|3rd POV|
The Emperor swings his sword and releases a tsunami of golden fire, burning everything warp-related in its path. His Custodes march alongside him, ensuring the lesser Daemons do not get near him while he prepares to kill the Greater Daemons.
There are a few ways to give a True Death to Greater Daemons. The first is to learn the True Name of those Daemons. However, that is harder than it sounds, as Greater Daemons have names that are difficult for mortals to pronounce. He can do it, but he runs into another wall: Greater Daemons rarely announce their True Names, and even he doesn't know most of them.
The second way to give a True Death to a Greater Daemon is to take hold of its soul, then destroy it from the inside. Because of his psychic power and control, he can worm his way through multiple layers of shields that the Greater Daemons create to block him. In just five more layers, he will reach their souls.
And the two Greater Daemons know it.
Rotigus releases a roar and swings the bell he is carrying, creating a wave of pale green miasma. His sibling also swings a massive butcher knife at the Emperor, who looks at them with disgust.
"You are not worthy. Your creator needs his siblings to turn me into a corpse. You two are not worthy."
With a casual wave of his hand, another wave of golden fire sweeps across the battlefield, eating through the green miasma and burning the Greater Daemon that was coming at him. The Greater Daemon screamed in pain as the Emperor's psychic fire started to burn through his bloated body.
The Emperor flexes his legs and dashes forward, moving five hundred meters in less than a second. He appears in front of Rotigus and thrusts his golden claw at the Greater Daemon. Rotigus blocks the attack with the Bell of Pox, but barely manages to do so. The bell cracked under the might of the Emperor's psychic power, and the Daemons trapped within the weapon screamed as True Death claimed them one by one. Rotigus raises his main weapon, a tree branch taken from the largest tree in Nurgle's Garden.
He attempts to blast the Emperor, but before he can do so, a massive golden flaming sword cuts through his weapon. As the sword cuts the branch in two, a loud scream echoes in the Warp as more powerful Daemons receive a True Death by the power of the Emperor.
"Without your Cancerous Creator, you are nothing. Without the binding around me from the vow I took in the past, you are nothing. Your kinds cannot beat me."
He was young once. In his hubris, he thought that he could win against the Four Cancers without his full power, thinking that his sons would be enough to fight them while his power was tied. Now, he is free from the binding as his vow is fulfilled, and after millennia of sacrifice to him, his psychic power has grown even more formidable.
The Emperor flexes his psychic power, and reality buckles, holding the charging Great Unclean One in place. He looks at the bloated Daemon in front of him and speaks.
"You are young. That is good. I shall grant you the gift of Death."
Something explodes from within the Emperor and blasts Rotigus a kilometer away. The Emperor looks at the Great Unclean One he holds and walks toward him. As he gets closer, the Greater Daemon screams even louder as the Emperor's psychic power tears apart any defense the Great Unclean One creates around his soul.
When the Emperor stands in front of the Greater Daemon, he already holds the soul of the Great Unclean One within his psychic grasp. He can see fear within the creature's eyes, but instead of satisfaction, the Emperor looks at him in disgust as he crushes the foul soul.
He ignores another scream in the Warp as another Daemon receives a True Death, and instead looks at the massive figure of Rotigus charging at him. He prepares to finish this fight and help his old friend on Itus.
He can feel Kael, who he suspects contains a shard of his old friend's soul, start to get serious as his presence shines brightly in the Warp. His unique, deep red energy is very distinct, and Chaos-related entities hate it.
However, he tilts his head when he feels something primordial coming from that planet. He can feel something older than the Four Cancers themselves. It is not the same as the Weapon of Genesis Kael used previously; this one is even older than that, much to his disbelief.
His eyes widen when he feels the primordial energy wash over the entire galaxy. As the energy washes over them, he can see Rotigus screaming in anger as the human souls inside of him disappear into the Warp.
All of the humans that Rotigus stored inside his body are no longer his to consume and play with. Not only that, he can see reality bend and twist to create a new ironclad rule that prevents human souls from being consumed by Nurgle and his forces.
