"Where… where is this place? Why am I suddenly here? And you… who are you?" Lady Euten asked, a sliver of caution in her voice.
Although the man before her was handsome to an extreme, a perfect vision from any woman's dreams, she remained wary.
"Does it truly matter who I am?" The ethereally handsome man rose to his feet. He moved toward Lady Euten, his form unnaturally perfect, each step exuding an ultimate grace, as if every motion held a fatal allure.
"You are here because you were drawn by the power of this place. I can feel the desire within you. I can feel how much you crave."
"I… I should probably leave," Lady Euten said, her last vestiges of reason speaking up.
Everything here was too strange, sending a chill down her spine. Her instincts screamed at her to run.
"Hahaha! I am not going to eat you, my beautiful lady." The otherworldly man clapped his hands.
A large group of handmaidens entered the palace, carrying platters of exquisite dishes, which they placed upon a grand dining table.
A dining table? When had that appeared?
"A guest has arrived, and a guest must be welcomed. At the very least, stay for a meal and allow me to entertain you properly. You are one of the very few guests to ever come here. It is a rare thing for anyone to reach my palace," the man said, a charming smile gracing his lips.
"I… very well," Lady Euten agreed in a daze.
With the meticulous help of several handmaidens, she took a seat at the table and prepared to sample the delicacies before her.
"Please, try some," her host offered with an inviting gesture, "You will find only the most delicious food in the entire universe here. There is no equal. I enjoy only the finest things. Anything with the slightest imperfection displeases me."
As he spoke, several more handmaidens began to dance gracefully nearby, performing a dance that Lady Euten had never seen before.
Every movement, every step, was imbued with an impossible beauty.
At the man's invitation, Lady Euten took a bite of the so-called "finest food in the universe."
The moment the food touched her tongue, her taste buds exploded with sensation. It was delicious. Exquisite.
It was the most wonderful thing she had ever tasted.
"The taste is excellent, is it not? The wine here is even better." A look of satisfaction crossed the man's face.
He clapped his hands again, and another pair of handmaidens entered, carrying a decanter of scarlet liquid that they poured into Lady Euten's goblet.
"This is an exceptionally rare vintage, made from a very special ingredient. It is a peerless brew. Try it, my lady. You will not be disappointed," the man said, raising his own glass in a toast.
Lady Euten nodded, lifted the crimson liquid to her lips, and drank it all. It was sweet and delectable.
An indescribable feeling washed over her. The wine's flavor was simply too magnificent, and it filled her with a pleasant warmth, as if her entire body was being suffused with its power.
"That was truly delicious. Thank you for your hospitality. Might I know your name?" Lady Euten asked, wiping her mouth.
"A name is unimportant. If you like, you can just call me your dream," the man replied with a gentle smile, raising his goblet once more.
"My dream! Wait, yes!… I must be dreaming." Lady Euten suddenly seemed to realize something. She quickly set down her glass and looked around, finally understanding she was in a dream.
That's right.
How else could she have arrived at this strange palace? She was supposed to be on the planet Nuceria. Was this all just a dream? But if she knew she was dreaming, why had she not yet awoken? Furthermore, people in dreams were not supposed to be…
"Do not trouble yourself with such thoughts. All you need to do now is enjoy yourself. I promise you, everything here is the most perfect, the finest in all of creation. Tonight, I will let you eat the best food and drink the most delicious wine in the cosmos," the man said with a slight smile.
"If this is only a dream, then thank you for your hospitality, my dream," Lady Euten replied with a laugh, settling back into her seat to continue savoring the magnificent feast.
The two of them spoke joyfully throughout the banquet. Her host's manners were impeccable, his bearing elegant and generous. He was the very picture of perfection. He was like the prince charming she had imagined as a child, manifested in reality.
Perfect. He was almost flawlessly so. Any lingering fantasy Lady Euten held for Axis completely vanished. At this moment, her obsession had shifted entirely to the unearthly man before her.
After the feast concluded, at the man's invitation, Lady Euten joined him in a dance, moving to the rhythm of that unknown music.
At some unknown point, Lady Euten departed.
After she was gone, the lavish purple palace transformed. The once beautiful handmaidens twisted into wretched creatures with goat hooves and bat wings: Daemonettes. Their faces were horribly contorted, their features disturbingly androgynous, a stark contrast to the gentle servants from moments before.
