Guilliman moved fast. He announced his intention to journey to Terra through the worsening Warp storms, knowing full well that his resurrection had put a massive target on his back. Nurgle himself and Slaanesh, through his brother Fulgrim, had already tried to corrupt and stop him. He knew fully well that the road ahead would be brutal.
He gathered a lethal, elite force to accompany him. Captain Cato Sicarius took command of the battle-brothers from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ultramarine Companies. The Emperor's Champion Marshal Amalrich and his Black Templars pledged their blades to his cause, alongside Saint Celestine, Inquisitor Greyfax, and Archmagos Belisarius Cawl.
The defence of Ultramar was left in the capable hands of Marneus Calgar, Chief Librarian Tigurius, Captain Agemman, and most importantly Gerhard, who immediately went to work on logistics and dismantling Nurgle's hold over the Auxilia. The mites would go once and for all; that was certain.
Before the fleet launched, however, Guilliman had one last piece of business to attend to.
.
The audience chamber was dead quiet, occupied only by Guilliman, Gerhard, the Ynnari Champion Yvraine, and her deadly bodyguard, the Visarch.
In just a few hours, the Terran Crusade would make orbit and set off. Even after weeks of a highly successful military alliance, most Imperial commanders would have been terrified to stand alone in a room with two such dangerous Xenos.
But Guilliman didn't operate on fear.
He had asked Gerhard to tell him everything about the two Eldar that he could. And so he did. Gerhard told him their strengths relative to Guilliman and his forces, what they stood for, their goals, and their beliefs and fears. Knowledge was power, if it was applied correctly and together the Primarch and Gerhard had created contingencies against them.
And ironically, the strongest and simplest contingency against them was Gerhard himself. His ability to release his Blank aura was the ultimate nightmare fuel and almost made the Eldari kill themselves outright. If anything, it would incapacitate them and allow the Primarch or anyone else to take them out.
"It will be a long and perilous journey," Yvraine said.
Her voice, as always, was smooth and cool. It spoke of her ancient heritage and a culture millions of years older than humanity's, and it also revealed her sense of superiority. Neither Gerhard nor Guilliman cared about the pompous ways they held themselves. After seeing someone shit and piss themselves when Gerhard turned on his [Blank] skill, seeing them act this way was more amusing than annoying.
They also almost immediately wanted to leave, but that's another matter.
"The galaxy grows darker by the day. Have a care, Primarch. You may have cheated death once, but you are not invincible. And neither are you, anomaly," Yvraine said with clear venom in her voice as she glanced at Gerhard.
Guilliman nodded solemnly.
"Can I say nothing that will convince you to join us? I've come to highly value the strength of you and your warriors these past weeks."
"You cannot," Yvraine replied, her tone final. "Already we have given you the gift of rebirth, not to mention a vast number of our peoples' lives. Is that not enough?"
Gerhard almost scoffed and shook his head. In his mind, this was a perfect 'yare yare' moment. But he held off, not wanting to interrupt the Primarch's negotiations.
"It is a debt I assure you won't be forgotten," Guilliman said.
He took a slow step forward.
"But before you depart, tell me this: Cawl may have built the armour that I wear, but he wasn't the only one who ensured my resurrection. Was he?"
Yvraine smiled demurely, the expression holding centuries of secrets.
"His technology healed your physical wounds, Roboute. But you and I both know the worst damage was done to your soul. So, no. It is by the grace of Ynnead that you stand breathing today. If you wish to keep breathing, I'd caution you against ever removing that war-plate. Not that you easily could."
A flicker of deeply buried pain crossed Guilliman's face, quickly swallowed by a stony mask of duty.
"I could press you," Guilliman said, his voice dropping slightly.
He noticed the Visarch's hand drift casually toward the hilt of his blade. The Xenos didn't trust him in the slightest and constantly waited for him to betray them, as a good protector should.
"I could demand greater insights into the powers that brought me back, and assurances that there is no... taint in their nature."
The Ynnari stiffened.
"But," Guilliman continued, stepping back, "I suspect our newfound understanding is far more valuable to my father's realm than my own personal satisfaction. And I doubt those answers would come easily anyway."
Yvraine inclined her head slightly in a gesture of respect, while the Visarch silently moved his hand away from his sword.
"Thus," Guilliman said, "I will simply wish you victory in your ongoing battles against our mutual foes."
"May you walk with fortune, Roboute Guilliman. And know that we shall stand together in battle again, before whatever end finally befalls us," Yvraine said.
The Visarch offered an elaborate, fluid warrior's salute. Guilliman gave a curt nod in return. Without another word, the two Eldar turned and swept gracefully from the chamber.
"No doubt we will," Guilliman murmured, watching the enigmatic aliens disappear into the shadows of the corridor. "As long as it serves your needs."
