The Monarch regarded the golden giant before him. The Custodian's very being was a testament to the power of this universe's master. He was a flawless weapon, honed by millennia of duty, his soul a fortress of golden light. He was, Jin-Woo noted with a flicker of professional interest, a far superior vessel than the Ultramarines had been.
"I accept," he said. The words were simple, devoid of the posturing and ceremony this Imperium seemed to thrive on.
The Shield-Captain, Valerian, gave a curt, precise nod, gesturing back toward his lander. "My Lord Commander awaits. The path has been prepared."
The Monarch issued a silent command for Kasran and his men to remain with the Spear of Judgement. Flanked by his five Shadow-Knights, he walked toward the Aquila Lander. As his knights passed Valerian, the air grew palpably colder. The Custodian's disciplined mind recoiled, not in fear, but in profound, instinctual revulsion. To him, these knights were the ultimate sacrilege—Astartes, the Emperor's holy creations, remade into silent sentinels of shadow. They were an error in the scripture of his reality.
The interior of the lander was as opulent as its exterior. As they ascended, the Solar Fleet parted before them, a silent, disciplined sea of steel giving way to the golden craft. They were no longer a threat, but a reluctant honor guard.
Their descent was a journey through the layers of Terra's defenses. They passed through nets of orbital stations bristling with planet-killer weapons and pierced the sickly, brown-yellow shroud of the planet's atmosphere.
Below them, there was no land, no oceans. Only city. A single, planet-spanning metropolis that was both a testament to human endurance and its most terrifying prison. The Ecumenopolis. It was the heart of the Imperium, and it felt like a heart that had been running a fever for ten thousand years.
They landed at the Lion's Gate Spaceport. The moment the ramp lowered, they were met with a display of power designed to awe and intimidate. Thousands upon thousands of Imperial Guardsmen stood in unending ranks, flanked by the black-clad Arbitrators. Everywhere, a sea of gold. Hundreds of Adeptus Custodes stood like statues of avenging angels. In the distance, the silhouette of a Warlord-class Titan stood against the smoggy sky, its head turned to watch their arrival. It was a grand gesture, a reminder that the Monarch was stepping into the lion's den.
Jin-Woo walked down the ramp, his knights fanning out behind him. The collected might of the Imperium watched his every move. He was not impressed. An army's size is irrelevant when its commander can be slain with a single thought.
Valerian led the way into the Imperial Palace proper. The scale of the architecture was an act of psychological warfare, with avenues so wide entire castles could fit within them. The walls were a solid mass of humanity; billions of pilgrims whose hymns and prayers died on their lips as the silent procession passed, replaced by a wave of hushed, fearful whispers.
But it was not the sights that held the Monarch's attention. It was the feeling. The very air of Terra was thick with psychic energy, a constant, deafening hum. And at its center, the source of it all: the Astronomican. To them, it was a holy light. To him, it felt like the continuous, agonized scream of a dying star, a being of immense power trapped and burning. The pressure was a force that would have crushed a lesser mind into dust. To him, it was merely… loud.
They walked for what felt like miles, through gate after gate, finally approaching the Eternity Gate. Valerian stopped before a final set of doors, each one a hundred meters high and forged from a single piece of gleaming auramite.
"We are here," the Shield-Captain announced. "Beyond this gate lies the Sanctum Imperialis. The Lord Commander awaits."
The Monarch's knights took up positions, their featureless black masks surveying the golden guards around them, an island of absolute darkness in a sea of blinding light. He gave a slight nod.
With a groan that shook the very foundations of the palace, the great doors began to open, revealing not a throne room, but a vast strategic chamber, and the demigod who stood at its center.