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The ruins stretched out before them, a broken carcass of what had once been a shrine to something noble, now twisted into an obscene mockery. Warped stone pulsed with unnatural energy, shifting in ways the eye struggled to follow. Faevaleth crouched beside Cassian, her expression subtle as she studied the corrupted Phoenix Lord below.
Cassian adjusted his position behind the shattered remains of a collapsed structure, the weight of his power armor pressing into the ruined masonry. His visor's optics zoomed in, focusing on the lone figure kneeling before a blasphemous altar. The Phoenix Lord's armor, once a testament to his legendary status, had become something else entirely. Where once elegant wraithbone had gleamed with purity, now it shimmered with an unsettling, organic sheen—like the carapace of some impossible creature. His form radiated an oppressive presence, the weight of his corruption was felt even from this distance.
Faevaleth remained still, her gaze locked on the corrupted aeldari. Cassian studied her, noting the tension in her jaw, she still had some familiarity with the corrupted figure below. She had brought him here, but now, standing on the edge of this encounter, she seemed almost hesitant.
He decided to press her. "What's your plan?" His voice was low as he asked.
Faevaleth didn't answer immediately. Her fingers twitched near the hilt of her blade, and she exhaled slowly. "You do not need to know every step, Mon-keigh," she finally said, but there was no real venom in her words.
Cassian's eyes narrowed. "You brought me here to die in your stead, didn't you?"
A smirk flickered across her lips, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You are observant. But no, not quite. You're…useful."
"Comforting," he muttered.
She turned her gaze back to the Phoenix Lord. "Do you feel it, Cassian? That weight in the air?" Her voice was quieter now, barely above a whisper. "His presence alone bends reality. This is going to be the hardest fight of your life."
Cassian did feel it. The hum of something vast, something wrong. It pressed at the edges of his mind, a sensation not unlike the Greater Daemon's whispers.
They watched as the Phoenix Lord slowly rose from his kneeling position, his movements supernaturally fluid.
And then, without turning, he spoke.
"Faevaleth," his voice carried, smooth as silk, layered with something deeper, something that gnawed at the mind. "You finally return to face what you cannot accept."
Faevaleth went rigid beside him.
Cassian felt something crawl up his spine. The Phoenix Lord hadn't turned. He hadn't looked. And yet, he knew. In the hindsight Of course he knew. Overpowered bastard.
A chuckle, low and rich. "And you…" Cassian felt the weight of that unseen gaze settle on him. "You are not so different from me, Mon-keigh."
Cassian forced himself to remain still. "Doubtful."
"You bear the touch of something greater. Something… unacknowledged." There was amusement in the voice. "Do you wonder, I wonder…how much of you is still your own? How much has already begun to change?"
Cassian said nothing.
The Phoenix Lord took a step forward. "I could tell you, if you wished."
Faevaleth's voice was sharp. "Enough of this."
The corrupted warrior finally turned, and Cassian understood why she had hesitated.
His helmet was gone, revealing an inhuman beauty—something that should not exist. His features were perfect, flawless, but wrong in ways Cassian's mind struggled to comprehend. His eyes burned with a thousand shifting hues, his lips curled in an amused smile. And his presence…his presence was like standing before a sun that whispered of things better left unspoken.
"You deny the truth even now, Faevaleth," he said, tilting his head. "Why? You have always sought knowledge, sought power. Why flee from it now?"
"You are not my mentor," she spat. "You are a parasite wearing his skin."
His smile widened. "Ah, but is that not what we all are? Pieces of those who came before us, reshaped into something new?" He gestured to himself. "I am no different. I have only accepted it. Isn't it right Mon-Keigh."
Faevaleth's fingers tightened around her weapon. As Cassian felt a chill up his spine.
The Phoenix Lord looked at both of them as he said. "Mon-keigh. What is it you seek? You have brushed against power far beyond your kind, and yet you remain. Why? Do you think your path still your own?"
Cassian met his gaze, refusing to flinch. "I make my own path."
A low chuckle. "Do you? Or do you simply follow the echoes of those before you? You are more like us than you wish to believe. Your kind pretends at certainty, at purpose. But you are rudderless, adrift in the tide of fate."
Cassian could feel the weight of his words pressing against his thoughts, trying to worm their way inside.
He did not let them.
"You talk too much," Cassian said, gripping his weapon.
The Phoenix Lord laughed, a sound that was both cruel and amused. "Oh, I like you."
Faevaleth took a step forward. "Enough of your games. I did not come here to trade words with a corpse."
He sighed, almost theatrically. "And yet, you have no idea what you are about to face."
Faevaleth's blade sang as she drew it.
The Phoenix Lord simply smiled.
Cassian exhaled slowly.
This was not going to be an easy fight.
---
The Phoenix Lord moved first.
A blur of motion, faster than Cassian's eyes could follow. One moment he stood at ease, radiating that unbearable presence, the next—Faevaleth barely intercepted the strike.
A screeching wail filled the air as their blades met. The force of impact sent a shockwave through the ruined shrine, rattling the shattered stone throwing Cassian off. Faevaleth was already in motion, pivoting, flowing like water, her twin blades flashing. She moved with that unnatural Eldar grace, her strikes unnatural and relentless. But the Phoenix Lord was beyond even that—his movements were effortless, more like a shifting god than a warrior. His blade carved through the air with impossible speed, the hum of wraithbone slicing reality itself.
