Nearly a hundred people were knocked flat instantly. A dozen or so, with unusually large and long ears, began to bleed from their noses and ears.
The space apes staggered briefly but continued fleeing.
Nareth wasn't surprised. He knew that space apes had no known language or culture and were driven solely by instinct for survival.
Boom!
Nareth crashed into the crowd like a meteor. Four xenos died instantly, and more than a dozen were hurled away by the shockwave.
Nareth's consciousness expanded, forcibly breaching the mental barriers of twelve nearby individuals.
The brain housed thoughts, but the soul revealed the truest reflections.
Countless chaotic mental images, like a flurry of scattered petals, flickered through his mind.
'Hmm?'
One particular image drew his focus, the same vision appearing in all twelve minds: Each was kneeling in a radiant crystal forest, holding burning hearts in their hands, worshipping a towering crystal statue over tens of meters tall.
The statue's most striking feature was its serpentine tail, as long as half its body, and its four arms, each holding something in its palms.
The worshippers knelt in awe. Through their thoughts, Nareth instinctively understood the Low Gothic of this world:
"Great Heartslayer, we offer you this sacrifice!"
"Protect us! Bless us!"
"…"
'Heartslayer? That sounds familiar…Hearts, serpent tail, four arms… Could it be a Keeper of Secrets? The Greater Daemon of Slaneesh, Heartslayer?'
Looking around, Nareth noticed that nearly everyone nearby exhibited mild mutations, forked tongues, glimmering crystal eyes…
'The mutation levels aren't extreme, but the proportion of mutants is high.'
He frowned slightly. He didn't sense the Warp's veil weakening nor any surge of warp energy.
'Perhaps it's localized, only affecting a specific region.'
From their minds, he also gleaned intel about the space apes:
'These possible Slaaneshi cultists discovered the space apes crafting exotic art pieces, light sculptures, using stone and other materials. They captured the apes, but the creatures escaped.'
Nareth wasn't surprised. Space apes would always seize any opportunity to escape, and often crafted their own escape tools.
He withdrew his consciousness and returned to his body, just in time to hear a snake-eyed man wielding a jeweled sword shout:
"Forget the chase, seize the one who fell from the sky! He's the perfect sculpture!"
Thanks to his earlier mind-reading, Nareth had picked up enough of the local dialect to understand him.
Twenty-five Heartallyer worshipper lunged at Nareth with inhuman speed.
A cold glint flashed through Nareth's black eyes. He spun his heavy halberd into a sweeping arc.
With one strike, he cleaved the attackers in half, their torsos crashing into each other midair before thudding to the ground.
But Nareth had already turned, chasing after the space apes; to him, this tribe was more valuable than the entire world.
As he ran, he pulled out a datapad, marking key points based on the memories he'd scanned.
At the same time, he opened a comms channel to Bukayo:
"Bukayo, take your regiment and head to the marked location."
He remembered something: the Auger Array hadn't detected life signs at the cultist stronghold earlier.
"And exercise extreme caution, do not charge in recklessly."
"Understood, my lord!"
Nareth, using his sharp senses, quickly caught up to the fleeing space apes.
With a powerful sprint, he leapt ahead of them, halberd stretched wide to block their path.
Sensing danger, the apes immediately swerved left.
But the next moment, Nareth appeared in front of them again.
After several futile attempts, the space apes instinctively gave up fleeing.
They stared at Nareth with wide eyes, motionless, like statues.
He opened comms and contacted Gul'gul:
"Bring a regiment down here."
Squinting at the creatures before him, Nareth frowned.
They couldn't speak. They couldn't be reasoned with.
Space apes created things at random. Given a las gun, they might upgrade it… or just decorate it with beads.
Only the Old Ones, their creators, ever truly understood them.
'Some future Inquisitor teams will include space apes. In the Calixis Sector, the Ordo Xenos even used their Jokaero Force Fields against daemons. The former might've just been lucky, but the latter surely had a method, not just chance.'
'That means there must be a way to make them follow orders.'
His mind raced.
'Think of them not as biomechanical tools… but as living beings who don't communicate in human ways.'
'What if I implanted devices into them, driven by embedded routines, to compel certain behavior?'
'Or… what if they're latent psykers? Their Spy-Flies require warp energy to function.
Inquisitor Jaq Draco believed they had psychic potential. Maybe I can telepathically command them.'
As he was weighing his options, a roaring noise sounded overhead.
The space apes were herded onto the shuttle. Nareth boarded as well, messaging Wojciech:
"Clear a sealed deck. Strip it bare, no matter what's inside."
Even worthless scrap could be transformed into something dangerous by space apes.
They could turn junk shards into rare weapon-rings. But more often, they'd make tools for escape.
"Also, order your men to collect any manufacturing waste. Prepare to use it."
As Nareth returned to the Pride of Vostroya, Bukayo and his squad descended near the marked location.
There, he saw a towering crystal mountain, its peak hidden in the clouds.
Its surfaces were faceted like cut gemstones, refracting rainbow light under the sun.
Bukayo remained cautious. He didn't lead an immediate ascent.
Instead, he boarded an aircraft, took the copilot's seat, fastened in, and ordered takeoff.
Eyes wide, he scanned the mountain.
But everywhere he looked, blinding, shimmering colors.
"Bank thirty degrees, fly sideways!"
The pilot obeyed immediately.
Still, Bukayo's view remained flooded with harsh light. After dozens of angle changes, nothing improved.
Frowning, he gave a new order:
"Circle the mountain!"
He kept staring, and finally saw something, a sky-reaching stairway.
He soon realized the mountain was a polyhedron, and only at the edges between faces were there passageways.
After one full loop, they landed.
Bukayo opened comms to contact the ship, only to hear static and noise.
"Retreat!"
They retreated several hundred meters, and finally, the noise vanished.
Bukayo sent a message to Nareth:
"My lord, I've reached the target. Discovered a hexagonal crystal mountain."
Nearly a minute passed, and there was no response.
"Preparing to begin the climb."
'Perhaps my lord is busy.'
Bukayo gave the order to descend and led his squad toward the nearest visible path up the mountain.