Outside the planet Trailblaze, an Eldar craft hung silently in the void.
"So this is the planet where the mysterious Primarch resides?" Yvraine stared at the world below with a strange expression. It was a planet of blue and green, a veritable paradise world by the Imperium of Man's classification.
What concerned her more, however, was the revelation that humanity had another Primarch hidden in the shadows. Furthermore, the power he had accumulated was not insignificant. This had caused some debate within the Ynnari. Since one Primarch already existed, was it necessary to help humanity awaken another? It risked making humanity too powerful. While Zhou Ye might not care about the Imperium's strength, they had to.
But Yvraine had quickly settled the matter, giving two reasons.
First, the prophecy had not changed. Or rather, the prophecy still guided them toward Macragge to resurrect Guilliman.
Second, and most important, humanity might have many Primarchs, but only Guilliman possessed the unique ability to hold the entire Imperium of Man together. The others could not.
And so, they had ultimately come through the Webway gate. Now, their fleet was locked on by a powerful armada led by a Gloriana-class battleship. It left them frozen, not daring to make a move. After all, the Imperium was hostile to all xenos. While they were relatively more tolerant of the Eldar, that meant very little in practice.
Then, the identification code on their screen flickered, and the docking window turned green. A tall figure, over three meters in height and clad in black and gold armor, appeared before them.
"An Imperial Custodian?" a member of a Harlequin troupe at Yvraine's side muttered. Their troupe had clashed with the Adeptus Custodes before.
In Zhou Ye's eyes, the reasons for their conflict were utterly absurd and laughable, but he still acknowledged their combat prowess. To be able to fight the golden bananas to a one-to-one exchange ratio was an incredibly rare feat. But seeing such a being and feeling the oppressive aura emanating from him, the Eldar's expressions turned grim.
Zhou Ye's Fused Warriors were essentially benchmarked against the Custodes. After undergoing the 23rd Surgery, many of their original Astartes traits would vanish. This wasn't because the previous enhancements were wasted, but because their bodies had evolved a step further and no longer required them. Furthermore, due to the exorbitant cost, Zhou Ye's selection process was the best of the best. Only the most elite Astartes under his command were qualified to receive such a surgery, ensuring their combat effectiveness was absolutely top-tier.
"Xenos, your fleet will remain here. Your leader may accompany us to the palace to meet the great… him."
He originally wanted to say 'My Lord,' but Ashira paused mid-sentence. The title could be misconstrued as referring to the Emperor. He knew all too well that Zhou Ye had a habit of muttering a certain phrase under his breath… "Fucking Golden Fiend." Zhou Ye cursed the Golden Fiend on a daily basis. To call him 'Primarch' was also out; Zhou Ye had repeatedly stressed that he was not a Primarch. As his most loyal guard, Ashira felt he could not go against Zhou Ye's wishes, at least not overtly.
So he simply chose 'him.' As for Zhou Ye's real name, Ashira suspected that only the machine spirit of the Gloriana-class battleship Hyperion knew. They themselves did not, but it wasn't important.
"That's impossible!!!" Hearing the command, a clamor arose from the Eldar.
It was far too dangerous. A single encounter with Ahriman had nearly wiped them out. To go with only a few people to meet an Imperial Primarch… if the Primarch harbored even a shred of ill will, they would be trapped there forever.
"Xenos, if we wished it, not a single one of you would be leaving here alive today," Ashira said forcefully, staring down the Ynnari.
Yet, this statement, which should have provoked outrage, had a calming effect on the Ynnari. This was the typical reaction of the Imperium of Man. If Zhou Ye had greeted them with a smiling face, that would have been truly strange.
"Everyone, be quiet. This was always going to be risky," Yvraine said, setting the tone for her retinue. She and her mentor, the Visarch, took a step forward.
In the next moment…
"What was that just now?" Yvraine asked, bewildered. She had seen only a flash of golden light, and then she was no longer in space, but standing on solid ground. The speed of the transition astonished her. She then saw a grand palace, and a towering figure seated before a massive desk.
The 'Custodian' from before now stood silently behind that being.
"Hmph…"
"Welcome, Ynnari of the Eldar," Zhou Ye said coolly. He had not activated the authority of the Herrscher of Sentience. The Eldar were born with strong psychic talents, and this one was an emissary of a god. It would not be amusing if he made a fool of himself.
Besides, Zhou Ye needed to make use of the Eldar Webway. He had a bold plan. If it succeeded, his Star Rail network would stretch to a terrifying distance, and the speed at which he could lay new tracks would double. For that, he needed the Webway. With that in mind, Zhou Ye intended to take things slow.
Of course, a necessary bit of concealment was still in order. He couldn't let his intentions be too obvious.
"A Primarch of Man…" Yvraine took a deep breath as she looked at the giant before her. His presence was suffocating; even her connection to the God of the Dead had become somewhat unstable.
"Tell me your purpose." Zhou Ye kept his distance from these pointy-ears. They were simply too much trouble. In their prime, the Eldar Pantheon had not feared the original three Chaos Gods. It could be said that the Aeldari Empire at its peak was far stronger than the Imperium of Man. Their Warp gods were more stable, and they had the Webway left by the Old Ones. But these people were truly masters of self-destruction, on a level humanity couldn't even compare to.
"I have come to resurrect your brother, the Primarch Guilliman." Yvraine continuously stroked her Sword of Sorrows. Zhou Ye didn't give the action a second glance. In truth, he could protect these pointy-ears without the God of the Dead. But he wouldn't do it, at least not for the Ynnari. If possible, he might try to corrupt some of the Exodites who had little connection to the Craftworlds. What he was most curious about, however, was what category of pointy-ear Yvraine fell into. A dead pointy-ear?
