In The World Of Sword And Magic As Space Marine - Chapter 117: We are Alpharius

[He stole almost everything I have including my Tesseract cubes! Can you believe that? I have never been so humiliated since Orikan the Diviner destroyed my collection.] Trazyn the Infinite expresses his frustration to William as if William was Trazyn’s therapist. The whole conversation is on one side as Trazyn complained about how he lost his equipment and was bested by the Alpha Legion Space Marines. Yes, Marines as in there is more than one Alpha Legionnaires currently and they are up to no good.

‘Funny how he mentions his friend and enemy, Orikan the Diviner. I guess his previous experience with Orikan’s time manipulation helped him identify Alpha Legion’s scheme, even though it was too late.’ William connected the dots based on the story. Trazyn managed to identify and track the ones responsible for the theft of his properties. In an ironic way, this was funny to William as Trazyn is known for stealing within the Necron faction and in the 40k universe. To be outsmarted by a ‘human’ is entertaining and bruise to Trazyn’s ego.

While William is laughing in his mind, Trazyn continued ranting.

[I only needed a few specimens for subspecies of Dark Eldars. Just as I was about to make my collection I got ambushed by your traitor cousins and in a blink of an eye, I lost all my stuff including a few of my own body parts.] This intrigue William as he quietly listens to Trazyn’s rant. The Necron Overlord was holding his signature staff so he didn’t lose that one but him losing his equipment and cubes containing gods know what, William began to worry about what the Alpha Legions are up to.

Hearing enough of Trazyn’s rant on how he got taken down like his victims. William decided to gather his own intel from the Necron Overlord.

“Tell me, Trazyn. How is this my problem? You lowered your guard believing you were invincible and you got jumped by a few traitor legionnaires. Sounds to me this is your problem, not mine.” William baited Trazyn as if he didn’t care and placed his sword down to show he isn’t worried about Trazyn at this moment. After all, Overlord did lose his Tesseract cubes, the 40k equivalent of Pokeball.

[You lesser race don’t understand the danger those guys possess. Your traitor cousins have my Tesseract cubes and it contains dangerous beings beyond your imagination.]

“I’m guessing it is your collections but what’s to worry about them? Don’t you implant the mindshackle scarabs? If Alpha Legions release your creatures it is their loss as you are the only one who can control them.” William’s logic made sense as Trazyn always enslaves his collection through scarabs and makes sure they follow his every command unless removed. This is how Necron Overlord participated during the fall of Cadia against Black Legion by unleashing an army of Imperium’s finest without putting himself in danger.

[Well… that’s the thing.] even though he is a machine without a soul, Trazyn shows nervousness as if he was just caught with his hand on a jar of a cookie.

“What is it? Don’t tell me you didn’t implant scarabs on your collections?” Said Willliam as he stare at the Overlord with suspicion and wishing he was wrong. William was in fact wrong but it was much worse as Trazyn about to explain.

[Remember how I said those bastards took a few pieces of my parts? Well, when your cousins took some of my parts, they took my head. Not only they managed to maintain my head intact but somehow the head didn’t return back to its original form of surrogate host. Using my command protocol from my matrix, they have complete control of the mindshackle scarabs. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t come to you in the first place. I… I need your assistance.] Trazyn said as he play with his thumbs and bit embarrassed by the fact he lost command of his toys.

“You got to be fracking kidding me. You come to me after you completely lost control of the situation? Not to mention you teleported me to Death Guard’s ship and attempt to capture me not that long ago. I don’t even know why I’m listening to you in the first place.”

[Well, don’t take it personally on the Death Guard ship incident. You did blow up the ship in half and it took great effort for me to salvage what I could from the aftermath.]

“Don’t take it personally? You teleported your warriors to capture me and my honour guards after I took command of the enemy ship. You set me up and how can’t I not take it personally?” William slams his fist on his table to express his anger as he remembers how close it was to being captured by Trazyn.

[You can’t blame me for acting in my nature. Just as you need to wage war against non-humans, I need to do everything in my power to record and preserve the history of the universe.]

“History of the universe my ass. You just want to collect things because you can’t control yourself and keep your mind sane.” William grabs something from his table and tosses it toward Trazyn. The Overlord catches the item in midair after identifying the item as nonthreatening. Opening his palm, Trazyn saw a golden badge with the symbol of the Legion of Blacksouls. Unable to express his confusion through his metal face, Trazyn stared at William with his head tilted slightly to the left.

“What you are holding is my chapter’s honor badge, the first of its kind. I plan to give those to certain individuals who accomplish great deeds for the Imperium and my chapter. I’m giving it to you so you can get off my back. Consider this your only collection of my Space Marine chapter.”

[You know I not going to stop just because you gave me a first-edition badge. Anyway, we are going off the main topic.] Trazyn put away the golden badge into one of his pockets and continue talking.

[If one of your cousins releases the specimen from the Tesseract cube, you can say goodbye to this world because you will not able to handle them without me. We must destroy my severed head and retrieve my items from them.] Trazyn said with concerning tone even though his voice is a machine. This finally made William worried as he start to realize Overlord might have brought something terrible with him to the New World.

“What exactly is in the cube, Trazyn? You still haven’t told me what exactly what’s in the cube to make you worry about this world.”

[After finding out you and your traitorous relatives here, I decided to bring a few things with me for… protection. You may know that I brought Orks warband from the War of the Beast but what you don’t know is my second cube holding great force in case I had to wage war against well, everyone. My second Tesseract cube contains a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan and when they are released, we are doomed.]

————–

Beyond Fort Stormfist, the land of the undead and vampires.

Standing on top of the castle wall, Alpharius uncloak his invisibility after teleporting to the location his brothers have been broadcasting a signal beacon. It was unfortunate to lose the Chronomancer’s head but in the end, the mission was accomplished.

“You are early, Alpharius. I assume your mission was successful?” A second Alpha Legion Space Marine appeared from the shadow. Equipped with the same color and type of power armor, the second traitor looks exactly like Alpharius.

“Yes, brother Alpharius. The mission was successful even though there were a few hiccups. The Chapter Master of the Blacksouls will come and when the time comes, we will accomplish our mission.” the first Alpharius said to the second Alpharius and both men walk towards the outer edge of the castle wall, two superhumans saw an army of various factions from different worlds.

The primary forces were made out of vampires and undead of all kinds but one thing that stand out was the Vampire Lords’ necks as each commander had the mindshackle scarabs attached.

The secondary forces are made out of Dark Eldars and hoard of monsters from the alchemy of madness. The third, reserved army is the Tau Empire’s expedition forces. Believed to be lost and all dead, no one would have guessed that Trazyn captured the entire expedition forces during their voyages to unknown space. All two armies have Necron mindshackle scarabs on them, ready to obey all orders from one of the Alpharius who possess Trazyn’s served head.

“Are we certain Alpharius? Will the chapter master come?” Second Alpharius question the first Alpharius. Just before the first could answer the second one’s question, a third Alpharius appeared and answer the question.

“He will come Alpharius. The bait is placed and traps are set. Chapter Master William and his forces have to come to us or else,” Third Alpharius who have Trazyn’s head attached to his belt grab a cube from his belt pouch and show it to his brothers.

“The New World will be devoured by the Great Devourer and everything he loves will end. Prepare yourself, brothers. We are following the will of our master and for the greater good of the universe.”