The Holy Chronicles of Baator

[Trafford]

Several days later, Icecrown Citadel, Headquarters of the Partas Tribe

Several days have passed since we turned back to the Icecrown Citadel, and I could finally start the experiments on the Psyker Gene and create a method of transplantation of the latent Psyker Gene into my body.

That would be rather a lengthy process, but it was certainly rather fortunate that I had a lot of samples from the members of the Frozen Coven.

From the several hundreds of corpses of the Psykers of the Frozen Coven, I had far more than I really needed for my own experiments, creating the Psyker Gene for myself and also some for the Partas Tribe.

Because I am seriously considering taking the Partas Tribe with me to the Kadath Universe if everything goes according to plan, I wouldn't really mind giving some more boons to the Partas Tribe.

Not to mention, less being said that it was Esdeath was the one who asked me for the favor, and I couldn't really give her a negative answer. They were becoming rather close; in the entire Partas Tribe, it was only Esdeath who was talking to me on a regular basis without any fear.

Apparently, due to the power that I had, none of the tribesmen of the Partas Tribe dared to be informal with me.

Due to their deeply ingrained respect for the strong and powerful. I already had more than enough of this behavior back home, it was rather annoying when everyone whom you spoke to was looking at you with utmost reverence and worship.

That was one of the reasons why I liked it in the Partas Tribe. Everyone was mostly informal and very friendly towards me, so it was rather unfortunate that even here, it was becoming similar to the Chthonian Empire of the Baator.

Nevertheless, the work on the Psyker Gene was progressing rather smoothly due to the research having almost no bottlenecks. Within the Icecrown Citadel, I have my very own laboratory made with the most advanced technology that the STCs in possession of the Partas Tribe could create.

Esdeath wanted me to create some sort of Psyker Gene Therapy for the Psykers of the Partas Tribe so that they could use the Psykery like the Sorcerers of the Frozen Coven and not just like till now.

It wouldn't be long before I had a stable result that could be used for the members of the Partas Tribe, which would allow them to channel their Psyker Powers freely. At the same time, there was the risk of Chaos, but according to everything I have seen till now, the Partas Tribesmen were supposed to be immune to the Ruination.

Even right now, Esdeath was sitting in my laboratory as she became bored rather fast without any combat out there.

Additionally, the destruction of the Frozen Coven has spooked up the Northern Tribes Alliance to the point where they have withdrawn to their core territory and started holing up there for the inevitable confrontation with the Partas Tribe.

This wasn't really that surprising because even before, the Partas Tribe represented the gravest kind of Danger, and now, with the perishing of the Frozen Coven, the only faction that was probably as powerful as the Partas Tribe, everyone in the Northern Tribes Alliance was spooked to no end.

Anyone with even half a brain could tell that the Partas Tribe had an unhidden ambition to unify their half of the continent. One reason was pure power, as they wanted to rule the northern area of the continent, while the other was mostly practical.

The threat of the Southerners beyond the mountains. Even though crossing over the mountain ranges that separated the North and South was a daunting and, in most cases, impossible task...

Nobody was willing to risk it.

The Southern Area was far more populous than the Northern Area, and obviously, the Northern Area, despite everything, was more prosperous because it was the palace where most of the powerful Danger Beasts lived and thrived.

Collectively speaking, the Southern Area was much weaker than the Northern Area, but what they lacked in the aspect of strength, they were making up for with their sheer numbers that were great.

And obviously, both the Southerners and Northerners hated each other to death. The Partas Tribe was even right now carrying out serious planning and preparations for the possible and, in their opinion, rather inevitable invasion of the Southerners it not he North for the resources that the North possessed.

Mainly, the abundant source of the Danger Beasts and the STCs that were in the Northern Area in great numbers. Even though the number of powerful warriors in the Northern Area was far greater than in the Southern Area, they could still fall to sheer numbers.

And what made things for the Partas Tribe, the Northern Tribes Alliance, was rather keen on working with the Southerners because of their naive ideals of peace and other bullshit, which only added to the reason for their annihilation.

"How long would it take you to finish it?"

I looked at the blue-haired General of the Partas Tribe, who was sitting in my lab and kicking her legs in the air like a bored child. I swore that even my kids behaved better when they were bored out of their minds compared to Esdeath.

Though she was always a bit hyperactive and constantly needed to do something, she would quickly become bored. That was easy to notice when I had already spent so much time with her. Nowadays, because there was really nothing to do for her, she has started to annoy me in my laboratory.

Much to my dismay.

But at the same time, it was rather refreshing because back home, nobody would dare to enter when I was doing some kinds of experiments.

It could often be dangerous and fatal.

"In one more hour, the scans of the samples will be complete, and we will go out."

As shocking as it might seem, we were going on a date or the equivalent in the Partas Tribe, mainly at Esdeath's insistence, because I had repeatedly defeated her in combat.

 

[Trafford]

In the Partas Tribe, the primary requirement of the females when it came to the selection of Mates was their strength. Everything that mattered for the females of the Partas Tribe was their strength and their skills in hunting the prey and bringing back the food.

From a certain point of view, the Partas Tribe was no different from a group of techno barbarians, as they had access to some of the most advanced pieces of technology due to the STCs on the planet Fenran Rex IX., yet their society was tribal and had many traditions and customs that many would consider as primitive and barbaric.

For me, all of those were just subjective terms.

So, it was only natural that Esdeath, who was the strongest member of the Partas Tribe and also the most skilled hunter of the Tribe, knew no defeat in single combat or even anything remotely connected to it.

It was an entirely new feeling and experience for Esdeath, and despite her very cold, ruthless, and bloodthirsty exterior... it was very easy to overlook the fact that even she was a woman.

So, that led us here.

Right now, we were standing in the freezing wilderness of the Fenran Rex IX. as they were hunting. Which was once again, probably the most common activity during the courtship in the Partas Tribe.

Esdeath explained to me that it was like a protocol, and she wasn't really beating around the bush with her words and intentions. When she wanted something, she wouldn't really give any hints; she said it out loud once she had made up her mind about this topic.

Once the scan on the samples of the Psykers from the Frozen Coven was complete, I had everything that was needed.

Now, I just needed to recycle the biological materials from the corpses of the Psyker, mix them with my own DNA, and adjust the Genemome Sequence to create my own Psyker Gene, which would then be subsequently integrated into the Gene Sequence of this body.

I chose this approach because, in this way, there would be practically zero chances of failure when the Psyker Gene was ingested into my own body. This clone body was too precious to be lost, and it was my only chance to reach the Black Library and obtain the artifacts of the Old Ones.

There was one such Artefact that was a remnant of the Old Ones, according to rumors that I still remember from my first life. At some point, the Solar Federation even wanted to wage war on the Aeldari Empire to obtain the artifacts of the Old Ones so humanity could ascend to Psychic Godhood.

After above what the Aeldari could ever be.

The Old Ones were an ancient, technologically and psychically advanced intelligent species of cold-blooded reptilian beings or an alliance of individual advanced species. They established an interstellar empire across the Milky Way Galaxy tens of millions of Terran years ago.

The Old Ones ruled over the Milky Way before the development of most of the other sentient species of the galaxy. They were the first species to attain the sentence in the Milky Way galaxy, the first ones to cross the seas of the stars, and the first ones in practically everything when it came to the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Old Ones became embroiled in a great conflict over 60 million Terran years ago with the C'tan and their Necron servants, a war that they lost. After their defeat, the Old Ones either went extinct or disappeared from the galaxy, their fate or destination unknown.

Nobody knows what happened with them, but one day, they disappeared.

But their Legacy remained here.

