But just as Raven moved his finger onto the trigger, he hesitated.
Because he saw Gaia placing both hands on the haft of the axe, trying to pull it out.
She roared as she fought with all her strength against the power that was forcing its way into her body...
...
Terrifying and bloody visions flashed through Gaia's mind.
The wails of countless souls echoed through that chaotic crimson space.
Eight scarlet blood-paths surrounded her soul, and the endless power contained within them was pouring into her.
Those powers were full of aggression, forcing Gaia's soul and flesh to submit to them.
Even though Gaia's will was extraordinarily firm, greatly slowing the pace of their corruption,
as more and more of that blood-red power seeped into her, a thunderous roar exploded within her soul.
It was a supreme being. It praised her slaughter and her fearlessness, promising her endless war and glory.
Amid its maddening war cries that twisted the mind, it revealed to Gaia its blasphemous true name.
Khorne, Lord of Skulls, Master of War, King of Blood and Fire, God of Destruction and Slaughter...
It declared itself the mightiest god in the Warp, ruler of all battle and strife in existence, possessed of the power to bring all things to their final end.
It barked its command at the mortal before it, demanding that she kneel and accept its gift, become its sharpest weapon, and bring endless fear and pain to the material universe.
"...No!"
Inside Gaia, endless fury churned.
She understood now that it was this evil god that had caused her adoptive father's death.
Under the hatred scorching her heart, she wanted nothing more than to tear into it and drink its blood. How could she possibly surrender herself willingly to its power?
Enduring the unbearable agony, she used her psychic power to tear away the parts of her soul that had been stained by that bloody radiance, desperately resisting the flood of scarlet power.
At the sight of this, that being let out a dreadful laugh.
To it, this mortal's bone-deep hatred and soul-rending resistance were unbearably adorable and delightful.
Like a spectator in an Ancient Terra zoo watching animals perform, every time Gaia tore at her own soul, it simply poured even more power into her.
That left Gaia with a despairing sense of helplessness.
Her desperate struggle achieved nothing except magnifying her own pain.
Under that irresistible power, her soul began to warp, and a profane mark slowly began to take shape.
Was this really the end?
Two swollen buds of flesh pushed out from her forehead.
While the blasphemous power mended the fatal wounds on her body, it was also reshaping her into something evil.
Her eyes were red with rage, but the unyielding light of defiance within them was steadily fading beyond recall.
Mad thoughts began flashing through her mind, while countless fragmented voices screamed all at once in piercing shrieks.
All of them were urging her to kill.
"Eightfold slaughter! Eightfold path!"
Under those frenzied howls, Gaia's mind began to twist out of control.
That distortion seeped into her memories, altering the way she thought, stirring up the hidden desire for violence buried deep inside her heart.
She watched helplessly as her most precious memories were stained with blood.
She wanted to wail, but in horror she realized that the grief inside her was being replaced by a strange exhilaration.
That twisting of her mind spread through her memories without stopping, until it finally reached the deepest part of her heart.
She gazed at that scene.
Inside that broken-down shack of scrap and junk, her adoptive father, wearing a kindly smile, watched her gently as she wolfed down a synthetic protein bar.
Slowly yet firmly, with the same two hands that had raised Gaia, he said:
"You must become someone useful to the God-Emperor."
"And then leave this filthy place behind."
Her adoptive father shone with a soft golden radiance, looking at his child with the gentlest gaze imaginable.
Two trails of bloody tears ran down Gaia's face, still twisted with that warped smile.
She watched as those scarlet blood-lines began spreading into that memory, watched them try to distort her adoptive father's kind expression.
But the moment those blood-lines drew near his figure, they froze in place as though nailed there.
Gaia stared blankly at the sight.
And then, under her blood-streaked gaze, her adoptive father, who should have been nothing more than a fragment of memory, actually turned and looked at her.
He opened his mouth, and a voice she had never heard before, yet instinctively found familiar, reached her ears:
"The God-Emperor is with you, my child..."
...
A brilliant golden radiance suddenly exploded over the arena steeped in profane bloodlust.
Every mutant who dared look directly at that golden light let out a shrill scream.
The lucky ones were only blinded.
The unlucky ones were reduced to ash on the spot.
Raven stared at the scene in shock, violent waves of emotion surging inside him.
Because that golden light came from Gaia.
More precisely, it came from the aquila pendant around her neck.
This crude aquila emblem, hammered out of scrap metal, was now shining with the purest light.
It was crude enough that, in the eyes of some extreme followers of the Ecclesiarchy, it might even have been considered a blasphemy against the Imperium and the Emperor.
And yet at this moment, it was far holier than those vast statues on shrine worlds, the ones piled high with gold and silver.
That radiance tore through the veil and shot straight toward the dreadful blood-shadow seated upon a brass throne.
The god that had been laughing wildly a moment ago immediately became wary.
"Cursed one..."
Its evil whisper echoed through the warped fissures of time and space.
Under its furious roar, that golden light formed into a barrier, temporarily severing its connection to material reality.
"How long can you stop me, cursed one?!"
...
Bathed in that golden radiance, Gaia's mind gradually cleared.
The profane power inside her was driven back into the flesh-axe lodged in her body.
But the danger was not over.
Because although that power had been temporarily suppressed, it still remained coiled inside the axe embedded in her flesh.
And the aquila badge releasing that golden light had already started to glow red-hot.
She had a feeling that once the badge completely melted, the scarlet power within the axe would surge back again.
But the axe had already begun fusing together with her wound.
It was connected to her flesh, fused with her bones.
There was no normal way to pull it out anymore.
Just as that evil god had said, the golden light would not be able to hold it back for long.
The axe began to tremble faintly, as though mocking both Gaia and the golden light, letting out a grating, teeth-aching creak.
But very soon, it stopped laughing.
Gaia slowly wrapped both hands around the haft.
Amid the uneasy agitation of the scarlet power, Gaia let out a low growl.
Blood burst out. The pain was so intense it was enough to make someone black out.
Even if it meant tearing open her flesh.
Even if it meant breaking her bones.
Even if it meant ripping apart her tendons.
She would never submit to the bastard that had killed her father.
(End of Chapter)
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