The first of many

I stared at the vile being, trying to stand straight under his extra weight but he still gave me his undivided attention. As my eyes examined his body, I felt like whatever food I had left inside my stomach was about to greet me again, his skin that clung to his decaying body bulged with toxic fluids that threatened to break out and pool over the floor, while he noticed me staring at him he spoke "Admire your potential. With the coming of chaos, the plague father will grant you immortality and rebirth into what you see now" as he spoke his words through the many months on his face that spat and leaked something acidic that melted the floor in front of him.

The herald looked at me, sensing that my decision was still undecided and spoke once more "Join us for eternity and you would be a leader of armies. A bringer of unending death!", the being shouted towards the ceiling of the church. Following his gaze towards the ceiling, the horror was easy to see, hooks hung from it where bodies were strung up in different ways. Some looked new, others looked to have been dripping offal and waxy fat for months. I brought my gaze back to the being, hearing the sound of my armour shift as I began to move slowly towards him, "Ahah you have decided to join us in his embrace. Come closer". He raised his arm towards me, and I brought my hand forward, reaching ever closer. The sound of blades rang out through the church. As I went to shake his hand, I instead made a short swing with my sword and cut off a few of his fingers but sadly didn't get the rest of his hand as he brought forth his scythe to protect himself, his face a mask of betrayed rage. 

The being laughed in my face as we brought our weapons to bear against each other, "So you have decided to fight against us and not join in His greater plan?" He spoke his words with malice but I didn't fear him, "The only thing that brings a bitterness to my mouth is that you are some twisted form of me and you have allowed yourself to tarnish the armour we wear." As sparks flew from my sword and his scythe, using our weapons to see who breaks off first will come down to a test of strength, I can confidently say I am one of the strongest space marines of my legion and dare I ever say it aloud but my muscles feel as if they're about to tear apart. Pushing against this servant of Nurgle feels as if I am pushing a mountain. However, I am a Luna Wolf to my last fibre and have never lost a duel. At least I tell myself this to anchor my resolve, for this encounter feels like it will take everything if I'm to win it. We stepped forward and then backwards trying to use the floor to brace ourselves, using our body weight to lean into our weapons cracking the floor at our feet, the demon now showing his immense strength overpowering me as I feel the floor giving way "Now you are starting to understand how true power feels, but sadly the Plague Father doesn't give second chances." finishing his words with one last push he kicked me towards the doors of the church leaving a trail of crushed tiles and furrowed dirt.

Switching to my bolt pistol not leaving a single opening for him to exploit, I let out a torrent of rounds into his chest and head trying to end the duel as fast as possible before he could get close, I shot four rounds three went into his torso and one went straight into his head, even after the rounds hit their targets and make miniature explosions powerful enough to take a human arm right off, if not destroy his entire body, even after that I could see three holes straight through him and a massive chunk of head gone. Seeing my handy work I turned my back and started to walk towards the door until "You have seen me worthy my lord, I will embrace your gift." Quickly raised my weapon to put down this thing before it could get worse.

"This isn't my day."  Now looking towards the ceiling, the bodies came to life wailing and shrieking, tearing themselves off the hooks landing on the body of the space marine I just killed and I was stunned to see what was happening, the bodies started to eat each other forming some sort of mass of rotting human flesh as the seconds tick by I start to pull out one of the grenades I had and was about to solve all my problems at once, "uuuggghhh!" After a sudden burst of light hits me and throws me right out of the doors of the church, now looking towards the foggy sky and feeling the thundering sounds like footsteps hitting the ground, I leaned forward trying to sit up and saw a massive creature lumbering closer to me. 

The creature began to step out from the shadows of the church with glowing red eyes and massive antler-like horns coming out the side of his head with a massive gash across his belly, now losing all of what tied him to humanity and becoming a demon of Nurgle. The stench of wrongness sharpened in my nostrils and a slow beating force of heresy emanated.

The Wolf comes closer to me and shouts "How was the conversation? Pleasant I take it and how did you manage to summon a demon of Nurgle on the cusp of ascending to a great Unclean One?" now standing up, checking my gear and looking towards the wolf. "Would you have believed me if I said, he was here before I shot him?", shrugging my shoulders towards the Wolf and preparing to charge at the demon. "How long do we have before It gets out of hand?", now having a steer-down with the demon "What do you mean out of hand we are so fucked right now and to answer your question kill it now, not later!" I activated my power sword and started to run at the demon, it did the same, moving its rotted flesh-covered body slowly towards me.

Now having the disadvantage of being smaller than him I am going to try and use that against him, I started to charge not letting myself be swayed by my opponent's reach, using his large grotesque arms with the added length of his new scythe that looked to have been bathed in something foul, he swung his scythe with the force form a macro cannon from one of our cruisers the blade of his scythe emit a green miasma. I saw the blade for a mere moment only just being able to lean back enough so that the blade scratch my armour but using the momentum of my charge to carry me forward, I turned with the force I had gathered and swung my sword right in the back of his knee, the demon fell to right to the ground, I looked beyond him to see where his scythe cut through half a dozen pillars clean in half with the cuts still giving a faint glow, the demon began to stand a drew my bolt pistol and fired right into his back and scanned his body for possible weak spots but only making the creature laugh at me struggling. "Give up mortal For I have ascended to new heights in His embrace." Swinging his scythe at me once more and only dodging by mere centimetres, I am getting sick and tired of this. I began to reach for my grenades until he swung his hand close-fisted from my blind spot. Hitting the ground some metres away like a rag doll, now feeling hard to even move my body " Let go my brother, let my lord give you the peace that you deserve " 

As he talked, I tried to stand up but only got the strength to sit on my knees until I noticed a sack of liquid bulging from his body. I began to laugh at the top of my lungs. The demon stopped. "Yes, enjoy these last moments of your sad life." The demon smiled showing his rows of teeth and maggot-covered tongue. "You forget something important about wolves." I started to rise from my knees to try and stand, "Oh what's that?" showing his smugness even before the battle was over, "Wolves travel in packs." The wolf began to attack the demon from the side, surprising everyone with a show of lightning from his mouth, using this moment to my advantage, no matter how surprising I raised my bolt pistol at the demon. "You were never me, you were weaker than me!" shooting a round right into the sack causing it to burst into flames engulfing the proto-greater demon in a fireball. They did something I did not expect. He laughed like he didn't care. I watched as parts of his body burnt away falling from his bones, the fire continued to spread, eating away his flesh now exposing his demonic heart that continued to beat to the last moment where his heart was consumed by flame. 

Watching the demon writhing in pain and swearing he would claim my soul for Nurgle, I turned towards the wolf and panted "When could you use lightning? And why didn't you use it sooner?" I asked the wolf, puzzled by what just happened, "I have not told you everything and I am not just a wolf." I turned to face the wolf "Then what are you then?" I steered into his eyes searching for any tells "I am a space marine…"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi there due to work I can now only do one chapter a week, but I will keep you in the loop if anything changes.