The vast universe and its tapestry of stars seemingly stretches to infinity, within the endless celestial constructs countless lifeforms were born and even more died, empires rose from the ashes of fallen kingdoms, galactic wars raged through whole galaxies while tribal chiefs make peace to coalesce into a single village, beings of vast power despaired at their empires downfall and a wild beast celebrates yet another successful hunt.
Innumerous events happened every passing second and yet no amount of mountains that crumbled and planets that were destroyed seemed to contain any significance on a universal scale for every mountain that crumbled a taller stood behind it and planets were more numerous than atoms one could observe at a time.
To the inhabitants of this universe it seemed eternal.
How I wish eternity was a truth.
* * *
[Planet - Gaia ] [Sector - 17] [ARSF 3rd Regiment]
BOOM
The person next to Magnus was reduced to melted fleshy sludge by the plasma fire, blood and flesh spilled across the worn ground, bones and organs mixed into the gory mess.
Magnus paid it no mind.
Raising his NPR he fired back at the unseen enemy hiding in the dense forests all around him.
The pained shrieks of their neural pathways being removed told him he had hit at least a few cultists.
Around him the remaining ARSF soldiers stepped over the corpuses of their former comrades and fired into the dense thicket.
Tens of bodies, without a single sign of injury but undeniably dead, fell from the trees hitting the floor with a twisted crunch coating the mossy forest floor with crimson dewdrops.
Magnus walked up to the plasma cannon the cultists had used to obliterate so many of them he wrenched open a panel on the sleek machine of war and putting his gloved hand into it tore out its messy wiring.
Seeing the other cultists had retreated Magnus signaled for the other Anomalus Religion Suppression Forces(ARSF) to advance towards the priority target.
The church they had come to reduce to ash.
As they continued through the dense forest many cultists brandishing various weaponry charged at them, they usually let out fierce battle cries trying to block out their fear.
They were granted a swift end.
Finally the 3rd regiment arrived at the temple to find the 2nd, 1st and 4th regiments already encircling the building.
At the forefront location the 1st regiment captain was standing so still he appeared almost as a statue of obsidian armor that had been neglected for countless years but yet still stood sentinel over these grounds.
Beside him the 2nd regiment captain was leaning on a nearby tree casually taking inventory of the various trinkets she had 'borrowed' from the now deceased cultists, she, for reasons unable to be understood by Magnus, had always found joy in collecting the religious symbols of every church and temple they eradicated.
Around them stood the other ARSF soldiers either inspecting their weapons or scanning the surroundings, in total the three regiments were exactly thirty people.
As for the 4th regiment captain her missing presence was quickly explained by a single emotionless word from the 1st regiment captain.
"Blessed"
Ah, that made sense.
It seemed 4th would be busy with fighting off the blessed for a while.
Turning towards temple with a dull sense of annoyance and weariness Magnus gave it a quick top-down scan.
This was the temple the cultists had raised for their 'god', this was the target they had been sent to destroy.
Walking up to the decrepit structure one of the ARSF soldiers placed a silvery metallic cube on the mossy stone walls and watched as the stone liquified and was promptly absorbed by the cube.
Their entrance had been established.
Walking inside a sense of being suffocated engulfed everyone with only the 1st, 2nd and Magnus the 3rd regiment captain showing no signs of distress.
Inside the ancient ruins the air was stale and harsh, not that any of the ARSF could feel the chill with their oxygen being supplied by their suit in case the air was tainted with disease or some form of toxin.
The narrow corridors contained many strange traps unbefitting such an aged structure such as saw blades emerging from the walls and high energy protons being fired at them from small supercolliders embedded in the walls.
These traps while inconvenient just slowed their exploration at most injuring a few soldiers without causing a single fatality.
This only put the three captains further on guard, there was no chance a temple that had produced a blessed would be incapable of creating an semi-adequate defence against them.
As they continued to advance through the dusty corridors they gradually widened until the company found themselves in a large circular room with a black obsidian alter in the center.
On the cold void-like stone lay a man.
His skin was pale to the point of translucence, on his arms were tens of runic tattoos whose meaning Magnus cared nothing for.
Magnus gave a frown as did the other two captains, this was likely the very thing that they had hoped not to encounter.
A Blessed.
He raised his NRP and flicked a switch hidden in the trigger.
A white hot whip of flame blasted the altar and the person resting on it following him the 3rd regiment soldiers also circled the altar and opened fire.
The altar was reduced to a pile of melted goo on the floor sizzling as it melted further into the floor.
However the pale man upon it was still there, floating in place where he had been standing just moments ago.
The space around him shuddered in anguish as his eyes cracked open revealing a filthy yellow orb that stared at its attackers with wretched joy.
Not waiting for him, no... it was no longer a he.
Not waiting for IT to make a move the ARSF soldiers unleashed hellfire upon the humanoid hoping to cause enough damage.
With their vision obscured by the smoke and fire the ARSF soldiers began to retreat to the walls of the room in case the Blessed rushed out the flames at them.
With a explosive boom the Blessed burst out of the fire, pale body now coated in crackling electricity only to face yet another hail of bullets, plasma, armor piercing rounds and explosives.
The Blessed's body was shredded with holes and ripped flesh.
Then it vanished.
With a boom of thunder and flash of lightning it was upon them.