"Phew…
My dark-side power really has spread all the way into the depths of the Vostonia Pan-Sector. I have to get this under control…"
Eden looked at the dark-side warp-energies he had just flood-released, now spilling everywhere, and felt a twinge of concern.
We were talking about a large pan-sector made up of more than a thousand worlds, with a population counted in trillions.
If his corruption spread across that whole region and contaminated ordinary humans on a large scale, that would be very awkward, and very bad.
The various civilised worlds of Vostonia were already struggling desperately to resist the Chaos Gods' invasion.
If a fresh batch of new Chaos cultists suddenly popped up behind their own lines, things would get extremely troublesome.
Under the old Dark Imperium's way of doing things, they would most likely just treat those people as enemies and purge them all the same.
Which would further weaken local defensive strength.
In a situation already this dire, any loss of defensive forces could trigger unexpected disasters and collapses.
If that ended with them failing to hold out until the Salvation Crusade Fleet arrived, then they were all done for.
"Good thing the Terror Legion itself is organised and disciplined, and we also have vanguard detachments already deployed to multiple warzones on various Vostonian worlds.
They can at least help the Salvation Crusade Fleet's main force hold the line a bit longer before the encirclement is fully formed…"
Eden checked the deployment status of each of his combat formations, then finally let out a small sigh of relief.
After that, his consciousness once again dove into the Warp to take direct control of his dark aspect, Diablo the Destroyer, and deal with those scattered warp-energies, burning them off in a more targeted way.
That was not an easy job.
It required him to project massive amounts of divine commands, to influence and guide the thoughts and actions of his worshippers.
Most of the Chaos Gods' "working hours" were spent doing exactly this: grinding away, corrupting and accumulating believers bit by bit, just so that precious power would not be wasted.
"Sigh… I didn't expect that even after becoming a god, I'd still have to clock in and work. Nobody has it easy…"
Eeden complained.
He could now clearly imagine the day-to-day state of the Chaos Gods and of the Emperor: constantly sweeping their gaze across the galaxy and the Warp, taking a look here, checking a hotspot there, pretty much like his own current 'inspection tours'.
Except that they were doing it multi-threaded, paying attention to countless regions at once.
And then making moves at key nodes and locations.
Dropping miracles and blessings, giving favoured believers some little trials and encouragement, planning out their promotion paths, cultivating talent, and so on.
Even the Emperor himself had to keep cultivating Living Saints just to stabilise the overall situation.
Up to now, Eden had basically been leaving Diablo's Terror Legion and its cult networks to free-range on their own.
He had almost never actively guided them.
He was just a ruthless lending machine, tirelessly approving "blood-point loans" and bestowing power on those who met the conditions. The whole process was practically automated.
But that was actually quite a waste.
At key nodes and in key regions, it was still necessary to provide some guidance if you wanted to maximise returns.
The Chaos Gods and the Emperor were playing exactly this kind of game across the chessboard of the Warp and the galaxy: you arrange cultists here to summon a Greater Daemon, then I send in a Living Saint over there;
you corrupt a key figure of mine at a crucial moment, then I dispatch a Cursed Army task force to gun them down or recoup my losses in some other theatre.
At those critical nodes, a nudge from the Chaos Gods or the Emperor could often influence the outcome of an entire war.
Of course, that was not an absolutely decisive factor.
More accurately, it was micro-control, unless they were willing to dump truly massive warp-resources into the field.
Situations where they went completely all-in like that were rare. The Warp and the galaxy were effectively endless, and important wars flared up every moment. They could not afford to throw all their resources into a single spot.
Otherwise, their enemies would simply break through in some other direction and inflict even greater losses.
That was why so much careful calculation was required, and also one of the reasons the Chaos Gods had pulled out of the earlier faith-war.
"Fortunately, I don't have to think about any of that. I just dump dark-side warp-juice and burn it off, and that's that."
Eden didn't really have resource pressure.
His real base was in the galaxy; Diablo was just a side hustle he ran on the weekends, and he had no interest in truly ascending to godhood.
Naturally he had no need to stockpile warp-energy.
On top of that, the Emperor had already been saving dark-side warp-power for him for ten thousand years, and it was still accumulating every moment.
There was simply no way to ever spend it all!
Eden took hold of his dark aspect, Diablo, and began to study how to control and mobilise faith like a true god.
Previously, the most he could do was hand out some blessings or hallucinations; anything more subtle than that had been beyond his reach.
Now that his authority had levelled up, he finally got to experience what the world looked like from a god's perspective, able to press deeper influence on his worshippers.
Vmm—
The instant Eden sank his mind into the control of faith-energy, a feeling of omnipotence washed over him, as if the entire Warp and galaxy spread themselves open before his eyes.
He was standing in a higher dimension.
Immediately afterward came a violent bout of dizziness.
