Golden Super Saiyan energy surged from Axis's body as he placed both hands upon the shoulders of the two Primarchs, slowly channeling his power into them.
The instant his palms rested on their shoulders, the radiant golden aura flowed like a living thing.
Horus and Rogal Dorn tensed at once.
They could feel an overwhelming power entering their bodies, seeping into every cell.
Their very cells reacted like parched wanderers in a desert discovering the water, greedily drinking in this immense energy.
Their entire beings stirred with exhilaration.
"Relax. Feel this power carefully," Axis said, the Super Saiyan ki continued to strengthen the two Primarchs.
Horus's pupils shrank.
He could see the veins in his arm glowing with golden light. That was the flow of ki coursing through him. His veins and pulse, his muscle fibers, were being fortified. Even the density of his bones was increasing at a perceptible rate.
Their bodies had already been honed to the very limits of humanity.
In theory, the Primarchs' physiques represented the apex achievable through the Emperor's mastery of science and the warp, and their genetic templates had been derived from the Emperor himself.
In all but psychic might, the Emperor's physical strength had been the same as theirs.
Yet now, an entirely new power was shattering that boundary.
The near-divine bodies of the Primarchs were beginning to reach beyond even that.
The first day of enhancement had already brought them great benefit, enough to sense real and unmistakable changes within themselves.
Horus looked at Axis with unrestrained excitement.
No wonder their father had chosen him to be the new Primarch. Axis truly had the power to warrant it.
He accepted this brother-in-law wholeheartedly.
"Good. Come back tomorrow at the same time," Axis said, "But for the ki to fully merge with your bodies and reach maximum effect, you both will need to be beaten half to death by me."
These two fine punching bags were not something he intended to waste.
They could not hope to defeat him, but they were perfect for training his fists.
Still, Axis was not lying.
To fight him with everything they had, exhausting every ounce of stamina and draining their cells of energy, would indeed allow them to absorb the power of ki more effectively.
He had discovered this peculiar effect while using ki to strengthen his own sons.
The strain increased the body's efficiency at absorbing the energy.
"..." Rogal Dorn.
So be it.
He would treat this as a trial of his own. To fight against one so powerful could only help him grow.
Axis was, without question, one of the strongest beings in the world.
"..." Horus.
The goodwill he had just felt toward Axis evaporated instantly. This bastard simply wanted to beat him and Dorn senseless.
The days that followed were a paradise and a hell.
Every morning, Axis dragged the two Primarchs into the training grounds and subjected them to an hour of merciless pummelling.
The underground arena, everyday, without pause, rang with cries of pain.
For the first time since their creation, the Primarchs felt sensations they had never known before.
Those sensations had names: fear and defeat.
When the sparring's over, Axis used his ki to heal them, before bathing them once again in Super Saiyan Ki.
At times, it felt like paradise itself.
It was as if, after exhausting labor, they lay upon a beach beneath warm sunlight, or as if they wandered in a forest, resting on naturs embrace.
There were moments when the sensation was so profound that it felt like returning to the embrace of their mother.
Alongside that bliss, their bodies grew stronger, visibly and rapidly.
Over the course of two full months, the two Primarchs' physical capabilities had increased by nearly forty percent.
Every aspect of their bodies had been strengthened, making them even more powerful than before.
During this time, Axis's and Kasha's wedding was held.
The Emperor himself attended the ceremony, along with the two Primarchs, Malcador, and several high nobles of the Imperium.
The wedding was a simple affair, more of a formality than a spectacle.
To Axis and Kasha, this ceremony held little significance. They've been together for decades now, and they did not need the worlds acknowledgement to be together forever.
The true importance of this marriage lay in what it brought to the Imperium.
The Imperium now had a High Princess, and the Emperor now had a daughter. To the Primarchs, this meant they all had an elder sister.
At the same time, a new Primarch had returned to the Imperium.
To the common people, this seemed unremarkable. Every decade, sometimes even sooner, another Primarch was rediscovered. After so many years, they had grown accustomed to such news.
But for the other Primarchs, the matter was far from ordinary. Those who received word of Axis were stunned.
