Axis's words were like poison-laced icicles, stabbing cruelly into Lorgar's already shattered heart.
The title of "Ecclesiarch" was a clap of thunder that tore through the darkness, detonating with furious power in the silent ruins of his soul.
It was the position he had once dreamed of, the one for which he had sacrificed everything, the one he had only briefly touched after his descent into the abyss.
It was the position that symbolized the pinnacle of faith, the supreme mortal representative of a god on earth.
He had always dreamt of establishing a creed for his father, a faith dedicated to his magnificent sire, offering the loyalty of all humanity to him. This had once been his life's ambition.
"Ec… Ecclesiarch?" Lorgar's voice was as hoarse as scraping sandpaper, trembling with disbelief.
Deep within the ashes of his hollow eyes, a spark of ambition and desire suddenly flared to life, only to be immediately doused by a wave of immense pain and irony.
"You… you're mocking me, aren't you? You want me, a traitor… a fool scorned by my Father and deceived by Chaos… to become the Ecclesiarch of the Imperial Cult?
"Hahahaha! Axis, you truly have grown more venomous! How dare you taunt me like this? If you have any courage, just give me a clean death!"
Lorgar erupted into a fit of mad laughter. The sound echoed through the cold cell, thick with desperate mockery as tears mixed with grime and streamed down his contorted face.
"My Monarchia! My beautiful Monarchia! That was my offering to my Father! Yet his fleets reduced it to ashes! My faith! My devotion! All I received in return was cold destruction! And now… now you tell me that he needs this? He needs something he personally destroyed?"
"The reason it was destroyed was not because Father disliked your creed, but because you had delayed the Great Crusade."
"And you would have me… the one whose faith he annihilated… become the leader of this very creed? Axis! This is crueler than simply killing me! My heart is torn to shreds."
Axis watched Lorgar's hysteria with cold detachment, as if observing a tragedy unfold. Only when his captive's laughter subsided into pained whimpers did he speak again. His voice was as chilling as ice, yet it carried a strange, seductive whisper.
"Cruel? No, Lorgar. This is your only path to redemption. It is the final chance fate has offered you, a chance for your talents to finally be put to their ultimate use." Axis leaned forward slightly, his sharp eyes seeming to pierce the most hidden corners of Lorgar's soul.
"Think about it, Lorgar Aurelian. What you pursued your entire life, was it not to deify your Father, to establish a glorious imperium of faith centered around him? You failed. You failed completely and utterly, to the point of total disgrace. But the irony is that your 'ideal,' your creed, is now needed by the Imperium. The Imperium of Man! Your Father needs it to maintain his rule!"
Lorgar's gaze began to waver, his internal struggle becoming plain to see.
Axis's voice held an almost daemonic power of persuasion. "Did you think the Chaos Gods were not deceiving you? No, no, no. The Emperor never lied to you. He only destroyed your Monarchia. But the Chaos Gods are different. They have been using you from the very beginning. Think about it. Why did you appear in my territory? They told you I was not there, but in reality, I was waiting in ambush. Furthermore, Khorne and I made a small arrangement. Who do you think gave me your location?"
(Khorne: Slander! He is slandering me!
(Horus: You're making baseless accusations!)
"You blame the Emperor, but have you ever considered that the Chaos Gods see you as even less than human? You are still of use in the Emperor's eyes, but to the Chaos Gods, you are an expendable pawn, a piece to be discarded at any time. In their eyes, you are worthless. They sent you directly to me, for me to kill you. You could not even defeat my Sons, let alone me. Did you really think Horus and the masters of Chaos did not know this?"
"Axis, you… you mean they were lying to me all along? That Chaos deceived me? They never even saw me as a person," Lorgar said, his emotions flaring up instantly.
If Axis had not produced proof of his dealings with Khorne, Lorgar might have had reason to doubt. But the proof had been shown. And in his heart, he truly felt that Horus had sent him to his death, conveniently forgetting that he had volunteered for the mission.
"The truth is right in front of you; you simply refuse to believe it," Axis continued. "The fire you kindled was extinguished by your Father, but now, that fire must be reignited. And it must be you who does it! Use your quill, your zealotry, and your profound understanding of the 'Emperor's divinity' to write the true Lectitio Divinitatus!
"Construct a system of faith that can ignite the souls of trillions of humans! Let your talents truly serve the 'god' you once worshipped, not the daemons who play you for a fool!"
Axis paused, allowing the immense irony and temptation to ferment in Lorgar's mind.
