Three years ago, the colossal Avenger-class battlecruiser that Axis had ordered from the Martian Mechanicum finally arrived.
This cruiser was an Avenger-class, but it was slightly larger than standard models, having an extra gigantic training hall installed.
At this point, Axis's battle group consisted of three cruisers, a light Dauntless-class cruiser, an Avenger-class cruiser, and a medium-sized supply ship around five kilometers long, crewed only by mortal sailors.
The supply ship carried nothing but materials and supplies, with only regular human sailors aboard, rendering it utterly incapable of combat.
Axis's Wolfpack now numbered over 1,300.
The light cruiser housed 400 Astartes, while the super-heavy cruiser held 800.
The remaining 100 Astartes were stationed on the supply ship.
Thus, the company under Axis's command was now equivalent to a full great company, meeting the minimum standards of the Space Wolves.
Even so, in terms of manpower, they were still at the low end as other great companies routinely boasted five or six thousand.
Over the past decade of the Great Crusade, the Emperor had gradually recovered several of the Primarchs.
In the third year since Axis joined the Crusade, the First Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, returned to the First Legion, renaming it the Dark Angels.
Most of the Caliban Knightly Order joined the ranks of the Dark Angels, undergoing the Astartes transformation process.
Three years later, the Emperor recovered Perturabo, the Primarch of the Fourth Legion from Olympia. The Iron Warriors welcomed back their father.
Five years after that, Mortarion, Primarch of the Fourteenth Legion, was found, and the Death Guard welcomed back their sire.
This Primarch, who had grown up in a poisonous environment, was taciturn and especially hostile toward psykers.
Just two years later, the Emperor recovered Lorgar, Primarch of the Seventeenth Legion from Colchis, and The Word Bearers joined the Great Crusade.
Lorgar's reverence for the Emperor bordered on blind fanaticism, viewing the Emperor as a god walking among men.
In secret, he was writing a tome called the Lectitio Divinitatus.
All this had happened just a year ago.
Now, more than half of the Primarchs had already returned to the Imperium.
Notably, because of Axis's existence, the Second Legion had not been expunged.
Instead, after more than a decade of rebuilding, they returned to a strength of tens of thousands.
Under the leadership of their Primarch, Karl, they continued to take part in the Great Crusade.
The Imperium simply covered up his defeat at the hands of the Rangdan Xenos, only stating that the Second Legion had suffered disastrous losses.
In fact, among the Primarchs, only Russ and the Second Primarch himself knew the real truth.
The rest simply believed the Second Legion had been severely damaged.
With so many Primarchs returning, the new Imperium's power grew enormously.
The rate of expansion exploded, and almost every month, more than a dozen new worlds were brought under its rule.
The number of mortal auxiliary troops under Axis and Russ had multiplied many times over, all drawn from human colonies reclaimed by the Imperium.
Now, the mortal auxiliaries under Axis and Russ numbered in the tens of millions, and their fleet comprised several hundred warships.
The Space Wolves' Astartes force had swelled to over 70,000.
According to Russ, his ideal was for a great company to have around 10,000 Astartes, and the final strength of the Space Wolves would reach about 150,000.
Within the Space Wolves, there was even a hidden great company known as the Wulfen Company, made up entirely of those who had succumbed to the Wulfen mutation.
However, since Axis joined, the frequency of the Wulfen mutation had shrunk to almost nothing, thanks to the perfect gene-seed and the double safeguard of Ki purification.
In over a decade of the Great Crusade, less than ten Space Wolves had fallen to the Wulfen curse due to uncontrollable rage.
Russ had secretly sent all of them back to Fenris, where they were now imprisoned, likely never to be released.
To Russ, this was already an excellent result.
At least, unlike before, there was no longer a risk of entire squads mutating into Wulfen in the middle of battle.
Now, every Space Wolf had undergone Ki-empowerment, with their physical capabilities exceeding regular Astartes by 30%, some even by over 50%.
Their fighting power had skyrocketed!
Even before, the Wolf King's sons had been among the top in combat prowess.
Now, there was virtually no other Legion whose Astartes could rival the Space Wolves in single combat!
Their physical potential had been developed almost to the very limit.
On the Thousand Sons' side, things were also progressing well.
Ever since awakening his psychic potential, and learning to communicate via warp, Axis and Magnus had maintained contact, able to communicate seamlessly through psychic power.
Unless caught in a Warp storm, there were no barriers.
Now, the Thousand Sons numbered over 30,000!
Their combat performance was exceptionally stable, with no more accidents.
The newly created warriors, implanted with perfect gene-seed, were highly reliable.
However, there was always the risk of flesh-change manifesting decades after gene-seed implantation, so Magnus remained vigilant.
The son Axis had created for Magnus had now entered the public eye, serving as Magnus's Deputy Legion Commander, truly second only to Magnus within the Legion.
As the strongest in the Legion after Magnus, both in psychic might and raw physical power, this special clone had earned the recognition of the entire Legion.
According to Magnus, anyone who disagreed could challenge him to a fight.
The clone's ability to wield Ki remained a closely guarded secret of the Thousand Sons, the only Legion besides the Space Wolves to receive Ki augmentation.
Recently, Magnus had been campaigning alongside Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels.
By Magnus's account, the two got along well, and Sanguinius bore little resentment towards psykers.
He might even be persuaded to join the Librarius project.
Over the past decade, in addition to leading campaigns, Axis had never neglected his training.
While it was hard for Axis to measure his own overall power, he had noticed one thing: every year, his fighting ability increased dramatically.
At the same time, the power of Ki also greatly strengthened both the body and the soul.
By now, Axis's strength far surpassed what it had been over a decade ago, when he first awakened.
