Holy Terra.
The atmosphere.
Eden, Guilliman, the other Primarchs, and the Imperium's elite forces rode in a dark-gold aircraft, flying slowly toward the Imperial Palace in the Himalayas.
A violent, warped storm of fell energy screamed outside, battering the shielding field around the aircraft.
The immense pressure destabilized the entire power system. The lights flickered bright and dim.
Everyone could hear the howls of lingering souls inside the storm. Even those uncanny things were afraid.
"The Dark King has destroyed the Throneworld. I hope Father can hold on until the end…"
Guilliman stared at the land below, now swallowed by darkness, twisted beyond recognition and cracked apart, and at the shattered remains of the Himalayas. His brow was deeply furrowed.
His worry was obvious. He seemed to have gained several more wrinkles.
Sanguinius and the other Primarchs looked upon the utterly unfamiliar mountains and the remnants of the Imperial Palace without saying a word.
Terra was humanity's cradle, and this palace was humanity's holiest symbol—the Imperium's last fortress and final bastion.
They had all once believed that even if mankind faced extinction, this palace would be the last place to fall.
But now, the Black Calamity had erupted from within the palace itself, corrupting Terra and spreading through the entire galaxy and the Warp.
The holiest place of all had become the source of disaster. The Emperor they worshiped, the Master of Mankind, had become the origin of mankind's destruction.
How tragic was that?
Eden faced the foul wind blowing toward him, yet he felt a certain relief.
"Well, this place is finished.
"Good thing I moved Terra's administrative system and officials to the new capital ahead of time. Otherwise, this would've been a problem."
Holy Terra was the Imperium's central hub, home to vital departments such as the Administratum and the Departmento Munitorum.
It was these enormous bureaucratic systems that governed the Imperium's vast territories and handled its endless affairs.
Eden did not even dare imagine it.
If he had not relocated them in advance, and Terra's entire administrative system had been blown apart under the Dark King's rampage, how catastrophic would the consequences have been?
If that had happened, continuing to govern and rule the Imperium would have become extremely difficult.
Especially with the relevant reforms still not spread across the entire Imperium, and many frontier regions still requiring further development.
He would have had to spend tremendous effort rebuilding those systems from scratch. Many secret records could not be copied, and training skilled administrative personnel also took time.
Without a century or two, he doubted it could be done.
Now the officials in the central departments were all praising him, the Savior and Emperor of the Imperium, for his foresight, saying he had planned ahead and saved the Imperium from enormous losses.
In truth, when Eden had done it, he had simply wanted to transfer the entire administrative system into the Dawn City Webway so he could centralize power with ruthless efficiency.
That would also drive up Webway real estate prices, allowing him to build a new-generation Throneworld for the Imperium.
He also would not need to run back and forth between two places. That was actually the deepest reason—
He was lazy, and wanted one place to solve everything.
He had not expected that this measure would instead preserve the Imperium's administrative system and keep it operating steadily throughout the Black Calamity.
"Brother, you understand how to judge the situation better than any of us, and you foresaw the danger before it came."
After Sanguinius learned of the Savior's relocation operation, he could not help praising him. His respect for this Primarch brother grew even deeper.
The Great Angel knew that neither he, nor Guilliman, nor the Lion could have accomplished something on this scale.
Their father, the Emperor, had undoubtedly made the right choice in entrusting the Imperium to the Savior.
"I just got lucky. A blind cat happened to catch a dead mouse. It was all for the Imperium."
Eden answered with unusual honesty.
He was telling the truth, but to the other Primarchs, this only looked like another sign of their brother's humility.
"Big Brother, I believe that as long as you're here, Father will be all right," Rogal Dorn said.
Dorn now called him "Big Brother" every time he opened his mouth. Among all the Primarchs, he was practically the one who respected and worshiped the Savior the most.
"That is the inevitable result.
"Third Brother, don't worry. I will never allow the old Emperor to fall into such a tragic fate."
Eden's tone was absolute.
On this matter, he had to believe with all his heart that he could solve the problem.
Not only did he have to make others believe it, he had to believe it himself. He could not hesitate.
Even if he had to hypnotize himself, he had to do it. Any doubt, any lack of confidence, might become an opening for the Dark King.
He did not want to end up like the Chaos Gods, with his thoughts branded by fear, trembling at the mention of the Dark King and lacking even the courage to face Him directly.
If that happened, he would already have lost half the battle before it even began.
Old geezer, just wait until I put you down! Eden thought as he stared into the dark abyss ahead.
Then, from the airspace above the dark-gold aircraft, came the sound of beating wings.
Greater Daemons and lesser daemons were serving as humanoid transport rigs, hauling the Chaos machinery and the ancient artifact Shadowlight inside it down to the surface.
Those Chaos entities shivered under the Dark King's storm of fell energy, desperately flapping their daemonic wings.
