Khorne roared at the Nameless One.
The terrible roar rose from the depths of his gigantic, towering body. It pierced the dome of the Brass Fortress, rolled across the entire crimson domain, and broke through the countless layered dimensional veils stretched across the whole of the Warp.
Countless Warp creatures heard the Blood God's roar and stared toward the crimson domain with doubt and unease.
They all knew the Lord of Absurdity had begun his fight with the Blood God, yet not one otherworldly creature had the courage to watch it.
They were afraid of being dragged in and ending up as some Imperial soldier's kill count for no reason at all.
The Blood God felt a fierce rage burning in his chest. The Nameless One's provocation had infuriated him.
From the end of the War in Heaven until now, no living thing had dared to address him like that.
Even Tzeentch, often ranked first among the warring powers of the Warp, could not help being cautious when facing him.
He could never be sure of winning.
Roaring, Khorne raised the gigantic bloodstained axe high.
The moment the blow began, the entire domain of Khorne shook violently.
The earth cracked open, and magma as crimson as blood erupted.
The mountain of skulls, piled up over countless years, collapsed from its base.
Shaken by the Blood God's rage, countless ancient, pure-white skulls rolled down the slopes of Skull Mountain.
They struck the palace floor with hollow, dull thuds.
The bloodstained axe came down toward the Nameless One.
This blow was not a mere physical cut but a violent destruction of every dimension and all of space.
Khorne had poured all his rage and violence into the axe.
Its path left behind a rift that could tear anything apart.
Caught in the aftershock of that power, the entire Brass Fortress groaned.
Datch showed no fear. He did not even change his stance.
Equipped with the Heart of the Universe, he raised his right hand, which wore the Infinity Gauntlet, and snapped his fingers.
A transparent barrier suddenly appeared before them and stopped the heavy blood axe.
"Everyone, together. Let's finish off this savage."
Datch ordered the gods to surround and annihilate Khorne.
The Void Dragon roared, soared high, and charged at full speed, slashing at Khorne's right flank.
The creature opened its jaws and released a terrible beam of absolute destructive power that struck Khorne's shoulder joint dead on.
At the same moment, Aza'gorod the Nightbringer swung the dark-purple blade of his reaper's scythe down from the left.
He opened a long, deep gash in Khorne's left knee.
Zarhulash also fired a destructive beam at Khorne's vital points.
Mephet'ran the Deceiver conjured illusions, filling Khorne's vision with countless attack trajectories indistinguishable from the real ones.
The other C'tan and Warp gods each made their move and unleashed their strongest attacks, eager to impress the Nameless One.
Pudge, the gigantic being of life, appeared on the battlefield too.
Having absorbed all of Nurgle's authority, Pudge had formally become a being of Chaos God level, Khorne's equal.
Unlike in the battle with Nurgle, when he had joined the fighting, Pudge did not fight this time. He stood quietly at the edge of the battlefield.
Wherever he settled, a lush grassland spread out, releasing astonishingly rich life force and serving as a supply and healing station.
Angels of life, among them the orange ones, flew around him and blocked any of Khorne's daemons trying to attack.
He opened a plump, round palm.
From it, soft, warm emerald-green light welled up like a spring and enveloped the entire battlefield.
Anyone wounded fighting that terror recovered in an instant.
Whether it was the Void Dragon, whose shoulder armor had been split by the gigantic axe, or the Nightbringer, whose wings had been scorched by blood-flame,
or Skarbrand, who had been sent flying by the enraged Khorne,
under the green light they all recovered instantly to perfect condition and plunged back into the fight.
That enraged Khorne. This war truly could not be won.
He had finally managed to open a wound in Skarbrand's chest and meant to torment him a little.
After all, a wound dealt by a Chaos God would not heal so easily.
But after fending off the other C'tan's attacks, he turned and saw Pudge's light of life wrapping around Skarbrand.
The blood-flame that had been fiercely burning Skarbrand's flesh vanished the instant it touched the emerald-green light, giving off white steam with a hiss full of bitter resentment.
The severed flesh and tendons healed completely in an instant.
Restored, Skarbrand regained his footing, raised his war-axe, and charged Khorne again.
Cut down by the axe, healed again by the great master of life, he advanced again.
In other words, no matter how much damage Khorne dealt Skarbrand, he could never truly take him out of the fight.
