The scent of ashen smoke and stale cold air drifted through the metal chamber as what remained of the lingering tingling sense of warp energy dissipated under the continued chanting from the assembled ring of blue robed Psykers. Surtr and Leom had entered this room mid-trial for the… creature… being tested by the Grey Knight. Whether this female demoness had passed or failed her trial still remained to be seen. However, one thing that the pair knew for certain was that the Grey Knight had opened a self contained dimensional rift within the room and traced the foul creature's link through the void only to be intercepted by a celestial hound within the warp. What this meant, neither knew, but the Grey Knight seemed unsurprised from the turn of events. If anything, it seemed as though he had confirmed a personal suspicion, but that was another matter and for now it was Surtrs time for trial.

Leom stood off to the side as the group of assembled Pyskers, each dressed in fine blue robes with their heads lowered, filed out of the room leaving Surtur and himself standing before the Grey Knight. The red numerical runes drawn in blood upon the walls remained from the previous trial as the pysker knight watched the ice slowly melt away from the bulkheads. This person, a mystery, yet the apex of perfection for the Astartes in their goal to become his lordships true warriors of humanity against the foul taint of the warp and worse, stood with his arms clasped behind his back. Leom, as an Ultramarine, noticed his attention wonder around the room as the Psykers who just prior had taken part in the demoness trial departed, closing the hydraulic bulkhead behind them.

"I've heard about you…" spoke the Grey Knight as he started to turn, nodding at the Eldar Sword Matron, motioning towards the center of the chamber where the lights created a circular arena upon the steel deck plating, "Surtur…"

The Eldar smiled and stepped forward into the circle of light, her fleshy feet tapping wetly against the frost bitten floor from the Pyskers prior act of sorcery had left lingering effects, "and who might I be addressing," she spoke, humoring him.

The Grey Knight released a puff of amusement from beneath his helm, and then they started to cycle in the opposite directions, in dueling warrior opposition, in the lights periphery, "Who I am is not as relevant as why I am here. You are to be tested, but unlike all your other foes… I will not be so easily defeated."

"Oh?" she asked in mockery, "And how is that?"

The Grey Knight reached behind his back and unsheathed a large silver broadsword emblazoned with glowing blue mantras upon its lengthy fuller except for a distinctive golden skull embalm above the guard, and an ornate leather grip.

"A Relic Blade?" said Leom in awe.

The Grey Knight chuckled and nodded to his opponent. Surtr, grinned widely and grabbed the massive silver blade off her back in one quick motion. The two opponents continued to circle one another, each giving off ferocious feelings of power and strength. Leom could feel it, they were both mighty amongst the common men or in his case an Astartes, and such power was humbling. Already he could tell that this wasn't going to be a normal fight.

"Dragonfang…" said the Grey Knight, motioning with his blade. She looked back with a hardening stare having since grasped the true nature of the duel about to be fought with this human before replying sharply, "Elderstahl."

They both nodded approvingly and in a split second as Leom blinked they were upon one another. Surtr struck hard and fast, but the Grey Knight cycled left with his Relic Blade and let her over-dedicate her first strike before grinding away with a fainted withdraw. Surtr was surprised as there two blades, fire and electricity, formed in an entangled mist, pysker powers fragmenting as he fainted his dedicated block causing her to fall through his guard. But, his follow through to her sudden opening hit nothing but air as Surtr turned sharply and leapt backwards, his Relic Blade passing inches away from her nose.

Once she reobtained her footing, Surtr charged forward again; but something had changed. The Grey Knight put his left foot forward and his right arm behind his back, chest forward. Leom saw what was happening and yelled to warn her.

"He's switching sword styles! This is a duelist stance!"

Surtr heard Leom, but it was too late, she had already dedicated the strike. Surtr saw her blade come down like a clever, but the Grey Knight side stepped and allowed his Relic Blade to counter parry along its hilt, coming up and under her guard.

The Eldar Sword Matron felt a sudden surge of adrenaline and backpedaled as fast as she could, fire and electric discharge surging around her body like a tempest as the Grey Knight tore into the Pysker meld, his blade chasing in pursuit.

