The impure, otherworldly beings of the Warp shimmered in Valdor's golden gaze, and a flash of pure, unadulterated revulsion crossed his face. He instinctively gripped his halberd tighter, a silent promise to himself to pulverize the cosmic abominations if they so much as twitched. Duty-bound, he gave a solemn nod and turned, leading the way with a stiff back.
He never stopped scanning the periphery, his senses on high alert, ready to strike and utterly obliterate the Warp creatures at a moment's notice.
"I can't let your efforts be in vain." Erda barely glanced at the souls of the demigods before turning away. Her kind, the Perpetuals, were immortal, capable of resurrecting from death. But even they had their limits, and she knew from eons of experience that the Warp was a poison that seeped into everything.
The group walked in silence to a stone elevator that took them deep underground. The doors opened to a different world. The space had been hollowed out, a testament to an impossible feat of engineering. The ceiling was a chaotic tangle of pipes and cables, a web so complex it looked like it was designed by a mad spider. The floor was a mosaic of gray stone slabs, crisscrossed by more conduits.
Researchers in long robes moved through the lab like worker ants, calibrating machines and fine-tuning equipment. In the very center of the immense space stood the main event: a series of immense gestation pods. All the tangled wires and chaotic pipelines in the laboratory seemed to converge on these pods.
"My Lord, everything is ready, according to your instructions." A woman with flaxen hair and a tired but determined face stepped forward, kneeling before the Emperor. She held out a data panel, her hands trembling slightly with reverence. Her name was Amar Astartes, the chief gene artificer.
The Emperor took the panel and a flood of information poured into his mind. Everything was perfect. The Emperor's psychic will gently lifted her. He remembered every contribution she had made.
"You may leave," the Emperor said, his voice a low hum. His will, however, was relayed by Valdor's deep, resounding voice. "You need not participate in what comes next. Thank you for your contributions. The sweat you shed is your immortal medal."
Everyone fell to their knees. Tears streamed down their faces as they looked up at the Emperor, a man so holy that to look directly upon him was to risk blindness. They cried and worshipped, their excitement barely contained. For a chance to stand in his light, they would have happily given their sight. But they obeyed his command.
"Everyone, please leave quickly," Erda said, her own voice thick with emotion. She was deeply moved by their sacrifice. "We still have critical tasks to attend to, and we must make every second count."
The staff, wiping away tears, rose and left in an orderly fashion, their heads bowed low. They held back the urge to kneel, suppressing their awe with every step.
"Begin." When only four people remained, the Emperor reached out and took Erda's hand. A hazy glow enveloped them as they walked together toward the pods, like two lovers embarking on an ancient rite.
The Primarchs, the Emperor's greatest project, were an essential part of his plan. Without them, there was no hope for humanity. He had looked out at the galaxy and felt a profound sense of powerlessness. The cosmos was too vast, and humanity was too scattered. Normal soldiers were simply too fragile for a project of this scale.
The Custodes, his personal army, were perfect. They were the pinnacle of bio-alchemy, unique and irreplicable works of art. But they were also outrageously expensive. The Emperor's accumulated wealth had been completely spent just on Valdor's armor.
Constantin Valdor once asked Malcador, "If we are the Emperor's most loyal and powerful warriors, why not use us to conquer the stars?"
Malcador simply looked at the stars and said, "Then the empire the Emperor builds would consist only of the Custodes." He was talking about money, of course. The resources to build a legion of them would have bankrupted the entire Imperium. "We can't just sail rowboats across light-years to conquer worlds, can we?"
Valdor, a living god of war, paused for a millisecond, a long time in Custodian terms. He sighed and shook his head, the truth dawning on him.
The Emperor's deal with the Warp was not just for the twenty demigod souls. It was for the forbidden knowledge that came with them. He would use that knowledge, combine the Warp and reality, and create a new kind of life.
He raised his hands, and a shimmering, golden psychic energy erupted from his fingertips. "My friend," he said, turning to Erda, his voice filled with a rare excitement. "It is time for us to contribute our genetic material."
Erda nodded, her eyes closed tightly as she lay down on a sealed platform. Probes of pure light extracted genetic material from her body, causing her to instinctively tense with pain.
The Emperor took a ceremonial dagger from Valdor and drew it across his palm. A single, gem-red drop of blood welled up. Valdor flinched and turned away, sickened by the sight. He couldn't shake the unsettling feeling of it all. The purest being in the mortal universe, shedding his blood to combine with the most foul creatures of the Warp.
The Emperor's blood, imbued with his immense psychic power, floated into each of the gestation pods, combining with Erda's genes and the demigod souls. He chanted softly, a golden light glowing from his eyes as he bestowed upon them the greatest parts of his essence: "Idealism, rationality, gentleness, responsibility, kindness, humility, justice, tolerance, courage, beauty, holiness, persistence, resilience, patience…"
But the Emperor was human, and his essence also contained the ugly parts of humanity: ambition, a desire for conquest, sorrow, and hatred. He did not remove these. He knew that for the Primarchs to truly understand humanity, they had to be a reflection of it, flaws and all.
Each Primarch would be a perfect blend of Warp demigod and human, a being of immense power, and full of humanity. They would fulfill their destiny, whether it was to rule, conquer, or guard the universe's darkest secrets.