Chris Wright - Age of Sigmar - Omnibus

Vandus went about the slaughter grimly. For all their misbegotten nature, there was discipline to the Chaos army. Those sections of the Chaos line that fell back did so in good order towards the stairs where they formed deep ranks, keeping the Stormcasts upon the rapidly warming silver, while other Chaos warriors came around their flanks, seeking to cut off the route from the crucible lip.

Slowly but surely, the Stormcast Eternals were being surrounded. The silver underfoot became sticky and yielding, the armoured corpses upon it cooking as they sank into the sludge. The nearest stair was agonisingly close but blocked by black-armoured warriors.

‘To the stairs! Decimators! Gather together! Forge a path! Prosecutors, clear the way!’ ordered Vandus.

By now the Stormcast Eternals had become more organised, falling into their allotted units as they fought their way forward. Twenty Decimators advanced, heavy feet snagging into the softening silver. With a cry to Sigmar, they charged. The warriors in the front rank struck down the enemy before them, then peeled away to the back of their retinue, allowing the axe of the next warrior to hit, so that they kept up a flowing charge that penetrated deep into the Chaos warriors mobbing the stairs. Prosecutors blasted those enemies trying to reinforce the weakening regiment, and suddenly the Decimators were through. They battled up the stairway, their fellows coming after them. Nearby, Thostos roared out a command and led his own Decimators in a similar endeavour up another stair. Other Lord-Celestants followed suit. Once upon the road they joined forces and pushed on towards the first tower on the network of causeways.

Calanax bounded up the stairs, and Vandus urged him to the edge of the road so that he might see how the battle went. He cursed loudly, for the majority of the Stormhosts were still embattled on the Silver Sea. Streams of molten silver were opening up between the fragmenting surface. Large chunks of the surface sank abruptly as the silver underneath turned liquid, dragging down Stormcast and Chaos warrior alike. The air whooshed and banged to the departing energies of men he could ill afford to lose. A pair of diabolical voices rolled out over the conflict, delivering orders and rebukes in a dark tongue.

‘Ionus!’ shouted Vandus down to the Lord-Relictor. ‘Make haste!’ Though scores of warriors had fought to the stairways and beyond, the rest were still intermingled with the Chaos horde. Perhaps a tenth of their number would make it through before the sea baked the rest in their armour.

‘There are too many!’ shouted Ionus Cryptborn, raising his reliquary, ‘I shall forge a path if I can! For Sigmar and Azyr!’

There was a crash of thunder, and a colossal bolt of lightning shot from the skies to slam into the Lord-Relictor. It coursed through him, shooting through the molten silver to turn every Chaos warrior within a hundred paces to scorched meat. The Stormcast Eternals were invigorated by the divine bolt. Finding their passage suddenly unbarred, they surged for the walkways by the hundred. Cryptborn came last, sinking further as he struggled onwards. A giant Chaos warrior clad in golden armour and carrying a huge axe waded after him. Ionus reached the bottommost step of the stair before the surface collapsed and slid under a roiling swirl of molten silver. The Chaos warriors howled in agony as the sea took them.

‘Ionus!’ Vandus called. ‘To me!’

Ionus never made it to the top of the stairs. The giant in gold hauled himself from the silver, steaming with the heat. He swayed upon the bottom step.

‘Ionus! Beware!’ roared Vandus, but it was too late. The giant leapt, his axe swinging into the Lord-Relictor’s head and splitting it neatly in two.

‘Ionus!’ Vandus cried out. He slipped off Calanax and ran to the stairs. A trio of Prosecutors stepped before him, their sword staffs blocking his way. He made to shove past them but they pushed him back. Below, Stormcasts pressed forwards and the golden warrior was cut down, landing on Ionus’ corpse.

The Prosecutors placed their hands upon Vandus’ shoulders, gently restraining him. ‘No, my lord. You must not go to him.’

A crack of thunder, mightier than all the rest, split the sky. Ionus’ mortal form transmuted into a blazing spear of lightning that rushed upwards. Where it pierced the sky, black clouds wheeled and flickered with power.

Ionus Cryptborn departed the realm of Chamon. Vandus watched helplessly as his friend was taken home to Azyr. Then Calanax was there, growling at Vandus in rebuke. Vandus placed his palm flat on the beast’s hide in wordless apology for leaving him, and climbed onto his back.

Horns rang. There were two towers close by, one standing athwart the raised road Vandus was upon, and another situated further into the sea on the roadway parallel to him. Upon the second road Thostos and his Warrior Chamber had a group of Chaos warriors trapped. These were being pushed back, screaming as they fell from the edge. Vandus’ roadway was almost clear of the enemy and the army was retreating towards its towers. Another horn blared and the retreat abandoned all semblance of order as the Chaos warriors broke into headlong flight.

‘Hold!’ shouted Vandus. To his relief, the Stormcasts checked their pursuit, and began ordering themselves.

Another horn sounded, shrill and daemonical. The gates to the keeps clanked open, and out thundered tall knights of Chaos upon heavy horses. They rode forward without care for their fellows, and more than one fleeing infantryman was buffeted off the edge of the road. Their lances dropped, and they smashed into the lead elements of Vandus’ army. So many died that the Lord-Celestant lost sight of the Chaos knights as a wall of storm magic leapt upward. Vandus and Calanax hastened forward, the dracoth leaping between lesser walkways, support spars and the vile decorations that clung to them.

A clattering of metal wheels upon the road preceded the arrival of heavy chariots, fashioned from steel, each dragged by a grunting, ape-like creature. Their charge spent, the knights wheeled and fell back with admirable grace, leaving lanes free for the chariots to crash into the ranks of Stormcasts. Unable to move aside, Sigmar’s warriors instead leapt to the attack, and were cut down for their bravery. Dozens of Stormcasts were tossed high into the air by the impact and the flailing fists of the warbeasts. Scythes on wheels lopped limbs from bodies, while those Stormcasts wounded but not slain were finished by the halberds of the charioteers.

‘Is there no end to them?’ asked Vandus. He looked for opportunity. There, on the other causeway, a chariot went hurtling at the rear of a group of Celestial Vindicators. ‘Can you make the leap, my friend?’

Calanax grumbled deep in his chest by way of reply. He crouched down, muscles bunching in his huge haunches. With a tremendous push he jumped into the air. A blur of bubbling silver passed beneath his belly, and he and Vandus were over, slamming straight into the side of the chariot and tipping it over with an almighty bang. It skidded across the road and plummeted into the Silver Sea, its dray-ape hooting in surprise and fury as it was dragged to its death. Another chariot came at them and Calanax lowered his head like a bull, bashing aside the ape and knocking the chariot onto its side. The charioteers were thrown free, one sliding straight off the edge, the other arresting his fall and scrabbling for an axe. Calanax crept up over the upended chariot, and Vandus swept off the man’s head with a blow from Heldensen. The ape-thing ripped at its traces, dragging itself free enough to aim a brutal fist at the dracoth’s face. Calanax caught the hand in his jaws and wrenched it free in a spray of blood. The ape howled and staggered before Calanax disembowelled it with a swipe of his claws.