Horus's body trembled violently as he absorbed the power from Nurgle's foul concoction. He fell to his knees, a hoarse, agonized scream tearing from his throat.
The pain was absolute. A terrifying chaotic energy was baptizing his body in torment.
"Little Horus, this something I made just for you," Nurgle said, his voice a gurgling rumble. He watched the convulsing primarch with an expectant gaze, "It possesses unimaginable life energy. You see, I am the embodiment of all life in this universe."
The other three pursed their lips at this proclamation, sure, life needed to persist for their to be decay.
"That boy, Axis, he brought me quite a surprise."
"You bloated green thing, are you sure about this?" Slaanesh inquired, "You're not going to kill him, are you?"
"Impossible," Nurgle declared, "My brews are the finest. As long as he can absorb the life energy within, his mortal form will become a being of superlative perfection and strength, more than capable of containing the power of that Ki."
Nurgle considered himself the true incarnation of the universe's life force.
He loved all life, and to him, humanity was merely a grand collection of living organisms. His special brew would strengthen every single cell in Horus's body, empowering every microscopic life form within him.
"Aaargh!" Horus's screams grew even more piercing.
The veins all over his body bulged, and an eerie green energy began to course through him. The Warmaster's eyes blazed with a sickening green light, a truly horrifying sight.
"He will endure," Tzeentch proclaimed, "He is, after all, our chosen one."
An unknown amount of time passed before Horus's screams finally ceased. By then, his height had surged to four and a half meters.
His muscles were so defined they seemed to strain against his skin, and his black battle plate clung to him like the hide of some monstrous beast.
"Hah... It seems I survived," Horus rasped, wiping a trickle of blood from his lips as he staggered to his feet.
Drinking the vile brew felt familiar, like the time he had consumed the fruit from the Tree of Might, but this sensation was infinitely more savage, more chaotic, like something unly was mixed within.
It was a baptism in the decaying life of the universe. In that moment, he knew he had been utterly reborn.
"We are not finished, Horus," Slaanesh purred, "Now comes your true test. The time has come to accept the Ki we had gathered.
"We pushed that boy to his absolute limit, to the very peak a mortal can achieve to aquire this for you. While it may be finite, it will be more than enough."
Slaanesh and Khorne exchanged a glance. On each their palms, a sphere of brilliant, blue-white light materialized. Infinitely compressed by the flowing folds of space, isolated form their body and domain.
"Come," Horus said, his voice firm with resolve, "I am ready. This time, I will gain the strength to defeat them all."
He would rescue his mother.
He would make the tyrant sitting upon the throne pay for his sins.
The four Chaos Gods nodded in unison.
The Ki of Axis, combined with the blessing of the Ruinous Powers, flooded into Horus's body.
The Warmaster of Chaos had, in the truest sense, completed his metamorphosis. He had become the chosen champion of the Four.
When Horus opened his eyes again, a terrifying aura erupted from his form, an oppressive presence that made even the Daemon princes of the warp cower.
Khorne nodded with deep satisfaction. In this state, Horus was even more powerful than the emanation of himself that had once fought Axis. The effort they had expended to acquire and preserve that Ki had clearly paid off.
"Your empowerment is complete, Horus," Tzeentch said, "You should now possess the greatest strength in the entire materium. When the time comes for your final battle with the Emperor, the four of us will aid you. We will suppress him from within the warp."
"That's right, little Horus," Nurgle added, "Go and kill that hypocrite. We will all be behind you. Once you have completed your task, I will invite you and your mother to be guests in my Garden."
"I could invite you to my Palace of Pleasure," Slaanesh offered, "You could have any delight imaginable."
"There is only one remaining problem," Horus asked, his new power settling around him like a shroud, "Are you certain that Axis will not appear in this war?"
He was now confident he could handle the other primarchs. When the time came to face the Emperor, the four gods would be at his side, granting him power beyond comprehension. His once insurmountable father no longer seemed so invincible.
"Rest assured," Slaanesh said smoothly. "We exiled him to a realm of absolute nothingness. It is a place without the concept of time, devoid of any life. It is impossible for him to leave. He will not even perceive the passage of moments." To trap Axis, Slaanesh had taken the unprecedented step of personally descending to corrupt a mortal woman, a slow and delicate process rather than a swift abduction.
Had the god so wished, a mere whisper of its aura could have twisted the woman into a Daemonette. A mortal female meant nothing; Axis was the true prize.
"The four of us have combined our power to shield him from the Emperor's sight," Tzeentch added, "The Emperor has been trying to rescue Axis, but our power renders him helpless."
