|Stratum Obscurus |
The warp is a parallel dimension made of pure psychic energy and the reflected thoughts, dreams, and emotions of all sentient beings in realspace.
Long ago, it used to be a pure place of free-flowing power; anyone who ventured into it would discover truths of creation and become immensely powerful. The Old Ones were the first to discover the Warp and became the most powerful race of their time.
But later on, they began to misuse the Warp, and one thing led to the next, eventually leading to the War in Heaven, a destined event that is forever set in stone by omnipresent beings. The War in Heaven led to the deaths of countless planets, species, and the instability of realspace.
The emotions of those who died during that war became the fuel needed to allow innumerable daemons, along with Nurgle, Khorne, and Tzeentch, to give themselves form. They had always existed throughout time, but the end of the War in Heaven became the perfect moment for them to be born and impose their will.
It was from that time that the Warp's corruption began and transitioned into an ocean of insanity. No longer could people draw upon the power of the Warp without worrying about what in the Warp would draw upon them.
However, luckily for those in realspace, the influence of daemons didn't reach everywhere in the Warp. Although the Warp is an endless dimension, there are layers to it. The surface layer of the Warp, Stratum Iteritas, is where the Astronomican's light shines, allowing the Imperium to travel.
Further into the Warp is Stratum Profundus, the middle layer of the Warp that contains many arteries. Arteries that Magnus and the Crimson Arbiters used to travel through the Warp, trying to reach Chaeonria.
Beyond Stratum Profundus is the deepest known layer of the Warp, Stratum Obscurus. Even now, it remains the deepest known layer because no one ever dared to venture deeper to discover what resides in those depths.
Stratum Obscurus is where the Chaos Gods carved out their own realms in the Warp, and it is also exactly where the most recent turmoil of the Warp is occurring.
A scene being watched by many powerful beings and many ignorant mortals who will immortalize what they witnessed in their souls and among the kin on the worlds they live on.
It was a scene of a human fighting daemonic gods without losing.
___
'I'm starting to lose ground,' I mused while actively dodging a ghastly ball of soul-eroding poison from a greater daemon of Nurgle, Ku'gath Plaguefather. 'I can only hold out for a short while longer before my warp usage reaches dangerous levels.'
I took another step back, narrowly avoiding a black battle axe that threatened to cleave off my head.
Seeing its attack fail, An'ggrath the Unbound, a greater daemon of Khorne, let out a harrowing roar and lashed out at me with the barbed whip it held in its left arm. In response, I swiped the space before me with my power claw, which created a burning tear in the fabric of the Warp that hit An'ggrath, almost annihilating him.
However, a surge of power from Khorne forcibly dissipated the majority of the damage from my attack and healed An'ggrath enough so he could continue to attack. I tried to follow up with a quick blitz and horizontal cleave with my sword.
But my swing was blocked by the combined efforts of Shalaxi Helbane, a greater daemon of Slaanesh, and Amon 'Chakai, a greater daemon of Tzeentch. With a brief flex of my arm and power, I forced the clash into my favor and made them falter.
Shalaxi's stance was broken and it was momentarily unable to lift its spear, Soulpiercer, or its shield to defend itself. I imposed my will on the Warp around Shalaxi and locked it in place, then I took a step forward to stab my sword through Shalaxi's head.
Yet once again, my final hit was denied. Slaanesh used its power to dispel my lock on Shalaxi and empower Shalaxi back to its absolute peak state.
Then the sequence is what I've been facing since I forced my way here in an attempt to save one of my sons and distract the Four from focusing more of their attention on Magnus.
It was quite frustrating to see the Four, who were known for endless infighting, working together with such synergy. Every time I went for a kill, they intervened to allow their chosen champions to escape, and unfortunately I didn't have any way around it.
If this was realspace, I would've long since severed their connection to their respective gods and annihilated them. But this is the Warp; I am now in their playing field, where there were no restrictions on their powers.
The Four have given as much power as they could to their chosen champions to face me, and they've even empowered some of their other greater daemons to provide aid to their champions by attacking me at the most opportune times and leaving quickly.