The prayers of innumerable believers, along with a flood of images, exploded across his thoughts. They did grant him broader vision and information, but also brought crushing pressure.
It was like a computer suddenly opening a ridiculous number of windows; the CPU was overloaded and ready to crash.
"Diablo, I need more power!"
"Slaughter!"
"I want sharp horns and a bigger, sharper axe!"
"Great Lord of Terror, please let me and my children have enough to eat. Anything is fine…"
"Raaah, raaah, raaah, gu gu gu gu gu~"
Right now Eden's consciousness felt heavily congested.
The calls of his followers merged into a shrill screeching, and the countless emotions and faith-currents were slamming into his mind like waves.
After just this short experience, he almost sank into depression and even had the impulse to self-destruct.
"We're screwed, we're so screwed…"
Eden's head throbbed like it was going to split.
He quickly snapped out of it and began severing as many faith-links as he could.
He had to close all the unnecessary windows to keep the system running. If he actually crashed, he might really end up a slave to his own faith.
After that, Eden sat there numb for quite a while before he managed to pull himself together.
At last he had personally tasted what the Emperor was enduring right now.
The worst part was that, because the Emperor's faith-links ran far too deep, the Emperor had no way to screen them out.
Which meant that every single whispered prayer to the Emperor from priests, soldiers, and civilians alike slammed into the old man's mind as noise and emotional interference.
Those priests who prayed every single day were practically critting the Emperor's psyche nonstop.
"The Emperor really can endure. If it were me, I'd have broken long ago."
Eden sighed.
No wonder the Emperor had almost been moved to tears when Eden launched his Imperial Cult Reformation, and had gazed over at him so deeply, full of relief.
With a hint of that look you give someone on their way to the execution ground.
Because the Reformation had diverted massive amounts of personal faith away from the Emperor as an individual and toward the Golden Sun and the Savior instead.
It was a huge rerouting.
The Book of Salvation also contained very little on the Emperor himself; the content about him was highly condensed and did not need to be recited daily. It was more like a Sunday-service kind of thing.
In other words, it was a major noise-reduction effort.
"No wonder the Emperor has been so tolerant of me. I just punched him and he didn't even complain."
Eden tried to put himself in the Emperor's position.
If he were the Emperor, he would do everything possible to shield the one person who could share his pain, terrified that anything might happen to them.
With this much faith-noise howling in your mind, Eden's heart started pounding, and a sense of unease crept in.
"Sigh… I'm going to have to streamline the Book of Salvation even more, and simplify the New Imperial Creed's worship procedures, cut the frequency as much as possible.
Something this sacred shouldn't be casually chanted all the time.
From now on, apart from formal services and times of real crisis, no one is allowed to keep muttering it. And Imperial priests are absolutely forbidden to chant outside the set hours.
When the shift ends, you clock out. That's an order from the Savior."
Eden was also worried that too much of this diverted faith would end up blowing him up instead.
He mulled over the future of belief in the Imperium, thinking hard about what to do.
However you looked at it, the road of faith ultimately led to a dead end. At best it was a temporary stopgap.
If humanity wanted a true future, it still had to be science and the Imperial Truth.
Eden planned to write more content on science and the Imperial Truth into the Book of Salvation, gradually slimming down the proportion devoted to faith.
To keep faith within a reasonable range, something that comforted the spirit, without degenerating into fanatical superstition.
That way both the Emperor and Eden himself would be less likely to blow up.
Humanity could gather will and authority, but should not over-concentrate faith or pin too many hopes on so-called gods and the Warp.
If the Warp or those gods went wrong, then everyone would go down together.
As for Chaos cults and dark-side power, those already existed as facts of the universe.
All Eden had to do was use and burn them as much as possible, which in turn helped the Emperor.
His job was simple: expand his Chaos forces as far as possible, burn down more of the dark-side power, and share some of the Sacred Sun's pressure.
That would be good for both the galaxy and the Imperium. Nobody wanted this colossal time bomb to go off.
With that in mind, Eden decided to make use of the Chaos Gods' current state of being "bled dry and wary," and, while they were still hesitating, use those scattered warp-energies to poach more of what should have been their believers in the Vostonia Pan-Sector.
If he poached fast enough, then by the time they reacted, it would be too late to stop him.
They would have no way to mount an effective counterattack.
Having made up his mind, Eden focused on adapting to his dark aspect Diablo's faith authority, gradually shrinking the scope of his links.
He locked them down onto the Vostonia Pan-Sector.
Soon, he heard more and more prayers from within the ranks of Chaos, especially from the newest Chaos warriors who had just joined the Terror Legion. Their passion was enormous.
Eden listened to these Chaos warriors' expectations and prayers one by one, and dispensed blessings in turn, reshaping their bodies.
