A Light Within Darkness.

I was lucky while I was running to find a tunnel that led to the spider domain which was congested with the rem

ains of a bunch of Genestealers fighting the occupants of that Cistern's mutated occupants, but I was able fight my way through and finally find the tunnel that led to my vault.

"Home fucking sweet home..." I grumbled as I pushed the vault door closed.

"Are you injured?" Elesmere's voice carried over from a corner of the main room and I saw she was sitting on my bed in a meditative position.

"Nothing more than a few bruises," I spoke before I shucked off my jacket and shirt to inspect myself. "I am going to get cleaned up I feel filthy to put lightly." I grimaced as I felt some Genestealer blood get smeared across my face as rubbed my eyes in exhaustion.

"Very well Jake. Also, I have completed the Diamond Body technique as you have described it."

I grunted in acknowledgment as I went into the side room and threw off the rest of my clothes and shoes as I lifted up a large water drum and placed it on a hook with its hose hole hanging towards the ground, but the hole was stoppered with a metal plate with a bunch of toothpick sized small holes that allowed the water to escape similar to a shower.

The best part of having a star inside your body is that you can always make hot water on demand, especially in an apocalyptic world of suffering.

I couldn't help but groan in comfort feeling the scalding hot water falling on me as I sat down on a little wooden stool just enjoying the feeling of the hot water washing away the blood that coated me physically and mentally.

I definitely realized my cultivation and especially the hymns that soothed my mind were keeping me from a total freakout.

Thankfully I was able to have a small freakout in the comfort of the hot water massaging my body before I got my shit together after reminding myself that killing that Patriarch literally could have saved this planet from facing an Exterminatus.

"Now I just need to get out of here before those Sisters of Battle and any other church operatives decide to flip the Underhive on its head," I muttered as I began washing my hair with a sort of soap that Elesmere made out of some materials she had gathered.

"And do you have some plan for our lodgings in the Lowerhive above us?" Elesmere asked me as I began rinsing the soap out of my hair.

"Nope... But just like down here there is plenty of unclaimed lost areas we could take over and with it being the Lowerhive I can make it far more inhabitable with some Arrays, as I plan on us actually staying there for a good while." I said between rinsing the soap out of my blond hair.

Wordlessly Elesmere took the rag I had set aside to wash my body and began scrubbing my back as we shared a companionable silence before she spoke quietly. "Jake Bariss of humanity do you know of the frankly insane things you have brought into this world... You may be far weaker than your demigod Emperor of Man but the potential in the knowledge you bear makes you just as much an equal peer in my people's eyes."

I chuckled softly and leaned back lightly against Elesmere and froze as I felt Elesmere's soft bare breasts meet my back as she moved from washing my back and shoulders to washing my sides and front without any amorous intent.

Elesmere sighed as her body wrapped around my back and I felt her hidden muscles contract under her soft curves as her body seemed to meld against my own with her sigh tickling my neck.

"Even with my long life I can't help but wonder every few moments what new wonder you will pull out of your thoughts. that with merely a series of meditations in guide the consciousness in a certain circuit along the body would purge negative influences from the soul and mind is to put lightly astounding." Elesmere stopped washing me as she wrapped her arms around my chest and I felt her chin resting on my shoulder as she whispered gently. "Thank you Jake Barris for giving this Aeldari hope again."

She then slowly pulled her arms out from around me as she pulled back before she displayed her Eldar grace as she stepped around and in front of me as she lifted my chin to look up at her face from the stool I was sitting on.

I was greeted with the sight of Elesmere's long blond hair draping down her back as her perky breasts stood up with no sag but before I could see the rest of her body her face dipped down and met my own as our lips met in a gentle kiss.

"My people are... an emotional people, Jake you will take responsibility for allowing my people to hope for a brighter day and I won't let you escape my grasp." Elesmere said with her eyes literally glowing with Warp light as her desires were plain before she took a deep breath. "But such things should wait till we can actually enjoy such a coupling that's not on a rusted bed."

I nodded in understanding as even I didnt want to lose my vital yang energy in this shithole and not to mention, Elesmere hadn't gotten her own Yin technique yet.

"We need to get going to the Lowerhive, church agents are likely going to be combing the Underhive for me in a couple hours once they finish mopping up the remnants of the Genestealers fortified positions and push them into the Sump."

