Yuki and Yuno moved rapidly through the Hive City. Utilizing optical cloaking, the two traveled at speeds they normally wouldn't dare use in public.
As they entered his territory, Yuki saw that his men were already engaged in a fierce battle with Raziel's forces.
"The state of these guys is a bit strange."
Yuki noticed Raziel's subordinates were grinning maniacally, their faces covered in scars that appeared to be self-inflicted. They were treating their enemies with sickening cruelty; one look at the unidentifiable, fleshy tissues strewn across the ground told the story. Many of the owners of those tissues were likely still alive, undergoing horrific, forced "activities" with unknown numbers of people.
Yuki felt a sense of unease. While gang members like Raziel were crazy, they weren't stupid. Such blatant depravity would inevitably attract the attention of Chaos. Unless they had a death wish, they wouldn't normally act this way.
"Has that bastard Raziel been seduced by Chaos?"
Yuki used his psychic powers to casually cripple several attackers. He didn't have time to waste on these low-level thugs.
"This way."
Yuno had already located Raziel. In terms of psychic manipulation, Yuno was several orders of magnitude more advanced than Yuki.
"It's Slaanesh. I remember her scent."
"What do you mean, you 'remember' it?"
"I took a bite out of her in the Warp. Through psychic means, of course. She didn't taste very good."
Yuki didn't know how to respond to that for a moment.
"The Warp hasn't been peaceful lately," Yuno continued. "It seems Khorne and Slaanesh are at each other's throats."
"Could it be that Slaanesh found out Khorne helped me smash that Keeper of Secrets with a punch last time?"
"Eh? Khorne helped you? I thought he just took advantage of the situation to try and tempt you. No wonder you couldn't even beat a Lictor back then—I was wondering how on earth you managed to defeat a Keeper of Secrets with that level of strength."
Seeing Yuno act so nonchalantly, Yuki grew even more confused. "You don't blame me?"
"Blame you for what?"
"Accepting Khorne's help."
"That's nothing special. Before, I was worried your soul would be snatched away by him. But now that you and I are linked, that's no longer a concern. As long as you don't go and have a 'round' with Khorne, I don't care."
Have a round with Khorne? The mere thought of that felt like it was already approaching Slaaneshi territory.
"Khorne is quite a character too," Yuno mused. "One of my fleets ran into his legions once. That guy ended up blessing both sides. It nearly made my hive mind node crash."
"Sounds like his style."
In the middle of their conversation, the two had already crossed dozens of kilometers. This was the first time Yuki had traveled at such a speed in plain sight.
"No, this is still too slow."
Fleshy tentacles extended from Yuno's back, gripping the surrounding structures and turning her body into a living slingshot. She hugged Yuki tightly and then launched both of them forward.
The tentacles retracted instantly as the two shot out like artillery shells. The intense wind pressure nearly tore Yuki's eyes. Maintaining a cloak at this speed was impossible. To outsiders, it looked as if a sudden gale had swept through the steel-clad Hive, with a projectile-like object streaking through the air.
But in a Hive City, anything could happen, and few people cared to look up for long.
THUD!
"Damn... I never thought my first boarding action would be inside a Hive City."
Yuki picked up his severed arm and pressed it against the stump to let it reattach. Yuno was completely unscathed.
"You'll have plenty of chances for boarding actions in the future. You can board whoever you want."
They had arrived at Raziel's core district. Compared to when they first arrived, the place was unrecognizable. Blood, blasphemous symbols, bizarre ritual circles, flesh and bone fused together, "human zebra" displays...
It was unmistakably the handiwork of Slaanesh.
"I feel like there are no ordinary people left here."
"From a psychic perspective, that's correct," Yuno warned. "And I suggest you settle this quickly. I've detected a functioning Chaos ritual deep inside."
"So I've attracted Slaanesh's attention?"
"Almost every 'transmigrator' does."
"There are other transmigrators?"
"Yes, Yuki. Their souls are hot commodities in the Warp. But they can survive as long as someone protects them."
A group of Chaos cultists interrupted their conversation. Not long ago, these people were just gang members; now, they wore human skin as clothing, their bodies mutated into grotesque forms. From a cultist's perspective, they were undoubtedly lucky—attaining so many "blessings" simply by being near a Dark God's target.
"Let's kill them first. Yuno, can you use your Psychic Scream?"
"This body is being suppressed by the rituals here—likely Slaanesh's preparation. We need to destroy those arrays first."
As she spoke, chitinous bone armor erupted across Yuno's body, giving her an appearance similar to a humanoid Lictor. It reminded Yuki of an old series he liked, Guyver.
"Four on the left, five on the right. You take the left, I'll take the right."
"Roger that!"
Yuki also attempted to morph his body. He produced a long, slender bone blade in his hand, while daggers driven by psychic energy hovered around him.
They moved with blurring speed. Flesh flew.
The first altar was in a pit where hundreds of people were engaged in violent, collective "activity." Their bodies had turned into a strange liquid, fusing together into a single, writhing mass. Yuki felt nauseous. This wasn't just a physical reaction; the daemonic creation itself was designed to be repulsive.
The entity responsible for this was currently hiding in the shadows.
"Hee hee hee... talk about luck. I thought I wouldn't find any fun in this gods-forsaken hole."
A typical villainous speech, much like Yuki's own previous posturing. Yuki looked at the daemon before him, full of irritation.
"Identify yourself, daemon."
"Hee hee. You can call me Xavier the Torturer. You can scream that name later when you're begging for mercy."
"A generic title and a generic name, along with your boring handiwork. You must have begged a lot of daemons just to get this opportunity, didn't you?"
"Nothing but a loudmouth."
...
The daemon guarding the second altar heard that enemies had appeared at the first pit. It charged over with a cackling laugh. It didn't care about the Prince of Pleasure's mission; guarding a rotten altar here felt like a death sentence.
"Hee hee hee! Come on, don't keep the good stuff to yourself. If it's something that can satisfy the Great Devourer, I want a piece of it too."
It entered the room and let out a blood-curdling scream.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Daemons could feel fear; it was just that very few things could truly frighten them. Furthermore, humans found it difficult to tell if a daemon was genuinely terrified or if it simply found acting scared to be entertaining.
Even now, Yuki couldn't tell what this intruding daemon was thinking. In the daemon's eyes, Yuki was holding its kin in one hand, his gaze devoid of any emotion.
"You come here too," Yuki said. "This one wasn't nearly enough."