AN: Hi Everyone. I just decided to pop this out. My new job has turned into a... hectic and somewhat depressing mess. Quite depressing. Huge deviation from what I originally expected. SO I decided to distract my self for a bit. This doesn't mean that I'm continuing this permanently, but I'll occasionally do some work. Hoping to improve writing skills and at least entertain some people.

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Louise was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming because the last thing was the sight of her room, nestling on her comfy bed, wrapped in its soft sheets. Her mind too tired from the repeated shocks and turns of earlier events. The desire to just sleep embraced her and she embraced it in return.

Now inside her dream, she found herself peering out a massive thick-pane window into a dark void with muted awe. Only it just wasn't only a plain void. It was filled with fleets of strange, yet beautiful, ships clashing with one another with spears of light and potent magicks. Hordes of small, darting dragons flitted among the chaos and wreckage against one another, mouths spewing out rods of light, fire and lightning.

Burning stars flared for the briefest of moments, a corona of expanding colour, before dissipating into non-existence like a snuffed candle. Then another would appear elsewhere in the sea of fire. Ruined wrecks of metal behemoths drifted slowly, leaving trails of glittering dust, misty atmosphere and fire.

However, it was what was behind the teeming mass of insanity and destruction that caught her attention.

A world, Louise recognized. The shape bore a remarkable resemblance to that of a globe, one she had seen in passing at an antique shop long ago, though the landmasses were unfamiliar. It was just like it, hovering there amidst the frenzied stars.

But it was a world on fire. An almost unfathomable concept but it was undeniable. She could make out the flames that wrapped around the globe like long, spindly appendages of a malformed claw. Strange shapes resembling mushrooms would flare up: a geyser of light and fire that popped out into the dark and lingered. Meteors and burning rocks rained non-stop towards its burning surface in an unceasing tide.

Louise would've continued to stare at this… battle in the heavens. So beautiful to see an entire world in front of her like a giant, shining marble. A jewel of green, blue and red. But horrifying at the devastation that it mesmerized her to watch as stars burnt and flickered into momentary life. The idea that this was a nightmare and a dream in a horrendous fusion began to dawn on her before something shook her from her thoughts.

The sound of footsteps. Heavy footsteps that were akin to that of a pacing, lumbering giant.

She turned behind her and balked at the oversized figure in the center of the room, gazing out the same window she was with a menacing look.

It, or he, stood over her, towering even her familiar and in the barest of senses resembled him. His body was clad in black armour that was darker than even the encompassing void outside. Golden and bronze ornamentation was wreathed across its massive metal body, shaped into eye-burning arcane symbols and filigree. Its right arm was monstrously over-sized and ended in five golden sinister-looking talons. The left-arm held a brutal mace which was almost its height. Skulls of men and women, fresh and mummified, were attached to hooks on his belt or within the folds of the giant blackened wolf pelt attached to his back besides freshly flayed skin- which she did not want to imagine what animal it belonged too… or person. Like-like jewel eyes of amber akin to those of a goat littered its armour, peering at all with its baleful gaze: the most disturbing were the three large ones that went from its chest to its groin.

Though what was most disturbing to her, and sickening, was the withered face bearing arrogance, hatred and pride. He felt wrong. It was the look of a human turned monster with glowing red eyes of malevolence and madness. Thick wires protruded from the back skull, illuminated in the burning glow which gave his pale skin a devilish hue of blood-crimson red. Behind him were similar but less ornate, less intimidating and much smaller in stature, versions of him; demon-like beasts of unnatural and mind-throbbing incomprehension and leering abominations of metal and man.

A horde of lesser monsters to serve a greater one, she thought but dare not voice.

The giant took a single, thundering step forward towards her direction, his mouth smirking at the distant destruction. Louise felt the ground shake and trembled before him. It was now obvious that he could not see her despite being blatantly in front of him, a kitten crouching before a behemoth monster, but it did not diminish the hidden fear that perhaps he would… and could.

And she shuddered to think of what would happen.

The giant turned back and gestured towards the burning planet with an open claw. "Do you not see my sons? This world, Terra, marvel and gaze upon its new appearance. Look at how its palaces burns. Before I was once its proudest son, his proudest son, and now we have returned. We returned as its liberator against the lies and deceit. And we bring truth in our wake." He boomed out loud. The sound of emotionless cackling, hissing agreement and scrambled laughter answered back, echoing around the chambers and tinting it into a haunting inhuman tone.

He made to speak again but something interrupted him.

Knock.

"Horus! You are no liberator! You are traitor, a deceiver, this I shall declare!" A firm, comforting voice boomed back. An undertone of rage and fury tinted it, hidden yet felt in the sheer potency of the accusation.

Louise turned to the speaker, her eyes wide with awe and wonder.