"Anathema!! You are a fool for coming here alone, I look forward to mounting your skull upon my throne!!!"
"Your hubris exceeds you once again… No matter how you struggle, your fate will always be the Golden Throne. There is no escape from our Great Game."
"You're simply intoxicating… Ahhhhh, oh how I love watching you writhe in eternal pain."
"I hope you continue your struggle, I hope you inspire more of the humans you love so much. It will only make your Imperium rot much faster."
As always, the Four never let a moment to take a jab at me pass, and vice versa. Nothing pleases me more than taking a jab right back and watching them erupt in fury.
"How amusing… It never gets old to see the self-proclaimed Chaos Gods cling to each other in desperation and for comfort in numbers. Please do continue prattling on uselessly; I heard it's a rather effective coping mechanism to mask fear."
And just as I had expected, I felt the tremors of their rage throughout the Warp at my insult and insinuation about them fearing me. Seeing how I could control how they felt with a few words, I couldn't help but smile deviously. This was truly entertaining and soothing to my soul.
Weirdly, the tremors of their rage disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. I was rather confused at why they would suddenly stop, as if they were spooked or distracted by something. However, I didn't give it another thought as I propelled myself forward straight at Amon 'Chakai.
Amon 'Chakai was a genuine problem in this matchup; it is the oldest and wisest of all greater daemons of Tzeentch. And this fight proved that it indeed is the wisest by how it worked as the core of the daemons attacking me. It provided aid to the others at the right moments and instructed the other greater daemons in the surroundings when to attack and how to escape.
If I had left Amon 'Chakai alone, it just might've succeeded in guiding the greater daemons to land a devastating hit on me. But now, that was no longer the case because of the lapse of focus in the Four.
With a clean stroke from my sword, Amon 'Chakai was severed in two and incinerated into oblivion by the flames on my sword.
"ANATHEMA, I PROMISE YOU THAT YOUR SONS WILL BEAR THE PRICE FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!"
Tzeentch was furious, while the other Three were gloating at its misfortune. It was understandable why it was furious. Unlike daemons of Chaos Undivided, the majority of daemons who serve the Chaos Gods were formed when a Chaos God sheds or concentrates a fraction of its own warp-energy to create an empyric thoughtform.
Essentially, greater daemons are extensions of the power of a Chaos God, beings capable of independent thought that the Chaos Gods use as proxies to enact their will. For this reason, the Four are very protective of their greater daemons and never hesitate to forcibly summon their greater daemons back into their realm should they encounter real danger.
Unfortunately for Amon 'Chakai, the Four were distracted and I was the danger it was facing. A moment's blunder allowed me to permanently kill a part of Tzeentch, a useful servant that it could never get back, and so Tzeentch unleashed its rage by launching a tirade of vile curses aimed at the fates of my sons.
Drawing deeply on my strength, I intercepted those curses aimed at my sons and dragged them into my own fate to destroy them later.
Together as one, Chaos took advantage of my divided attention, starting with Shalaxi Hellbane hurling its spear at me. With a flick of my wrist, I easily deflected its spear to the side, but then Ku'gath Plaguefather unleashed a blight of unknown contagions straight at my face.
I dashed to my side, and just as I tried to conjure a storm of howling warp lightning, the Four used their power to stall me, which caused me to mess up my spell due to my divided attention, and I also found myself being pressed down upon by their combined power.
The weight of their power prevented me from reacting in time to An'ggrath the Unbound's surprise attack. The most I could do was slightly shift my shoulder and feel the jagged edge of An'ggrath's axe screech against my armor and bite into the flesh on my back.
Before I could fully turn, Shalaxi Hellbane closed the gap between us and, with a newfound power granted by Slaanesh, thrust its empowered spear through my thigh. At the same time, Ku'gath Plaguefather drove his disease-ridden sword into my side and threw a powerful concoction of Godlight granted to him by Nurgle straight at my face, which temporarily blinded me.
