Ren had vanished.
Inquisitor Kael stood frozen, his grip on the bolt pistol trembling slightly—a rare lapse in his otherwise unshakable composure. Dain, still reeling from the surge of knowledge forced into his mind, felt the weight of something new settle over him. The system had changed again. What ever Ren had affected him in someway too though clearly not as much — his system came to life once more. The quest log flickered in the corner of his vision, unread messages piling up like a backlog of forgotten orders but there was something new this time. A new page appeared visualizing what was implanted into his head .
And yet, it was Ren who concerned him the most, how much more did he know for him to change like that when he himself has already received truths that would get anyone killed for even thinking?
Elsewhere—Ren's Awakening
Ren stumbled through the ruins, the artifact still clutched tightly in his grip. His breathing was erratic, his mind spinning with an overwhelming flood of information. It was as if someone had dumped an entire compendium of galactic history, military tactics, and forbidden truths directly into his skull.
He gasped, steadying himself against a fallen pillar. His hands trembled, but not from fear—from understanding. He knew things now. Secrets that the Imperium had buried, knowledge that would shatter the minds of most.
The Primarchs—their true natures.
The Emperor—his great deception.
The Warp—far more than just Chaos.
The Necrons—their silent war against the gods they once served.
The Eldar—their endless cycle of arrogance and regret.
It was as if he had skimmed through the Emperors private Library, the kind of omniscient knowledge that no mortal should have. He knew the weaknesses in Imperial doctrine, the flaws in the Codex Astartes, the hidden projects buried deep beneath Terra's surface. He could list them. Like reading them straight off a damned data-slate.
And then—another sensation. A shift within the artifact.
The Artifact of Providence has chosen you.
You will not receive the power you want, but the power you need.
Ren barely had time to process this before his body seized up.
A rush of energy coursed through him, raw and unrefined. His muscles tightened, his mind sharpened, and then—nothing. It wasn't some grand transformation, no overwhelming force of destruction. Instead, something far more insidious took hold.
A whisper. A presence.
And then, clarity.
Ren blinked, his vision settling into something sharper, something more. He flexed his fingers, and words formed in his mind before he even realized he was speaking.
"Oh. Oh."
He grinned.
He understood.
Dain's Decision
Back at the ruins, Dain remained motionless, his mind warring with itself. His faith in the Emperor burned bright, but the weight of knowing—of being forced to know—had unsettled something within him. He clenched his fists.
He could still feel the quest notification lingering in his vision:
New Quest: The Path Unfolds—The Grand Deception
Objective: Decide what to do with the truth.
The truth.
He didn't want it. But it had been given to him nonetheless.
He turned to Kael, the Inquisitor's eyes still locked on the space where Ren had vanished.
"What now?" Dain asked, his voice steadier than he expected.
Kael exhaled sharply. "We find him. Before it's too late."
But something in Dain's gut told him that it already was.