Relics - A Malum Vigilia Short Story - Chapter 3

[FattyLumpkin]

Hundreds of daemons filled the highway.  Eli zoomed his lenses as he began the advance at a steady pace.  They were all larger than the average human, some up to three meters tall.  Some sported muscles so large they impeded the bearer's function.  Others were little more than bones wrapped in skin.

 

Some had maintained human hands and legs, but they were few.  The daemons had been changed into disgusting implements of slaughter.  Eli saw arms that ended in bloody blades, brutal hammers, and sinister lashes.  They walked on hard crushing hooves, and sharp spears of bone shot from their skulls. Their skin was the bright red of spurting arterial blood.

 

Eli saw now why there were so few victims on the approach.  They had been brought here.  The daemons were bleeding them.  Those with hands held dripping corpses by the ankles, others held them speared aloft on their vicious appendages.  Piles of bloodless bodies lined the highway.  

 

Eli returned his vision to near sight.  Best not to view the foul things if not required. 

 

He heard a series of explosions from the highway, far past the entrance to the courtyard. Five thunderous cracks ripped through the air as the skyfire batteries burst into flames, showering the courtyard in embers and debris.

Three shots rang from Spire cell’s snipers. No confirmation of a hit came over the vox. They had missed. Kayde still lived. Four massive pods ripped through purple clouds and descended in a flickering cascade of colors. One shot out into the district towards Armor Cell. The rest aimed for the courtyard.

The pods dropped into the plaza. Eli could not see them land, but felt the impact in the ground. Barely a second after the impact the courtyard shook a second time. A deep, gurgling voice filled the air with one low word;
 

“Blood”

 

Eli saw a massive figure blast into the corner of the east wing with the speed of a bullet, his drop pod following and breaking apart on impact. A wave of dark fluid slapped into the plaza and courtyard behind him. He ricocheted off of the wall and landed in the middle of the highway, far away, crushing daemons under him.  A clutch of daemons began to surround him.

 

The edge of the plaza erupted into blinding white flashes and thunderous cracks of gunfire. An assault bolter. Eli and his cell were nearly there now, and saw the smoke billowing out into the courtyard. Daemons began to charge into the plaza.

A hulking figure clad in bone white armor emerged from the smoke. Brother Decimus Batur. Wielding a massive thunder hammer, crackling with white-blue energy, and a tower shield big enough to crush a mortal man.

He ran to meet the first daemon, a short bulky thing with arms and shoulders so large it loped like a gorilla. Decimus slammed his hammer into the creature with a backhanded swing, sending it flying. Another approached on his left and he shoved his shield through it, embedding in the dirt beneath its split body. He raised his arms and let out a booming scream, amplified and made robotic by his helmet.

Eli turned into the plaza. Dead priests lay exploded and broken, shattered by the assault bolter. Their decanters still lingered, emitting growing clouds of shifting rainbow smoke. Ahead was the grand staircase, made of a dull reflective metal, shining back the cathedral's lights in muted tones. Landings and outcroppings broke the staircase's ascent at regular intervals, where sacrificial altars stood, surrounded by cultists. Eli understood where the blood had been flowing, all throughout the city. It flowed here, through the grass and up the steps, into the cathedral.

At the base Eli saw Brother Gaius Sukh. He had tossed his spent assault bolter aside and was now working to establish a cordon at the foot of the stairs. He ripped the gigantic doors from the drop pod assembly and planted them in the ground in a staggered formation. Small arms fire from the cultists pinged off of his armor to no effect. He saw Eli approach.

“The hunt begins, Khasar,” he said, ripping another door from the drop pod's base.

Eli heard Aurelius over the vox.

“He opened a deep hole in his throat, the second I emerged. The relic is powerful but he is weak.”

 

Eli and his cell took cover.  Sacrificial altars and crude bloody shrines littered the plaza.  Eli saw Decimus repelling the surge of daemons.. They were drawn to his challenge and seemed to forget all else. In the distance he saw Aurelius slicing daemons limb from limb with his mighty power claw, making his advance back to the line. Ahead of him Gaius had finished placing the barricades and drew his power sword as he moved to intercept any daemons that made it around Decimus.

