Hello. Short update this time around. University and life is really eating my time and mind, yet I am determined to see this through. Hope you like it.

ShiggyDiggered: Yeah, sorry about that. If you know any beta tester interested, tell me.

Haruka Kasumi: For Lin, there was a bit of mental manipulation. As for Korra, she as an Eldar god living inside her who really doesn't want to be seen by anything that could report it back to a certain youngster.

Secundum: Biomancy.

Corvus 501: That's heresy.

High Gothic

Low Gothic

Thoughts

Thought for the Day:

-Show me men who know how to fight!

-Follow me to the morgue, sir, and I'll show you plenty.

Warmaster Macaroth to Warmaster Slaydo, during the invasion of Formal Prime.

Inquisitor Kali reflection: It is a sobering though, yet any man who dies on His service is sure to be saved from the horror of the Warp. In the end, there is only two end for any human, either to die in His name or be a traitor. A comfortable though tough, as well as a complex one, is that only He can truly judge you, nobody else can do it, not really at least.

60th day of the war

Lilith breathed in and out in a regular pattern, trying to reach a state of peaceful meditation. A hard thing to do when you have to decide the fate of over two thousand people. Even more so when not killing them might mean the death of thousands more. She had turned the question upside down, stretched it out and picked it out apart as good as she could. Every details and moral implication she had thought about, yet the only conclusion she could come to was the one she already knew about. Either she killed two thousand people and maybe saved other, or she didn't and maybe killed a lot more. In the end, knowing all she did make taking the decision no more easy. Especially since Kali had imprinted the picture of every single one of the potential victims into her mind, making it impossible to make abstraction of them.

In frustration, she let her mind wander through the halls of the base. Her consciousness filtered through the walls and doors, finding the bored, but alert minds of the guards, the clouds of irrational thoughts hovering over those sleeping, the fatigue of those training, then the familiar feeling of Zhao's mind.

'Hello handsome.'

'Lilith? I thought we agreed you would stay out of my mind.'

'I'm not in your mind, I'm just talking with you.'

'And reading my thoughts. Out!'

With a mental shrug she left him and continued to mentally wander, leaving the confine of the base. Outside the thoughts were a lot less disciplined than the soldiers, crying children, panicked civilians, anxious mothers waiting beside their wounded child, people fighting and dying, the mix of mind and life and death made any tentative from her to make sense of in on an individual level. She didn't need to in order to hear the whispers. Dark, tempting, infernal whispers from things speaking from behind a heavy curtain. Before they were nothing more than a faraway threat, now it was an almost constant murmur going on just at the edge of her mind. She knew that with just a simple push of will she could go beyond the curtain, see for herself the constant rushing of streams and waves that were going on behind them, ignoring the quaint laws of space and time. She also knew that every shark in this ocean would join in to tear her apart. Slowly, she pulled back into her own body.

"Dammit. I'm not any fracking closer to a decision."

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The streets of Republic city were busy with life, contrary to what the state of war could indicate. After all, even if there was fighting two city blocks down the streets, people still needed to eat and shop. Under said streets, life was about as normal as before. How fast had people gotten used to this life was still as incredible as before. As if something had snapped and turned people personalities around. Unconsciously, she scanned the surface thoughts of those around her, getting bribes of information, a worry about a rent due there, what to eat, worry about a neighbor prayer that she sorted for later, and even a lewd though about her backside. A mental flick gave the man a nose bleed and she moved on.

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What had been the upper quarters of Republic City was much different now. After the first few nights of chaos, the surviving rich families had made a grab for the real estate which was now, for some reason, quite cheap. From the twenty or so families that made up the very richest in town, there were only four or five left. They had learned the lesson of their predecessors very well. Now, what had once been rich estate and villa were personal fortress with tall wall, guards and lots of lead spewing machines. Looking at the tall anti-blast concrete walls she had flashes, of world she had never visited and taller, stronger walls that climbed hundreds of meters into the air, ready to support the impact of earth-shattering shells and the assault of enemy warriors for hundreds of years. Shaking her head, she chased away the images before she lost herself into them. Nothing like a century of Imperial memories to put all your life into perspective

Business had gotten a lot more cutthroat, literally sometime and especially for military contract. Nevertheless, business was booming. Mindlessly, she followed the labyrinth of new streets and back alleys. Soon, she was surrounded by tall gray concrete walls with no clear idea how she had gotten there. She could hear the sound of workers and car moving about, as if they were brushing just past her, yet could see nothing. Actually, the more she tried to focus, the blurrier her vision felt. What had been a faint thump* inside her ears had grown louder and louder until all she could hear was a constant beating that made her feel as if her head was about to burst. Blinking, she realized she was on her knees with blood dripping down on the concrete ground. A quick check revealed it did not come from her nose, but her eyes.