Together they clashed once more, but… she had a surprise of her own. Gritting her teeth into a smile, Surtr dropped the blade from her left hand and instantly caught it in her right. The Grey Knight back peddled as they started to swap blows.

This time things really started to equal out as the two opponents switched from dedicated strikes to fainting blows, each mixing strikes with counter parrys. The feeling of intense pressure passed between the sword strikes as blows were glanced and redirected in all directions, denting and chipping the surrounding walls with razor sharp wind shears.

The sight both awed and scared Leom. The flashes of light from each clash of steel on steel mixed with the interlocked torrent of energy and fire flashing in a rapid pace as both fighters clashed again and again, their moves like blurs, but one thing was already perfectly clear; the Grey Knight held the advantage.

Surtr pulled back, gasping for breath, as the Grey Knight chuckled to himself, still standing in his duelist stance.

"And what's so funny?" asked the Eldar Demi-god. Her opponent shook his head in dismay.

"I think that would be obvious," he retorted, pointing towards her heaving bosom, "Don't tell me that you've only just now noticed the drain affecting your body?"

She looked at him with sharpened eyes, hate filled, "What have you done to me?" she asked accusingly.

"Me?" replied the Grey Knight, "Not a thing. This… is something that your species did to yourselves. Allow me to be blunt, ever since you left Niflheim you've been growing weaker. This is because of The Chaos God Slaanesh feeding upon your pysker presence. Up until this point your imprisonment by Leviathan and by extension his patron Khorne, has been a protective ward against Slaanesh, but once you were liberated and since you do not possess a Spirit Stone, your soul has started being slowly consumed by the God of Pleasure."

She looked at him, hate replaced by fright, "How do you know all this?" she asked, surprised.

"Because, I have access to numerous reports and I studied up on every detail thus far recorded regarding your very presence. This includes, why you are weakening now… after 50,000 years of imprisonment, and why you have lasted so long, even for an Eldar that typically possess lengthy lifespans."

"And what have you concluded regarding the former?" she asked coldly, having since regained her breath, standing and honing her mind and body for the next engagement.

The Grey Knight nodded approvingly, "I know… that you are an Avatar of Khaine, but you are also 50,000 years old. If I assume that Eldar History is not just a fairy tale then this only leads to one conclusion. You, this shard of Khaine, it reflected back into the Warp when he was shattered by Slaanesh. Since time in the Warp does not proceed along a straight line, this means that your shard must have traveled back in time 50,000 years."

"Correct," she said smiling, "Both on me being an Avatar and on how I was created, but you are forgetting an important detail."

"Oh?" replied the Grey Knight with a hint of sarcasm.

"Avatar's override and consume the collective minds of their Exarch as a means of maintaining sanity and individuality. I was not originally an Exarch. Fifty Thousand Years ago, when I exited the Warp to find a host… I was confronted with a problem. I had to accept a host in a time when Exarch's did not exist. Thus, I found the most powerful psyker at the time and we became one naturally without a forced possession. I am not a spirit possessing a hollow bag of flesh, we are one single being made flesh. We are Surtr. And, that changes things."

"How so?" asked the Grey Knight, now sensing a sudden shift in her attitude.

"Grey Knight," she addressed him, "You are more than you seem. I can tell that you have been forcing a dampening effect upon this arena ever since we crossed blades. It has been more than this foul Warp God that has been draining me of my powers. You to, have also been cheating. That aside, I can tell that you possess similar abilities to my own. You are a Biomancer, and you have been using pysker energies to enhance your reaction speed just as I use my pysker energies to amplify my strength."

"Impressive, you noticed that I am a Passive Blank. Yes, I have been draining you this entire time and redirecting some of my mental prowess towards increasing my adrenal systems response time." He replied, impressed, evidently this Eldar was more than a meat headed warrior after all.

"What you don't realize," she laughed, "Is that as an Avatar of Khaine possessing a complete and living body of flesh and blood, I can actually increase my physical abilities WAY more than I have thus far been demonstrating."

