Chapter 224: The Final Duel
"The Outsiders' defeat is inevitable. No one can stop us."
Sentinel Prime surveyed the fallen with cold indifference, urging his forces onward.
"We must crush these Outsiders at any cost, even if it means pursuing them into their own universe."
Reports flooded in from the outer perimeter. Stronghold after stronghold had been obliterated. The Transformer army was closing rapidly on the Empire's outpost.
Sentinel Prime swept forward with his host, arriving once more at the Imperial fortress guarding the cross-universe stargate.
"I promised I would return to bring death and devastation upon you."
His gaze fixed on the imposing fortifications, devoid of warmth. Here, in this place, he had tasted defeat at the hands of three formidable Outsiders. Today, he would erase that stain. His return would proclaim to all that the pride and dignity stripped from him would be reclaimed by his own hand.
Sentinel Prime harbored no doubt, this battle would see the invading Imperial forces utterly destroyed. Thirteen Primes, supplemented by covert Quintesson support and Cybertron's finest warriors. Such overwhelming power could conquer entire universes. A mere Human Empire would crumble like dust.
"If it were just the three of us, victory would be impossible," Sanguinius observed from the war platform, his gaze sweeping across the sky darkened by countless Transformers. His tone carried a note of relief.
"I share that assessment entirely," Guilliman agreed.
"He's committed everything to this offensive," Ryan said, his fingers running along the Knight's Sword's edge as he stared into the void. His voice held a bitter chill. "When this battle ends, Cybertron will have nothing left to resist with."
He would not forget the vow Guilliman had sworn in his moment of defeat. As the Emperor's eldest son and destined heir, vengeance for his fallen brother was a sacred duty. Though admittedly, the Thirteenth hardly seemed the foolish type.
A beam of incandescent energy, over ten kilometers in diameter, lanced from the void's depths, piercing spacetime itself, exceeding light's theoretical maximum. In mere moments, it crossed millions of kilometers and hammered against the stronghold's shields, sending ripples cascading across the barrier.
The shot served as the war's opening salvo.
Violent eruptions and explosions consumed the void. Tens of thousands of warships clashed across a battlefield spanning tens of millions of kilometers. Light from detonations, laser fire, and pulse weapons spread outward in all directions, bathing the darkness in a sickly, flickering glow.
Sentinel Prime drove forward with his elite forces, confident in his quest for vengeance. But as the two armies locked in brutal combat, the Emperor arrived with his Primarchs and an Imperial host of staggering magnitude.
The war's intensity escalated immediately.
The Transformers, who had held absolute superiority, found themselves thrust into a grueling meat grinder.
When a Transformer fell, their spark was recycled through the Matrix for eventual resurrection, a process that required time. Resurrection points were typically located near motherships equipped with reconstruction facilities, vessels linked directly to the Matrix through spark channels.
Fallen Transformers returned to the Matrix, then transferred via spark channel into the motherships for rebirth.
The more powerful the Transformer, the longer resurrection took. If a mothership was destroyed, they could only resurrect aboard other motherships.
Without any motherships, they'd have to resurrect on distant planets, or return all the way to Cybertron.
Recognizing this weakness, the Empire swiftly organized assault teams using teleportation technology to target the motherships. The Transformers defended these vessels ferociously, and the fighting became savage.
The war's scope expanded relentlessly, from tens of millions of kilometers to entire star systems, then to hundreds of star systems. Both sides committed massive forces, each seeking to crush their opponent's main strength in a single, decisive blow that would end this grinding war of attrition.
The Thirteen Primes found themselves engaged by the Primarchs. The Quintessons, who should have provided overwhelming reinforcement, erupted into their own fierce battles with Imperial forces—too occupied to assist elsewhere.
BOOM!
A barren, lifeless world shattered into fragments. Skyquake, one of the Thirteen Primes, had unleashed a devastating destruction beam that swept across its surface, obliterating the planet entirely.
His opponent, however, remained untouched, having escaped using spacetime manipulation.
