Over the years, Axis had refined his mastery over Ki. His control had reached a delicate precision.
Whether he used it to heal his own wounds or to restore the injuries of others, he did so with ease.
The strike he had just delivered looked heavy, but it had caused nothing more than surface injuries.
With the durability of a Primarch's body, Dorn could have recovered simply by lying down for a night.
Rogal Dorn slowly opened his eyes. The pain and injuries that had racked his body seemed to have been washed away by some strange power.
"This isn't psychic energy. What is this power?" Horus asked in surprise.
As a Primarch, he could tell well enough whether a force was Warp-born or not.
"This is something different from psychic power. It belongs both to the physical universe and to the realm of life. It is called Ki," Axis explained simply.
Although he had been active for decades, the Emperor had kept the truth about Ki carefully hidden.
Other than the Space Wolves, only the First Legion, the Fifth Legion, and the Thousand Sons of Prospero had any knowledge of it.
"So your Ki has powerful healing abilities?" Horus asked.
"Ki is not only for healing. It also has terrifying destructive potential. If you want to know how strong it can be, you should watch the footage of my battle on Rangda," Axis said, acting mysterious.
By now, the Emperor likely would have granted his brothers access to those recordings. He only hoped they would not be too shaken by what they saw.
"I don't care about that," Dorn said, standing with a hard look in his eyes. "I just want to know just how much of your strength you used just now?"
That battle had been nothing less than a humiliation. He had been crushed. He needed to know just how vast the gulf was between himself and the man before him.
"You want to understand how strong I truly am? I have several transformation states," Axis replied.
He listed them calmly.
"Is that the same as when you made yourself as large as us?" Horus asked.
When Axis had appeared publicly, his body had swelled to Primarch height, around three meters and a half. Yet once inside the Imperial Palace, he had shrunk back to the size of a normal Astartes.
"That was simply another application of Ki," Axis explained, "I can force my muscles and bones to expand, increasing my height and mass. It strengthens me, though at the cost of speed."
"I'll show you something else instead."
Golden light burst from his body.
His hair rose and turned to gleaming gold.
"This is the transformation your Legion uses. So this power was inherited from you?" Dorn said.
Based on the records of Axis's gene-sons, this transformation could raise their strength twofold, or at the extreme, fivefold.
In their limit state they could even rival the Custodes for a short time. It was a terrifying ability, one that gave Axis's Legion an overwhelming advantage over all others.
Dorn's face grew dark.
Axis had beaten him down without even using this golden form. The difference between them was vast beyond reckoning.
"In this state, my strength rises over fifty times," Axis said, "That is ten times the limit of my sons. They cannot bear the amplification of my gene-seed as I can, so their transformations never match mine."
It was a truth that shattered both Dorn and Horus.
Axis was not boasting of a fivefold increase, but a fiftyfold one. He was the true Super Saiyan.
"You've got to be joking. Fifty times? That's absurd!" Even Horus, usually calm and calculating, lost his composure.
Even for an ordinary human, a fiftyfold boost would be monstrous.
An untrained man's punch is roughly 1,000 newtons; a trained man's punch could be about 1,500 newtons. A fiftyfold boost would reach ~50,000–75,000 newtons, far beyond human limits and easily enough to pulversie Astrates.
And Axis' base power clearly couldn't be compared to ordinary humans.
The thought of Axis wielding such strength was beyond terrifying. It was beyond absurd.
"And of course," Axis continued, "this is only the first transformation. I also have another state, which enhances both strength and speed. There is another form where I push my muscles to their absolute limit. My power rises even further, though my speed decreases."
He smirked faintly.
The speed decrease was only relative to foes of equal strength. In truth, even in that form, his movements were still supersonic.
"This is Super Saiyan One. Now for something even greater… Haaah!" Axis roared.
The entire Imperial Palace shook.
The skies above Holy Terra darkened with storm clouds. Thunder and lightning split the heavens.
Across Terra, citizens thought an earthquake had struck. They fell to their knees, praying for the Emperor's protection.
In the Palace, the Emperor and Malcador exchanged weary smiles over their cups of coffee.
..
"That boy is going to crush those two's confidence into the ground," the Emperor muttered.
"In this form, his strength rises a hundredfold," the Emperor added more seriously. "Even I must exert myself fully to withstand such power."
"And this still isn't his limit, is it?" Malcador shook his head, "I once thought his body had been developed to the utmost. But he proved otherwise. His body has no such thing as a true limit."
The Emperor smiled and nodded.
For Humanity to produce such a being was a blessing. His proud sons now had a goal to chase, and that too was a good thing.
Axis's Ki flared like fire, bursting outward in shockwaves.
His golden hair stood taller and shone brighter, while arcs of blue lightning coiled around his body.
The crackling filled the hall. The sheer force of his presence made even the two Primarchs turn their eyes toward him.
