A New Breed!

Lord Entragian watched himself in a large mirror. His new, and already rotting gift, the latest from Father Nurgle, made him smile. The smile looked terrible, even by Entragian’s own standards, as the jaw hanged loose, and the mouth was filled with maggots and pus which poured out of his gaping maw. He hadn’t been able to close his mouth for, what was it now… seven hundred years? Yes, when he fought the Dark Eldar on the rim of the Eye. An Archon, slender and agile, had managed to get his agoniser up in the face of him and managed to tear off the lower half of his stinking mouth. The Archon had paid dearly for that. Entragian chuckled as he thought of the punishment he'd given the Dark Eldar noble. Fitting for a torturer…Entragian smiled... It didn't matter what body he'd had... the mouth had always hanged like a dead body at the gallows. Extremely ugly and disturbing, therefore beuatiful! Entragian took a long look again at his new gift. The terminator armour was impressive, he thought. And had attracted a lot of Nurglings, which had embedded themselves within his armour and body. The tingling sensation when they played with his intestines was… interesting and pleasant. They were so cute, the little blobs!

Entragian finally stopped watching himself in the mirror and turned to a large table. On the table there were seven large candles, burning with flickering flames. In front of the candles was… the book! Throbbing, almost pulsating… humming. The Liber Magii lay open, as Lord Entragian had read the first chapters. It was a fantastic book, a book of promises, temptation… and raw power! The Magii had surpassed even the greatest of Entragian’s expectations. The first chapter had been about the history of the Crimson Templars. The pages had oozed with magic as Entragian touched it and he had learned a lot already about the strange Gulibus. The librarian, who had fallen into insanity in his efforts to protect the dangerous library, was working his own agenda. As men, good or bad, always did. Gulibus was, and Entragian had to laugh, on the brink of heresy. He didn’t know it, or even suspected it, but he was. Entragian felt a kinship with the former marine librarian; Gulibus would have turned to Chaos sooner or later. The fact that he went “mad” was just a proof of that. Entragian was sure that Gulibus had been murdered by the Inquisition and rumours had been spread out that he went mad and disappeared. But… the Inquisition never found the library! Entragian looked at the book. The second chapter was laid open. He had read it three times and was overjoyed by what he had learnt. To tamper with death itself and the creation of new life – oh, the things one could do with that. He could raise an army of undead soldiers; tough, mindless, fearless. And they reproduced themselves given the right conditions! Entragian smiled that ugly smile again and patted a Nurgling who peeked out from a hole in his armour. It was time. Time to start building new soldiers. All that was required was that the fool Pox also understood what to do. Pox had read the chapter about creating new life, but had been whining over the difficulties he anticipated. Entragian had been angry. Pox was a fool and had to try harder! Didn't the book tell him how? It was there!! All Pox needed was a bunch of fresh humans and make some fragging effort! Oh, by Nurgle! No wonder Gulibus had tried to hide this. And it was only the beginning! This was just a sidestep, a small pleasure to play with. The vast treasures that lay waiting somewhere in the Esenie sector was almost too much to think of! Entragian picked up the book, it tickled in his hands, and went for the laboratories. Things were about to get very interesting…

***

The lab was grisly; bloody and filthy and body parts lay everywhere. It looked like a butchery which had exploded. And it smelled like one! In some way, that was just what had happened! Entragian looked at Pox with dislike. Pox shrugged with his shoulders. He knew that Entragian would probably end his life within seconds. But he didn’t understand how to turn the guardsmen into the disease-ridden killing machines that Entragian wanted. The guardsmen started the transformation, then exploded into a filthy mess. Pox had been around for a thousand years, but had never felt the tension so much as now. He was a sorcerer with pride and was frustrated that he couldn’t please his master.

-My lord… I’m too weak for this… I… I don’t understand how to do this. The book is too powerful for me… it works against me! I can't get the bodies to hold together. They always burst from inside...

-Fool! Fool!

Entragian spat out the words in the sorcerer’s face,

-If you can’t understand a mere transformation spell, how do you think we’ll understand the rest of the book? Try harder, Pox!!

