‘I’d tell you to go to hell,’ Sam spat back, ‘but I think you already went there and something else came back.’
‘Do not test my patience,’ the Primarch said. He clenched his fist and Selenne’s body disintegrated in a flash of blue light, crumbling into a pile of inert grey dust. ‘Your only ally is gone, trapped once again in her self-made prison. Perhaps you would like a taste of what Selenne was experiencing.’ Suddenly Sam felt a hideous stinging sensation throughout his body as the Primarch took control of the Illuminate nanites that coursed within him. ‘Now open the Bridge between the Nucleus and the Illuminate Heart. I have waited long enough.’
Sam gritted his teeth, feeling the Primarch exerting its malign influence over the nanites within him, like a horrible gnawing itch deep inside his body. He knew that he couldn’t resist, even if he wanted to.
‘The time has come,’ the Primarch said with a vicious smile. ‘My victory is at hand.’
‘I just want to remind you that it was your idea to come here,’ Jay said, his voice ragged with exertion as he sprinted down the corridor. Behind him the leading edge of the swarm swept around the corner, travelling so fast that it washed up the opposite wall like a wave before rushing after them. It was now only thirty metres behind them.
‘Nope, definitely your idea,’ Mag said with a nervous glance over her shoulder as she ran.
‘The Illuminate is less than two hundred metres away,’ the Servant reported calmly, effortlessly keeping pace with Mag and Jay. Jay risked a glance back towards the swarm; it was gaining on them too quickly.
‘He should be just up ahead then,’ Mag said. ‘I’m not sure he’s going to be pleased to see us with this lot in tow though.’
Jay knew what she meant: the swarm wasn’t going to stop chasing them just because they’d found Sam. They rounded another corner and saw the corridor opening out into a massive chamber at the far end.
‘I believe the Illuminate is within the chamber ahead,’ the Servant said. ‘I am detecting power signatures of a scale and type quite unlike anything I have seen before. I believe it is safe to assume that whatever is contained there is vital to the operation of the Voidborn.’
‘Yeah, just like Riley to get himself into the maximum amount of trouble possible,’ Jay said, panting. ‘Is he alone in there?’
‘No, I do not believe so,’ the Servant replied as Jay and Mag picked up the pace, sprinting still harder to stay ahead of the voracious black wave pursuing them. ‘I am detecting a power signature identical to the one that I encountered when I was first interrogated by the Primarch.’
‘Great,’ Jay said, gritting his teeth, the exertions of the past couple of hours pushing his stamina to its limits. They sprinted out on to a walkway that passed between two massive Voidborn nano-forges. The towering machines produced glowing torrents of fluid that flowed into huge channels carved in the basin far below. Jay and Mag didn’t have time to stop, even if they’d wanted to. The swarm poured out on to the walkway behind them, hundreds of the creatures tumbling into the torrent of white-hot liquid flowing below. The losses seemed inconsequential to the swarm, as it surged down the walkway after Mag and Jay, still gathering speed.
‘Jay, look!’ Mag yelled, pointing at the platform suspended in the centre of the chamber. A giant silver ball hovered in the air above it, its surface seeming to shift and warp in an unsettling way. A towering, monstrous creature clad in gleaming black armour stood next to the sphere, its hand raised as if to strike down the tiny figure standing defiantly before it.
‘Sam!’ Jay screamed.
The Primarch turned towards them, letting out an enraged roar, baring its long, black dagger-like teeth.
‘What is that thing?’ Mag yelled as they sprinted towards the platform.
‘That is the Primarch,’ the Servant replied, ‘the creator of the Voidborn, or so he claims.’
Mag felt something snag at her leg with a quick tentative tug and then a sudden vicious wrench as something with superhuman strength pulled her feet out from under her. She gave a startled yelp before she was slammed into the cold hard surface of the walkway. She flipped over and felt a wave of panic as she saw the dozens of tiny black insectile creatures that were clamped around her foot, their collective grip tightening as she watched, holding her in place as the main body of the swarm swept towards her. She yelled out to Jay for help and he spun around, his eyes going wide as he saw the swarm wave rear up above Mag, ready to smash down and crush the life out of her.
