Lion El'Jonson found it difficult to imagine that his father, near invincible, near godlike, could be injured, let alone suppressed by another.
He had thought that when this battle reached its end, even if Axis caused great destruction, he would still ultimately lose to the Emperor.
Yet now, it seemed the Emperor might actually be defeated.
This boy Axis was a monster. A complete monster.
Within him was hidden a vast and terrible evil.
The Lion even felt that Axis, like the Primarchs themselves, was another monster wearing human skin.
On the viewing platform, Valdor fell to his knees.
Cracks spread across the visor of his Custodian helm.
"This… this is power that can wound my lord?"
Damn it. The Emperor was hurt, and he could do nothing but watch.
At this moment, Valdor's heart was full of resentment toward Axis.
In the depths of the Aeldari city ruins, the Emperor wiped the red blood from the corner of his mouth.
For the first time, a solemn look appeared in his eyes. The power Axis had just unleashed was beyond his expectations, and it had even injured him.
How long had it been since this last happened? So long that even he had forgotten.
"Roooar!"
Axis released the full might of the Legendary Super Saiyan form.
A storm of gold-green energy swept through the entire Webway. His muscles swelled to the limit, and a wild smile crept across his lips like a predator finally freed from its chains.
The brutal nature of the Saiyan was laid bare.
Axis vanished in an instant, tearing a pitch-black wound through the surrounding space with his speed.
In the next heartbeat, the Saiyan's fist slammed into the Emperor's chest.
Boom!
The Emperor's psychic barrier shattered like glass.
The Auramite-crafted Auric Armour, the most indomitable warplate in the Imperium, dented under the blow.
The Emperor's entire body was hurled away like a meteor, smashing through dozens of floating Aeldari ruins before crashing deep into the core of a colossal, tower-like structure.
By now, the section of armour covering his chest had completely broken apart.
The warplate, supposed to have been damaged during the Horus Heresy, had instead been shattered early by Axis.
"Cough…" Red blood trickled from the Emperor's lips.
The strength of the Super Saiyan had wounded the Master of Mankind.
"Hahahaha! Again! Again!" Axis laughed wildly, giving chase.
In both hands he gathered a colossal sphere of energy, a kilometre in diameter, and hurled it into the ruins.
Boom!
The vast Aeldari cityscape disintegrated into dust under the annihilating energy.
The shockwave swept across the entire Webway chamber, shaking the viewing platform violently. Valdor and the Lion were forced keep their footing with their hands.
From within the ruins, a blinding golden pillar of light erupted skyward.
The Emperor's figure rose slowly, his psychic might now boiling over. A burning corona of psychic light wreathed his form.
"Psychic Release, Ninety Percent."
His voice was no longer merely sound, but a shockwave resonating through the material dimension itself.
The power he now unleashed was unprecedented. Never before had he brought such strength to bear in battle.
Because in the material universe, no one had ever been worthy of seeing it. But today, he had found an opponent worthy of his full might.
Axis charged in, laughing madly, and the two clashed again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each exchange of blows shattered the surrounding space.
The structure of the Webway began to destabilise, and countless rifts into the Warp opened around them.
Axis's fists rained down like a storm, the Emperor's psychic barrier breaking and reforming again and again.
But the Emperor's counters were equally terrifying, one sweep of his hand sent a psychic blade of light spanning the horizon, and Axis, too slow to evade, took the strike to his shoulder. The wound cut deep to the bone, spraying crimson blood.
The injury did not weaken Axis.
Instead, it only fuelled the Legendary Super Saiyan's savage nature. His attacks grew even wilder, his ki climbing higher and higher.
The Emperor frowned looking at the berserk Axis before him.
This one seemed to be growing stronger with each passing moment.
If that was the case, then the simple exchange of blows was over.
The Emperor raised one hand toward Axis, unleashing the full force of his psychic power.
Axis felt his body bound by a terrifying golden force, the Emperor's psychic power closing around him like an invisible shackle.
It was an unseen pressure, so immense that every cell in Axis's body seemed to strain under its weight, forcing him down to one knee.
Even his thoughts were suppressed beneath the Emperor's will.
In this moment, the Master of Mankind revealed his true power.
