[opening music playing]
[spirit stone hits ground]
[footsteps]
[atmospheric music]
[ringing sound]
[atmospheric music]
[Iocarus gasps]
[echo]
[whoosh]
[spinning sound]
[feet land]
[footsteps]
[atmospheric music]
[gasps]
[footsteps]
[soft singing]
[ringing sound]
[soft singing]
Agh!
[footsteps]
What have you found?
The dead.
What have you found?
The living.
The Old Warrior sent me back for you.
He has wandered far and wishes your presence at once.
As he wishes, so shall it be.
[whoosh]
[lands]
Why have you come here, Iocarus?
Why do you walk this mausoleum of our ancestors?
To remember who we once were and to gather the souls of our dead.
[footsteps]
That is why the elders sent us back here.
I asked why you have returned.
What do you seek?
[footsteps]
[gasps]
[atmospheric music]
[touches spirit stone]
[gasps]
[ringing sound]
[gasping]
[atmospheric music]
[clink]
How many now?
Saving even one soul would make this journey worthwhile, Drasalia.
Indeed. How many?
Two.
[footsteps]
Do you take no comfort here?
None at all?
I see a dead forest burned long ago.
I see a lifeless craftworld cold in the void.
What comfort should I take?
This was our home.
[Drasalia] It was never my home.
This place was a tomb a before I drew my first breath.
[atmospheric music]
[forbidding music]
[Drasalia] Iocarus.
[Drasalia] Iocarus. Iocarus!
[gasps]
[footsteps]
I would come here as a child.
It was a garden of muses
where songweavers and bonesingers
would shape great works for grateful patrons.
You are beginning to sound like the Old Warrior.
Lost in the past
armouring yourself in ancient memories.
You should cherish the Old Warrior's tales.
I cherish them.
I merely refuse to worship them.
[footsteps]
[music playing]
[sharp inhale and exhale]
[atmospheric music]
[footsteps halt]
Warlock. Outcast.
[head turns]
Exarch Omo'Dai. You summoned me?
You stand where many fell.
My masters and my disciples on the way of the warrior.
This was our shrine.
Is there anything you wish to take with us?
[Omo'Dai] What the foe did not desecrate has since been eroded by time.
No.
We are not here to sift through the bones of my brothers and sisters.
But there is something here.
Come.
[footsteps] Where are you leading us, Exarch?
Towards that which has slept for a lifetime
waiting to be discovered.
[Drasalia] A relic?
[Drasalia] A spirit stone?
More precious than either
yet rarer than neither.
[footsteps]
[Iocarus] I do not understand.
There is a way to see and find what you seek.
[armour clanks]
[atmospheric music]
[Drasalia and Iocarus gasp]
[Omo'Dai] The last of my shrine warriors were driven back here.
Fighting in the shadow of our wounded god.
You saw the avatar die?
[Omo'Dai] Yes... and yet no.
The god-shard was already dying from the days of ceaseless battle.
By the time it reached us it was shattered, bleeding
animated by nothing but divine rage.
But I saw its final moments.
I witnessed the incarnation of Khaine die.
[footsteps]
The question, Warlock, is whether you desire to do the same?
[Iocarus] A soul echo of such a moment
like the fall of lightning at a storm's height.
Why? To what purpose?
What can be learned by such a vision that we do not already know?
Our duty is to seek the wisdom of history
to forge our people's future, not to wallow in the horrors of the past.
Have you found anything more than echoes, Warlock?
Do they not fade before they can guide you?
[Omo'Dai] I said to you before that I did not know
and could not tell you where it lies.
But in this god's grave the past waits in frozen agony.
True and burning.
Touch it
and you will see what you seek.
[Drasalia] What does he speak of? What have you been looking for?
[footsteps]
[Drasalia] Would you so idly experience the death throes of a living god, Iocarus?
I must see.
So be it.
[ringing sound]
[gunfire and explosions]
[gasping]
[intense gunfire]
[atmospheric music]
[running]
[leap]
[landing]
[running]
[heads turn]
[chainsword whirrs]
[gunfire]
[chop] [whirring]
[music playing]
[intense gunfire]
[armour clanks]
[chainswords buzz]
[mandiblasters fire]
[grunting]
[shurikens fire]
[draws knife]
[chainsword swooshes]
[groaning]
[body falls]
Alien.