On the platform, Sam saw what was about to happen and in that instant the world seemed to slow down. He saw the Servant, her eyes flaring with the same yellow light he had last seen in London. In that tiny fraction of a second, before the swarm smashed down on Mag, their eyes met. He did not need to speak for the Servant to understand his wishes; he never had. He just formed a single thought.
Save her.
The response from the Servant was instantaneous. In the blink of an eye her humanoid form dissolved into a glowing golden cloud that flew into the swarm, disappearing within it and sending explosions of golden light rippling through the heaving mass of tiny robotic creatures. The swarm flailed wildly, as if trying to shake off some unseen attacker. The flares of golden light within its writhing body seemed only to get brighter as its movements became more violent. Mag quickly scrambled backwards across the floor and Jay ran towards her, helping her to her feet before they both sprinted for the platform, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the hissing, thrashing swarm. In its final moments, the swarm seemed almost to turn against itself, twisted clawed tentacles lashing out and ripping chunks from its own body. The heaving black mass gave one last screaming hiss and then exploded, glowing particles cascading down towards the pool of white-hot raw nanites below. No trace of the Servant remained.
Sam watched as his friends hurried towards the platform, the damaged walkway creaking ominously as they ran. He could not understand what had just happened. Why had the nanites that composed the Servant’s body had such a violent effect on the swarm? Why was she not a slave to the Primarch like the rest of the Voidborn? There had to be something different about her, something special, something . . .
‘Riley,’ Sam whispered to himself, ‘you idiot.’
Sam stared down at his arm and with an effortless thought changed its colour, shifting it from its normal skin tone to a reflective golden colour. He glanced up at the Primarch, who was watching Jay and Mag approach and had not noticed what Sam had just done. The nanites that had replaced Sam’s arm after their first battle with the Voidborn in London had never been truly Voidborn or Illuminate. Thanks to the experiments his father had conducted on him when he was just a baby, Sam had somehow co-opted the Voidborn nanites when he took over the Mothership. The Servant too had been altered by the experience. That had to be what had allowed her to destroy the swarm.
Mag and Jay dived for the platform as the walkway, weakened by the swarm’s death throes, finally gave way behind them. Scrambling to their feet, the Primarch strode towards them, its hideous face a mask of fury.
‘How dare you bring that poisonous thing here, to this chamber,’ the Primarch roared as Mag and Jay retreated before it. ‘I shall strip the flesh from your bones for what you have done.’
‘Stop!’ Sam yelled. ‘If you hurt them, I’ll never help you. You can burn every city on the face of the Earth but I will never open the Bridge for you if anything happens to them.’
‘You would risk the lives of billions for these two?’ the Primarch said, turning towards Sam. ‘How very human of you. Very well. Open the Bridge now and I will spare them. Any further delay and you watch them both die.’
Sam replied with a nod. ‘What do I need to do?’
‘Come here,’ the Primarch said, pointing a single clawed finger at the ground in front of him. Sam walked slowly towards the towering creature, his head bowed. The Primarch placed a hand on each side of Sam’s head and closed its eyes. ‘Now,?
?? the Primarch hissed, ‘open the Bridge to me.’
Sam took a deep breath. He drew his arm back, its colour shifting from pink to gold as his fingers shifted shape, flowing and then melting together to form a vicious curved blade. Sam thrust his arm forward with all his might, driving the serrated weapon between the black crystalline plates of the Primarch’s armour and deep into the creature’s gut. The Primarch howled in pain, releasing its grip on Sam’s head. It delivered a vicious backhanded blow to the side of Sam’s face, sending him flying across the platform and slamming into the raised dais that the Nucleus hovered above. The Primarch clutched both of its massive clawed hands to the wound in its belly, looking down with an expression of startled horror. Visible between the Primarch’s fingers was a faint golden glow.
