscured in a blinding halo. I tried to make out the emerging figure’s face but could not make out any features, it was like staring into the sun.

+Father?+

The figure did not reply.

+Father. It is me, Syrine.+

I called out again while raising my astral arm in a vain attempt to reduce the incoming pressure. An unfathomable amount of psychic power was gathering around the figure. I shuddered at the unimaginable gap between us, the sheer magnitude of power difference was like comparing a light bulb to the sun.

I knew the figure was looking at me, His attention alone burned, yet that was nothing compared to what came next. With a voice like a chorus of a million people, He gazed at me without any hint of recognition while dropping a world-shattering statement in an angry tone.

+YOUR PRESENCE HERE IS NOT AUTHORISED.+