It's now the end of my third month on planet Diasporex. Today we successfully finished with the eighth batch of props, but the residents of the nearest village don't notice the hut. Imoen asked the drukhari why this happens, and in response, they took us two hundred meters away from the hut.

  Instead of a house, I saw only a rock. Attempting to touch it, Imoen was surprised to discover that the stone was solid. Rizalia explained to us that this was a standard drukhari procedure for organizing a field base.

  The cloaking device generates a visual illusion and gravitational resistance that mimics an environmental object. This method didn't help against scanning, but it allowed them to harvest from primitive planets for many years.

  She has been teaching us quite actively; I've managed to understand many nuances of magic and human anatomy. After the fourth batch of props, my flesh manipulation abilities allowed me to heal any injuries without mutations.

  There was, of course, a limit to my capabilities, but as long as a person is alive, regenerating limbs is not a problem. On the other hand, the Eldar preparations that Imoen was learning to apply are not much inferior to my psyker abilities.

  One injection would save from death with any injury. I inquired about the principle of operation and ultimately understood how difficult it is to comprehend the description of the composition. It's a warp mixture similar to the capsules that fixed our bodies and transferred knowledge about using weapons.

  After medicine, we practiced fencing. Mandrake provided us with low-quality swords made of soft iron, which she stole from the local forge. She said such garbage isn't made in Commorragh.

  I would dispute the design of drukhari swords. The swords from local forges didn't chafe the palms.

  We didn't need to learn basics or stances, but artificially one cannot obtain truly effective killing methods.

  Without experience stabbing the human body, it's difficult to perfectly hit the intercostal gap with a sword.

  My first strike against a prisoner's armor ended with a chipped blade. Only by practicing strikes and healing prisoners from the fifth batch did we begin to understand the complexity of killing armored opponents.

  Especially when your sword is made of iron, and the armor is a strange alloy.

  I could never have thought before that cutting off a human arm correctly is difficult. The sword changes trajectory during cutting, and an incorrect cut merely slides along bones. Leaving a severe wound, but not acting as intended. Even after learning how to properly stab and cut, without experience in cutting human bones, there's no understanding of how much force is needed and how to do it correctly.

  Fortunately, Rizalia competently explained all our mistakes and corrected them very quickly. Although I'm confused by her knowledge of cold weapons, she only uses claws now. Why did Rizalia abandon the advantages that cold weapons provide?

  The sixth batch of props helped us with ranged weapons skills. Testing weapons like blasters on prisoners would be foolish; they even vaporize stones. We practiced with shuriken catapults, weapons with poison capsules, and primitive mon-keigh weapons, as Rizalia put it.

  She specifically brought us several stabbers and lasguns. After training with blasters, understanding the principles of a lasgun wasn't difficult, but we started with shuriken catapults.

  This is an excellent weapon against poorly armored enemies. A very popular Eldar weapon, which is why the drukhari dressed the props in Kabalite armor; she wanted us to draw our own conclusions.

  Imoen and I made our conclusions, seeing the weaknesses of shuriken weapons.

  The front armor of Kabal warriors wasn't penetrated, nor were the shoulder pads. The armor of Incubi wasn't penetrated by shurikens at all. Considering the thickness of the armor, this gave us an understanding of the uselessness of shurikens against strong drukhari. Examining the wounds and armor, I concluded why this happens.

  My conclusions were approved by the mandrake. She quickly disassembled the shuriken catapult and explained its operating principle. The ammunition was a psychoplastic rod. Gravity chipped off thin plates, then directed them into the acceleration chamber.

  A fragment with a molecular blade accelerated by a gravitational gun was unable to avoid vibrations. When colliding with a solid object, possessing the necessary momentum to penetrate the object, force vectors directed in different directions caused the shuriken to explode. The fragments lost the momentum needed to penetrate solid armor.

  Mandrake handed us two new magazines and explained the difference in ammunition use. We changed to an expensive-to-produce alloy that absorbed vibrations and had the necessary density.

  The shurikens tore the prisoners to pieces. Passing through the front armor, the blades shattered into fragments inside the bodies. The fragments literally ricocheted inside the armor. Even the Incubus armor didn't protect against molecular blades accelerated to the limit. This time we set the rate of fire to maximum, so in two seconds, we spent the entire magazine on a hundred blades.

  Only pieces of metal and flesh remained of the bodies. Most of the shurikens were wasted, but the difference was easy to feel. With the weapon's ability to use cheap ammunition, suppressive fire at maximum rate of fire could ensure the evacuation of a squad.

  It was a versatile weapon, capable of replacing ammunition from cheap-to-produce psychoplastic with any stones or even soil if necessary. As the cheapest ranged weapon, shuriken catapults aren't designed for military operations. Eldar once used them for hunting animals; weapons for such purposes didn't require armor penetration.