For the first time since the beginning of this fight, they landed their blows on my body, and I could detect the powers of the Four doing all it could to worsen my already lethal injuries. I forced a teleport a short distance away and expended a lot of power to handle the healing of my wounds.
Others would've howled in pain and fallen dead in a pile of corrupted flesh, but not me. Not someone who has withstood far greater pain and possesses far greater power than many.
I sensed the sneers on the daemons present; they were gloating as if they had actually done something, and the entities watching revealed mocking expressions as if they saw a humorous end to someone they despised.
Beyond them, I felt the panicked gazes of human psykers across the galaxy who did not understand what they witnessed but could tell it was bad for humankind. I expanded my power to shelter their souls from daemons and calm their minds in order to prevent their own deaths from witnessing what they shouldn't.
"How bold of you to allow yourself to be distracted once again, feel my loving pain—"
I cut off Slaanesh's nonsense and stated, "As expected of you, Khorne, you only care that blood continues to flow. Never about the methods of tricks and deceit that make you no different from Slaanesh and Tzeentch, whom you despise so much…
Perhaps now you can prove who is better at deceit between you and Tzeentch. After all, Tzeentch has been weakened by the loss of a greater daemon and my attacks on fate itself. By now, Tzeentch should be on your level… Ah, wait, I forgot that you can barely even handle Slaanesh in a fight. Never mind, I believe it's best you stay on your throne doing nothing, but polishing skulls that you've been too cowardly to claim yourself."
The warp went quiet at my words as they tried to process the fact that I, Anathema, of all beings, was talking so much and saying such barbed words that struck true.
"YOUUU…." Khorne started to say in a tone of unbridled rage.
"Regardless," I said casually, ignoring its anger, and I continued. "I've gotten what I needed, and as always, all that you Four can do is watch. And in the future, make sure to pay close attention to how I reunite humanity, reclaim our rightful inheritance, and bring all of you to heel."
With those words, I unleashed as much power as I could at a moment's notice. The result was a catastrophic explosion of blinding white-golden energy that vaporized the Warp itself, leaving only a void that was being slowly filled with warp energy.
Before I made my exit, I left one last declaration: "To my scattered kin, know that there is nothing to fear from these daemons, for I am here! Prepare for the day my Astartes arrive; all of you will be brought into the fold of the Imperium and together… We will know victory!"
My final words infuriated not only the Four but also Chaos Undivided; many of them could not tolerate such an arrogant declaration. As for whether I cared about their anger, I truly did not, because they would still prey upon humanity regardless of whether I provoked them or not.
They will soon come to know that their prey is no longer as weak as they remembered, and I will get the last laugh when they realize that fact too late.
Following my grand escape, which left the Warp angered, the Four missing quite a few daemons from my final move, and human psykers on distant worlds feeling hope,
I teleported myself multiple times until I finally reached my flagship, the Bucephelus, which was traveling through the Warp in the surface layer of the Warp, Stratum Iteritas.
The moment I returned to the Bucephelus, I found myself surrounded by very concerned Custodians who pleaded, "My Liege, please rest and allow our healers to treat your injuries."
Sadly, I had to deepen their concern and reply, "I cannot. These injuries were inflicted by greater daemons empowered by their respective gods. Even with your high resistance to the Warp, all of you would have died in close vicinity if it wasn't for the barrier I cast around myself. I will rest in my chambers and heal this myself. Set a course back into realspace, then we travel to the coordinates I designated earlier so we may join up with Magnus."
"By your will," my Custodians replied in unison, and some of them moved out to prepare the flagship for warp exit.
I made one last teleport to my chambers, and for the first time in about a year, I lay down on a bed and did nothing but rest. As I rested, I couldn't help but begin to contemplate.
'Was there anything I could've done better these past years?
This past year, under Alpharius's excellent maneuvering, the expeditionary fleets have brought over a thousand worlds into compliance. Even in the original timeline, so many worlds weren't brought into compliance by only 800.M30.
So many people now depend on the Imperium and pray to me as if I am a god who can wash away their worries. Yet what about my worries?'
Just as I thought about my growing worries, an aged voice that brought me warmth echoed in my head.
