Magnus's eye narrowed sharply, and the psychic staff in his hand began to tremble violently. The sight before him was simply terrifying.
He had never witnessed such a pure burst of power.
The golden aura not only dispelled all the maledictions he had meticulously prepared but had even temporarily purified the surrounding energy of the Warp.
Axis's Ki was indeed a powerful counter to psychic abilities.
Had any other Primarch been hit by so many of those debilitating spells, they would have been utterly bound unless they unleashed the full might of their own psychic potential.
"Is… is this your true power?" Magnus's voice trembled slightly, but his initial shock quickly gave way to excitement.
"Continue, Magnus! Use your full strength," Axis said, his voice echoing with newfound power in his Super Saiyan form. "Show me what you are truly capable of."
This was only the first Super Saiyan form, Axis thought. Magnus was still far from seeing his full power.
At this stage, Axis automatically entered a full-power state whenever he transformed. This minimized the energy drain, allowing him to wield the power of the Super Saiyan form to its greatest extent. While Super Saiyan was the most basic of his transformations, it was also the most stable and least taxing.
"Hehehaahahahaha, haaah, as you wish, I will bring forth my entire strength and fight you with everything I have." As soon as Magnus finished speaking, he unleashed his sorcery.
He plunged his staff heavily into the ground. A colossal psychic sigil erupted outwards, its ancient runes shimmering in the air as the entire planet's sky shifted to an eerie purple.
Then, a full twenty copies of Magnus appeared, each holding a staff, and they completely surrounded Axis.
Axis used his Ki to sense them and discovered that all twenty versions of Magnus possessed life essence; they were real entities of flesh and blood. However, among the duplicates, he was still able to lock onto one whose Ki, life force, and spiritual presence were significantly stronger and more real.
That one had to be the real Magnus.
This trick would have been incredibly effective against anyone else, he mused, but against someone who could use ki sense, it was not enough.
The copies of Magnus all began to chant in unison, unleashing powerful bolts of lightning, torrents of flame, and shards of ice. A storm of psychic attacks descended upon Axis.
But it was all in vain.
As the sorceries drew near, they were violently repelled by his terrifying Ki. A blinding golden light erupted from Axis's entire body, so brilliant that it even forced Sanguinius, who was watching from a distance, to narrow his eyes.
The power was simply astonishing.
From start to finish, Axis stood perfectly still, allowing Magnus to assail him without lifting a finger. Yet he remained completely unharmed.
"Do not underestimate me, Axis! Witness this!" Magnus roared, a hint of anger now coloring his voice.
He decided to employ one of his most dangerous psychic abilities.
Magnus intoned an esoteric chant. His skin began to crack, revealing a flowing, psychic brilliance beneath. His body suddenly expanded, transforming into a towering giant composed of pure psychic energy.
His eyes burned like twin stars, and his staff grew into a greatsword large enough to cleave a continent. He now stood as a terrifying crimson titan thousands of meters tall, looming over the planet's surface.
"Avatar of the Warp!" Magnus's voice was like the cry of ten thousand men speaking at once.
He had unleashed the full extent of his formidable psychic abilities, forming a titan of pure Warp energy, a secret technique once conceived by a genius Eldar farseer.
At the time, that farseer had lacked the raw psychic power and the robust physical form to sustain such a spell. But Magnus was different. He possessed more than enough power to wield it.
This giant formed from Warp energy possessed the power to effortlessly destroy entire planets and even collapse stars.
Axis looked up at the kilometer-high psychic titan, and the smile on his face deepened. "Now this is more like it."
His golden aura flared again, with arcs of lightning-fast energy crackling around his body. The two figures collided in an instant.
The psychic greatsword and the golden fist met, and the resulting shockwave ripped the planet's crust apart for a thousand kilometers in every direction. Sanguinius was forced to unfold his wings to their full extent just to avoid being swept away by the aftershock.
It was Magnus in his titan form versus Axis in his full-power Super Saiyan state.
"Fuc–Ahem, I mean, Incredible…" Sanguinius murmured to himself. He had never seen Magnus unleash such a powerful giant form, much less imagined that Axis could challenge such a being with his bare hands.
The Warp titan that Magnus had become let out a heaven-shaking roar.
The greatsword, wreathed in a psychic storm that warped reality itself, descended upon Axis. Before the blade even reached him, the very space for tens of thousands of kilometers began to fracture, with dark fissures into the Warp spreading like a spiderweb.
A smile of pure battle-lust spread across Axis's face. His golden aura suddenly compressed, condensing at the tip of his fist into a single point of blinding light.
