A Light Within Darkness.

Waking up with someone within your arms was certainly nice and, in my case, the lithe form of Elesmere laying partly atop my chest with her long blond hair splayed out across her back before the nice blankets Elesmere acquired covered her hair was most certainly a welcome sight.

"Hmm, you are finally awake. You slept for much longer than usual." Elesmere said nonchalantly as she moved within my grasp so her face wasn't buried into my chest so she could pay attention to my sleeping patterns and instead, so she could make eye contact.

"Yeah... The Genestealer battle took a lot out of me. And my dreams weighed even heavier upon me."

I had a bit of a weird dream where Khorne was trying to get me to join them but in my waking mind, I realized it was merely a dream and not actually a piece of Khorne as they wouldn't look like a big Amazonian woman with massive breasts and wear a loin cloth to cover her privates and a spiked boobplate.

God, I wish the Chaos Gods were actually seductive like that... But nope it's ninety percent pure suffering with them.

"What dreams could cross your broad mind that can bring about such miracles?" Elesmere asked in honest curiosity as she was probably thinking I had some great new revolution that could upturn the galaxy if I had the resources to put it into effect like my Warp Gates.

"Big titty Khorne." I said blandly making the elf within my arms freeze as she blinked in surprise.

"Excuse me but I think I may be the one dreaming. What did you say?"

For a moment I considered just shutting up but then I remembered the truth of Chaos in this universe. The Chaos Gods mirrored the Warp, and the Warp mirrored the Galaxy at large. So, if I became powerful enough to push my will into the fabric of the galaxy, I could change the very makeup of the Chaos Gods and the Warp itself.

"I dreamt of turning Khorne into an Amazonian woman a couple feet taller than me and defeating her in honorable combat to take her as a concubine."

Elesmere didn't respond for a whole minute as her eyes before she nodded. "In terms of ambition, I certainly cannot deny that such a... Target would be one of the highest, but should you desire to impose your will upon and change a demon I highly suggest you work your way up the ladder so to speak."

That was fair enough and I already had a technique that did such with the Shadow Demon Summoning ability that opened a small hole into the Warp but while I was here on a human planet, summoning a bunch of 'familiars' could get me in trouble, to say the least.

"So, what do you plan to do now that we have a semi-stable home here in the Lowerhive where our lungs won't rot from the nasty damp air?" Elesmere asked finally.

I hummed in thought before I shrugged as honestly my only goal was to get stronger right now. "Well, those people who are getting your next core material to start your next technique won't be ready to meet with me for the next week. So, in the meanwhile, I am going to enrich a small area here in the Warehouse for me to absorb far more Warp Energies."

Elesmere nodded and when asked about what she should be doing in the meanwhile I simply told her to go over the mind-cleansing hymns or just go out to make some more money by robbing the gangs that were peddling drugs and weapons here in the Lowerhive.

It's funny here in the Lowerhive crime was just as rampant as the Underhive but it was more sophisticated. You would be mugged and beaten up here in the Lowerhive but in the Underhive you would be jumped killed and then eaten as the money and resources people carried typically weren't enough for a day's worth of food.

Elesmere was a big girl and had literally lived more than three times my lifetimes so she could find ways to accumulate credits without drawing too much attention. Especially as she could use her Psychic abilities to get people to hand over their money and wipe their memories of such an incident though it would be tiring doing such a thing and not leave obvious signs.

"I am going to start my experiments can you help me do a couple things before you go?" I said as I pulled a bunch of cinderblocks on a trolley as I began to make something akin to a large igloo and then had Elesmere make some Wraith bone to act as plaster for the interior of the igloo to isolate any unabsorbed Warp energies.

"Well wish me luck. I am going to bake myself in the igloo." I said brushing my hands clear of some of the dust.

"Wouldn't this instead be a Kiln then?" Elesmere asked dryly and I threw her a dirty look as I waved her off.

As I went into the Kiln/Igloo it was large enough for me to basically stand up but my hands would touch the walls as I fully extended them out from my sides. So, in the worst case so long as the containment doesn't breach allowing the hole into the warp to break open further nothing, I summoned would be larger than the free space in the little Kiln/Igloo

Ok, I admit calling this homemade spiritual energy concentrator a kiln made much more sense despite it looking more like an Igloo as it would be concentrating energies within like a Kiln would bake stuff within, rather than an Igloo that kept the cold out basically.

"I will be staying here to watch. In case you open an actual Warp Storm that engulfs the planet I wouldn't be able to escape so being here in order to tell you 'I told you so' would be far more satisfying."

As I slammed closed the Wraithbone door to the 'Kiln' I couldn't help but mutter about petty women before I sat down in the middle of the array I had already placed upon the ground that would act to congregate the surrounding 'energies' and in this case the ever-present Warp energies in the galaxy.

With a flicker, the array spluttered to life from my Qi injecting a spark of life into it before its directives took over and it latched onto the Warp and began sucking energy and small particulates through the tiny hole it opened into the Warp.

I opened my mouth and began taking deep breaths, operating my Heavenly Demon Swallowing Art as I swallowed and used my Qi to dissolve the Warp energies and the tiny bits of demonic essence that arrived through the tiny hole that began filling the Kiln with a powerful concentration of Warp energies.

Like ten minutes later of greedily absorbing bountiful energies that matched a couple weeks of solid meditation of nonstop cultivation I began feeling the Warp as if it were prodding at the walls of the Array that opened the hole into the Warp.

'Hmph come on little minnow jump into a catfish's mouth.' I thought before a sudden tug wrenched at the walls of the array in order to widen it and I gleefully allowed it as I felt the tugging sensation on the other end of the Warp was weak despite its abrupt pulling at it.

A tiny golf ball-sized mewling Chaos Spawn that looked like some kind of red-toned shoggoth rolled out of the now visible Warp hole and with another deep breath from me, the Chaos Spawn flew up and dissolved into my mouth and actually tasted a bit like watermelon honestly.

Even better than its delicious taste was the fact that I felt my cultivation leap forward as though I just swallowed a whole month's worth of cultivation with only energy cubes to augment my meditations.

But as though emboldened by the chaos spawn making it through to the Material world, I felt a great number of almost touches and caresses against my array that operated the tear into the Warp.

"Let's not get carried away," I muttered as I realized I could only absorb one demon at a time and to put bluntly if it wasn't for my Array acting as a stop-gap the little Kiln, I had would be flooded with them already and I refuse to be at the bottom of demon dog pile as it were.

I then closed the Array much to the scrambling presence's dismay on the other side that attempted to force their way through the small tear in reality, but the crack closed under my array assisted power without issue.

"Alright well might as well make good on calling this thing a Kiln," I said as I realized I was literally coated in Chaos energies along with the inside of the Kiln so I flared my internal star into existence until the cream-toned wraithbone began changing colors and I could no longer sense any additional Warp energy.

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