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It was not much longer until Illidrid had gathered all that remained of his forces and went through the gate himself. The route to the craftworld was thankfully direct so he had nothing to fear from the Grey Knights getting lost in the webway. As it redied to depart Addria came into his Wave Serpent to give a report on the situation. Illidrids prophecies told him that this was the old Banshee exarchs last battle. While he had already resolved to make whatever sacrifices necessary Illidrid would be said to see the her fall in this battle. The ancient exarch had served him well as both a bodyguard and as a second in command. She however seemed completely unconcerned about her doomed nature as she delivered the report.

"We have 250 warriors remaining at our disposal. Merely a third of our full strength. Our rangers tell us that the Tanash have suffered similarly huge casualties in this war but still out number us two to one"

Illidrid dismissed this disadvantage immediately

"It is impossible for them to use thier full force against us and still keep the Imperial dogs assaulting this sector at bay. When they arrive at the Craftworld we must disoldge them and do it quickly. They know nothing of the nature of the monster we face there and the unprepared they are just more souls to strengthen the Heartslayer."

As the Wave Serpent sprang to life Illidrid felt a sense of destiny coming over him. The Grey Knights would buy him some time to deal with the Tanash before the Heartslayer was upon them. Convential weapons would be useless against the foe and Illidrid knew that only he had the answer. All of the stolen souls and the tainted powers he had nurtured were for this moment. Revenge against the heart slayer for his death and the death of so many dear to him was his and his alone. This battle with the Tanash was a pivital moment. The direction of all the possible futures he saw was dependant upon the outcome of this moment.

The final battle was upon them

The Librarians onslaught was furious but he where Illidrid was an eternal vengeful spirit the Librarian was mortal and tired. His psychic defenses were weak and Illidrid could see into his minds eye knowing every strike he would make before he did. To his credit the Librarian defended against his attacks masterfully but with such an advantage it was childs play for Iliidrid to prevent his strikes from landing on any of his spirit stones and threatening his immortality. Gluted on his stolen power Illidrid moved like quicksilver chuckling to himself as he darted around the attacks of the quickly tiring warrior. This was not like his previous battle with this psychic warrior. This time the stars were aligned and destiny was in Illidrids favour. Illidrid could feel the pain of his Dire Avenger squad as some purifiers mercilessly cut through them to reach their embattled leader but it was too late. A fire dragon braved the autocannon fire that had slaughtered the rest of his squad in order to slice through a nearby razorback with his fire pike. The concentrated lance of intemse heat eventually found the engine of the viechle and sent it sky high in an enormous explosion. As the shockwave buffetted the exhausted Librarian he staggered onto one knee and gave Illidrid the opening he needed.

The farseer spun with impossible speed and knocked him off his feet with the haft of his singing spear stopping with the point inches from the Librarians throat. The Space Marines all stopped as one shocked by his sudden show of mercy. The Librarian sneered at Illidrid

"You foul demon tainted xenos you lack the bravery even to take my life!"

Illidrid sneered right back at the Grey Knight

"I am no demon you cur! I am something much much worse. And you are out of time!"

With that statement Illidrid pointed to the sky as a Demon Prince launched himself into the sky with an odd glowing green nimbus around him. Once he reached a certain point where the Heartslayers attempts had made the barriers between warp and reality weakest he slashed at the heavens themselves making a big green gash in the sky. He then tore it open with both hands and reached in pulling out a huge dragonlike demon as the warp began pouring into reality. As the warp rift opened completely and reality itself somehow permenantly became less real Illidrid looked back down at the fallen Librarian.

"If your mongrel life is mine to take I would rather you lose it doing what you were made for oh slayer of demons. The one you seek is the one behind this rift and it will remain open until he is slain. You can find him through that portal."

The Grey Knight reluctantly signaled for his men to stand down. As the few surviving Grey Knights quickly readied themselves and begun to make their journey through the now activated webway construct the Librarian turned to Illidrid one last time.

"You are fortunate we now have more important matters to attend to. Pray that I never see you again Xenos scum!"

With that he walked through the portal.

