Rumble rumble rumble—!!!
Riiip—!
If one were to liken the Warp to a dark and fathomless pool—then every upheaval in the material universe, every act of faith and prayer, every savage sacrifice, and every surge of emotion from a living soul would ripple across its surface.
The Goddess of Finality's brutal assault on Nurgle, followed by her merciless beating of Slaanesh, was like dropping a deep-sea torpedo into the center of that celestial abyss. The waves crashed outward in a chain of devastating ripples, the waters boiling into a surging tsunami.
Like a pressure cooker bursting at its limit—
Now, with Finality showing not a moment's pause and launching an attack upon Khorne, it was as if someone had thrown fireworks into an already overpressured cauldron.
This was true multidimensional catastrophe incarnate!
Selene's aggressive conquest—the seizure of her new dominion in the highest heavens—shuddered violently. The crystalline sea of Honkai Cubes shattered and dissolved by nearly half. The momentum that had carried her from devouring Nurgle's Garden of Plagues to encroaching upon Slaanesh's Pleasure Realms came to an abrupt halt.
Khorne did not escape unscathed either. Within his Blood Kingdom, the towering fortress-ladders that stretched across the boney wastes of the upper Immaterium—connecting one end of the realm to the other—crumbled in vast sections.
As the last surviving 'green vegetation' of the Blood God's domain, the Dread Blooms blooming atop the fortress wailed, spreading their black tendrils. Faces—twisted and terrified—emerged from the petals, shrieking before they were vaporized by the raw collision of the Blood God and the Goddess of Finality.
Within the fortress itself, bone-carved columns and bloodstained arches collapsed in cascading ruin. Countless skulls rolled from their altars, while bloodletters chained to the walls were torn apart mid-scream, their flesh and blood shredded into mist by the tremors of ruptured space-time.
Even the mighty Greater Daemons of Khorne were not spared!
Nor were the decadent gardens of Slaanesh or the shimmering labyrinth of that detached, ever-scheming avian daemon-prince—both realms suffered alike.
By comparison, the labyrinthine sector of the Warp—the weakest both in appearance and substance—fell into chaos. Screeches, howls, birdcalls, and hissing filled the air in a maddened cacophony.
Ah... what a lovely storm of crystalline debris.
Beautiful, truly.
Everyone thought so—except the labyrinth's master.
Even the instigator, Selene, couldn't help but glance approvingly. Khorne grinned. Slaanesh, half-laughing and half-weeping, took delight in watching another realm burn.
Tch. Misery loves company, after all.
Why should you be spared, little trickster? Serves you right.
Look at the rest of us—fortresses, citadels, bastions! And you? You build a maze of glass towers, crystal mountains, veils of light, and all manner of shiny trinkets—who wouldn't feel the urge to destroy it?
"Screeeech—!!!"
From the depths of the shattered maze came an enraged, birdlike cry that split the heavens.
"Hahahahaha—!!!"
The booming laughter of the Blood God echoed across the Brass Citadel, indistinguishable from the sound of his wrath.
It was as if Khorne rejoiced in the destruction his arrival had wrought—more slaughter, more chaos. The furious squawking of the blue-feathered bird only brought him a cool, refreshing joy in the constant furnace of his eternal rage.
He and that feathered schemer had despised each other for ages.
Why waste time with endless riddles and plans so convoluted even he couldn't remember them? When an axe in hand could split skulls and end arguments all the faster?
Clang!
Laughing thunderously, his massive shoulders rolling, Khorne rose slowly from his brass throne. He stood atop a limitless dais forged from the corpses and skulls of his victims, clad in armor of blood-red steel carved with runes and faces contorted in agony.
Just seeing him—hearing the echo of his steps—could drive mortals mad with pure, unrestrained violence.
Now, he gazed down at his right arm, where the massive limb had been severed just below the shoulder.
Though he could have restored it instantly, he didn't.
He was savoring it—reveling in the exquisite pain.
The next moment—ssshhhk!
Beneath the massive winged helm, a nonhuman roar echoed as a gaping maw of twisted fangs bit down upon the severed humerus of its right arm where the purple-red corruption had begun to spread. Razor-sharp teeth ground through unnatural flesh and bone—Khorne was drinking.
"Yes! Yes! That's it! Battle! War! Slaughter! Destruction!"
Khorne could sense Selene's hidden essence. Words could deceive, actions could deceive, even souls could lie—but the true nature of one's power could not be concealed.
