Big Game V – Chapter Fifty Seven: A Doom Foretold

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“They say a terrible doom awaits us, eh brother?” shouted Erik Morkai. His voice, booming as it was, was nearly drowned out by the whine of his frost axe as it bit through the lithe flesh of one Daemonette, and then another. The giant Wolf Lord’s face was split with a mad grin. “This hardly seems terrible, Irnst. You soothsayers must be getting sloppy.”

Behind him, Irnst managed a chuckle. “No fate that rids the galaxy of your singing can be too awful, brother.” His own wolf skull-topped sorcerer’s staff came down in a great arc, smashing into another Daemonette’s torso. The she-beast screamed an inhuman sound and its body melted away into the Immaterium.

The brothers Morkai fought back-to-back within a tide of Daemons. Around them, scattered squads of their bretheren pumped bolter shells into the creatures as they surged forth, and met their charge with chainsword and power fist. Many fell to the dancing claws of the Daemonettes, but the Wolves fought back with a fierce determination. There seemed to be no end to the Daemons, though, as they spilled forth from the gaping, iridescent wound in reality that had opened within the city.

Irnst grunted and nodded in the direction of the warp-rift. Erik slashed through another Daemonette, and turned to see the hole growing, as if a living being were pulling ripping the edges of the rift ever larger. Within, a form was becoming visible, tall and horrible, graceful, but loping and inhuman. Its head was bovine, and upon its flesh were hands and mouths and bosoms that formed and disappeared as the creature’s limbs came into focus. With grace, it slid one enormous claw forward, and ripped apart four of the Grey Hunters who had been fighting at the forefront of the battle. The rest of their squad fled, and were cut down by the smaller Daemons as they ran. The front of the Space Wolf lines began to falter.

Then the Wolf Lord and his brother Priest were there, slashing through Daemonettes on their way towards the Greater Daemon. With an impossible fury, they cut down one Daemon after another, souls screaming back into the Warp.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and from the city’s heart, a bright white light pierced the air. The lesser warpspawn pulled away from the Brothers Morkai, each one screaming in a different inhuman voice, a cacophony of unnatural sounds filling the air. Their forms began to fade, but as their master stepped closer, they phased back into reality, and advanced upon the Brothers.

Erik and Irnst met the tide of Daemonettes head on, frostblade and force staff rending through Daemonic flesh at an inhuman rate. It almost seemed as if they would fight their way through each one, but an enormous claw swept down into the melee, tearing through Erik Morkai’s armor and lifting him clear off of the ground. The great Daemon loomed over Irnst as his brother gasped out his life’s breath hanging from its talon.

Your fight here is ended, Wolf Brothers,” the thing’s voice bellowed unpronounceable syllables and unearthly screaming, but bombarded their minds with its garbled meaning. Ba’arzunipal is gone, and the mortal Lord has failed. It is no matter. I shall hold open the portals to the Immaterium. I will bring a reign of blood to all your mortal kind. For a thousand upon a thousand years, we will feast on your souls. The Six Truths shall be revealed, and from this canker in your reality, my brethren shall pour. Day and night shall become one, and we will consume your plane. That is your doom brothers, and it is terrible.

Erik’s blade was swift and silent, embedding itself in the Daemon’s neck. It squealed and shrieked, and turned to ram its second claw through the Wolf Lord’s torso. It sank into Erik Morkai’s torso with a sickening sound of metal and flesh being torn apart. The Wolf Lord dropped his weapon, but a ferocious grin remained upon his blood-stained lips.

“If that is all you have, monster,” he choked, “then my doom is a disappointment indeed.”

The great beast growled and twisted its claws deeper into Erik’s flesh, and then roared with pain. It looked down to see Irnst Morkai’s force staff sunk into its veiny thorax, glowing with psychic energy. The monster began to scream.

His vision dimming, Erik Morkai looked to his brother, who had begun to chant a spell of unbinding. Even as the beast’s weakened claw withdrew from Erik’s chest and stabbed through his brother’s heart, Irnst’s cadence did not slow or break. The Daemon’s outline began to shimmer, and in his final seconds of life, Erik looked into his brother’s eyes, and saw the determination and stern anger that drove him. Irnst returned his gaze, and both men gave a final grin as a vortex into the Ether opened within the creature’s heart and consumed them all. Thus did the Brothers Morkai meet their fate.

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