The War in Heaven

by voroshilov

XVII. World Eater

“Where the Emperor went, death followed. He was a leader of hunters, of soldiers, of blood letters. He fought with such ferocity against the Angels that they refused to walk upon the ground he had tread. Their religion, kept hidden from prying Imperial eyes, evolved into something more primitive. All that remained of their culture was a death cult, one that declared that Emperor Nicholas would usher in the end times, wiping their species from existence as the foot soldiers of a great Jihad across all of reality.”

- The Angels: A Case Study into the Devourer by Anya Moris -

Nicholas, standing his full fifty feet tall, moved swiftly, far too swiftly than his form would seemingly allow. The atmosphere of Talon III, trapped halfway between the planet and the warship, made it possible to use his wings, though the presence of his quarry made him forego the fast option in favour of a more stealthy approach.

He hunted Karin, Confluence Mind, one block in what was the vast, galaxy spanning Assembly Nexus. Nicholas had, during the first year of his reign as Emperor, destroyed every Assembly Progenitor Construct save one: Xeves, the Termination, who had remained shielded inside the core of Chronove, out of Nicholas' reach. Karin was not an Assembly Progenitor Construct, at least not one created by the Assembly. Each large scale Assembly Construct was based on a previously living mind, though Karin had never lived. Karin was an AI, a high quality one, granted, but still relatively unintelligent in comparison to a living creature. Karin had not been built during the time of the Dauxite Assembly, rather built out of a host of mismatched parts more recently, designed to try and fill the gaps inside the Assembly Nexus.

Normally, Nicholas would not have bothered with the Assembly, there was very little, if anything, they could actually do in modern times and what little they could do wouldn't have affected him anyway. Karin, however, had, in the process of its construction, had an artefact implanted into it that Nicholas required destroyed in order for his plans to continue ahead. Fortunately for him, Karin's armour and shielding would have been shredded by the Eater of Worlds' onslaught, if not killed it outright. All Nicholas needed was the artefact destroyed, Karin's simulation of a life was of no consequence one way or the other.

He quickly came across Karin's tracks: a scar through compacted dirt, stone and metal, about twenty feet wide. Bodies of WarSynths and the larger and slightly more rare Minor Minds lined the immense chamber's walls, with a scant few apparently still active, though crushed and unable to move. Nicholas had no doubt the few that could see him would attempt to send a warning to Karin, though whether the construct was aware of his coming or not didn't matter any longer. Oathbreaker, his weapon, glowed and whispered with desire to kill, sensing the nearby presence of an Aethereal artefact. The sword beat like a heart, whispering directions into Nicholas' mind, energising him to run even faster.

By the rhythmic thumping of metal on metal, Karin must have been nearby. The echo would not travel far in the Eater of Worlds, given its heavily absorbent design, with Oathbreaker confirming that the construct would be in the next opening.

Sure enough, in a large processing room, a mile high and two miles across, half trapped by debris, hung Karin, blocking the exit way for all but the smallest pieces of material, most of Karin's armour was gone, with entire chunks of its hull along its ragged spine torn off. The construct had evidently seen better days, with almost everything that could be relatively easily broken off gone. Even with the world eating armaments shut down, the room was still unbelievably hot, instantly evaporating the scant bits of moisture on Nicholas' body. Oathbreaker's heart beat was powerful, with every beat so close to the last it felt like one long pulse. The sword glowed until it was entirely green in appearance, looking more like it was made entirely out of light than any material. The previous whispers became properly audible singing, which caused Karin's shields to flicker.

It took the construct a second to recognise him, before it suddenly sprung to life. The two cannons on its head opened fire, sending blobs of energy the size of cars at him at high speeds. The cables that covered its body flared blue and began to move, either firing off smaller bolts of energy, attempting to ionise the atmosphere around them or grabbing chunks of debris to throw.

Nicholas, gifted with the power of prescience, deftly avoided each shot, to which Karin responded by just firing more. Oathbreaker, singing for death, swung out at one of the largest shots, deflecting it back at the trapped construct. Karin could only frantically divert power to its shields before it was struck, creating a crackling ripple as the shield buckled under the pressure of the impact. Karin released a massive burst of static, little more than robotic curses, before showing Nicholas it hadn't learnt its lesson by firing more shots, which Oathbreaker deflected with increasing frequency.

Each new impact to Karin's shields appeared to make the construct angrier, driving it to fire more recklessly, until, with a final deflection aimed straight into Karin's eye, its shields collapsed with an explosive pop. The machine stopped for a moment, before it released another bellow of binaric curses and fired bolts of lightning all around the chamber.

Oathbreaker's bloodlust increased, its singing becoming louder and louder. Even at such a distance of a couple of miles, Oathbreaker's song scorched and scratched at Karin's hull, its lack of armour making it ever the more vulnerable. The sword whispered to its user, telling him it could dodge Karin's attacks and destroy it. The user, trusting his weapon, leapt forwards, his wings only doing half the job of driving him towards the construct, with the sword seeming to lock onto Karin's red eye, beyond which lay the construct's mind core, the brain of the entire machine.

Lightning arced along Nicholas' body, though Oathbreaker was able to absorb most of the energy, the rest dissipating along his armour. Oathbreaker shone even brighter, filling the entire room with a baleful green glow, its song burning even the air around it. Karin's hull began to melt the closer Oathbreaker got, with the construct yelling out in binary again, apparently wounded. When Nicholas got within a few dozen metres, the lightning stopped, with Karin apparently giving up all resistance.

When Oathbreaker impacted Karin's eye, pushing through to its mind core and the artefact within, it pulsed again, all of its energy releasing along its edge, its song reaching a zenith as the construct's head exploded, leaving not even ash behind, the rest of the body crumpling to the floor, its various electromagnets and anti-gravity drives shutting down and causing the construct to become little more than a pile of components on the floor.

Nicholas drifted slowly to the ground, Oathbreaker's whispers confirming the artefact was destroyed. "The blockage is gone," he said, knowing that Lotan could hear him, "you may reactivate the world eater, destroy the rest of the planet."

The room began to heat up, causing the remains of Karin to glow bright red. A torrent of ten thousand kelvin material sped towards him, but he was gone by the time it passed the two miles needed to reach him.

Talon III was entirely consumed just an hour later, with its three moons becoming little more than asteroids on the orders of Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra. When Nicholas returned to the bridge of the Night Truth, greeted by Luna and Rarity with a bow, and Rainbow Dash with an even higher level of respect for him, especially after seeing his armour incandescent.

"Luna, Rarity," he said, edging Oathbreaker over to Rainbow so the inquisitive PHALANX pony could have a closer look, "I have one final task of you."

Luna's eyes widened. "Final?" She muttered in disbelief.

Nicholas nodded. "The end draws near. You must travel to the Redeemance System, to the planet called New Horizons. There, you must contact the Imperial Overwatch, they will direct you to a pony by the name of Ablazed Glory, tell her that her Emperor's plan begins, and that she will provide fuel for its fire, she will understand you. Go quickly, time is of the essence."

Luna nodded, practically pulling Rarity to the express elevator to the hangar.