The delectable food had likewise transformed into foul, indescribable things. Some were mounds of what looked like animal entrails, while others resembled piles of excrement.
Some platters even held things that looked disturbingly like human brains.
"My lord, why did you entertain a mortal woman with such hospitality? What makes her worthy of your attention?" a Daemonette of Slaanesh asked.
"The mortal woman herself is of no importance," Slaanesh said, "What matters is what she can bring me. Be prepared, she will be a frequent visitor."
"I understand, my lord," the Daemonette replied, though a thought lingered in its mind.
Why does our master not simply corrupt her directly? It was a question the daemon dared not ask aloud. The master did not appreciate having His decisions questioned.
.....
The next morning, Lady Euten opened her eyes, feeling a little tired.
Yesterday's dream had been so wonderful. She had tasted countless delicacies and fine wines and danced with an impossibly handsome dream. The feeling had been simply sublime. Her mood was exceptionally bright, and she even hummed a tune as she got out of bed.
The thought of pestering Axis was completely gone from her mind. His image in her head had been entirely replaced by that of the ethereal man.
That night, when Lady Euten fell asleep, she once again found herself in the luxurious palace. This time, she became an empress, the ruler of an entire planet.
She wielded unimaginable authority, standing at the apex of power, holding the lives of countless people in her hands. With a single command, she could decide the fate of an entire family.
This was power, a degree of power she had never before felt. Previously, she was merely a head housekeeper, a governess who had devoted her life to serving her master and raising the infant he had entrusted to her. She had never even raised a child of her own.
After the dream of being an empress, Lady Euten began experiencing all manner of lavish and fantastical dreams.
It soon became difficult for her to distinguish reality from illusion. She was no longer sure where she truly was.
Time passed.
Lady Euten continued to visit the secret chamber every day to undergo the cleansing of Axis's ki. Axis, for his part, noticed that Guilliman's adoptive mother no longer seemed obsessed with him.
She did not even watch him from afar anymore.
Had the Chaos God's curse faded? This was good news, really.
Axis had no idea that Slaanesh had only made Lady Euten infatuated with him to drive him away from her.
If he remained too close, his sensitivity to ki would allow him to detect the Warp's corruption. Only by making Axis feel repulsed by her, to the point where he wanted no contact, could the bitch move forward with its ultimate plan.
Time flowed on.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye. In those two years, Axis's Legion and the planet of Nuceria developed splendidly. Several more planets within the star system were developed into mining worlds, and one was even being terraformed by the Adeptus Mechanicus into a small Forge World to supply Axis's Legion with munitions.
Guilliman had sent two more contingents of administrators to help Axis manage the planets, while his sons on the front lines had conquered dozens of worlds.
These new conquests provided the Legion with sufficient mortal soldiers, while the Space Marine Legion itself had expanded to a size of 240,000.
The name of the Golden Legion now echoed across the galaxy, and Axis's sons had become a true primary force in the Great Crusade.
Every one of them was a top-tier Space Marine, possessing strength that far surpassed their ordinary cousins.
As for Guilliman's adoptive mother, she no longer caused Axis any trouble.
At some point, Axis was surprised to find that he no longer seemed to possess the ability to attract unwanted female attention.
Had Slaanesh's so-called blessing, or curse, simply disappeared? Axis found the whole thing baffling, and a little suspicious.
That night, Axis received a psionic communication from the Emperor.
"Axis, my journey to you may be delayed by a few more years. I have discovered another Primarch. Are you having any problems on your end?" the Emperor asked.
"No problems, Father. In fact, I believe this supposed blessing, or curse, seems to have vanished," Axis replied.
"While I'm relieved to hear that, be careful. The four bastards never move without a purpose.
"It is likely your ki has developed a certain resistance to the powers of the Immaterium. After I have retrieved this new Primarch, I will travel to your location to examine you more closely," the Emperor said.
Axis nodded.
After chatting with the Emperor for a while longer, he ended the psychic communication.
….
"This is terrible, Axis! Lady Euten, Guilliman's adoptive mother, has gone missing!" Kasha said, rushing into the room in a panic.
"Missing? What happened?"
...
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tl/n: Updates will resume from today. It's been a chaotic week for me. I had an exam the other day and two days before the exam, I caught a fever...
I attended the exam anyway, but threw up before entering the exam hall....
I did horribly...
I'll pass... maybe.. anyway ps?