"Ahhh—
Pain! Torment!
Come, tiny humans. Kneel before me, tear open your flesh, and savor this ultimate ecstasy!"
Kaerys the Defier raised his ornate spear. A haze of decadent delight spread outward, and even the tentacles on his body seemed to writhe in ecstatic celebration.
It was like a proclamation before the charge, a sentence of pain.
Behind him, more Chaos Greater Daemons squeezed their way through, with demons capering in wild disorder.
It was an evil force powerful enough to destroy any civilized world.
They could not wait to feast on human blood and souls.
Just as Kaerys was getting excited, a terrifying presence swept over him.
A chill ran through him, and his daemonic body trembled slightly despite itself.
The Defier looked up, as though he had seen some dreadful being, and immediately took several steps back.
"Wh... what?!"
Kaerys' pupils contracted sharply.
At that moment, Imperial forces were silently closing in from the distance.
And from the direction of that horrifying aura, dazzling golden light blazed forth.
In his field of vision, Space Marines and war machines stood in a mountain-shaped formation before the Palace steps.
But none of that was what mattered.
What mattered was the detestable figure protected at the center, clad in radiant golden armor, his crimson cape snapping fiercely in the wind.
The sheer majesty of his gaze filled the daemons with fear.
That was—
The Hope Primarch, the Savior, Emperor of the Imperium, Devourer of Daemons, Plunderer of Chaos, Voidstorm, the Second Sun, Guardian of the Machine Goddess, Destroyer of the Swarm, Butcher of the Warp, and that hateful Cursed One!
Buzz~
"What kind of trash tier do you think you are, barging into Holy Terra?"
Eden stood at the very front of the battle line and unleashed his psychic projection.
That phantom resembled a golden giant standing before the Imperial Palace, so that every daemon could see his magnificent bearing.
As his authority in the warp continued to grow, he had already reached the point where his entrance came with built-in special effects.
Especially in areas dense with warp energy.
Pure domineering presence.
At that moment, the majesty of Eden, the Savior, left a deep mark upon the warp itself. Countless remnant souls and shadowy dead whispered, muttered, marveled, and trembled.
They praised that being's names and titles, recounting his terrible deeds.
Those voices were everywhere, curling around the ears of every daemon that had entered the material world.
To them, it was like the terrifying voices humans heard in nightmares.
And it made the daemons afraid.
The Savior had merely shown himself, yet his sheer presence had already crushed the daemons' uproar into silence.
A man's reputation casts a long shadow.
The daemons of the warp had all heard of that being's dreadful fame, or seen his brutal acts with their own eyes, and they feared him deeply.
They knew the Savior brought not just death, but things worse than death.
And now they had met that hateful human being face-to-face.
"Dark Prince preserve me..." Kaerys the Defier took a deep breath.
At that moment, he also noticed the densely packed hell-missiles on the orbital fortress platforms, weapons capable of inflicting extreme contamination and agony.
To daemons, their damage was no less terrible than Chaos corruption was to humans.
But what the Defier feared even more was the Savior, the Butcher of the Warp, to the point that his four- to five-meter-tall daemon body was beginning to go numb.
"Has the Savior fixed his eyes on me? Is he about to attack me? What detestable method will he use this time?"
Kaerys was frightened.
He froze in place, his mind racing as he desperately tried to think of some way to survive the coming attack.
If the Savior made a move, escape would be nearly impossible.
There was no way he could duel that being one-on-one. That would just be suicide.
"If the Greater Daemons all unite and attack together, maybe there's still a sliver of a chance to survive?!"
That was what Kaerys thought.
Just as this Slaaneshi Greater Daemon was caught in hesitation and unease, he suddenly heard a thump beside him.
A Chaos Greater Daemon had knelt.
"Ah, our most esteemed Lord Savior..."
Valoxis, Lord of Change, dropped smoothly to his knees. His shimmering wings spread across the ground, his grin stretched wide, and his beak split nearly to the ears.
Every word out of his mouth was humble and sycophantic.
"Please hear this truth, so humble it has nearly faded away.
I apologize for trespassing into your august domain by mistake, and I shall depart at once in sincere fear and trembling.
If Your Excellency spares me today, that will become your greatest victory tomorrow.
Valoxis shall spend the rest of his existence praising your mercy and divine brilliance in gratitude, so that future generations may sing of it..."
The Lord of Change nearly sprawled flat on the ground, placing his most precious staff gently upon the earth.
A gesture of submission.
"After all, is it not sweeter praise to let me live and proclaim your triumph than to reduce me to silence in death?"
The moment Valoxis saw the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium, he completely lost his nerve.
He had once witnessed the Savior shove a cursed weapon up the Weaver's ass in a nightmarish spectacle.
That poor creature had burned to death in agonizing humiliation, backside in the air.
And now the Savior possessed even more terrifying hell-weapons, creations combining the power of the Cursed Ones with the craft of god-plague techniques.
If that being used a hell-weapon to attack him in the same way, what kind of horrifying result would that be?