Some unlucky ones were swallowed outright by the dark fell energy.
They were almost breaking down, desperate to flee the area at once.
After all, this place was far too close to the Dark King.
If not for the Chaos Gods and the Lord of Hell suppressing them, they probably would have gone on strike and run off long ago.
"As expected, the Dark King's intimidation of Chaos lifeforms goes bone-deep. There's no changing it."
Eden watched the scene and shook his head.
And this was still in the galaxy, where dark fell energy was not at its strongest. The region where the Sacred Sun was located was the truly terrifying place.
If Chaos daemons entered that area, their legs would probably go weak on the spot.
Fortunately, Eden had already anticipated this. In a moment, he would have the Custodians take over from the daemons and use heavy hauling equipment to transport it.
He only hoped those heavy machines could hold together until they reached the area of the Golden Throne.
With the intensity of the dark energy on Holy Terra, and given humanity's resistance to Chaos, any large force below the level of Custodians and Grey Knights would find it almost impossible to pass through.
Boom.
After the Greater Daemons and lesser daemons delivered the Chaos machine-construct to the Eternity Gate Plaza in the Inner Palace, they could not wait to unfasten or tear apart their chains.
"Blood God, we can finally leave this damned place." The Bloodthirster's hands were trembling.
Even the champions of the Blood God did not have the courage to go any deeper and face that hateful, accursed Throne.
As if granted amnesty, they hurriedly flew back into the sky, pierced through the thinning atmosphere, and fled far away from the planet.
"It's just as well that they left. Saves us from more accidents under the Dark King's influence."
Eden ignored the fleeing Chaos entities.
Given the terror these daemons felt, if the Dark King developed consciousness, He would be fully capable of forcing them to submit or using them to destroy the ancient artifact.
Eden could sense it. The god of destruction that was about to be born already feared the ancient artifact.
It was an instinctive wariness.
At that moment, the Custodians drove special engineering machines and worked together with Custodian Dreadnoughts to move the ancient artifact Shadowlight.
They had to transport the artifact near the Golden Throne as quickly as possible. At the very least, the Throne had to be within the range of the artifact's field.
Time was tight, and the Custodians were under heavy pressure, especially since they were about to face the former Master of Mankind.
For the older Custodians, the mental pressure was immense. They could barely summon the courage to act against the Emperor.
Fortunately, their task was only to move the ancient artifact. They did not need to confront the Emperor directly.
The Grey Knights held firm around the Custodians, shielding the ancient artifact from the assault of Chaos fell energy.
"We stand here, with faith as our shield!"
"In the name of the great Savior, purge the filth!"
One psychic shield after another rose, blocking the raging storm of fell energy sweeping toward them.
Using the Emperor's sacred remains, the Grey Knights had constructed a shielding field even stronger than that of the Sisters of Silence.
Eden had prepared for this in advance and had directly harvested a large batch of the Emperor's bones. Otherwise, those bones would have been left behind and corrupted by the Dark King.
The bones still remaining on the Throne were most likely no longer pure enough to glow and give off heat.
"Emperor, even if we Grey Knights must stake our lives on it, we will invite You back to the Golden Throne!"
The Grey Knights' current First Grand Master, Covan, made his oath. The other Grey Knights did the same.
Their wills were firm, and they had already prepared to act.
After all, returning the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, to the Throne had always been the Grey Knights' ultimate mission.
Rumble.
Through the Custodians' efforts, the ancient artifact moved forward again. This time, they only needed to move the artifact itself, not the entire Chaos megatower.
The difficulty had dropped considerably.
"The Unyielding Wall has completely collapsed. Looks like we can reach the Throne Room faster."
Eden looked at the collapsed palace wall ahead and could not help letting out a breath of relief.
They did not have to push through the wall to open a path, which would save a great deal of time.
"Hah. I suppose we should thank Dorn for that. If he'd built these walls a little sturdier back then, I might've had to waste some effort blowing through several layers of redundant wall."
Perturabo looked at the architectural work of the Lord of the Phalanx and could not resist making a jab. His smile was visible to the naked eye.
In the original plan, this Primarch was responsible for opening the way by destroying the walls of the Inner Palace.
That would allow the ancient artifact to pass through.
There was no helping it. Perturabo had the most experience with this sort of thing. Ten thousand years ago, he had already carved a path through Terra once before.
Given the emergency, they had no choice but to have this specialist return to his old trade, and he was quite skilled at it.
Now that the Unyielding Wall built by the Lord of the Phalanx had collapsed, Perturabo had lost the chance to blast it apart right in front of Dorn. Naturally, he felt some regret.
But he still could not help mocking him, openly laughing at the insufficient strength of his construction.
In a sense, Perturabo did not truly want to start a conflict. He was simply easing the pressure in his heart.
