"What? How did that one get out?" Slaanesh demanded.
"Hahaha! As expected of someone I chose! I knew that so-called nothingness was never going to hold him," Khorne boomed with laughter, as if Axis's escape from the cage had been part of his plan all along.
"How did he escape? The four of us reinforced that region with our divine power. An Imperial vessel wouldn't have been able to even engage its Warp drive to leave! He is but a mortal, and though his power rivals that of a god, he is still a mortal," Nurgle questioned.
"His own power was able to tear open a Warp rift. And he had help," Tzeentch said, his face a mask of profound displeasure, but strange calm.
Axis was a critical figure, his combat prowess nearly equal to that of the Emperor himself. He was even capable of unleashing power greater than that of the Emperor in his ordinary state.
With him alone on the board, the carefully orchestrated checkmate they had prepared for the Emperor was now perfectly countered.
Even with the enhancements they had bestowed upon Horus, he was no match for Axis.
The combat amplification from Ki was simply too immense. Although the Chaos Gods had acquired a great deal of it, they could only use it to bolster Horus's physical form; they could not grant him the ability to wield Ki or anything else.
The state of being possessed by the divine might of all four gods was reserved for the Emperor. Horus's body, though strengthened, could only contain their combined power for a single confrontation.
He was, in the end, nothing more than a pawn.
In Tzeentch's grand design, the final battle would see the Emperor forced onto the Golden Throne, and Horus would die without a trace.
That was the ultimate outcome.
"Didn't you four swear he could never escape your prison? Didn't you all reinforce it with your divine power?" Horus asked, his expression turning grim. He still vividly remembered the day he and Rogal Dorn had met Axis on Holy Terra, a day that ended in their sound thrashing.
The subsequent battle between Axis and an avatar of Khorne had shaken Horus to his core. That form, with its red fur covering his upper body and a mane of wild, black hair, radiated an overwhelming pressure. Khorne's avatar had stood no chance; the power levels were not even in the same league.
For that reason, Horus wanted no part in fighting Axis. He would rather face the Emperor himself.
The best solution had been to lock Axis away in that empty expanse, to imprison him for all eternity so that he might never return. But sometimes, fate defied one's wishes. Just as he had finished preparing to launch the Great Rebellion, this monster had escaped.
"Silence," Tzeentch snapped, turning to face him with a calm face, "This is all proceeding according to my design."
Indeed, everything was within his grasp. This development was but one of ten thousand shifting possibilities. It was nothing to be alarmed about.
"Then I would very much like to hear how you plan to deal with Axis," Horus retorted coldly.
Now that Axis was free of the Warp, tricking him a second time would be a far more difficult task, especially since the Immaterium could no longer contain him.
"This development is not without opportunity," Tzeentch said, "We can deal with him in various ways. We do this... and then we do this..."
…
Meanwhile, in realspace, a scarlet rift tore open in the sky above Prospero.
Axis plummeted like a meteor, crashing into a sorcerer's tower and carving a massive crater in its structure.
When he finally stood up from the epicenter of the impact, the first thing he saw was the iconic crimson armor of Magnus, the magic pony.
He was surrounded by thousands of Thousand Sons sorcerers, all in a state of high alert, though two-thirds of them had already collapsed to the ground.
Magnus, Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion, was on one knee, gasping for breath.
His psychic energy was almost completely depleted. The fallen sorcerers around him were equally weakened; tearing open a hole in the fabric of the Warp had cost them dearly. If not for the sheer number of psykers among the Thousand Sons, they might have suffered casualties from the effort alone, with some being drained entirely of their life force.
Below the tower, numerous non-Astartes psykers had also lent their strength to the ritual. This single teleportation had taken a monumental effort from Magnus.
"Hah... Axis... you've finally returned..." Magnus said, looking up, each word a struggle.
Axis rushed forward and pulled him to his feet. "Magnus. I cannot express with words how much gratitude I have towards you right now."
Had it not been for Magnus's intervention, Axis had no idea what he would have done.
He also wondered if Kasha's condition had improved during his absence. He needed to return to the planet Nuceria at once.
"Hahaha... There is no need for such formalities between friends," Magnus managed a weak smile.
He was now considering how best to explain the current situation to Axis.
"Magnus, tell me," Axis said urgently, "How long have I been in the wrap? What about Kasha? And what happened to our child?"
"Huh?" Magnus in his muddled state of mind, looked at Axis in confusion.
"You mean, you and Lady Euten's child?!"
"Huh?" it was Axis' turn to be dumbfounded, but he quickly reacted, "Fuck you mean me and Lady Eutens child? Magnus, while she may be a mortal, she's still Guilliman's foster mother. You can't sully someone's reputation like that. And I'm not one to look on while someone sullies my reputation."