 

“Temur, Batu, Khorig, aid the Astartes. Serel, Oron, smoke our approach. Everyone put your eyes on and get ready to push.” Eli voxed to the cell.

Dozens of smoke canisters shot into the plaza and up the stairs. Everything was blanketed in smoke filled with multicolored light. Eli switched his lenses to compensate, and saw the cultists' heat signatures scurrying around as they began to panic and hide. Eli looked down to his hounds.

 

“Go. Find him. Stay hidden.”

 

Olaf and Lumen bolted into the smoke. Eli saw their heat signatures fly up the stairs and into the cathedral, darting past cultists completely unnoticed.

Eli and his cell advanced, taking cover behind the doors, shielding them from the gunfire. Looking back through the smoke Eli saw the heat signatures of the three Astartes and three mortals maintaining a controlled withdrawal into the courtyard.

The cell brought down the cultists that were not in cover. There were too many to bother counting. They needed to advance soon. Each second here was a second for Kayde to escape.

“Grenades.” Eli voxed, “Flush out the first landing.”

Four grenades vanished into the smoke, two on either side of the steps. The cultists did not seem to notice the grenades landing near them. Their cover was obliterated and the majority of them with it. The rest were killed as they emerged from cover.

“Serel, Oron, remain and maintain the cordon. The rest with me,” Eli commanded as he ran.

Eli made for the stairs. He could barely see the shape of the steps in front of him, his lenses illuminating them in blue with an accompanying ping of lidar detection. The cultists registered as bright red heat signals, ducking in and out of faintly defined altars and shrines. Eli knew their vision was worse, so he was not concerned with a direct hit. His armor could repel small arms fire, and he bore a momentary refractor field. Eli moved up the stairs with speed and confidence.

Grenades flew from behind Eli and Naran, as they held their rifles trained on the groups ahead. They advanced on the right, opening lines of fire to those on the left.  The cultists fired wildly. Some attempted to flee further up the stairs and were killed as they ran.

 

Eli and the four with him had reached the dais at the top of the stairs. There was a force in the cathedral entryway, but they did not know the cell was so close. Behind them

the stairs lay covered with cherry red heat signatures, slowly expanding, flowing into trails and following them up the steps.

The cell tossed their remaining ordnance into the entryway, eliminating them without resistance. Eli began to cross the dais, his boots splashing through the rivers of blood that coalesced upon it. The smoke was clearing. He felt a breeze. There definitely should not be a breeze here. Eli stopped and turned around.

“Something's wrong. Spire cell what's going on?” Eli said on an open channel.

 

“The smoke must have got caught in a draft. Good thing you made it up the steps.”

 

“There should not be a draft in here. Something else is happening.”

Eli clicked his lenses back to unassisted vision. There was something in the air. Fine particulate matter. It was the blood. It was trembling and bubbling against gravity,

breaking free in tiny drops and flying into the sky.

 

“Sorcery. Be prepared.” He heard Gaius say, before the channel cut with a crack of static and pained grunt from the space marine.

 

He looked down the stairs. The defending cell was behind the drop pod doors. Khorig was in the center, the Astartes surrounding him. Daemons stumbled as they approached the formation, the null rod on his arm suppressing their connection to the warp. Decimus was at the front, throwing daemons back with brutal swings from his hammer. Gaius and Aurelius were to his right and left, using their bolters with one hand and melee weapons in the other.  Khorig lashed out with his power stake at opportune moments presented by the Astartes, gouging flaming holes in the daemons.

 

Temur and Batu held their position at the opposite rear sides of the formation. Their shock mauls were overcharged and burst with loud cracks of energy as they disabled the fiends that approached them, for Serel and Oron to shred with automatic gunfire.

 

Eli looked out to the highway. Even more were pouring in from the courtyard entrance at a full sprint. The screams and roars of the daemons had become a constant din, growing louder with every second. The plaza was nearly full of them, starting to crush themselves in the spaces between the drop pod doors.

 

“We're losing visibility fast up here.” Spire cell voxed.

