Chapter 243: The Imperial Army Descends
Humanity and the Transformers had emerged from war to forge a new era. Space stations dotted the cosmos, hubs of commerce and culture spanning multiple star systems. Merchant vessels plied trade routes between worlds while adventurers sought their fortunes in unexplored space.
Occasionally, shipgirls from the Azur Lane universe arrived to study or settle in this reality.
Everything was developing for the better.
"Next trip, you'd better take me along," The One said. "This journey to the Force Universe has given me so many ideas for creating new universes."
"No problem," Raven replied. Allies were better than enemies, and he knew the value of strong partnerships.
The Chaos Gods lurked in the Warp. The Null Corruptors watched from the shadows. Who knew when they might strike? Building a coalition now meant they wouldn't stand alone when war came.
The Emperor catalogued the knowledge acquired from the Force Universe and arranged its transfer to the Imperial Archives for future generations. In His absence, Malcador the Sigillite presided over the Empire's affairs.
The Imperium's expansion continued. With help from the Aeldari Black Library, Imperial engineers had constructed webway gates linking the major worlds.
Plans were underway to extend the network into the Transformers' universe, a project that would revolutionize faster-than-light travel across both realities.
The Imperial Academy cultivated thousands of promising students and introduced new disciplines focused on cultivation systems. These scholars would prove invaluable once the Imperium encountered universes where such arts held sway.
Warmaster Horus led the Luna Wolves against the Tyranid swarms threatening the galaxy's outer rim. His forces had pushed beyond known space, claiming new systems for the Imperium.
The expansion went smoothly, though the worlds they discovered bore grim tidings; ruins of dead civilizations stretched across desolate planets, testaments to some ancient catastrophe. The one bright spot was the discovery of surviving human colonies from the Dark Age of Technology.
Vulkan prosecuted his war against the Eye of Terror. He launched raids deep into daemon-held territory, reclaiming lost Aeldari worlds through overwhelming force.
On each recovered planet, his Salamanders erected anti-psychic pylons to suppress Warp activity, gradually constricting the Eye's borders.
Progress was measurable, but the cost was high. The Chaos daemons grew stronger with each passing year, and some corrupted worlds had been so tainted that even the pylons couldn't cleanse them.
Entire planets had to be destroyed rather than reclaimed, worlds transformed into horrors by the death throes of twisted entities.
Raven understood the Corruptors' hand in this escalation. They sought to transform the Warhammer universe into their twisted domain, a realm of eternal corruption.
He had no easy solution to this existential threat. Even the universe's will struggled against their influence.
For now, he could only take things one step at a time.
After addressing immediate concerns, Raven retreated to the Mist Space, intending to research the Corrupted Universe. Instead, he received an urgent distress call from the Ultraman universe.
Following their departure, Masaki Keigo had worked tirelessly to advance humanity's reach into space.
In just over a decade, human civilization had established interstellar colonies and seemed poised for a golden age. But their success had drawn unwanted attention from the dark forces of the cosmos.
First came Gransphere, a dark planet that commanded legions of kaiju and assaulted human space.
The Giants of Light had repelled the initial invasion, but the fierce battles had torn rifts in the dimensional barriers. Now, monsters from countless parallel universes poured through the breaches like a flood.
Human colonies fell one by one, their populations fleeing back to the Solar System. But the kaiju didn't relent; they intensified their assault, determined to annihilate humanity completely.
"Light is fleeting, darkness is eternal," proclaimed Zogu, avatar of the Radical Destruction Bringer. "Submit to darkness, or face oblivion."
The ultimatum was clear: become slaves or be destroyed.
In desperation, Masaki Keigo and humanity's leaders sent countless offerings through the Mist Space, begging for Raven's aid.
Raven invoked the Mist Space's authority to observe the Ultraman universe directly. What he saw made his blood boil: kaiju slaughtering civilians and reducing human colonies to rubble.
"These monsters think humanity is just clay to be molded at their whim!" he snarled.
He immediately sought out the Emperor, who was conducting compatibility tests in His laboratory. The knowledge from the Force Universe required calibration to function properly under different universal constants, delicate work that demanded concentration.
Raven didn't wait for the Emperor to finish. "I apologize for the interruption, but you need to see this immediately."
He manifested a sphere of light containing the distress signals and footage of the colonies' destruction. Within seconds, the Emperor absorbed every detail.
His expression darkened. "What do you intend to do?"
"Counterattack, obviously!" Raven's voice burned with conviction. "Masaki Keigo and his people have been driven back to Earth with nowhere left to run. We must support them, or everything we built there will be for nothing. If we let humanity fall, we'll have to start from scratch when we return to that universe."
He clenched his fist. "These monsters want war and destruction? Then we'll give them a war they'll never forget. We'll show them what real destruction looks like."
"If you believe this is the correct course, then proceed," the Emperor said, giving His approval.
Raven turned to Valdor, who stood silently at attention. "Constantin, I have a task for you. Gather the Legions. Once I've accumulated sufficient power to force open a stable portal, we march immediately. Those damned monsters need to learn their place."
"Will deploying forces in such numbers risk rejection by that universe's will?" the Emperor asked.
"We already earned recognition from the Ultraman universe during our previous visit," Raven explained. "We'll be welcomed, not resisted."
"Understood, my lord." Valdor saluted and departed to execute his orders.
War summons spread across the Imperium within hours.
"Another expedition already? Which universe is it this time?" Roboute Guilliman examined the deployment order, glancing at the Custodian who'd delivered it.
