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Chapter 81: A Knight, A Wolf, and The Celestial!
The City of Omnipotence sprawled across dimensional space like a jewel beyond mortal understanding.
Temples stretched through seventeen layers of reality. Their marble surfaces hummed with sounds only divine ears could hear. Gold veined through every structure, not crude metal, but something that existed as much in thought as physical space.
Crystal plazas connected buildings that followed impossible geometry. Their surfaces reflected light that had never touched stars. Fountains cast liquid starlight into the air. The spray carried scents of flowers that bloomed for just a moment.
Music drifted through eternal twilight. Not mere sound, but concepts of beauty given audible form by beings whose thoughts reshaped reality.
For two hundred billion years, perfect harmony had ruled this place. Today, that harmony was shattered.
God Guards swarmed through the city's streets. They bore blessings from a thousand pantheons. Some appeared as golden-armoured warriors from human myths. Others looked like crystal beings whose presence sang of cosmic order. All possessed planet-breaking strength and endurance that mocked time itself.
Yet they struggled against a single mortal, if the towering figure in midnight-blue ceramite could be called mortal.
Lion El'Jonson moved through their ranks like death given purpose. His power sword carved through divine flesh with surgical precision. Each stroke was calculated, devastating, perfect.
Lesser beings would have been overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The Lion adapted, exploited, and conquered.
But even Primarchs had limits.
Whoosh!
A spear wreathed in fire lanced toward the Lion's chest. Its trajectory aimed to pierce both his hearts simultaneously.
He twisted away. His blade intercepted the weapon in a shower of sparks that burned through three dimensions. The impact sent shock waves through his skeleton as divine metal met disruptor technology.
Reality hung in balance for a microsecond. Then training reasserted itself.
The Lion's blade slipped along the spear shaft, finding where divine blessing met physical matter. Golden blood sprayed across marble as another God Guard fell.
But ten more pressed forward for every enemy that died. The Lion's enhanced muscles burned with fatigue. His combat systems struggled to adapt to cosmic parameters that defied every law programmed into his being.
[Gene Engine reconstruction at 67% completion. Advanced combat suites remain offline.]
The mechanical voice offered no comfort as another wave of attackers surged forward.
Behind him, Leman Russ lay unconscious. His massive frame was dead weight that prevented any tactical withdrawal.
'Damn that mangy wolf.'
A gleaming spear thrust toward Russ's motionless form, aimed at his secondary heart. The Lion didn't think. He abandoned his position and threw himself into the weapon's path.
Ceramite cracked as divine metal punched through armour blessed by the Emperor. Pain flared along his nerves, but Lion El'Jonson had endured worse. His return stroke separated the attacker's head from his shoulders in one fluid motion.
"You worthless, mangy cur!" the Lion snarled, pulling the broken spear from his torso. Blood flowed for exactly 2.3 seconds before his enhanced healing sealed the wound.
"I should abandon you to these false gods and save myself the trouble."
But even as he spoke, the Lion knew the words were lies. Russ might be crude, undisciplined, and insufferably arrogant, but he was a brother.
They shared a genetic heritage traced back to the Emperor himself, bonds forged in the fires of the Great Crusade.
The Dark Angels had never abandoned their own. The Lion would not start now.
Forced into a tightening circle by pressing enemies, he dragged Russ's unconscious bulk into a nearby temple's sanctuary.
The structure's threshold blazed with protective wards that gave even God Guards pause. Treaties between pantheons forbade direct assault on places of worship. It wouldn't hold them long, but it might be enough.
The Lion took position at the entrance. His power sword hummed with lethal promise.
Behind him, golden statues of forgotten deities gazed down with expressions that might have been approval or judgment. In the City of Omnipotence, the distinction had lost meaning long ago.
[Gene Engine reconstruction complete. Underlying data structures re-encoded. Fenris Engine initialisation successful. Beginning awakening protocols.]
Massive eyelids fluttered as the Wolf King stirred. Dreams of ice-locked Fenris dissolved into awareness, weapon clashes, divine blood scents, and combat's taste in recycled air.
Leman Russ opened his eyes to find his brother standing guard at the temple entrance. Ceramite showed scars from dozens of wounds. The Lion's blade wove death patterns among enemies pressing forward like a golden tide.
"Oi, Knighty!" Russ's bellow echoed through the temple, causing several statues to crack. "Where in the Allfather's name are we?"
The Lion's shoulders tensed as he parried two spear thrusts at once. His counter-attack opened throats with surgical precision.
"I am the Emperor's firstborn son, you mangy dog. Show some respect for your elder brother."
Russ scratched his grey mane, unimpressed by the cosmic warfare around them. "Have you settled that dispute with Horus yet? Because last I checked, he wasn't acknowledging your claim."
Without turning, the Lion tilted his head to avoid a spear thrust. His return blow removed the attacker's arm at the shoulder.
"Nothing good ever comes from that mouth of yours. I should have left you for these tin-plated gods to claim."
"Stop asking stupid questions and show your fangs. We need to carve our way out of this divine mess."
