Pasanius put down his bolter and offered his left hand to Uriel, saying, 'No matter what happens, I regret nothing that has led us here, captain.'

Uriel took his friend's hand and shook it, touched by the simple affection of the sentiment, and said, 'Nor I, my friend. No matter what, we will have done some good here.'

'For what it's worth,' said Leonid. 'I wish I'd never even heard of this damn place, let alone been dragged here. But I am here, and that's the end of it, so what are we waiting for? Let's do this.'

Uriel racked the slide on his own bolter and nodded.

But before he could do anything more, he heard a great, bestial howl that was answered by a demented chorus of roars and bellows that echoed from the chamber's ceiling.

He rushed to the edge of the tender in time to see the Lord of the Unfleshed rear from hiding in a fountain of blood and limbs, and tear one of the mutant butchers in two with his bare hands.

The Unfleshed erupted from the blood-filled tenders in a thrashing mass of knotted, deformed limbs, ripping into the mutants feeding the crushing machine with the frenzy of predators who had held their anger and hunger in check for far too long.

Uriel watched as the Lord of the Unfleshed's massive jaws snapped shut on a screaming mutant, biting him in two at the waist and silencing his screams forever.

The beast Uriel had fought at the outflow pulled the arms from another foe before hurling its victim into the crushers of the grinding machine. The Unfleshed slaughtered a score of the servants of the Savage Morticians in the blink of an eye, and Uriel was horrified and grateful at the same time for their savagery.

'Damn it,' cursed Uriel. 'There goes the element of surprise!'

'Now what?' asked Pasanius.

'It will only be a matter of time until the Savage Morticians come to investigate, so come on. We don't have long.'

Uriel and the others broke from cover, running over to the roaring machine that had a potent aura of malice and hunger to it, its dark purpose imbuing it with a loathsome evil. The sooner it was destroyed the better, knew Uriel, as he drew near and a clawing sickness built in his gut.

Leonid staggered as he approached and coughed a flood of gristly vomit, the daemon machine's vile presence too much for his cancer-ridden body to bear.

'Uriel!' he shouted, holding out the bandolier of grenades he had taken from the rain of Berossus's army on the mountainside.

Uriel snatched the grenades and ran towards the machine, passing the cruciform frame that held the dripping rack of meat, sparing it but a glance as he did so.

He pulled up short and turned to face it as he realised that it was hot a rack of meat at all.

It was Obax Zakayo.

Uriel felt nothing but revulsion at the sight of Obax Zakayo's ruined, mutilated body, but part of him wondered at the cruelty of creatures that could do this to another living soul. The Iron Warrior - or what was left of him - was pinned to the frame and drooled thick ropes of saliva from the corner of his twisted lips. Trailing clear tubes pumped life-sustaining chemicals into his ravaged frame.

'Guilliman's oath,' whispered Uriel as the Iron Warrior raised his beaten and bruised face towards him.

'Ventris…' he gasped, sudden hope filling his watering eyes. 'Kill me, I beg of you.'

Uriel ignored Obax Zakayo as Pasanius attempted to form the Unfleshed into some kind of defensive perimeter, and snapped grenade after grenade from the bandolier. The machine roared as he approached, filthy blue oilsmoke venting from corroded grilles and an angry bellow growling from its depths.

The gnawing sensation in his gut increased, but Uriel suppressed it and began attaching the grenades to the machine at power couplings, axle joints and even climbing on top of the machine to place one at the base of the forest of gurgling feed tubes. He worked swiftly, but methodically, ensuring that the machine would be comprehensively wrecked upon the grenades' detonation.

Uriel climbed down from the machine in time to see Leonid standing before Obax Zakayo, his lasgun shouldered and aimed squarely between the Iron Warrior's eyes.

'Do it!' wept the broken Obax Zakayo. 'Do it! Please! They feed me piece by piece to the machine and make me watch…'

Leonid's finger tightened on the trigger, but he released a shuddering breath and lowered the weapon.

'No,' he said. 'Why should you get off easy after you tortured so many of my soldiers to death? I think I like the idea of you suffering like this!'

'Please,' begged Obax Zakayo. 'I… I can help you defeat the half-breed!'

'The half-breed?' said Uriel.

'Honsou, I mean Honsou,' wheezed Obax Zakayo. 'I can tell you how you can see him dead.'

'How?' asked Leonid, stepping in and slamming the butt of his lasgun against the Iron Warrior's chin. 'Tell us!'

'Only if you promise that you will kill me,' leered Obax Zakayo, spitting teeth.

'Uriel!' shouted Pasanius from the barricades of the tenders. 'I think they're coming!'

'We don't have time for this, traitor,' snapped Uriel. 'Tell us what you know!'

'Swear, Ultramarine. Give me your oath.'

'Very well,' nodded Uriel. 'I swear I will see you dead, now speak!'

'The Heart of Blood,' began Obax Zakayo. 'It is a daemon of the Lord of Skulls and the half-breed's former master imprisoned it beneath Khalan-Ghol and fattened its essence with the blood of sorcerers.'

'What has this to do with Honsou?' demanded Uriel.

'Know you nothing of your enemies?' mocked Obax Zakayo. 'The Lord of Skulls is the bane of psykers and the Heart of Blood was driven mad by such polluted blood. The warsmith's sorcerers channelled their most potent null-magicks through the imprisoned creature, using its immaterial energies to cast a great psychic barrier around the fortress that no sorcerer has been able to breach in nearly ten thousand years!'

Obax Zakayo coughed and said, 'I have your oath that you will end my suffering?'

'Yes,' said Uriel. 'Keep talking.'

The Iron Warrior nodded and said, 'Lord Toramino has some of the most powerful sorcerers in the Eye of Terror to command and, though they have great power, they cannot breach the ancient barrier of the Heart of Blood. Destroy it and they will raze this place to the ground!'

Uriel looked into Obax Zakayo's eyes for any sign of a lie, but the Iron Warrior was beyond such deception, too immersed in his own misery and need for death. He felt the guiding hand of providence in the traitor's presence now, for here was a chance to fulfil his death oath and deny the Omphalos Daemonium its prize.

'Very well,' pressed Uriel. 'How do we destroy it?'

'The awls,' said Obax Zakayo. 'The silver awls that pierce its daemonic flesh and hold it fast above the lake of blood…'

'What of them?'

'They are hateful artefacts, stolen from your most sacred reclusiam or taken from those whose inquisitions delved too deep into the mysteries of Chaos. They are more than just physical anchors: they bind it to this place. Remove or destroy them and its dissolution will be complete.'

Uriel took a step back from Obax Zakayo and looked up into the darkness of the chamber above the hissing lake of blood where the huge daemon hung suspended in its writhing madness. He saw three gleaming silver pinpricks of light impaled through its scaled flesh, each attached to a chain that was anchored in the bedrock of the chamber's walls.

His eyes followed the line of the chains from the daemon and squinted as he sought where the nearest was embedded. Uriel turned back to Obax Zakayo and raised his bolter, saying, 'I will kill you now.'

'No!' said Leonid grimly. 'Let me do it. I owe this bastard a death.'

Uriel saw the thirst for vengeance in Leonid's eyes and nodded. 'So be it. Once he is dead, set the timers on the grenades and get clear. The Savage Morticians are coming, so stay close to the Unfleshed. They will try to protect you if you are near them, but you have to hold the enemy at bay for as long as you can.'