Webway
Sanguinius, Great Angel
With the help of strange Prophet teleportation, they found themselves in a huge chamber made of black stone, which could easily accommodate a dozen Emperor-class Titans. It was lit by hundreds of floating flames, powered by a fuel invisible to him, but a light touch with his mind confirmed his suspicions that they drew energy from the Immaterium.
The walls and ceiling were decorated with numerous bas-reliefs and engraved symbols that meant little to him, and he would probably need at least many hours, if not days, to see them all.
On some of them he only recognised the silhouettes of Aeldari, beings similar to orcs. The rest, without context and knowledge, were impossible for him to read at the moment.
At the far end of the chamber was the only exit from the chamber. A huge door made of some metal, several metres high. But it was not them that caught his attention but two balls of light floating in front of them, one blue, the other bright green.
They must have been the remaining Old Ones, or rather their existing fragments, the ones the Prophet had mentioned.
However, the most noticeable change was the fact that he felt as if he was no longer in the Immaterium. The endless pressure of wild energies seemed to be only a murmur on the edge of perception, as if something was blocking or severely limiting these corrupted energies.
His guide, because he did not know what else to call him at the moment, was already heading towards his brethren, and Sanguinius followed him right behind, wanting to get answers to the questions that consumed him as quickly as possible.
When they were a few metres from the Old Ones levitating in front of the gate, the blue ball spoke, emitting a sound outside. "So he passed the trial of Will. So there is still hope."
"Yes, there is little time left. Just a few, maybe a dozen human millennia," added the third member of this powerful race.
"Sanguinius, meet my brethren. Their names, like mine, have long since lost their meaning, so you may call them Seeker and Mind." Prophet introduced them, his voice full of enthusiasm but also pride. Apparently, the fact that he had passed their test had a truly special meaning for them.
"Do your names have any real meaning, or did you just make them up on the fly?" Sanguinius asked, intrigued.
"Oh, they most certainly do." Mind replied, flying closer to him, as if to get a better look at him. "Prophet is probably the only being in the galaxy capable of seeing the future in the Well of Eternity and still retaining his senses."
"Though the visions of the future are convoluted and unclear," the one in question interjected.
Mind flashed green, as if showing irritation at being interrupted, then continued, "The Seeker is extremely sensitive to Empyrean energies and, over time, is able to locate every living being in the galaxy, both in the matter and immaterium, and also predict disturbances in those energies in advance. It was thanks to it that we were able to capture your soul at the moment of death."
The Primarch had to admit to himself that their abilities were extremely useful, although he himself knew how deceptive visions of the future could be since he himself had predicted by whose hand he would die.
"So your abilities are related to... the mind, I take it?"
"Yes, to the manipulation of the energies of the Immaterium, to be precise." Mind replied, then added, "But as I am but a fragment of the being I once was, there are many psykers more powerful than me in the galaxy. But I am certain none have the knowledge I have. The advanced techniques and skills of my race, which pale in comparison to those of the Aeldari at the height of their power."
Sanguinius could not help the hunger that grew within him at those words. From the very beginning, he had sought a way to combat the Black Rage and Red Thirst in himself and his sons. Where could he find a cure if not in the knowledge of the race of the ancient gods? The only question was. Would they share that knowledge with him, or could he master it?
Before he could broach the subject, Mind spoke, "I will teach you what I know in time, Sanguinius, but as skilled as you are as a... psyker, that's the word you use, it can take centuries to learn and above all master these techniques. Practice is necessary."
He just nodded at that, gratefully. He would be patient. Now he had other pressing questions.
"Thank you, Mind. But could you tell me where we are now? I assume we are not in the Immaterium, but it can't be the Materium either, for this is not my physical body," he said, indicating his much better-looking form.
His earlier injuries and maimed wings had regenerated after his trial in the Well of Eternity.
"We are in the Labyrinthine Dimension, or Webway as the Aeldari call it." Seeker replied, approaching them, his voice a little colder and his tone a little grumpy.
Before the primarch of the ninth legion could ask for an explanation, however, he continued, "It is an extra-dimensional space that our ice separated from the Immaterium tens of millions of years ago, creating a place for superluminal travel and connecting the entire galaxy. It exists between the Immaterium and the real world."
"So this is the Webway, the one the Aeldari used. But the few records I found on their Craftworld did not say that you were the ones who created it... So much knowledge has been lost and is being lost at every moment. My race is a perfect example of this."
All the events of the past few years came back to him: the betrayal of his brothers, the riven civil war that had claimed trillions of the Empire's inhabitants, his own death at the hands of his beloved brother, and finally what had happened to his father. He didn't even know what the situation in the Empire was like now, only that, in theory, they had won.
He felt Black Rage begin to awaken again, but somewhere inside him. But with the force of will, he crushed it immediately. After experiencing the Well of Eternity, it seemed much easier. However, the very fact that this flaw continued to exist when he didn't have his physical body meant that it wasn't simply a result of some genetic mutation but was connected to the mind and soul.
"I could probably ask how the Aelari haven't discovered you in the millions of years you've ruled the Webway, but it makes sense that as the creators of this place, you know it much better." Sanguinius said, and all three of them smiled in agreement.
"The Aeldari have named themselves our heirs and have used the Webway to expand their galactic empire, just as we have done before. However, they have never been masters of this place." The Prophet explained, "There are hidden places here that only we have access to."
"If you have such sanctuaries hidden here, why are there only three of you left and in such a state? Why haven't the others of your race hidden here?"