The Wolf King's grin showed pure predator hunger as he rose to his feet. His frost-rimed blade sang clear of its sheath. Fenrisian runes blazed along the weapon's edge as gene-forged muscles coiled with anticipation.
"Now that's more like it."
Russ exploded into motion like a hunting wolf released from its cage. Where the Lion fought with disciplined precision, the Wolf King embodied barely controlled fury.
His blade carved through divine armour like parchment. Each stroke was driven by mountain-toppling strength. God Guards who had weathered the Lion's calculated assault found themselves unprepared for feral savagery.
Russ fought without pattern or predictability. His blade found gaps that shouldn't exist, exploiting weaknesses that appeared only in the moment of strike.
With his brother awake, the Lion's effectiveness doubled. No longer protecting an unconscious ally, he could unleash the First Legion tactical doctrine's full spectrum.
The two Primarchs flowed around each other in deadly harmony. Lion and wolf, order and chaos, precision and fury united in fraternal warfare.
The God Guards, despite divine blessings and endless stamina, found themselves harvested like wheat before the scythe. Golden blood painted temple walls as the brothers carved toward freedom.
Then the sky fell.
WHOOOOOM!
Reality screamed as a finger the size of a mountain descended toward their position. Both Primarchs felt their spatial awareness trigger emergency warnings. Their Gene Engines detected an attack existing on scales beyond mortal understanding.
They scattered with transhuman reflexes. Space folded around them as emergency teleportation engaged.
Where they had stood, marble, gold, and divine flesh were reduced to atoms by forces that made stellar fusion seem gentle.
When the dust settled, both brothers stared upward at a sight challenging even their enhanced perceptions.
A face gazed down from the heavens. Metallic, emotionless, vast beyond description. Six apertures blazed with energies older than galaxies. Features that might once have been expressive were rendered alien by sheer scale.
"By the Allfather's beard," Russ whispered with uncharacteristic awe. "That's one big bastard."
The Gene Engine's analysis was automatically engaged.
[Scanning target... Classification: Celestial. Height: 30.7 kilometres. Mass: Incalculable. Threat assessment: Extreme.]
[Note: Celestial beings represent fundamental cosmic evolution forces. Confrontation not recommended without full Gene Engine capabilities.]
"Thirty kilometres tall," the Lion said, his tactical mind struggling to process warfare on such a scale. "Emperor preserve us, how do you fight something that treats cities as stepping stones?"
The Celestial's second finger descended with inevitable slowness. Reality bent around its passage.
Both Primarchs abandoned dignity for survival. Their spatial displacement carried them through collapsing architecture as the divine city shook beneath cosmic footsteps.
"We can't fight this," the Lion shouted over the crumbling reality's sound. "Our Gene Engines aren't fully operational. We need extraction."
Russ nodded, his usual bravado tempered by practical acknowledgement of their limits. "Lead the way, brother. Even wolves know when to retreat."
[Navigation marker established. Extraction point: 2.3 kilometres northwest.]
The Primarchs fought through the City of Omnipotence's collapsing glory. God Guards were forgotten in the face of cosmic disaster. Temples that had stood for billions of years crumbled around them as the Celestial reshaped local reality through movement.
As they fled through a magnificent hall, Russ suddenly stopped. His enhanced vision allowed him to catch details that defied explanation.
"Lion, you need to see this." His voice mixed amusement with disbelief. "There's a Steamed Bun God here. And some Giant Eyeball deity."
The Lion's response carried typical disdain for distractions. "Childish observations at a time likeā"
His words died as his gaze followed his brother's pointing finger.
On a crystal pedestal sat what could only be called a divine dumpling. Steam rose from its perfectly pleated surface. Nearby, other displays confirmed the absurdityāa crystal eye the size of a vehicle pulsed with dream energy. Pedestals held Stone Gods, Tree Gods, and what appeared to be a Slime Deity quivering with uncertain purpose.
[Scanning... Entity classification: God of Sustenance, Subsect: Steamed Bread. Worshiper base: 47 million sentient beings across 23 worlds.]
The Lion processed this with the same efficiency he applied to enemy analysis. "I stand corrected. This realm contains deities for every conceivable concept."
"We've stumbled into a cosmic pantheon convention," Russ observed with dark humour. "Throw a rock and you'll brain two gods and wound a third."
"Accurate assessment," the Lion agreed grimly.
Lightning split the air before them. Not crude electrical discharge, but illumination that existed in pure meaning as much as physical space. Thunder followed, carrying words that resonated through dimensions.
"OUTSIDERS. SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY."
Zeus materialised from the lightning's heart. His form shifted between interpretations, bearded patriarch of classical myth, storm-crowned sky father of a thousand worlds. Divine authority radiated from every line, backed by the Divine Council's collective will.
The Primarchs exchanged glances. Behind them, a Celestial continued reshaping reality through movement. Ahead, the King of Olympus blocked their path with power drawn from billions of prayers.
Russ's grin showed pure predator anticipation. "Well, brother, shall we add deicide to our accomplishments today?"
The Lion's blade hummed to lethal readiness. "Why not? We've already made enemies of their servants."
"Let's show this pretender what happens when mortals refuse to kneel."