Eyeing the ferocity of the charge, Azkaellon said, ‘They do not want us inside.’

‘They do not,’ Sanguinius agreed. ‘That in itself shows that we are on the right path.’

With the primarch and the Sanguinary Guard forming the tip of the spear, the Blood Angels charged forwards to meet the enemy, bolters and lascannons striking out ahead of them. As the first of the daemons fell, Sanguinius voxed the Legion. ‘My sons, today we purge the memory of Signus Prime. Hold fast to your anger, but preserve its righteousness. Hone it. Be its master. Through it, let us thirst only for victory.’ And nothing else. ‘We will be tempted. We will not fall.’

Not again. And not with my brothers as witnesses. If we fall again today, then the war is over. The power that built this fortress will have the galaxy as its plaything.

He switched the channel to a private one. ‘Amit,’ he spoke to his troubled son. ‘Do you hear me?’

‘I do. And I understand.’

‘Good. But bring justice to the abominations, Amit. Be our vengeance.’ He gave license to Fifth Company and its captain. ‘Tear them asunder.’

The spear of the Blood Angels plunged into the mass of the daemons. There was no pause in the weapons fire. Mass-reactive shells burst warp flesh apart. Las burned it to ash. The daemons did not fall as living things did. They kept coming, missing arms and legs, torsos punctured by wounds that should have been lethal. But they had become matter, and so were subject to destruction.

Sanguinius swung the Blade Encarmine through the body of a thing whose flesh was the pink of a drowned newborn. The monster’s ­liquid howl became a doubled, burbling squall as the flesh darkened to the blue of suffocation and the two halves sprouted new limbs. The babbling maws of the beasts fastened on to his legs. As he cut them down with two swift strokes, a scream descended upon him, a scream of reason shredded, of hope turned into the anguish of doom. At its sound, the pain of his fate rose in his chest, and despair mocked the futility of every effort. The scream was a psychic javelin. It sought to transfix him, to drive his soul into the earth and hold it there, writhing, helpless before the predator.