Forget a Super Saiyan, this was a force that could compress an entire star without allowing it to collapse into a black hole.
Before a psyker of this magnitude, the so-called laws of physics were nothing but a joke.
"Axis, I admit your combat strength is unequal. If it were purely a contest of flesh, I would not be your match. But my greatest weapon is not my body," the Emperor said, his entire form radiating golden light, though his tone was indifferent.
His physique was only slightly stronger than that of a Primarch.
His true might lay in his psychic mastery, and without the constraint of flesh, that power would only grow greater.
"It's not over yet! This is exactly what I want, the feeling of being pushed to the limit." Axis's eyes gleamed with a frenzied battle-lust, his face alight with excitement as he stared at the Emperor.
This was it.
This was what the Saiyan lived for.
This was the battle they craved above all else.
"Stop, Axis. You're injured, and so am I. We cannot continue, this section of the Webway won't hold much longer," the Emperor said, pressing down even harder with his psychic weight.
Axis now bore a pressure beyond imagination.
But to the Saiyan, that only made the challenge sweeter.
Under pressure came the greatest chance to break through his limits.
And now… was the moment.
Axis roared with a fury beyond reason, his ki and rage surging to their peak without restraint.
The Emperor's expression shifted in surprise, his psychic might was being overcome.
He was actually beginning to lose his hold on Axis.
Impossible. This was the same level of power he had once used to suppress a shard of the C'tan.
The golden aura around Axis changed.
Once it had burned like fire, but now it flared upward like a jet, piercing the air.
His hair shifted as well, rising more sharply, with edges more defined.
Gold blazed brighter than the green undertones.
Zzzt… crackle… snap!
Blue lightning danced around him, flickering in the air.
His presence was now even more overwhelming than before.
"Lord Emperor, before you saw the power of a Super Saiyan. Now… behold Super Saiyan Two," Axis declared.
This fight against the Emperor had given him exactly what he sought, a breakthrough into Super Saiyan 2, doubling his already monstrous power.
This meant one hundred times his normal state, and the transformation could be stacked atop the Legendary Super Saiyan form.
Axis's evolved stance burned with this new strength.
The Emperor stared at him in disbelief. This boy could still grow stronger? Was this a joke?
When he had left Holy Terra, he had been certain he had already pushed Axis's body to its limits.
Back when he had first customised Axis's genetic modifications, he had seen how violently unstable they were.
But now, seeing that volatility fully unleashed, he realised how terrifying it truly was.
And that golden Saiyan power…it had to be the product of those strange, alien cells. The Emperor had once intended to replicate them, but had found they could not be increased by ordinary means.
Yet Axis, through his own strength, had somehow nurtured and multiplied them.
Which meant… his growth potential was still far from exhausted.
He had thought he had already drawn out the boy's peak, but decades later, Axis's potential had only grown greater.
A rare thing indeed, to see another being in humanity's ranks who could rival himself.
Axis brought his hands together, condensing an energy blast capable of destroying a planet, and hurled it toward the Emperor.
The Emperor clasped his own hands, shaping his psychic power into a vast golden vortex, swallowing the attack whole.
"Return!" He commanded, shoving the vortex forward. The energy sphere reversed course, now hurtling toward Axis at even greater speed.
Boom!
A shimmering green barrier flared to life around Axis, a spherical shield to block the attack.
But the Emperor's strike was more than a mere reflection, the energy ball was guided by his psychic force form within it.
The furious power engulfed Axis in a massive explosion.
He was blasted tens of thousands of kilometres away, smashing through countless floating Aeldari ruins before crashing deep into a mountain of shattered structures.
But then, a pillar of gold-green light erupted skyward.
Axis's laughter echoed from the wreckage.
In the next moment, a violent surge of power ripped the surrounding buildings apart.
He burst free, his body wreathed in roaring gold-green flames.
His speed was greater. His strength, even more devastating.
The two warriors clashed across every corner of the Webway, soaring high above, tearing through shattered cities, smashing apart ruined Aeldari temples and drifting void-isles.
Their battle had gone beyond the laws of matter itself.
Every impact made the Webway tremble.
..
..
..
Here's your bonus chapter!!! Guys! we need more powerstones!!!