Illidrid could already hear the roar of Intercepting autocannons as his wave serpants rushed towards the collosal webway structure that was thier objective. As he prepared his divination runes for the coming battle he knew that he had already won. The victory would be hard and there would be many lives sacrificed but there were no strands of fate in this prophecy that didnt result in his victory here and the Grey Knights becoming another one of his pawns. He only wished the portents were as certain on his coming battle with the Tannash. A telling crunch in the Wave Serpants anti grav engine signaled that something critical had given way under the brutal salvo of the dreadnaughts and their autocannons and that the battle had begun proper.

As he lept from the Wave Serpant he felt an inner calm and focus that only a true Seer could achieve. He was connected to everything and was at one with his entire fighting force. From the fire prisms attempting unload suppressing fire on the Grey Knight Terminators advancing towards them to the Rangers being incenerated by the Horrific Nemesis Dreadnight. Illidrid dodged a shot from a prism cannon by a hairs bredth that turned both one of his Howling Banshees and a Terminator into charred lumps of flesh. Before they could recover from the blast the Fire Dragons let loose with thier Fusion Guns inflicting devestating casulties and Illidrid then knew that this was the moment to charge. As the screaming Banshees met the Librarians elite squad hed on Iliidrid found himself facing a Grey Armoured warrior holding an enormous sword aloft and raving about his accursed dead god. He took a swing at Illidrid that could cleave any Eldar in two but where Illidrid was a second ago was only air. Illidrid lamented at the futility of such direct methods against one as potent in Precognition as he had become as he retaliated with a blast of psychic energy fueled by stolen power from tortured souls. The blast was strong enough to knock even the terminator armoured warrior from his feet allowed two banshees to rush in and finished the stunned Grey Knight.

It wasnt long until they had broken through the Grey Knight warriors and though only his Exarch Addria and one other Howling Banshee remained they charged bravely towards thier leader. Both weapons found purchase within the Grey Knight but could not pierce his armour fair enough to cause any serious injury. The Librarian snarled and with a look of pure hate on his face swept them both away with an armoured fist leaving Illidrid alone to face him.

Leerdammer met with Chedd over where the tunneling Demon was once, the Eldar had removed the creature but there was still a sizable hole that almost certainly went right down to the Eldar ruins below

Leerdammer had never liked Chedd, he was the author of his own weakness and had run from the Imperium as soon as there was a chance of discovery, he was a coward, but he kept the recruits fresh from the Imperium in line.

There were no words exchanged here, each knew the other had suffered the same miraculous ressurection and there was nothing to do but to enter the tunnel below.

They emerged in the tunnels of the Ancient Eldar, nobody had walked here since the Fall, around them the walls and ceiling were covered in strange diagrams describing the battle that had just happened above in exacting detail

Could the Eldar they had just battled have put this on the walls? Somehow Leerdammer simply knew they hadn't been down here, that they wouldn't walk these tunnels, how did he know that? How did he know all this about Eldar?

The tunnel stretched out into the distance both ways, one direction held the past, and the other the future. Leerdammer had no interest in what some Ancient Eldar thought the future might hold, whatever it was he'd forge it himelf. While he walked back towards the start of the battle, Chedd walked the other way.

As Leerdammer walked back through the history of his own legion, he saw it full of the image of a sickle with an eye, it whispered to his men, lingering just out of sight, the images told of how the eye led Avaxtskyr to him in chains, it hovered over the Inquisitor who drew Edelpilz into his metallic body, struck down the chain of contacts between Iberico and the World Eaters, it whispered to Livarot's pilot, moving his ship out of position to make him easy prey for Leicester's assault pods.

There was no direct mention of Casu Marzu, the Ancient Eldar couldn't possibly known about Slaanesh or his/her influence, in the place of the confused Sorcerer there was only a shadow

He went back beyond the founding of the legion, it was the eye that had told Leicester when the time was right to martial his Assault Squad and steal the Philadelphia from the Black Templars, and the eye that had shrouded Manur IV from the Imperium and allowed Leerdammer to carry out his lifetime of slaughter

The final image was Leicester and Leerdammer on Manur IV, 2 battles raged elsewhere, the World Eaters made planetfall on the Planet of the Sorcerers while the Daemons of Khorne broke through the Maze of Tzeentch

The 2 friends had always believed that Khorne helped them witness these moments, starting them on the path to his servitude, but the images told a different story, that Tzeentch had glanced for the tiniest fraction of a second in their direction and sent the eye to them with images

At first, Leerdammer dismissed it all as trickery, the Eldar had painted these images to confuse him, but he knew somehow that the Ancient Eldar had simply painted whatever came to them in their drug induced hazes in the days right before the fall

It all made more sense this way, Khorne doesn't do things with visions and plans, it was Tzeentch who sent the 2 children those images and his influence that guided their path, even the number of pieces the Xynotyro had split into....