"You have come to understand the Eldari well, it seems, Roboute," Gerhard said.
Guilliman turned around and, after making sure nothing was wrong, got a nod from Gerhard.
"You were right. They didn't notice," Guilliman said.
"That's right. It was better to do it that way. I don't care how much they helped you or us, but in the end, they remain Xenos so utterly arrogant that they were responsible for creating a Chaos god single-handedly, doomed their race, fear for their existence every breath they take and still look down on us."
Gerhard had created specialised armour and, after dabbling in the power of runes for the first time, using his mana and unlocking the skill [Runes], he had made sure to fool the Ynnari. Now, they believe that Guilliman was still the same man he was when they resurrected him.
This was done to hide Gerhard's healing abilities and his ability to heal souls. The less the enemy knew about him and what he could truly do, the better in the long run.
And the Eldari were enemies; there was no doubt in his mind. They used humans to their own benefit and nothing more. There was no compassion in the galaxy, apart from that which Gerhard and Guilliman now had for humanity as a whole. And of course the old man getting tortured for their sake.
"I shall take the Anathema Psykana with me. They would prove invaluable for our endeavour."
"I agree. Should they agree as well, I see no reason not to have the Sisters of Silence accompany you."
.
.
Gerhard stood in the strategium with Marneus Calgar, Chief Librarian Tigurius, Captain Agemman, Lencillus and Hans. Weeks had passed since Guilliman and their forces departed for the Terran Crusade.
It was a bold, but absolutely necessary step the Primarch had to take. He needed to reach Terra, their official galactic headquarters, to centralise and organise for the future.
The emergence of the Great Rift had not only divided the galaxy, but it had also allowed the Warp to gain an incredible influence on realspace. One side of the galaxy was now completely cut off from Terra and the Astronomicon's guiding light. They were essentially blind and couldn't navigate the Warp safely.
Guilliman's goal was to reach Terra, finally talk with his father after all those years, clean up the shitstorm that Gerhard had told him the Imperium had become and prepare for a Crusade that rivalled the Great Crusade 10,000 years ago.
The problem and also the reason the Ruinous Powers wanted to waste the Primarch's time was that time was of the essence. Warp-space lanes used to traverse the galaxy were closing in some areas and cutting off vital parts to both reach Terra itself and the dark side of the Imperium.
Once the lanes closed, it was over, and there was nothing they could do about it.
...
Unless Gerhard came up with something, but that would probably take ages, and humanity would suffer meanwhile.
Right now, Gerhard and the leaders of Ultramar in Guilliman's absence had done incredible work so far. Gerhard had created a rather simple vaccination using both mana and psychic energy. He mass-produced it and then had it distributed through every planet and battlefront.
And by now, the mites were nothing more than a nuisance whose last remaining specimens were dying.
But that wasn't the only thing Gerhard had done in the weeks that followed Guilliman's departure and their continued campaign to free all of Ultramar. He had also started using the knowledge he had obtained from his fight with the Keeper of Secrets and attempted to create skills based on mana from that.
And he was very proud to say that he had succeeded with what would most likely become one of, if not the most important and impressive set of skills at that moment. At least in terms of combat.
It all started with this one.
Spatial Barrier (Active) Lv. 1
| MP: 1200 (activation)
| MP: 40/second
| EXP: 0.00%
| A defensive field that uses mana to distort space around the user.
| Incoming attacks are redirected, slowed or displaced rather than directly blocked.
Effects:
| Creates a spherical barrier around the user
| Reduces incoming damage by distorting impact vectors
| +30% resistance to physical attacks
| +30% resistance to energy attacks
| Additional Effects:
| Minor redirection of projectiles
| Reduces impact force from explosions
| Slight delay applied to incoming attacks
--
After this one, Gerhard knew that he couldn't stop and trained with it until he reached this one.
Spatial Awareness Lv. 1
| Allows perception of space as a manipulable medium.
Effects:
| Detect distortions in space
| +20% efficiency in force-based skills
| Improved control over distance and positioning
--
[Spacial Awareness] made Gerhard excited because he had then had a very particular goal. Whenever he had a very brief moment to himself, and he wasn't organising or doing the logistics for all the systems within Ultramar they had already freed and fortified, he entered a time dilation dungeon and trained.
Eventually, thanks to the knowledge he had from the Keeper of Secrets and the repetition of successful Warp spells, Gerhard unlocked this spell:
[Space Manipulation Lv. 1]
The mana usage was insanely high, but thankfully, Gerhard had loads to spare. Yet even for him, it was basically unusable and hard to train. But that didn't stop the Gamer at all. If anything, it made him hungrier and more eager to advance.