"Wh… shit!"

The ground rushed toward her as she fell flat, swirling wildly before darkness fell down on her vision and her last bits* of consciousness unraveled.

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There was a taste of honey and rubies inside her mouth, a smell of toxic ashes filling her mind, the sound of some kind of beast devouring another and the feeling of being covered in some sort of slimy bands of brown paper. She knew, or at least it felt like her eyes were closed, yet she could see clearly. Well, clearly was a big word. The world she could see seemed to be made of the dream of someone's tripping on drugs. The brown paper bands were some sort of candy cane algae drifting in invisible currents, the clouds made from bones and decaying corpses in constant agony, the hills rolling like if some great beast was moving underneath, the sun a black eye that never blinked nor looked away from her.

'Where am I?' "Where am I?"

Her thought echoed throughout the landscape, reverberating all around her as if she was inside a cavern.

"What?" 'What?' "What the frak is going on!" 'What the frak is going on!'

Words and thoughts mixed inside her mind and mouth, one and the other indistinguishable.

"Dammit." 'Dammit.' "Is this a dream again?" 'Is this a dream again?'

'Your disregard for your own mind is expected monkeig, yet still disappointing .'

Lilith felt a shiver go down her spine as the eerie voice filled her brain, both metaphorically and literally. In panic, the world around her shifted, the insane landscape melting away to be replaced by a small apartment.

'You cannot run away from your own mind, monkeig.'

Lilith spun around toward the voice, spotting the shadowy figure in the surface of the window.

"How are you here?" 'How are you here?'

'Your intervention forced me awake, truly awake, for the first time since the Fall. To use a metaphor you would be able to decipher in less than a human lifetime, you… threw me out of bed merely a moment after I had lied on it. Still, even in this state and limited by the mental development of my temporary vessel, I…'

Lilith was scared beyond what she thought possible. It was a mix of fear and powerlessness that left her paralyzed and incapable to formulate even the simplest thought beyond, oh shit! She wanted to panic and run, but as the demon had said there were few place to run to when one was inside their own mind.

'Yeah, you should give up.'

She nearly jumped at the voice coming from her shoulder. She did jump when she noticed the doll sized Kali on her shoulder.

"W…" 'W…'

'Shut it!' The doll castigated her, index pointed at Lilith. 'Really you are worthless. You are in your own mind, your stronghold of power, and you are trembling like a civie seeing a gretchin.'

"B…" 'B…'

'But what? You are a psyker, your weapons, your armor, your flesh and bones, all of them are irrelevant. Your Will can control the very force of nature, snuff out the light of stars and bend the mind of living beings to even your whims. Nothing matters but your Will! The situation doesn't matter, the only difference between having a hundred soldiers with you and being surrounded by a crowd of bloodthirsty starving cannibals is if you have the Will to win the damn fight. So, are you going to win or are you going to fold?'

Lilith wasn't sure what the doll was, but she actually spoke true. Which means she was probably a little bit insane if an imaginary doll was her internal motivator, also a little masochist if it had the form of Kali. In any case, the doll was right. She was queen of this domain.

'… It was ridiculous to think that…'

"You are still super powerful and can smash my defense, yes. I had gotten that." She interrupted the entity. Faking a confidence she did not possess in the slightest, she moved to grab a chair and sit against the wall, facing the talking window. "So what now?"

'… I see human's insolence has not improved much.' The window shook and bent.

"Well you know, short life, doesn't leave a lot of time for long ass explanation."

Oh god-emperor, she was a second away from pissing her pants. She wanted to scream at herself. Why the hell was she insulting a deamon? But seeing as her every thought simply echoed for everyone to hear, she couldn't even do that.

"So what do you want? I don't have all day."

She was expecting the window to blast open and for horrors to rush by that point, not for a sigh.

'It is true that quickness might be of the order at this moment.'

"Cool to see you agree. So what do you want?"

