If anyone else had proposed this strategy, they would probably have been written off as an incurable madman and sent for Professor Yan's electroshock therapy.
But the person proposing it was the Nameless One, who had just killed Nurgle and Khorne with the Spear of the Saint-Slayer.
So everyone thought it sounded perfectly reasonable.
When Datch shared his idea at the strategy meeting,
the Primarchs, the C'tan, and the many commanders present were bewildered at first, then broke into cheers.
"A wise insight from the Nameless One!"
"Let's give those last two bastards a thorough thrashing!"
"…"
Everyone who had been through the two wars against the gods knew all too well how terrifying the Nameless One, the Lord of Absurdity, was.
Dealing with a Chaos God was a piece of cake. Easy and comfortable.
Once the battle plan was approved, the Imperium of Man moved swiftly and formed an army of unprecedented size.
The Webway carried Astartes units, Guardsmen, Titan Legions, and Mechanicus forces from across the entire galaxy to the staging point with unprecedented efficiency.
The repaired Webway was run by Eldar fleets from the various craftworlds.
Besides the Necrons, the Eldar, and the greenskin Orks, there was also the legion of life led by Pudge, the great god of life, and the legion of war commanded by Skarbrand, the new war-god.
This was the largest war in galactic history, greater even than the War in Heaven, the final battle between the Old Ones and the C'tan.
The combined forces both sides had committed to the Siege of Terra during the Horus Heresy,
or the countless battles the Warp gods had waged,
none of them came close to the coalition fleet now assembling.
This great war to destroy the gods also drew the attention of many powers in the Warp.
They all knew the rise of the Imperium of Man could not be stopped. In the future, they would either be destroyed by humanity or absorbed into the Imperium as its pawns.
Amid the roar of machinery echoing through his soul forges and the daemon factories that filled his realm, Vashtorr the forge demigod wore a grim expression.
He stood at the summit of his fortress while eerie green flames jetted from countless cursed ancient furnaces and chimneys, poring over the reports pouring in from every corner of the Warp.
He had bet everything on Abaddon and the combined might of the Black Legion and the Chaos Gods, and he had bet wrong.
Believing Abaddon would be the final victor, he had kept supplying the Black Legion with weapons and daemon weapons.
He had hoped to crush the Imperium of Man completely, seize his own authority in the eternal chaos, and ascend as a Chaos God.
Instead, Abaddon had been bound hand and foot, shoved into a cage, and crushingly defeated.
The age of the Chaos Gods was about to end too.
Nurgle and Khorne had both died with their chests pierced by the Nameless One.
Tzeentch and Slaanesh would not be doing evil for much longer either.
And he, a being who had once opposed the Imperium of Man, would soon face judgment.
"I'd better run. I can only pray the Lord of Absurdity doesn't remember a nobody like me and doesn't bother wasting time hunting me down."
After careful thought, Vashtorr decided to flee.
Surrendering to the Imperium of Man was out of the question.
With Abaddon defeated, his accomplices would certainly be purged too.
The Imperium of Man would never let off a Chaos demigod who had supplied the Black Legion with weapons and daemon weapons.
If the Lord of Absurdity had not yet begun purging the gods, surrender might have been worth something.
He could have traded his forging skills for a chance to live.
But now that two of the Chaos Gods had already fallen, that bargaining chip was worth nothing.
Many other Warp creatures thought the same as Vashtorr. Sensing the upheaval coming to the galaxy, they all chose to flee.
If they fled far from the galaxy into some desolate, chaotic, primitive realm, they might find a sliver of hope for survival.
Datch ignored the small fry. The entire Warp was humanity's domain now.
Running is pointless. I'll deal with all of them when I have time.
Once humanity's Pantheon was established, it would sweep the Warp, and not one of them would escape.
But first, Tzeentch and Slaanesh had to be dealt with.
After a short discussion, Tzeentch was handed over to the Emperor, who would also be entrusted with his domain afterward.
Even if the Emperor could not destroy Tzeentch completely, he should at least be able to pin him down so he could not flee again.
The faith of the Imperium of Man had been reshaped by the Nameless One. Together with the recent study of the eight-pointed star and the healing of the Emperor's wounds, this had left the Emperor's condition markedly stable.