All this was because he knew what was coming; he knew that he would need to be prepared. Things were about to turn sideways in the most Warhammer 40k way possible. He knew about the Terran Crusade, at least very broadly, and he knew that things weren't going well on Terra, and he hoped that Guiliman would get back quick enough.
Through training and occasional fighting, Gerhard levelled up his skills and even reached level 78.
The discussion was going on in the strategium. Gerhard listened to the reports from Chief Librarian Tigurius and Captain Agemman, as well as to Calgar's questions. Lencillus remained silent most of the time. The former Chapter Master turned to Gerhard, having long since come to appreciate his efficiency, capabilities, and impeccable fighting prowess and planning.
"What are your thoughts on this, Lord Gerhard?"
Calgar and the other two men had come to address Gerhard as "Lord". It seemed to fit his skills best, as he wasn't a Space Marine but wasn't anything else officially either. He was the confidante and right hand of the Primarch, so that was all they needed to know.
Thousands of lines of data flashed across Gerhard's specially created glasses. He had taken inspiration from Tony Stark and created the same, if not heavily upgraded, glasses to replace unwieldy data slates and his computers.
"I agree with Chief Librarian Tigurius. The best course of action would be to--"
They were interrupted suddenly by the arrival of a messenger. The Ultramarine saluted.
"Chapter Master Calgar, one of the Xenos is here to speak to Lord Gerhard," he reported.
"The Xenos are back? Which one?" Calgar asked.
"One of the Harlequins. What are your orders?"
Calgar looked at Gerhard again. This was his decision, since the Xenos had come for him. They had come to trust Gerhard enough to know that he wouldn't ever endanger Ultramar and humanity, but it was still strange for him to have an Eldar visitor.
"Invite him in. If he doesn't want to, send him away. The Harlequins do strange things for reasons that only they understand," Gerhard said.
"Yes, my lord."
"Wait! On second thought, have him come here. Don't act against him. Their ambivalence makes them dangerous. I don't want to see unnecessary bloodshed," Gerhard said.
The men in the room nodded their heads, thankful that he thought that way. What they didn't know was that Gerhard planned to kill the Harlequin personally if he proved to be a nuisance and not have any of his brothers die. The Harlequins were insanely powerful, so it was better to deal with this himself.
A moment later, the Harlequin appeared before them, without having used the doors for some reason. They came as they wished and went where they wanted, like ghosts and shadows.
"What do you want?" Gerhard asked.
He checked the status of the Laughing God's follower and prepared for a potential confrontation. Not because the Eldar was here for a fight, but because he saw the high stats.
DEX: 285 was quite ridiculous and faster than Gerhard by a mile.
An increase of 1 stat point in any stat didn't necessarily mean a linear progression. It wasn't exponential; that was ridiculous, but it didn't follow a straight line with a fixed incline.
The Harlequin started to perform a dance that was confusing to humans, and while one could be sure that it was the peak of Eldari artistry, it mattered nothing to the men in the strategium right now.
Harlequins could all talk, if they wanted. They just preferred to do it through riddles and jokes, as well as in dance performances. It was considered bad luck to talk to a Solitaire, though, which was unfortunate, as they hid as normal Eldar sometimes.
"..."
"..."
Gerhard sighed when he saw the performance. It was a convoluted mess, but that's what reality was, especially right now.
"You understand the Xenos?" Agamemnon asked.
"Most of it, and it seems that we have a problem. Lord Guilliman and what remains of the Terran Crusade have been captured and are now... in the Warp?"
The Harlequin nodded.
"WHAT!?! WE MUST ACT QUICKLY, GET--!"
"Stop! Remain calm, Chapter Master. As far as I could tell, the Primarch and those who have survived are inside the Warp. Going there now would leave Macragge and Ultramar vulnerable. We can't have that. I shall embark on this journey myself, as I'm sure others will help me in that regard."
What followed was a lengthy discussion in which Gerhard assured them that he would be fine. He was worried, though. He walked out of the stragegium with Hans and Lencillus following at his side.
"You're worried," Lencillus said.
"Yes."
"But not for your sake, I believe," Lencillus went on.
"No."
"They are the Emperor's talon. Trust in their capabilities..."
"Yeah, I'm terrible at trust. That doesn't work for me."
"Agreed. You have one of the most intense controlling natures that I have ever catalogued, Master," Hans said.
"That's true. But that's how I survived after all. It's for that reason that you exist, Hans and that you're here right now, Lencillus. And it's also the reason why Hestia and the others are most likely dead."
"Let's go. We have no time to lose."
Gerhard donned his Doom Slayer Armour and then nodded at the Harlequin. And with a thought, he and Lencillus disappeared into the Webway. Hans would remain to support the war effort and the Ultramarines.
Shit was about to hit the fan.