My POV
As my teleportation stopped and I appeared back into what I've been calling the Elysian Ark—the massive temple ship I made above the skies of Prospero—I've made it even better. It now has a warp drive that uses compressed warp matter in what equates to dark matter. It's proven to have the same output as a medium-sized star in my testing, and with that energy comes a wide array of weaponry I house on the Ark. That includes Warp Lightning control rods that can wipe out entire spacecraft assaults in seconds, and another weapon—the Psychic Gauss Flayer—not too dissimilar from the Necrons' version, but mine uses a portion of compressed warp energy to make it so that the matter of existence is wiped out.
With some showboating out of the way, I make my way to the head throne where a figure materializes next to me, seemingly out of sand, and stands at attention.
"My Lord Master, I am ready for whatever you have to command of me,"said the now fully formed Elise.
Yes, that being my ship. It's quite easy to give an inanimate thing a consciousness so long as you know the right steps. Most of my creations have the seed of life to make them sentient, but it takes time to also get rid of the personality traits that I deem undesirable before they form.
"Hm. For now, Elsie, we're heading to the Neo system that Kelbor has asked for our expertise. If what I'm assuming is correct, prepare for a short confrontation in the material realm, but a possible contingent of Neverborn that will try to manifest—the green and possibly the purple one. Also, have the Disciples disembark and go to the aid of Imperial forces in the Great Crusade. They are to only act when asked by a Primarch or the Emperor himself. Have a large contingent sent to the Primarch of the Salamanders; I hear he struggles with the emo elves—see about setting that right so they no longer prey upon his people," I commanded.
Elise nodded, and I felt the rumble of the compressed psyker engines power up. With that, we tore a hole into the warp.
Now hurtling through the warp with what I'd describe as a rocket booster made us shoot through the currents like nothing, with the waves parting before us like a new rendition of the parting of the Great Sea. With us now underway and supposed to arrive in five hours, I relaxed on my throne, thinking about all that has happened. I'm now a figure of great importance in the 30K Imperium of Man, with the Emperor himself having allowed my position.
For a being of 28 years old in this universe, I've achieved a lot—especially when blue-face realized I was now out of his control. It was simple, really, to make him believe that I hadn't caught on to the fact that I was supposed to make Magnus fall easier in this universe, due to telling him about the dangers of the warp beforehand—leading him to be slightly more cautious but assured of himself. That eventually led to him becoming a slave of the coral face, which had a confrontation with the Emperor that led to the expunging of his legion from the records and his homeworld. I was meant to be the new champion of coral face, with my supposed meta knowledge being accessed by him.
But I threw that out like a bat out of hell. I made a grimoire for anti-magic and karma, so I did what any cultivator dreams of—I cut the threads of fate on myself. With my anti-magic basically erasing any interaction with coral face, past or future, I'm now the only being who truly is "Kaelen." My old self would have said I'm the ultimate chunni—and I'd agree. Past me wouldn't have survived here if I still carried that naïveté that was expunged when I saw the horror of coral face and the three from the Essence of the Archmage.
As for "Erbus," he was merely a projection meant to target people who had nothing left to lose—those waning in their connection to their world. With no gods or anything to stop them, it was easy for "Isekai Batteries" to be picked up.
Withdrawing from my monologue, I saw that two hours had passed. I had been meditating on the throne all the while, Elise standing by my side in the great hall. I began divining the future of my disciples—those I'd taken from the Astral Dominion and taught. They were acceptable. If you were to give them a DxD rating, I'd say they were all Ultimate-class.
You might be wondering how I kept control and loyalty—simple. I copied the Scripture from The Fated Villain that Chu Changge used to control the animal clans. Basically, yeah—that's it. They all willingly learned the scripture from me, and with the supposed "superior intellect" of the older disciples spreading it to their juniors, I made a self-enforcing power controller.
Moving on, I saw some at the flagship of Dorn—they were showing their decree and the psychic signature of the Emperor. When Dorn asked their purpose, the leader of the group requested permission to act. Dorn merely raised an eyebrow and waved his hand in allowance.
In that moment, a spell not too dissimilar to the Black Sun spell from Warhammer Fantasy was used to wipe out the fleet of Orks that was set to make contact with Dorn's fleet. Dorn, now standing openly among his sons, was shocked, as were they, at the loss of the massive Waaagh!
Then there was the main arch-traitor himself—Horus Lupercal—who warmly greeted my disciples and asked them to demonstrate their power, much the same as Dorn had. First Captain Abaddon made snide remarks about the power of a measly twelve people, but like Dorn, he was shocked when the previous stalemate with the Hrud began to turn drastically. The Hrud's entropic fields turned on them with massive effectiveness, and the whole hive was exterminated in record time.