Sanguinius and Leman Russ, standing nearby, shared his confusion.
The Custodian shook his head. "Lord Raven issued the command personally. He provided no details about the target, only that we must assemble immediately. He will open the portal once we're ready."
"Very well." Guilliman nodded, setting aside his questions. Raven might seem irreverent at times, but when he was serious, he was as reliable as the Emperor Himself.
Word of the mobilization spread quickly. Allies from across realities answered the call.
Primus, the creator of the Transformers, volunteered his forces for the campaign. "As allies, we cannot let you face this alone. The Transformers will join this war."
The decision made strategic sense; participating would strengthen bonds between the Transformers and the Imperium while providing opportunities to acquire new technologies and rare minerals from the Ultraman universe.
When the shipgirls of Azur Lane learned of the conflict, they dispatched a fleet led by Friedrich der Große.
They'd fought alongside the Imperium during the Transformers campaign and profited greatly from that alliance, gaining access to AllSpark technology and special minerals. They weren't about to miss another opportunity.
Even Vashtorr, the renegade Daemon Lord, pledged his Daemon Engines to the cause.
After betraying the Chaos Gods and siding with the Imperium, he'd been hunted by his former masters, but the profits from the Transformers invasion had more than compensated for his losses.
He'd hoped that war would drag on longer; if the Transformers and Imperium had fought to mutual destruction, he might have claimed the AllSpark or even fragments of Primus himself. Such prizes could have elevated him to true godhood, equal to the Chaos Gods.
This new war represented another chance to advance his ambitions.
The assembled armada was staggering. Warships blotted out the stars, some city-sized, others as large as moons, packed so densely they seemed like a second void.
As the war horns sounded across all channels, Raven manifested his divine form before the fleet. His true body stretched beyond mortal comprehension, vast enough that stars seemed mere ornaments scattered among his feathers.
At his command, space itself tore open. A portal manifested on a scale that defied understanding, like the spacetime distortion of a collapsing star system, a gateway between realities.
"For the Emperors! For humanity!" The cry echoed across thousands of ships.
One by one, the warships ignited their engines, plasma trails stretching hundreds of kilometers as they surged toward the portal. The fleet plunged into the spacetime corridor Raven maintained, weapons charged and ready for the cross-universal war to come.
....
Ultraman Universe, Earth
The remnants of humanity's colonial fleet hung in the void, withdrawn from their shattered outposts. Crews remained on high alert, scanning for any sign of the monster swarms that had devastated their worlds.
Those who carried transformation devices kept them close at all times. Medical teams worked around the clock to ensure every potential Giant of Light remained in peak condition.
There would be no second chances; if they failed here, human civilization would be erased from existence.
On Earth's surface, civilians had been evacuated to fortified shelters protected by energy barriers. Once the battle began, the shockwaves alone would level cities. Without shielding, ordinary humans wouldn't last seconds.
In front of a magnificent plaza, Nori from the Victory Team frowned at the raven sculpture that had been buried under mountains of French fries, every flavor imaginable.
"Does this really work?" he asked skeptically. He couldn't believe this approach would actually bring back Mr. Raven.
"We don't have any other options," Shinjo replied wearily, standing beside him.
Nori noticed Shinjo's right arm, now replaced with a mechanical prosthetic after a monster had severed it in battle.
This war had been brutal beyond measure. Even with the Giants of Light protecting them, humanity's forces had been pushed back again and again, losing every colony they'd fought so hard to establish.
A piercing alarm shattered the tense silence, its wail echoing across the entire planet.
The final battle had begun.
Nori looked up to see bright flashes streak across the sky, accompanied by brief flares of light, as warships exploded in the vacuum above. The orbital fleet had engaged the invading monster army.
"Prepare for your doom, foolish humans!" Gransphere roared, unleashing waves of dark energy that consumed human vessels in catastrophic explosions.
The void battle was savage. Human hosts transformed into Giants of Light, meeting the enemy head-on. But the dark forces were overwhelming. Humanity stood no chance against such numbers.
The Giants were quickly surrounded and outnumbered by the monster hordes.
"Humanity will not fall!" Daigo transformed into his most powerful form, Glitter Tiga, to face Gransphere directly.
But the enemy forces were too vast. Besides Gransphere, there were other terrible entities: Zogu, the Radical Destruction Angel, and countless lesser kaiju. Even at full power, Tiga couldn't stand against them all.
The other Giants of Light were surrounded, barely able to defend themselves.
A lance of dark energy pierced through Tiga's chest. His radiance flickered and died. The mighty Glitter Tiga transformed into a lifeless stone statue and crashed toward Earth.
Watching their strongest defender fall, humanity's last hope crumbled into despair. Everyone understood, this was the end. The dark forces would destroy Earth completely, erasing every trace that their civilization had ever existed.
"Die in despair," Zogu proclaimed, manifesting her Angel of Judgment form. Destructive power gathered around her as she prepared to annihilate Earth and end the civilization that had dared challenge the supremacy of darkness.
Then, a piercing cry split the air.
The silent raven sculpture erupted with brilliant light, beams shooting skyward as it transformed and soared into the void, vanishing among the stars.
Whispers filled people's minds, the same voices they'd heard when Gatanozoa had fallen. Those ethereal voices celebrated the arrival of the Supreme Being, rejoiced in His coming.
For those drowning in despair, the sun began to rise once more.
[End of Chapter]