"You! Are you Axis?" Ferrus Manus stared in astonishment at the man before him, who was bathed in a brilliant golden radiance.
The gleaming golden aura was a breathtaking sight, and the power that emanated from him upon his arrival was terrifyingly immense.
He had just witnessed with his own eyes how this man had destroyed the Ork Attack Moon.
Axis nodded.
Then, with a flick of his finger, he sent Fulgrim staggering back dozens of paces.
A flicker of shock crossed the fallen primarch's eyes, swiftly replaced by a twisted rage. The humiliation was unbearable.
"So, you are Axis," Fulgrim's voice was a discordant blend of male and female tones that sent a wave of revulsion through Axis, "I heard of you long ago. They say you are the most powerful of all the primarchs, do they not?"
A golden aura flowed around Axis. He turned his head to glance at Ferrus Manus, confirming that while the primarch of the Iron Hands was injured, his life was not in danger. Only then did he return his gaze to Fulgrim.
"Axis," Ferrus Manus called out from the side, "something is wrong with Fulgrim. I was fighting him just a moment ago, but now… it's as if he's become someone else entirely."
"I know," Axis replied. "His body has been possessed by a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh. A willing vessel."
Fulgrim's fall had been foretold long ago. His obsessive pursuit of perfection aligned perfectly with the tenets of Slaanesh. After the annihilation of the Laer xenos, Fulgrim had claimed one of their weapons, the Blade of the Laer.
It was an artifact of incredible power, but a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh was bound within the sword. In some accounts, this daemon had succeeded in possessing Fulgrim completely. In others, Fulgrim had fought back after the Heresy and reclaimed his body.
None of that mattered now. It would not change the fact that Axis was going to kill him.
"Hahaha! So you are the one who has mildly piqued my master's inter—"
His words were cut short.
Axis appeared before him in an instant, moving so fast that even a primarch's enhanced senses could barely track his motion.
A heavy fist slammed violently into Fulgrim's abdomen.
The ornate, violet-gold power armor instantly caved in, and the backplate of his armor exploded outward.
"Koff—ah!" Fulgrim coughed up a spray of blood as his body shot backward like a cannonball, crashing through three solid steel walls before skidding to a halt.
Axis flickered into existence again, this time grabbing Fulgrim's helmet and smashing his head directly into the deck.
The entire warship shuddered from the impact, and the metal floor rippled like the surface of disturbed water.
"Enough of your prattling," Axis's voice was calm, but the force in his hand grew relentlessly.
Fulgrim's helmet began to warp and deform, its exquisite reliefs and decorations shattering into fragments.
"No! You—Aaaargh!" Fulgrim's curse turned into a scream of agony.
A torrent of purplish-red energy erupted from his body in an attempt to push Axis back, but it dissolved like snow on a fire the moment it touched the golden aura.
Axis ground Fulgrim's head deeper into the ship's hull, then lifted his boot and brought it down on that once-handsome face.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The entire vessel shuddered.
With every thud, Fulgrim's body convulsed. Soon, his face was a swollen and bruised mess, completely misshapen from the force of the blows.
Blood streamed from his nose and several of his teeth had been kicked out.
Axis seized a handful of Fulgrim's hair and yanked him up.
A powerful backhand slap sent a few more of Fulgrim's teeth flying through the air. Half of Fulgrim's face was now a grotesque, swollen ruin, giving him an almost comical appearance.
Watching his brother Primarch being so utterly brutalized left Ferrus Manus speechless.
He had known that Axis held the title of the strongest Primarch, but to see him so effortlessly overwhelm Fulgrim was beyond belief.
"Now, you will answer my questions," Axis said, his hand closing around Fulgrim's throat. "What is Horus's plan? Tell me which of our brothers have turned traitor, and I will make your death a merciful one."
Fulgrim was dazed. The Greater Daemon possessing him was equally stunned. This level of savagery was unimaginable.
"You… how dare you? How dare you do this to me?" Fulgrim clutched his face, which now resembled a swollen pig's head, "My beautiful face! You dare to defile my beautiful face!"
"Speak! What is Horus's scheme?" Axis delivered another slap, this time to the other side of Fulgrim's face, swelling it up to match the first. Now it was symmetrical.