A large individual charged out from the shadows of the broad entrance. With a flick of his golden wrist and a blur of red, a black-armoured guard found himself bisected in seconds and a red fork-tongued demon found itself banished into burning chunks; fading away like burning paper. The being ignored them, as if a stain in his sight, as he faced towards his target with seething anger.

The new figure had a similar build to the first giant, Horus, though that was where the similarities ended. This one more closely resembled her familiar, in both gear and look. If it could even be compared to what she was seeing. It was a giant clad in splendid golden armour of almost fey make. A series of ruby eyes in the center of the chest and right pauldron stared back in defiance of the evil in front, as if daring them to act. A pelt of a massive white-furred spotted creature wrapped from his shoulder, forming a robe that trailed behind his wake. An ornate sword with a blood-red blade was held in his right hand, crackling with potent energies and power. Then she saw what protruded from his back: Behind the pelts; behind the armour; the halo of the rising golden dawn; and past the aura of purity and nobility.

Wings. Two massive pure-white feathery wings that spread out wide as if descending from above. The occasional feather tinted in bright red did not mar the sight, but it only enhanced the majesty.

However, the notable difference between both of them was their faces. Where the first akin to that of a demonic existence, perhaps one of the pinnacles of evil. He was the opposite. The marbled face was that of a divine angel. No, he was more akin to that of an arch-angel or perhaps even a god, Louise imagined as her heartbeat in a fast rhythm.

He was beautiful in a breathtaking sense. Long golden locks of hair blended with the firm white features of his face; deep blues eyes that assured protection and love, while also promising death to those that mean to hurt under his protection.

It was the look of a father, a protector and a guardian; his presence demanding those who were righteous and noble to follow or kneel in supplication before him, either in sheer admiration or awe -something that she almost found herself doing. However, at the moment it quickly contorted into grievous visage, one of furiousness and pain.

Now Louise bore witness to the two giants, two mighty beings or demi-gods: the deamon king and the Arch-angel.

"Sanguinius, my brother," The demon purred as he faced the angel with a smile that closely resembled an arrogant grin of teeth, "It is pleasant that you grace us with your presence. Come, come and join me, we can be together again, as brother and friends once more. My final offer. We will show father that we are not tools: to be thrown away and forgotten once we are used up and broken. I found the truth behind his sweet lies. And so have many of our brothers! Join me now and together we shall tear him down from his throne, rebuilding this travesty into the actual Imperium. The True Imperium. I give this sole chance, favoured brother." He stretched out his claw, offering a welcoming hand to the Angel. The words oozed thick with arrogance and confidence like honey.

Louise almost found herself believing the man but shook herself out of her stupor, barely. She turned to face the angel again, hoping to voice a warning to reject the offer. But she paused. For a moment, the angel seemed to adopt a sad, sorrowful expression. Of inevitability and loss. But it was only for a moment before being buried under a sole burning, raging emotion.

"Never!" the Angel roared, snarling with sword raised directly at the demon, Horus, standing firm against his temptations, "I shall not betray our Father! You preach of liberation, I only see a thousand burning worlds at the whims of the insane, the crazed and the never-born. The death of our brothers by your hands in betrayal and the madness you bring before you. What has taken over you? That you would besmirch his name with accusations and false words, against one who called you his son and you to him as father?!"

"I saw the truth and I embraced it." Horus seethed, knowing that negotiations had broken down. His mace grinding on the floor as he slowly built up his pace towards his once-brother. Sparks jumping into a maddened flurry. The Arch-angel moved also, wings flared up and sword raised.

Both then broke into a sprint towards one another. War-cries, benedictions and curses broke out from their lips, but were drowned out by the myriad of chanting and screams' from the demon kings followers; their voices barked with harsh, grating tongues and grunts.

No more words were said. None were needed at this moment. The tension in the air signalled the only course of action, a heavy static hung in the air. One offered, the other denied, and both glared with pure hatred at one another. They, and only they, existed in a world of their own: both locked in a battle bereft of distractions and interference.

In a flash of black and gold, both sides clashed against one another in a flurry of strikes, blows and parries. Their movements were too fast to register but Louise could feel her eyes burn, her senses alight and skin tingled. The whole chamber pulsed with surging power and potent energies; sword and mace clashing in blinding light and fire. Bodies clashed with an earth-shattering force: denting the thick floors and shaking the room with thunderous bangs akin to cannon fire. Air grew heated from the friction of the ensuing battle and arcane energies.

Knock. Knock.

It was a duel that was unlike any she had or, perhaps, would ever see again; one that would fit into that of legends and myth of ancient times. Two god-like beings of unimaginable power clashing in a struggle for revenge and hatred. Louise did not know how long they fought, but it had felt like eons had passed as they battled back and forth, constantly.

