Inside the Garden of Nurgle.
Haaah...
A pall of depression and sorrow spread through the air, and the moans drifting in from the void were so miserable they sounded like the cries of the damned.
Even the Nurglings' cheerful dancing and music had turned mournful under that atmosphere. Anyone who did not know better would have thought they were playing funeral songs.
Not only that, even the plague daemons that had still been smiling a moment ago had sunk into grief.
The plants throughout the garden had begun to wither and die as well.
The entire Garden of Nurgle felt steeped in catastrophic losses and bankruptcy.
At that moment, Grandfather Nurgle lay sprawled on his rotten plank-bed, his mountain-like, seemingly endless body trembling slightly.
He had nearly lost consciousness and looked as though he had suffered a devastating blow.
Even when the Garden had been burned before, it had not dealt him such a severe hit.
To begin with, the Lord of Plagues had already been having a hard time after the Garden was scorched by holy flame and after taking a beating from the other gods.
Now, in the war to besiege Terra, he and the other gods had poured in a massive amount of faith and corrupt power. It was an all-in gamble.
And yet, at the most crucial moment of the campaign, just as victory was within reach, Terra vanished.
That enormous mass of Terra simply disappeared, clean and complete, along with the Golden Throne inside the Imperial Palace.
The target they were supposed to conquer in this war was just... gone.
That had been Eden's final defensive plan: using Old One technology to relocate all of Holy Terra into the Dawnlight City Webway.
Originally, the purpose of that plan had merely been to move the heart of the Imperium into the Webway and create a more secure core, avoiding the emergence of two separate centers of power that might have hindered humanity's development.
But once the Chaos Gods suddenly launched their all-out assault, the plan had to be urgently revised and turned into an emergency defensive measure.
The Holy Terra relocation project had been in the works for a very long time. Research institutes had studied the large-scale teleportation technology left behind by the Old Ones and confirmed that the plan was feasible.
After all, if that technology could transport a dying star, then moving a planet a hundred times smaller in diameter than that star, namely Terra, might actually be much simpler.
That black-clad Archmagos, Cawl, had thrown himself into the project with tremendous enthusiasm.
He had even run repeated experiments and, through a few mishaps, sent several daemon worlds straight into the Warp.
Of course, because Holy Terra was far too important, the relocation plan had always been considered too risky. Even though the necessary preparations had secretly been carried out within the Palace and surrounding regions, it had never been put into action.
But once the Chaos Gods, Horus, and the traitor forces truly threatened the Emperor and the Golden Throne, the Mechanicus had no choice but to activate the plan immediately.
They moved Holy Terra into the Dawnlight City Webway.
Because compared to allowing the Emperor and the Golden Throne to be blockaded or outright destroyed by Chaos, relocation offered a far better chance of preserving humanity.
And once Holy Terra was transferred away, the Chaos Gods had to confront one brutal reality.
Their plan to besiege Terra and suppress the Emperor was likely doomed to fail.
Nurgle in particular had forced himself to bet every last scrap of his fortune while already wounded, only for all of it to go up in smoke. A total loss.
Worse still, that meant they could no longer suppress the Anathema, and the coming of the Dark King was now unavoidable.
For the already struggling Garden of Nurgle, that was like adding frost to snow, and it was easy to foresee that things would only get bloodier from here.
The sheer scale of that loss was too much for the Plague Lord to bear. Overwhelmed by pain and despair, he had temporarily blacked out.
Thankfully, he was a god and would not die.
Had any lesser being suffered losses and blows this severe, they probably would have gone completely off the rails.
"Grandfather...
What are we supposed to do now? Who can still shelter us?"
The plague-aligned Chaos beings were deeply grief-stricken, and beneath that grief was a thread of fear.
The Anathema had already been terrifying enough, and soon they would be facing the Dark King: a stronger, freely moving version of the Anathema.
What were they supposed to do then?
The thought alone was enough to make them huddle together and tremble. Their good days were over.
