At this moment, Guilliman admitted defeat in his heart.
Guilliman worried intensely that if he sang a different tune from Axis at the moment, Axis might use some method to force an Eldar wife upon him prematurely.
He did not doubt that Axis had the audacity to do such a thing, nor did he doubt his ability to do so. Was it not just the Eldar God of Death?
Axis had managed to manifest it in another world.
If he could manifest it in this world as he had in the other, then forcing Guilliman to choose an Eldar Farseer seemed like a trivial matter by comparison.
"I surrender, Axis. Do as you please," Guilliman said.
Axis was completely different from Horus. If Axis were to lead the Primarchs, Guilliman did not worry about treachery or rebellion. It was entirely unnecessary; if Axis truly wanted the position, the Emperor would likely step aside and give it to him willingly.
The gathered Primarchs nodded in agreement. At some point unknown to them, Guilliman had taken the place of Horus, becoming the unspoken leader among the brothers.
Even the Emperor had tacitly accepted Axis's supreme status, placing him almost above all other Primarchs.
"Enough," Axis said. "Let our jesting end here."
He continued. "Now I must tell you of the situation in the other world. Before that, I have a secret to reveal regarding my ultimate mission. Now that the Dark King has vanished, I can finally speak of it."
Axis put away his playful attitude and began to explain the matter of the Dark King to the gathered demigods. It was the first time the Primarchs had truly learned of this entity.
They had heard the Emperor speak of it vaguely in the past, but this was their first detailed understanding of what kind of existence it truly was.
"The Dark King possesses power sufficient to destroy the entire universe. It is the enemy of almost all life, including the Chaos Gods," Axis explained.
"This is why the Chaos powers supported Horus. In truth, they did not want Horus to overthrow the Emperor's rule. Rather, they aimed to force the Emperor onto the Golden Throne to delay the birth of the Dark King to the greatest extent possible. That is why, during the duel on Holy Terra, I could only remain within the Webway. I could not intervene."
Axis recounted the full sequence of events, explaining the causes and consequences to all the Primarchs.
Only then did everyone realize the truth. Axis knew so many secrets, and he, the Emperor, and Magnus had been facing such a terrifying enemy while the rest of them remained completely ignorant.
This also explained why the Great Betrayal had been so strange. Why had Axis, despite possessing supreme combat power, delayed engaging Horus for so long, leaving the duel to the Emperor?
"It is hard to imagine," Karl said with a shocked expression. "I thought the Dark King was merely Father's dark aspect, but I never expected it to be the most ancient and powerful existence in the universe."
"When I sat upon the Golden Throne, I clearly sensed the power of the Dark King," Magnus said. "He even used specific means to create a dark personality for Father. That dark persona caused us no small amount of trouble during the Great Betrayal. If not for that dark personality, that idiot Horus would never have even reached Holy Terra."
Among all the Primarchs, save for Axis, Magnus understood the Dark King best. It was precisely because he understood the entity's power that he dared not resist when the Dark King began using the Emperor to cull the Primarchs.
Who could have guessed that in a mere three hundred years, Axis would advance this far, becoming an existence capable of eliminating the Dark King?
Although he had not completely destroyed the entity, plunging the Dark King into a deep slumber was already the best possible outcome for the Emperor.
The other Primarchs whispered among themselves, discussing the revelation of the Dark King.
"So, Axis, how does your plan save Father? And how did you originally intend to deal with the Dark King?" Leman Russ asked.
"A good question, father," Axis replied to the Wolf King. "The Emperor can rise again in the future, but it requires a very special fruit. However, to explain this, I must start with my rescue of the Eldar Goddess of Life..."
Axis began to recount his tale. He described how, amidst the chaos of the Great Betrayal, he had allied with Cegorach, the Laughing God of the Eldar, to infiltrate Nurgle's domain and rescue Isha, the Goddess of Life.
However, he cleverly omitted the details regarding Khorne. It was not yet time to let the other Primarchs know he had formed an alliance with the Blood God.
The group of Primarchs was stunned by this fantastical adventure. Axis really had possessed distinct audacity back then.