'Have you forgotten about me so soon? How hurtful…'
It felt nice to hear her voice again. Before I began this operation, I completely suppressed her connection to me for two reasons. First was so that the Four would not detect her presence on me and come to realize I had planned something other than the Webway Project.
The second reason was to temporarily anchor her to the core of the sub-dimension of the Photep. In this past year, I worked with her to try and give her the ability to manifest almost like a Living Saint of the original timeline.
Tellus isn't able to assume a physical form, but she can still manifest and use a portion of my power as if it is her own. Which made her the perfect option to protect Magnus should something go terribly wrong.
'I would never,' I replied internally, and I then asked, 'I felt your signal from the sub-dimension in the Photep. Did everything go as I had expected? Is Magnus well? Nothing went wrong, right? How about his legion? Are they—'
Tellus cut me off by saying, 'Don't worry, overall they are doing well, but they did lose quite a few legionaries and I had to switch to plan Zeta-3. You were right in believing it would not be Kairos who showed up; it was Aetaos'rau'keres who did.'
I felt my heart tighten at what she informed me of. Zeta-3 was my second-to-last contingency plan. If anything worse happened, then the mission would have to be aborted and Tellus would have to expose herself to save Magnus.
Furthermore, Aetaos'rau'keres is the strongest of Tzeentch's greater daemons, a daemon whose true nature is only known to Tzeentch. And it was very powerful, powerful enough that Tzeentch bound and constrained it with ward-pacts and riddling incantations because its raw power and free will threatened to slip outside Tzeentch's design.
The current Magnus stood no chance against Aetaos'rau'keres, and in my growing concern I asked, 'What about Magnus? He couldn't have come out unscathed against such a greater daemon.'
'Your concerns are valid, but you have to let me finish speaking first,' Tellus gently scolded, and then she seemed to contemplate for a moment before continuing. 'Actually, let's just share our memories with each other. There's too much to explain and little time to strike at Aetaos'rau'keres before the opportunity slips by.'
It was quite silly of me not to think of that sooner; nevertheless, we exchanged memories and we were both caught up with what we'd missed.
I felt Tellus's worries about my condition and a strange unease she seemed to be feeling, but I moved on from that because, with the information I gained, I now knew Aetaos'rau'keres's current general location in the Warp, and he had some answering to do for the pain he caused my son.
'Wait—' Tellus tried to say, but I had suppressed our connection for the teleportation I was about to do through the Warp. I locked on to a faint mark that belonged to my and Tellus's signatures and teleported right above Aetaos'rau'keres.
Aetaos'rau'keres stared at me with terror written all over its multiple faces.
"Save me!!" it cried aloud, hoping that Tzeentch would resummon it back into the Crystal Labyrinth.
Drawing on my power and slightly exceeding the safe limit, I roared, "Answer for what you've done to my son!!"
Then, I discharged an all-encompassing surge of psychic power that enveloped Aetaos'rau'keres's body. Unfortunately, I couldn't remain even for a second longer, or else the Four would unleash their full strength on me in order to trap me here.
Though I can confirm that even if Aetaos'rau'keres survived that, it would require thousands of years before it could reform itself enough. Tzeentch was now down two greater daemons, which made him a perfect target for Nurgle, who is most definitely planning on how to intrude into Tzeentch's authority.
I returned to my chambers feeling satisfied at this bonus reward of weakening Tzeentch further. Next, I released the suppression on my connection with Tellus.
'You're in danger of losing yourself,' Tellus began to say in a tone that implied she demanded my complete attention. 'I apologize for asking you to expend more energy to track and strike down Aetaos'rau'keres. I should've checked the state of your soul first.'
I was quite confused at what danger she was speaking of, and I replied softly, 'It is no fault of yours. I would've attacked Aetaos'rau'keres the moment I learned of his toying with Magnus. And what is this danger you speak of?'
'Do you remember when you said that you were feeling odd phantom pains that made you feel as if you were sitting on the Golden Throne?'
'Yes, and I still feel those pains even now.'
'Those doubts you had, did you sense anything particularly off about them?'