"Then let us decide it—who is the true God of War! Who is the real Blood God! Who is the rightful Lord of Destruction!"
No words were needed. No further observation required.
As the God of Courage and Battle, the Blood God could not refuse such a challenge. Finality's authority and dominion had encroached upon the source of his strength—Selene's greed was evident, and Khorne knew it. So let them weigh each other's might.
Let them see who was truly worthy to bear the unrestrained lust for battle, the madness that consumed all reason, and the endless tide of blood that drowned the fields of war!
As for Selene's deal with the Emperor—that old hag on the Golden Throne—it mattered not.
To Khorne, Finality liked her little secrets and schemes too much. Not direct enough, not bold enough, not warrior enough—but compared to the rest of the warped, misshapen Chaos brethren, she was the closest thing to a true warrior among them.
"Rooooar—!!"
Tearing off his own arm, gnawing through brass armor and bone alike, Khorne chewed with delight. As he turned, the arm regrew, and a massive double-headed axe—his favorite weapon of carnage—manifested silently in his grasp.
In that instant—blood.
An endless ocean of crimson surged and boiled.
The stench of blood and burning sulfur choked the Warp itself. The oppressive red light seemed to pierce through every sense, spreading in all directions, reaching across the crystalline sea that had once devoured Nurgle's Plague Garden.
"Again—!"
Without hesitation, Khorne's infernal axe cleaved through layers of shattered space-time, slamming down toward Selene, whose aura swelled to meet the strike.
My axe thirsts!
"Come—!"
Selene met his fury without fear. Her perfect, star-veiled visage was now drenched in bloodlust and destruction. The overwhelming emotion of Khorne's madness suppressed her usual cold arrogance. Scarlet lightning crackled wildly as her lips curved into a beautifully deranged smile.
"So be it. The pact is sealed. The power of the Immaterium—I shall claim it all. Rule it all."
"The title of Blood God—Selene accepts it gladly!"
In that instant, the mad, chaotic cosmos roared with her voice. Her words became thunder, her thunder a storm upon the Sea of Souls.
Crack-crack-crack-crack—!
Space and time shattered. From within erupted a storm of annihilating energy—destruction incarnate.
In Selene's hand, a massive greatsword formed, blazing with flames of extinction, spreading like a burning sky across the Warp.
She met Khorne's axe head-on.
BOOOOOOOMMMMM—!!!
For a moment, the sky of the Warp turned crimson, its violet hues consumed by a rain of blood. Scarlet lightning tore through the barrier of reality itself. Between the two titanic Chaos Gods, their clash was beyond words—pure, divine madness. The Sea of Souls itself split beneath their power.
Even the mere aftershock of their blows was enough to annihilate entire realms of lesser warp-entities.
Beyond the four remaining Chaos pantheons, every other Warp being—no matter how mighty—was obliterated in an instant. Even the so-called high gods born of the prayers of other mortal species across the galaxy disintegrated into particles of raw energy, unable to endure the storm of the strongest Chaos wills.
In this cesspit of war and agony, there was no doubt—Khorne was the mightiest of the Chaos Gods!
"Hahahahahaha—! Splendid! Again! Again! Let the battle rage ever fiercer!"
Selene was not insane. On the contrary, her mind was perfectly clear.
This was simply a necessary side effect—a consequence of absorbing Khorne's emotional power.
Could the faith of the human Imperium truly be nobler than Chaos? Hardly. In truth, the Imperial Cult of Mankind, stripped of its twin-headed eagle and sacred insignias, could easily replace them with the eight-pointed star of Chaos—and few would notice the difference.
This was a magnitude of faith Selene had never before experienced—so vast, so fervent, so utterly deranged that even she, with all her mental fortitude, felt an impulse to sink into madness. For a fleeting moment, when the outer Honkai dimension halted its power transmission, she felt the tremor within her mind—the heat in her soul—bloodlust, the will to battle, the violent impulse multiplied exponentially.
At last, she understood why such excessive devotion was a slow poison to the Emperor.
Just listen to these prayers, hoarded for millennia:
Allfather above! Kill them all!
The light of the God-Emperor guides us! Attack! Tear apart every foe!
For the Emperor—exterminate these alien species!
...
Indeed. Potent beyond words.
All this occurred within fractions of a moment. Every instant was filled with annihilation, destruction, the extermination of the alien—the terror and rage of countless billions poured into Selene's divine incarnation like an unstoppable flood.