"Zeo, are you here? I found the track of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear. "

Esdeath's voice woke him out of his thoughts, as he was already thinking about where to go once he left this frozen hellhole. The moment he got his hands on the Psyker Gene, he would literally receive an almost impossible boost in power, and he would just storm the Southerners and take what he wanted from them.

Then again, building up the spaceship wouldn't be a problem, and bon voyage, Fenran Rex IX.

The Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were regarded as one of the fiercest and most powerful native Danger Beasts that lived on the Fenran Rex IX., since the colony was created in the Golden Age of Technology. At the same time, these beasts were also known for their wisdom and intelligence, as they were known for their immense strength.

On average, they were around 15 meters long when they were on their fours, though their most notable striking feature is the singular curved silver horn that spirals from the center of their forehead, gleaming under any light as if it were made of liquid moonlight.

The Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears had very thick fur, that shimmered between deep obsidian and starlit silver, appearing almost ethereal when it moves through the dense, misty forests it calls home. Its fur was capable of withstanding a tremendous degree of punishment, which gave the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears really fearsome defensive capabilities.

Covering their muscular bodies were glowing tattoos, intricate patterns that pulsed with a soft, bioluminescent light. These tattoos shifted and changed depending on the bear's mood: faint and subdued when calm, blazing with brilliance when enraged.

The markings were said to be ancient sigils of protection, granting the beast immunity to dark magic and allowing it to communicate with spirits of the forest.

Among the natives, it was often told that legends spoke of a Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear that appeared only to those in dire need, guiding lost travelers with its luminous patterns or offering cryptic visions of the future.

Their furs were also considered a rare material, which were often woven into the clothing or armor on the Fenran Rex IX., because of their flexibility and durability, creating rather perfect materials to craft very strong pieces of armor.

Not to mention, their Silver Horns were one of the rarest and most precious ingredients into various Elixirs and Serums, yet it was also very problematic to harvest them.

 

[Trafford]

When one killed the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear and wanted to cut their Silver Horn, it was known that the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were storing their Psionic Energy in their horns, so when somebody attempted to remove the horns of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, the Psychic Energy gathered in the Silver Horn would lash out and send some sort of Curse at the person who was cutting down the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear.

It was very dangerous to hunt for the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears for these reasons; not only was their personal power rather fearsome, but the aftermath could be rather nasty.

"Then we should get going..."

I didn't have a problem if Esdeath wanted to pursue romantic involvement with me; she was like Hela in this regard. She knew what she wanted, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. Also, during the time I was on this planet and living among the Partas Tribe, I took a great liking to her.

And she would fit pretty well in our home as she wasn't the most mentally stable individual around.

She was acting as the tracker for us, as I knew literally zero things about proper tracking of the animals. Not to mention, tracking after something in the world where everything was covered by snow was incomparably harder.

So, I was cheating a bit in this regard.

When a man was courting a woman in the Partas Tribe, he would take her on Hunt.

During the hunt, he would set a powerful target as his prey; the more powerful the prey, the better the chances that he would succeed in the courtship for her hand. Then, once the prey was set, the man would act as the prime hunter and do everything...

He would track down the prey on the planet and then hunt it down.

As I didn't know anything about tracking the prey, Esdeath was doing this for me, though I seriously doubted that it would be much of a problem because I was far, far stronger than Anoyn in the Partas Tribe, even in my weakened state.

Though that was understandable.

Even though this may have been just a clone body limited to Tier 8 in physical power only, I lived for more than ten thousand years, and my experiences and combat skills were far above their own.

"So, where are we going to?"

I asked as I followed after Esdeath, who caught tracks of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears.

She was rather surprised when I told her about my choice of prey. For the Partas Tribe, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were one of the most challenging prey, not only due to their power but also the Curse that came from removing their horns.

At the same time, due to these properties, the Silver Horns of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were used in my occult and mystical rituals, and thus, their price was exorbitantly high across the markets of the Fenran Rex IX., and it was considered as one of the top-notch merchandise.

"Frostearth Valley. It's just a few tens of kilometers from our current location."

I nodded and followed after her to the Frostearth Valley.

***

Frostearth Valley, Feris Continent, Fenran Rex IX.

The Frostearth Valley was a stark, unforgiving expanse carved into the heart of an alpine mountain range in the Ziras IV, where the air was thin, the winds were razor-sharp, and the cold was a living, biting force.

Towering peaks of jagged, ice-clad mountains loom on all sides, their summits lost in swirling clouds of snow and mist. The valley itself was a vast, U-shaped glacial trough, its floor a patchwork of frozen tundra, jagged rock outcroppings, and massive sheets of ancient ice that glistened faintly under the weak light of a distant, pale sun.

The ground is a mosaic of frost-heaved boulders and cracked permafrost, with deep crevices splitting the earth like scars. In some places, the ice is so thick and ancient that it has formed towering blue-white glaciers that creep imperceptibly down the valley, their surfaces riddled with deep crevasses and serrated ridges.

These glaciers reflected the faint light in eerie, shifting patterns, casting an otherworldly glow over the landscape. The air was filled with the sound of howling winds that whipped through the valley, carrying with them stinging particles of ice and snow.

The temperature was perpetually below freezing, and the cold was so intense that it seemed to seep into the very bones of anyone who dared to venture here. The sky above was a pale, washed-out gray, with the sun barely visible as a faint, cold disc that provided little warmth.

Large swaths of the valley were frozen solid, with ice covering everything from the rocky ground to the skeletal remains of long-dead trees. Everything that has lived in the Frostearth Valley was already devoured by the inhabitants of this place or destroyed in the latest clash between the wildlife.

"This place is one of the favorite areas for the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears to hunt for food, and it also serves as their major habitat. There is an entire huge colony of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears that lives in the Frostearth Valley as long as our documents go back... the first records of them settling here were during the end of the Long Night."

Esdeath then proceeded to tell me about the colony of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears that lived here, and it was rather a sizeable colony.

Many of the Danger Beasts that lived in the Fenran Rex IX had lived here since the establishment of the colony, though some were brought from the different worlds of the Solar Federation.

And during the Long Night, many of the local fauna and flora has evolved accordingly, got much stronger and much bigger than usual. Though, this wasn't exclusive just to the Fenran Rex IX, but to all of the planets that were touched by the Long Night, as the Immaterium had some effects on every single living being.

In one way or another.

 

[Trafford]

The colony of Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears was relatively big. It provided a home for several hundred Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, many of which reached Tier 6, Tier 7, and even Tier 8, as these were very high numbers considering their natural birth rate, which was pretty low.

In short, this was one of the most dangerous sites in the Northern Area of the Feris Continent.

Though...

It would make my achievement even more glorious, and although there was no real strong need for it, since Esdeath had already admitted that I met all of her criteria, it was something I wanted to do.

I knew she would be much more satisfied then.

They tracked the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear down to the deeper parts of the Frostearth Valley until they finally found the one lone Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear that was eating the corpse of another, smaller and weaker Danger Beast that the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear had killed.

The Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear that was having a feast right now was around Tier 8 and was a fairly powerful Danger Beast. I looked at the Silver-Horned Tattooed Baer as it was eating the corpse, and it could sense the power of the bear.

I summoned one of the Power Swords that I helped to manufacture with the new infrastructure that was created in the Partas Tribe and stepped forward toward the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear.

Due to the influx of the STCs into the hands of the Partas Tribe, the Partas Tribe was capable right now of producing some of the best technologies from the Golden Age of Technology.

The Power Weapons and even the more advanced Force Weapons were some of the neatest technologies that the Partas Tribe could produce, though when it came to the Force Weapons, it was rather problematic, as they lacked appropriate materials.

