The Emperor's Rusted Knight 2

011. M41, Macragge's Honour, The Warp, En route to Ultramar.

Roboute Guilliman was en route to Ultramar to push back Mortarion's invasion force when alarms blared inside his flagship.

The 26-km long Gloriana-class Battleship shook even as it cut through the malevolent waves of the Sea of Souls.

"Report!" He barked as he sat on the captain's seat of his flagship, watching as his men, both Astartes and base humans alike, scrambled all around him.

As his perception sped up at the possibility of battle or a problem to be solved, Guilliman absently began to tap his finger on the armchair at intervals of precisely one second. It served as a metronome, a reminder that not everyone could think and process information at the rate he could.

Tap!

"Sir! It's from the Navigators!" One of the lieutenants shouted towards him while still hunching over the headset on her head. "They're screaming, Sir!"

Sloppy. What were they screaming? Were they just screaming gibberish or were they actually shouting words of warning?

Part of him wanted to reprimand the lieutenant to be more specific but he restrained himself.

Regardless, with the Navigators out of commission, they were flying blind in the middle of demon-infested waters. While a bad thing to hear while they were still in the warp, it was not necessarily life-threatening. At worst, they would emerge through realspace into an ambush or get lost, at which point they need only to win the battle or escape before using the stars to chart were they were.

Tap!

"The Astropaths are crying, Sir!" Another voice shouting but Guilliman only kept his cool facade even as a sigh threatened to break out of his lips.

Again, what were they crying out?

Yet even as the inefficiencies grated at him, Guilliman compartmentalized them into the back of his mind as he focused on the situation at hand.

The Astropaths not being available for communication meant he could not even communicate with the rest of his fleet. It worried him more than the possibility of getting lost.

Should his fleet be scattered, it would take precious time to gather enough force to challenge his brother Mortarion. Precious time that Mortarion would then use to strengthen Nurgle's hold on Ultramar.

That begged the question then, was this the work of the Chaos God Nurgle to delay Guilliman's forces? If so, was this it?

No.

Tap!

"Prepare for boarders." He announced calmly through the vox throughout the ship, garnering incredulous looks from the junior officers of the bridge crew before discipline snapped at them to unquestioningly follow orders.

It wasn't even a second after that announcement before Guilliman's decision was already being vindicated.

"Geller Fields failing." A mechanical voice called out to him and no sooner than that did his crew move with much more fervor.

Demons, denizens of the warp, were about to board his ship.

Guilliman gave one final tap but as he was just about to stand to meet the enemy himself, a voice cut through the noise.

"It's the Astronomican! My Lord, the Navigators are saying it's the Astronomican!"

Guilliman's head snapped towards the lieutenant who first gave him the warning.

What met him was the terrified eyes of a mortal woman who were already begging for mercy. She opened her mouth and said two words that would change their worlds.

"It's gone."

--------

The Warp

Even when amplified by Jaune's Semblance, the Emperor found himself having trouble against the enemy.

The reason?

He was facing Chaos Undivided.

The warp shook and buckled around them as the Emperor roared his defiance and yet it only took a moment of inattention, a moment of being focused too much into the fight, for him to lose hold of Jaune Arc.

It was like a snap that changed everything.

"NOOOOOO!"

Immediately, he felt the power amplifying disappear and already, his mind started to fragment.

At the same time however, chaos became divided once again as the four aspects fought against each other for dominance as well as possession of Jaune Arc.

It was the only reason he was able to do what he did, he stretched his essence out and threw a fraction of his power towards Jaune Arc.

The Emperor might not be able to recover him today but he hoped that Jaune would be able to last long enough in the four's company for him to mount a rescue.

Their eyes locked onto one another and the Emperor watched as he blinked before being whisked away by Khorne.

Laughter followed in his wake but the Emperor was already retreating to more stable parts of the warp under his control. He focused then, lashing his fracturing mind together as he directed whatever was left of Jaune's Semblance to amplify his body's regenerative abilities.

He encountered a problem however. Fed by the souls of a thousand psykers every single day for ten thousand years, the Emperor's soul was obviously bloated.

Any attempt to muster his power in realspace at one single point threatened to tear away the thin veil between it and the warp.

It would spill demons everywhere as his power destroyed everything around him.

His only choice to prevent that however would be to spread himself thin again. Spending excess energy on what the masses called miracles as his body satisfied itself with the dregs he threw at him.