He found that, just like the Chaos Gods, he could now actively send warp-power into reality in a fine-tuned way, guiding and sculpting the forms of Chaos beings.
Instead of simply throwing a lump of warp-stuff at them and ignoring the rest.
This was a deeper level of using faith-energy.
"Great Lord of Terror, I wish for sharper daemon-horns and an even fiercer axe!"
Suddenly, from the many prayers, Eden heard a voice filled with fanaticism that caught his attention.
He turned his gaze upon that warrior.
It was a Chaos Terminator named Arno, his trophy rack showing he'd earned a great many kills, and his faith in Diablo was decent.
More importantly, this Chaos warrior had his own unique flavour: heavily muscled, with a slightly pointy head.
"Arno, huh? Worth training. Looks like a top-tier fighter who can withstand a lot more warp-modification…"
Eden nodded with satisfaction, then used Diablo's authority to pour more warp-power into Arno, further transforming his flesh.
He even made a point of fulfilling the man's specific wishes.
"The Lord of Destruction and Terror has favoured me. Arno has become stronger. Roar!!"
As Diablo's blessing surged through him, the Chaos Terminator Arno grew more and more powerful. His body became clad in thick, armour-like plates of horned chitin, and hellfire erupted over his frame.
Most importantly, his skull grew even sharper, sprouting a triangular daemon-horn.
Anyone seeing him would immediately notice that pointy head.
This Chaos Terminator, under Diablo's blessing, had just been elevated to the rank of Chaos Champion.
Of course, Eden hadn't done this by brute-pulling him up; the man had already possessed that potential. That was the only reason the warp-blessing could take so well.
In truth, quite a few Chaos warriors had the potential to become Champions.
But so long as their contributions were insufficient or they hadn't passed enough trials, the Chaos Gods would never grant them that much warp-power.
The same amount of warp-power might be better spent making a single Greater Daemon, which was more controllable and cost-effective.
In Eden's case, though, all that changed.
His only problem was not knowing how to burn through all that dark-side warp-power quickly enough.
After this latest round of blessings, the Terror Legion's devotion to Diablo deepened further, and their military strength grew again.
Once those newly recruited Terror warriors received their standard "newcomer kit," then took out another round of blood-point loans, they would become even stronger!
After using these Chaos warriors as practice targets and getting fully familiar with fine-grained faith control, Eden immediately turned his attention toward the deeper Vostonia regions.
To start guiding those dispersed warp-energies.
…
Vostonia Pan-Sector, a certain mining world, Hive City.
The warp-born multicoloured smog had mixed with industrial exhaust, forming a far more disgusting and lethal miasma.
Whispers, mutters, and screams spread through the fog.
With a rift stretching across the whole pan-sector, warp-energy had poured into this world.
Countless miners had died to the warp-fog and the attacks of Chaos monstrosities.
Horrific plagues were spreading.
All the cities outside the hive had already fallen, and even the Hive itself was tottering. The refugees crammed inside were all on edge.
Such chaos and helplessness had bred the birth of still more cults.
In the underhive's power district…
Kill-runes covered every surface, enough to make minds reel. Skulls had been impaled and raised on spikes, and piles of bones lay stacked against the walls.
Cultists constantly tossed human bodies into a blood-pool.
The Blood God's worshippers had butchered an entire hab-block, hoping to use all that slaughter and blood to summon a great champion of their god, the legendary Chaos Daemon.
This emissary of the God of Slaughter would grant them more power and lead them to smash the hive's upper defences, ushering in a true feast of killing.
"We offer up delicious slaughter, o supreme one. Please send us a messenger of bloodshed…"
The blood-reaver priest atop a platform made of bones prayed to a massive pillar carved with kill-runes, chanting esoteric liturgies.
He was performing the final steps of the ritual, calling forth an emissary of slaughter.
"That one has answered us. He has favoured this world!"
As the blood-reaver priest prayed, the blood-pool began to churn and spin, sigils lighting up in turn, and an aura of horrific slaughter spread out.
The Blood God's worshippers were ecstatic.
Yet right as the summoning neared completion, the boiling of the pool suddenly stopped.
"What… what's happening?"
The abrupt halt of the summoning left the Blood God's cultists frozen, completely at a loss.
Had they not offered enough sacrifices?!
Boom!
Before they could react, the pillar dedicated to the Blood God erupted in flame, and the bone altar collapsed in on itself with a roar.
"No—"
The blood-reaver priest crashed hard to the ground.
Tears dripped from his clouded eyes, his voice trembling on the edge of sobbing.
"My god… are our offerings unworthy of your favour? I beg you, cast your merciful gaze upon us.
This world cries out for your salvation, needs the cleansing of slaughter!"
But no matter how he prayed and pleaded, the Blood God did not grant any reply.
Even the aura of slaughter that had been here before was fading away.