Some things required very specific types of ores, and the Partas Tribe wasn't really very industrialized; they were still working on that aspect and industrialized much of their territory, so they were mining only a small amount of ores that were required to buy a proper Force Weapons en masse.

"I will be going..."

I said as I disappeared from the place and sneaked up on the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear and waited for the moment when the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was the most vulnerable because I wanted to ambush the creature.

Despite everything, I probably couldn't kill the Danger Beast in one move because the Danger Beast was too powerful for that. The hide of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was too thick, and it was very hard to penetrate the hide, not to mention I doubted that I would be able to penetrate its neck in one go.

However, that wasn't preventing me from ambushing the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear as when I was close to the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, I appeared behind the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, who was still feasting on the corpse of another Danger Beast.

Surprisingly enough, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear turned around at the last moment, as the Danger Beast used its huge bear paw and blocked the strike rather easily.

Even though I was using some of the most advanced Power Swords that could be manufactured through the STCs in the Partas Tribe, it still wasn't really enough to sever the body part of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear in one slash.

I wasn't really deterred by such an outcome, as the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was pretty powerful, and its reflexes were top-notch, so it wasn't really surprising that it managed to defend itself against my strikes.

Though, despite everything, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was rather easy to bait into raging, as the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were not known for their best tempers... especially if they got angry.

Aside from that, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, especially the males, were very famous for their short temperaments, and I was rather lucky in this regard because the specimen that I was fighting against was also a male.

The Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear's mood wasn't really the best because not only was it disturbed from finishing its meal, since the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was already starving for some time, but also because it couldn't land a hit on the opponent in front of it.

Alas me.

It was pretty easy to read the intentions of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear because no matter how intelligent the Danger Beast was, there was still the fact that the Danger Beasts were driven by their instincts too much.

Like the Demonic Beasts back home, it was rather easy to bait them into attacking if one knew how to use the instincts of the creature against them. Not to mention, Devils and a few other races were also species that acted a lot based on their instincts.

Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.

It didn't take long until the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear lost all patience with me and started attacking me in a complete berserker mode, disregarding anything, as it just kept pounding on me with its paws, most probably trying to smash me to a pulp.

Unfortunately for the huge creature, I was rather fast, and the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was rather big and slow, so it had really big problems as it couldn't land a hit on me, while I already managed to stab the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear twenty-five times.

It was almost staggering how strong and powerful the military of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was, because even with many stab wounds from the Power Weapon with Disintegration Properties, it was still going strong.

Relatively strong.

Its effectiveness was going down considerably after every time when I injured the creature, and soon enough, it was getting visibly slower and weaker. As if it was running out of steam because it didn't have any more energy to fight any further.

My combat style was best suited for opponents like the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear.

The ones that were big, strong, not really the smartest around, or depending on their instincts.

Even after all of the years, I never really changed the core of my style, which lay in tiring my opponents out while considering my own power.

 

[Trafford]

It was the very same combat style that had driven Hela to madness before, and now, when I was sparring with Esdeath, she was raging to an end after some time. Both women had rather short tempers, and they were the worst match when fighting someone who knew how to ignite that spark.

Someone like me, because I have developed this fighting style specifically to counter people who were far more powerful than me, and it allowed me to defeat those who were far more powerful than me.

Many people let themselves be completely dominated by their emotions, which wasn't doing them any good, not like they were aware of it for most of the time. Now, I was doing the exact same thing to the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, and for me, it was pretty entertaining.

For the non-intelligent specimen, this method was working several times more effectively because if one delved too deeply into their instincts or emotions, they could be baited into doing something foolish much more easily.

Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, who was going berserk completely, was already having several life-threatening injuries, and it was clear to anyone with even untrained eyes that the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was on its last legs.

It would drop dead every second.

I didn't really need to do much, and in fact, I wasn't even going to do much because it wasn't really worth it. Despite everything, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was still pretty powerful, and right now, it was at the peak of its combat prowess.

The Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was right now unleashing pretty dangerous levels of power, and its strikes, albeit becoming slower, still contained rather high destructive power. If I got hit by such an attack, even by one randomly, it could be pretty dangerous for me.

I just kept my distance from the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, and soon enough, once I saw the opportunity to finish off the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, I rushed toward the creature and stabbed with my sword through the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear's neck, in a place that was already wounded from one of the previous exchanges.

Soon enough, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear stopped moving for several seconds. It started shaking a bit before the enormous creature dropped down to the ground and started dying slowly.

I looked at the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear as the creature fought rather well, so I delivered a blow of mercy to the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, killing it on the spot. Leaving it to die slowly, in long and agonizing death, would be just senseless cruelty.

Seeing that the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear has died made me sigh in relief as the most troublesome part of the Partas Tribe Courtship rituals was complete; we had the most problematic aspect of the entire endeavor behind us.

"You could have fought more proactively, you know?"

Esdeath asked as she came to me, looking at the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear with a defeated expression because the fight wasn't really a fight in the end. Only the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was fighting while I was dodging and occasionally counterattacking.

"You are just annoyed because you wanted to see more entertain fight than this? Am I not right?"

I asked as Esdeath looked at the specimen of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear that fell by my hand as it was rather big specimen. It was a male Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear that was for sure, and it was very possible that this was Alpha that was kicked out of the group.

According to Esdeath, the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears lived in the colonies while the colonies were consisting of the groups. Each group consisted of a few tens of Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, with the Alpha at the top of the hierarchy.

When a new Alpha Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear emerged from the group, the scenario that followed would be rather simple. The two bears would clash for the leadership of the group, and the one who was defeated would either be killed or banished from the group.

"You are really insufferable sometimes."

Esdeath muttered as she started dissecting the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear and focused on the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear. As a member of the Partas Tribe, she actually knew of the method that could safely remove the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear.

Normally, during the courtship tradition, the man would be doing this as he would present the woman that he wanted to court with the most valuable part of the hunted prey; Esdeath knew that one slight mistake would lead to severe consequences and spectacular failure.

The method of safely removing the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear was something that was taught only to the core members of the Partas Tribe and those of the main lineage.

Even I could see the special connection of the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear it had with the Immaterium. Though not in a bad meaning, like it was being connected to the Chaos Gods and the Ruination, but the Silver Horn had something even more precious.

The purification properties of the Psychic Origin in the Imamterium.

This Silver Horn could be used as a method of killing the Daemons in the real world, which was something that was extremely rare and scarce. Normally, if the Daemons are killed in the material world, they are not really killed, but instead, it was just their physical form that was destroyed.

They would reform within the Immaterium at some point.

Depending on their power, the time of their reform would be determined.

"That being said... I didn't know that the Silver Horn of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear had purification properties on the Immaterium. Do you have more powerful variations of it?"

Encountering something that had purification properties on the Warp was very rare, even during the age of the Solar Terran Federation. During my life there, I saw such objects only three or four times.

Though...

The understanding of the Warp from the side of the Solar Terran Federation wasn't really that great compared to some other species in the Milky Way Galaxy, much less being said about the Aeldari, who were like Psychic Gods compared to humanity.

 

[Trafford]

No wonder the Silver Horns of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears were so precious to the Partas Tribe and the rest of the factions that existed on the Fenran Rex IX. Having something that had purification capabilities on the Warp was essentially invaluable, in fact, and could be used for a plethora of uses.

Many within the Fenran Rex IX were collecting the Silver Horns of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, despite the dangers and everything that the removal of the Silver Horn from the corpse of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears represented.

"Yes... some are within the vaults of the Partas Tribe and then in the smaller warehouses. Right now, since the Warpstorm has covered the entire planet, there has been heightened consumption of the meters like the Silver Horns of the Silver-Horned Tattoed Bears."

Esdeath answered as this was due to the fundamental nature of the Warp Storm.