'To give you a brief condensed glimpse from a future gleamed from the few strings of time that drifted by the edge of …'

"Short version."

'Your master is going to make her final move against the Host of Chaos. It will be too late. You have less than one planetary rotation until this planet period of anonymity is shattered by the arrival of He-Who-Carry-Flames-And-Torments-To-The-Battlefield-As-His…'

"They're going to invoke a Deamon?"

A great gust of wind passed through the room, almost like an elemental version of a sigh. "Yes. Now get up.'

Lilith was jerked awake, almost falling off the stool she was on, her sight blurry and her mind wavering.

"Hey, you gonna order something or what?" An irate voice almost screamed into her ear.

"W… what?"

"Order. You know, what people do at a bar. So either you order or I kick you out."

Still disoriented, she answered automatically. "Vodka, double."

"Cash upfront." The annoying bartender said.

She groaned and dropped the slips of yuan on the counter. Her head was feeling like it had been dumped into an industrial compactor, then beat with sledgehammers, thrust into a blender and then set on fire.

"You forgot the tip." He snarled.

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Lin looked at the scene of devastation before her. It looked like the scene of a bombing, shattered glass, broken wood, cracked pavement and blood. Unlike a bombing though, there was not a single victim. Only a lot of people with bruises and one man with several broken bones constantly muttering

"I got the tip, I got the tip…"

Over and over. Clearly this was the act of some sort of maniac.

Air-base officers' mess

Asami allowed herself a smile as the wind rushed past her ears. The ocean blue sky over her, the seemingly endless green landscape under her, the plane rumbling* around her, its powerful engine propelling her through the sky. The machine, perfectly tuned through long hours of work, answered to the slightest of her command*, turning, climbing and diving almost instantly. She wished she could just aim for a point on the horizon and keep flying, keep flying until the green hills turned to desert and sea, keep flying as cities and town passed by under her, keep flying straight until she had made it back to where she started. But then, her fingers brushed against the stick's trigger and her mind flashed with the toxic smell of tracer rounds burning through the air, gasoline trail ablaze and screaming pilots. She was lucky, in a way. Unlike many pilots, she could still sleep without nightmare every other night nor did she need alcohol to function without crying. When anybody reached that point, it usually wasn't long before their plane went down. In the other way, she was the unlucky one. After all, she was the one who had to see said pilot go down and add K.I.A to their file.

Shaking off these thoughts, she focused back on the task at hand. She glanced at a map stuck beside her, following by a quick mental calculation.

"Okay group, we are about there. Drop to 10 000 feet and ready the cameras."

The squadron of three airplane dived down toward the earth, stopping well above any airship maximum height. Immediately, the underbelly camera they all sported* got to work.

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"Hey lieutenant, had a nice flight?"

Asami repressed a sigh as the pilot sat down in front of her, beer in hand. That's what she got for doing paperwork in the officers' mess.

"Yes Shan. Quite a relaxing one at that, they only put out some rifle fire against us."

"Hm, guess we really shot down all they had."

"For now, yes."

The young dark haired man, who admittedly looked really sharp in his uniform, took a sip of his beer. "So, any plans?"

"Yes. Research and development. The department is really on the cutting edge and once the war is over we will be able to, I hope, focus on less deadly inventions. There is a lot we could do with planes that doesn't involve guns."

"Ah." He nodded. "Okay, I… ab…"

She enjoyed is fumbling around for a bit, how he turned a little red and made an effort to hide the tickets in his pockets. 'Yes. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.'

"Shan." She raised an eyebrow. "I am not a dunce."

There were a few audible snark* from the other officers in the mess.

"Of course you're not. I mean, I never…"

"Shan, you boasted to half the base that you were going to invite a special lady to the theatre, you have been drawing heart shape in the corner of your reports and done a hundred other things that many could have taken in a very wrong way."

He was metaphorically melting on the spot, and strangely enough she kind of liked it.

"Fortunately for you, I happen to know that – 'Like a lot of my friends actually' – you are merely a well-meaning idiot."

He made an uncertain smile. "That's good?"

"That means y…"

"Asami, I need your help!" A voice shouted, shattering the moment.

All head turned toward the figure who was bull rushing her way through the officer's mess.

"Hum, Lilith?" Tried Asami. "I was…"

The Interrogator had no time for little conversation. She grabbed Asami by the arm and flipped her over her shoulder.