"I am not a Primarch, and Guilliman is no brother of mine."
"..."
Seeing Yvraine's clearly disbelieving eyes, Zhou Ye rubbed his head, a headache forming. He casually pinched off a mouth that had sprouted from his desk before continuing. "But I will help you. Belisarius Cawl, you can come out now."
With a series of mechanical whirs, Belisarius Cawl emerged. He had used the time to modify his original body. With a frame that large, it wasn't difficult to carve out a cockpit for his new, smaller self to hide inside. And one shouldn't underestimate him; his combat power far exceeded that of a normal Space Marine. Many Chapter Champions would be no match for him.
"To resurrect Guilliman… hm?"
"Ah?"
Just then, Zhou Ye and Yvraine froze simultaneously, their expressions changing in an instant.
Because…
"HAHAHA!!!"
A wild, uproarious laughter echoed through the Warp. The Immaterium, already in turmoil from the opening of the Great Rift, now erupted into a cataclysmic tsunami.
"The Blood God???"
In almost the same instant, Zhou Ye, Yvraine, and the Visarch who had accompanied her, all spoke the name. Zhou Ye immediately sounded the alarm, and sirens blared across the entire planet.
At the same time, in Quintus Hive.
A searing pain shot through Aiswei'er's head. Her vision turned blood red.
"Are you alright?" A Custodian shield-guard immediately rushed to her side, catching her. She began to tremble violently before collapsing limply to the ground.
At that moment, eighty-eight worlds were shrouded in a blood-red fog. The screams of hundreds of billions of souls reverberated throughout the Empyrean. Then, in the materium, a colossal, system-spanning eight-pointed star of blood-red Chaos flared into existence, enveloping an entire segment of the galaxy.
"Hiss…"
Feeling the sheer scale of this boundless Chaos star, Zhou Ye couldn't help but draw a sharp breath. Khorne had indeed been quietly cooking up something big. A Chaos ritual that could encompass an entire sector couldn't be fueled by mortal lives alone. The Blood God must have used some special resources. Zhou Ye wagered that even for Khorne, he wouldn't be able to unleash a sacrifice of this magnitude again for at least a thousand, if not ten thousand, years.
The massive blood-red star then began to rotate rapidly, shrinking at an incredible speed until, in a flash, it was focused directly on Zhou Ye's planet.
Energy surged wildly around Zhou Ye. This time, he would face Khorne directly. He could not allow this thing to open a gate on top of him. But just as he was about to unleash his full power against Khorne, regardless of the cost, he reined it back in.
Because in that instant, four other energies—gold, purple, green, and blue—intertwined and merged. They slammed into the massive blood-red light, forcibly shutting the rift that was about to drag the entire planet into the Warp.
"BASTARD!!!" Khorne's furious roar echoed through the Immaterium.
This brought Zhou Ye a moment of relief. Wait… did the other four Chaos Gods just team up to suppress Khorne? Without a doubt, it had saved him a massive amount of energy. He could not tolerate Trailblaze being pulled into the Warp; the loss would be unacceptable.
"Those four actually worked together? To stop Khorne? But why? I have a very strange feeling… Nurgle, Slaanesh, and the Emperor, fine, but what is Tzeentch doing?" Zhou Ye fell into a contemplative silence.
Time seemed to crawl by. At his side, Yvraine and the Visarch were drenched in cold sweat. They too had guessed what had just happened and did not dare to move, for the power of Slaanesh now shrouded the planet. Not just them; the Ynnari fleet in orbit felt it with crystal clarity. But it was obvious that Slaanesh had no interest in them at the moment. The five great Chaos Gods were, after all, rivals who constantly undermined one another. The last time four of them had worked together was during the Horus Heresy, when it was truly the Imperium against the four.
Meanwhile, in the small-scale Abyssal Battlefield within the Thousand-Person Theater, Konrad Curze suddenly looked up. His eyes were chillingly cold. A great shadow extended from him, shielding all the new Night Lords.
He had deliberately brought the Black Templars here. The Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors were engaged in a super-massive battle simulation. In such a scenario, the computer would dedicate all its processing power to those two large-scale battlefields. Other simulations would be unable to run due to a lack of computational resources. This wasn't the computer's absolute limit—it could handle battles with hundreds of thousands of combatants, though the processing load was immense—but Zhou Ye would never allocate all of his supercomputer's power to them. He had assigned them a quota. This simulation would occupy the entire quota. Curze, too lazy to wait, had simply let the Black Templars throw a wrench in the works. A grand simulation that should have taken a day was ended in an instant.
"My brother, when did Father create you? To be able to draw the attention of all of them at once… just who are you…" Curze murmured in utter shock. Such a scene was almost unheard of.
Finally, time crept forward, reaching a crescendo.
At the 888th second, Khorne's power reached its peak.
But at that very moment, the powers of the other four Gods combined, holding firm against the apex of the assault. This allowed Zhou Ye to breathe a sigh of relief. At least his planet wouldn't be dragged whole into the Warp. He hadn't realized Khorne was playing for such high stakes, attempting to forcibly pull his world under.
But…
At the 999th second, a massive rift suddenly tore open above Zhou Ye's fortress. A torrent of blue energy poured out. A figure on a distinctive disc took the lead. A storm of psychic power immediately lashed out, smashing down toward Zhou Ye's fortress, its target aimed squarely at Yvraine.
---o---