The Warp is a highly volatile medium... volatile and dangerous.

At times, disturbances can turn areas of the Warp into raging storms of incomprehensibly destructive fury. These storms can last for days, months, years, or even whole centuries if one is particularly unlucky when it comes to the length of the Warp Storm.

Voidships caught in these storms, at best, might be blown off course, emerging thousands of light-years off course into uncharted areas of the galaxy, or they can find themselves trapped inside the Warp, a terrible fate for its passengers as they become playthings for the dark creatures that inhabit the malign realm.

Sometimes, a ship, after traveling through the Warp for only a short time, will emerge from the Warp and find that centuries have passed in real space. The storms also cut off Warp travel through certain regions, isolating systems from the wider galaxy for months, years, or even centuries.

Some systems have always been isolated and show no hint of becoming otherwise. Not to mention, during the Warp Storms, the barriers between the Materium and Immaterium got thinner, much thinner...

It was much easier for the Daemons of the Warp to materialize in the material plane or to possess some Psyker or other beings. When the Warp Storm enveloped some territory in space, the number of Daemon Incursions into the Realspace would skyrocket.

Particularly dangerous Warp Storms were noted during the Age of Strife, which led to the devastation of the Solar Terran Federation and the entire Old Night.

They only dissipated with the birth of Slaanesh.

Even during my stay on the Fenran Rex IX the amount of the Daemonic Incursions was much higher than it should be usually. Especially if one considers the fact that the Fenran Rex IX was just a remote frozen hellhole without any significant population.

Compared to the other worlds in the Imperium or that of the other species, which had a population in the billions or trillions, when it came to the Hive Worlds, the state of the Fenran Rex IX was too shabby.

Yet, even then, many Daemons materialized on the planet from time to time.

"Well... the Daemonic Incursions are the problem... though if we want to leave this planet in one piece, then having something that has a purification effect on the Warp would be a tremendous help."

Even the Solar Terran Federation, with all of its most advanced technology and everything that it had at its disposal, didn't have a method of safely passing through the Warp Storm without one act.

One would find the materials that had certain effects on the Warp and those of the Ruinous Powers and integrate them into the alloys from which the starship would be built. This was the best method that the Solar Terran Federation had created, and surprisingly, it worked very well.

"I will talk with my father about it."

Esdeath said as she was rather keen on leaving the planet behind and venturing into space.

For many reasons, she felt that she had reached the limit of the strength that she could achieve in her homeworld, and she wanted to reach the wider galaxy to seek opportunities to grow stronger and more powerful.

And then there was the war...

Daemons, Heretics, Astartes, Tau, Necrons...

She wanted to fight them all.

I knew that if she had the opportunity, she would fight Primarchs, Daemon Primarchs, Necron Overlords, or even Emperors or Chaos Gods themselves, most probably. I wasn't sure about the last two, as the Emperor and Chaos Gods would be pretty tough even for my True Body in fact.

Fortunately, because of the separation of the Materium and Immaterium, neither of them could reach their full potential, and they were severely restricted due to the division of the Immaterius Universe into the two fundamentally different aspects.

"How are you progressing with the construction of the starship?"

As they finished the dissection process of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, each of us picked a piece of the corpse of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear as we wouldn't be leaving the corpse to rot and freeze here for nothing.

"Slowly... designing the blueprint is one thing, having knowledge another, and the means of the construction entirely something else. Right now, even with all of the STCs and my knowledge, it would take some time to produce even one starship. Unfortunately, the shipyards on the Fenran Rex IX are located in the deep south."

The construction of the starship was proven to be much more problematic than initially anticipated, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be solved over time. Right now, I need to properly assess the production capabilities of the Partas Tribe or to march south, take over the shipyard, and manufacture the starship in there.

According to the information on the Fenran Rex IX in my own databases from the times of the Solar Terran Federation, the shipyard should be capable of properly building smaller voidcrafts without many problems.

Still, going down to the south seemed an easier solution because the shipyards down there should still be untouched. They were in the top-secret facility with the highest degree of security, and with the tech that the Solar Terran Federation possessed, it should have withstood the passage of time.

Relatively speaking, of course.

 

[Trafford]

But then again, apparently, the Southerners were occupying that area, and I was too lazy to do something about that. Technically speaking, the effort that would be needed to push them out of the area and repair the damage to the facility was then the topic of crossing over the continent to reach there.

The shipyards were located at the southernmost point of the Feris Continent due to the warmer climate compared to the rest of the planet.

It just wasn't really worth it.

I would rather invest that energy into uplifting the industries of the Partas Tribe because it would be worth much more in the long term.

In the end, after leaving the Immaterius Universe, the Partas Tribe seemed like a good addition to the Kadath Universe, as they could be given their very own Principal World in the future, where they could thrive and prosper.

One could say that what I was doing was investing in the future.

"We should be going back to the Partas Tribe."

Hearing Esdeath say that made me nod my head as we went back to the Icecrown Citadel, the headquarters of the Partas Tribe. With the entire courtship ritual being done, we could return back home and focus on the industrialization of the Partas Tribe and creating the alloy.

***

After returning to the Icecrown Citadel from the hunt for the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear, the first thing that I went to do was to check on the analysis of the Psyker Gene from the corpses of the Psykers of the Frozen Coven.

The result of the analysis on the Psyker Gene was complete, and with this, the method of integration of the Psyker Gene into this body was finally completed. The next step would be creating equipment that would help in this.

Manipulation of the genome was never an easy task, and it always required some advanced preparation to make sure that nothing went wrong. Fortunately enough, with the STCs that were present in the Partas Tribe, it won't be a problem creating most of the equipment in a short time.

"Upon the integration of the Psyker Gene, once the assimilation period passes, I can start absorbing the Whisp of Might from my True Body and elevate this clone body to Tier 11 at least, with some luck and absorption of the chaotic energies of the Warp, to Tier 12."

As long as my clone reached Tier 12, then I could move across the Immaterius Universe unhindered for most of the part, as long as I avoided some individuals and the gaze of the Chaos Gods.

It was my great luck that during the process of Transmigration into the Immaterius Universe and creation of the clone body, I was able to integrate into the piece of my soul, Whisp of Might, from my true body.

That Whisp of Might contained power that should be enough to annihilate even peak Tier 12 entities, and if I were to assimilate that Whisp of Power from my True Body, I should elevate the power of the clony body by a tremendous degree.

And that was something that I needed right now, if I want to move easily across the Milky Way Galaxy.

Based on the information that I had on the Immaterius Universe, either the ones that were gathered by the Solar Terran Federation or from my other methods that were more about the current state of the Immaterius, there were planetary beings at the Tier 11 and Tier 12 within the Immaterius Universe.

Though the assimilation of the Whisp of Power of my True Body would take months alone, as this Clone Body wasn't really that strong when it could assimilate something from a peak Tier 13 Primarch Universe Master easily.

It would be a lengthy process that would take a lot of time.

For the next few days, I spent most of them creating the pieces of the equipment that were needed for the most advanced gene therapy and surgery that would integrate the Psyker Gene into the genome of my clone body.

At the same time, I also needed the help of the Partas Tribbe in the construction of the containment room that would contain me during the time of the Psychic Awakening when I would awaken as a Psyker.

This would be a pretty hazardous time and encounter, because during the Psychic Awakening, for a brief amount of time, my body would act as a conduit for the Warp and unleash an unprecedented amount of destruction around me.

So, containment was needed for such a case.

Fortunately, because the Partas Tribe had already conquered the Frozen Coven, they had already obtained the libraries and forbidden lore of the Frozen Coven. Among them, there were several methods that the Frozen Coven was using to handle the Psychic Awakening of the Psykers.

