Antalcidas moved forwards, shaking the floor with his steps, weathering the bolter fire coming in from all sides, shielding Gorthia’s men. The Word Bearers had only a few seconds for a concentrated volley. Then the Destroyers were among them. Antal­cidas took on the starboard side, sweeping the cannonade from the triforium to the corner of the fane. Word Bearers and the structures of the hall alike melted and vaporised in the inferno. Gorthia and his squad charged the traitors on the port side. Rows of pews exploded in the exchange of fire. Hierax and Aphovos took their squads forwards, sending a steady barrage of bolter shells ahead of them down the narrow confines of the triforia. The Word Bearers’ superior numbers did them little good here in the initial moments of the struggle. There was barely space for three legionaries to march abreast, and the traitors could not bring their fire to bear effectively on the intruders on the upper level.

Hierax used the momentum of surprise, blasting through a full squad of the enemy. ‘This is for Calth!’ he snarled, pumping shell and flame through the head of another traitor. Then a huge shape barrelled through the next line of Word Bearers. Its armour still bore the insignia of the Serrated Sun Chapter, but the ceramite had mutated to contain the form of the swollen monster. The legionary’s hands had split his gauntlets and turned into huge claws. His face was inhuman, his mouth a raging beast’s maw. Fangs as long as mortals’ fingers parted as he attacked. He fired his bolt pistol past Hierax, blasting Kletos in the chest. He seized Hierax, his claws punching through the captain’s armour, and swung him against an arch, slamming him through stone and suspending him over the drop.

Hierax fired his serpenta into the Word Bearer’s face. The creature staggered back, roaring, as flame engulfed his flesh. His claws convulsed, digging deeper into Hierax’s armour. Flesh burned through to bone, but the beast did not fall. He hurled Hierax against the far wall again and again, fighting now like a wounded animal, his eyes blazing with unnatural fire brighter than the flame that consumed his skull.

Masonry crumbled around Hierax. Ferrocrete girders rammed into his back as the Word Bearer drove him deeper into the wall. Beyond the monster, the clash between the Destroyers and traitors was a maelstrom of chainblades, lightning claws and power fists. Bursts of warring energy tore the gloom of the triforium. Hierax tried to fire again, but the monster batted aside his pistols. The Word Bearer seized his arms, pinning them to his sides. His armour began to buckle under the grip of the distorted talons. The light from the Word Bearer’s eyes now enveloped his entire body in a shimmering, scarlet aura. The skull had shed all burned flesh. It was a howling death’s head, animated by something utterly beyond the human.