Axis drew in a deep breath, and powerful golden Ki burst forth from within him as he instantly entered his full-power Super Saiyan state.
His pupils turned into a brilliant gold, his hair stood upright like blazing fire, but his aura was restrained, proof of his complete control over his strength.
"I'm starting," Axis said in a low voice.
The moment his palms pressed against the Emperor, the entire chamber was bathed in gold.
Unlike the gentle infusion used to strengthen Primarchs, this transfer of energy was like a dam breaking.
The Emperor's cells devoured the Saiyan ki like a bottomless abyss.
The speed of absorption shocked even Axis. Though the Emperor had been born a natural human, his body was nothing like that of ordinary men.
The Emperor's entire body turned golden as he drank greedily of the energy.
"Continue," the Emperor said. His voice suddenly sounded a bit younger, and his muscles reshaped before Axis's eyes.
The hidden wounds of ages past, the corruption left by the C'tan shard of the Void Dragon, the scars of old battles against the warp, and even the injuries inflicted by the Four bastards were now being repaired one by one.
His flesh was undergoing a radical transformation.
The Emperor felt better than he had in millennia.
Axis's ki, which had strengthened the Primarchs, was now healing him as well. It was an unexpected gift.
The most change happened at the cellular level. Through his perception of ki, Axis saw the Emperor's body shifting at an astonishing pace.
The rate at which he absorbed energy surpassed anything Axis had imagined.
Within only a few hours, Axis found his reserves running dry.
Was this real? Without transforming, just revealing a portion of his power was enough to reinforce two Primarchs at once.
Yet even in full-power Super Saiyan, he could not satisfy the Emperors rate of absorption.
And you say you're not a god? I'll be damned if I believe that. I swear to myself, if you ever say you're not a god again, I'll be the first to throw hands!
Axis's body suddenly erupted with golden light, his aura blasting outward in jets. His hair stood sharper, lightning crackling around him.
"Then let's see how much you can take."
Super Saiyan Two!
A normal Super Saiyan may have collapsed under such demands. But Axis was the Legendary Super Saiyan, his ki an endless wellspring.
"Axis, my body is not like the other Primarchs. If you cannot endure, tell me," the Emperor said.
His body's appetite was immense.
Every cell drank in the life-filled energy with desperate greed. His cells had never been so alive, like tiny stars igniting within him.
"Don't worry. This is only Super Saiyan Two. If it's not enough, I still have Legendary. If Legendary isn't enough, I can even stack it with Super Saiyan Two," Axis said confidently.
"That wouldn't make things better," the Emperor replied, "It may greatly increase your combat strength, but that form is meant for battle, and your ki in that form is violent, compared to the calm ki at full-power Super Saiyan. For this work, full-power Super Saiyan is the most suitable."
The aura of the Legendary Super Saiyan was savage and violent.
The normal Super Saiyan's ki, by contrast, was more balanced and harmonious. The Emperor preferred this purity.
Axis nodded and refrained from transforming further. Even without Legendary, his body continued to generate ki without end.
At last, the Emperor's absorption and Axis's output reached a delicate equilibrium.
Time slipped by.
More than ten hours passed, and Axis was drenched in sweat.
The Emperor's body had become like an endless well. Each cell devoured golden ki like a black hole. Axis could sense it clearly, the Master of Mankind's flesh was undergoing some kind of evolution.
"Your cells… are evolving?" Axis asked in shock.
He perceived the Emperor's gene-sequence knitting itself back together. Segments once corroded by the warp were restored.
More than that, his DNA was evolving toward a more perfect form.
'Damn it, old man. You're the real protagonist here. Your body is actually evolving!'
Axis felt it with clarity.
The Emperor's flesh was breaking through its limitations. His muscle density rose, his bone structure refined, and his entire body grew stronger at an incredible pace.
If the Emperor had once stood as the "pinnacle of humanity," then now he was stepping into the realm of "beyond human."