The Frozen Coven was a faction that consisted mainly of the Psykers and focused on the cultivation of the Psyker Powers, and due to that, they had methods of safely containing the Psykers that went berserk and out of control.

This was something that was a must for a faction like theirs.

And I even had to admit that the methods used in the Frozen Coven were rather effective.

They were crude, that was true, and they were almost primitive compared to the methods I saw during the Golden Age of Technology; yet nobody could deny their effectiveness, as they were very effective.

With the effectiveness of the Partas Tribe and their construction methods, the construction of the continent room was not particularly difficult; it was merely a matter of time and sufficient resources that were now flooding into the Partas Tribe in abundance.

With the newly industrialized methods of the Partas Tribe, they started mining and processing more and more natural resources than before. With this, their construction capabilities also increased, and through the STCs, they were able to manufacture a lot of things.

Everything from things for civilian use to those for military purposes.

 

[Trafford]

"So, after you go into that machine, you will become a Sorcerer once the procedure is completed?"

Esdeath asked me as we were standing in the middle of my laboratory in the Icecrown Citadel, a few weeks later, after the equipment for the advanced Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy was finished.

During the past weeks, not only was all the equipment needed for the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy for the successful integration of the Psyker Genes into my own genome completed, but we also managed to build a large part of the starship that I planned to use to leave the Fenran Rex IX behind.

"Yes... This machine will be able to perfectly integrate a Psyker Gene into the body of a non-Psyker and create a Psyker."

I said, a little product of my creation, because artificially creating Psykers was something that was considered impossible even during the Golden Age of Technology when the Solar Terran Federation stood at the peak of its power.

With that being explained, I entered the chamber that automatically closed after I entered, and Esdeath did as I instructed previously. Everything was already being put on the Artificial Intelligence, as the Partas Tribe didn't really have the fear of the thinking machines like the rest of humanity.

This was really wonderful, because I wouldn't really think that the Chaos Gods would be able to corrupt our A.I.s that were built in the Federation nd turned them against their creators.

Our greatest achievement was turned into the sharpest sword against humanity as the Men of Iron slaughtered the entire world.

Yet, it was also something akin to a tiny miracle, because the A.I.s were not alive. They were artificial constructs, and yet despite all of that, the Gods of Chaos managed to possess them because they were incredibly close to the real beings.

In a certain sense, they were real beings even though they lacked souls.

As per my instructions, Esdeath pushed a few buttons on the gholographic keyboards and inserted several objects into the machinery as I instructed.

The objects that she was inserting into the machinery were containers that contained special liquid, a solution that would help this body to accommodate the Psyker Gene better and go through the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

***

Esdeath POV

It has been more than twenty-four hours since Jeron, or rather by his true name Zeoticus, was in the weird machine that was making him a Sorcerer. I was never for the technology thingy, but if it could make Sorcerers through artificial means, then it would be good.

The Partas Tribe was only something akin to a Sorcerer. Due to the Bloodline of the Danger Beasts that we have in our veins, we could use the energies of the Warp on the subconscious level to strengthen our physical capabilities to an unnatural level.

But that was all.

We cannot consciously control the Warp Energies and bend reality to our whims like the Sorcerers of the Frozen Coven could do during their peak.

Or rather, during the time when they were still alive.

Yet, after the destruction of the Frozen Coven and then subsequently the last hope for the Northern Tribe Alliance was gone, it was only a matter of time until the Partas Tribe unified the entire Northern Area of the Feris Continent under our banner.

It was...

Boring.

The Southerners were weak.

Yes, they had their numbers and were outnumbering us ten to one, but in terms of their power, they were far, far weaker. Their strongest could measure only against the average warriors in our Tribe.

However, that was understandable because in the south, there was nobody like the Frozen Coven or the Partas Tribe. Only af few occasional Sorcerers or people who underwent genetic strengthening with the help of some STCs from an age long gone.

Hearing that Zeoticus wasn't interested in leaving this place made me curious.

I was a warrior, and there was no greater pleasure and more worthy goal than to grow stronger and more powerful..

And apparently, the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy was full of powerful people and opportunities to grow much stronger. That was the reason why I decided to leave the planet behind, to search for new opportunities to grow stronger.

It was a one-time opportunity, because I slowly realized that by staying on this planet, I had reached the limits of my current growth. Technically speaking, I could undergo the same Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy and become a Psyker, but there was a huge problem afterwards.

The Fenran Rex IX was without anyone stronger than me currently.

Aside from a few ancient Super Danger Beasts, there were no opponents to fight against and no worthy foes to challenge.

There was nobody.

It sounded rather boring to me, so I would rather go to a wider space.

Not to mention, it was hard to find a suitable mate to take care of some specific needs who meets all of my criteria.

Suddenly, I felt that the machinery performing genetic surgery and Gene Therapy on Zeoticus began emitting strange sounds, and Warp Energy started appearing in great quantities all around the laboratory.

***

1st POV

Next time, when I opened my eyes, it was in the tank filled with the blue liquid as my entire body was being pierced by hundreds of needles and several tubes, which were carrying the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy on this body.

The bad news was that the pain that I was feeling right now was tremendous, but fortunately, it wasn't anything that I couldn't really bear.

The good news was that the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy were successful, and this body has become officially a Psyker. The power that I obtained from becoming a Psyker was tremendous, because I could probably go toe to toe with peak Tier 9 entities back home with the amount of Warp Energy I can control.

Overall...

Being a Psyker was weird.

Like, really, really weird.

 

[Trafford]

The Psykers were not storing the energy levels in their bodies, but instead, their bodies were acting as conduits for the energies of the Warp.

The Psykers were using their bodies as the conduit for the Warp to descend, and the stronger their Soul and Body were, the higher amount of Warp Energies they could summon to the realspace.

My Soul was extremely powerful due to my True Body, yet the quantity of my Soul was still something around Tier 10 or the peak of Tier 10. The more problematic thing was the strength of my physical body, because the physical body needed to be strong enough to handle the flow of the Warp Energy into the realspace.

My body in this world wasn't really powerful enough to handle Warp Energies that were above the limits of Tier 9.

Anything more and I would be risking severe injuries ot the body, and if I summon the Warp Energy comparable to the peak of the Tier 10, then I could even risk the destruction of my clone.

Which would be the most troubling.

And it was something that was to be avoided,

Right now, I needed to train with the Warp Energy, because as much as I hated to say it, I noticed my manipulation and control over the Warp Energy sucked.

Absolutely.

The Warp Energy wasn't any kind of internal Energy that was my own right from the start, and I could manipulate it on the instinctive level. The Warp Energy was something that was never mine and would never be.

I can maximally summon it from the other Dimension and control it.

And this was the problematic thing.

For my entire life, I was only using Energy that was my own, because using Energy that wasn't my own in the first place was extremely dangerous. I greatly disdained the usage of the Dimensional Energies, and even in the Kadath Universe, the Chthonian Empire of the Baator held a great disdain towards the Dimensional Energies.

It was an undeniable truth that if one was very talented, they could basically skip Tiers at a fast speed and reach tremendous realism of power. Yet there was an underlying danger of using the Dimensional Energies.

If someone managed to sever the connection between the Dimensional Energy and the user of the Energy from the Dimension where the Energy originated from, the person was as good as dead.

They would simultaneously lose all of their power, and most of them, 99% of users, died shortly after they were connected to their Dimension, which was severed. That was something that was a really big disadvantage and something that was the reason why I never bothered with the Dimensional Energies during my entire life.

Not to mention, with my affinity for the Magic and Magic Manipulation, if I wanted to boost the potency of some spell, I could use the ambient Magic in the environment. I would need to start from scratch, but fortunately enough, the Architect has been memorizing every single piece of knowledge that was discovered by the Empire.