For the first time, the Blood God himself tasted the helplessness of striking again and again and getting nothing for it.
Every swing of the axe cost him power, and every wound weakened him, while his enemies stayed at their peak.
With one side wearing down while the other stayed fresh, his defeat was inevitable.
Shameless. Utterly shameless.
Surrounded by gods, Khorne swung his gigantic axe, knocked back the oncoming Void Dragon and the Nightbringer, and bellowed at the Nameless One.
"Lord of Absurdity, if you have any guts, fight me one-on-one! Don't be a coward!"
Datch looked at the frenzied Khorne as if he were looking at an idiot.
Who designed this boss? Is he really that stupid?!
Is he challenging me to a one-on-one duel?
I'd have to be out of my mind to fight you one-on-one.
Datch said nothing. He just grinned faintly and clicked his tongue.
Then he turned to the many C'tan and Warp gods.
"Everyone, together. Blow him to pieces!"
"Shameless!"
Surrounded by the gods, Khorne roared again.
Resentment and rage twisted his ferocious face.
You won't even give me a fair fight?!
But surrounded as he was, his wounds kept piling up.
The Void Dragon's claws tore a deep gash in his right shoulder.
The Nightbringer's scythe left more than ten wounds on his body.
The other celestial beings dealt varying amounts of damage too, and Khorne grew more and more frantic and weaker.
At last, Datch spotted an opening.
Khorne dodged both the Void Dragon's charge and the Nightbringer's flanking slash, but in that same moment, Zarhulash's gauss beam struck the back of his left knee.
His gigantic body lost its balance for an instant. His arms, still gripping the axe, flung out to either side on instinct as he tried to recover.
His chest, until now protected by armor, was left completely exposed to Datch.
Datch leapt from the ground, the Spear of the Saint-Slayer in hand, and the spear traced a straight, unstoppable arc through the air.
It pierced the center of Khorne's exposed chest dead on.
The ancient spear that had once pierced Nurgle drove into another Chaos God's core without hesitation.
Its terrible power tore through the Blood God's flesh in an instant.
From the point where the spearhead had entered, countless golden cracks spread across Khorne's entire body at unstoppable speed.
Dazzling white light poured out from within every crack.
With a roar of agony, Khorne's gigantic, towering body shattered into countless fragments before everyone's eyes.
As the fragments fell, they turned into countless motes of light, rose overhead, and slowly faded away.
And so Khorne followed in Nurgle's footsteps and was finally destroyed by the Nameless One.
After Khorne's defeat, Skarbrand inherited his power.
The former daemon champion Khorne had exiled felt his old master's authority flow into his body and let out an excited roar.
The wings on his back changed as well, growing larger, their patterns sharper, and wrapped in a light like crimson blood.
When he had fully absorbed the authority, Skarbrand let out an ear-splitting roar at the sky.
It was the war-god of the new age's final farewell to the remnants of the old.
With Skarbrand as the new war-god,
the daemons that had served Khorne were transformed into angels and spirits embodying noble qualities such as war, glory, and courage.
The land of terror changed dramatically too.
The thick red rivers, once made of countless warriors' blood, turned into clear streams that nourished the brave.
Any living thing that dwelt there and fought for glory with courage could heal its wounds by drinking that water.
The crimson-stained earth and bloodstained arenas were completely transformed.
The arena ruins, once filled with endless senseless slaughter, were remade by Pudge's life force and Skarbrand's new will of war into proving grounds for honing skill and courage.
Any brave human could set foot in this domain and, through the ladder system Datch had proposed and developed, be matched with a suitable opponent.
On this new battlefield, people could compete with opponents from other star systems and pursue greater honor in battle.
The best among them would receive the new war-god's blessing through what Datch called the "Warp Ladder Ranking System." If you have the skill, you can join. If you don't, don't talk trash.
The hunt for Angron, the Primarch the Blood God had raised to daemonhood, was led by Rogal Dorn.
The instant Khorne fell, Angron lost most of the power the Blood God had given him.
In the end, Guilliman, Dorn, Jaghatai, and Leman Russ surrounded him and defeated him after a fierce fight.
He took a full-strength blow from the Emperor's Sword wielded by Guilliman head-on, and the greatsword in his hand shattered to pieces.
In the end, Angron received the same treatment as the other captured Primarchs.