"Will you… will you really release me, and let me… let me serve as the Ecclesiarch?" Lorgar asked.
A faint smile touched Axis's lips. The bait had been taken.
"The title of Ecclesiarch is just a name, a hollow honor. If you want it, I can certainly give it to you. But not now." Axis felt as if Tzeentch himself were standing beside him, giving him a silent thumbs-up.
"You mean you won't release me yet, is that right?" Lorgar asked, his face falling with disappointment.
A hollow title, he thought, that is the very hollow title I crave!
"Of course not now, my friend," Axis said with a shrug. "You must atone for your past crimes. You must show the other Primarchs that you have truly reformed."
Of course he could not release the wretch now; it ultimately depended on the Old Man's will.
"Lorgar! Will you choose to await your annihilation in eternal stasis and absolute nothingness, sinking into darkness with your utter failure and eternal infamy? Or will you choose to take up the quill and use your stained, yet still unparalleled, talent to write the only divinity of the Emperor you can still touch?
"To become the true 'founder' of the Imperial Cult, even if your name is intentionally erased from history, your contributions overshadowed by the glory of Sanguinius? But your words! The system you build! It will endure forever within the Imperium! That will be the only, and final… redemption for your existence!"
As Axis finished, the cell fell into a heavy, deathly silence.
Lorgar's withered body trembled violently. His eyes were a storm of conflicting emotions, warring between elation, despair, humiliation, desire, agony, and a twisted sense of mission.
"Ecclesiarch… founder… redemption… for myself," he muttered, each word a red-hot brand searing his soul.
Axis's proposition was absurd, yet… fatally tempting. It took his life's ambition, his greatest failure, his residual ambition, and his distorted affection for the Emperor and forced it all into a cage named 'final worth.'
To refuse meant he would rot in eternal oblivion.
Everything he was—his ideals, his talents, his suffering—would dissipate into meaninglessness.
But if he agreed to write, there might still be a chance in the future. Axis had left him no third option. Lorgar was caught in a moment of indecision, unsure if this was yet another deception.
Time seemed to freeze. Sweat and tears trickled from his brow, dripping onto the cold floor.
Just then, a supremely sacred will descended upon the cell, enveloping Lorgar completely. A terrifying consciousness made its presence known.
Lorgar's body convulsed as if struck by lightning, and it took a long moment for him to recover. Axis, witnessing this, understood that the Old Man had arrived. They were, after all, on his turf.
Finally, a roar that seemed torn from the depths of his soul, filled with endless pain and defiance, escaped Lorgar's throat.
"Father… this is what you promised me… Axis… the quill… give me… the quill…"
Lorgar snapped his head up, his bloodshot eyes locking onto Axis. They were no longer empty, but now burned with a near-insane, all-or-nothing fire.
"I will write," he declared, his voice raw but charged with a morbid ecstasy.
"I will write the most glorious scripture for the Imperial Cult! The Imperial Divinitatus! Words so holy they will make the entire galaxy tremble with fervor! I will let Father's divine light… shine upon every corner of the Imperium of Man!"
It was clear that the descent of the Old Man's consciousness came with a promise of some kind.
"But remember your promise, Axis! Remember… the Ecclesiarch of the Imperial Cult… even if it is just a hollow title! That is mine! My position! It will be mine when I have atoned for my sins." This was the point he clung to, the motivation that would keep him alive.
Axis regarded the traitor, who was now utterly consumed by his words and lost in a distorted sense of purpose. His face remained expressionless as he retrieved a cold, adamantium-forged quill from his attire and placed it gently on the floor before Lorgar.
"Very well, Lorgar. Begin your redemption. Remember, every word you write will be under the strictest scrutiny. Anything that should not be there will be erased. This is your final chance. I hope what you write will be something I will not have to change by a single word."
With that, Axis turned and left the cell without a backward glance. The heavy adamantium door slid shut behind him, once again sealing Lorgar from the world.
Within the cell, there was only the cold quill and the former Primarch of the Word Bearers, who was now crawling on the floor, his withered fingers trembling as they reached for it, clutching it as a drowning man grasps a final piece of straw.
In his eyes, there was nothing left but the quill, the paper, and the phantasm of a twisted, burning fire he called "The Sacred Divinity of the God-Emperor."
And so, under Axis's watchful eye, Lorgar began to write from within his prison, composing the holy scripture that all followers of the future Imperial Cult would one day study.
...
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ps?