…yes, kill him, what is he to you anyway…?
Uriel shook his head as Vaanes slapped a gauntleted hand on his shoulder guards and said, 'Where is your Chapter badge, Ventris? I don't see it, does anyone else?'
'What happened to you, Vaanes?' asked Uriel, angrily shrugging off the hands on his shoulders and gripping the hilt of his sword. 'How did you become so damaged?'
…because he has no honour, he deserves to die…!
'Because I let myself get put in situations like this once too often,' hissed Vaanes. 'And I swore I would not blindly follow another to my death. Damn me, but I let myself get fooled again.'
Uriel drew his sword, his anger boiling over when he heard the soft susurration of the whispering walls once more and the words and feelings behind them wormed their way into his brain.
…more, say more, give vent to all your secret doubts and fears and frustrations…
The voices insinuated themselves within his head and lodged upon his tongue, just aching to be said for the sake of malice and spite. Uriel clamped his hands to his ears as a measure of understanding forced its way past the fog of bitterness that filled his mind.
The voices clouded his head, louder now that their subterfuge was unmasked. Uriel stumbled and reached out to steady himself, his hand brushing against the wall, its undulating substance wet and fluid. He dropped to his knees and shouted, 'Get out of my head!'
…no, worthless you, meaningless you, insignificant you, unremembered you…
'Uriel? Are you all right? What's going on?' shouted Pasanius, running over to where his captain knelt. Vaanes backed away from Uriel, shaking his head and clutching his temples in pain.
'What the hell is going on?' he yelled as the roar of voices, thousands of them, swelled in volume and filled the tunnel.
…kill, it's such a friendly word… it's the only way…
'Don't listen to them!' shouted Uriel. 'Shut them out!'
The other Space Marines now felt the full power of the lunatic voices, dropping their weapons as the urge to turn them upon themselves grew unbearable. A shot rang out and one of their warrior band, a Doom Eagle, toppled forwards, his skull little more than a charred blood basin, spilling brain and skull fragments as he fell.
Uriel threw away his gun as he felt the muscles of his arm twitch in response to the voices, fighting their urg-ings
…it is hopeless, no point in fighting, nothing can stand against the majesty of Chaos…
He squeezed his eyes shut, repeating the Litanies of Hate as preached by Chaplain Clausel from his umber-sap pulpit: catechisms of loathing and the Rites of Detestation he had been taught when in the service of the Ordo Xenos.
…it is pointless to resist the inevitable. Join us! Give in and kill yourself…
Uriel fought the urge to curl up and give in, remembering past glories where victory had meant something concrete, where the defeat of terrible foes had achieved something meaningful. He pictured the great victory on Tarsis Ultra, the defeat of Kasimir de Valtos and the capture of the alpha psyker on Epsilon Regalis. With each victory remembered, the power of the voices diminished, the despair they fostered kept at bay by his powerful sense of worth and purpose.
He staggered to his feet, seeing Pasanius disengage the promethium unit from his flamer and flip a fragmentation grenade from his dispenser into his hand.
'No!' shouted Uriel and kicked the grenade from his sergeant's hand.
Pasanius rose up to his full height, his face twisted in a snarl of anger and tears coursing down his face.
'Why?' he yelled. 'Why won't you let me die? I deserve to die.'
…he does! Let him die, you hate him anyway…!
'No!' gasped Uriel, fighting the deadly power of the voices. 'You have to fight it!'
'I can't!' wailed Pasanius, holding his silver arm up before him. 'Don't you see? I have to die.'
Uriel gripped his friend's shoulders as another shot echoed in the tunnel and another warrior succumbed to the suicidal lure of the voices.
'Remember how you got that arm?' shouted Uriel. 'You helped save the world of Pavonis. You stood before a star god and defied it. You are a hero, Pasanius! All of you, you are heroes! You are the greatest warriors this galaxy has ever seen! You are stronger, more courageous and more resourceful than any mortal man!'
…no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…
Uriel released Pasanius and moved from warrior to warrior, shouting at them as he went, his voice growing louder as he warmed to his theme.
'Do not forget who you are!' he yelled over the furious whispers. 'You are Space Marines. Warriors of the Emperor of Mankind and you fight the Dark Powers wherever you find them. You are strong, proud and you are warriors. You have fought for centuries and your honour is your life, let none dispute it!'
He drew his sword and activated the blade, which rippled with fiery energies, and raised it high.
'Every foe we slay means something!' shouted Uriel, slashing at the walls of the tunnel with every word. 'Every battle we win means something. We mean something! Remember every battle you have fought, every foe vanquished, every honour won. They stand for everything we were created to serve. Remember them all and the voices will have no power over you!'
The slithering carvings within the walls screeched in frustration, retreating into the depths of the rock before Uriel's bright blade as his words undid their masquerades. A new sound arose to banish the hateful whispers: the sound of voices being raised in honour of great victories of the Imperium.
The Storming of Corinth, the Iron Cage, Phoenix Island, the Liberation of Vogen, Armageddon, the Fall of Sharendus, the Eleggan Salient, the Battle of Macragge… and a hundred others rang out against the foul temptations of the voices, the walls becoming dark and solid as the volume of the warrior band's shouts grew.
Uriel almost wept in triumph as the darkness of the walls retreated and the illusory nature of the tunnel fell away to reveal the softly glowing exit before them. The soulless light of Medrengard filled the tunnel and though it promised nothing but death and emptiness, Uriel rejoiced to see it.
'This way!' shouted Uriel, scooping up his bolter before staggering exhaustedly towards the tunnel's exit.
The warrior band gathered their weapons and followed him from the hellish mouth of madness.
Once clear of the tunnels of despair, Uriel saw that they had barely penetrated the walls of the fortress at all. The Iron Warrior with the coruscating energy whip had called this place Khalan-Ghol, and as Uriel cast a wary glance towards the hungry maw of the tunnel they had just left, he wondered if it was a name given to the fortress or one it had taken for itself. A potent malice saturated the air, a sense of ancient sentience lurking in the very rocks and mortar of this place.
The Space Marines, Colonel Leonid and Sergeant Ellard collapsed as they fled the dark of the mountain, shaking their heads clear of the last vestiges of the tunnel's evil. It had led them out onto a high ledge at the head of a long, winding set of carven black stairs overlooking the madness of the interior of Honsou's fastness.
Sprawling towers, manufactories and darkly arched cloisters jostled for space amid tall statues and spike-fringed redoubts. Dark-tiled roofs and insane structures of non-Euclidian geometries that hurt the eyes and violated the senses were crammed within the jagged, hostile architecture of the fortress, twisting, and gibbet-hung boulevards winding between them in impossible ways. A wan emerald light held court over it all, pierced with streamers of sickly orange fires burning from forges and melancholy temples. Streams of liquid metal ran in basalt troughs through the fortress, the reflected heat bathing everything in droplets of glistening, metallic condensation.