Mind sighed and said, "It's simple. The rest of our brethren saw no point in continuing our existence here and left the galaxy in search of a place where they could start over, and as for us, it's a bit more complicated."
"At first we stayed because of what happened to the Immaterium after the war and the birth of Ruinous Powers, seeing a threat they posed to all races. We felt partly responsible for the situation, even though we were the ones being attacked in the war against the Necrons and their masters. Yet we were the ones who sent millions of the living soldiers we had created to fight against them." Mind, she said, a hint of guilt evident in her voice.
"So this war was so terrible that it changed the entire Immaterium and created the demons and chaos gods?" Sanguinius tried to imagine the scale of such a war, which dwarfed even the tragedy of the Horus Heresy that had claimed trillions of human lives.
"The galaxy was so devastated that the Necrons, who had won the war and subsequently overthrown their masters, went into a sleep for millions of years and remain dormant to this day. The few of our people who survived fled the galaxy, while the three of us, shattered by the war, shadows of past selves, remained here."
"Prophet said the two of you were guarding something," Sanguinius interjected, glancing at the first of the Old Ones he met.
"Yes, we stayed to guard an important artefact of our race that we created to fight the C'tan, but by the time it was complete, we were unable to use it," Seeker admitted, his glowing form visibly dimming, radiating regret and something he couldn't quite place.
"C"tan?" he asked, certain he had heard or read that word somewhere. "From the context, I assume these are the Necron machine gods?"
Even the little information he had was beginning to make sense to him. These divine machines were too similar to the Omnissiah of the Mechanicus for him not to have any doubts. In addition, the Martians' mania for replacing organic bodies with mechanical elements.
The priests of Mars had always disgusted him. His father certainly knew something, and this was another thing he was hiding from them.
Of course, seeing the horrors of Chaos, he understood why the Emperor was in such a hurry to start and finish a crusade, but it didn't justify the fact that he tolerated the inhuman practices of the Mechanicus, such as creating servitors, sometimes from the entire population of a planet. The mere thought of it always made Black Rage boil somewhere deep inside him.
His thoughts returned to what Seeker had said earlier about the artefact. It was clear to him that this was the thing they were guarding.
"Lord Seeker, what did you mean earlier when you said you were unable to use the artefact you created? You said it was finished; was it somehow defective?" He asked, staring in the direction of the gate; however, he had been sensing something strange coming from its direction for a few moments.
The Old Ones fell silent, however, but he had the impression that they were communicating with each other through some kind of telepathy, as their forms flashed light irregularly.
"It was more like WE had become too defective. We considered ourselves a paragon of virtue, but 5 million years of war can corrupt anyone. In our attempts to survive, we lost something that truly set us apart from our enemies." Mind finally replied.
"Come; it would be better for you to see for yourself what the problem is and why you are necessary to solve it. It relates to your future trials and probably to future galaxy itself."
All three Old Ones flew to the gate, and strands of energy emerged from their luminous bodies; when these strands touched the gate itself, golden runes began to appear on it, and after a moment, the gate started to open.
An oval chamber appeared before his eyes, much larger than the one they were currently in. He followed the hosts of this place inside. The walls seemed to be made of some metal alloy unknown to him, and the chamber itself seemed empty, except for one column standing in the middle, several dozen metres high, maybe two metres in diameter.
Sixteen beams of warp energy, each in a different colour, ran from some kind of relay protruding from the smooth walls towards the column in the centre.
Sanguinius waited for some explanation from his guides, but when he received none for a moment, he finally asked, "Hmh. Should I know what we're looking at? Is it some kind of doomsday weapon, using the energy of the Immaterium?"
"No, no," Prophet denied, then approached the pillar and stayed there for a moment, Sanguinius sensing the rising psionic energy from him.
A moment later the column began to slide into the ground to reveal a golden, masterfully crafted spear floating vertically in the air, on which beams of energy were united.
Sanguinius' psionic senses practically screamed at the amount of various energies accumulated in it. Despite standing a dozen or so metres away from it, he felt that getting closer would mean its complete destruction.
"Aeglos, the spear of destiny. Our greatest hope in the fight against the C'tan." Mind said, flying closer and stopping next to him, she continued.
"This is not an ordinary weapon but an accumulation of knowledge and skills but also the desperation of our civilisation combined into one. An artefact that allows you to enter and leave the Webway in any place in the Materium and Immaterium. And not only the user but entire fleets and armies. An absolute logistical and strategic weapon."
Sanguinius's mind slowly tried to digest the information he had heard. The first thought that came to his mind was that his father would do anything to get his hands on this relic. It was a complete game changer.
However, before he could ask Mind why the Old Ones couldn't use this artefact.
The walls of the chamber began to tremble, and after a moment, in the places where the rays emerged, they parted, revealing huge, dozens of metres long, glass-like tanks.
However, he knew that they had to be made of something unimaginably durable because the numerous elements of various sizes, made of some metal, inside emanated a sinister energy that then travelled to the spear itself.
This energy resonated dangerously with the Black Rage and Red Thirst hidden deep inside him, and he had to focus his willpower on tempering them.
The Primarch tore his gaze away from the tanks, then looked at the Old Ones, waiting for an answer.
Prophet, probably sensing the questions building in his mind, replied, "These, my boy, are the C'tan shards we captured and imprisoned here after the Necrons shattered them."
Sanguinius could only stare in disbelief and wonder how everything was becoming more absurd with each passing moment.