Chris Wright - Age of Sigmar - Omnibus

‘Sigmar!’ I howl, turning to face the heaving throng. Where is my lord? He must be here. I’ve looked deeper into the darkness than any man. Where is the face of the God-King?

Sardicus swoops overhead, but his lightning is useless against such numbers, and I see that he’s as ruined as me. He’s on the verge of dropping into their waiting talons.

‘Sigmar!’ I try to shout, but my lungs are full of ash and nothing emerges but a croak.

And then I see him.

Crashing up the steps, ploughing through the ranks of daemons and piles of broken skeletons, comes a golden triangle of shields. They’re dented, scorched and bloody, as are the men behind them, but they do not stop.

My army lives. Despite everything, it lives. There are no more than a hundred or so left from the vast host that set out, but they have fought, tirelessly across this valley of madness to reach me. What valour is bound into those bones? I see Boreas staggering at their head, drenched in blood, followed by Retributor Celadon and others I recognise but, above all, in their gleaming forms, I see the face of Sigmar.

‘For the God-King,’ I cry, driven to my feet by the glory of it, raising Grius in tribute, shrugging off mounds of daemons as I stand.

They hesitate.

Boreas speeds up at the sight of me, powering through the crush, hurling entire rows of daemons aside in his determination to reach my side. Behind him, the Liberators finally lower their shields and charge, crushing daemons beneath a storm of golden boots.

They reach me. Despite everything Khorne has thrown at them, they reach me. I feel dozens of hands grasping my ruined body and hauling me towards the doorway.

I cry out, seconds before we leave the steppe. ‘Victory!’

Then we cross the threshold and step into a wall of blood.

The clamour of the daemons dies away and blood envelops us. The liquid is hot and cloying, flooding my armour and filling my mouth, but after the vision on the steps, nothing could stop me. I hurl myself through the curtain of gore and burst into a new kind of hell. As I leave the wall of blood, the sudden lack of resistance throws me forwards and I crash to the ground. No, not the ground — a pile of glistening skulls.

I clamber to my feet and look around as Boreas and the others emerge behind me. I can’t help but laugh. We’re standing on an endless, sunless plain of skulls, lit only by violent gouts of fire scattered across the landscape as though supporting the tormented heavens. In every direction, the plain is walled by brutal, brass fortresses, bristling with spines. Talon-crowned towers soar out of sight and comprehension, making me stumble as I try to study them. They’re huge in a way that staggers the mind. The horizon seems to sag under their weight.

Above the towers there’s no sky, only an endless, rolling storm of daemons. Countless thousands of them, billowing and heaving like blood spiralling in water, lit up by the blooming columns of fire.

Circling the plain of skulls are vast, roaming packs of daemon-hounds trailing smoke from their ruby eyes and howling at the tumult overhead. And wading between the hounds is a loathsome, thrice-damned multitude. Every form of debased soul that ever worshipped the Blood God is here: towering troll-like monstrosities, winged, bull-faced daemons and snorting, armour-clad knights, all locked in battle for their master’s enjoyment, all clashing in endless, pointless, war.

‘Lord-Celestant,’ says Boreas, wiping blood from his broken armour. My brother’s hammer is gone and his skull mask has been warped into a nightmarish grin, but he sounds as calm as ever. ‘The Crucible of Blood is still open.’

I grip his shoulder in gratitude then stagger back towards the portal. Crimson daylight is still pouring through the doorway and I can just make out the portico beyond. On this side the realmgate is surprisingly tangible — a tall stone arch, carved with brutal images of slaughter and war.

I heft Grius into my hands, savouring its weight; savouring its purity. No amount of blood could stain such a weapon.

‘There can be no return,’ I say, turning back to my men.

They nod in silence, wearing their wounds like medals, facing me with unshakeable pride.

I turn back to the stone arch and swing with all the strength I can muster.

I’m half dead with exhaustion and pain, but a greater force than me throws the blow. It smashes into the stone and sends thick, silver lightning up from the metal, splitting the clouds of daemons; drenching us all in holy light.

The archway collapses and the world beyond it vanishes from view. The realmgate that has stood for countless ages is no more. Now there is only the plain of skulls, grinning mercilessly at us from every direction.

‘Victory comes in many forms,’ I say, staring at the pile of smouldering rubble.

I turn back to my men and as the lightning dies away we’re plunged into the fitful darkness. The world starts to shake as a furious roar booms out from the towers. Khorne’s legions cease their games as they see what I’ve done — what I’ve taken from them.

They charge — a tsunami of daemons, monsters and killers, flooding across the plain.

As the damned hurtle towards us from every direction, remnants of lightning play across our golden armour, so that we resemble a tiny, polished coin set adrift in a lake of tar.

I feel no fear. No doubt. Only pride.

At my command, shield walls form around me and I hold Grius aloft.

The host crashes into us.

The hammer falls.

What use the weapon forged without the hand to wield it? It needs more than a mighty weapon to make a mighty warrior! Even if the metal is strong, how shall it prevail if the flesh that bears it is unready? By the fire of tribulation and ordeal is the spirit tempered; in the clamour of battle is valour proven.

The realms burn in the havoc of Chaos. Hour by hour their substance, their very essence, is degraded and corrupted. The powers of darkness assert their ascendancy, ready and eager to consume all. Never has there been greater need for Ghal Maraz.

Though the weapon is ready, the warrior must be proven. Haste in battle is oft as disastrous as over-caution. The cries of the numberless multitudes who languish in the chains of Chaos, whose lands and lives are despoiled by the Ruinous Powers, sear through my being like fiery daggers, urging me to throw aside all caution and descend in a mighty storm upon the enemy. Such recklessness would please the foe. The atrocities their creatures inflict are bait to draw me out, to stir my wrath that I may forget the greater purpose of war: liberation of the realms from the darkness that would devour them.

No, they will not goad me into foolish action. I will wait to loose Ghal Maraz into the greater war. I will wait until he who will bear it, he who will be my champion, is ready to fulfil his purpose.

Flesh, mind and spirit — tempered and tested until they have become as unstoppable and unopposable as Ghal Maraz itself, until the Hammer of Sigmar is ready for my war.

Such is the decree I, Sigmar, make now!

The crack of thunder boomed across the swamps of Krahl, sending flocks of hairy fen-hawks winging away from their nests among the dagger-leafed spineferns. An entire stand of the trees with their scaly, armoured trunks was obliterated as a blazing lance of lightning hurtled downward, smashing into it with volcanic fury. Embers and ash were sent flying across the swamp, splattering the sluggish streams and murky lagoons. A ribbon of smoke steamed upwards from the scorched crater.