The forge-cathedral chosen by Archmagos Valerius was a place of holy significance. It was a dormant Titan-forge, a cavern so vast that its vaulted ceiling was lost in a perpetual haze of sanctified steam and lingering incense. Here, in the shadow of a half-finished God-Machine, the most illogical and heretical scientific collaboration in millennia was about to commence.
The Archmagos, flanked by a conclave of his most senior Magi, awaited the first pronouncement from the entity they now saw as a divine messenger. They stood with data-quills poised and optical sensors whirring, ready to receive a sacred blueprint, a fragment of a holy Standard Template Construct.
Rimuru simply stood in the center of the designated construction cradle, his eyes closed for a moment in concentration. He was, of course, in a high-speed mental conference with Ciel.
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Belief systems? Rimuru questioned.
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Rimuru opened his eyes and faced the expectant Tech-Priests. He had no blueprint to give them. He simply began to speak.
"The foundational casing must be a sphere of adamantium, thirty meters in diameter, alloyed with 0.173% of nobilite-gold to stabilize its psycho-conductive properties," he began. "The interior must be machined to a perfect smoothness, with tolerances not to exceed fifty microns."
The Magi furiously recorded his words. A Magos Enginseer turned to Valerius, his vocalizer buzzing with confusion. [Archmagos, there is no schematic? No ritual of design? He simply… speaks the specifications?]
"His words are the schematic!" Valerius boomed, his zealous conviction absolute. "The Omnissiah speaks through him! Transcribe everything! The holy measurements must be revered!"
And so, the work began. It was a process that was both breathtakingly advanced and bafflingly archaic. To forge the adamantium plates, Tech-Priests performed the Rite of the Adamantine Shell, chanting binary prayers to appease the machine spirits of the great hydraulic presses. As they worked, Rimuru would occasionally offer a suggestion.
"A fascinating litany," he commented to a Magos overseeing the cooling process. "Have you considered modulating the chant to a higher frequency during the final ten percent of the cooling phase? It might encourage a more uniform crystalline structure."
Skeptical but obedient, the Magos adjusted the audio-frequency of the choir of servitors. To his astonishment, the post-forging scans revealed a flawless adamantium plate, stronger and more perfect than any they had produced before. The Magos immediately declared the "Rimuru Modulation" to be a new holy verse in the Litany of Cooling.
Days turned into weeks. The device, a bizarre fusion of Imperial gothic severity and sleek, otherworldly design, began to take shape. Interrogator Kael was a constant presence, a black-robed shadow observing every step. He watched as Rimuru described the principles of contained singularity-vortexes, a concept that sent the Magi into a frenzy of theological debate, even as they began to build the containment rings. Kael's reports back to his Inquisitorial superiors were becoming increasingly difficult to write, filled with phrases like "displays knowledge of physics that violates the Law of Conservation of Energy as we know it" and "shows no signs of warp-taint despite performing acts indistinguishable from sorcery."
Rimuru, for his part, found the whole process fascinating. He was particularly intrigued by a young Magos Biologis named Delphan-3, a Tech-Priest whose augmentations were more subtle, her curiosity focused on the nature of Rimuru himself.
"Your physical form," she stated one day, her optical sensors glowing with analytical light as she observed him from a respectful distance. "It is a bio-mimicry of the baseline human form, yet it requires no sustenance and produces no waste. It is a perfect, self-sustaining system. A biological perpetual motion machine. It is a glorious heresy against the decay of the flesh."
"I just find it convenient," Rimuru replied with a smile. "And it's easier to talk to people when you're not a puddle of slime."
The project reached its final, critical stage. The great spherical chamber was complete. The plasma-vortex reactor was installed, humming with caged-star power. All that was left was the core, the one component the Adeptus Mechanicus could not build. It was a massive, flawless crystal, fifty feet tall, that was needed to focus the dimensional energies.
Standing in the center of the device, Rimuru held out his hands. Drawing on the endless well of magicules within him and combining them with refined silicon and other trace elements from Ryza, he began to create. A light bloomed in the chamber, and a crystal began to grow from nothing, its facets forming with a geometric perfection that made the Magi weep binary tears of joy. It was a pure, transcendent act of creation.
Just as the colossal, shimmering crystal settled into its cradle at the heart of the machine, a deafening, world-shaking alarm blared through the forge-cathedral. Red klaxons flashed, bathing the holy construction site in the color of war.
Captain Arken, who had been standing guard at the perimeter, stomped into the chamber, his voice a grim pronouncement over the din. "Interrogator! Archmagos! The Astropathic choir has screamed a warning! A fleet has just translated from the Warp at the edge of the Ryza system!"
"Chaos?" Kael demanded, his hand immediately going to the hilt of the power sword beneath his robe.
"Worse," Arken growled. "Orks. A WAAAGH! of immense size. Their fleet is crude, but their trajectory is a straight, suicidal line for Ryza itself."
Archmagos Valerius turned, his many lenses focusing on the tactical holo-lith that had just sprung to life, showing a swarm of red icons representing the Ork fleet.
[Planetary defense grid is at 74% efficiency,] his voice crackled with sudden urgency. [The Greenskin fleet is larger than projected. Casualties will be… significant. The holy forges are in peril.]
Kael looked at the half-finished device, then at Rimuru, who was observing the tactical display with a calm, analytical expression.
"It seems, King Rimuru," the Interrogator said, his voice tight, "that your partnership with the Imperium is about to face its first true test."