Some plague creatures, overwhelmed by the mournful atmosphere, had even started stuffing their treasured possessions into great iron cauldrons.
They were packing their bags and thinking seriously about fleeing this dangerous place.
The Anathema's great fire and the corruption of the Godblight more than two hundred years ago had already left a deep scar on every plague creature here.
The damage that event dealt to the Garden still had not healed to this day.
And on top of that, they might soon have to endure something even more terrifying: disasters brought down by the Dark King himself.
These plague worshipers were not creations of Nurgle. They were beings who had embraced plague-faith and flocked here of their own accord.
Now, however, their fear of the Dark King had grown stronger than their faith.
And that made them want to run.
Put simply, these creatures had originally betrayed their own kind in order to gain immortality or free themselves from the fear of disease by taking refuge under the Plague Lord.
But now that Nurgle's power was waning and the Garden itself was in danger, it was only natural that they would start looking for a new master to keep themselves alive.
"Plague and rot...
I heard the Hell King can shelter all Chaos beings. He does not fear the majesty of the Dark King."
"The Hell King's divine realm lies in another hidden place. Even the Dark King would not be able to find it."
"That great being welcomes all refugees!"
Inside the Garden, the plague creatures whispered among themselves, trying to work out how to escape. Some had already slipped away through the winding paths and left the withering domain behind.
They wanted to defect to the legendary Hell King, Diablo.
"Hah. Looks like my plan worked."
While Eden kept an eye on the defensive war for Holy Terra, he was also monitoring what was happening in the Warp.
He was in an excellent mood. Holy Terra was safe for the moment, and his plans in the Warp were progressing just as smoothly.
Even though he had remained outside the Sol System ever since the battle began, that did not mean he had been doing nothing.
He had been quietly laying plans inside the Warp the whole time.
That was Eden's kind of strategic thinking: if you attack my Holy Terra in the Sol System, then I will move into your backyard, eat your food, live in your house, and fleece you for everything you are worth.
Now he was finally experiencing the benefits of developing on two fronts at once, both in the galaxy and in the Warp.
Thankfully, he had prepared his dark-side avatar, Diablo, in advance and built up a force in the Warp. That meant he no longer had to take hits passively the way the Imperium once had.
While the Chaos Gods were busy making trouble in the Sol System, he could use Diablo, the dark-side avatar of the Hope Sun, to make trouble in their realms too.
At the very least, it would offset some of the losses. Give and take.
Once the Chaos Gods had focused their attention on the Sol System, Eden had already begun laying the groundwork by spreading faith and demonstrating power and divine authority.
He intended to take a chunk out of their home turf while he had the chance.
Just like now, for example. Tossing a few faith "flyers" into the Garden of Nurgle disrupted the place's internal harmony and also let him poach more believers.
And that was not all. Similar fleecing operations were underway in the realms of the other gods as well.
Before the Chaos Gods noticed and pulled their power back from the Sol System, he needed to grab as much as he possibly could.
"Damn it!"
Grandfather Nurgle had only just regained consciousness when he discovered that even his cherished followers were betraying him, and that dealt him an even deeper blow.
He had never expected the Hell King to start flooding the place with propaganda and looting the house while he was weak.
And once he realized there was a very good chance that this Hell King was connected to the Savior, his fury and heartbreak only worsened.
The Savior had gone too far!
The Plague Lord trembled all over, vomited another massive pool of pus, and finally lost consciousness completely, falling into slumber.
Because Grandfather Nurgle had collapsed, the entire Garden of Nurgle descended into sustained chaos as believers continued to slip away.
With help from insiders, followers of the Hell King had even begun sneaking into the Garden to poach and harvest its rare resources.
Within the Bloodlands.
Magma and flame roared, while blood-red shadows thrashed in madness, radiating indescribable wrath.
"No! Find Terra for me!"
"Traitors!"
The roar of the god of slaughter and war burst forth from the Brass Citadel and shook the void.