Magnus seem to have gained enlightenment with this sentence from Axis and mumbled "I fucking knew something was up with the old man's shifty attitude"
"What do–? You know what, just fille me up on the details in order," Axis said at last, sensing that things weren't as simple as he'd expected.
"Ahem," Magnus cleared his throat, "First of all, you've been lost in the warp for 98 years now."
Axis covered his face with his palm at the moment. "I knew it!
"Of course! Why else would those bastards intervene themselves!"
Magnus asked hesitantl, "By them you mean…"
"Yeah, the Chaos Gods."
Magnus nodded like a pecking chicken, of course it was only natural for the most powerful being in the world to have intervened to trap his brother.
After learning that Axis had been lost in the Warp, he had immediately begun his preparations. It had taken him over ninety years just to locate Axis and bring him back.
"Well, if it's any comfort, 98 years aren't a lot for us primarchs," Magnus added, but was interrupted by Axis.
"What about Kasha, and our child?" This time, Axis was absolutely calm as he asked.
Once Kasha was injured by the backlash from trying to divine the location to Lady Euten, Axis had helped stabilize her with his Ki.
He had noticed something back then. There was a life growing inside Kasha's body. A vigorous life that seemed like a fire that lit up distinctly from Kasha's own.
Axis didn't have the patience, mental state or the time to do much about it at that time, as such he had entrusted Kasha to Mader.
The thought of the Chaos bastards nearly injuring his own child was one of the reasons Axis was so ticked off at that time.
"Let me talk about what I know for sure first.
"Sister Kasha's soul was grievously wounded at that time. Fortunately, her soul was something reinforced by your Ki, so her life was not in danger. However, she fell into a deep slumber. Our father himself traveled to Nuceria to tend to her. According to him, she will awaken after a century. By that timing, she should awaken in two years."
Axis breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes never left Magnus.
"Father has been keeping a tight lock on any information regarding sister Kasha's whereabouts only stating that you two are conducting some operation away from the public view."
Axis nodded. That much made sense. The Imperium of this time did not need the morale collapse that would follow once the news of one of it's foremost warrior disappearing or its Imperial princess being gravely injured covering up their disappearance made sense.
"In public's eyes, Axis, you do have a child, but that is not with my sister Kasha, but with Lady Euten."
"...?"
"But now I understand how that came to be!" Magnus said hastily, "Our father, in his ever loving wisdom, used the most convenient story to explain the sudden appearance of a child with your visage and a tail, without going into the detail of the Imperial High Princesses disappearance."
"...????"
"I was very suspicious at that time, really, trust me! I've never doubted you! And Of course I'd bet on our old man to do something like this and leave with no explanation!"
"...details."
"Of course." Magnus once again cleared his throat, shifting his gaze from the throbbing vein on Axis' forehead, "So, he was introduced to the world as yours and Lady Euten's child. She was the one who took care of him for the first seen years of his life…"
Magnus described in detail what had happened.
After Axis' disappearance and Kasha's injury, the Emperor himself came to Nuceria, leaving the frontline to the Primarchs.
He stayed there for over a year, greeting the world with Axis' child. He had introduced the child as Axis and Lady Euten's, and it was lady Euten who had dutifully taken care of the child for 10 odd years.
She was the one who had taken Nuceria during Axis and Kasha's absence.
Hearing to this point, Axis got impatient and interjected.
"What do you mean Lady Euten brought up my child? Why isn't she locked up in some doungen yet? Have none of you figured out how I got trapped in the Warp."
"Well, The Emperor himself said she's fine, who are we to object?"
"Sigh, continue."
Afterwards, Russ had offered to take up his upbringing, but the Emperor sensing immense psychic potential of the child had ordered him to be brought to Prospero, to be taught by Magnus himself.
"I'm assuming he's not among the people here. And why do you keep addressing him so vaguely? Doesn't he have a name."
Magnus shook his head, "If you'd emerged quite a few dacaded prior, you might've been able to see him. He was taught by me till adulthood, afterwards, he went back to your legion to take charge alongside Kharn and fight in the great Crusade. While your legion still lacks a Primch, your son's battle prowess more than made up for the shortcoming.
"And yeah, he doesn't have a name. He's called the titles, Son of Axis, or Warmaster of the Left Flank. He swore that he won't receive a name until you've returned.
"I think Lady Euten did give hims a name though, but it was never accepted by the Empror, so yeah, that's invalid."
Axis was now looking at Magnus with a blank expression. This brother of his, it seems, wasn't good at conveying information in a concise manner.
And this poor Saiyan brain was now struggling along with the poor overworked magnificat, which had bore the load of the battle between him and two chaos gods, to piece together the bits of information Magnus was dropping.
Did he say warmaster?
...
...
Just to make things clear, there will be no forced harem. The misunderstandings will be resolved.