The Beginning Of Something Big - Prelude : Evil Incarnate

With a heavy tread the Inquisitor made his way up the steps of the old Administratum building. It was a windy day and a large number of rain clouds were forming on the horizon.

'The dark one seems to expect me, I best be careful,' he spoke to himself as he fondled the Inquisitorial seal around his neck.

At the end of the lengthy steps a large cast-iron gate blocked the way in to the Administratum building. Expecting to find a lock in between the two doors Inquisitor Darius searched his right pocket for the Administratum's skeleton key. Suddenly, he stopped, letting the skeleton-key fall out of his hand onto the marble stones that made up the steps.

'For the love of our God Emperor!' Darius muttered.

The two cast-iron doors of the gate had their inner most beams ripped loose, only to be entangled like a child would bond two ropes together.

'What monstrosity lives within the innards of this place?' he mumbled angrily as he scaled the gate with comparative ease.

The great stonewalls of the compound surrounding the Administratum had screened the ground around the building from the outside world for many years. Plants grew rampant, covering the great amounts of rubble that lay around the ruinous building with a thick layer of undergrowth. Strangely, the entrance to the Administratum itself gave the impression it had been cleaned not long ago.

The floor that was made of the same marble that made up the steps to this infernal place shined with an almost eerie glare. As he stepped onto the neat marble tiles of the building entrance, a second act of blasphemy caught Darius' eye. Two statues in the shape of angels guarded the doorway. On closer examination he saw that the heads had been smashed of and the statues had been covered in small sings. Signs of the chaos gods, written blood.

'At least we now know what happened to the Archivist that maintained this Administratum,' Darius said whilst slowly bowing his head in grief.

With a sudden crack of thunder the rain began to fall, slowly at first, but building up to a storm in a matter of minutes. Darius ripped a piece of cloth from his cape and held it out in to the rain until it was soaking wet. Using the wet piece of cloth, he began to clean the statues, wringing the blood into an empty flask that hangs from his belt.

'This may have traces of the demon,' Darius thought to himself as he secured the full flask to his belt.

After finishing his work on the statue he took of his cape and rolled it up, laying it down next to one of the statues.

'May the God Emperor protect me,' Darius spoke out loud as he stepped through the doorway.

Expecting the entity that lived in the Administratum to react violently, he clenched his fists, but nothing happened. After waiting for a few minutes he gathered all his courage and stepped into the main room of the building.

Just like the entrance, the entire inside of the Administratum was completely clean. Walking slowly between the archives, Darius nervously fingered the safety on his boltpistol. Darius froze. Sitting comfortably on the ground in front of the main Archivist's desk was a man.

'Make yourself known!' Darius yelled at the man as he reached for his boltpistol, 'I am here to expunge a demon, do you not know this place is dangerous?'

The man suddenly raised his head towards Darius, as if he hadn't heard the Inquisitor enter.

Whilst looking at Darius with two bloodshot eyes, the man spoke, 'You consider yourself a man of faith, a man who believes!'

Slowly the man stood up, 'then believe my words! Leave now or perish!'

As he spoke the last word, the whole Administratum began to vibrate. With a loud crash the archives toppled over. A large cloud of dust filled the room, making visibility close to zero for Darius.

Grabbing his Inquisitorial seal with his free hand, Darius jumped behind the nearest archive and yelled over the edge, 'I will not leave, not before I have sent you back to whence you came, spawn of chaos!'

As if swept away by a gust of wind, all the dust quickly swept aside, restoring visibility in the room. Slowly Darius rose from behind the archive, holding his boltpistol in the direction where the man had been. Realising he had forgotten to load his special Inferno shells in all the commotion he let out a soft curse. Quickly he changed the clip and looked back up, pointing his boltpistol as he went.

Then he saw him, or rather it. In the middle of the room, amidst a number of upturned archives. The demon, the chaos spawn, the thing he came to destroy. Standing over fifteen feet tall the demon looked at Darius with a subtle smile on his lips. Slowly it started to move towards him, meanwhile flexing its great leathery wings and upturning even more archives with his clawed hands.

'Stand back demon!' Darius yelled as he waved his boltpistol around in a futile display of power, 'I am not afraid of you, I am your nemesis!'

But the demon had already sensed the fear in Darius' voice. Before Darius could retrieve his boltpistol which he had dropped in fear the demon made a swoop with his hand and ripped the Inquisitorial seal from the Inquisitors chest, pulling him closer because of the fact that the chain that was attached to the seal was still around his neck.

'Do you really think this little plaything gives you the right to command me?' the demon hissed as he clenched his fist.

Letting go of the seal, it hit Darius' chest. Looking down, he was shocked to see that the once perfect Inquisitorial seal had been crushed by the iron grip of the demon. Forgetting about the entity for a moment was the biggest mistake he had made yet. With a hefty sweep of his right arm the demon whacked Darius against the wall. Feeling he had won, the demon turned and slowly walked back towards the Archivist's desk.

A sudden pain rushed through Darius' left shoulder as he realised one of the spike-like bones protruding from the demon's elbow had punctured his body armour. Feeling his power over the demon had never been, he began to fire his now successfully retrieved boltpistol at the demon.

With a loud crash the arcane weapon began firing. The contents of the entire clip hit the demon in the back. Holding true to their name, the Inferno shells punctured the scales of the demon and burst into flames. Clouds of smoke began to rise from the demon as it flailed its arms and howled in pain.

A smile appeared on the pain struck face of the Inquisitor, 'how do you like the Inferno that is the wraith of the God Emperor? You freakish spawn of chaos,' he spat at the howling monster.

As sudden as it began, the demon stopped dead in its tracks and looked at the Inquisitor. A look of pain and concentration gave away that the beast was in great pain and would almost definitely die from the wounds caused by the Inferno shells.

'You fool! Don't you get it? My work here was already done!' the demon began to say, 'I was instructed to gather blessed blood for my master. And all that was left to gather was the blood of the most devout of the Imperiums agents!'

A feeling of dread and horror went through Darius as he realised he had failed.

The demon spoke once more, 'yes, it is true! You were to be my final sacrifice to my master! And so it will be!'

With a below of rage the demon charged at Darius. Seeing his doom charging towards him, Darius revealed his last futile attempt to defend himself, a dagger he had taken from a heretic he had killed many years ago. As the demon reached him, Darius thrusted the dagger deep into the skull of the monster. But the inevitable still happened.

As the demon smashed into the wall together with Darius the Administratum finally gave way after years of neglect and damage and the entire structure fell apart, taking the body of the dead Darius and the dying demon with it.

Above the Administratum, the clouds began to pack even tighter. With a loud rumble the ground began to come apart, dividing the compound into two. The prophecy had been fulfilled; the demon had done its work.