Khorne, the Blood God, had never suffered such a setback. In his fury, he smashed apart the brass halls.
That left Khorne's greater daemons trembling, heads lowered, not daring to say a word, much less ask for permission to wage war.
In the Terra campaign, the great Blood God had suffered enormous losses. To commit even more faith-power, he had gone so far as to shut down many of the dueling pits within his realm.
That left countless duelists and Chaos beings without rewards and with nothing to do.
Some of them, after hearing Diablo's offers, simply left the Bloodlands outright.
Those violent beings who reveled in blood, slaughter, and power had come here in the first place because they worshiped the Blood God and the strength he granted them.
Now the Hell King was offering a better deal, so naturally they were going to the better destination.
Khorne was incandescent with rage. He could not tolerate some upstart counterfeit of his own power stealing the warriors of his realm away from him.
That was an extremely serious act of shameless poaching.
In the past, the other Chaos Gods would never have dared do such a thing. But the Hell King not only did it, he did it with a loudspeaker in hand, recruiting people in broad daylight.
He had even smeared the Blood God's reputation, calling him a stingy, greedy deity who was nowhere near as generous as the Hell King.
That drove the prestige of the god of slaughter and war even lower and cost him wave after wave of followers.
In his rage, Khorne ordered the execution of a group of beings trying to leave the Bloodlands, but the killing accomplished nothing.
If they were the kind to give up on seeking power out of fear, they never would have come to the Bloodlands to fight in endless duels in the first place.
In fact, that behavior from the Blood God only strengthened the resolve of many Chaos beings to leave.
Nobody wanted to keep following a god who had grown weak and could no longer continue granting them strength.
Put simply, Khorne got wrecked in this round. He had poured in so much faith and corrupt power that everyone's pay got slashed, and in some cases wages stopped entirely.
Who could put up with that?
Meanwhile, in the realm of pleasure...
A few black-robed figures were skulking along the outskirts. The moment they spotted Slaaneshi followers, they hurried over.
"Ah, favored children of pleasure. Perhaps you are in need of a more exquisite stimulation."
"I have some very good stuff here. Interested?"
"The latest illusions. Premium quality."
"Come over here. I'll tell you quietly. If you want, I can even arrange for hell-warriors to give you the real experience. Guaranteed torment..."
Followers of Diablo, the Hell King, were peddling brand-new pleasure experiences to Slaanesh's worshipers, planting fresh faith in the process.
That was how they siphoned off power that would otherwise have belonged to the Lord of Pleasure.
It could not be helped. Slaanesh's authority had been affected by the siege of Terra, and a great many pleasure-related entertainments had been disrupted.
The illusions in particular were now riddled with heavy pixelation.
That left Slaanesh's followers extremely frustrated. Many of them could not endure it for even a moment. Every waking instant, they longed to vent their desires.
Eden seized that opportunity. Using some of the pleasure-related authority controlled by the Hope Sun's dark side, he began recruiting followers who had once belonged to Slaanesh.
He sent out a group of Diablo's believers to skulk around the edges of the pleasure realm and peddle smut.
They even offered in-person services.
That way, through illusions and other methods, he could implant the Hell King Diablo's provocative image into the minds of pleasure-seeking beings on a massive scale.
By doing so, he could "capture market share" and indirectly intercept and absorb pleasure-faith.
At that moment, upon the throne deep within the Palace of Slaanesh, the Lord of Pleasure's peerlessly beautiful body looked terribly weakened.
Furious, the deity stared at Diablo's provocative body and those seductive illusions, and both hands began moving on their own.
This Lord of Pleasure had invested too much attention and too much faith-authority into the material galaxy. There was no easy way to stop the Hell King's encroachment now.
The Hell King was too strong, too cunning, too troublesome. His authority kept slipping in and out around the outer edges of the pleasure realm, never venturing too deep.
Even Slaanesh had no way to seize him or completely drive out his power.
