"Believe him. Since the day I met him, Rhodes has made miracles—breaking the Tyranids, the Orks of Octarius, foiling the Ruinous Powers, and ending the Plague War," Sanguinius said.
"He brought us back, one by one, and half-freed Father from the Throne. Without him—no revival. The Imperium would have rotted and died," Rogal Dorn said.
Without Rhodes' new technologies and superluminal drives—without the primarchs restored and the Emperor unbound—the Imperium would have decayed beyond saving.
"What we need to do now is simple: purge every daemon and Chaos force in the Imperium Nihilus," Vulkan said.
"Right. That is our task. For the rest—trust Rhodes.
Corax is being handled; in time he'll fully recover. Then we'll stand shoulder to shoulder again," Guilliman said.
The council left them heavy-hearted. Their job was plain: scour Chaos from the Imperium and the galaxy. The rest was beyond them.
…
In the Imperial Palace, the extraction continued, year after year. The godshard was being teased out, bit by bit.
Fulgrim no longer screamed. Alive, soul intact—but his consciousness had shattered under the pain, worse than the Golden Throne's torments.
He lived, his soul whole, but his mind was gone—an empty shell, senseless.
Perhaps the best end he could have hoped for.
"Rhodes! Half the godshard is out. You know what will happen when we finish.
We never considered this before. You told me you had a way—but now I want certainty.
Otherwise I will halt the extraction," the Emperor said.
If he had known at the start that this would break the barrier between reality and the Warp—linking the High Immaterium to Holy Terra—he would never have begun.
But now they were committed. Rhodes had assured him he had a solution, but the Emperor was uneasy.
Fulgrim's mind was gone; half the shard remained within him, half out. Perhaps this limbo would at least keep Terra safe.
Though powerful, the Emperor could only match one Chaos God—likely with an eighty percent chance of defeat.
If three or four came at once, he could not withstand them unless he rose and became the Dark King—which would mean humanity's end. Unacceptable.
He could not bear that outcome.
Terra was the Imperium's heart and soul. It must not fall. If destroyed, even if mankind survived, morale would shatter—their motherworld gone.
"Don't worry. I told you—I have a way. Trust me: reality and the Warp will not overlap," Rhodes said.
"Give me certainty, Rhodes. Show me how you will prevent linkage when the shard manifests," the Emperor said.
"Very well. Do you know of extra-dimensional space? A world born in the interstice between the Warp and reality," Rhodes said.
He had a trump card. With Yapool, he had opened a new extra-dimensional space.
It was growing, now large enough to cover a star system.
In a few years, it would be larger still—enough to encompass the entire Sol System.
When the time came, he would unfurl it and place the godshard within. Then the barrier would hold.
The High Immaterium would not link to Terra. The Ruinous Powers would find their efforts fruitless.
"You mean the Aeldari Webway?" the Emperor asked.
A realm between Warp and reality—surely the Webway.
He knew the Webway well, having once linked Terra to it through the Golden Throne.
But bringing a godshard into the Webway seemed untenable—the Webway was carved from the Warp, half in and half out. A godshard would unbalance it instantly.
"Not the Webway. Extra-dimensional space. I'll show you," Rhodes said, waving a hand. Purple-red light engulfed him.
From the Emperor's view, Rhodes vanished. Space around the Golden Throne split open.
Rhodes stepped into a purple-red plane—neither Warp nor Webway.
The Emperor was stunned. Beyond Warp, Webway, and realspace—another realm existed.
"This is a world I've secretly developed. I intend to make it a counterpart to the Webway.
But safer. A human Webway, carved by my power, still growing.
It will take time to cover the whole galaxy," Rhodes said, proud, describing the realm he had forged with Yapool.
"Incredible, Rhodes. You command such craft—you've opened a Webway-like world?
It is safer than the Webway—I can feel it. It has nothing to do with the Warp," the Emperor said.
The strange realm bore no psychic resonance. It was not cut from the Warp; it stood wholly apart from it—and even apart from reality.
This was the human corridor he'd dreamed of—beyond the Ruinous Powers' gaze.
If Rhodes succeeded, it would outshine the Golden Throne Webway project. Mankind could abandon Warp travel—sailing a new, extra-dimensional sea.
"Now are you at ease? I'll place the godshard inside, let it evolve, and have the cosmic beasts suppress it. Success is guaranteed," Rhodes said.
"Then I am at ease. Let us proceed at full speed," the Emperor said.
With this extra-dimensional world, what was there to fear? It was a killer of the Warp—better even than the Cosmic beasts by a hundredfold.
"Don't tell the others—not even the primarchs. Let them feel some pressure," Rhodes said.
His legions and monster armies were fighting; the system coins were flowing. Soon he would amass tens of billions to max the system. Then true titans of the Ultraverse—the Dark Zagi, Dark Tiga, Yapool, Hyper Zetton, Greeza—would come.
He would gain enough to perform a third monster-boost, merging the Angel of Annihilation Zog's light, the Alien Empera's power, and Tartarus' might—ascending to the apex of this reality.
"I understand. Only those here at the Throne will know," the Emperor said.
With Rhodes' trump card revealed, his confidence returned.
Work resumed upon the Golden Throne.
…
On the Cosmic beasts world, Aisha had fully shed Chaos and become a goddess of order.
Though reduced to about her former strength, she was wholly beyond the Warp's taint.
At last, she was free of Chaos' sea.