Chapter 96: Now Watch Me Perform
This... this is how it dies?
This is how it truly dies?
The daemons, engulfed in the flames of vengeance, watched in horror as a Keeper of Secrets perished.
Despair, disbelief—the very expressions they had seen on the souls they had tortured and killed were now reflected back at them as they themselves were sent into eternal death.
"And you," the knight said, raising his sword.
"You're the only one left!"
At almost the same instant, the warriors, their bodies already pushed to their absolute limit, turned as one to face the Great Unclean One, which was still silently hammering at a wall.
Its movements were also sluggish, slow. The fungi falling from its body seeped into the ground after landing, waiting to be decomposed, to reproduce, to provide nutrients for other living things.
As the weary gazes of the warriors fell upon it, the massive giant felt as if it had been pierced by steel needles.
The warriors dragged their feet forward.
They began to march again.
"No, you can't do this to me! The Allfather loves every one of his children! The Allfather will not spare you!"
The Great Unclean One grabbed its flail and slammed it down on a Space Marine. Thanks to the efforts of the other daemons, with the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh having drawn most of the fire, by the time these warriors reached the Great Unclean One, their own bodies had seemingly burned out.
The ravaged body was finally knocked down by the heavy blow.
This gave the Great Unclean One a glimmer of hope. It, which should have loathed hope, actually felt a tiny spark of it as it looked at the scene before it.
That's right, I can still be saved. The knight will also tire. The death of the handmaiden of pleasure will allow the Allfather to pour more of his power into me, the Great Unclean One thought.
But that hope was immediately shattered.
A blinding light made its corrupt pupils shrink. A flame ignited on the body of the fallen warrior.
"Kill it! Kill it!" a voice shrieked in its mind, compelling the Great Unclean One to hammer down again and again, wanting to completely crush this being that defied all common sense, to completely extinguish this flame.
THUMP!
The flail fell again, but was caught by a pair of raised hands.
The Great Unclean One pulled with all its might, but it could not retrieve its weapon.
It looked up. The silent knight had not moved. It was surrounded only by flames.
Flames held up by skeletons, their blood run dry, their flesh fallen away.
Yes, our blood has long since run dry. But we still have fire. The fire called faith.
And, you have your Allfather.
Flames ignited, one after another, replacing the flesh of the warriors. The fire sketched a phantom of their original forms, revealing the pure white skulls within.
We have our Emperor!
You have forgotten. You are not the only gods in the Warp.
*You have forgotten. This ritual, blocked by the knight, did not block him. *
You have forgotten. Even if the cold sun rarely responds, the knight's partner can offer a bargain He cannot refuse.
INHALE—
As if by a siphon, the ritual restarted. The souls of all those who had suffered on the planet slammed into the high walls of the ritual, shattering into fine fragments. A few scattered points of light fell into the grass, turning into tombstones, finally finding eternal peace.
Then, a brilliant golden holy fire ignited, turning the crystals formed from their suffering into nourishment, which was then injected into the bodies in the Warp that had fought the enemies of Mankind until they were withered husks. Even the motes of dust that had surrounded the warriors, the Sisters and Astartes who had long since been sacrificed and turned to ash, took form once more in the burning flames.
When the loyal warrior falls, the Golden Fire will burn.
And the Legion of the Damned shall appear!
"No! No!" The rotten flesh was scorched, turning into a black, shell-like substance that was scraped away. The Great Unclean One frantically swung its weapon, but it was powerless to stop the burning flames from engulfing its body.
The warriors stood once more.
When the scales of the world are tipped back into balance.
We are far greater than you!
"NO!!!"
With the Great Unclean One's final, mournful scream, it turned to ash.
The war was over.
Even the blessings of the Lord of Corruption could not prevent the complete annihilation of its life, because that domain had only one master.
"Tch~"
In the Warp, the Prince of Pleasure tugged at his gown and let out a mocking sneer. He returned with the endless desires to his six-ringed palace. What awaited the creations within would be an endless torment.
"Heh heh."
The Allfather also departed, returning with a magnanimous smile to his corrupted forest to stir his great cauldron, a loving smile on his face. He would create a better child, a child who could carry out His mission.
A single permanent loss. They could accept it. They had plenty of time. The suffering among the endless stars added to their power with every passing moment. As long as the life of this galaxy still pulsed, as long as the stars still turned, They would still exist.
They would never fade.
"Hell yeah!"
Ramesses, while guiding the ritual, was also watching the battlefield. "That's it, kill them like that! I've had it with these damned daemons for a long time."
The sorcerer let out a cheerful laugh, as if seeing a daemon's misfortune was the happiest thing in his life.
The consciousness and the soul were separated. Those poor humans had finally cast off the burden that had made them suffer and had found peace.
He knew his partner's special trait. He knew his partner didn't need his reminder. Arthur's ideal world had never changed. He couldn't help everyone, but he would leave a place for every consciousness, a place that would not be polluted by this world, nor by Ramesses's own thoughts.
Haha! Killing two Greater Daemons, leading a group of avengers to achieve true vengeance, and making the gods lose their entire investment.
Just look at the expressions on those daemons' faces.
To be able to see such a scene... I'd be willing to kick Tzeentch off his throne and take his place!
Ramesses guided the energy in his hands, controlling the ritual's progress. The countless souls he had just obtained began to drop in an exaggerated fashion.
Kairos held back Ka'Bandha. Arthur successfully defeated his opponents, leaving the ritual open for the Emperor. I used this to clear the souls on the planet and bring them into the Emperor's ritual.
Chaos has fallen into civil war. So now, the biggest threat is the Hive Fleet, which now has free rein.
Ramesses had faith in his partners, and in the heroes who had fought through countless wars. But in his and the other transmigrators' view, the victory of a few was not a victory.
Now, it was time for him to perform.
Summoning the Legion of the Damned. This was an idea the transmigrators had proposed long ago, but due to the lack of cooperation from a certain senile old man on the Golden Throne, it had not made much progress.
The Emperor's state was different from the Four Gods'. He had always refused to ascend to godhood, to prevent himself from becoming a twisted Chaos entity. But the price of doing so was passivity. The countless consciousnesses that had been integrated into him could never reach a consensus beyond "protect humanity." And even for that consensus, they would come up with countless different processes.
Getting the Emperor to do something was very difficult, because while He had to use the power of a Warp god to protect humanity, He was also rejecting that power. And the transmigrators had no understanding of the principles of the soul, nor the underlying logic of this universe. They were complete outsiders.
But that didn't stop Ramesses from using brute force.
Since he didn't understand the principles, but could see from the daemon rituals that the Warp's model was universal, then he would just throw souls at it.
He would use souls that no longer contained consciousness, souls that could dilute any emotion, and he would throw them at that greedy, shameless sun until it was willing to spit out some light!
(End of Chapter)