"Hell King... once this war is truly over and the authority of pleasure is withdrawn from realspace, I will catch you!"
The Lord of Pleasure thought bitterly. The desire to seize the Hell King and subject him to merciless torment was growing stronger and stronger.
"Tch. Sounds to me like you're just pent up."
Eden was not remotely bothered by the threat. It was obvious that Slaanesh could not do anything to him at the moment.
He continued taking advantage of the opportunity, using his authority to slip in and out of the pleasure realm.
He was careful enough to stop the instant he reached dangerous territory and pull away immediately.
That brazen behavior only drove the Lord of Pleasure even crazier.
As for the Crystal Labyrinth, Eden had also sent Diablo's followers there to conduct trades and recruit people.
He wanted to build a new library in the Warp too, one overflowing with knowledge, so that it could serve humanity.
These methods of seizing the Chaos Gods' faith and authority were clearly workable.
The Chaos Gods had not been born as the embodiments of those authorities. They had become supreme beings through endless accumulation until they merged with the Warp itself.
Even the undivided entities of Chaos all possessed one authority or another, and some of those overlapped with the authorities of the four Chaos Gods.
They just had never managed to walk the path all the way to the end.
At present, the only confirmed being to have taken that final step after the Chaos Gods was the Emperor himself.
And Eden guessed he counted as half of one.
"Still, my situation right now is kind of a mess. My authorities have become way too mixed up. It feels like I don't really fit any single path at all..."
As Eden sensed the complicated mesh of faith-authorities inside the Hope Sun, he could not help getting a headache.
Over the years, he had copied so much from so many sources that his various authorities now overlapped with the Chaos Gods, the Emperor, the Goddess of Life Isha, and more.
He was basically a little bit of everything.
And the consequence of that might be that none of those paths could ever carry him all the way to the end. He might never be able to merge with the Warp and become a supreme being.
Which also meant he would never exist eternally across the timeline in the way such beings did.
"Hiss...
Then again, from another angle, maybe that's a good thing."
Whatever he had just thought of, it clearly pleased Eden. He nodded to himself and decided there was no point overthinking it. If he could get his hands on an authority, then he would use it.
He did not want to ascend into some supreme godhood anyway.
One look at the Emperor's condition was enough to make that obvious. Becoming that kind of existence meant gradually losing one's human way of thinking and consciousness.
In the end, you became a prisoner of the Warp and of faith itself.
Eden happily kept fleecing the Chaos Gods, enjoying the steady growth of his own strength.
With every new authority he gained, he could sense more clearly the existence of those eight stairways, as well as the most primordial power at their center.
That primal force of destruction in the very middle was so tempting it practically made him drool.
The only problem was that he did not seem able to climb toward it.
Still, that was probably for the best. At least for now, he was safe and had not yet been dragged too deeply under by faith.
"As expected, war really is the fastest way to grow stronger. No wonder those lunatics love fighting so much."
Eden could not help feeling emotional about it.
If the Chaos Gods had not gone all in on their assault against Holy Terra in the Sol System, he might never have had a chance like this to slip into the gaps and fleece them dry.
This round had fed the Hope Sun very, very well.
Now that the Hope Sun's power had grown again, he might no longer need to depend on the Emperor as heavily as before, nor keep hiding and sneaking around so cautiously.
He still could not beat the Chaos Gods, but escaping a siege should no longer be a problem. That gave him a tremendous sense of security.
"Next, it's time to wrap this war up."
Even as Eden continued his operations in the Warp, he shifted his attention back toward the material galaxy.
He still had a war in realspace to finish.
If possible, he intended to wipe out every force the Chaos Gods had poured into the Sol System, including Horus and the other fallen beings.
That would deal the Chaos Gods an even greater wound and leave them weaker still.
Realspace. The Sol System.
Bzzzt...
As Eden's will descended, a gentle golden light pierced the darkness.
A new sun slowly rose in the black void.
(End of Chapter)
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