To think he had taken advantage of the gap while the Chaos Gods were engaging the Emperor to launch a sneak attack on Nurgle and steal the Eldar Goddess of Life from his clutches.
"After I successfully rescued the Goddess of Life," Axis continued, "I used the seed of the Tree Of Might, something I brought from another world, to plant a divine tree. With my help, the Eldar Goddess became a Supreme Kai. As long as the Fruit of the Gods matures perfectly, the Emperor will be able to rise from the Golden Throne after consuming it. That is my plan. For the past three hundred years, I have been hiding in the Webway, growing this tree."
"So that explains it," Guilliman sighed. "No wonder Father kept telling us not to disturb him, even to the point where it led to our collective departure from the Imperium."
ever since the Lion, the first of the missing Primarchs, returned, Guilliman had vaguely sensed something. Now, combining the Emperor's intelligence with Axis's revelation, Guilliman had pieced together most of the picture.
The other Primarchs felt the same.
"Father was actually protecting us," Magnus said, "Otherwise, we would all have been ambushed and harmed like Rogal Dorn and Jaghatai Khan."
"Rest assured," Ferrus Manus said. "We do not blame Father. Besides, we only left for a few centuries. Such a span of time is trivial to us."
"Correct," the other Primarchs agreed one after another. "It was all the Dark King's conspiracy."
"But the Dark King did not expect me to grow to this level in three hundred years," Axis said. "He thought he could coerce me. Originally, Sanguinius and Magnus intended to compromise and stay in the Webway with me to tend the tree. But I knew that if we compromised once, we would compromise a second time, and a third."
Axis looked at his brothers. "The Dark King would have continued to push, eventually doing something even more excessive, such as killing one of us, permanently. A true death with no resurrection and no return.
"Therefore, I chose not to hold back. I decided to strike back at the Dark King. To prevent him from devouring all of humanity in desperation, I tore the barrier of cosmic space and dragged him to another world, where I defeated him."
"Then what happened in that other reality, Axis?" Vulcan asked.
"After that... the situation was grim," Axis said. "The Emperor of that other world had been completely and utterly possessed by the Dark King. If not for Sanguinius's discovery, I might have fallen into his trap. He even tried to lure me into devouring a Chaos God, which would have bound me to the Warp and trapped me there forever."
"A truly evil existence," Vulcan remarked. "Axis, you eliminated the Dark King of our universe, but the Dark King of the other universe has begun to make his moves."
"Axis, since you could defeat the Dark King of our universe, can you defeat the one in the other universe?" Karl asked.
"No," Axis shook his head. "The Dark King of our world was in his nascent form. But the Dark King of the other world has thoroughly erased all of that Emperor's personality. Moreover, he has absorbed the despair of ten thousand years from the entire universe. You must realize, this entity does not just feed on humans, but other races as well."
Axis paused gravely. "That Dark King can stand up from the Golden Throne anytime he wishes and fully restore all his power. I am not confident I can defeat him."
If he could have defeated the fully realized Dark King, Axis would not have returned ahead of schedule.
"It seems we still need to bide our time," Leman Russ said. "Axis, the most important thing now is the Divine Fruit. Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"You cannot travel to the other reality to help me," Axis replied. "If you did, you would be targeted by that world's Dark King. And do not assume I am the only one with the ability to traverse space-time; the Dark King once sent the Khârn of that other world here, so he possesses similar capabilities."
"Currently, I intend to focus my full energy on dealing with the Dark King of the other world, striving to maximize our advantages," Axis instructed. "What you all need to do is manage the Imperium well and rescue Rogal Dorn."
With most of the Primarchs returned, the administration of the Imperium no longer required Axis's personal attention. Even the rescue of Rogal Dorn could be delegated to the other Primarchs.
Axis did not intend to do everything himself. Sometimes, one had to let others share the pressure rather than carrying the weight of the universe alone.
He needed to focus entirely on the threat from the other universe.
"Leave it to us," a brother said reassuringly. "Axis, use all your strength to face the Dark King. You must cultivate the Divine Fruit, defeat that monster, and completely destroy the Dark King."
"That is a certainty," Axis replied.