Cassian had no time to admire the duel.
A ripple of unseen force slammed into him, a pulse of sheer malevolence radiating from the Phoenix Lord. His augmetics flared in warning as his vision blurred, his balance faltering. The world around him twisted, colors bleeding into each other, and for a split second, he swore he saw something else—a place where the Phoenix Lord was not a warrior, but a shifting, impossible shape, whispering promises in a voice that was not a voice at all.
Then it was gone.
Cassian forced his breathing under control. His mental defenses held, but the weight of the Phoenix Lord's presence pressed against him, testing him. Mocking him.
"You understand now, don't you?" The voice slithered through his mind, even as the corrupted warrior parried Faevaleth's relentless assault. "Your place. A lesser piece, moved by forces beyond your comprehension."
Cassian gritted his teeth. His bolter was already raised, firing.
Explosive rounds detonated against the Phoenix Lord's form—direct hits. But even as the bolts impacted, the corrupted armor twisted, shifting like something alive, absorbing the kinetic force. The Phoenix Lord didn't even turn to acknowledge him.
Cassian switched weapons in an instant. The melta gun barked, a burst of superheated energy lancing forward.
The Phoenix Lord vanished.
No, not vanished. He was simply somewhere else.
Cassian barely had time to react before the corrupted warrior's blade flicked toward him.
Faevaleth was there, intercepting the strike.
"Focus, Mon-keigh," she spat, forcing the Phoenix Lord back with a flurry of impossibly fast strikes. "Do not get in my way."
Cassian rolled to the side, regaining his footing. His armor was already battered, warning sigils flashing across his visor. His breathing was heavy, but his grip on the melta gun was steady. He was a pawn in this fight, yes. But even pawns could be useful.
He activated the Eldari weapon Faevaleth had given him—a strange, humming blade that pulsed with energy. It felt almost alive in his grip, responding to his movements before he even completed them.
Good. He'd need every advantage.
Faevaleth and the Phoenix Lord clashed again. Cassian couldn't keep up with the speed of their battle even with his armour—blades striking faster than thought, each movement impossibly refined, a dance beyond human capability. The shrine walls crumbled around them from the sheer force of their combat.
Cassian moved, waiting for an opening.
There.
He fired his melta gun again, aiming not at the Phoenix Lord, but at the stone beneath him. The blast struck the already unstable ruins, sending debris collapsing downward.
For the first time, the Phoenix Lord acknowledged him.
Then the warrior was simply gone again.
Cassian's instincts screamed at him. He twisted, bringing up his blade just in time to block a strike aimed directly at his throat.
The force behind it sent him staggering. Damaging his armour.
The Phoenix Lord loomed over him now, blade pressing against Cassian's own. He could feel the weight of that presence, pushing into his thoughts. Not words, not whispers. Just…invasion of thoughts.
"You are already breaking," the Phoenix Lord murmured. "You fight, but you do not understand. You struggle, but you are nothing. A tool, wielded by others. Even now, you are little more than her shield."
Cassian clenched his jaw. "Then I'd better be a strong one." Distracting him.
He overload his armour.
The burst of enhanced speed caught the Phoenix Lord off guard for just a fraction of a second. Enough.
Cassian twisted out from under the blade and drove his own weapon forward.
It did not struck.
The Pheonix lord saw it coming from a mile away. He was just amused at his attempt.
But Cassian did not count on his blade hitting. It was merely distraction using his arrogance.
Faevaleth was already there, pressing the attack. Cassian barely had time to disengage before the two Eldar warriors became a blur of motion once more.
The fight continued, the ruined shrine becoming even more unstable around them. Cassian kept moving, kept firing when he could, using every weapon at his disposal. His bolter rounds chipped at the corrupted armor, his melta blasts forced the Phoenix Lord to reposition. He was not winning. But he was playing his role.
His armor was heavily damaged, his body bruised, his breath ragged. He was close to death more times than he could count. But he endured. He was not even participating in the fight just helping from afar yet he already was gasping.
"Pathetic", a voice whispered to him maliciously. Cassian shut off his mind from warp.
The Phoenix Lord was not invincible.
Faevaleth knew it too.
And she was not going to let this battle end any other way.
Maybe Chaos just changed the brain matter of people it corrupts making them dumb. Or maybe it was a meta logic of this reality from cassian's perspective. But as all cliche villains do. He monologued.
The corrupted warrior laughed, the sound echoing through the shrine, distorted and wrong. "Do you see now, Faevaleth? You cannot win. You have already lost. I am—"
Her blade flashed.
And for the first time, the Phoenix Lord faltered.
Cassian watched as Faevaleth struck, again and again, faster than even his enhanced vision could track. The Phoenix Lord parried, but for the first time, he was reacting, not dictating the flow of battle.
The Pheonix lord then started struggling with something inside him. Faevelith' eyes narrowed as she felt the presence of She-Who-Thirsts trying to materialize through him. She immediately hurried and pressed her advantage from his distraction.
A final strike.
Then, the corrupted warrior stumbled.
Faevaleth stood over him, breathing heavily, her blades dripping with whatever passed for his blood.
Cassian didn't move.
The Phoenix Lord slowly looked up. And despite it all—despite everything—he smiled.
"You still don't understand," he whispered.
Then, the shrine began to collapse.
Cassian barely had time to react before the ground gave way beneath them.
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Word Count: 2007
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