He knew that whether the suppression succeeded or failed, he might lose the Emperor—their father—forever.
No one could guarantee how much of the Emperor's consciousness would remain in the end.
When Rogal Dorn heard Perturabo's words, his face almost turned green.
The Unyielding Wall had been personally designed and built by him. Back then, he had even declared that the wall would never fall.
If Perturabo had not bombarded the outer defenses for months ten thousand years ago, this wall would not have collapsed so easily under the shockwaves of fell energy today.
He stared at the old rival in front of him, his fists hardening. He wanted nothing more than to punch him right in the face.
In the end, however, Dorn did not argue with Perturabo. He simply snorted coldly and turned his head away.
He was worried about the Emperor's condition and had no interest in quarreling.
Besides, Big Brother Eden had already entrusted the design and construction of Dawn City Webway's defensive structures to him.
He would design an even more unbreakable new Imperial Palace, along with fortress walls that could never be breached.
Seeing that Dorn ignored him, Perturabo also fell silent. The other Primarchs said nothing either.
As the group drew closer and closer to the Throne Room, the Primarchs could all sense the Emperor's pain and struggle.
Their father was already at death's door. He might lose consciousness at any moment.
Before long, Eden was the first to step into the Throne Room.
When he saw the Golden Throne, he could not help sucking in a sharp breath.
"Hiss… am I seeing things, or did the old Emperor get a size bigger?!"
In his field of view, the Emperor's skeleton had somehow risen from the Throne and now loomed over the hall below.
Even more disturbingly, His entire skeleton had swollen further, becoming a full size larger than before. Faint traces of black flesh and tissue were growing over it.
The old Emperor's skeleton no longer carried that ancient, withered air from before. Instead, it was filled with an incredibly violent, youthful vitality and life force.
It was as if this skeleton were reversing its age and regaining new life.
The old Emperor was apparently undergoing reverse growth and rebuilding His flesh. Unfortunately, that could no longer be considered human.
It was more like a Warp entity.
Perhaps the moment this skeleton broke free from the Throne's restraints, He would drag the entire Throne into the Warp, and He would become the true Dark King.
Even though Eden had seen it many times before, the evil aura now radiating from the Emperor's skeleton still made every hair on his body stand on end.
He felt that once that thing began moving, it could beat him to death, whether in realspace or in the Warp.
It was not just him. The other Primarchs, the Custodians, and the Grey Knights all instinctively sensed the threat. Their muscles trembled beyond their control.
They could even feel an incomparably violent and destructive gaze staring at them from behind the skeleton.
In short, it was an indescribable unknown horror, making everyone's SAN values plummet hard.
Eden kept his distance from the Emperor's skeleton and did not act rashly.
He did not want to further provoke that cursed thing and trigger even more accidents.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately issued an order.
"Quick, activate the ancient artifact!"
Whatever the Emperor's skeleton had become, they would suppress it with the artifact first.
If the ancient artifact proved powerful enough to plant His ass back on the Throne, that would be the best possible outcome.
To be honest, if he had not been afraid of causing some unforeseen accident, Eden would have liked to bring out black dog's blood and glutinous rice and try the old ancestral methods.
Maybe those could ward off evil and suppress the skeleton before him—or whatever reanimated corpse it had become.
Hum.
The ancient artifact Shadowlight activated. The Old Ones' creation, silent for countless centuries, finally began to rotate in full.
In an instant, the entire area fell silent. Even the whispers of the Warp stopped abruptly.
It was as if the place had become a vacuum.
Then, a light that was not light—an energy like ripples—spread rapidly forward.
It did not illuminate the darkness, nor did it devour the light. It existed somewhere between bright and unbright, more like a negative image of light: a deep, dark halo of impossible colors.
It was difficult to describe in words.
Wherever the energy ripples passed, the raging dark fell energy dimmed at once, then slowly began to vanish.
"It's working. The Warp and the dark fell energy are being suppressed…"
Eden looked at the scene before him, joy rising in his heart.
But in the next instant, his scalp went numb.
When the ripples of the ancient artifact Shadowlight covered the Golden Throne and suppressed the Emperor's skeleton, he clearly saw the skeleton move.
The skeleton turned its head and looked toward the artifact.
He could see it!
No one knew whether that was the Emperor's skeleton instinctively reacting to danger, or whether the Dark King had already developed a faint consciousness.
Either way, things had become troublesome.
Crack, crack, crack—
Eden did not even need to give the order. The Custodians followed the contingency plan and formed row after row of shield walls.
The Grey Knights also took up combat stances.
Everyone could feel it: a deep, active power was approaching from the Chaos void.
Bang!
Black flames ignited.
Abominable black-armored warriors from the Warp stepped into reality.
They were so twisted, so hideous.
(End of Chapter)
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