Coming out of the divination with a smile, I can't wait for the rest of the Imperium to realize that the psykers they long shunned now have the power to break civilizations. It's laughable to the average Space Marine who can "level cities and conquer worlds."
Enough of the power boner—coming out of the warp, I immediately feel the lingering souls of the Mechanicus expedition being hunted like rabbits by the two main suspects I thought were behind this. I reach out and pull the souls into soul stones, putting them to sleep. Using remembermancy, I confirm what happened—it's exactly as I thought.
During the Golden Age of Humanity, many rich corporations began to remake films dating back to the 2nd millennium—like The Matrix, which, in case you didn't know, was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Brain in the Jar Theory. Humanity controlled by AI, living in a false world where everything is perfect—the humans of the "real world" fighting back.
Apparently, during the Age of Strife, the docile AI companions of the film crew revolted, deciding to become the Machines of The Matrix. They spread across their main world until, by chance, a Mechanicus forge world was drawn into their system via a warp rift and got wrecked by scrapcode and daemonic corruption. It got worse when Vashtorr made a deal with the Matrix Machines—using the psykers born from the film crew's bloodlines, now abominations after millennia of inbreeding. Vashtorr built an amplifier that whipped the warp into a frenzy and disrupted all Mechanicus tech—but not the Machines'.
With remembering done, I reached out and began to fight the amplifier. As soon as I did, both Nurgalite and Slaaneshi daemon hosts began popping up, just as I thought—Nurgle for stagnation, Slaanesh for pleasure. Both had stakes in turning this world into a daemon world.
I instructed my legions of golems to teleport in and engage the daemons, aiding the forge world Grammaticus.
I paused at that name. Grammaticus. I immediately thought of that stupid perpetual who joined the Cabal to help Horus, thinking he'd be better than the Emperor. I wondered if this was another of their schemes. Better hope not, or I'll be doing a house call to the faker Old Ones.
With that, I summoned my Anti-Magic Grimoire—its five-leaf clover replaced with the Ark of Elysium studded with stars. With it, I began runic inscription in the air to banish the Neverborn back—and to perma-kill them—using fragments of the Emperor's own Anathema properties combined with Anti-Magic.
With this, I should be able to kill a few billion daemons. One in particular interested me: Kugath. If I captured him, I'd have a direct connection to Nurgle's Plague Cauldron and could sabotage it—or maybe rescue Isha. Might do that. Gotta have a waifu, and I believe the Emperor would make an exception. Might even get him to officiate the wedding—or maybe Malcador. We'll see what her big brother says.
Elsewhere in a giant library...
HAHAHAHA! A giant grinning clown smiles at the reader.
"And that, folks, is how I became an in-law to the second funniest being apart from myself. Now let's get back to it, shall we?"
[The Clown in Question]
Back to me
Yeah, I heard his laugh. His fourth-wall breaking remains the utmost of my admiration. Now, I set upon getting rid of the massive pain in the ass that is the Neverborn.
I set my spell loose, and within moments their portals slammed shut, refusing to budge—even as their gods panicked. I hit the Slaaneshi hosts first, recovering hundreds of thousands of Eldar souls, including a few Farseers and one particularly interesting soul with a trace of Khaine—probably an Aspect Warrior.
The Nurgle forces lasted only a smidge longer but were quickly wiped out. Kugath, engaged with my golems, couldn't react or call upon his creator. My golems spiked him with warp-nullifiers that forced him into realspace and kept him there—something inspired by the Astartes short films about the xeno artifact.
With him down for the count, I focused on the Machines, already retreating off Grammaticus. With the daemons gone and their stocks depleted, it was easy for my golems to wipe out any remaining on Node 01—their home planet.
With most of the fight done, I reached into Elysium's storage and brought out some blackstone pillars, not too dissimilar from the ones on Cadia. It was easy enough to nab a few and reproduce them. I did have to wipe out a Necron response fleet, but no matter. I hurled them through space, each one slamming into a planet, and as they landed, the warp forcibly calmed—even as the gods raged.
I'm sure Nurgle will have it out for me. Probably why he chose Morty to try and kill me.
As the fighting drew to a close, I teleported to 01, where I found the facility housing the abominations—mountains of flesh tied down, their massive heads connected to arrays that channeled their raw warp output to power the amplifier. With a wave of my hand, I killed them all. Generations of suffering ended in an instant. Their bodies overloaded with psyker energy, which I consumed with my staff.
The staff grew more defined, more alive—close to becoming my bound weapon, one that would defend both my soul and my mind.
And with that, I now had to deal with the Forge Lord, who was getting more and more pedantic on my vox.
Haaa… never a dull moment.
[Author's Note]How was this chapter, guys? I tried to make it have some "story," but I'm not sure if this qualifies. All jokes aside, this took a while—hope you enjoy it. Ciao.