"This is Super Saiyan Two. Twice as strong as the first stage. A hundred times my normal strength," Axis said, "It's a power I only recently mastered, so I can't control the aura perfectly yet. The transformation is… a little loud."
"You… you're joking. O-one hundred times," Dorn stammered.
The realization was like a hammer hititing him square in the face.
The difference between himself and Axis was not tenfold. It was one hundredfold.
What despair such a number brought.
A normal human, magnified a hundredfold, surpass the Custodes.
And custodes could flip over a tank with casual kick. That was just absurd scaling.
"Is this your limit, Axis?" Horus asked, his voice trembling. "With such power, you could rival Father, couldn't you?"
In truth, he wanted to say more.
Could this power already surpass the Emperor himself? In their eyes, the Emperor was stronger than the Primarchs, but surely not by a hundredfold.
"I must correct you," Axis replied with a shake of his head, "This strength is still not enough to match the Emperor. He is far beyond what you imagine. Even as I am now, I could not defeat him."
In this state, Axis could not even force the Emperor to draw upon full strength. Only with the Legendary Super Saiyan transformation stacked atop Super Saiyan Two could he approach that threshold.
"So Father is… truly that powerful?" Horus whispered.
"No, no. Don't think this is my ultimate form," Axis said, "I told you already, I have several transformations. There is also the Legendary Super Saiyan. I won't show it to you, but know that it is far stronger than what you see now. And even with that, even with Legendary form stacked upon Super Saiyan Two… I still lost to the Emperor."
He smirked inwardly.
The old man had asked him to humble his brothers. So he would grind them into the dust. They needed to be broken.
Silence fell.
Horus and Dorn both wore grim faces. There existed a transformation beyond a hundredfold increase, and even that had been defeated by their father. The Emperor was infinitely more powerful than they had ever conceived.
"My mind… is unsettled. Axis, excuse me," Horus said, drawing a deep breath.
He remembered the demonstration on Terra's grand plaza, when the Emperor's psychic might had weighed down upon him.
Even then, the pressure had been unbearable. In truth, if the Emperor had wished, he could have destroyed Horus in an instant.
And yet… Horus had lived thirty years alone with the Emperor before his brothers were found.
They had fought side by side, shoulder to shoulder. In those decades, the Emperor had seemed only a little stronger than him.
He had known the Emperor was greater, but not to this degree.
Now he felt as though he had been deceived. Had all those battles been staged? The Emperor had let himself be saved again and again.
But in truth, he had never needed saving.
The thought left Horus reeling.
Dorn fared little better, though he forced himself to accept the truth in silence.
"You're leaving so soon?" Axis called out, "Didn't I say I was here to strengthen you? Ki does more than heal and destroy. It can also enhance. I can raise your physical strength. That is the Emperor's command to me."
The boy seemed badly shaken.
The Emperor, after all, was the greatest actor of them all.
His true power would only be revealed during the betrayal to come.
Even when the Warmaster was bolstered by the gifts of the Chaos Gods, he could not overcome the Emperor.
Had the Emperor not hesitated out of love, that final battle might have ended even faster.
And the Emperor had sat upon the Golden Throne for sleepless, endlessly burning his power to keep the webway stable against an ocean of daemons.
Even wounded unto death, even with his body failing, he endured.
In the days of the Great Crusade, his might was beyond comprehension.
"You mean… Ki can be used to increase our strength? To make us physically more powerful?" Dorn asked.
"That's right. I've already strengthened the Lion and the Wolf with Ki. After I strengthen the two of you, I'll also enhance the Emperor himself during my time on Terra," Axis said.
It was even possible the Emperor would recall all the remaining Primarchs, one by one, so Axis could strengthen them as well.
"I understand. What must we do?" Dorn asked.
"Axis," Horus said suddenly, "your body, your power, it all comes from this Ki, doesn't it? Can it be taught? Could we learn it ourselves?"
Surely, this Ki was the source of his impossible strength.
It had even made him into something he should not have been, a Primarch not born of the Emperor's seed.
"I've tried," Axis said, "This power is unique to me. I can strengthen your bodies, but no one else can master Ki. Not in this universe."
In truth, Axis already thought of placing a pawn near Horus, someone to monitor him and foil the schemes of Chaos before they could take root.
But that could not be done here on Terra. It would have to wait.
As for Dorn, he was hopeless. A man who barely tolerated psykers would never accept a saibamen gene-son.
"I understand. Do it, Axis. I want my strength increased," Horus said at last.
After explaining once more, Axis let the golden Ki of a Super Saiyan flow into them.
Compared to the wild fury of the Legendary form, the aura of the ordinary Super Saiyan was steadier and more balanced, perfectly suited to human bodies. And the strengthening effect it produced far surpassed what the Legendary energy could grant.
...
...
...
Bonus chapter! gimme powerstones!