The Lord of Change had even glimpsed his own pitiful end upon the web of fate.
Without the slightest hesitation, he frantically searched the lines of destiny and found the path most likely to keep him alive.
Surrender immediately.
So he humbly laid down his weapon and knelt to beg for mercy.
That was the only way to survive without suffering some unspeakably horrific fate.
Besides, he had only squeezed through the rift into reality to join the excitement and stir up a little trouble, not because he had received some command from the Changer of Ways to mount an assault.
Under those circumstances, why on earth would he risk his life?
At present, only avatars of the gods or the foremost of Greater Daemons were qualified to face the Savior directly.
This slick, lightning-fast capitulation from the Lord of Change left Kaerys the Defier stunned.
He had not expected that crow-faced bastard to be so terrified.
That was shameless. And terrible for morale.
The other Chaos Greater Daemons squeezing through the rift into reality were equally dumbstruck.
The once-noisy battlefield fell silent. Fear spread. Even the daemons no longer roared or shrieked.
They stopped where they were, not daring to advance, not even daring to make any unnecessary movement.
That being had filled the warp's denizens with fear through countless deeds and cruel methods.
"Traitor..."
Kaerys the Defier had just begun to sneer at the kneeling Lord of Change when a hateful gaze swept over him.
The Savior, the Butcher of the Warp, had turned his eyes upon him.
The look was full of threat, and Kaerys felt every hair on his body stand on end.
Only then did he realize that after the Lord of Change knelt, he was now the only one left standing in the front row.
Extremely conspicuous.
The meaning of that being's stare was obvious enough—
What, you don't submit?
"What do I do?!"
Under the Savior's gaze, Kaerys swallowed nervously.
He was afraid, but he still tightened his grip on his spear and kept a battle stance.
This Defier, this favored child of Slaanesh, had his own pride.
He did not want to admit defeat just like that, kneeling pathetically before the Savior like that sly Lord of Change.
"We still might have a chance. The gods will notice this place soon enough and send reinforcements."
Kaerys had not yet lost the will to fight. His mind kept analyzing the state of the battlefield.
Right now, more than twenty Chaos Greater Daemons had reached this region. That already counted as a powerful advance force.
They did not need to defeat the Savior or storm the Palace.
They only needed to hold the line around the rift for a while. If they did that, the Chaos Gods could keep extending their power into reality and enlarging the breach.
Then Chaos would gain endless reinforcements, just like the colossal rift beneath the Palace, becoming another wound in the Imperium that could never heal.
And humanity had only one Emperor. There was no way he could personally plug every new tear in the veil.
"No matter how you look at it, this is the perfect chance for Chaos to harvest endless life from the Imperium and turn Terra into a paradise for daemons."
Kaerys thought bitterly.
All they needed now was the courage to keep fighting, to unite against the Savior and the Imperial forces, and hold the line for a time.
That was absolutely possible.
"Warriors of Chaos..."
Kaerys slowly turned his head and forced the words out of his throat, trying to rally the Greater Daemons and the daemonic host.
He himself was a renowned commander in the warp, and had even fought a fierce battle against Sanguinius during the Signus Campaign.
Kaerys firmly believed that if the Greater Daemons could just gather their courage, organize themselves, and stand their ground, there was still room to recover the situation.
Hell-weapons were terrifying, yes, but the daemons had also developed certain defensive measures against them.
They would not necessarily collapse in an instant.
Yet the moment he turned around, he discovered that the Greater Daemons behind him had all quietly retreated another few steps.
Even the infernal flames burning on their daemon bodies had dimmed.
Their posture practically screamed, Fine, I submit.
???
So I'm the only idiot here still trying to charge?
Kaerys went numb.
He had not expected the Greater Daemons to be this obedient, one after another, without a shred of proper warp-daemon spirit.
They were all terrified of drawing the attention of the Butcher of the Warp and ending up with some tragic fate.
The Chaos Greater Daemons were full of regret too.
They had all scrambled through the rift into reality hoping to indulge themselves in lovely little servings of human pain, fear, and fresh flesh.
Who could have guessed they would land straight in the capital of the Imperium, right inside the Savior's heavily encircled defense line?
This fight was impossible.
Especially since they had also heard that over the last few years, the Savior had been capturing daemons to improve warp technology.
Once a daemon was sent to that detestable base of his, even suicide became impossible.
It was horrifying.
Worse still, quite a few shameless daemons had already abandoned their status and secretly defected to the Savior.
They disguised themselves, lured innocent daemons into hateful traps, captured them, and shipped them off to the Savior's Chaos research park, where they were forced to work for the Imperium or help with weapons research.
Daemons referred to that place in terror as the Hell Park.
They blanched at the mere mention of it.
Under such circumstances, these Greater Daemons, who had rushed in hoping for slaughter without the backing of the Chaos Gods, naturally did not dare overstep.
They feared the horrifying methods of the Savior, the Butcher of the Warp.
Some Chaos entities were even secretly hoping that other Greater Daemons would start fighting the Imperial forces, drawing the Savior's attention so they could use the chance to escape.