"You." She pointed a finger at Shan. "She was going to accept your invitation. Pack up for that night."

Across her shoulder, Asami felt her face turn crimson red. "Lilith!"

"Shss." She glared at the now stunned boy. "You hurt her, they won't find your body. Have a good day."

And she rushed out, Asami over her shoulder, leaving behind a stunned group of officers.

"Hu…." Shan mumbled. "Wha… what happened?"

One of the older officer twirled its moustache. "Tss, ladies. Don't try to understand lad, you'll go crazy."

Imperial complex - Republic City - Restricted - No warning shots

Célestine was meditating inside an isolated room. Bare walls would have met her eyes if she opened them, walls so bare and into which the door was so skillfully concealed that it was practically invisible. No sound could be heard inside this room except the beating of your own heart. For those of weak mind, spending more than ten minute inside was enough to turn them into shaking wreck begging to be let out. She liked to sleep here.

The door was kicked open. Celestine didn't move.

"Celest. I…"

Celest stepped beside Lilith, walking away down the hallway, still without having uttered a word.

"So, you know where to go?"

The girl stopped walking.

"Hum, so do you know or…?"

Celest started stomping.

"Oh. Okay."

"Hey, Azula." Murmured Lilith.

The girl groaned and twisted around under her blanket. "Noh. Ruh go"

"As you wish."

She snapped her fingers and instantly Azula was rolled up in her blankets and lifted up from her bed. Mufled shouts and screams came from under the sheets along with punch and kick, all in vain. The walk lasted for a good ten minutes, yet not once did the cursing stop. Lilith learned more variation of the world bitch in those ten minutes than the rest of her life combined. So if for nothing less, it had been a valuable ten minute. Azula probably would disagree though, especially when she was dropped on a table with all the sensitivity of an Earthshaker cannon.

"You little cocksucking son of a whore I'm going to rip your throat out and stuff it up your ass. I'm…"

"Oh shut it Azula" She slid a box toward the fuming girl. "Donuts for you."

That calmed her instantly. "What flavor?"

"Cinnamon and vanilla."

Not caring a second for her state of undress, the fiery girl untangled herself from her bed sheets. Taking in her new surroundings, a small room with only a large table and two chairs, she had no problem recognizing them.

"Why are we in a silent room?"

"Because we are going to have a conversation that I would rather not be heard."

Azula starred at her, unblinking. "Is it some kind of anti-fraternization thing?"

"I don't think anyone could stop you from that. Also, even though there are several rules about that, as long as there is no drop in efficiency I doubt Kali care. So no."

"So what?" She said with a shrug, sitting down with a donut in hand.

"I need some advice. The kind I could get killed for asking you."

"That serious?"

Lilith sat down on the other chair. "Yes."

"And Ka…"

"Would be the one to kill me."

Azula took the time to finish her donut, masticating carefully before answering.

"Lilith. What the freaking hell did you do?"

She sighed. "I may have been contacted by a demon a…"

Azula was upon her in a second. "What! Did! You! Do!"

"Nothing! Just fell asleep and got contacted."

She winced as Azula gripped her shoulder, blood tainting the clothing as she did.

"What the…?"

She shrugged. "Celest stabbed me with a knife when I asked her the same question. Should have seen it coming honestly."

"Okay." Azula forced her friend back on the chair, taking care to stay away from her wound. "You tell me everything and then I'll decide if I stab you or help you?"

The Interrogator nodded with a sigh.

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"Okay. And you're sure this demon was talking about the train? I mean, maybe those fuckers are planning something big and…"

"No, Azula. No. It is possible, sure, but the timing is too spot on."

The girl threw her hands up in the air. "Then what? You can't just go charging in fucker's held territory and fix whatever the problem is."

One thing many good old friends have in common, enemies also but it is another topic altogether, is the uncanny ability to know when the other is having a really stupid idea. So when Azula noticed some very subtle signs like Lilith unwillingness to meet her eyes, how she twisted her feet and briefly bite her lower lip and most noticeable, how she hadn't immediately dismissed her idea.

"Are you kidding me? You don't even know what kind of shit you will find down there! It could be a trap, it could be a fucking shithole full of dead dogs, it could be fracking anything!" She screamed in disbelief.

"Would you come with me?"