Some had already been made aware beforehand, though bound to secrecy by their father's command.
For the rest, however, Axis's revelation was shocking.
It was not that the Imperium had gained another Primarch.
That in itself was nothing new. They themselves had all been found and returned in similar ways. The true weight lay in Axis's identity.
He was not a son of the Emperor by blood.
He was a mortal child who had successfully undergone the Primarch transformation process.
This meant the Primarchs were not necessarily unique.
The Emperor possessed the means to transform ordinary humans into beings like them.
The revelation was earth-shattering to them.
But relief followed when the official word declared Axis a singular case.
He was unique, a one-of-a-kind success. There would be no second such experiment. This assurance came directly from Horus of the Sixteenth Legion.
Only then did the rest of the Primarchs feel at ease.
At once, they sent congratulatory messages through their Legion's Astropaths to Holy Terra.
They first offered congratulations to Axis for becoming a Primarch, and extended blessings to Kasha, their new sister by blood.
Even those of darker temperament, even Mortarion with all his silence and severity, gave heartfelt blessings.
For the truth was, the Primarchs had long yearned for something like an elder sister.
After two months of strengthening, Horus and Rogal Dorn bid farewell to Axis, Kasha, and the Emperor, before departing Holy Terra aboard their warships to resume the Great Crusade.
Once the two Primarchs were gone, Axis turned to a far more important task.
It was using his ki to strengthen the Emperor himself.
The Emperor's body was stronger than that of the Primarchs, so to enhance him, Axis had to enter his full-power Super Saiyan state.
Together, son-in-law and father-in-law entered a sealed chamber deep within the Imperial Palace.
The Emperor's form glimmered with light, and his towering golden figure of more than four meters slowly receded, until before Axis sat a man of barely over one meter ninety, with the frame of a middle-aged human.
"Surprised, are you, Axis? This is my true face, my real form. Only Erda, Kasha, and Malcador know. Now, you as well," the Emperor said.
He had been born of father and mother, a natural human.
He was never truly a giant. His colossal form had been nothing but psychic projection.
This, his current appearance, was his real self.
"I am surprised," Axis admitted, "But you look far more approachable this way."
Indeed, in certain accounts, such as from the perspective of the Sisters of Silence, when the Emperor sat upon the Golden Throne, he was not a golden colossus, but a suffering man of flesh.
"The reason I maintained that towering shape was to reassure my people, my sons," the Emperor explained, "To keep them from thinking themselves monsters of my making."
"I get that, I also maintain a giant's form when I appear before others, three meters tall at least.
"A towering figure commands far more presence than an ordinary man of middle age," Axis replied, nodding his head.
While he preferred his normal form, the three meters had became standard at this point, that the respect that form itself carried formed a sharp contrast from his normal form.
"My true name is Neoth," the Emperor said, "It was the first name I bore after my birth, the name I first used. You married Kasha, so you are now family. You have the right to know my true name. The rest, 'Emperor,' 'Master of Mankind,' and so forth, are nothing more than masks and titles."
He valued Axis deeply, enough to share a truth even the Primarchs did not know.
"Honestly, I could just keep calling you father. It would be rude to just call you by your name directly," Axis said.
The Emperor truly wished to draw him closer.
His true form, his true name, these were secrets shared only with those closest to him, secrets the Primarchs themselves would never know.
Would Horus be jealous, Axis wondered, if he ever learned? But it was likely the Emperor would never reveal such things to the Primarchs.
"Call me as you wish. Do I need to make any preparations?"
"None," Axis said. "Relax and suppress your psychic might to the lowest, and do not resist my power."
The Emperor nodded, seating himself cross-legged before him, compressing his psychic aura to its barest trace.
Axis held out his palms and began channeling his full Super Saiyan Ki to strengthen the Emperor's body.
..
..
..
[tl/n: so, the emperor's name mentioned here isn't lore accurate, but I'm far too exhausted to rewrite that part. Also, it's a scene to show the emperor's trust in Axis, so it's important to the plot… Have a great day/night!]
powerstoneeeeeeeessssssssee.