They did not need to outrun the Savior.
They only needed to be faster than the other Greater Daemons.
Some scheming creatures were already whispering, sowing discord and inciting others:
"Go on, Defier!"
"We can't retreat. Fate has already been written. There is only one road left: fight! Charge!"
"How arrogant the Savior is. We are battle-hardened favorites of the gods. We cannot let the gods be shamed..."
Those crafty, shrill voices echoed around the ears of Kaerys and the other Greater Daemons, tugging at their emotions.
It did not seem to do much.
The fear of the Savior overwhelmed the will of the Chaos entities to fight.
Looking at the cowardly, shrinking behavior of the Greater Daemons, and their obvious attempts to create chaos so they could run, Kaerys the Defier actually laughed in anger.
He had never imagined that the Greater Daemons would lose even the courage to resist, scattering like loose sand.
"Pathetic cowards!"
Kaerys swept his gaze over the Greater Daemons and snorted coldly.
Under countless watching eyes, he lifted his head and looked directly at the Savior, the Butcher of the Warp, his bearing undiminished.
Clang!
With considerable flourish, Kaerys slammed his ornate, gem-studded, tentacle-covered spear and shield into the ground.
Then he dropped to one knee in a knightly salute, signaling submission.
He surrendered too.
The Defier had realized there was no fighting this battle. If he still refused to submit, the next thing waiting for him would be the Savior's fist.
Nor was he about to do what certain Greater Daemons wanted, charging forward like a fool and becoming the sacrificial lamb that let the others escape.
"Lord Savior.
I, the Defier, favored child of the Dark Prince, have no wish to do battle with you.
We will withdraw all our forces to demonstrate our respect for you..."
Kaerys maintained an elegant posture and tried his best not to look too miserable.
Even in surrender, a favored child of Slaanesh still had style.
Anyone who did not know better might have thought he had won.
Many of the other Chaos Greater Daemons silently spat at that pretentious show-off.
"So even the Dark Prince's favored child knows when to bow to circumstances.
The Chaos Gods clearly haven't had time to interfere yet, or this wouldn't be the outcome.
They'd never let such a perfect chance to attack slip by."
Eden looked down at the Defier and thought silently.
He stood upon the Palace steps in a posture reminiscent of the Emperor himself, holy light swirling around him.
As his gaze swept over them, the Chaos entities one after another cast down their weapons and assumed postures of surrender or submission.
Some of them even removed their armor.
The result was inevitable.
The favored servants of the Chaos Gods were enemies to one another by nature, always fighting among themselves. They had no honor and no morality to speak of.
Like warp pirates, they could burn, kill, and plunder when the wind was behind them, but they were incapable of holding the line in a truly desperate situation.
Now that Eden had cowed them, naturally there was no battle to be had.
"The Savior above!"
"What majesty... what intimidation..."
The Savior's suppression of the Chaos daemons left the Imperial soldiers who witnessed the scene deeply shaken.
Their admiration for that being grew even stronger, their blood boiling.
This was the Hope Primarch, the Savior, Emperor of the Imperium!
Especially among those Imperial soldiers who had long fought Chaos and had only recently returned, many had gone red-eyed, with tears faintly visible.
They had seen too many worlds ravaged by Chaos, too much suffering inflicted by daemons.
Every battle had been painfully hard, and every one had come with dreadful sacrifice.
Even when Chaos daemons retreated, they did so shrieking triumphantly, dragging off stolen souls and lives.
But now, in the face of the Savior and Imperial arms, the daemons did not even have the courage to fight.
The tide had truly turned.
Never before had these soldiers felt so vindicated, so elated.
For the first time, they felt genuine confidence and reassurance.
They knew now that behind them stood the Savior, and behind him stood a mighty human Imperium.
Some Imperial soldiers even started believing the rumors that had been spreading lately: humanity was not far from invading the warp itself and putting its power to use.
In truth, the New Imperium had already begun drafting the newest version of the map of human territory, formally designating the warp as lost Imperial land.
In any case, according to Eden's thinking, when the Imperium was poor, it defended what it had. But once it had wealth and strength, it ought to expand, open new frontiers, and march toward the stars and beyond.
Humanity had spent too long enduring blows and cowering behind walls.
It was about time it hit back.
While the Imperial soldiers grew more fired up, the Chaos daemons became even more frightened. Almost none of them dared continue holding weapons.
If everyone else had surrendered, then anyone still gripping a weapon was clearly asking to die.
"Ah, once again, praise be to the mercy of Lord Savior!"
Valoxis, Lord of Change, pressed his daemon body even lower to the ground, his backside stuck high in the air in a posture of loyal devotion.
Completely shameless.
Right now, all he wanted was to leave this damned place as fast as possible.
The warp itself had already begun to shift. Once the Changer of Ways and the other gods extended their power here...
Once they sent down commands.
Or dispatched those fallen primarchs and Daemon Princes.
If this place truly became the vanguard battlefield, then the first one to suffer would still be him, positioned right at the very front.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]