Not only Khorne the Blood God, but the other Chaos Powers as well were pouring out their evil-energy.
They were using it to win back the Chaos worshippers in this region, trying to keep them from being poached by Diablo.
To the Chaos Gods, these Chaos warriors were high-quality believers. They would not abandon them easily.
Warp-energy projected down into the area, splashing even more riotous colours across the void.
The Chaos worshippers could feel their gods' presence.
Their great deities had answered.
That filled them with excitement.
They felt new strength and fury well up inside them, so they could answer the Ruinous Powers' gifts with counter-attacks of their own.
"Blood God…!
"The great one has not abandoned his faithful—he has answered our call…"
Arno, warrior of the Blood-Binders, Chaos Terminator, could feel the surge from the Warp.
The Blood God had given him encouragement, urging him to keep fighting.
All he had to do was keep killing to earn that blessing.
Slowly, war-fire lit up in Arno's eyes.
He pushed himself back to his feet and no longer feared the Terror Warrior before him.
He wasn't alone.
All around him, more of Khorne's warriors were feeling the same, even managing to briefly stall the Terror Legion's charge.
In simple terms: Khorne and the other Chaos Powers were throwing out emergency subsidy-blessings, like a hit of divine stimulants.
These "evil-energy subsidies" stoked the Chaos warriors' morale and kept them from being tempted into the arms of Diablo the King of Terror.
The Chaos Powers' "subsidy package" was tremendously strong.
"Blood for the Blood God!"
On the bridge of the Blood-Binders' flagship, Khorne's warriors managed to hold off the Terror Warriors forcing their way in.
Arno even managed to use his battered blood-axe to drive back the Terror Warrior in front of him.
The memories of fear in his mind felt like they were being burned away.
Once again, he had the power to control his own life.
Their warlord, the Chaos Lord, had received an even greater portion of favour.
His four-metre-tall frame swelled, crimson and bloated, and the swings of his great axe whipped up storms of blood-wind.
The metal walls around him and the incoming bolt-rounds were all carved to pieces.
Alone, he held back the Terror Legion's elite, giving Khorne's warriors hope and shoring up their shattered faith.
His power was approaching that of a Primarch.
"Roooar—
"Khorne's warriors will never bow! We will fight to the death!"
Arno scrambled upright, raising his blood-axe and roaring.
The horn on his skull seemed sharper, his body flush with new strength.
The Blood-Binders… still had a chance at victory.
The very next second, the Chaos Terminator heard a tooth-aching shriek of tearing metal.
Then he felt a faint suction from above his head.
He looked up—and saw a nightmare.
The bridge armour overhead had been ripped open in a massive breach, and a towering shadow descended through it.
The Lord of the Terror Legion—Dark Prince.
With physical strength alone, that being had shredded three metres of alloy plate.
The evil-flames flowing off his body were turning the surrounding metal into liquid, making it drip and run.
His mere presence brought a crushing wave of terror.
The howls and gunfire all across the bridge froze for a heartbeat.
"Destroy that intruder!"
The Chaos Lord's heavily armoured bodyguard recovered first.
They turned their linked heavy bolters on the descending Dark Prince, drenching him in a storm of massive shells.
The heavy rounds slammed into his corded, sharply defined muscles and armour—and bounced off almost instantly.
All they did was kick out a few sparks.
Clang-clang-clang—
"Your firepower's too weak. What era do you think this is, still using low-end Imperial antiques like this? It's barely a tickle."
Eden didn't raise a single shield.
He simply walked forward into the storm of shells.
Round after round fell away from him, molten and tumbling.
Even plasma shots hitting him in the face only left thin red marks.
Poisonous grenades burst against his hands, and he just crushed them in his fist, the detonations washing over him without leaving a scratch.
That was the horror of his Chaos flesh.
Only high-grade melta weapons or power weapons could inflict any real damage.
Under that overwhelming presence, the Chaos bodyguards felt real fear.
They gave ground step by step as he advanced.
In moments, Eden had forced back a personal guard of hundreds.
Every single one of them was an elite Chaos warrior.
The shock of seeing them pushed back so easily rippled through all the other Chaos troops.
"Blood for the Blood God!"
At last, the bodyguards found they had nowhere left to retreat to.
Shame burned in them, and—spurred on by Khorne's energy—they swung their power axes and charged.
Sadly, their attacks posed no threat at all.
With a casual sweep of his wings and molten iron tail, Eden swatted them aside one after another.
They smashed into walls and machinery and did not rise again.
"Invader, die!"
The Chaos Lord seized the opening.
He leapt in, great axe descending with all his might toward the Dark Prince, the leader of these Chaos raiders.
Backed by his god's gifts, this high lord of Khorne was unleashing power that almost reached a Primarch's level.
Clang—
A burst of sparks.
For a heartbeat, the Chaos Lord's eyes lit up with joy.
He had hit the Dark Prince.
The axe had slammed into the invader's chest, bit through the armour, and sunk deep into his flesh.
For a Chaos warrior, that was a grave wound.
"You should be afraid."
The next moment, the Chaos Lord saw the Dark Prince's expression.
There was no pain there at all.