Elesmere nodded and began putting back on some clothes we scavenged for her, and we both had some clothes knowledge both from her living a long time and I had Home Economics in both middle school and Highschool that taught me how to live without my parents taking care of me.

While I threw on my own clothes Elesmere put on a hair band that wrapped around her pointed ears and we were basically ready to go with us not taking much of anything else than a small bag of stuff containing the credits I still had along with the left-over nutrient cubes.

"By the way how are we going to get more nutrient cubes in the Lowerhive?" Elesmere asked pointedly.

For a moment I wanted to say we could simply come back to basically farm the Spider Domain but coming back through the checkpoints between the Underhive and Lowerhive would be a massive pain to say the least.

"The nutrient cubes are made out of biological edible materials so in the worst case we can always buy massive quantities of food of any kind and mix them up into the cubes... We aren't eating them for taste remember." I muttered at the end remembered how absolutely vile the nutrient cubes of compressed mutated flesh were.

I didnt want to eat corpse starch but if the cost of becoming immortal was eating something foul that countless billions if not trillions ate every single day was needed then I could just pinch my nose and do it.

"Anyway, let's get going. I want to find a place before the church sends out search parties." I said opening the vault door and peeking out both sides before exiting the vault.

Knowing how the Church and the planets Guard didnt have the resources to comb the endless tunnels in the Underhive I still didnt want to chance some agent or soldiers coming across us as I didnt want to just kill off some poor sod who had the unfortunate fate of running into me.

-

Unfortunately, Elesmere had to leave behind her Wraithbone sword in our vault lest it somehow be tagged as something heretical so once we arrived at the check point, we were thoroughly checked for mutations with a couple female guards taking Elesmere off to the side to check as some male guards had me strip to my underwear to check I wasn't some carrying some 'disease' from being so close to the Sump.

Or in other words they were told to make sure people who were touched by the Chaos god Nurgle the god of disease and pestilence didnt bring some super zombie plague into the Lowerhive, Yes zombie plagues were very much a real thing as the Sump down below was so godforsaken disgusting that people's souls down there could sicken peoples very souls until only the body remains to stagger around which will come to desire the flesh/souls of others to fill the void.

I thought that we would be questioned at the gate but honestly other than checking us for corruption we were quickly pushed through the line of other people who had their own passes as with literally tens of millions of souls down in the Underhive they simply didnt have the time to question us other than checking us for any obvious problems and that our passes were legitimate.

Once we arrived on the other side of the checkpoint we went into a massive elevator with a number of other people and once our short journey ended the elevator opened up loudly and a number of people cried out as for the first time, they saw the darkened with pollution sky above with the planets star dimly visible through the smog above us.

"This air is filthy." Elesmere grimaced before she pulled the bottom of her hood over her nose and she was right as, disgusting as the Cistern air was below at least it a great number of airs recycler's pumping clean air into there for at least the Cistern city.

"Well best to get used to it if we cant find a way into the middle hive." I said as we held hands in order to not get separated in the throngs of people going about their business.

Honestly going into the Middlehive would probably run too close to the more well to do people with a lot more security, so staying here in the Underhive were people can disappear easily is for the best until I can set some more plans in motion once I reach the next cultivation realm.

Finally, as we continued deeper into the Lowerhive we found more residential and small business area's, so I had Elesmere go in to ask a nice-looking old lady who was running a small clothes shop where we could find a place to get our feet under us.

A couple minutes later Elesmere stomped out of the shop and pulled me away as she cursed about overly curious humans. "She wouldn't stop going on and on about how I needed to tie you down with a baby... But anyway she said the credits we got in the Underhive are still good for the Lowerhive but wont be for the Middle so we can get a nice already furnished apartment for a couple months with what we got."

Honestly for about two thousand credits an already decorated apartment that wasn't a shithole would be perfectly fine as I merely needed a place for us to cultivate for another few months before I got to the next realm and once, I got the to the True Realm my powers would sublimate into a higher form and I could create some spatial arrays to if need be, get us off this planet should the worst come to be.

Like Orcs invading. Or Tyranids invading. Or Dark Eldar throwing a blackhole at the planet for fun. Or a Chaos Space Marine contingent landing... Basically I can flee whenever I want.

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