She grabbed the interrogator by the shoulder, grinning. "Of course I'm coming! And when this whole thing blows up in your face, I am going to have first row seat to it."

Republic City - City Hall

Suppressing a mental sigh, Kali closed the microeconomic graphs file before her and refocused her attention toward the bickering country representatives. Honestly, she had tuned them out long ago. A fast look at their mind had told her everything she wanted to know, mostly that they were here to whine about the loss of their old privileges and power over ignorant locals. They were going to complain for a while, the Council would give them some reassurance that were also complete lies, bribe the hell out of them so they would go back to their tiny villages and convince the people living there that the new laws were actually for their benefit and not because the Republic was in dire need of some God-Emperor infrastructure to stop being the equivalent of a third rate feudal world and that the leadership could not care less about how each peasant felt even if it tried.

Her presence here was not even needed, merely a formality for latter. So that one day, when her troops would come to comb their village for traces of corruption and end up burning half of it, they could clearly recognize who had done it. Or at least the uniform she and half the guards present wore. Her own face was blurred to their weak mind.

As for her own mind, it was more preoccupied with the Eldar problem. One thing was certain, either they ignored one of the demonic god, or a part of it, she wasn't certain, xenotheology never was something she had had much interest in. In any case, either the xenos knew their god was here or they did not. If they did, the origin of this strange ward around the planet had some theories behind it now. If they didn't, then it explained why there was even a single human alive on this planet. Otherwise the Eldar would have had no problem genociding them. The problem was that each theory excluded the other. For now, she had to assume that at any moment an eldar combat force could come and wipe this planet clean of human. That was the least stressful scenario she could think of because at this point, the objective would simply be to kill as much xenos as possible before the end. Anything else was magnitude more problematic. It was clear that corruption had spread elsewhere on this planet. This city was just the starting point for something bigger, a signal. In this manner, she had lost. The moment it had turned into a war she had lost because no matter how well she dealt with the situation, what people would remember is that chaos had stuck first. She would have to burn at least thrice as much bodies just to get on equal footing reputation wise. Why couldn't she just find one chaotic in each village and organize a 24-hour mandatory public torture session to make everybody understand that joining the wise who openly fed on the pain and misery of humanity was not a bright idea. Rah, she needed some place to think things over.

"Enough!" She jumped from her chair, startling all the whining representative.

"W… who are you to…" Tried to protest one of the eldest mayor present, quite unsuccessfully at that.

"All of your petty monetary demands will be met, whatever big number your small mind will manage to conjure is easily within our means. As long as you do not question your orders and execute them with swiftness and zeal, all will be provided."

"And if we don't?" Asked a young man with as much snark as he could manage. He was from some well-off coastal town if Kali remembered right.

She stopped her movement, already halfway through the door.

"You know, if there was even an ounce of political acumen in this room I might be tempted to imply and be subtle, trusting those I speak with to understand the hidden meaning behind my words. Thing is, I don't think that your combined grey matters would be enough for you to find your way out of a paper bag. As such, I will be crystal clear. If you don't do what we say, we will kill you in the most painful way you can imagine, turn your families into beggars and prostitutes, burn to the ground whatever pathetic legacy you have built for yourself and then find someone better suited for your position. That is all. Have a good day."

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'Something wrong is going on.' Kali couldn't help thinking as she walked back to the frontline.

It wasn't the cries of the wounded and dying around her of course, nor the near constant gunfire and troop movement. All in all, it was going pretty well for them. Which, actually, was kind of the problem. Things were rarely going well for humans, even a victory for the Imperium was something most people of limited understanding would have categorized as a complete disaster in term of destruction and human loses. But, this was a rather innocent world, even if it was quickly maturing. The possibility of a clean victory was still an attainable dream. She allowed herself a brief internal smile at the idea.

"Inquisitor." Spat her micro-bead. "Interrogator Lilith just stole a vehicle."

And just as fast, her invisible smile was gone.

"Clarify."

"Interrogator Lilith, Lieutenant Asami, Sergeant Azula, Private Celestine and Lieutenant Zhao came into the garage carrying various ammunition and weapons, loaded them into a vehicle and drove away. »

"… Did she say why?" Kali's voice was ice cold.

"Hum, she, she shouted something about saving the city or dooming the planet."

'… Well at the very least she is starting to get into an Inquisitor's mindset.'