Several more Space Wolves Astartes arrived at that moment, drawing their weapons and aiming them squarely at the metallic skeleton before them.
At the slightest hostile movement, they would not hesitate to open fire and annihilate him.
"Although boarding your vessel uninvited may seem discourteous, I had no choice but to take such measures.
"But expecting me to lay down my weapon is a bit too much. A Chronomancer will never relinquish his weapon," said the Necron Chronomancer, Grandu, standing before them.
"In that case, we have no choice but to take you by force," the Lieutenant replied, his voice cold.
Two Space Wolves immediately drew their chainswords and swung at the Chronomancer.
At the same time, more than a dozen others squeezed the triggers of their boltguns. Grandu's cloak flared as he conjured a protective shield, effortlessly deflecting their combined assault.
Then he raised his staff.
The blue crystal atop it shone with a faint azure glow, forming a bubble-like construct that enclosed the two charging Space Wolves and froze them in place.
In the span of a heartbeat, he had neutralized more than ten attackers without harming a single one.
"I bear you no great malice. I simply wish to use your vessel to leave this place. Grant me this request, and there will be no conflict between us. You cannot bring me down. On the contrary, I could easily kill every living being aboard this ship," Grandu said, raising the Aeonstave.
As a Chronomancer, he possessed considerable means of self-preservation.
Through his staff, he could unleash a stasis field charged with temporal energy, trapping any struck target inside a time bubble, unable to move.
His Timesplinter Cloak could weave together overlapping strands of time, making him formidable both in offense and defense.
In truth, with the arrogance typical of a Chronomancer, he normally had no interest in dealing with the so-called "lesser civilisations" of the galaxy.
But his own race had been struck by a calamity. All of his former kin had turned into skin-hungry abominations, and the curse was still spreading.
Many who had awoken in a sane state had likewise begun to degenerate into flesh-craving monsters.
Grandu understood all too well that if he did not escape quickly, he might succumb to this plague himself, losing all sense of self and becoming nothing more than a puppet.
If not for his timely discovery and the use of advanced temporal technology to isolate himself, he would have already been infected. Even so, he knew he could not hold out forever.
Then hope arrived swiftly.
Through the central command system of his tomb world, he detected an incoming alien vessel.
Spotting this ship of a foreign civilisation was like seeing a lifeline. Without hesitation, he had used teleportation to board it, intending to hitch a ride away from this perilous star system.
"Do not think for second that such a trick can contain us," Mader replied coldly.
He raised his force staff, unleashing a surge of psychic power that shattered the stasis construct and freed the two trapped Space Wolves.
Such a method might work against ordinary Space Marines, but using it against a Rune Priest with powerful psychic ability was a grave mistake.
"Oh? I did not expect to find such a powerful psyker here. I may have underestimated you," the Chronomancer admitted.
"If you surrender now, we can still talk terms. Otherwise, I will fight until you are disarmed," Mader warned.
Grandu silently produced a Chronometron, an eye shaped device capable of truly manipulating time within a given range.
The instant he flipped it, temporal fractures split the ship's interior.
Mader saw bolter rounds hanging motionless in the air, their trajectories stretched and frozen. The charging Space Wolves were locked mid-stride, encased within lattices of crystallised time.
Everyone seemed to move in slow motion, but Grandu moved the same. Mader, with his highly developed psychic sense could perceive it.
The entire Strike Cruiser seemed to be enveloped in a mysterious temporal field. Everything was slow, utterly slow, at the molecular level. Time itself had slowed down..
"Oh mighty psyker," Grandu's voice echoed from somewhere beyond the moment, "if you underestimate a Chronomancer, I will find that most troubling."
Mader dared not show the slightest carelessness. He immediately raised a psychic shield, lifting his staff high as he began weaving a psychic art.
After so long training on Prospero, he was no mere psyker, he was a master of the psychic arts.
The Rune Priest's armour shimmered with a faint blue light, dispelling the temporal restraints that restrained his movements in an instant.
"My Chronometron allows me to see countless possible futures. You cannot defeat me, psyker. There is no need for us to fight; I only wish to borrow your vessel to escape," Grandu said. Truly the psyker was futilely struggling.
In truth, if it were not for sheer necessity, he would never have spoken so much to a species from a lesser civilisation.
Their vessel was crude, using some ancient warp engine for travel, meaning they had to enter the Immaterium. And it just so happened that he needed such a vessel to escape.
Though he was a powerful Chronomancer, he could not safely navigate the Warp alone, he needed the strength of these humans.
With a cold snort, Mader unleashed a surge of psychic might that shattered the temporal bindings in an instant.
His power closed around the Chronomancer's true form like a great invisible hand, collapsing the temporal shield.
A flicker of surprise crossed Grandu's metallic features. Never had he imagined a human psyker could so easily tear apart his time ward.
Mader's psychic force surged like a tidal wave, wrenching the Necron sorcerer bodily out of the temporal layer and into the material realm.
"Impressive strength," Grandu's mechanical voice wavered slightly as his Timesplinter Cloak flared, desperately trying to reweave the strands of time.
But Mader's power had already locked down his every movement.
"Your tricks with time are over, Xenos. Now it's my turn." The tip of Mader's force staff blazed with blinding azure light. Drawing deeply from the Warp, he unleashed the most powerful spell he had learned on Prospero.
A massive arc of psychic lightning erupted from the staff, shattering the Chronomancer's temporal barrier like glass.
The eye shaped Chronometron shook violently, cracks spiderwebbing across its crystal surface before it burst apart with a sharp crack.
"No! Impossible!" For the first time, panic entered Grandu's voice. Never before had he seen psychic power capable of directly interfering with the laws of time.
Mader seized the opening.
His psychic assault struck like a storm, hurling the Necron backwards to crash into the deck plating before he slumped to the floor.
The surrounding Space Wolves instantly regained their freedom of movement.
Several lunged forward, pinning the Chronomancer and wrenching away his Chronometron, Timesplinter Cloak, and Aeonstave.
Grandu tried to resist, but Mader placed his palm against the xenos's forehead, using psychic force to shut down his thoughts.
Only then did the Rune Priest finally exhale.
That had been dangerously close.
Without his presence, the entire crew would have fallen to this Chronomancer.
"Mader, is he secured?" the space wolf Lieutenant asked as he approached.
Throughout the fight, neither he nor the others had been able to intervene; they could only watch their Rune Priest the and xenos fight alone, their movements blurread as if the time around them was accelerated.
Fortunately, his strength had carried the day.
"I've suppressed his mind with psychic power, putting him in a comatose state. Get him into a stasis field immediately, I need to report to Lord Axis," Mader ordered.
It had been a close battle.
Without the ki-infused strength Lord Axis had granted him, tempering both his soul and body, he might not have won.
The xenos's mastery over temporal technology was formidable indeed.
The Lieutenant, Odoro, nodded and ordered several Space Wolves to escort the captive Necron Chronomancer below.
"Guard him well. Once I report to Lord Axis, I'll personally take over his custody. I trust no one else with him," Mader said.
Only after confirming the threat was neutralised did the Cruiser slowly enter the Warp.
On his end, Mader opened a psychic link to Axis.
"Lord Axis, we have captured a Necron Chronomancer alive."
...
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Bonus Chapter! WAAAAARGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! POWERSTONES! MORE !!! WAAARGGGHHHHH