  Our variants of force catapults were created in Commorragh. Unlike the standard ones, these didn't require psyker abilities. The gravitational warp accelerator worked autonomously, powered by an energy core. Supplied by kabals for export and sale to corsairs.

  The principle very much resembled a railgun, but only with warp technologies.

  Rizalia replaced the props, disposed of the bodies, then told us to continue. We used lasguns and stab weapons. The Incubus armor was still impenetrable, but the armor of a regular Kabal warrior was severely damaged.

  That's how we went through the entire arsenal that the drukhari brought.

  The seventh batch of prisoners helped us practice synthesizing poisons, drugs, and acids. Rizalia provided us with portable chemistry lab-like kits. She carefully explained the steps necessary for synthesis, then waited for the test results.

  The difficulty isn't in banal intoxication, but in meeting the assigned task. A liquid causing itching shouldn't kill, and the effect shouldn't change with increased dosage. Drugs should stimulate the necessary organs, and increasing the dosage shouldn't cause complications. Acids should only activate with a catalyst.

  This raised even more questions. Where did the mandrake get such knowledge, and what is she teaching us?

  The eighth batch should help us with the goddess's rituals. To my surprise, Imoen interacted with them without problems. Hunting rituals, where one must properly give the goddess life essence. Rituals of hope, where the goddess grants protection. Rituals of healing, protection, blessing for offspring, plant growth, and many other everyday things. If the believers of Isha had problems, a ritual was created to solve the problem.

  Without props, we wouldn't have been able to practice some rituals that required sacrifice.

  Today we performed the last ritual on the list. Our prop was a female prisoner, dressed in the remains of an Ecclesiarchy priest's robe. The clothing differed from the priests of the hive city where I lived. The servants of the Emperor Savior's church dressed more luxuriously; their clothing had completely different sacred litanies.

  "I swear to remain..."

  Imoen managed to remove the gag from her mouth and carefully examined the prisoner.

  "Imoen? Please put the gag back in."

  The girl was still watching the prisoner's prayers.

  "Please wait."

  What?

  "...faithful or righteous in my service."

  I looked at Imoen, and she was carefully watching the bound prisoner as if she had found something interesting. What is she doing?

  "And may darkness consume my soul if I prove unworthy! Mighty Emperor..."

  A slight wave appeared near the prisoner; had I not been familiar with magic, I wouldn't have noticed it. Imoen finally stopped watching and grabbed her head with her hand.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The wave of fluctuations stopped, and the girl nodded contentedly.

  My smile involuntarily twitched. Is she having fun? So that's why she sometimes comes too close when I'm training my magic?

  "Is she a psyker?"

  With her other hand, Imoen touched my head, which didn't lead to problems, except for goosebumps.

  Very funny!

  I removed her hand and took the gag from her.

  "I wouldn't call the ramblings of a fanatic conscious use of magic."

  Meanwhile, the woman's face distorted, and she looked at Imoen with anomalous hatred.

  How familiar this is to me; perhaps she has some weak psyker abilities. Or not?

  "HERETICS! Emper..."

  Halfway through, the woman bit down on the dirty rag.

  Of course, I inserted the gag so she wouldn't irritate us anymore.

  I think she's not a psyker; she thinks too little. Every damn prisoner screams the word heretic. Do they have a problem with vocabulary? Can't they diversify their insults a bit?

  I looked at the amused human, she was still playing.

  She grabbed the prisoner's head, observed how the warp flow was disrupted. Released her head, and then the woman's faith in the emperor again caused fluctuations.

  Unlike pure warp, the energy around the woman was more stable and filled with extraneous will. I think she's not a psyker after all.

  I wonder if chaos cultists have the same energy fluctuations?

  "Stop playing with the prop."

  Rizalia squinted and pointed to Isha's ritual circle.

  "Perform the ritual already!"

  Imoen touched the priestess one last time, then returned to the ritual circle. I took a knife from my belt.

  Approaching, my hand made a sweep. The tip of the blade cut her hand, then I performed several quick movements.

  The woman panicked, tears appeared in her eyes. She began to twitch, but she had no chance of survival.

  The rune of Isha on her skin contrasted with the writings on the priestess's mantle.

  I connected my soul with warp energy and directed it into the rune.

  Five Eldar ritual words ignited her wound. My second hand took out oil filled with my warp energy. I poured it over the prisoner's head, then pronounced fire in Eldar.

  The woman flared up like a match. Her eyes filled with horror, and even brains washed of religion began to think about survival. It was precisely these thoughts of survival that became the catalyst; my artificial emotions resonated with her desire to survive.

  Her skin charred, her eyes lost the ability to see, the rune of Isha burned through the flesh to the very bones, and her body jerked from agony.

  Touching my pendant, I transferred these emotions into the item. At this moment, all the prisoner's life energy was transferred to my sister's soul, thereby prolonging her existence in the pendant.