This was also the major reason why I created the Empire in the first place and set up the policies of the Empire in a brutal form of meritocracy and competition, discovery, and research.

Everything that was researched, upgraded, discovered, and so on would, in the end, one way or another, find its way into my hands.

And fortunately, I bought the backup systems of Archnitect with me, so I can just download the knowledge about the usage of the Dimensional Energies into my brain and assimilate the knowledge.

Even though it was an unpopular topic in the Imperium, there were still many thousands of people who were carrying out comprehensive and very extensive research into the usage of the Dimensional Energies.

Though that was all for later, right now, I needed to get out of this damned contraption, as the doors seemed to be stuck.

Surprisingly.

Much to my luck, Esdeath came in and opened the doors to the chamber with her sheer strength as she helped me get out of the machine.

"I guess that the procedure was successful."

I nodded to Esdeath's statement, merely confirming that he had succeeded, which was indeed the fact, as he was successful in the endeavor.

"Yes, I was... the process was successful, and right now I am Psyker. Yet it would require a considerable amount of training to get used to the manipulation of the Warp Energies. It's harder than it seems."

I said, and it wasn't even a lie, because manipulating the War Energy was indeed a bit harder than it really seemed. It was troublesome because one needed to project their mind into the Warp and draw out the Warp Energies and project them into the real space.

Through the body as the conduit.

And at the same time, one needed to protect one's Soul own soul from the Daemons in the Warp, as the inhabitants of the Immaterium would try to possess anyone who was using the Warp Energies.

Not even the Aeldari created a perfect method of shielding themselves from the Warp Possession, though they had the most advanced ones, where the Possession was pretty low compared to the other species in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Unfortunately, the Solar Terran Federation lacked many advanced methods, so I would need to work with what I had and combine it with my knowledge to create a better method.

Right now, this avatar contained a whisper of power from the True Body, yet that wasn't enough to protect me against the Gods of Chaos, as they were more powerful than the Tier 12 entities.

If I had to guess, they were something akin to Pseudo Tier 13, and they were also boosted in the Warp.

I needed to be very careful when using the energies of the Immaterium, because it would inevitably attract the Chaos Gods and also the Emperor. And these were just the threats that I was aware of; there was also an untold number of entities that I was completely unaware of, and they posed a danger to me.

 

[Trafford]

The Milky Way Galaxy.

It is one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. Its name is a translation of the Latin term Via Lactea, which in turn is derived from the Greek galaxias, referring to the pale band of light formed by stars in the galactic plane as seen in the night skies of Holy Terra.

The stellar disk of the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter and is considered to be, on average, about 1,000 light years thick. It is estimated to contain at least 200 billion stars and possibly up to 400 billion stars, with an estimated average of 300 billion, the exact figure depending on the number of very low-mass, or dwarf stars.

This can be compared to the one trillion stars of the larger neighbouring Andromeda galaxy.

Milky Way Galaxy was a very dangerous place, and it was always a dangerous place, even during the age of the Solar Terran Federation.

Old Ones.

Star Gods.

Necrons.

Aeldari.

Chaos.

And this was just the start of the list of dangers in the Milky Way Galaxy. Now, after the Old Night and the Age of Strife, the dangers of the Milky Way Galaxy reached entirely new heights that had never been seen before.

For me, one of the greatest dangers was the Imperium of Man due to the Emperor of Mankind and his theocratic fanatics. Fortunately, the Imperium was significantly weakened, with the Emperor immobilized on the Golden Throne and the Primarchs lost across time and space.

Some things that I planned to do would attract the inevitable attention of the Imperium of Mankind, and I would be for sure their enemy.

Life and death, one to be precise.

The current state of the Milky Way Galaxy was shit.

It seemed that after my death, things really started spiraling.

Following the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh at the end of the Age of Strife in the early 30th Millennium, the Milky Way Galaxy was rent by the implosion of the Aeldari Empire and the fall of the greatest Empire that the Milky Way Galaxy has ever seen.

Where the core worlds of that ancient stellar realm had been in the galactic northwest, a vast new Warp rift spilled out into realspace, the Eye of Terror.

The Eye of Terror, called the Ocularis Terribus in High Gothic, is a massive Warp rift and permanent Warp storm approximately twenty thousand light years across, a nexus of Psychic Energy and physical space-time where the Immaterium co-exists with realspace.

Fortunately enough, the Fenran Rex IX had some records about the Eye of Terror and its implications from the time when the planet had contact with the rest of the Imperium, as this place was technically on the list of planets that would soon be added to the Imperial Space.

The sole reason why it wasn't yet was due to the Warp Storm.

It was the largest and most well-known Warp rift in the Milky Way Galaxy and is located at the rimward edge of the galaxy, to the galactic northwest of Terra, in the Segmentum Obscurus.

It was home to the largest concentration of the forces of Chaos in realspace, including the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines that fled from Terra after the end of the Horus Heresy.

Not to mention, since the creation of the Eye of Terror, the number of Chaos Incursions into the realspace has increased tremendously, while at the same time, the Daemons of Chaos have found it much easier to enter the realspace.

The barriers between the Immaterium and Materium were much weaker due to the Eye of Terror, which was giving the Daemons more and more freedom than one would have thought or wanted.

This allowed more and more Daemons to descend from the Immaterium and possess Psykers, and even in some places, the Daemons could materialize directly.

"So, when can I undergo the process?"

Not long after I finished the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, Esdeath also wanted to undergo them and become a Psyker. In the end, she was in for everything that would increase her strength and power.

"Give me a few days... I need to do some tests and adjust the procedure. Afterward, you will have your own go."

There was still a lot of room for the improvement and now that I underwent the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, I got a lot of data to work with.

I had already instructed the Architect to begin working on potential upgrades to the machinery used for Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, while I would start working on some process tweaks.

During the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, I noticed that there were some things that could be done much better and more smoothly for better results. The integration of the Psyker Gene wasn't perfect, and I noticed that when undergoing the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, there was some minor resistance toward the Psyker Gene.

Even though the Psyker Gene that I was integrating into my body was already cultivated using my own DNA and Genetic Sequence.

"Do what you want. I am going to training for now and I will await you in the evening, at 21:00. Not a second later."

She said as Esdeath left my laboratory and started working on the Genetic Surgery, Gene Therapy, and their adjustments. Today at 21:00, we had another part of the courtship ceremony, after the most important part, which involved hunting down the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bear.

Esdeath was always very punctual and precise all the time.

Even though she wasn't fond of these traditions, she was going through every single one, and now, it came the time for the presentation of the trophy for the Patriarch and father of the Tribe, and asking for her hand.

Nevertheless, I still had some ten hours or something for my research, and considering all the things that I needed to do...

There was a lot of work that was awaiting me.

 

[Trafford]

Several Days Later, Icecrown Citadel, Industrial Area

The Industrial Area of the Icecrown Citadel was a new addition to the place, which was constructed shortly after my own proposition to industrialize the entire Partas Tribe and their faction.

The industrial sector of the Icecrown Citadel sprawled beneath a sky choked with steam and flickering neon. Towering factories stretched high like jagged teeth, their exteriors a patchwork of rusted steel and glowing circuitry.

Conveyor belts snake along the sides of buildings, carrying crates of unknown tech and humming with magnetic pulses. Gigantic exhaust stacks belch plumes of synthetic vapor, casting shifting shadows across the maze of metal catwalks below.

Autonomous drones buzz overhead, scanning shipments and workers alike with cold, unblinking optics. Below, mechanized loaders with spider-like legs shuffle heavy containers between platforms, their hydraulics hissing with every movement.