Experiments on Ki's effect on the soul had also borne fruit.
After more than ten years of observation, Axis discovered that although the Saibamen possessed Ki and their souls were indeed strengthened by its power, the kind of angel halo seen among them in the Dragon Ball world did not appear here.
Over these years, under Axis's continual empowerment, Kasha's soul had more than doubled in strength.
Her psychic power was now more than twice what it once was.
With both body and soul enhanced, Kasha's strength had grown tremendously, even surpassing Malcador.
"Axis, have you made up your mind?" Kasha asked, gently running her fingers through Axis broad chest.
"Yes. After more than a decade, I can now perfectly control my rage. I think it's time to attempt that transformation," Axis nodded, his hand gently rubbing at Kasha's back.
After so many years of training, he could now flawlessly master his rage, his combat strength had risen sharply, and his use of psychic powers had become more and more instinctive.
That was why Axis intended to formally attempt the transformation into the Legendary Super Saiyan state.
Relying on his current psychic power, soul strength, unique Magnificat, and super-enhanced brain, he should, in theory, be able to perfectly control the immense rage that came with the transformation.
"Why don't we wait until Magnus arrives and then do the experiment? With the two of us assisting with psychic powers, even if you lose control, we should be able to pull you back," Kasha suggested, looking up at Axis, who had his other hand resting on the back of his head.
Over the years, she had seen with her own eyes the terrifying devastation Axis could unleash.
Every time Axis took to the battlefield, he would wipe out every enemy on the planet, singlehandedly, and with precision.
Each world he touched was as if it had been subjected to an Exterminatus.
If not for Russ's strict secrecy, news of Axis would surely have spread far and wide by now.
Even so, other Primarchs of the Legions were already speculating that Russ must possess some kind of secret weapon from the Dark Age of Technology.
After all, Russ had previously handed over energy weapons, battle armor, and even the scouters.
"Don't worry! You're just an added safety measure. I never do anything I'm not sure about.
"After more than a decade, I can now control my anger flawlessly! I'm sure of it.
"This time, I'll achieve the Super Saiyan transformation perfectly and remain completely rational," Axis said confidently, his gaze reassuring..
After all, in the movie, Broly did not completely lose his mind, even in the Legendary Super Saiyan form.
Since Broly could stay rational in that state, even for brief moments, there was no reason that Axis, with all his augmentation, could not do the same.
"If you've already decided, then I'll support you. In a few days, we'll find an uninhabited planet, just the two of us," Kasha said, taking a deep breath, laying back down on his bare chest, listening to the heartbeat that thundered like wardrumms.
Over the past decade, she had mastered all the psychic techniques Magnus had taught her, and thanks to Axis's continual Ki nourishment, even traces of her own Perpetual cells had been activated.
Her regenerative abilities were now gradually approaching those of a true Perpetual.
Kasha sensed that with continued exposure to Axis's Ki, she herself would soon become a true Perpetual, just like her mother and father.
As the two conversed, Leman Russ sent word for Axis to come to his ship.
They nodded to each other, a little reluctantly got up, dressed, boarded a small shuttle together, heading for Russ's flagship, the Hrafnkel.
Familiar with the route, they soon arrived at Russ's audience hall. Besides the Space Wolves Astartes present, there were also several mortal naval officers.
Russ had summoned nearly all the Wolf Lords, including Axis.
But there were also a dozen strangers in red power armor, each carrying a staff.
Russ nodded to Axis and stood up to speak.
"Over a decade ago, my fleet visited Prospero, where I had an in-depth exchange with Magnus, the Primarch of the Thousand Sons.
"We fully discussed our views, and I agreed to his idea of the Librarius project. I also asked him to help me train a group of such Librarian.
"Now, the training is finally complete and sixteen fully qualified psykers will join the Space Wolves," Russ announced.
"Great Wolf Father, do you mean to embed an Astartes psyker in each of our units?" one of the Wolf Lords asked.
"Exactly! We have fourteen great companies, and I'll assign a psyker to each one.
"The remaining two will be my personal guards, joining my Wolf Guard," Russ replied.
"Wolf Father, I think the term 'Librarian' doesn't sound right. According to Fenrisian tradition, I think we should call them Rune Priests," a Wolf Lord from Fenris suggested, and the other Fenrisians quickly nodded in agreement.
"It's just a name, it doesn't matter.
"Though these young ones were raised and trained on Prospero, the gene-seed they received comes from me, so they are your brothers. Treat them well," Russ said.
He had always worried that his gene-sons would not accept brothers coming from Prospero.
Although these psykers were implanted with Space Wolf gene-seed, they were natives of Prospero and had previously served within the Thousand Sons.
"On behalf of the Fourteenth Great Company, I welcome the psyker to our pack," Axis said first, immediately selecting the one with the strongest psychic power among the group.
If you get to choose, naturally, you choose the best.
"Lord Axis, I've heard of you.
"Lord Magnus said you also possess psychic powers and have kept in touch with him," the selected psyker came over to his side, and greeted.
"That's right, I've always stayed in contact with Lord Magnus.
"In the future, work closely with our warriors. Tonight, we'll host a welcome banquet in your honor. Welcome to the pack," Axis replied.
It hadn't been easy; his great company finally had a proper Librarian.
Previously, Kasha had been the one filling that role, leaving her quite busy.
"It's a great honor, Lord Wolf Lord," the newcomer said, and nodded toward Kasha, who stood beside Axis.
With Axis leading by example, the other Space Wolves Wolf Lords soon chose their own Librarian, instructing them from that day forward to call themselves Rune Priests.
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WRAAAAGH!!! there's still no update from Pa-treon!
don't forget to donate them powerstones!