  The remaining energy did not dissipate; Imoen, who was in the circle, invoked the goddess with prayers. The life energy was not wasted; all the remnants were thoroughly absorbed into her body, producing positive changes for the organism. Cellular activity increased, and muscle density will improve in the near future.

  The body of our sacrifice visibly wrinkled, even the fire couldn't hide such a rapid transformation into a mummy.

  Clap clack Clap

  The mandrake's attempts to clap alternated with her claws striking each other.

  "Good, almost at the Eldar level."

  Rizalia slowly approached the burning corpse, then tore off its charred arm with her bare hand. The drukhari shook her head disapprovingly.

  "The delay in applying the second and seventh lines of the rune is too small. Such a quick engraving affected the victim's energy. Too rapid outflow of life led to losses."

  The mandrake threw away the remains of the corpse. Then snapped her fingers. Shadows consumed the corpse and dissolved.

  "The emotions slightly don't correspond to the victim's emotions. Imoen was distracted during the ritual. What were you thinking about?"

  The girl stopped staring absently at the house, then answered.

  "I was thinking about food, and also about when we could return to the village and spread the faith of the goddess."

  Rizalia was confused; she had been carried away with training the mon-keigh. She went through her old knowledge, completely forgetting about the main goal. The girl reminded her of the main thing that saves from problems with an impatient goddess.

  The mandrake nodded, one could say showed some respect to the girl from a primitive society.

  If Kosek killed prisoners experiencing emotions – at first, his emotions were even slightly shaken by so many deaths – then the girl was completely special.

  A natural-born killer. Imoen did perfect work; her emotions didn't change. The girl only cares about her goddess and what they will eat today.

  The goddess shared unknown knowledge with her; due to living conditions, much was incomprehensible to the mon-keigh, but she learned quickly.

  Both mon-keigh didn't reach the level of a hierarch, but they were already as competent as Commorragh mercenaries. Should they be given their first assignment?

  "Since you reminded me, how about we temporarily stop cutting helpless cattle, and you take on the work assigned to you."

  She pointed at me.

  "Shepherd, your priestess has expressed the idea of needing new followers. I want you to convert the entire planet to the faith as quickly as possible. Do you have ideas on how to solve this problem?"

  The mandrake's words were filled with playfulness, but Imoen approached me and looked at me expectantly. My colleague took the drukhari's words too seriously.

  I could only think seriously.

  "The local people live in an agrarian society. Without influence on the nobility, spreading religion is not effective. Landowners prefer to communicate using force. The most banal and quick way is to use teleportation abilities..."

  The mandrake abruptly interrupted me.

  "Seizure of power. Next?"

  I'll ignore her untypical excitement.

  "Our human brain doesn't like to think, but believing is very easy, but we accept the words of authoritative people on faith. Besides orders from above, we can try to increase the authority of our religion in society. Imoen, what problems did the village experience?"

  Imoen stopped biting her nails and began to remember.

  "Sometimes hunger. Sometimes animals maul someone. In the heat, the well dries up. Many different problems."

  That's not quite what a god deals with...

  "And what problem in the village was discussed most often, what killed the most people?"

  This time Imoen answered quite quickly.

  "Yellow plague decimated half the village, but I didn't witness this moment. I wasn't here yet; I wandered from another village and collected berries and roots. Very fortunate! I stopped wandering and found a home in the village!"

  Luck for some, misfortune for others. But we need to find...

  The drukhari suddenly interjected into the conversation.

  "Good. I approve of the plan. We cut mon-keigh, talk about the goddess, create diseases, heal mon-keigh, talk about the goddess again, get believers. Fast, effective, and without wasting time."

  Well, she clearly misunderstood me...

  I wanted to solve the population's problems... not create them artificially!

  On the other hand. An artificial disease can be created with minimal mortality. With Isha's blessing, mortality from regular diseases will disappear...

  "If we cause a disease, and then cure it. They will speak badly of the goddess."

  How embarrassing to be a colleague believer.

  "Of you three, I feel that only this girl is a believer here."

  "I'm trying, but it's difficult to force myself to turn off my brain."

  "..."

  Should help the two epidemic enthusiasts.

  "So we need to find objects that will serve as disease carriers, then compile a plausible version of events. Where did the yellow plague come from?"

  Rizalia immediately nodded, approving my spontaneous plan. What else to expect from a drukhari?

  "Knights brought some artifacts from ruins, then their skin was covered with a strange rash."

  My hopes that there are no Nurgle's demons in the ruins are shattered to pieces.

  "That's the solution to our problems; we'll just go to the ruins. I'm already hungry, hunting the unborn will be an excellent way to have fun."

  Tell that to the two ordinary believers who will accompany you!

  Imoen nodded happily and picked up her sword from the ground, which she never goes more than a meter away from.

  "Can demons be eaten?"