"Impossible!" Chedd's voice echoed from down the hallway, followed by the sound of collapsing rock, Leerdammer took a turn off the hallway he was in and ran towards light

He left the tunnel as it collapsed behind him and fell to his knees, considering all that he had just seen, he was there for a while

Someone intruded on Leerdammer's thoughts, he could smell the man before his Force Axe was placed under his nose

"You're Leerdammer I presume? Maybe you're done sending my men into deathtraps?"

Leerdammer knew he still had the upper hand here, these Nurgle worshippers needed him. He thought back to the images the Envy Daemons had shown him

"I think we can come to an agreement, theres something I need in the Warp"

Chedd's Rhino was the first casualty of the battle, as he climbed out of the wreckage their voices came to him again, "He's so sad, lets help him"

Before the meeting with Angron the Legion thought these were Bloodletters, the truth had since come out that these were creatures of purest Envy, they took the form of Bloodletters because they envied their prowess in battle, but Envy never stopped for these creatures, they'd keep miming bits from different creatures until they realised they'd lost what Bloodletters had and the cycle would start over again.

They haunted Chedd as a kindred spirit, their life played out like his had many times over, but while they could go back to being like Bloodletters, Chedd was stuck in his patchwork form, as if the pain wasn't enough of a reminder of his curse

Chedd ignored them, as the banner to Nurgle was held aloft he felt new vigour flow into him, the power of Nurgle helped him shrug off the agony of his stitches and he signalled his squad to run forwards

The Havocs fell around him one by one to stray Eldar fire, when the banner went down the agony hit Chedd like new again and he was next to take a hit, as he lay on the ground bleeding out the Daemons spoke to him agan, "We should call... Idiazabal"

"Great idea", spoke another voice, "lets take the sacrifices", Chedd watched as they flooded forwards from another icon the initial wave was already in an Eldar squad when the last of them materialised

"Sleep now Chedd," they said to him, "The Dragon will soon Awake", and then he lost consciousness

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Leerdammer was determined to exact vengence on the Eldar for keeping his Relic from him, but he hadn't expected them to bring it with them, he could feel the fragments presence nearby.

Looking forwards, he could see Eldar with rifles, they would die first, a shot ripped through his leg as he bounded forwards, the power behind it was incredible and caused him to faulter

Voices rang in his head, "Do not worry, Idiazabal will arrive soon", to think he once believed those creatures were Bloodletters, he remembered his anger, the anger of knowing that even the Word Bearers were granted Daemons from Khorne but not him, it spurred him to start charging again

A few more shots, and he was on the ground.

The next thing Leerdammer remembered was quiet, the sound of boots splashing in the mud, and one of the Eldar who'd brought him low standing over him, "Illidrid, the enemy commander still draws breath" the Eldar called out

"End him," came the response from some distance away

As the Eldar placed his rifle to Leerdammer's skull he considered that this was it, his soul would be drawn into the warp where it would be claimed by Khorne, in death he would be just another skull on the skull throne, as Khorne cared not who's blood was shed, why would Leerdammer worship such a creature?

Realisation of his own doubt hit him, Khorne would be displeased, his soul would suffer

The muffled click of a rifle, the sudden release of pressure from his skull

For a moment, Leerdammer's soul walked the warp with the Envy Daemons that he hated so, they circled around a colossal Fury mumbling about failure and begging this "Idiazabal" for forgiveness, and then with a particularly alien sensation Leerdammer was sucked back into his own body.

He used his Halberd to help himself to his feet, it was heavy, it had never been heavy, his wounds were healed but the thing that had brought him back was anything other than Khorne, his artefacts had lost their power and for now his link to Khorne was cut off, was this what Casu Marzu went through whenever he revived?

Leerdammer took a moment to look around, the Eldar had gone and the battlefield was mostly empty, many of his fallen men had been teleported back to the Philidelphia but there were still a lot more corpses here than he would like, the shard of the Xynotyro was gone, once again out of his reach.

There was another wandering the field