Editing Quest:The Long Night:Sparks at Midnight (section)

==Onto the Semi-Finals==

And next, the inevitable happens. That which everyone expected to happen centuries ago.

Abaddon's englobement breaks.

The forces of Mag'ladroth rush through the breach. Before they can advance far, however, a Necron force arrives. A dozen planetaries with escorts. Then, the Dragon manages to hack most of those. At this point, Szarekh arrives with the main Necron forces and an updated antivirus, and it's back to waiting until the Krork are free to join in. The Deceiver's forces seem to be on the backfoot, so hopefully, it won't be too long.

Abaddon still has most of his elites, and you are not sure what he intends to do next. Perhaps attack Quartus?

Callamus has launched a major offensive against the Ophelian Theocracy. The guys have managed to stall them for a while through Imperium-level casualties, but since they don't seem to have Imperium-level reserves, it seems unlikely they'll last long.

Back on Avernus, the Lizardmen are preparing for war, believing, and with good reason, that they'll soon be joining. Imbac hands the Eldar the Old Ones' diplomatic protocols from the War in Heaven; hopefully, Szarekh will be up for cooperation here.

Jane is back from a decade-long mission with the Eldar, thrown against powerful daemons to advance her on the path of godhood. She makes three steps. Her armour glows with power now, yet she herself is more stealthy than ever.

Meanwhile, you start on one of the most expensive projects in the history of the Trust. Remember how you expanded your Psyker School to house five thousand? Now, you are expanding it to a Hive housing a hundred and fifty million psykers, and a billion population total. With other schools housing twenty million students each, and almost ten million psykers recruited per year, you hope this will be enough for a century or so more.

Dark stirrings are felt in the Kingdom of Confusion. This is a nearby Chaos realm with a level of infighting and self-contradiction above the normal even for the Five, but now, someone seems to be making it cut down. Investigations give a very disturbing result. The First Prince is preparing it as a bolthole in case matters start looking bad.

On the Deceiver front, the matters are... mixed. The Krork seem to be close to a total victory, but the Tau are barely in the major players league, and Ultramar is probably outside it. The Deceiver's final struggle seems to be an attempt to destroy Pech. Since the Kroot homeworld is one of the main Primal Warp planets, its defence is critical.

Callamus seems to be close to destroying the Ophelians. Not only are these out of reserves, the Tjapan forces have recently broken a lot of teeth when attempting the planned assault on Solemnace, augmented by the fact that Solariel, the first of the Abomination's Exalted, chose to disobey the Star Father and remain on the Dragon Front rather than take part. Him and his forces are heretics now, but you're not going to cry over that.

On the Dragon front, the Silent King made some headway at first, but is now being pushed back. So far, it seems unlikely he will hold for so much as a quarter of the years Abaddon managed. His opinion on being outdone by an upstart thousands of times younger than him is currently unknown.

And speaking of Abaddon, he is in deep these days. A few years ago, he went to a huge party hosted by Vect, and there, one of his bodyguards had tried to assassinate him. Now, the Black Imperium is in a revolt manipulated by the Alpha Legion. Even if Abaddon manages to put it down, he is unlikely to remain in a position to attack anyone. Seems like without the Ynnari keeping his realm stable, the guy's luck has just ran out.

On Avernus, the most visible (literally) event is the actions of Ri'bit, the first Slann to be born in this age. It is a shining Warp Citadel, a big shining Frack You broadcast at Chaos. And also a mini-Astronomican. So far, even incomplete, it has doubled the Warp speeds within the subsector, with gradually diminishing bonuses to more distant areas. It also makes it harder for Chaos to corrupt psykers.

And finally, there is the matter of Jane. But first, a small detour.

===Transcendent Traits===

Transcendent. The level beyond Paragon. A holy grail possessed by only a handful of beings in the galaxy. Szarekh got his for defeating the Old Ones and the C'tan. Areatha, for taking out An'ggrath. He-Who-Walks-Obliquely, for truekilling an Exalted in the Warp. These are the real gamebreaker traits. Ridcully got a roll for some of his deeds against Nurgle, Saint Lin, for reviving Guilliman, Jane, for some early kills of Alpha-Plus psykers and Honoured Daemons, Grand Marshal Garzorane, for holding out against the Twins...

All have failed. So many sidestories were written to improve the rolls, and all failed. And now, Jane has succeeded. On a completely unexpected, one-in-a-hundred-and-fifty-million-roll.

Now, any enemy fighting her can no longer use any esoteric effects. Plain combat prowess is all they can rely upon. Not that the mightiest daemons lack that, but we are still talking about a real (even if not very high) chance even against an Exalted.

Also, she is unaging now, as all Transcendents are. While the Eldar were already providing her with Ultimate Juvenat ensuring the same (as they did with Rotbart and Ridcully), now there is a free slot. Time to start thinking who will be getting it.

And apparently, she is skilled enough now to take some fencing lessons from the Ancient One.