 

Eli was as well. The blood had begun raining back down after being thrown into the air, whipping around in a growing flurry. It looked like it was centered on the east wing. He blink clicked his lenses, zooming in on the wall. There was an epicenter to the storm. Twenty stories up, the blood surged around a balcony. He zoomed in further. It was Kayde. He stood with the brass bowl held aloft, the blood rushing both in and out of it. Eli could barely see him through the storm.

“It’s Kayde, in the wing! Bring him down!”

Eli marked his location and transmitted it to the company, but it was too late. As the blood storm surged, sight of him was lost. Every available weapon fired on the location, to no avail. Kayde had moved. He was in the storm.

 

“!” Eli yelled.

Eli looked down the stairs. He was losing sight of the defense formation. He rapidly clicked through his lens sensors. Nothing worked. None of his multi-spectrum sights could penetrate the blood. He turned to Naran.

“Can you see him?” He asked, though he didn’t dare to hope.

She was frantically working on her wrist slate, trying to find some way to see through the storm. Her lenses rapidly changed colors, cycling through every optical option she had.

“No. Nothing.” She replied.

“Armor cell! Where are you!?” Eli had to scream over the sound of the daemon horde.

“We're here! What in Terra is happening?!”

“You must sweep the storm! It’s the priest, bring him down!”

Eli couldn't see Armor Cell, but could just make out the muzzle flashes of the mounted heavy bolter they brought. The trajectory of its fire turned upwards and riddled the storm with explosive rounds that slammed into the cathedral, raining fresh fire and debris on the battlefield.
 

“Fall back into the cathedral. Aid arrives soon.” Brother Decimus' voice boomed over the vox.

Eli and his cell needed to cover their retreat, but could see nothing from here. They began to run back down the steps. Qara slipped in the blood and tumbled down the stairs in front of them.

Eli heard Batu over the vox, screaming in a last ditch attempt for help.

“Get it off me, Serel shoot it!” before his vox cut off, and the rune indicating Batu's life signs went dark, followed by Serel's.

 

Eli stopped. He took stock of his surroundings. He looked for the way out. There was always a way out. But Eli saw none.

All he could see was blood.

 

Eli saw a rune appear on his lenses. Olaf had found a target, and was transmitting it to Eli and Lumen. The transmission was useless to Eli, being an olfactory trace. But Lumen could interpret the information in a way that made sense. What were they doing?

Another rune. Lumen was trying to get his attention. Eli couldn't tell which direction he faced anymore. He searched the blood hurricane for the vest. Eli looked up, and saw it. A beacon burning through the blood. It burned so bright it seemed almost golden. Eli blinked the rune away, letting Lumen know he saw him.

The hound was high in the sky, twice as high as the priest had been. Eli didn't understand what Lumen was doing. He tried to figure it out when he saw the beacon move, and begin to fall in an arc. Lumen had jumped.

Eli watched in silence as the hound fell. Lumen was the smartest dog Eli had ever worked with. There was a reason for this. Eli thought he knew, but didn't want to believe it.

“No...” Eli mumbled under his breath.

The beacon stopped brutally halfway through its descent. The rune in Eli's visor began blinking rapidly. Target acquired. He had Kayde. Lumen had shown them the way out.

Eli opened a channel to the company. He could not believe the order he was about to give.

“Fire on the beacon.” He said into the vox.

 

One second passed without response.

Two.

They had to do it now. Lumen couldn't hold on forever.

“All units fire on the beacon! Do not make his sacrifice for nothing!” Eli screamed through the vox.

Brother Gaius' voice replied. “He will be remembered, brother.”

Eli's mind became barren, only two words left. The Mantra of the Malum Vigilia.

“Malum Ruit.” Eli said.

 

“Malum Ruit!” The company responded, and turned their fire on the beacon. The glowing light became the epicenter of a cacophony of bolter rounds, overcharged plasma shots, and assault rifle fire.

Eli fired until his magazine was empty, the chapter's mantra repeating in his mind.

Malum Ruit.

“Evil Falls.”

Edited March 14 by Dr_Ruminahui