Chapter 353: The Remnant Men of Gold
And now, with the Four Gods having temporarily reached a strategic consensus, they pooled a portion of their power together. This allowed Tzeentch to better manipulate the power of the Well of Eternity and guide Komus to manifest in the material universe for a longer period.
But Tzeentch's plan was more than just the power of Komus itself. He needed the human Imperium to fall into even greater chaos. Only then would Chaos have a chance to make a comeback. An external enemy would only make the Imperium more united. In Tzeentch's eyes, the civil strife caused by the Navigators was not enough.
On Komus, a large number of seals that had been placed by Tzeentch's profane rites were now broken. Tzeentch also created a divine avatar of himself and once again entered the interior of the Tyrant Star.
Countless years of research had made Tzeentch extremely familiar with this facility. The interior of this once-powerful human weapon had long since been twisted beyond recognition by the corrosion of the warp. A large number of Tzeentchian daemons now resided within it.
The wreckage of incredibly powerful war machines was scattered throughout the internal corridors, but their metal bodies had long since been covered by an unknown flesh. The entire interior of Komus was in a state of ruin; it was clear that a terrifying battle had once taken place here.
If a member of the Dark Angels had been here, they would have surely recognized that this mechanical wreckage was very similar to the few "Annihilation Engines" in their possession. If the ones in the hands of the Dark Angels were a debased version, then just by looking at the wreckage here, one could see that both their armor and their weapons were clearly more advanced.
These killing machines from the Golden Age of Technology, if one were to look at their on-paper data, were almost on par with a Primarch. Their power was so great that even the humans of the Golden Age had needed to install a "kill switch" on them. Otherwise, these mechanical bodies, which held an extreme hatred for organic life, would have been a disaster for any living creature. These pure machines, designed by the Men of Iron, had no soul and no self-awareness. They were not AI; they were pure weapons. It was precisely this kill switch that had allowed the Dark Angels of the past to use them as a weapon of last resort.
As Tzeentch walked past the wreckage of these machines, he couldn't help but sigh. The power of the material universe was no weaker than that of the warp. When Komus had first entered the warp, his daemon armies had launched an attack but had been met with fierce resistance from these Annihilation Engines. Even his Greater Daemons had been easily torn to shreds by their firepower, to say nothing of the lesser daemons. Their armor was also highly resistant to psychic powers.
If he hadn't been on his home turf in the warp, with an endless supply of daemons and the ability to manipulate his divine power at will, he might not have been able to conquer and occupy Komus. In the material universe, Tzeentch would have had no way to deal with it.
Walking past the wreckage, Tzeentch continued deeper into the interior, until a chamber, clearly distinct from its surroundings, appeared before him. Inside this chamber were ten perfectly preserved hibernation pods. However, the floor of each pod was inscribed with an incredibly complex and bizarre runic circle. The same was true for the surrounding walls and the glass.
A number of Greater Daemons of Tzeentch, along with a large contingent of sorcerers, were permanently stationed here. They were using these ritual circles, drawn by Tzeentch himself, to conduct an unknown, profane ritual.
Tzeentch walked up to the ten hibernation pods, checking the status of the occupants one by one. And looking through the glass, one could see a human sleeping peacefully inside each pod. There was not a single trace of mechanical modification on their bodies. Their expressions were pained, and they were constantly muttering incomprehensible words. Their consciousness and their souls were being continuously eroded.
An immense psychic power could be sensed from each of them. If one were to use the current Imperial rating scale, any one of these ten individuals could be rated as an Alpha-Plus level psyker, or even higher.
The Imperium generally believed that a normal human mind simply could not withstand the negative effects of an Alpha-level psyker, let alone a Plus-level or higher. Once a psyker reached the Alpha level, they could casually split a Warlord Titan in two or summon an entire daemon legion at will. Almost every out-of-control Alpha-level psyker was a catastrophe for the Imperium. Any Alpha-level psyker that the Imperium was not one hundred percent confident of controlling would be executed at the first opportunity.
Tzeentch reached out and stroked the glass of a hibernation pod. In his eyes, psykers of this level were a rare treasure. In the current material universe, there were very few living beings who could reach this level.
"What will happen when the former masters of the human empire meet the current master? It will surely be interesting," Tzeentch murmured to himself, looking at the humans before him. He was even getting a little excited. Change... unpredictable change. He even felt his own divine power rise by a sliver.
Not even the other three gods knew that there were still living Men of Gold inside Komus.
These ten humans were the very Men of Gold who had once controlled Komus and had tried to use its power to achieve psychic ascension. "Men of Gold" was not a race, but a general term for humanity during the Golden Age. The Emperor himself had once been among their ranks, but not all Men of Gold could reach such a powerful state.
The moment the faction of the Men of Gold who had built Komus began to explore the truth of the warp and妄ly tried to become its masters, they had already stepped into Tzeentch's trap. Even among the Men of Gold, the construction of the weapon Komus was a secret. Its very construction had been subtly guided by Tzeentch. If one were to review the process, they would find that much of the knowledge about the warp and psionics had been "accidentally" acquired.
After breaking through Komus's defenses and killing the machines that protected it, Tzeentch had imprisoned these ten Men of Gold inside. Relying on the power of the Well of Eternity and his own profane rites, he had continuously altered and controlled their minds and memories. Although he had not yet completely succeeded, the current situation had prompted him to prepare to release them from their confinement ahead of schedule.
Looking at these powerfully psychic humans, Tzeentch also felt a twinge of regret. The rebellion of the Men of Iron had been sudden and swift. Otherwise, if all the Men of Gold had walked the path of psychic ascension, Tzeentch felt that he might have truly been able to master this material universe. If the Men of Iron had truly mastered reality, it would have been of no benefit to the existence of the warp. Just like the Necrons, they could not be corrupted, nor could they provide them with power.
He knew that a portion of the Men of Gold had escaped the galaxy under the pursuit of the Men of Iron, but even he could not sense if any other Men of Gold were still alive.
As Tzeentch began to undo the surrounding ritual circles and seals, the self-awareness of these ten Men of Gold began to return to their bodies. Tzeentch had not completely devoured their souls. If he had, these Men of Gold would have been transformed into powerful Greater Daemons under his command. But then, they would not have been able to move freely in the material universe.
Tzeentch had altered their memories. In the memories he had woven for them, they had successfully mastered the power of the warp, and the current human race were usurpers who had stolen their empire. And these Men of Gold, who still retained their human bodies, could now, as humans, split the Imperium and seize power.