"Ooh… oorrus… buh… waugh," Fulgrim mumbled, his speech now a garbled slur through his broken mouth.
Growing irritated, Axis hauled Fulgrim into the air and, with a clenched fist, delivered a pulverizing blow to his neck.
A sickening crack echoed through the chamber. Holding Fulgrim's head in place with one hand, Axis rained down punch after punch onto his neck. Finally, he threw Fulgrim to the ground, pinning him underfoot. He gripped his brother's head with both hands and began to pull.
"AAAAAAGH!" Fulgrim let out a final, soul-tearing scream.
Slowly, his neck began to tear apart. A fountain of blood erupted as his body convulsed violently.
"It seems I won't be getting any answers from you after all." A cruel grin touched Axis's lips, "Let's play a game. You can be the weed, and I will be the gardener."
With a final, monstrous exertion of strength, Axis tore Fulgrim's head clean from his shoulders, a length of bloody spine still attached.
Torrents of blood sprayed across the deck of the Iron Hands vessel as Fulgrim's headless corpse collapsed with a heavy thud.
The primarch, so recently possessed by a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, had died a gruesome death.
But this was merely the end of his physical form. Fulgrim's soul had already been absorbed by the Laer blade he carried, a prisoner of the daemon within.
The being Axis had just truly killed was a Greater Daemon of the Lord of Excess.
Axis held up the severed head.
Its facial features were twisted into a permanent mask of horror.
"A-Axis," Ferrus Manus stammered, his mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions as he watched his friend's brutal end. The rumors were true; Axis was violent beyond comprehension, "The… the communicator in his ear. I think it can connect to Horus."
"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Axis shot him an exasperated look.
You didn't ask, Ferrus thought.
Axis rolled his eyes and plucked the comm-unit from Fulgrim's ear.
Fortunately, he hadn't crushed the head completely when he'd ripped it off. He placed the device in his own ear and spoke.
"Horus. If you can hear my voice, you know the battle here is over. Come out and face your death now. I might grant you an easy end."
"Hahaha! Domineering as always Ha!! Axis. That's just like you," Horus's voice replied through the communicator, "But I will not surrender. Why not join me instead? I can promise you anything the Emperor did, and more. I will lead humanity to an era of even greater prosperity."
"I have absolutely no interest," Axis refused without hesitation.
As if he would ever manage to kill the Emperor, Axis thought with scorn, The Master of Mankind is a power far beyond the grasp of the Ruinous Powers. Horus is nothing but a puppet, and I would never side with a puppet.
"Such a pity, Axis," Horus continued. "I truly do not understand why a being of your strength would ever bend the knee to the Emperor. You deserve far better."
At that very moment on the planet below, legions of Chaos Sorcerers emerged, activating a vast ritualistic array that had been carved across the planet's surface.
The life force of the entire Ork population was being siphoned away to fuel a terrifyingly powerful spell.
"If you think you can stall for time, you are sorely mistaken," Axis said. "You would be wise to face me yourself. You know that numbers are meaningless before me."
"Heh, such confidence," Horus retorted, "I know you are powerful, Axis. But you were never my target. You may be able to destroy a planet with ease, but I wonder, can you withstand the explosion of a star?"
"What are you talking about?" Axis demanded.
As he spoke, he grabbed Ferrus Manus and gestured frantically for him to gather every surviving warrior he could find.
"That's right, Axis. Did you truly believe the Orks on Isstvan V were here for a battle? No, no, no. They were nothing but a sacrifice. Just like the eight billion humans on Isstvan III.
"They were all sacrifices for my grand ritual. It is already too late, Axis. I have commanded my sorcerers, daemon princes, and greater daemons to unleash a spell of immense power, a spell that will detonate the star at the heart of this system. You are a mighty foe, but this day will be your last. You are, after all, not a god. You had a chance to live, but you refused my kindness."
The communication line went dead.
At that instant, the star at the system's center began to pulse violently. A terrifying supernova was imminent.
With no time to spare, Axis grabbed Ferrus Manus and unleashed his psychic power, teleporting them both back to his flagship.
"Kasha!" Axis commanded upon his arrival, "Get a teleport lock on every surviving loyalist Space Marine down there! Bring back as many as you can, now!"
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Ps?