He had utterly surpassed it.
"I see now…" the Emperor said, his voice filled with a shock he had never before shown, "I always believed my body had already reached the absolute limit of mankind. But I was wrong.
"Axis, my cells have been evolving toward higher dimensions since the day I was born. At birth, I was no different from an ordinary man. My flesh grew stronger only as it adapted to my soul, until finally, thousands of years ago, it ceased to change. At that time, even the most advanced human science could not bring me a single step further.
"But your ki has triggered a new stage of evolution in my body. It will take time, but it has begun."
The strengthening of his flesh would also empower his psychic might. The benefits Axis had given him were beyond measure.
"I don't think this kind of evolution happens overnight. Shouldn't we stop for now?" Axis asked, coughing twice.
By this point, his ki had been completely drained. Not a single spark remained. Even the endless wespring was strained.
The Emperor laughed. "It seems exhausting your reserves is good for you as well, though not as good as beating till half dead."
Emperor looked at Axis and he smile. Golden corn had indeed noticed.
"Let us end here for today. Rest well, eat, and recover for twenty-four hours. Then we will continue."
The Emperor's body brimmed with vitality. His strength and vigor overflowed.
"Yep, guess I'll go find your daughter." Axis said as he returned to his normal state.
The Emperor flexed his body, feeling as though he had been reborn.
"Go now. I want to accustom myself to this new flesh," the Emperor said.
The emperor was stretching as he heard Axis's words. The emperor pursed his lip. He didn't need to know that. Then again, it was a good thing. He could hardly wait to see his grandchild.
"Go then!"
Axis was thrown out the chamber next second.
He chuckled as he looked back at the emperor.
In psychic sight, the Emperor was surrounded by a radiant golden halo that grew brighter by the second.
Axis suddenly realized he might have opened a Pandora's Box with his own hands.
What kind of change would this enhanced Emperor bring to the world?
A version of the old man even more terrifying than the one in the original timeline might be about to emerge.
Axis stretched and returned to his quarters, where he began consuming the feast the Emperor had ordered to be prepared for him.
It was no less than five hundred men's worth of food.
That evening Axis devoured it all and then demanded another thousand portions before he was finally satisfied.
His appetite was four or five times greater than usual.
He annoyed Kasha for a while and then slept for more than ten hours, restoring his strength and stamina to peak condition.
Immediately afterward, he went to the training grounds, warmed up, and began a set of exercises in the gravity chamber, the setting set to the max.
After exhausting his ki once more and letting it recover, Axis could clearly feel that his reserves had increased slightly.
It was only natural.
Emperor's body might have been monstrous, but Axis was no weakling either.
The Emperor's growth was a good thing. For a Saiyan, it was the best thing possible.
At least he now had someone worthy to challenge.
Crushing weaklings had become far too boring.
Axis trained silently. Emperor was advancing. He couldn't allow himself to fall behind.
In the days that followed, Axis fell into a steady rhythm. He spent ten hours strengthening the Emperor, then rested for twenty-four, regaining his ki and stamina.
In between, he inspected his sons.
Meanwhile, the ships sent to scout the Necrons had returned.
Axis, however, did not immediately retrieve the sealed Necron chronomancer. On Holy Terra, too many things were inconvenient, and Axis was in no rush.
Mader and the Space Wolves aboard the ship also received implantation of Axis's gene-seed upon their return, becoming his gene-sons and gaining the diluted version of the Super Saiyan transformation.
Mader, already a powerful psyker, saw his psychic abilities greatly enhanced by the transformation. In battle, he could now channel more psychic power from the wrap. Not to mention his physical prowess.
Even so, he could not yet compare to Kasha. Her body and soul had been nourished directly by Axis's ki, every other day.
By now, she had even surpassed Malcador, the Regent of Terra.
Kasha had become the third most powerful psyker in the Imperium, second only to the Emperor and Magnus.
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It's 200 powerstones per bonus chapter! guys! gimme!