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Chapter 66: The Eternal Vigil
The Time War had ended, yet its echoes would reverberate across the chronostream for millennia uncounted.
For the Emperor and His chosen, shielded within the protective embrace of the Time Field's blessed aegis, the conflict had spanned mere years. But for the masses of humanity dwelling in baseline reality, the war had consumed more than eight million years of existence.
Throughout the long centuries stretching from the twenty-fourth millennium to the eightieth, the Eternal Ones had manifested as harbingers of conscription.
They descended without warning, claiming the finest warriors of each epoch, dragging them into the temporal maelstrom to serve as expendable fodder in their chronological crusade.
None returned.
The Time War had ravaged every thread of spacetime. Reality itself bore the scars of forbidden weapons unleashed by both warring factions, creating a patchwork universe riddled with temporal wounds.
Disasters cascaded through the ages as causality collapsed, and Crossing events multiplied like a contagion.
Future-born interlopers fled backward through time, pillaging technologies and cultural achievements that belonged to eras yet unborn, ascending to heights their meager talents could never have achieved.
Their theft of destiny's fruits rendered the already fractured timeline into utter chaos.
The very foundations of existence groaned under the strain.
Paradoxes multiplied like cancer. Men whose ancestors had perished in the Time War's devastation continued to exist despite the logical impossibility of their births. They walked as living contradictions, testament to causality's complete collapse.
To heal these wounds and prevent their recurrence, the Emperor and the Time Bureau enacted the reforms They had long contemplated.
In the twenty-fourth century, humanity was guided toward the stars. Knowledge of sub-light propulsion and hyperspace translation was bestowed upon that epoch's children, replacing the war-torn reality with a new timeline of infinite possibility.
To ensure that no organization might rise to threaten temporal stability as the Eternal Ones had done, the Emperor decreed the spacefaring timeline sacred and inviolate. Any attempt to corrupt or destroy this blessed chronostream would be judged a crime against the very essence of humanity.
With humanity's expansion into the void assured and time-mastery secured for the Imperium's future needs, the Emperor prepared for departure.
Before His withdrawal, He summoned His mortal allies.
"You depart from us?" Lin Ye spoke, her voice heavy with the weight of impending loss.
The Emperor remained silent as carved stone. Valdor, ever His voice in matters requiring mortal comprehension, replied with measured precision.
"My Lord has obligations that transcend this reality."
"What could surpass the welfare of all humanity? Remain with us, we beseech You." Noy's plea carried the desperate fervor of one who had witnessed divinity walk among mortals.
"For my Lord," Valdor intoned, "nothing indeed exceeds humanity's welfare. Yet you represent but a fragment of the infinite multitudes. Beyond this universe stretch countless others where human civilizations struggle for survival against impossible odds. They require my Lord's intervention."
"His mission here reaches completion. The New Empire's destiny rests now in your hands."
"In time's fullness, my Lord shall return. When that day dawns, humanity will achieve true unity and forge a civilization of incomparable glory."
The Raven approached Noy, its voice carrying warmth beneath the weight of farewell.
"Little Noy, until we meet again."
"I hope that when next we cross paths, you'll have perfected even more delectable varieties of ketchup and fries."
The Raven dissolved into streams of coruscating energy, weaving the fundamental forces into a spacetime conduit. The Emperor and Valdor stepped through the rift and vanished from that universe.
Upon His return to the primary timeline, the Emperor immediately established super-spatial communion with Malcador.
Ethereal static danced through the chamber's sanctified air, coalescing into the spectral form of the Sigilliteācloaked in shadow, his staff of office glowing with eldritch power.
"Congratulations, my Emperor," Malcador intoned. "Congratulations, Master Raven. Another journey through the myriad realities reaches triumphant conclusion."
The Emperor's response carried the weight of absolute certainty. "Old friend, such expeditions are not adventures for One such as I. Nothing can unmake Me save humanity's own curse upon itself. Even should the ancient powers manifest directly within reality's bounds, they would find Me beyond their reach."
"This venture has proven most illuminating. It has also revealed critical flaws in our grand design."
"What would You have me do, my Lord?" Malcador inquired.
"Two tasks require your immediate attention," the Emperor commanded. "First: I shall bestow upon you a portion of our temporal mastery. Gather the Mechanicum's finest sages and construct the Time Anchors."
"Should humanity falter in the wars to come against the Great Enemy, these Anchors will grant Us the power to restart the entire chronostreamāto gift Our species a second chance at survival."
"Second: Establish a secret organizationāthe Time Inquisition. We must ensure the current timeline remains inviolate, protected from interference or destruction."
"The Time Inquisition's sacred duty shall be the detection and elimination of all temporal anomalies that threaten Our reality's integrity."
Temporal manipulation was not humanity's exclusive domain.
Throughout the galaxy's darkest reaches, countless entities wielded chronostream mastery. The Space Necrons, ancient beyond measure, commanded technologies that could rewrite history itself.
Within the Immaterium's chaotic depths, beings existed that scorned linear time entirely.
The material universe embodied rational order, bound by immutable physical laws.
The Warp existed as its antithesisāemotion made manifest, subjectivity elevated to cosmic principle, a realm where will alone shaped reality.
Though unreal by material standards, it possessed undeniable existence.
When daemons spawned within the Warp's depths, they existed simultaneously across past, present, and futureātemporal omnipresence that mocked causality itself.
To contend with such entities, humanity required equivalent power.
Temporal technology represented humanity's greatest strategic assetāthe trump card that would secure dominion over the physical universe.
Just as daemons achieved immortality through Warp-resurrection, humanity would achieve victory through temporal iteration, rewinding reality until triumph was assured.
Malcador's expression darkened as he absorbed the Emperor's decree.
"The technical specifications You have transmitted are... daunting, my Lord. Operating a Time Field capable of encompassing a single world would require the energy output of stellar detonation."
"The Time Anchors You envision, with their vast sphere of influence, would demand energy reserves beyond current comprehension. What power source could sustain such mechanisms?"
"Unless we establish temporal conduits to the universe's genesis moment, drawing upon the primordial energies released during creation itself."
"But would altering the past not affect our present selves?"
The Emperor's response brooked no doubt. "Solutions will present themselves. Our technological advancement continues unabated."
"Complete the preliminary construction. We shall activate the Anchors once adequate power sources are secured."
"If necessity demands, We shall indeed harness the Big Bang's primal fury."
"Should humanity face extinction, what purpose would the universe serve?"
Recognizing the Emperor's absolute resolve, Malcador could only acquiesce.
The communication ended, and the Sigillite immediately began marshaling resources and personnel for the Time Anchors' construction and the Time Inquisition's formation.
The Imperium would be ready.
Time itself would bow before the will of Mankind.
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Note from Ministarum of UmU Studios.
[MUST READ AND RESPOND]. Failure to do so shall be punished by being condemned to Warp God Slanesh's damned daemons.
"Um, Fellow brothers of Imperium, HEAR ME OUT.
The Grand Regent, Sigilite Malcador himself, approves this.Ā
So no HERESY IS BEING DONE HERE.
Would you guys love to read a fanfic where MC, you know, Snu-Snu, with a Female primarch?"
^ Hint is given of who it is.^
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