"Impressive power, but the execution's too slow," Chogoris observed from the void, watching debris scatter into space. His tone remained calm.
His frame had grown massive. The awakening essence of the Warp had granted him strength and physicality beyond mortal comprehension. Even facing a Prime-level Transformer, he held his ground without disadvantage.
"Damn monkey!" Skyquake's voice ground out, mechanical and harsh.
The thrusters mounted on his back blazed with brilliant light, propelling him forward at tremendous speed. Afterimages streaked through the void as he covered several thousand kilometers in an instant. The vibro-blade in his grasp tore through space itself, slashing directly toward Chogoris.
Chogoris met the charge without hesitation. As the fierce exchange intensified, he slipped into a peculiar state of perfect clarity, his mind emptied of all thoughts save the battle itself. Will and action aligned flawlessly. Slaughter became concrete, a living concept with form and meaning.
The combat escalated further. Chogoris displayed abilities that defied comprehension: temporal manipulation, dimensional compression, spatial collapse. Yet they achieved little. Skyquake, as one of the Thirteen Primes, possessed his own unique spacetime field that rendered him immune to most reality-warping attacks.
To defeat him, only the blade in Chogoris's hand would suffice.
The battles between the other Primarchs and their Prime opponents followed similar patterns. The abilities granted by their gene-engines proved largely ineffective. Victory would come only through the edge of their weapons.
But the most spectacular battle unfolding across the void belonged to Sentinel Prime and the Emperor.
Sentinel Prime wielded the Star Saber and wore the Supreme Armor, empowered by gifts from Unicron himself. He had become the mightiest Transformer below the creation-level entities—below Unicron and Primus themselves.
The Emperor wore golden armor, bore the Emperor's Sword, and blazed with radiant light like a living sun. During this campaign, He had absorbed immense primordial power and enjoyed support from Raven, an extraordinary healer. Even without ascending to become the Dark King, He existed at the absolute limit of what realspace could contain.
Compared to Him, Sentinel Prime fell short.
The two unleashed devastation upon the cosmos. Power surged from their clash, causing nearby stars to flicker and dim.
The Star Saber and Emperor's Sword collided again and again, each impact generating shockwaves like cosmic storms—sweeping aside even capital-class warships.
After their final exchange, the Star Saber flew from Sentinel Prime's grasp. The Emperor's Sword pierced through Sentinel Prime's chassis, and the dark power gifted by Unicron erupted violently, attempting to force the Emperor back.
But the light radiating from the Emperor's form blazed even brighter. Dazzlingly pure.
The Emperor was born from the collective will of His entire species. Humanity and the Emperor were eternally one, connected, interdependent. Separated, neither held meaning.
This was not merely the Emperor's power, but the power of the entire human race.
Even the dark energies Unicron had bestowed upon Sentinel Prime could not withstand it.
Light surged through the Emperor's Sword into Sentinel Prime's body, incinerating him from within. In moments, Sentinel Prime ceased to exist. Even his spark was consumed, leaving no possibility of resurrection.
Sentinel Prime's final scream echoed through the Transformers' communication network. Every Transformer engaged in the bloody conflict registered shock and disbelief. Their supreme ruler—blessed by Unicron, master of Cybertron's civilization, had been extinguished.
The Emperor stood within the void, His form radiating brilliant light like a god descended into the material realm. His image burned itself into the consciousness of every human participating in this great war. For the first time, He had manifested His true nature: humanity was Him, and He was humanity.
Words whispered through the void, resonating clearly in the auditory sensors of every human, every Transformer:
"Humanity endures, and so shall the Emperor endure forever."
"Humanity and the Emperor, the Emperor and humanity, eternally one."
The will of an entire species made manifest. This incomparable will took form, not as a mortal, not as a father, but as the eternal King of all ages.
Every citizen of the Empire who beheld the Emperor's radiance felt reverence and loyalty kindle within their hearts.
[End of Chapter]
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