‘You human filth!’ the Primarch screamed, stomping towards Sam, who, still stunned by the force of the blow, was struggling to push himself up on to his hands and knees. The Primarch grabbed him by the neck and lifted him above the ground. Sam swung wildly at the creature with the golden blade, but the Primarch blocked the clumsy attempt effortlessly with its free hand, clenching it into a fist and whipping it back, delivering another vicious blow to Sam’s jaw. Sam’s human hand clawed desperately at the Primarch’s fingers as they tightened their grip on his throat. A fringe of blackness began to encroach on his field of vision as his brain was starved of oxygen, the Illuminate nanites within his body powerless to defend him while within range of the Primarch’s malign influence.
‘What have you done to me?’ the Primarch demanded, its hand tightening still further on Sam’s throat, threatening to crush his windpipe. ‘What is this poison?’ The Primarch held the hand that had been pressed against the wound in its abdomen up in front of Sam’s face. Tiny, golden particles swarmed across its surface. ‘Did you truly think you could harm me, here, of all places?’ An instant later a billowing cloud of jet-black nanites streamed from the spinning sphere at the centre of the platform, swirling around the Primarch. The golden glow that was emanating from the wound Sam had inflicted began to fade as the Voidborn Nucleus healed its master.
‘You have just doomed your species, human,’ the Primarch hissed, bringing Sam’s face close to its own. ‘I will lay waste to this world and when I have finished, and all that remains is rubble floating in the void, I will retrieve the Illuminate Heart from its ruins. I have all eternity to unlock its secrets. I want you to die knowing that what awaits humanity is horror and death and it’s all your fault.’ The Primarch raised its massive clawed hand high above its head. ‘Now die!’
Mag emptied the clip of her pistol into the Primarch’s back, the hollow-point rounds blowing chunks out of the creature’s armour. The Primarch tossed Sam to one side, momentarily distracted by the unexpected attack.
‘Damn,’ Mag said quietly, as the hammer clicked down on an empty chamber. Sam staggered to his feet, watching helplessly as the Primarch strode towards Mag and Jay. He saw the fear in his friends’ eyes and in that instant knew that there was only one thing he could do. He summoned the last reserves of energy in his battered body and sprinted towards the raised dais at the centre of the platform.
‘Sam, no!’ Jay yelled.
Sam threw himself into the Voidborn Nucleus. He felt a single instant of searing pain and then nothing.
‘Oh God, no,’ Mag gasped as the swirling vortex of Voidborn nanites consumed her friend completely, ripping his body to pieces.
The Primarch stopped in mid-stride, a shudder running through its massive body as it turned back to the Nucleus, taking a single unsteady step towards the hovering sphere. The crackling ball of red energy at its centre began to flare chaotically, crimson lightning bolts arcing out from the core, leaving glowing scars in the surface of the platform around it. One of the violent discharges lanced out and struck the Primarch, searing a smouldering trail in its armour and making the creature howl in pain. The Nucleus began to spin more and more quickly, its shape shifting and distorting chaotically as it emitted a hideous screeching roar that steadily increased in pitch and intensity.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Jay shouted at Mag, struggling to make himself heard over the shrieking noise coming from the Nucleus.
‘I’m not leaving without Sam!’ Mag screamed back at him.
‘He’s gone, Mag,’ Jay said, shaking his head and grabbing her by the arm. ‘You know no one could have survived that. Come on!’
He pulled her towards the walkway on the other side of the platform. He had no idea where they were going, but something told him they needed to get as far away from the Voidborn Nucleus as possible. He tried not to think about the fact that there might not be anywhere safe on board the giant ship.
As they approached the walkway, Jay glanced back at the Primarch. The massive creature seemed to have completely forgotten about them. It was staggering towards the howling vortex that had formed around the Nucleus, its clawed feet leaving long scratches in the platform surface as it fought to reach the rapidly spinning sphere. Jay tried not to think about what had just happened to Sam as he pushed Mag along the walkway, fighting back the sudden wave of grief that threatened to overwhelm him. They had to survive if Sam’s death was going to count for anything. The pair of them didn’t look back as they ran, anxious to escape the colossal chamber while they still could.