The Emperor looks at the anger in Rotigus' eyes and laughs. His laughter catches the others off guard. For a long time, he searched for a way to prevent the Chaos Gods from eating humans' souls, but his old friend was able to do it within a normal human lifetime. Sadly, it does not last long as he feels something that makes his skin crawl: a Chaos God is preparing to tear reality apart and appear in Realspace.
Rotigus feels his creator's presence in Realspace and laughs happily.
"Grandfather! Our Grandfather is here! The galaxy shall become his garden!"
The Emperor decides to end the fight here and help his old friend. He dashes forward and swings his sword at Rotigus, who happily fights the Emperor head-on. With his creator's presence in Realspace, he receives a boost that allows him to hold the Emperor back for a moment.
The two of them fight, and their clash destroys the area around them. Their psychic struggle grows so strong that even some Sisters of Silence are affected as they try to perform their duty. The Custodes and the Sisters of Silence stay near the Emperor, ignoring the fact that they may die because of the clash of these two titans.
Death is not something they fear; they only know their duty, which is to protect and obey the Emperor, and he has ordered them to guard him from the lesser Daemons.
The Emperor swings his sword and hits Rotigus right in his bloated body, throwing the massive Daemon away. He prepares to use the full extent of his psychic power to end the fight for good. He knows it will destroy a good portion of his Custodes and Sisters of Silence, but it is a price worth paying to kill the Great Unclean One.
However, before he can do anything, he hears a familiar voice in the warp.
"With the authority bestowed upon me, I, Kael, declare you and your creations mortal!"
He can feel a familiar sensation of Death washing over the entire galaxy. He knows this feeling intimately; he once wished for it to claim him, but it never did. The energy washes over them, and he can see Rotigus screaming in fear as the soul of the Great Unclean One changes at a fundamental level.
No longer does his soul shine as brightly as before. Now every Daemon, even the Great Unclean One, has a soul as fragile as a human's. Their bodies might be strong and hard to kill, but once they are dead, they can no longer return to reality.
Unlike humans, their souls will be destroyed completely. Because the declaration renders their souls unable to return to their creator, they will be obliterated, further reducing the power of their master.
Seeing his chance, the Emperor takes a deep breath and releases a massive wave of golden flame, killing millions of lesser Daemons and Chaos abominations in a single attack.
Rotigus survives, but his body is burning. The fear in his eyes intensifies as he realizes he can no longer use his usual tactic of allowing attacks to hit his body and watching his prey's terror as the wounds close up.
Now, even a small amount of damage has a chance of killing him, no matter how minor it might be.
The Emperor takes a battle stance and dashes forward. He appears in front of Rotigus and thrusts his sword. However, before he can land the blow, Rotigus disappears, and he can feel a massive number of Daemons appear on Itus.
He looks deeper and sees Kael use Ea one more time. He looks at the scene in anticipation because not only has the Great Unclean One changed, but Nurgle also turns into a mortal who can die. Death is approaching as Kael releases a blast of Primordial Energy at the Plague Father. The Emperor clicks his tongue when he sees Nurgle manage to escape, but smiles in satisfaction as Nurgle's strength is reduced significantly, with his creations dying by the millions from the attack.
His smile disappears and turns into a frown when he sees an Eldar catch Kael mid-air. His frown deepens as he sees his old friend start to flirt with the Eldar. He knows who she is, but just as he never admits that he is a God, he will never admit that she is a Goddess.
He turns around and walks toward where his son, Jaghatai, fights against his traitorous brother. He needs to end the battle here to rescue his old friend. He cannot allow his friend to awaken his old fetish; it looks like his shard carries the fetish that awakened long ago.
When he arrives on the other side of the battlefield, he can see Jaghatai carrying the head of Mortarion. Half of Khan's body is gone, and his innards are hanging outside his body. It is only because of the mature Primarch physiology that he is still alive.
The Great Khan looked at his father while his sons tried to fix him.
Without saying a word, the Emperor places his hand on his son's head and uses his Biomancy to fix his body. Using the biomass from Jaghatai's own body, he regenerates the damage. The Emperor looks at the group of Apothecaries and speaks.
"Feed him all the nutrient paste you have in your ship. His natural regeneration will heal him."
He then looks at Jaghatai and says.
"Heal up, my son. The Great Hunt is not over, and a hunter must…"
"Hunt."
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