The Emperor lamented that fact.

So close. They were so very close. His original plan was to throw Jaune Arc through the veil. Summoning him in realspace while the Emperor himself focused on the more esoteric duties of lighting up the Astronomican, closing the sealed Webway underneath the throne, amd granting instructions through his Tarot.

Jaune would have been his champion, a hand to help his son Guilliman, a Hero of the Imperium even as the Emperor wished to build him up into something more.

A Prime Arc.

He would've smiled on the play on words but alas, it was not meant to be.

His healing slowed, his mind beginning to flake away again but just as he was beginning to lose hope, he appeared.

"Finally! Do you know how long I've been trying to find you?!" A young voice called out and the Emperor blinked as a young golden figure flew in front of him as the warp flowed around the

Bright incandescent eyes smiled up at him, and the Emperor could only gawk as a child, looking like seven or eight years old, waved a hand in front of his face.

"Helloooo? Anyone there?"

It was childish, it was human, it was the Star Child.

"H-How? Why now?" He stared at the embodiment of all that made him human, at the part of him he casted out all those years ago to seek strength.

The Star Child only giggled knowingly however before floating on his feet to meet him eye to eye.

"You should know, silly, you had to be broken down so we can build you up!"

"I've been broken for ten thousand years." He replied wearily but the Star Child only smiled brightly at him.

"I know right! And throughout that time, you've been building yourself up!" He suddenly waved a hand in front of his face and the Emperor could only tilt back at the sudden invasion of privacy. "How else do you think you'd be able to feel regrets? To feel for your sons? You weren't like that after you cast me out!"

The Emperor blinked at that. Mired in his despair and own desperation, he hardly noticed such a thing but now that it has been pointed out however.....

"What are you, then? Why did I need to cast you out in the first place if I could grow our humanity?" He asked wonderously but the Star Child only rolled his eyes before floating back.

"Pleaseee, how do you think you grew your humanity anyway? You ate them!"

"I-what?" He asked incredulously, even as the Star Child raised an eyebrow at him.

"Uhhh....the psykers? The offerings? The sacrifices? The faith? You had a nigh unlimited source of food to grow your humanity from."

Realization struck the Emperor and a very old Terran saying suddenly came to mind.

"We are what we eat."

"Exactly!" The Star Child clapped before his smile died down hesitantly. "But...uhm...how do I say this? You were kinda growing on another direction before. You were becoming-"

"The Fifth Chaos God." He stated calmly.

He knew what he was becoming. Feared it, even. Yet the Emperor had contingencies in place. Contingencies that it seemed like he would not need now.

"Right! I'm not sure what happened but you suddenly grew up and glowed bright like a star! As if you were the Star Child and not me!" The Star Child laughed and the Emperor only huffed amusedly before shaking his head.

He knew what happened.

Jaune happened.

Somehow, someway, past the Emperor's own senses, Jaune's Semblance amplified souls and it must have amplified not just the Emperor's power but also the humanity dwelling in him.

"What now? We still have the same problem as before. I can't heal myself enough without breaking reality." He asked but he already had an answer to it.

He was just checking if the Star Child arrived at the same solution and it seems like he did.

The Star Child smiled knowingly, winking as he leaned closer to the Emperor.

"You know you're going to let me handle our psychic might in the warp while you go and prance around in realspace."

Not the words he would have used personally but it was basically it. His power was too great for reality? Then divide it and keep most of it in the warp where a part of him would handle it.

The only worry he had was that if the part of him would continue to turn into the Fifth Chaos God.

Now however, there was no worry.

The embodiment of his past humanity stood in front of him, smiling and waiting expectantly with his hand raised.

The Emperor obliged.

They high-fived with smiles on their faces and a clap so momentous echoed across the warp as everything changed.

The next thing he knew, he was in agonizing pain. It took him a moment that tge darkness that suddenly invaded his vision was not death but the fact that he currently had no eyes.

He was back in his body and he screamed as agony immediately pierced him from all sides.

Yet pain was a good thing for it reminded him that he was truly alive. He relished in it and felt flesh knit itself back together again as nerve fibers twitched while his neurons slowly fired back up.

He screamed a scream of defiance, victory, and for the coming of a new age. It was slow going but he felt his body twitch and by then, it was only a matter of time before he could truly move.

And for the first time in 10,000 years, the Emperor raised his hands from his armrests.

His hands moved and the first thing they did was grip the metal tubes attached to his body.