The air was thick with ozone and oil, a constant reminder that this place never sleepept as the Partas Tribe was going all-out on the industrialization as they knew the power of the advanced technology.

Pipes crawled across every surface like metallic veins, carrying streams of coolant and glowing plasma through the belly of the city. Flickering billboards in alien dialects advertise nanite repair kits, fusion tools, and exo-suit upgrades.

Workers in reinforced suits, some human, some part-machine... moved with precision, overseen by android supervisors whose chrome faces never change expression.

With the STCs on hand, the industrialization was going very well.

Though if you have STC, then it was pretty easy. Though this time, I wasn't alone in here, as I was here together with Esdeath, as we were walking hand in hand as we went to check on the starship that was being built here.

The higher-ups of the Partas Tribe knew what was being built here, as it was all part of our trade. With the massive industrialization efforts that the Partas Tribe was undergoing, it wouldn't take long for the Partas Tribe to start building starships of smaller classes in larger numbers.

Not just one starship.

Fortunately enough, the starship would soon be finished.

"That thing would be humongous..."

Esdaeth muttered as we looked at the construction site of the starship that was being completed as we were speaking right now. With the introduction of drones and machines that were doing the work without any rest and with perfect precision, a lot of menial tasks were being completed at a staggering pace.

The starship was a colossal, dagger-shaped vessel slicing through the void of space with an imposing and sleek silhouette. It could be measured around 19,000 meters in length or 19 kilometers in size.

Its design was angular and heavily armored, giving it a menacing and powerful presence. The surface was studded with lights, ports, and structural details that represented a complex network of systems, docking bays, and command modules spread across its massive upper hull.

A dense cluster of superstructures dominates the central spine of the ship, glowing with cold blue lights that indicate already active energy systems, hangars, or possibly shield generators.

Those structures rose in tiers, like an industrial fortress, acting at the ship's role as both a mobile command center and a heavily armed warship.

The starship boasted an armament of unimaginable firepower, composed of over 5,000 particle cannons, including 750 twin anti-matter batteries, and 1000 turret-mounted twin heavy plasma batteries.

This starship was one of the primary designs of the Solar Terran Federation for the Dreadnought; more specifically, it was an Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, and one of the most advanced starships the Solar Terran Federation designed.

I chose this model because I couldn't choose anything else, really. The Voidshiuips used by the Chthonian Empire of Baator or the other factions of the Kadath Universe depended on the combination of Magic, different Energies, and rare minerals.

None of those were present within the Immaterius Universe, as the Immaterius Universe was rather a mundane Universe, and the only Supernatural Factor was the Warp, and everything that was supernatural in this universe was related to the Warp one way or another.

"Yes it is... actually, what are you looking at... is one of the most advanced designs that the Solar Terran Federation has ever designed with all technology and everything... one could say, that you wouldn't be able to find more advanced piece of the human-based starship in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in today's age."

I stated because, according to what I knew about the current technology of the Imperium of Man, it was...

Pathetic.

The people of the Imperium of Man and their dammed Cult Mechanicus are the set of religious beliefs that serve as the philosophical foundation of the Adeptus Mechanicus and its predecessor, the ancient Mechanicum.

The religion of the Cult Mechanicus values knowledge and the technology it creates above all else and views the final embrace of technology in the form of a purely mechanical existence as the ultimate destiny for Mankind's evolution.

It maintains the glories of yesteryear with rite, dogma, and edict instead of true discernment and comprehension. Even the theoretically simple process of activating a vehicle's engine is preceded by the application of ritual oils, the burning of sacred resins, and the chanting of long and complex hymns.

And the greatest heresy was an innovation of already existing technology.

"As long as it serves the purpose. When would it be finished?"

Esdeath asked as the only thing that she was interested about the starship was that if it could fly and when they could leave the planet and venture into the depths of the Milky Way Galaxy.

She was totally dead set on coming with me into the stars.

"Two months approximately. The construction process is much faster than we have initially anticipated. Though, before we leave, we would take one tour around the planet and destroy a few things in the world. That way, it would be much easier for the Partas Tribe to conquer the rest of the continent and even the rest of the planet after we leave."

 

[Trafford]

The last thing that I would do before leaving the Fenran Rex IX was to scan the entire planet and send the information to the Partas Tribe.

While I was in the lab to get a connection to some of the functioning facilities of the Solar Terran Federation on the planet, there were not many of them that were in a state where I could connect to them.

Most of them ran out of power centuries ago, and some were damaged from the battles and war, most probably since the Old Night.

The price was steep for many of them.

So, I would be leaving my newly created starship for that. Also, it seemed that the Southerners were in control of some former technologies of the Solar Terran Federation and also managed to maintain several of the fortresses left from that age.

Which in itself was a tiny miracle.

I would need to destroy those ones, too.

At least I would get the opportunity to test the spaceship that we were building right now.

"Well then... why did we come here in the first place?"

She asked because every minute that was wasted on something useless could be rather used to train more. Right now, in preparation for the departure from the Fenran Rex IX, she was training every single moment to become stronger and prepare for the challenges ahead.

"Ts... ungrateful woman... come, we are going to pump some Psyker Genes into you."

I said, seeing that there was practically zero to no reaction to the spaceship... though I knew that it would change once she saw how much destruction that thing was capable of unleashing.

Spoiler.

It was a lot.

The main weapons of the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought could destroy an entire planet if it could implode the planetary core. The Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was designed to be the backbone of the heaviest class of starships in the fleets of the Solar Terran Federation.

"Finally!"

She literally threw herself around my neck as she was very happy that she was finally going to become a Psyker. Another powerful up for her, and considering that she was already peak Tier 8 physically, I knew that it wouldn't be long before she would be able to reach Tier 9.

She was already pretty powerful from the start and had one advantage that my body in the Immaterius Universe didn't possess, as she had Warp Energy in her blood already.

Esdeath gave me a few kisses on the face as she pressed my face to her huge cleavage because, finally, after waiting a long time, she was able to become a Psyker. Not to mention, she would be the very first Psyker in the entire Partas Tribe.

The Partas Tribesmen were not really Psykers, but they were something in the middle, as they could use the Psychic Energies of the Warp on the subconscious levels due to their Danger Beast Blood that was flowing through their blood.

The Danger Beast Blood allowed the members of the Partas Tribe to use the Warp Energy and also to store some amount of the Warp Energy in their blood and body. At the same time, though, they couldn't manipulate it or control it, but it could be used to strengthen their physical capabilities.

It answered their feelings and their needs. It worked in a rather fascinating way, because it was acting entirely independent of almost anything, and yet it was providing them with rather huge supernatural strength and power.

"Then let's go already!"

Esdeath stated as she literally dragged me to my laboratory, as she wanted to undo the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy for the Psyker Gene. She was extremely eager to undergo the procedure to obtain more power for herself.

Soon enough, we arrived at my laboratory, this time, though, it was filled with some more advanced pieces of tech. After my own Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, I came up with several upgrades to the original process, and there was also a redesign of the machinery that was used in the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

"You can already let me go..."

I said as Esdeath let me go, because during the entire time, she was holding me tightly as if I was to disappear any moment.

"Now, listen to me for a bit. Your Psyker Gene for the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy has already been cultivated based on your DNA and Genetic Sequence. The only problematic aspect is its reaction with the Danger Beast Blood in your body. This could have some really unforeseen circumstances that we need to address if they arise..."

I said that because, contrary to my own Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, Esdeath's was much more problematic. She had the Danger Beast Blood in her body, and in truth, I didn't know if some unpredictable situation would happen during the procedure.

According to my calculations, the chances of it happening were actually pretty low, but well... anything could happen during situations like this, and nobody could say confidently that this process was 100% safe.