Their god had utterly rejected the sacrifices of his own followers.
The ritual site went from dead silent to increasingly restless.
More cultists fell into despair, and a faint note of dissatisfaction crept into their hearts.
They had been abandoned without mercy!
In this trough of emotion, the cultists became aware of another presence, one whose power seemed even more terrifying.
New warp-power rose to replace what had once been the Blood God's killing-aura.
"Diablo…"
The blood-reaver priest struggled back to his feet.
The body that had weakened as the Blood God's aura dissipated now grew stronger and more vigorous.
His voice shook with mounting excitement.
"The god of destruction and terror, the most destructive presence in the Warp, a new god has favoured us, his poor lambs!"
It was not just the priest.
The other cultists also felt Diablo's presence, his name resounding in their minds.
This being had violently seized and replaced what had once been the Blood God's claim.
Across several square kilometres of ritual ground, kill-runes were devoured by hellfire, skulls burst into burning torches, and the blood-pool boiled to steam. New dark-gold sigils appeared everywhere.
The Lord of Destruction and Terror cast his merciful gaze upon them and revealed a miracle.
"Praise Diablo!"
The cultists shouted the Lord of Terror's name with fanatic fervour, charged through the flames, and toppled the massive pillar that had once represented the Blood God.
In its place, a bloodstone pyramid floated in mid-air, and above it a hell-wreathed daemon-form manifested: Diablo the Destroyer, looming like a god.
Under the priest's lead, the cultists completely cast off their old faith.
They became Diablo's worshippers.
They knelt and prostrated themselves before the Dark Destroyer, the Lord of Terror!
At the same time, the rage of the Chaos Gods boiled across the Warp.
They fumed:
"What has that madman done?! He actually stripped away our followers?!"
This was naked robbery, and among the Chaos Gods it was taboo, tantamount to a declaration of total enmity.
What was more, stealing another god's believers required even greater expenditure of warp-power; most of the time it was an outright losing deal.
In simple, mortal terms: it was hurting others without helping yourself.
Normally, there was absolutely no way a Chaos God would do such a thing.
But Diablo had done just that, using those scattered masses of warp-power to directly snatch other gods' worshippers away.
It was the most vicious "steal your spouse" move imaginable.
He was a complete, utter lunatic.
What the Chaos Gods did not know was that for Eden, this was pure profit.
Every believer he stole was one more in the black, and he was in no danger of running short of warp-power.
"We must stop that madman and take our followers back!"
The Blood God's great shadow writhed, endless fury burning.
He proposed that the Chaos Gods act together again, paying an even higher price to reclaim their believers and give Diablo a lesson.
But the other gods hesitated, and Khorne did not dare charge in alone.
The Chaos Gods had been traumatised by Diablo's previous "hundred-billion warp-subsidy" stunt, left so bled and shaking that their metaphorical livers hurt.
They had no idea whether the madman still had the ability to do it again.
Who would dare to bet on that?
They could not possibly accompany this lunatic in burning more of their precious warp-power for no benefit at all.
It was like a contest to see who could throw more money into a lake to make the bigger splash.
Aside from maniacs, who would join such a game?
Their consumption had been too great.
Their reserves of faith-energy were not as fat as legend portrayed, and they had already poured enormous amounts of warp-power into breeding weapons meant to destroy the Savior and the Lion.
And in the instant the Chaos Gods faltered, Diablo struck again.
That cost them their last chance to act.
They could only stand there and watch the losses pile up, completely helpless.
The Chaos Gods' vast shadow-forms trembled; their collective mentality was on the verge of snapping.
To clash with that lunatic head-on was a loss.
To do nothing was also a loss.
It was intolerable.
"Hahahaha, the old geezers really did chicken out.
If you've got warp-power, you can do whatever you like…"
Seeing the Chaos Gods' hesitation, Eden seized his opportunity and grabbed another swathe of faith-territory and worshippers.
Poaching people with zero interference like this was pure bliss.
In reality, he had no way to launch another huge "hundred-billion warp-subsidy" in the short term. If the Chaos Gods really went all-out, he might not be able to hold.
But since they were scared…
He could only be even more brazen in his theft.
Only that would keep them cowed; he could not afford the slightest hint of weakness.
The whole point was to be louder and bolder than anyone else.
Then Eden issued divine commands through his dark aspect, guiding his new believers to conduct a summoning.
"Offer destruction and terror to Diablo!"
In that underhive power district, the priests led what had once been the Blood God's cultists, now repurposed, using the accumulated warp-energy to build a new summoning circle.
They were now worshippers of the Lord of Terror, and would call forth his emissary of destruction.
Not long after, a blazing Hellgate opened.
The flames were savage and exultant, warp-power surging like a tide.
Something terrible was just about to step through that gate of hell…
(End of Chapter)
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