A Hellish Bargain

Iacobus marched forward not afraid of her powers, "What deal!" she smiled like it was all a joke and started to laugh, "Oh to kill my brother Khorne..."

We stood there, our eyes fixated on Slannesh, her words running circles in my mind. Killing a god would be an act for only the Emperor himself could pull it off and survive but I doubt unscathed. I walked forward my steps echoing throughout the hall, I could feel the pressure falling on me like waves in a ocean but still pressed forward only walking some ten metres away from Iacobus, I can feel his concern for me piercing my back, however he knew I would not do something stupid without good reason, shifting his weight around his body showing his readiness for battle and if death would come for us today we would not be snuffed out quietly.

I stopped walking at the footsteps towards the throne where Slannesh sate. as much as I pride myself a space marine of the XVIth Legion I will not willing allow myself to kneel before anyone but the Emperor. My towering figure allowed me the advantage of not having to look to high up above to glare at the goddess, we watched each others movements down to the nanosecond.

Using my powers I enhanced my voice " I have a counter offer." I saw my words caught Slannesh's attention as she shifted herself showing those around her majestic body of pleasure, almost teasing the eyes of everyone who gazed upon her. She gave me a curt node showing her interest in my words, "instead of killing your brother, for I do not hold this kind of power in my grasp, let alone have a chance of winning in combat with him.

I will kill his herald however and give you the skull of his herald that I guess would be quite the prize for any one to have in their possession. In case I lose I will give you my soul." Iacobus took a sigh of relief while sweating bullets, after hearing those words he thanked the Emperor for his mercy upon him, " and Iacobus is to do as you see fit, only if I failed in killing the herald." Iacobus stood there amazed by the ego of myself, feeling like he was slapped with a latex glove until death and the worse thing is that he might become Slannesh's fuck toy or worse.

As Slannesh processed my words with care and Iacobus standing behind me seething so much that three words could be the only way to describe what he feels right now " What the fuck!!!" Feeling the waves hitting my back as wind circled around Iacobus in a fit of rage but still not taking my eyes off the main threat in this situation. When we were training together we formed a psyker connection that Iacobus had read from ancient tomes from Iacobus's homeworld, which he still has trouble talking about. "Iacobus! get it together, I understand your anger but I have a plan, trust me brother." my words flooding into his head, I could still feel mister burning rage but he started to calm down from his tantrum.

I brought my full attention back to the beast, Slannesh spoke once more with confidence " You desire something, what is it you want, a group of girls of the finest quality, they can be all humans or do you wish for more exotic beauties? Like the Alderi, I have a special collection of those. Does power and perfection what you want I can give you boons of my power that would aid you in these endeavours? What is your desire! Slannesh disappeared after speaking her final words all to appear before me faster than anything I have ever seen. "I want your heralds power." My voice is cold and sharp, I don't intend on mucking around with Slannesh, especially here.

Speaking once more in a respectful tone for the time being, " these are my terms and I need the power of your herald's power, or you lose this opportunity to get back at your brother." She sat there quietly listening to me, I bet if she could she would ask for everything I could give and more but I know from this meeting alone she has an interest in me, for what reason I choose not to know for in this case ignorance is bliss.

She licked her lips with her forked tongue, "Oh how I like it when a being as yourself knows what he wants all the better when their dying from my pleasure and hearing the tortured screams for eternity." She brought her hand from the armrest, extending it as if to grasp my face even though we were metres away from one another, " Very well lieutenant Vain or do you prefer Titerus? but this matters not, I will grant you the honour of bring a pleasurable death to this failure." She gestured forward to the demon that was in chains and he knelt before me. What I didn't expect was that the demon had a look of absolute delight on his face and was shivering almost uncontrollably.

I didn't waste any time to grasp my sword and activate it, showing the edge of my blade glow blue, I also infused my power into my sword sending psyker magic radiating off the blade for extra kick. The demon had lost all senses of sanity if it had any to begin with, that is, I placed the edge of my blade right on its neck. Slowly I raised my sword above my head and in one quick moment the demon's head began to slip off its neck falling to the ground, Its body slumped over slowly disintegrating before our eyes.

Power began to flow into me like an ocean into a bottle, It was but a few seconds in realty but it felt longer, like days of endless torture of the worst kind, I started to slowly gain my bearings and felt my power grow inside me, I opened my eyes to see the place I was in just moments ago now hundreds of kilometres away, while staring at the palace my power armour registered a spike in heat near at least 800°C.

Now where am I? This question and more rattled in my head, seconds later one question stood out among the rest, "Where is Iacobus?" I used my auspex and picked up a reading from behind where the heat was coming from I turned around to see a space marine shorter than me but still above average he wore red and gold trim power armour, as he turned to look at me, when I first glanced at the insignia on his pauldron I saw he was a son of Prospero a Thousand Sons but different it showed a snake eating its own tail on the inside of the sun that the son of Prospero usually wore.

I walked towards the space marine having an idea who it was, "Iacobus" I shouted still some metres away his face smiled with normal teeth of a human and less of a wolf, he started to walk towards me and said, "It is good to see you my brother even if I wanted to hit you in the back of the head when we were back at the palace." He had a roundish face with a black and grey beard with hair the same colour, his face showed me his kind eyes and big smile.

We shook hands and he said "I know you have questions about my appearance but now is not the time." I look at him, understanding the situation. We are in new territory and might be attacked at any time, "I was going to say you need a haircut because you look like the Wildman of Catachan." his face said it all he was about to slap me in the back of the head but stopped remembering that I still have the helmet on, his response "Okay smartass now what? what do you plan to bring out Khorne's herald?" I walked towards the walls of blood, fire and bronze and said three words "To bring DOOM!"