Dorn bound his limbs with special shackles and shoved him into a purpose-built kennel. The kennel, dog and all, was then loaded onto a large transport and sent to Terra under Inquisition escort to stand trial.
The Eldar war-god, Khaine of the Bloody Hand, was revived too.
Amid the chaos of Khorne's fall, the collapse of the Brass Fortress, and the destruction of Skull Mountain, Cegorach made his way into the deepest part of Khorne's domain and found Khaine's largest fragment.
The Laughing God gathered every fragment and revived the Eldar war-god.
The revived Khaine wore bronze armor and wielded a burning longsword.
His face, forever twisted by madness and rage, roared at the heavens the moment he was revived.
That roar carried his hatred for Khorne and Slaanesh and the declaration of his return.
But before Cegorach and Isha could celebrate, Khaine learned of Khorne's defeat and Nurgle's death and boldly challenged the Nameless One.
His reason was that the Eldar were the galaxy's true rulers, and humanity ought to be reduced to a subordinate race.
Khaine gripped his burning greatsword in both hands and pointed it at Datch. His arrogant words and attitude drew the attention, each in their own way, of the many C'tan present and of Skarbrand, who had only just succeeded Khorne.
When Cegorach and Isha realized what was happening, they felt as if the sky had fallen.
Cegorach's clown mask, smiling on one side and weeping on the other, froze on both faces at once.
And we're the ones who revived Khaine. If anyone looks into it, we'll be punished too!
Despair filled Isha's eyes. After spending so long together, she knew the Nameless One's power painfully well.
He had defeated Khorne. Khaine of the Bloody Hand was an opponent he could kill with a flick of his wrist.
Everyone knew Khaine wasn't very bright, but he had never been this foolish before.
The result was exactly as expected. However powerful Khaine was, he could never surpass Khorne or Nurgle.
In the end, the Nameless One beat him down mercilessly and thoroughly humiliated him.
After that, the Nameless player caught him with a Master Ball, and Khaine became a new pal.
Neither Cegorach nor Isha had the courage to object.
All they could think was, Nameless One, you could humiliate Khaine, but you won't humiliate us too… right?
Khorne was defeated, and his domain was completely transformed.
From now on, it would not only do no harm to the material universe, but would become an important way for the Imperium of Man to find talent.
Bound by the authorities of war, honor, and courage, Skarbrand would never stoop to corruption or back-room deals.
Only those with real ability could stand out in the fiercely contested ranking tournament.
After he had finished repairing and cleaning up Khorne's domain, Datch turned his attention to the two remaining Chaos Gods.
By then, Tzeentch and Slaanesh had long since vanished, and the Warp creatures the Imperium captured had no idea where the two had gone.
All anyone knew was that they had left the Milky Way and gone into hiding.
When Datch's search turned up nothing, Cegorach, eager to prove his worth, offered to track Tzeentch and Slaanesh using technology the Old Ones had left behind.
The Warp as it was now had been developed by the Old Ones. The original Warp had been barren and nowhere near as active.
To take complete control of the Warp and gain supreme power, the Old Ones had put the eight-pointed star plan into action.
That plan was the main reason the Chaos Gods were born.
The Old Ones had tried to create a group of Warp gods who would obey the rules absolutely and be perfectly fair, so they could uphold the order the Old Ones had established.
But the plan failed in the end. The Chaos Gods were born, and the Old Ones perished amid disasters from within and without, leaving no record behind.
So the races that rose to power afterward knew nothing about it.
But Cegorach and Isha, who had lived through the entire War in Heaven, naturally knew.
The Emperor had obtained part of the eight-pointed star's power, gained extraordinary strength, and become a threat to the four Chaos Gods.
The four Chaos Gods called the Emperor a thief and accused him of stealing power.
But looked at closely, the Emperor was no thief, because the eight-pointed star's owners had died long ago.
Having learned this hidden history, Datch immediately went to the Black Library with Cegorach as his guide and researched everything about the eight-pointed star.
With the information he gathered and the tools at hand, Datch quickly pinpointed Tzeentch and Slaanesh.
At that very moment, they were lurking in a desolate, barren fold of the Warp at the edge of the Milky Way, shrinking their domains as far as they could, cutting off every signal, and waiting for a chance to return.
"You two are all that's left."
Datch decided to fight two wars at once, defeat both powers in a single stroke, resolve the conflict between the material world and the Warp for good, and achieve the true unification of the Imperium of Man.
...