Only a faint smile.
Realising the danger, he tried to yank his axe back and retreat—but found he couldn't move the weapon at all.
Eden wrapped his hand around the haft and pulled it free from his own chest.
Then he gave a small tug—
And simply tore the weapon out of the Chaos Lord's hands.
The other man's veins bulged, then went slack, leaving him staring stupidly at his empty fingers.
Clang.
Eden had no interest in Chaos artefacts. He tossed the axe aside.
In the Chaos Lord's terrified gaze, Eden raised his fist—
And moved.
The punch hit with a howling gale.
It was like watching a Warlord Titan shoulder-check the man.
The Chaos Lord slammed into the bulkhead and vanished into it, panels buckling inward.
The entire bridge shook from the impact.
One single punch was enough to cripple him.
Eden stepped up in front of the Chaos Lord's half-buried form, looking down.
He reached out and clamped a hand around his throat, lifting him until their eyes were level.
"You're too weak.
"Bend the knee.
"Offer exalted worship to Diablo the Destroyer.
"You'll gain more power than this—enough that you won't be pathetically flattened by a single punch from me…"
Eden's gaze was icy.
His voice crackled like a hellish blaze, flecks of fire spitting out with every word.
He was canvassing for his own shadow-identity, Diablo.
A Chaos Lord of this class would be a fine addition to the Terror Legion.
Even better, he'd be stealing him directly from Khorne.
Twice the satisfaction.
Nor was this an isolated case.
The same scene was playing out in many other places—dozens of Chaos warbands were struggling under the Terror Legion's assault.
"No—"
The Chaos Lord thrashed in his grip, roaring out a refusal.
Even now, he rejected submission.
He rejected Diablo's power.
Which was… strange.
Normally, when faced with such irresistible strength, a Chaos warrior would choose to yield.
They were Chaos Marines, not daemons bound in slavery to a god, and warbands devouring one another was nothing unusual.
"I see. So the Blood God and his friends have finally stepped in…"
Eden's psychic senses caught the shift in the background and he understood.
Khorne and the other Chaos Powers had realised that his shadow-identity, Diablo, was poaching their followers.
So they had begun pouring in their own evil-energy.
The energy they projected into the area was diluting Diablo's aura of terror and actively squeezing out his influence.
In simple terms, Khorne and the others were now counter-attacking his move to seize Chaos worship.
They had finally understood the concept of "discounted blessings"—running a sale on evil-energy and "raising wages" for their followers, lowering the bar for boons.
They were even teaming up to shut him out.
At that very moment, in the Warp—
A war of gods was quietly exploding in the medium of faith.
Led by the Blood God, the Chaos Powers were each projecting different amounts of evil-energy.
At incredible speed, they were driving out Diablo's presence.
"For a brute, the Blood God's pretty quick on the uptake. I'd bet this was the Changer of Ways' idea…"
The speed of their response caught Eden off guard.
He hadn't expected Khorne and the others to burn this much power so fast.
If he lost this war of belief, his plan to absorb Chaos warriors and expand the Terror Legion might collapse.
Worse, it could damage Diablo's power itself.
If countless Chaos warriors watched the King of Terror's might crumble under the Chaos Gods' assault—
The damage to Diablo's reputation could be permanent.
His standing would plummet.
He would never again be seen as a peer of the Ruinous Powers.
That was how the Warp worked.
Faith and belief cut both ways.
Gods and worshippers shaped one another.
Divine beings had no way around that. They could only face it.
It meant that the powers of the Warp were not truly omniscient or omnipotent.
They had to endure the constant influence of their followers.
So they did everything they could to keep their true selves hidden far behind the scenes, avoiding direct exposure to their worshippers whenever possible.
That was the only way to keep their image from being warped too badly.
But in critical moments, a god still had to step forward and defend their own image and concept.
And Eden himself—this still-developing Warp-god—was no exception.
If his followers decided their god "wasn't all that," then he really might not be.
But if they collectively believed he was incredibly powerful—
Then he would become just that.
The classic example was the Emperor.
Through dogma and myth, the Ecclesiarchy had shaped Him into an invincible saviour who delivered all from suffering.
The reflection of all that belief into the Warp had forged the accursed one the daemons feared above all—the colossal Holy Sun.
Another example was the Demon-Eater.
Eden's dark-side power had grown so much partly because the daemons feared the Demon-Eater.
That faith-fear feedback had fed its growth.
But the Demon-Eater was not a god. Its room to grow was limited.
So Eden had spun up another legend, crafting Diablo as a being on par with the Chaos Gods.
He hoped to use that image to siphon worship.
Which meant Diablo's backstory had to be that of a supreme god among the Warp-powers.
If his "tier" was low from the very beginning, that would plant a concept deep in his followers' minds—
That Diablo was not a supreme power of the Warp at all, but something more like Be'lakor or Vashtorr.
That would cripple the shadow-identity's future.
He would never become truly mighty, never be able to wrestle with the Chaos Gods as an equal.
Step by step, with the Terror Legion and all kinds of myths feeding into him, Diablo's image had been growing clearer.
It was beginning to take solid shape.