On that note, the Grey Knight watched as Surtr's skin started to redden with the veins in her arms, legs, and face swelling like giant worms beneath her flesh. She looked at him, her face light up with unrestrained joy, eyes turning blood red.

"Do me a favor!" she yelled as some spittle of froth dripped from her mouth, "Don't blink!"

The Grey Knight blinked once and that was all the time that she needed to close the gap. He tried to parry, but the force behind her attack was just too brutal. In one swing she pushed back his guard so quickly and with such force that he couldn't redirect the blow. Instead, sensing the force behind the attack, the Grey Knight pushed off his feet and rode her blades shockwave against his own bulk ten paces backwards.

"Incredible!" roared Leom as he watched Surtr instantly rebound off the floor in pursuit of the Grey Knight as he tumbled through the air. It was meant as a death blow, a single sword slash across his chest, bisecting him two, but something suddenly changed.

Surtr felt the Pysker blowback upon her senses like a sledgehammer. It was a ghostly purple shockwave coming from the Grey Knight that caught her just prior to the delivered death blow. Her vision blurred, everything slowed down to a crawl, as her hyperactive adrenaline system ground to a sudden halt from a lack of Pysker energy.

"A Passive Blank!" he roared, "And now I am an Active Blank!"

Reality slowed back down to an infuriating crawl as every ounce of Pysker power disappeared from the room. The Grey Knight landed on his feet and charged forward with his Relic Blade. He no longer embraced any sort of swordsmanship style with this latest attack. It was back to the hack and smash style of the Ultramarines with a straight up frontal assault.

Surtr stopped her forward flight and pushed backwards on her heels ground against the steel deck plating, using her blade as a shield against the Grey Knights counter attack. Fire and lightening both clashed as steel meet steel, shaking the room viciously, as both warriors pushed back from the jarring parry tumbling in opposite directions. The shockwave from this sudden exchange shook the ship so much that alert sirens started to blare in the rooms exterior corridors.

Both the Grey Knight and Surtr landed on their feet, both drained and gasping for air. It seemed like they would go another round when suddenly the Grey Knight stood up to his full height and put away his Relic Blade, "You pass," he said simply.

Surtr looked at him blankly as he continued his speech, "This trial was meant to gauge your strength, to see how much 'Khaine' was actually inside of you, and if you could control it. I have to admit, you really gave me a run for my money, I actually had to go Active Blank in order to win."

She growled, "This fight isn't…" suddenly her head went leaden and she dropped to her hands and knees, eyes blurring as she starred at the deck plating."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," replied the Grey Knight, walking to her side, "Slaanesh and my Active Blank hitting you when your powers were maxed out…. Your body absorbed a lot of damage. Due to your willpower, you are only now feeling the after effects."

She looked at him with a scowl, "You cheating bastard…" and passed out, hitting the floor with a wet thud.

"Maybe so," replied the Grey Knight, "But this fight was never about seeing who was the most powerful. It was about studying one another's powers because I had to know what you really were. In the end, I am glad that I was right. This power of yours, it's yours alone; you don't consume it from others like some of the more demented of your kin."

The Grey Knight turned towards Leom and nodded in approval, "Take care of this one," he pointed down towards his defeated foe, "There is much more to her than meets the eye."

Leom lowered his eyes, "The Codex Astartes does not make allowances for befriending aliens. That is why I am being punished…" sighing depressingly, "The Codex Astartes leaves no room for doubt."

The Grey Knight took several steps closer, passing shoulder to shoulder with Leom, placing his hand upon his pauldron, "The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us, shape us, teach us to hold duty and honor sacred above all. But, how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine."

Leom turned dully and watched as the Grey Knight passed through the cycling hydraulic door directly behind him. The Ultramarine Veteran Seargent was speechless that a Grey Knight actually just tried to ease his conscious. Leom felt edgy as he turned towards Surtr lying unconscious upon the floor. He nodded curtly, sighed, and walked to her side.

"Honor and Duty…" he uttered, placing his arms under her limp body and lifting her up off the floor, "Whether it be human or xeno… for such a powerful warrior to be abandoned after gaining the approval of one such as a Grey Knight… it would be the bigger disgrace."