The first to go were those embedded on his chest. His precious blood immediately poured out of him as he pulled them out. Already, however, he could feel his flesh healing as his blood evaporated into smoke.

The next ones to come off were the ones attached to his head through his eye. Burning pain flashed through his brain but it only took one quick pull before his head was free from the tubes entering his face. He heard the squelch as his still forming eye left with the cables but he was not worried. Already, a new one was forming on the void that was left before flesh knit itself back around it even as he healed his own brain.

The first time he opened his eyes, he almost blinded himself from the glow coming off of him but it only took a token amount of biomancy for him to reinforce them to satisfactory levels.

The last cables to remain on him however were the most numerous. The ones on his back attached themselves through every part of his body they could to connect him to the Golden Throne. He had an easy solution for it however, and he immediately put power on his aged legs. Muscles bulged and the Emperor, for the first time in 10,000 years, stood up.

He roared, blood pouring down his back as he finally disconnected himself from the Golden Throne.

With his disconnection however, came the consequences of leaving the throne.

Immediately, he saw the Astronomican power down with his own eyes and with it, the Talisman of the Seven Hammers activated.

Clack!

The Talisman of the Seven Hammers, a dead man's switch fashioned by his son Vulkan with his own guidance. It was designed to activate should the throne fail, and with it, the destruction of Terra itself and the whole solar system.

He wasn't worried however.

"I've got it!" The Star Child called out through the warp and the Emperor watched as the throne glowed once again.

He smiled as he heard the Talisman clank back into place before a thought ran through his mind. Time froze and immediately, the Star Child giggled as he relayed his thoughts to him.

"Interesting. Are you sure you want to do something so....alien?"

"Wasn't I already doing something like that with the Webway ten thousand years ago?" The Emperor smiled wryly, turning back to the Golden Throne before closing his eyes. "This is just something similar to that."

Having billions of lives sacrificed towards him meant that the Golden Throne he sat on for ten thousand years was absolutely rife with psychic energy. Combined with the Star Child residing in the Warp as a focal point, the Emperor could do something he could not do before.

He sang, weaving the countless souls offerred to him in concert with the Star Child. The Golden Throne vibrated, taking in more power as its golden sheen took on a more crystalline glow.

It might have felt like eternity to him and the Star Child but in reality, it didn't even take half a second as all they did was improve how they managed the excess psycic power they already had and will continue to receive.

No longer would the souls of those who died for him weigh him down. Instead, they would be preserved on the warp around Terra while being protected by his Legion of the Damned and guided by the Star Child himself.

No longer would the faith and prayers offerred in his name poison him into becoming the Fifth Chaos God. Instead, it would be used to stabalize the warp and grant more miracles.

If one thought about it however, it wasn't so different to how the Eldar Craftworlds operated with their Infinity Circuits. They preserved the souls of their people, used their psycic might to power their craft, and generally be their own version of the afterlife.

In summary, what the Emperor and Star Child did was akin to making humanity's very own Infinity Circuit with the Golden Throne at its core.

His son, Lorgar would laugh if he saw him now.

Even the Emperor himself was on the verge of self-depricating laughter as he finally realized what he had done.

Countless times of denying that he was a god, the Emperor had just created what could pass for heaven, ruled by an aspect of himself, as he himself physically roamed the earth.

It wasn't quite like the Ambrahamic faiths of old like Christianity but it was damn close.

Crack!

Yet Infinity Circuit or not, Astronomican operational or not, creating a parody of Christianity or not, those things were completely separate from one more thing the Emperor had tasked himself in doing.

Holding hell back.

Only one second after he finally left his throne, the seal on his doomed Webway under the throne from all those years ago finally broke.

The Throne Room was immediately beset by demons as they rushed into realspace and the Emperor.....the Emperor smiled.

Killing demons and pushing them back towards the warp would just be the perfect nightcap after the ordeal he went through.

Ten thousand years on the throne and suddenly back on his feet moments after meeting Jaune Arc? The Emepror needed a break, a stress relief, and killing demons was just the thing he needed.

He cracked his neck, then his arms, then his legs, and finally, the rest of his muscles. Already, he could see the Custodes assigned to guarding him engage the demons as they called for reinforcements.

The Emperor however, from atop the dais where his throne sat, leapt into battle with a smile on his face.

His nude form shone and the last thing a demon of Khorne would see would be his absolutely huge dongle before he crashed feet first on its face.