35 Cathedral In The Abyss

Atep was the Necron Overlord in charge of the 4th advance fleet for the 12th Blackstone Sector involved in the plans of the C'tan. He had once been a budding royal Nectontyr of the Morien Dynasty, before the Great Betrayal. From then on, he only had thoughts of serving under his master, Tsara'noga, the Outsider. However, even that came to an unexpected end, when during the 2,436th war with the Old Ones, Tsara'noga was tricked.

It was a clash with the Aeldari and their 'gods' that caused Tsara'noga to devolve into what he was now. A series of powerful warp illusions, which seemed no different from reality, tricked Tsara'noga into devouring his fellow C'tan; N'phoran, the Spiral Flame. He thought that he obtained victory and devoured the Aeldari god; Hoponi the god of dreams and ambition, however, he realized too late that he had eaten his kind.

The collision of minds between the two C'tan caused Tsara'noga's mental state to devolve into complete insanity. He lashed out at everything and anything nearby, eventually swallowing Hoponi as well. Atep and his legion were then reassigned under the general C'tan alliance to be used for the shared purposes of the remaining C'tan.

As Atep looked at the thick psychic substance in front of him with his mechanical lifeless eyes, his Cryptek, Onomyr, was assessing and cataloging the effects of this newly discovered energy from inside the transport ship. As they descended deeper into the core of the planet, the thicker the incense-like form became around them.

*Psssh*

Onomyr stepped onto the command deck of the medium transport and the door hissed closed behind him.

"Overlord Atep, I have a report on the psykic substance," Onomyr stated dutifully. 

"Report," Atep said back, unhurriedly.

"This psionic energy has readings that were previously thought impossible." Onomyr paused, before continuing.

"After exposing the substance to trace elements of Blackstone, it did not show signs of weakening. The substance is theorized to contain a density of energy far higher than that the Old Ones had harnessed in the Warp. " Onomyr finished.

"Oh," Atep responded, thinking to himself quietly.

"5544332, Tell the Tomb Cairn to delay a message for reinforcements if the teleport is disabled and we cannot report back," Atep said, turning to one of the on-deck personnel of the ship for communications.

The transport, after descending into the 'Abyss' for more than 20 minutes, finally revealed the molten floor at the bottom. However, something in the distance immediately caught the attention of the scanners on the transport. A twisting and symmetrical gigantic building was carved out of the flowing magma. Its design was elegant in its symmetrical simplicity, with swirls and patterns engraved along the walls and spires, while the main building looked similar to the catholic cathedral in design.

The fog emerged densely from the top of the cathedral like a full incense burner, burning at the highest intensity. The liquid magma around it seemed to somehow, never flow close enough to this building, like it was unable to be harmed by the dangers pressing around it at all sides. Instead, the magma flowed down small wall-like structures like an aqueduct, mapping out beautiful patterns. And yet, this was not the most beautiful part of the entire structure. 

The light given off from the hot magma was spread throughout the building and used as a natural light source, casting shadows onto the sides of the building in the perfect way so that the shadows outlined the simple curves of the structure, emphasizing a contrast between shadow and light.

The transport ship, without much care, began to charge to onboard weapons while scanning the interior of the cathedral. However, the density of the incense burning from within the building prevented any of their scans from returning anything useful. With a calculated risk, Atep ordered to deployment of a small squad of Necron Soldiers along with Onomyr to investigate.

*Tzz* *Tzz* *Tzz* *Tzz*

The green lightning of the command ship's teleporter flashed onto the citadel's floor and the Necron Soldiers appeared ready, with their gauze weapons in hand, while Onomyr appeared ready with his Cryptek staff in hand. The small legion of 40 troops marched behind Onomyr as they entered the towering entrance of the Citadel. The entrance looked to be 50 meters tall on its own, with the roof above it stretching another 120 meters up, making the squads of 3-4 meter tall Necrons look like ants in comparison.

The sounds of their metallic footsteps echoed across the strange tile-like floor. Onomyr himself was multitasking and recording the metrics of the marble-like metal under his feet for his later preview, while also keeping himself alert. Finally, the group entered the chamber in which all the psychic substance was emanating from and looked directly at an artistic plateau-like pedestal seat, which had curled metallic arm guards around it similar to what a metallic torch might look like. Sitting on the pedestal, was a large grey-skined creature that looked to be about the size of powerful Krork.

The psychic substance emanated from him directly, as if it was pouring out of the pores in his skin. He wore a pure set of silver armor with a white hood and draped sashes of cloth woven around his arms. In his hands, the psychic fog was like putty for him to mold, as he changed it between a dense silver and gold lightning without difficulty and then back again.

The being looked up from his work and set his gaze on the group of Necrons. However, it didn't make any other moves other than this. It moved its gaze to Onomyr slowly.

*ZZT* *ZZT* *ZZT* *ZZT* *ZZT*

The Necron soldiers opened fire without much care about the elegance of the being before them. It was simply just another living being, a living being they envied, a living being they hated. And yet, with a wave of the being hand, the fog moved and transformed effortlessly into quantum matter, dispersing the energy of the Gauze blasts into the surroundings. 

Onomyr gave a silent order for the Soldiers to conserve power and cease-fire. And this was the moment that the being spoke, it spoke the words that most Necrons dared not hope to hear. As it spoke, it spoke with familiarity with Onomyr, as if it knew him very well.

"Onomyr, do you want to live again?" Arlow asked.

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(AI generated Cathedral in the Abyss images)

More chapters on my pat reon:

pat reon/ MatheuDeWitt