Pox closed his eyes, biting his tongue. To say out loud what he thought of Lord Entragian was to sentence himself to a swift death. Instead he called out;

-Bring the next subject!, he shouted to a nearby serf. The serf whirred into action and went into a adjacent room and came out with a terrified guardsman, firmly held by the serf's metallic grasp-hooks. The guardsman was swiftly strapped onto a large, standing board. He breathed rapidly and stared around him.

-What is this? What are you gonna do? Let me go,let me go!!!!

The guardsman was panicking, so Pox hit him hard in the face.

-Silence, human! You are about to take part in a great experiment! You may very well be the first of a new breed. You should be proud! Now, be still, human!

Pox turned to Entragian and nodded, then turned back and started reading the chanting he'd leraned from the book. Entragian felt something tingling and moving within his brain and suddenly knew what to do and added to the force that was building. Pox was weak, he thought, Pox needed extra push and that push could only come from Entragian. He was an old librarian himself. Entragian again felt the strange kinship with Gulibus Frekhofen. Yes! This was the missing piece! It needed a powerful librarian to boost the chanting. And it needed a librarian with… the right will…

The guardsman had given up. His bloody face was staring into nothing and he knew that his time had come. A proud guardsman of the Garde Imperial du Metz couldn’t sob in the face of death. Besides, he was an important piece in the fate of the galaxy. He understood that. He resigned with a kind of pride. The fear was gone. Then the tickling sensation started. First in his feet. It tickled and then burned. The sensation slowly worked its way up the legs and the burning sensation increased. The guardsman started panting. It was a horrible feeling! It felt like his body was turning itself inside out. The guardsman started moaning. The he looked down at his belly and saw…. The fear was back! Oh and how it was back! The guardsman screamed from the bottom of his soul as it slowly left him. Everything cracked and then his consciousness finally gave in. The last thing he felt was ultimate fear…

***

Lord Entragian watched the creature before him. It stood there, strapped against the standing board, looking into… nothing. Its body was twisted and had become yellowish, filled with boils and open wounds. It's face was broadened with bulging, runny, eyes and its mouth had a strange smile. Entragian and Pox heard the heavy breathing from the now changed human, but otherwise it was silent. Lord Entragian was stunned with awe. So... this was possible with just one of the books from the lost library. Imagine what could be achieved with the a full library! He turned to Pox with a disgusting, but warm, smile:

-Pox? Pox…. We did it! We did it!

Entragian was getting excited. Pox made a gesture to the serf and the creature was released by it. It stepped slowly onto the floor and just stood there. Still smiling.

-Pox! Let’s try this… thing! Do you think we can will it to fight?

Pox mumbled to the serf which fetched another guardsman. The guardsman, slightly sedated and not knowing what was going to happen, was pushed towards the newly bred creature, which looked at the human. Entragian pushed a little thought towards the newly made creature to attack the human in front of it. Then it all happened quickly. The creature lashed out with one of its now enhanced arms and slit the throat of the unfortunate guardsman and bore its teeth into the open wound and licked and sucked. The poor guardsman died without a sound. Pox and Entragian watched with interest. A few moments later the dead guardsmans' body started oozing with bubbles. Something happened with corpse! Entragian and Pox stared as the dead guardsman started twisting and deforming… and transforming. In a few minutes a new creature was born. It rose and stood silent before Entragian and Pox with the same strange smile in its face.

-Yes! Yes! Harh harh harh!! And they understand who their master is! Harh! Harh!!

Entragian laughed. It was a disturbing laugh and Pox felt uneasy.

-We did it! We have a new breed! In the name of Father Nurgle! We have a new… weapon! I shall name them... since I'm in a very good mood, Pox... I shall name them... Poxwalkers! Eh? Isn't that great? Harh harh harh!!!

Entragian grinned a repulsive smile and looked in awe at the two creatures before him. It was a creation of disease, plague and filth. It was a delight! It was beautiful! It was life created out of death!! If the Liber Magii could help him with this, what could he accomplish with the rest of the book? This was just the beginning of it!! Entragian was ecstatic and clapped his rotting hands!

-Pox, let’s do some more Poxwalkers… This was fun!!

___________________________________

written by Tony Melander (2010)