My eyes narrowed as I recalled them, and then my mind blanked out when I reached a startling conclusion. I could not believe that it was occurring so soon.
'By all means, you should've waited until your soul was fully healed before drawing so much on the Warp. The cracks in your soul, curses of fate held in your soul, faith energy, large expenditure of psychic power, and huge draws upon warp energy have allowed the Dark King to gain awareness.'
'This is rather unexpected,' I replied in mild shock. 'But it's fine, I can suppress the Dark King with ease and prevent its birth. A few years will be enough to rid my soul of any signs of its awakening.'
'Indeed, you can still suppress it; however, that will not stop others from feeling discomfort from its presence in you. Once again, you've found a new way to make yourself seem like a god.'
I briefly paused, completely dumbfounded at her words, and I questioned, 'And how exactly is that supposed to make me seem like a god?'
'Oh, Andrew…' Tellus said in exasperation. 'Sometimes I don't know whether I should laugh or be frustrated at your obliviousness. Although, I guess it can be quite endearing.'
I rolled my eyes at her words and plainly said, 'Please get to the point.'
'So be it,' she responded with mirth. 'Imagine being a normal human psyker who either experienced extreme turbulence in the Warp or simply chose the wrong moment in time to use the Warp. All of these human psykers bore witness to an imposing human in resplendent golden armor, covered in golden flames.
That same imposing human attacked numerous creatures that not even humans could dream of in their worst nightmares. These humans went through the most frightening moment of their lives and almost lost it if it wasn't for an unfathomable and comforting power protecting them.
All of them realized that the imposing human protected them while facing such vile creatures. Then they watched as you fought those creatures on equal footing, healed fatal injuries, and declared that you would do the impossible. With all of that said, what else do you expect them to believe you are other than a god?'
Her words made me facepalm at my own antics. I was truly in for it in the future, when who knows how many worlds would probably build statues of me and pray to them.
'By the way,' Tellus cheerfully added, 'everyone who senses the Dark King's presence on you will most likely interpret it as you making another grand sacrifice for humanity. Perhaps some may think you were hurt by a monstrosity beyond their understanding, or maybe that you took away all the sins of humanity and chose to bear them alone.
Also, your strategy of smiling at the Four to throw them off worked splendidly. I don't think any being has ever witnessed the Four seem so distraught. I must say that even I felt disturbed at seeing you smile in such a manner.'
'OK, OK, that's enough,' I replied in a defeated tone. 'Let's move on. I believe it's about time to begin the Paradigm Shift. By the time we reach the point of facing Vashtorr, I should have rested enough to act, or at least Erda and Malcador could do so in my place.'
'Agreed, but only act if you absolutely need to. Leave it to Erda, Malcador, and even Magnus to handle this. You need to remember you don't have to do everything yourself. You have people next to you that you can depend on.'
I smiled at her words and responded warmly, 'Thank you, Tellus. I appreciate you.'
'Oho? A friendly warning: I've been around for a long time, and it takes more than that to charm me.'
My smile vanished at her teasing, and I decided to just ignore her words.
I used the most minimal amount of psychic energy I could to nudge the Custodian guarding the entrance of my chamber. Instantly, the doors burst open, and Valorian, one of the newest members of my Hetaeron Guard, walked in quickly.
Judging by the tremble in his body, what Tellus said was correct about other people vaguely sensing that the Dark King was present within me. Valorian seemed ready to do who knows what, so I spoke quickly.
"Send word to the 1st Legion, begin the next stage of the Paradigm Shift. It is time for the Mechanicum to learn the location of the Castigator Titan. And Valorian, the discomfort you're feeling from me is just a scratch that will go away over time. Do not overthink or question it."
Valorian bowed his head and replied, "It will be done, my liege."
With that matter handled, I entered a state of sleep to handle my damaged soul and to prepare for the future negotiations with the Castigator Titan.
-To Be Continued...
(A/N: Lmk if anything feels off in this chapter, I felt kind of weird when writing it. Not sure if its because I haven't written in first person in a while or the alcohol.)