Even without the Golden Throne, the Emperor could now hold back the urge to ascend to godhood by willpower alone, at least for a time.
So he led a team himself to deal with Tzeentch, and it was not a serious problem.
Meanwhile, Datch led a team in a surprise attack on Slaanesh.
The Imperium of Man moved swiftly. The assembled armies advanced straight into the two Chaos Gods' domains, and fierce fighting broke out.
Slaanesh's domain was a hell of desire and decadence.
Exquisite buildings rose from a wilderness lush with grass and trees.
Their shapes blended the curves of the grandest palace domes from the Eldar empire at its height,
the color schemes of the most eccentric artists of humanity's Golden Age, and architectural inspiration drawn from countless dead alien civilizations.
Every building was so perfect that it was almost repulsive.
At the center, six concentric rings surrounded the temple and guarded the Dark Prince's throne.
The first was the Ring of Greed.
Inside, gold coins and jewels glittering with a bewitching shine were piled up like mountains.
Any intruder who felt greed would be trapped among the gold and jewels, unable to move, forever.
The second was the Ring of Gluttony.
There, countless fine wines and delicacies were laid out.
A single mouthful awakened a ravenous hunger from within.
No matter how much one ate, one was still hungry.
Every sip made one's stomach growl louder with hunger.
The third was the Ring of Debauchery.
Here, men and women of every race stood naked, displaying their charms to the fullest.
Anyone who felt lust would be trapped by it and never escape.
The fourth was the Ring of Dominion.
Here, people fell into the illusion that they commanded countless armies and were worshipped by their subjects.
The soul of every human who entered was projected into a separate, perfect kingdom of power.
The allure of power was laid bare, and if one's heart wavered even slightly, one was headed for ruin.
The fifth was the Ring of Vanity, where people saw the person they most wished to become.
Past glories and future triumphs appeared again and again, feeding arrogance and vanity until escape was impossible.
The sixth was the Ring of Sloth.
A beautiful lullaby drifted through the sky, and gentle sunlight and breezes soothed the heart, until people found themselves wanting to relax and rest.
Anyone who lay down on that peaceful-looking grass and closed their eyes would never get up again.
Past the six rings stood the Dark Prince's temple.
It was an impossibly tall, beautiful palace surrounded by slender stone pillars.
Each pillar was carved with reliefs of women lost in pleasure, slowly shifting poses.
Each relief was so beautiful that any human who looked at it for even an instant would have their soul drawn out and lose all self-control.
Magnificent towers ringed the grounds, coiling around one another like living venomous snakes.
Datch led his subordinates through fierce fighting toward the Dark Prince's temple. Along the way, he cut down countless daemons of Slaanesh, leaving mountains of corpses and rivers of blood behind him.
Cegorach was faster.
Taking advantage of the chaos of battle, he slipped toward Slaanesh's palace by a side path.
Cegorach hid in the palace's shadows and advanced with long strides.
The Laughing God had invaded Slaanesh's domain many times before to steal back the souls of his Harlequins.
This time, his target was the last of the Crone Swords.
That sword was the key to waking the god of the dead.
Slaanesh had stolen it precisely to stop the Eldar from awakening the power of death and threatening his position.
While the Dark Prince was distracted by the battle outside, Cegorach quietly slipped into the temple.
Before Slaanesh noticed anything wrong, the last Crone Sword had been stolen.
With that, all five Crone Swords were gathered.
Yvraine, the Emissary of Ynnead, and the Yncarne, the Avatar of Ynnead, immediately chose to summon the Eldar's last god, Ynnead, the god of the dead.
Following the ritual, Yvraine and the other swordbearers pierced their own bodies with the swords.
The Yncarne chanted an ancient spell and awakened Ynnead with the swordbearers' blood and the five Crone Swords.
The revived god of the dead instantly brought back the swordbearers who had sacrificed themselves, and at the same time hastened Slaanesh's defeat.
Against Datch, with his many god-level pals, and Ynnead, the god of the dead, who hated Slaanesh to the core and had an attack made just for him, Slaanesh stood no chance.
Once the sixth ring was broken, the Dark Prince soon fell in battle inside the temple.
His authority was seized by the masked dancer.