Unable to accept it had lost control, the Primarch continued to claw its way to the Nucleus, desperately stretching out its hand towards the chaotically spinning mass as the cataclysmic forces it was generating finally tore the platform beneath it apart. The Primarch gave a final enraged scream and tumbled towards the white-hot pool of raw Voidborn nanites far below. It hit the surface of the liquid with a massive splash, thrashing in torment for a few seconds before vanishing below the bubbling surface.
Jay and Mag felt the ground lurch beneath their feet. The walkway collapsed and they both clung on to the handrail for dear life as it slammed down on to the sloped surface of the huge basin that formed the floor of the chamber. They half rolled and half slid down the slope towards the searing pool at its centre, coming to a halt just a few metres from the lip of the bubbling crucible.
‘Are you hurt?’ Jay asked Mag with a pained groan.
‘I’m OK,’ Mag replied, pushing herself to her feet and staring up at the Nucleus. ‘I don’t think there’s much point in running any more, Jay.’ Jay looked up at the chaotically spinning vortex above them. The shrieking noise it was emitting was now deafening, massive bolts of crimson lightning arcing out from it in all directions. ‘It’s been fun, big guy.’
Without warning, the pool of raw nanites exploded upwards in a shower of boiling liquid. Jay and Mag tried as best they could to back away from the pit, both watching in horror as something dragged its twisted body out of the searing lake, before slowly climbing to its feet.
The Primarch stood before them, its face hideously scarred by the white-hot nanites, sections of its armour twisting and flowing where the tiny machines blindly reconstructed it into chaotic new forms. The hideous creature took several long, slow strides towards Mag and Jay. Its fang-lined mouth opened wide and it let out a single bellowing roar as the searing liquid splashed across its face, warping its features. Whether it was in pain or rage, it was impossible to tell, but as it stomped towards them one thing was clear on its face . . . hatred.
‘Your friend has achieved nothing,’ the Primarch said, its voice a malevolent, gurgling rasp. ‘All of this, everything you see around you, this ship, every Voidborn on your cursed planet, is me. He may destroy this body or even this ship, but while one Voidborn remains, I live. All of this will be rebuilt, your pathetic species will be erased from history and we will rule the stars; nothing can change that. So now you will die knowing you have lost.’
Above them, there was a sudden, painfully loud thump and for an instant it felt like something had sucked not just all of the air, but all of the sound out of the room too. The Voidborn Nucleus instantly stopped its chaoti
c flailing rotation, seeming to bulge and expand for a split second before imploding down to an impossibly small and bright white point of light. That single point then drifted slowly down towards the bubbling pool of raw nanites, vanishing below its glowing surface. The Primarch appeared to flinch for an instant, its hand touching to its forehead as it took a single, hesitant staggering step towards Mag and Jay.
No.
The voice was plucked from the air as if it had come from an invisible person standing right next to Mag and Jay. The Primarch wheeled around to face the bubbling pit, an expression of horror spreading across its face. Something began to rise slowly from the surface of the pool, a vaguely human shape with its head hung low, streams of white-hot liquid pouring off it. It came to rest, floating a metre above the surface of the pool. As the Primarch watched in horror, the figure solidified, the lines of its features and the armour it was wearing becoming clearer.
‘It can’t be,’ the Primarch said with a strangled gasp of disbelief. ‘That’s impossible! I watched you die.’
‘Everything dies eventually,’ Sam replied. ‘Even you.’
He floated forward through the air, before dropping to the edge of the pool and walking towards the Primarch. His features were neither fully human nor Illuminate, but a strange hybrid of the two, while the crystalline black armour he was wearing seemed to be almost Voidborn in design.
‘What have you done, human?’ the Primarch said, its voice desperate as it staggered backwards, retreating from Sam with a bewildered expression on its face.
‘Can you feel it?’ Sam asked, his expression neutral as he walked towards the hideous creature. ‘In here.’ Sam tapped a finger against the centre of his chest.
The Primarch continued to move away from Sam, shaking its head in disbelief as its eyes went wide.
‘I cannot feel them,’ the Primarch gasped. ‘My Voidborn . . .’
‘No,’ Sam replied, looking the Primarch straight in the eye. ‘My Voidborn.’