Selene had now become the vessel for the faith of the entire human Imperium—absorbing not only the belief once meant for the Emperor, but also the extreme emotions once belonging to the other Chaos Gods. Most especially, the vast portion that had always fed Khorne.
As the jest went—the eldest upon the Golden Throne, the second upon the Brass Throne—it wasn't just a saying.
With the Emperor's willing cooperation, Selene absorbed it all.
According to the original plan, the outer Honkai dimension was to continuously transmit energy to maintain the balance that stabilized Finality as a Chaos God.
But now—having tasted the raw intensity of true Imperial faith—Selene had new ideas.
Such resources, wasted, would be a crime.
If she was to replace Khorne, then let the cosmos see who could embody Khorne's fury more completely.
The religion of the human Imperium had provided her with the perfect foothold.
And conveniently, it had been a long time since Selene had indulged in a true battle to release her stored emotions.
The ocean of violence and wrath awaited release.
Selene had never been merciful or serene by nature—merely disciplined.
"The Warp bends to no one—except me. Everything, everything, everything belongs to me!!"
With the release of her suppressed emotions, the Goddess of Finality's assault grew even more frenzied. Moments ago, Selene had still been dodging elegantly, dancing through the void.
Now? Dodge? What was that? No more retreat—only the frontal assault! Whoever dodged was the lesser warrior, unworthy of Khorne's name!
Boom-boom-boom-boom—!
Crack-crack-crack—!
Time distorted, space shattered.
Even within the boundless Warp, beyond all measure or light-years, the aftershocks of their duel drove uncountable entities into uncontrollable rage. Every being fell into an eternal frenzy of bloodshed and madness.
The craving for slaughter, the thirst for carnage, the ecstasy of violence—all erupted beyond control. The storms their battle spawned tore through reality itself.
It was as if the trumpet of war had sounded across eternity. Infinite timelines trembled in a crimson tide. Across every corner of the Warp, between the Sea of Souls and the material veil, streams of blood-red energy began to rise.
In the material universe—the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, the Great Rift—all were bathed in apocalypse. The mortal followers of Khorne—human or daemon alike—beheld the wrath of the Blood God and the Goddess of Finality.
They froze in awe. Whom should they now worship?
"Fight! Fight! Fight—!"
The furious cries, half laughter, half roar, shook the heavens.
But for a millisecond, Khorne's voice faltered.
For from the harmony of a lilting, decadent song came another figure—slender, graceful, both male and female, unforgettable in allure—Slaanesh struck from behind. Though the wound healed in an instant, the intrusion stoked Khorne's fury.
Raging beyond reason, the Blood God swung his great axe toward Selene. The blow collided with the Finality blade, sparks cascading across the void. Then, without pause, he turned and slammed the next swing into Slaanesh's delicate, beautiful face.
Selene, with uncanny intuition, matched his motion.
Whummm—!
The bade of oblivion cut through Khorne's infernal armor, leaving a massive gash, before spinning in a blur and slicing across Slaanesh's head. The greatsword met the axe midair, creating a tidal explosion of annihilating energy that vaporized half of Slaanesh's body.
"Damn it! You half-paralyzed, sulfur-brained brute! Even now you can't stop thinking about your damn duels!"
Shattered and restored in an instant, the Prince of Pleasure howled furiously, all pretense of elegance forgotten.
"Get out of my way!" ×2
"You two barbaric imbeciles!"
...
Meanwhile, between the Warp and the material universe—upon Holy Terra, beyond the broken Webway beneath the Imperial Palace—
"Hah..."
Jaghatai Khan exhaled, gazing upward at the trembling skies. His long, steady breath carried the weight of awe and unease.
"The daemonic entities of the Warp... nearly gone. Lord Magnus, is this what you meant by a 'safe' passage through the Palace's Webway? Truly... an impressive hand."
Beside him stood Magnus the Red—scarlet hair like a lion's mane, his muscular frame intact, his twin eyes gleaming with light. He raised his hand, his golden gauntlet still stained with the blood of Commorragh.
"Do not be astonished. Join us, and you'll grow used to it, my friend. Oh? Has his messenger been waiting long?"
Magnus lifted his gaze. His eyes, glowing with violet-red Honkai particles, fixed upon the narrowing end of the Webway tunnel—where golden ships hovered, each bearing tall, eagle-winged helms adorned with crimson plumes that swayed though no wind blew.
"Hm...? The Custodes?!"
—
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