"The Emperor always stubbornly believed that rulers must sooner or later exit the stage of history. When humanity as a species became mature enough to rationally control its own destiny, He would let go."
"But I disagree." Malcador's gaze grew as sharp as a razor. "I believe the people of the Imperium will never see the day they mature. He should rule humanity forever. Other than Him, no one can unite this inherently chaotic race, not even for a single moment."
Malcador looked at Zeke earnestly. "So, Zeke, may I ask what you think? Whose side are you on, His or mine?"
"I'm on my own side," Zeke gave an answer that caught Malcador off guard.
Malcador froze. He had read countless people, yet he had never seen such confidence and detachment in anyone.
"Perhaps you are right." Only after a long moment did Malcador let out a breath. He brought his hands together, fingertips touching—a habitual gesture when he was deep in thought or extreme anxiety.
"After all, you have already proven it with facts."
As they crossed the street, Eldar envoys—and even Necrons—currently under the Imperium's supervision occasionally brushed past them.
Malcador eyed these xenos with a scrutinizing gaze until they walked into Dance's blacksmith shop.
"Dance, is the life of a Cadian soldier not to your liking? Back to hammering iron again?" Zeke teased.
"Zeke! You're just in time. Take a look at my latest results."
Dance handed over an unremarkable wooden stick. Zeke took it; it only had one enchantment on it: [Knockback 100].
Isn't this the legendary PVP artifact, the Knockback Stick?
A knockback effect of this magnitude could probably launch someone straight out of the planet's orbit. It might actually have miraculous uses in certain situations.
Zeke weighed the wooden stick in his hand, put it away, and looked back at Dance. "You can already stack enchantment levels this high? Not bad."
"Except for the fact that it requires a bit too much experience, and defensive enchantments aren't working out, the rest are basically fine." Dance quoted an experience cost that Zeke could barely accept.
Spending a massive amount of experience points, Zeke enchanted both the Emperor's Sword and the Reaper's Scythe with Sharpness 100.
The damage calculation formula for Sharpness is 0.5n + 0.5, which meant Sharpness 100 only added 50.5 damage. To be honest, this damage wasn't much to look at, but it was better than nothing.
Zeke also tested other level 100 enchantments. For example, Fire Aspect 100 was basically permanent burning; Efficiency 100 meant ordinary blocks shattered the moment the pickaxe touched them.
Zeke applied Fire Aspect 100 to the Emperor's Sword and Efficiency 100 to his Netherite Pickaxe.
These enchantments would work wonders against non-god-tier enemies, but against entities on the level of the Four Chaos Gods, they wouldn't play a decisive role.
After Zeke finished enchanting his own items, Dance handed over three more Enchanted Books.
Three books named [Infinity 50].
Infinity was a bow enchantment that allowed a bow to fire without consuming arrows. Zeke clearly remembered that Infinity didn't have levels.
Seeing Zeke's confused look, Dance didn't hide anything. "This is an enchantment I discovered through experimentation."
"This enchantment can't exert its full effect on weapons; it only works when applied to certain specific items."
"Here, let me demonstrate." Dance pulled out a Snowball, enchanted it with Infinity 1, and threw it.
Mid-air, the Snowball split into two.
Zeke seemed to understand a bit. Dance then pulled out an Infinity 3 Enchanted Book and applied it to a Snowball.
The moment that Snowball was thrown, it was violently torn apart by some invisible force. The original one split into two afterimages flashing with "Infinity 2"; immediately after, those two afterimages disintegrated, turning into four "Infinity 1" snowballs.
By the time the snowballs hit the ground, they had become eight, piling up into a small mound of snow.
"This is its new use." Dance scratched his head. "I don't know why it turned out like this. It's not very useful, but I think it's pretty fun."
"You call this not useful?!" Zeke did some quick mental math.
Infinity 50 meant it would split into 2^{50} snowballs. That number was so massive Zeke couldn't even picture it in his head.
"This enchantment will have miraculous uses in specific situations. You're a genius, Dance. You should focus all your effort on enchanting and stop playing Cadian soldier."
Zeke tried applying Infinity to items in his inventory. In the end, the items that could be enchanted and were best suited to maximize this effect were: a Spectral Arrow, a block of TNT, and an Ender Pearl.
After finishing up, Zeke asked Dance about defensive enchantments and found out that Dance had hit a bottleneck.
For instance, the Protection enchantment provided proportional damage reduction, and Protection 25 would essentially grant 100% damage immunity. Dance could only raise Protection up to level X (10).
"Keep working hard." Zeke applied a full set of Protection X to his Destiny Armor, bid Dance farewell, and turned to Malcador. "I'm pretty much done here."
Malcador perked up. "In that case, let us head to Terra together."
The three of them arrived at the nearest Nether Portal. Zeke and Guilliman didn't hesitate, stepping through the portal to Terra.
Malcador hesitated for a moment before finally stepping into the Nether Portal last.
By the time Malcador finally climbed the narrow stone steps of the Hive City residential area, it was getting late.
He stepped up cautiously, leaning heavily on his staff to maintain his balance as he climbed. This habit was born solely from the experience of tumbling down stairs many times over the years.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh air outside the Hive City, Malcador coughed violently due to the exertion.
No pollution, just clean air. Was this really Terra?
And this water. Malcador looked at the artificial lake built by the Departmento Munitorum in the distance. It was crystal clear and blue, its shores covered in lush greenery.
Malcador even began to suspect that the world behind that portal was a temptation of Slaanesh, or a trick of Tzeentch—some psychic illusion attempting to corrupt his resilient will.
But as they gradually approached that familiar Imperial Palace, all of Malcador's suspicions crumbled in an instant, replaced by a profound sense of relief.
"Good... you've done so well, Zeke." Malcador started coughing again because he was too agitated.
Pedestrians along the road cast confused but friendly glances at the frail, sickly old man.
In the Terra of the past, if a weak old man like Malcador dared to appear alone on the streets of a Hive City, he would have been stripped clean of everything within half a minute, his corpse tossed into some corner to be used as a sacrifice by cultists.
"Grandpa, are you alright?" A young child came over to ask. Malcador had been absent from history for too long; these ordinary people didn't recognize the Regent of the Imperium.
Standing alone, entirely oblivious to everything else, Malcador felt tears welling up in his eyes and streaming down his cheeks.
"I'm fine... I'm just... so happy."
--
Hope everyone reading donates atleast 1 PS to this fic :)
Next Goal = 400 Powerstones.