As Aethernus Vhal continued to stroll through the masses, he heard a commotion break out toward his left.

  He paused and waited, from his elevated vantage point, he could see someone making their way through the people. They parted for them as they parted for him. A lady wearing similar to the armored and armed groups of men and women.

  Only when she got close enough could he make out clearly what she looked like. She was a middle-aged woman, and her motion broke the perfect stillness of the crowd without disrupting its underlying order. Her steps were steady, unhurried by fear. Though there was an underlying amount of caution as she made her way to his position.

  The crowd deferred to her existence, whispering words that sounded like encouragement or platitudes of respect.

  The world-spanning system had yet to finish its .

  Aethernus Vhal studied her as he would an enemy commander advancing under truce.

  The absence of overt status markers was itself a datum.

  He would have expected some type of regalia or insignia to mark her in a position of leadership. Either this society did not employ visible symbols of hierarchy, or its power structures operated along lines not immediately apparent.

  She stopped just before him. Exactly 4.1 metres away. Close enough for conversation, but far enough to generate reaction time if he attacked. Tactically sound positioning, noted by his assessment routines as evidence of either formal training or instinctive strategic thinking.

  Aethernus Vhal doubted anyone would believe if he told them that he could fight their entire planet alone and come out victorious. He had faced entire death worlds before. This place would be a breeze, even with the giant lizard like creatures he saw flying in the air during his meteoric fall. Or the mountain sized monsters that roamed between the tallest mountains.

  Her stance remained balanced.

  Her eyes, an unusual violet outside standard human spectra, traced over him with marked intensity. Not the fear-driven flinch common to baseline humans when confronted with his scale, but systematic appraisal. Her gaze travelled from scavenged bone armour to exposed black carapace, from crystalline blades at his sides to the fractured systems of his helm. She examined his form the way a surgeon might examine a specimen.

  With each second of her scrutiny, the pressure within his mind increased marginally, but enough for him to notice.

  Attempt to [Analyze] detected…

  Her focus and the activity of the unseen monitoring system were linked it seemed. Whatever she was trying had triggered a response.

  The lady finished her assessment with a confused look and a deep frown. Her lips moved.

  Now that he heard it more clearly, he could officially say that it sounded nothing like what he had ever experienced. Carrying structured patterns of phonemes that his damaged audio receptors registered without recognition. The language matched nothing in his considerable archive. No Imperial dialect, Mechanicus cant, Warp gibberish, or any known xenos construct.

  It was a mature language. Complex and clearly evolved over tens of thousands of years.

  Another system notification appeared.

  Translation Modemns Established

  Linguistic Bridge Connected

  Comprehension Matrix is Fully Engaged

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The runes shifted, and text formed in his vision, overlaying her alien words with familiar meaning. “–sent by the Watchers, or are you what they have been waiting for?”

  It came to him in High Gothic. The language of him and his brothers, yet the spoken language and the translation bore no structural resemblance.

  The system was not merely translating. It was constructing a real-time equivalence between entirely different modes of communication.

  That placed it beyond known Imperial capability and beyond any xenotech he had encountered across centuries of war.

  Aethernus Vhal hummed as he considered her question.

  Watchers implied an external observing entity, or entities. The dichotomy she presented, whether he had been dispatched by them or was the object of their anticipation, hinted at layered cosmology. Actors who observed, events that were awaited, mechanisms of expectation, and potential requirements that they needed to fulfil.

  Insufficient knowledge for a full model, but it was significant enough to flag.

  “Well? We can’t waste time when a breach is nearly–” She snapped her head to the left, opposite the direction he had come from.

  Aethernus Vhal received a notification showing exactly what she sensed.

  Secondary Anomaly Detected

  Source of Anomaly is 96 kilometres away

  Signature Type… Error….

  Gathering data from previous experience and knowledge base

  Signature type - Warp Energies

  His body tensed without conscious command.

  Warp signatures had only ever meant one thing in his centuries of service. Incursions, manifestations, breaches, the start of another portion of his Endless War. Every pathway through which the immaterium pressed into reality carried danger. Now it followed him here…

  Aethernus Vhal could not help the smile that spread along his face. Hands drifting a fraction closer to the crystalline weapons at his sides.

  This was something he understood clearly.

  Participating members of his duty and the oaths he had taken so long ago. Far easier to deal with than everything else so far.

  Additional system notifications populated the runes.

  Signature profile is nonstandard to previous encounters

  Threat Level - Unresolved

  Correlation with primary anomaly - Negative

  The system differentiated between his own anomalous presence and this distant warp event. There was something else. Warp-active, but not aligned to previously observed Chaos archetypes. The tactical picture shifted though it did not matter in the long run. He would march toward this and remind it of the existence of humanities greatest weapon and guardians.

  The woman’s expression morphed as she received her own version of what he was getting. Likely tailored to her understanding.

  The cool analytical detachment in her features tightened into focused alertness. Her gaze locked back onto him, but its quality altered, attention now divided between immediate contact and distant threat.

  “Introductions will have to wait,” she ran a hand through her black and pepper hair, cut short to under her shoulders. “The Breach has woken.”

  Aethernus Vhal hummed once more.

  The crowd responded as one. Stillness dissolved into motion, but not into chaos. No one screamed or stampeded. No random flight or fights broke out among their numbers. Instead, bodies shifted into new positions according to patterns he could not yet decode, pre-established procedures rather than improvisation.

  Large containers were brought out. Filled with weapons and handed out.

  Spears and shields were the majority of them.

  The woman did not retreat as the motion turned frantic around them in preparation. Her posture radiated poised readiness, the bearing of someone accustomed to making decisions under pressure. “You arrived at an interesting time. The Watchers have been restless recently. More so in the last few hours than any time before that. Something arrived onto our world. Likely a Demon Lord that will allow the Breaches to become stronger. We must prepare for another calamitous war.”

  Whoever these watchers were must happen to be the highest strata. This was not just a paradise world.

  It seemed to be a central planet of conflict and war.

  “We do not have much time,” the woman continued. Her voice remained level; only the tightening at the edges of her eyes betrayed mounting urgency. “The Demons are drawn to civilization. They will soon charge us.”

  Aethernus Vhal turned and looked in the direction she had done previously. “Let them come. They will not find succor here.”

  She blinked at his response.

  He did not deem her worthy of further elaboration.

  “You have two choices, stranger. Come with us, to where our defenses are strongest. Or stay here and face the Demons alone. Either way, you must decide quickly.”

  The system pulsed once more with another notification.

  Breach Containment Projected Failure - 4.3 hours

  Warp Signature Intensity Rising

  Destruction Priority - Critical

  Aethernus Vhal could stay and destroy everything that dared attempt to cross his path. Or he could march upon it this moment and clear it before it spewed whatever Warp things it carried within it. Yet, he decided neither was the best option for his own benefit.

  He would destroy it anyways.

  Following this woman to where ever their generals and strategists were would help him learn more about them and their society.

  Gather knowledge he did not have prior to this.

  This would help him make more informed decisions later on. Not all pockets of humanity were allies after all.