Age of Sigmar: Omnibus

‘Celemnis! Hear my plea, O Queen of Blades,’ said the Lord-Relictor. He went to his knees and bowed his head. Celemnis’ skirts pulsed and flowed across the ground towards him, until she floated above him. Within the ghost two magics warred. Ionus sensed dark spells striving to trap her and her own essence fighting back. His respect for the warrior-maiden doubled. ‘I beseech you, send your ire against those that earned it.’ He took the blade from his reliquary, sliding it from the wired finger-bones holding it fast, and held it out, hilt-first. ‘This blade is a gift from Sigmar. Do you see? We fight for Sigmar.’

Celemnis looked at Ionus, and she was the epitome of terrible beauty. Her hair floated in a wide halo around her head. Ionus tensed, expecting his end.

Her hair reached out, taking the sword’s hilt. Celemnis looked directly at him, a sad smile on her face.

She screamed again, and the world was upended. A wave of anguish blasted across the square and Ionus leaned into it as a man leans into a gale. At the heart of the shout was the whispered promise of death; sweet, beguiling words. He yearned to give into it, to go back to his other master, away from Sigmar’s wars, and to join again with his beloved.

One day he would, he swore.

Not today.

The scream ended. The fighting stopped. Chaos worshippers stood stupidly, weapons dropping from nerveless hands.

As one, every single Chaos warrior in the centre of the city dropped dead. The silver ghosts rose shrieking from the battle, ignoring the Stormcast Eternals. Silver swords hissed after them as they flew onwards to the walls of the Eldritch Fortress.

Vandus was amazed. All of a sudden, his foes were dead.

‘Onwards! Onwards!’ Vandus bellowed. ‘Back into formation! To the Eldritch Fortress!’

The Hammers of Sigmar obeyed without hesitation, forming up into orderly blocks before hurrying forwards. The remaining Celestial Vindicators ignored him completely, running further into the city in search of new foes to slay.

Furious, Vandus vaulted from Calanax and onto a tumbled ruin. He ran up onto the tilted head of a toppled stardrake statue, intending to order Thostos’ Warrior Chamber back into the column. But as he drew in his breath to shout, his eyesight clouded, his nostrils filled with phantom scents and his head swam.

‘No, not now, not…’ A vision seized him with such blinding force it sent him to his knees.

He whirled away to a different place, speeding up over the Anvrok Vale. He came to a dizzying stop, and Lord Vandus saw a waterfall of silver, frozen in time. In the sky beyond it, the silver wyrm Argentine coiled and fought with another dragon mightier still. All the while Vandus’ eyes were drawn upwards, towards the top of the falls and the crucible there. He was in the air, with nothing ahead and nothing below.

The vision passed. Vandus shook in its aftermath. Thunder rumbled and it began to rain. Sigmar’s lightning clove deep into the city; reinforcements were arriving.

Vandus got back to his feet unsteadily and took stock. The Celestial Vindicators were gone. The area around the square was clear, but the sound of fighting echoed through the streets still. The tower of the sorcerer wavered in a haze of magic. He was running out of time, and made to go back down to the statue and Calanax.

‘My lord! The sky! Get down!’ shouted his Knight-Vexillor.

The warning came too late. Four manticores rushed at him and his command echelon in the street, claws out. Three struck the Stormcasts; one was smashed into the ground by heavy hammers, but the other two raked a long, clattered furrow in the warriors before shooting skywards again. The fourth was ridden by a huge Chaos lord, and came directly at Vandus. No amount of skill or speed could stop the beast’s dive. The Lord-Celestant leapt to the side, but he was still sluggish from his vision and moved too slowly. A heavy blow slammed into his shoulder and a spear transfixed him. He was plucked up and carried away, the ground dropping beneath him. All his weight was upon the spear point. Barbs bit deep into his flesh. Vandus grabbed at it with both hands, fearful his own weight would wrench him into pieces. The iron shaft was slippery with his blood. Gripping it sent agonies sparking down the nerves of his arm.

Let go, part of him said. Take brief pain and be returned by Sigmar. But then he thought of Thostos and his cold manner since he had returned, and gripped harder.

A cruel face looked down upon him, heavyset and doleful. The lord sneered.

‘So you are the Hammerhand. I thought you should be mightier, but here you are speared like a fish.’

‘You cannot kill me,’ choked out Vandus. Speaking sent further throbs of pain across his upper back.

‘We shall see. I am Lord Maerac, and I shall be your death.’

‘You are the servant of the sorcerer.’

Maerac laughed. ‘Ephryx is a fool if he believes that, and you are a greater fool to say it.’