Aethernus Vhal heard the system ping him a dozen times with new notifications of his strength, abilities, new skills, and more that would not make a difference to him. His will would force itself upon whatever energies he found and they would bend to it as he desired. There was no need for the system to make clear attempts at reading and understanding him better because it would fail.

  Now he wanted to learn how to manipulate this without the crutch of his weapon.

  The beasts he killed when he first landed had used specialized attacks with this energy. Indicating different types that filled the air.

  Or was it something that changed within them as they accepted the mana and then manipulated it. What process did that look like? Was there a central battery or gathering station for these energies to transform into the type of element the monsters were? Did that happen with his sword as well or was the system’s touch pervasive enough that it could limit what he used it for.

  Aethernus Vhal would not accept that.

  He felt the rumble of the earth as the void-beings charged toward him in slow motion, his mind moving faster and faster now that he was focused.

  That same mana he had used for his blade slowly came to. Lethargic and unwilling to follow his orders as it had with the meteor sword’s skills.

  Something about them made the mana react and respond faster–

  Aethernus Vhal stepped forward and a large limb of sharp claws whizzed over his head. He ducked past another, twisted past a third, jumped over a fourth, and then slammed his blade into the fifth. Already calling upon the Fell Flames of Doom,

  This proved to him how distinctly different this was from the Warp.

  Chaos thrived within the realm of the False Deities. It was not made for structure and order.

  Once he noticed the spell matrix, he recognized that there were others that surrounded him right this moment. Three with the largest of them all coming from ahead.

  Two of them, he figured out as he killed dozens more of the void-beings without being locked into the battle, directly surrounded his person and moved with him. Each spreading out hundreds of feet in all directions like massive circles.

  He kept them active as he blasted another portion of the incoming army with Fell Flames of Doom

  Aethernus Vhal looked back toward the third and largest spell matrix that covered the horizon.

  The Breach was directly in its center.

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  He looked at it curiously as he continued to tear through the numbers of monsters. The one holding the rift roared in indignation, but was equally ignored because even it would not make a grand difference to this battlefield. Maybe it would last a few strikes rather than one. Falling just the same as the trash and most common rabble amongst its frankinestin ilk.

  Aethernus Vhal reached with his senses from the spell matrix and the Breach trembled–

  “Silence,” Aethernus Vhal said. “Speak not unless spoken to.”

  He swung the blade once more, washing the clearing with more flames and more dead bodies.

  These forces were unworthy of his full intent on the battlefield.

  Aethernus Vhal sneered at the Sword of the Fallen Fell Titan. It was nothing but a temporary tool for him to use and it dared make a psychic attempt at controlling and manipulating him? He had walked the Warp with true threats beyond this creature's imagination attempting to shatter his mind forcefully rather than the impression and pressing it was attempting to do.

  The fell titan kept going as though it had not heard him.

  “We shall do nothing!” he shouted and released all of his intent and bloodlust.

  Mana responded in kind. A physical wave that slammed into the charging, screeching hordes and crushed bodies as they tried to push forward mindlessly. The gargantuan figure holding the rift flinched and pulled back trying to retreat only for it to freeze, look behind it and then move back into position. The first note of self-preservation and intelligence he noticed from anything within this area.

  All three massive spell matrixes trembled as he let himself leak the wrath and hatred for the Warp and anything that threatened humanity.

  “Return from whence you’ve come, mad thing. Your insanity insults me. Return to hiding lest you anger me enough to crush you while you are still beneficial to me–”

  Aethernus Vhal felt its spirit retreat. Fear driving it into primal action.

  “–you are nothing but a tool. Remember your place.”

  He pulled back his bloodlust and intent, made far more potent with the existence of the mana. That was something he would need to fix. Obvious emotion of any kind was a weakness he could not allow to survive within his chest. He had felt the tiniest mustard seed of hubris within his chest for a moment and look where it had sent him. He could have killed the False Deity and marched upon the death world near the Warp exit he planned to leave from.

  Alas, here he was, arguing with a sword instead as he killed pathetic creatures that were barely worth his effort.

  The void-beings charged once more now that they weren’t being physically pinned down by him.

  He did exactly that.

  Aethernus Vhal kept using Fell flames of Doom

  This seemed like something he did not want to make any mistakes with. The amount of mana around him was enough to turn this world into a ball of flames a few times over. Destroying such a haven would sadden him for many millennia to come. Aethernus Vhal’s duty was to protect this New Earth with his power, not become the cause of its undoing.

  It only took a dozen more attacks with it for him to feel he was proficient enough.

  Aethernus Vhal stabbed the sword onto the ground and called upon the mana to heed his summoning.

  It rumbled in protest, lightning sparks carving the world around him and killing anything that approached his position. Yet, it could not reject his will.

  He pressed it into the forms he saw. Repeating structure that spread out above him in multiple layers, except he made them bigger. More solidified and cleaned up any breaks within said patterns he did find. His suspicion was that it had been the ‘madness’ that consumed the titan in its weakness.

  Aethernus Vhal raised his arm and pointed toward the Breach-things as the spell matrix locked into place, awaiting his command.

  He let them get closer, until they were only a few feet away.

  Then he dropped his arm and mana flooded the world.