"That is what I wanted to hear," Horus said, a cruel smile touching his lips, "Now, we proceed with our plan. I will deliberately allow Magnus to see me. He will undoubtedly try to inform my father."
"We will shield the warp," Tzeentch cackled, "We will unleash a storm of such magnitude that he will be unable to send a normal psychic message."
"His only option will be to project his own soul, and with his current power... you know what the result will be."
"Hahaha! I will make them turn on each other!" Tzeentch shrieked with delight. Magnus had to be removed from the board. Otherwise, there would be no way to trap the Emperor upon the Golden Throne.
"Who do you plan to use?" the Changer of Ways asked.
"I had considered sending the Wolf King," Horus mused, "but I have changed my mind. Lion El'Jonson is the perfect choice. Once deployed, the Lion's Dark Angels will not listen to any explanation. They will only carry out my order to kill."
He knew his brothers all too well. Lion El'Jonson was a being of pure, unflinching execution. He would not ask questions, and more importantly, he would show no mercy.
"Hahaha, an excellent idea!"
...
Deep within the warp, Axis had once again transformed into his Super Saiyan 4 form.
He gathered all the Ki in his body and then punched out into nothingnes, targeting the very concept that was now trapping him.
Trapped in this dimension of nothingness and unable to sense the energy signatures he had left behind, Axis had resorted to the most direct method possible. He would use his own power to violently tear a path out.
The monster Buu and the fused warrior Gotenks had once used the same method to escape the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. While the barrier of the warp was certainly stronger, Axis knew he was far more powerful than either of them.
He poured out a constant stream of terrifying Ki. The void of the warp began to shimmer, rippling under the immense pressure.
"Axis! Axis, can you hear me?"
Suddenly, a faint, intermittent voice echoed in his mind. Without hesitation, Axis opened his soul and received the psychic signal.
"I am here! Are you... Magnus?" Axis projected back.
"It is I! Thank the heavens, Axis, I have finally found you," Magnus replied, his relief palpable across the void.
It had taken years of agonizing effort. He had mobilized the full might of his Legion, conducting relentless psychic sweeps of the warp until, at last, he had found a trace of his friend.
"The Chaos Gods lured me here," Axis explained, "I cannot get out. Can you help me?"
"Of course I can help you! I have located your position. I need you to cooperate with me. Together, we will open a psychic corridor, and you can escape," Magnus said.
Over the long years, he had developed countless sorceries designed to tear open the fabric of the immaterium, all for the sake of rescuing Axis, the only one he could truly call his friend.
"Understood," Axis replied.
"Do not worry, and just follow my lead," Magnus assured him. Having pinpointed Axis's location, Magnus was already using his psychic power to identify a weak point in the prison.
Axis took a deep breath.
His aura flared with the intensity of a star, and a torrent of golden energy cut a brilliant path through the nothingness of the warp.
He brought his hands together, focusing all his power on a single point in the direction of Magnus's psychic guidance.
"Now!" Magnus's voice thundered in Axis's mind.
In the materium, every psyker of the Thousand Sons Legion chanted an ancient incantation in unison.
A massive psychic matrix unfolded in real space, a colossal net that latched onto the edge of the nascent tear in the warp.
An incredible amount of psychic power was drawn from them. Many of the legionaries simply collapsed from the strain.
The prison holding Axis was no ordinary part of the warp; it was a cage meticulously crafted by the four Chaos Gods themselves.
"Haaaah!" Axis roared, unleashing an energy wave from his Super Saiyan 4 form that slammed into the barrier like a cosmic flood.
The fabric of the void began to distort, and a web of cracks spread outward from the point of impact. Magnus's psychic power acted like golden threads, weaving through the fissures and forcibly stitching them into a stable gateway through the chaos.
Through the swirling portal, Axis could see Magnus and the collapsed forms of countless Thousand Sons marines behind him.
"Come quickly! The passage cannot be maintained for long!" Magnus's psychic communication was already beginning to break apart.
Axis became a streak of golden light, hurtling through the corridor along the psychic tether.
At that very moment, the four Chaos Gods, laughing amongst themselves as they conversed with Horus, felt a sudden jolt.
Their prey had escaped.
"That creature has been freed!" the avian form of Tzeentch squawked, his tone oddly calm.
Of all the possibilities, the possibility of Magnus finding Axis was the slimmest, yet it had happened.
But what he hadn't expected Axis to have the raw to power to shatter a prison forged by their combined will.
...
...
bonus chapter on the way!