Barbarian.
[running in armour]
[chainsword roaring]
[Lieutenant grunts]
[power sword slices]
[energy crackling]
[air hiss]
[Lieutenant] Your craftworld burns, alien.
Your warriors bleed. [rapid gunfire]
Your people die this day.
[air hiss] Ugh!
How proud you must be, of your ability to inflict atrocity.
For the Emperor!
[running in armour] Rargh!
[swords clash]
[groaning]
[music playing]
[snapping]
[stab]
[muffled screaming] [buzzing]
Ughhhh!
[atmospheric music]
[sounds of battle]
[Dreadnought] We are the light of Humanity. [whirring]
We are the Emperor's chosen.
We are the angels of His mercy. [rapid gunfire]
[foot lands]
[deep growl]
[dripping]
[footsteps approach]
[sword strikes]
[cannon blasts]
[sword plants]
[Avatar] Meshruuk avasha...
solkhara...
Khaine!
[gatling cannon fire]
[whirr of movement]
[sword stabs]
[rapid gunfire]
[Striking Scorpion] The wind of blood and fate blows against us, Exarch.
On your word we stand and die.
The Avatar dies so we might live.
Signal the shrines to fall back.
[gunfire]
[atmospheric music]
[Avatar roars]
[rapid gunfire]
[sword slices]
[Avatar roars]
Ungh! [breathing heavily]
[collapsing]
Ugh! Urgh! Argggggh!
[breathing heavily]
Such hatred... Such loss...
[Drasalia] It is over, cousin
you are yourself once more.
It sings in my blood, a fire like venom.
We must fall back further, there is yet time.
We can still get those of innocent blood to the ships.
Iocarus.
Still time. There is still time!
Exarch, what do we do?
We do nothing, child.
Nothing? He walks in the shadows of what was!
Blind to what is. How do we bring him back?
We do not need to bring him back, Outcast.
He made this choice.
This is the very truth he wished to taste.
[hands on shoulder]
He is a Warlock, Drasalia.
He walks the Path of the Seer.
Let him see.
[running footsteps]
[gunfire] [explosions]
[Guardian] Fall back! Protect the wounded!
[Guardian] Flee!
Flee!
[psychic energy crackling]
[running footsteps]
[dramatic music]
[running footsteps]
[gunfire]
[Guardian] Get to the ships! Fall back! Get to the ships!
[dramatic music]
[gasps]
[Guardian] Yshara! Be swift!
[running footsteps]
Guardians, stand at all costs. Each second we stand
buys a life for those we love.
Hold this barricade. Yshara...
[Guardian] The ship awaits.
Those that stand here shall die here. Say your farewell.
[placed down]
[sorrowful music]
[choking up]
You have to run now. Run without me.
You must reach the ship.
Please.
Please!
[Space Marines running]
For the Emperor!
For the tears of the living!
And the souls of the dead! [gunfire]
[heavy gunfire]
[child sobs]
My heart
Run
Live!
And don't look back.
[footsteps running away]
[gasps]
[shuriken weapons firing]
[boltgun fire] Agh!
[innards sizzle]
[gasps]
[grabs throat] [Yshara chokes]
Alien dog.
[suffocates]
[body lands]
[music playing]
[intense gun battle]
[running footsteps]
[panting]
No.
[breathing heavily]
No!
Iocarus?
[rubble removed]
[gasps]
Cousin! What have you found?
[touches spirit stone]
[atmospheric music]
[spirit stone clinks]
[atmospheric music]
[Wraithguard awakening]
Cold... [shivering voice]
So utterly cold. [shivering voice]
I... I cannot see.
[takes Wraithguard's hand]
Your senses will attune. I will be your eyes for now.
[movement sound]
[Wraithguard] I stood my ground.
I... I died.
My boy...
Did he escape?
Does he live?
[soft singing]
[Iocarus] He does.
[soft singing]