Then the angel propelled himself upwards, dodging a swing narrowly on beating wings, and then dived at a sharp angle. With a blur of crimson, his sword smashed unto the chest plate of the demon with a resounding tear. A small, jagged crack formed, revealing the weakened interior and the monster howled loudly in frustration. Golden talons swinging out in a maddened response, thirsting for vengeance.

Dread filled Louise's heart as it closed onto one of the angel's wings. Golden Claws biting into the white feathers: bones cracking like brittle twigs, blood leaked between the golden digits. The angel cried in gritted pain. The sound of snapping echoed in her mind and sickened her. She instinctively knew what came next. It was horrifyingly obvious, a wounded eagle before the wide maw of the savage wolf.

The demon jerked and laughed, the angel sent downwards to the floor, ripped from the air and sent plummeting like a rock. The ground shook again, the angel was dazed, confused and stuck in a pained haze. A momentary lapse of weakness that the demon sprung upon with glee.

A second that determined the battle. A second that stretched into years, if not centuries.

The mace smashed into the angel's chest, shattering his golden armour and pulverizing the flesh underneath in a killing blow. Blood sprayed from the fatal wound, at first like a fountain then it dropped downwards in a slow rain of vitae, staining his white pelts and feathers. And the angel began to fall.

Louise then found her vision failing, head growing faint and heavy, and she found herself falling towards the darkness. The scent of iron burning into her nose, mind spiralling into a dizzying spin alongside the angel's demise.

Agonizing cries screamed inside her head: Deep, strong, potent. First, it was one, the angel. Then it grew to thousands, tens of thousands, of different voices following suit with abject horror, loss, outrage… and utter madness. Blending into a gestalt amalgamation of pure, potent emotions. Every syllable intertwining into a cacophony of one word, a sole identity: a name spat out and laced with seething hatred, blinding rage and an eternal burning desire for vengeance.

"Horus! Horus! Horus!"

"Why Horus? Why?"

And then silence.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Louise opened her eyes. She sat up in a flurry, throwing her bedsheets to the side and breathed in a panicked breath, looking frantically around the room. Instead of an alien environment of metal and shadows; a battle of the gods. She only saw the familiar wood furniture and quaint decorations stood wherever she looked, though it looked more empty now.

She took a moment before reassuring herself with a calming hand. It must've been a dream, or perhaps some kind of nightmare, she couldn't tell. However, she knew she was a frazzled mess, judging from the nearby mirror. Still garbed in her school clothes from yesterday, which now clung to her. Her hair was a ragged nest. The bed, once beautifully set, now resembled a battlefield. And she could tell that she had sweated heavily during her slumber, judging from the unmistakable but faint smell.

Whatever it was. It still clung to her, hiding in the back of her mind like a lingering memory. The rage. The potency of the hatred and spite laced within. It was unearthly and haunting. The loathing at a name.

Then her sight rested on the hay pile on the far wall, undisturbed and just as fresh. And then she realized that her familiar was nowhere in sight.

Where was her familiar? She realized, unable to spot the golden frame of the angel in her room.

Knock. Knock.

"Who is it?" Louise asked loudly. Turning her head in a snap while hurryingly patting her shirt straight as if the person on the other side was able to see her dishevelled state.

"Can I come in? I've come with your laundry" A feminine voice asked out, unfamiliar to her but sounded a bit servile. Perhaps it was one of the academy servants, she thought.

"You can leave it by the door," she ordered before she remembered something. Didn't she ask for her familiar to do her laundry? Then a realization hit her as she recalled last night. She had. But why didn't he bring it? She had explicitly ordered him to do so, though she felt some regret for that action now.

"Very well, also the headmaster has asked for your presence and of your familiar."

Either way, the headmaster wanted to see her… and her familiar. Oh, her familiar… who she had little to no idea where he currently was. This was gonna be troublesome. Her heart rate slowly picked up. Panic growing at the unsettling idea that her familiar had possibly run away.

"Uh, sure. Let me clean up and I shall meet him right away," She quickly bit out, mind racing as to explain the absence of a golden giant. And of where he could've gone.

"Yes, He has stressed that this was urgent. Also, your familiar is waiting for you in the Headmasters office."

Louise's mind stalled, confusion lining her face; whether from the surprise meeting, her unpleasant sleep or the break-down that was yet to be. A series of new questions clouded her mind. What was he doing there? How did he get there? And why did he not wake her also, if the headmaster had wanted to see both of them? "Did the headmaster say why he wanted to see me?" she asked, hastily preparing for the day's activity. Washing, changing, perfuming. All activities that would've taken a good deal of time, like a clockwork religious ceremony, being done in mere, rushed minutes.

The maid did not say anything for a moment before she then spoke up in a surprised tone. "He did not say. But, I think it may have to do with the new holes in one of the towers. I am surprised you managed to sleep through that. He was quite loud."

"What!" Louise yelled out. The person behind the door gave a squeal of fright at the sudden, loud outburst, the sound of a dropping wicker basket hitting the ground.

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