Slaanesh's domain was completely transformed too, becoming a place that tested people's inner will.
The six rings had been specially designed to exploit the weaknesses of desire and drag countless intruders into an abyss from which there was no return.
The masked dancer, now holding that authority, rewrote their fundamental logic.
The gold coins in the Ring of Greed still glittered, but those tempted by them, after being briefly dazzled by the jewels' shine, would awaken to deeper self-reflection.
The wine in the Ring of Gluttony still gave off its aroma, but those who drank it found they were no longer ruled by a sense of emptiness and were still full of energy.
The other rings worked the same way. Those who failed were expelled, and those who succeeded moved on to the next ring.
Anyone who passed the trial of all six rings would receive a blessing.
Fulgrim, the Primarch Slaanesh had raised to daemonhood, met the same fate as Angron and Mortarion.
The instant Slaanesh fell, he lost most of his power. Several Primarchs beat him mercilessly, and in the end he was locked in a cage and sent to Terra for trial.
After defeating Slaanesh, Datch took out Rick's portal gun and opened a passage straight to Tzeentch's Crystal Labyrinth.
When he arrived, he found that the Emperor had already beaten the Lord of Change half to death.
The intricate crystal maze had been demolished, and only ruins remained.
When the Nameless One appeared on the battlefield together with the many C'tan, the great god of life, the new war-god, and the new lady of pleasure, despair welled up in Tzeentch's heart.
His fight with the Emperor had already left him badly broken.
With so many reinforcements joining the other side, his defeat was certain.
Tzeentch held out for only a short while before Datch and the Emperor defeated him.
His remaining authority passed to the spirit of transformation, who became the new lord of wisdom and knowledge.
The Crystal Labyrinth was transformed dramatically too, becoming an inexhaustible realm of knowledge where scholars exchanged ideas and learned from one another.
Every corridor displayed classics from different civilizations and eras.
Every hall had switchable holographic star charts, along with the latest scientific research from galaxies across the universe.
Every small restroom offered free black tea and all-you-can-eat ration biscuits.
Any citizen of the Imperium, whatever their origin or social class, could study there.
The traitor Magnus met his end too: packed into a kennel, sent to Terra, and put on trial.
With Tzeentch and Slaanesh defeated, Datch received a quest-completion notice.
Congratulations on completing the quest! You have successfully supported the Imperium of Man, shattered the forces of Chaos led by the four Chaos Gods, and restored order to the Warp.
Quest reward: 50,000 experience points, 50,000 points, 5,000 reputation, Pantheon ×1.
"Pantheon."
With a single thought, the special quest reward appeared in Datch's hand.
It was a magnificent temple built in human style.
Countless tiny stars were set inside its dome, each slowly rotating. Each star corresponded to a unique authority in the Warp.
From war to life, from desire to knowledge, from wisdom to death, every authority resided in this temple.
Information about the item and how to use it flooded Datch's mind.
The temple was, in fact, the ultimate control interface for the entire system that assigned authority in the Warp.
All one had to do was place a suitable candidate in the corresponding divine post.
The chosen one could then formally wield that authority and become a new Warp god bound by the Pantheon's laws.
The temple could also adjust the thickness of the veil between the material world and the Warp, as well as the energy density within the Warp.
With it, a civilization could not only easily master both psychic and technological power, but advance its technology and its mysticism side by side.
"Um… this Warhammer game might as well be renamed The Investiture of the Gods!"
Datch felt a little uneasy.
Maybe I should dress up as Jiang Ziya and hold a grand investiture of the gods.
"The main quest ends here. All that's left is the cleanup."
Datch rested the Pantheon on his palm, examined it from every angle, and pondered his next move.
The main storyline of the Warhammer universe game was to destroy the Chaos Gods, and that had now been achieved.
What happened next was entirely up to the player.
The game probably would not release any more main-story missions.
After careful thought, Datch decided to return to the real world and check the forums.
The main quest is done. All that's left is open-ended building content.
A perfect ending needs a high score, but how do I get one? I'd better look at a skilled player's strategy guide.
I don't want to go to all the trouble of finishing and then submit an ending that gets a mediocre score and a low rating. Otherwise, all my effort will be wasted.