"Haaa—!"
He threw the punch, a blow of pure power that met the psychic greatsword head-on.
BOOM—!!!
A terrifying shockwave erupted in a ring, causing an entire continental plate to collapse inward as the planet's molten core shot skyward in geysers of magma. Sanguinius had to soar higher, watching in horror as the world below shattered like a fragile eggshell.
Was this even possible? Were the two of them truly this powerful?
"It is not over Axis!" Magnus's voice echoed from all directions. The titan's other hand slapped down, a spinning Warp vortex forming in its palm.
The immense gravitational pull was so strong it even bent light. Under the crushing distortion of psychic power, the very fabric of space and time began to twist. Though Axis was unbelievably fast, he could not escape a power that warped existence itself.
But even if he could escape, Axis would not have. A Saiyan's greatest joy was a head-on confrontation.
"Hahaha! You are a true genius, Magnus! This is the battle I have been waiting for!"
Axis vanished, instantly reappearing behind the titan's head. He cupped his hands together as a frenzied, blue-white energy gathered between his palms.
"Ka—me—ha—me—HA!!!"
A blinding beam of energy erupted forth, punching clean through the titan's head. The body of psychic energy was torn apart, but Magnus only laughed madly.
The fractured Warp energy writhed like a living thing and instantly re-formed.
"In this form, I cannot be killed! My power is endless!" Magnus scoffed as he unleashed another devastating psychic storm.
The giant clapped its hands together, and a black singularity formed between its palms, causing time itself to freeze in its vicinity.
Without you, Axis, I could never have achieved such terrifying power, Magnus thought. It was your Ki that strengthened my body. It was your two Fruits of the Tree of Might and the forbidden knowledge you brought from the Black Library that allowed me to reach this point.
Magnus could feel Axis's fighting spirit. He would hold nothing back; fighting at his absolute limit was the greatest tribute he could offer.
Axis's pupils constricted.
In this state, Magnus was fully capable of destroying the planet. If that was the case, then he too would reveal a little more of his strength.
"HRAAAGH!"
Axis no longer held back. The Ki within his body erupted completely. Golden lightning danced wildly around him like serpents as his aura shot into the heavens. His hair stood up even more sharply. This was his Super Saiyan 2 form, a state he had not revealed to anyone besides the Emperor.
"Magnus, this is my reply. In my previous state, my power level was fifty times my base form. This is called Super Saiyan 2, and in this state, my power is one hundred times my base form."
Axis's body blazed with an incredibly fierce golden aura. He shot forward, his speed so immense that he effortlessly broke free from the temporal and spatial distortions of Magnus's psychic storm. He appeared before the titan and unleashed his fists.
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM—!!!
Countless golden afterimages of his fists rained down upon the psychic titan, each blow carrying enough force to shatter mountains, each punch enough to annihilate a city.
The giant's body repeatedly shattered and reformed, but its rate of regeneration could no longer keep up with the speed of its destruction.
So what if you can regenerate, Axis thought. Then I will simply beat you until you can't regenerate anymore.
A trickle of blood ran from the corner of Magnus's mouth.
Hidden within the titan's head, he stared at the furiously attacking Axis with an expression of pure disbelief.
Just how monstrous was he? This was his ultimate technique, a perfect blend of offense and defense, an ability of absolute, overwhelming power!
Magnus roared as the giant suddenly self-destructed. A horrific psychic storm engulfed the globe, and a massive cloud of dust exploded outwards. The entire planet was consumed by the terrifying blast, which instantly atomized the world into cosmic dust.
Axis was sent hurtling an unknown distance by the shockwave, but he righted himself in the void of space, coming to a steady halt.
As the dust from the planetary explosion cleared, Magnus floated in space, having returned to his original form.
He was panting heavily, a smear of blood on his face. Across from him, Axis remained suspended in the void, his golden aura still burning fiercely, lightning coiling around him.
"Magnus, shall we continue?" Axis asked with a smile.
Magnus looked up, his eye glinting with a mixture of excitement and reluctance. He finally shook his head and gave a wry laugh. "I surrender… But next time, I will prepare even stronger shit to fight you Axis."
This power of his was incredible, but he would not stop here, Magnus thought. Once I complete my plans, once I finish the ritual of apotheosis and ascend, I will fight you again.
"I will be waiting," Axis replied.
Sanguinius slowly descended, gazing at the empty space where a world had just been. He said quietly, "You two… you destroyed a planet."
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ps?