Now that he'd picked a direct fight with the Chaos Gods, he absolutely could not afford to let Diablo's "bigness" collapse.
If the image and faith shattered, it would all crumble.
"I can't lose. No matter what…"
Eeden thought grimly.
He could already feel the shift in how the Chaos warriors, the Terror Legion, and even humanity saw Diablo in this war-zone.
It was even starting to drag down the Terror Warriors' overall morale.
Worse still, he was running out of gas.
Continuous evil-energy output had almost exhausted Diablo's faith-pool.
In other words, under the combined pressure of the four native Ruinous Powers, his reserves were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
The fabled "big-spender god" was about to be exposed as broke.
The situation was critical.
Whatever he did, he had to choose now.
Without hesitation, Eden drove Diablo to expend the last of his evil-energy.
In the Warp, a towering, deep-red godlike figure with massive, crown-like curved horns—the projection of Diablo—appeared opposite the Chaos Powers' projections.
He was the embodiment of terror and destruction.
He roared a world-shaking challenge and hurled his remaining energy down toward the fleet-zone.
It was a final, unconditional subsidy—free blood-point packets for the Terror Warriors.
Seeing this, Khorne and the other Chaos Powers smiled in contempt.
They knew this was Diablo's last gasp.
Then, gritting their teeth, they threw down another wave of power.
Also unconditional.
A mixed tide of energy even larger than Diablo's.
The war of belief grew even fiercer.
"Offer terror and destruction to Diablo!"
The Terror Warriors roared with excitement.
Even the Chaos warriors could feel how Diablo blessed his followers—lavishly, without condition.
"How can this be… what is their god doing for them?!"
Arno clenched the haft of his blood-axe, his heart trembling, a streak of envy flashing through him.
Diablo lavished his faithful with power, giving freely and generously.
Even Arno could feel that tremendous evil-energy.
For a moment, he couldn't help imagining…
If that power descended on him—how wonderful it would be.
The next instant, a new surge of strength ripped through his body, sending his rage spiralling even higher.
That was Khorne's gift.
The Blood God was blessing his followers too, and more lavishly than Diablo.
"Invader, we will never bow to your god!"
Arno snarled, catching the Terror Warrior's blade on his axe and venting all his pent-up emotion in a roar.
He wasn't alone.
More Chaos warriors were doing the same.
They were resisting the Terror Legion's aura and recruitment drive, refusing to worship Diablo.
It was not a good sign.
"All right, all right, so we're doing an evil-energy subsidy price war now, huh?"
Eden drew a deep breath.
He could feel his scalp starting to go numb.
Diablo's evil-energy reserves were all but empty.
He was right on the edge of defeat.
Thankfully, he still had one more move—
He could use his devouring aspect to steal a batch of dark-aspect power from the Emperor's shadow.
That was his safety net.
As long as he had that, he still had a shot at turning this around.
In that case, they'd just start the hundred-billion-point subsidy war early.
See who ran out first.
Wummm—
In the Warp, under Eden's control, the shrunken Hope Sun stirred, turning its gaze toward the Emperor's Holy Sun.
Then Eden sent a psychic message, urgently prodding:
"Old man, I want to borrow some dark-side power to cover an emergency—
"Give me as much as you can."
In the past, he'd never dared to do something this reckless.
At most, he'd used his devouring power to sip a little of the Holy Sun's positive faith-energy.
The Emperor would sometimes casually toss him lumps of faith to absorb.
But he had never dared to touch the Emperor's dark aspect.
He'd been afraid that much vast, black power would slam his own corruption progress bar forward too far, too fast.
If the Emperor hadn't fully gone over to the dark yet, but he did first, that would be a headache and a half.
Because until Diablo fully matured, Eden simply couldn't digest that much dark-aspect power.
And to output dark-aspect power, he needed appropriate channels and outlets.
With so few dark-side worshippers, he had no way to bless it outward.
He wasn't about to start pouring corrupting power into the Imperium's own warriors.
The Emperor would kill him.
But now, Diablo had grown to a certain point.
He had enough Chaos followers under his banner, and he had run headfirst into a war of faith.
So he could finally try borrowing the Emperor's dark-aspect power.
Worst-case, he just burned all of it up.
No harm done.
Boom—
Shortly after Eden sent out his "loan request," the Holy Sun flared awake, ripples pulsing out in rings.
It was wildly active.
Eden could feel thick waves of satisfaction in it—joy, excitement, a sense of finally, finally reaching this moment.
The old man Emperor seemed… really worked up.
The Hope Sun edged back a little, uneasy.
Eden sent another psychic ping, a bit sheepish:
"Let me just say this first—I'm not going to borrow too much dark-side power, otherwise…"
Like taking out consumer credit, he had to think about his ability to accept and repay.
Borrow too much and he'd break.
He had no desire to absorb too much faith-power either.
That would inflate his divine nature too quickly and push him too close to apotheosis.
Before he could finish sending the message, the Holy Sun's hidden, terrifying dark aspect surged like a tidal wave.
The Hope Sun swelled violently under that dark infusion, its power skyrocketing.
What the hell?!
(End of Chapter)
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