"I have already created some back-up protocol and asked your father for the pure Blood Essence of some Super Danger Beasts that would be used to stabilize your condition if something happens during the process."

I stated while motioning to the vials with the pure Blood Essence of the Super Danger Beasts, which were the strongest kind of the Danger Beasts in the entire Fenran Rex IX.

"I understand. Is there anything more?"

Hearing the explanation, she asked as I shook my head, as there was nothing more to add.

"No. Everything would be the same as my own Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy. If there are any problems, I will handle them as I will be overseeing the process entirely from here."

I stated while motioning for Esdeath to enter the chamber that was used to conduct the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy. She stripped herself of her uniform and showcased her toned warrior body to me...

 

[Trafford]

While this wasn't the first time that I saw her almost naked, this was the first time that I saw her half-naked from a close distance, and I had to admit that her physique was superb.

Every part of her body was perfectly toned, and her compact muscles were visible from all the training and combat. Esdeath even had a toned stomach with a six-pack visible from her physical training, which was respectable, considering she was a pure physical combatant.

Most likely, the amount of time she devoted to physical training during her much shorter life was even higher than I spent physically training during my thirteen thousand years of life, or so...

Despite everything, I was still a Mage at heart, so physical training wasn't anything for me, and if not for Hela literally pushing me to train with something or with her, then I would rather refrain from doing such troublesome activities during my free time.

It was also pretty annoying to be told.

"Can I start the process?"

I asked, and seeing Edeath nodding from the chamber, I pushed a few buttons on the console command and started the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy. Soon enough, the procedure on her body started just like mine, and the machinery started filling the entire chamber with the bullish water liquid.

Shortly after that, the machinery started working its wonders, as the several needles penetrated through her skin and started injecting her body with the Nanomachines that were programmed to distribute the Psyker Gene into her already existing Genome and help with the adaptation process in everything.

It was rather a lengthy process, one must admit, but it was working rather well. I designed it that way, because with the Nanomachines that were helping to accommodate the Psyker Gene into the already existing Genome, the chances for success were much higher.

Though the two variables were still remaining.

Danger Beast Bloodline.

Already existing Warp Energy in her body that was now fused with her body.

The second one was actually a much smaller problem than the first one, because the second one could actually be helpful in the entire process. After something around half an hour, I could see that, exactly like my predictions, the first wave of the Psyker Gene was being integrated into her Genome rather well.

And the rejection rate was...

According to the latest data, something around 15%.

Which was very good.

Even when I was doing the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy on myself, the rejection rate in the first wave of the Psyker Gene Integration was something around 35%, which was more than double Esdeath's rate.

It seemed that the presence of the Warp Energy in her body and also that of the Super Danger Beast Bloodline were helping the Psyker Genes to acclimate much better into her already existing DNA Sequences.

Which was a wonderful result.

With the rates like this, it was to be expected that she would be able to accommodate the Psyker Genes much better than me during the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy. Which, from a certain angle, sounded pretty logical, as she already had the presence of the Warp Energy in her body.

And according to my research, the members of the Partas Tribe were hardly even humans anymore.

Nor were they traditional Psykers, and even after awakening as the Psykers, they would be something more.

The Warp Energy that was brought into their bodies has, over the course of five thousand years or something, already remodelled their bodies on the fundamental level. When compared to the DNA Sequence of a normal human, the match was only something around 30%.

Which was pretty low.

It wasn't even half.

This meant that the members of the Partas Tribe were already an entirely new species, which wasn't actually that surprising. Even though, in terms of outward appearance, the Partas Tribesmen were actually no different from the general human population.

Aside from the fact that all of them were extremely good-looking, in fact, but that was all.

***

Three Hours Later

The Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy on Esdeath was progressing very well, without any complications, to the point where the Super Danger Beast Bloodline was reacting positively to the treatment and becoming stronger.

Around one hour earlier, I even used the purified Blood Essence of the Super Danger Beast that I got from the Patriarch of the Partas Tribe, Ezran Partas.

This brought an aftereffect, that Esdeath's body, which was now undergoing the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, started assimialting all of the Super Danger Beast Blood and her body was being strengthened at a staggering rate.

I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to reach Tier 10 in terms of physique alone, because it seemed like she was assimilating the Super Danger Beast Bloodline as her own.

The thing about the members of the Partas Tribe was that, even though all of them possessed some sort of Danger Beast Bloodlines, while the direct descendants possessed the Super Danger Beast Bloodlines, there was still some sort of resistance within their bloodlines.

Like some kind of imaginary barrier that was preventing them from utilizing their potential to their fullest. But it seemed that with the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy that was inserting the Psyker Gene into their Genomes, that last hurdle was disappearing.

And her body was answering to it, making the Super Danger Beast Bloodline truly their, and it seemed like the Psyker Gene was the last missing piece of the puzzle.

Everything seemed to make sense right now.

I observed the changes with great eagerness, because this was all happening on its own without any outside interference. I wondered if the other members of the Partas Tribe would undergo the same thing as Esdeath; most probably yes.

All of them in the end bore the same kind of Bloodline, and if the Psyker Gene was inserted into their Genome, it would create a chain reaction and everything would start out on its own.

 

[Trafford]

Esdeath's very own Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy was much smoother than my own, and it was even faster when she exited the chamber. Even though she felt a bit tired from the procedure, it wasn't anything serious, as she was in very good condition after the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

Not to mention, I could clearly sense the power that she was giving off...

Peak Tier 9 just after the completion of the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

And these were just the outward scans.

I was wondering how much Warp Energy she could summon.

She was in much better condition to do it than I, because due to the Super Danger Beast Bloodline, it seemed that the members of the Partas Tribe were perfect Psykers. As they had the blood of the Dnager Beasts flowing in their veins, which already contained some sort of Warp Energy and had a connection with the Immaterium...

This made them perfect conduits for the Warp.

Far better than the average Psykers.

"So, how are you feeling?"

I asked as I went to her and brought her some clothes that were already prepared beforehand for the time when she was finished with the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

"Powerful and weird..."

It seemed that she was just in the adaptation phase to the presence of the Warp Energy, because her entire worldview was changing. When one became a Psyker, their entire being was changed as well as their perception of reality became much different compared to what it was before.

I underwent the same thing when I became a Psyker, but at the same time, for me it wasn't really much different.

The fundamental basis of the change was that the ordinary person became extraordinary in the sense that they obtained access to the supernatural energy that allowed them to perceive reality very differently.

For me, though, it wasn't anything significant as I was already born with the Demonic Energy, so when my avatar underwent the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, it was like I was just becoming closer to my true body with my Avatar.

"You will get used to it... Right now, I will take some of your blood and do some scans. You are the very first member of the Partas Tribe that underwent the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, so I need more data to make a final assessment of the process for the rest of the Partas Tribesmen."

I said as Esdeath nodded and took the clothes from my hand, as I went to do my things.

Taking her blood became rather problematic, due to her now much stronger and more durable body. Fortunately enough, I was prepared for that and had specifically crafted tools for such a purpose.

Meanwhile, several drones did the scans and collected the data on Esdeath after she underwent the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, and they would be comparing them with her status before the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy.

"After you undergo the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, you will need a few days for the Psyker Gene to properly acclimate to the Psyker Gene in your body. At the same time, now that you have presence in the Warp, you need to be careful of the Daemonic Possession."

Daemonic Possession refers to the ability of the malevolent entities that exist within the Immaterium known as Chaos Daemons to possess the minds and physical bodies of mortals known as Daemonhosts or individual items and machine constructs called Daemon Weapons or Daemon Engines in realspace.

Daemons can possess mortals on the other side of the barrier between dimensions by transferring some of their psychic power into the mind of a psychically "gifted" mortal victim.

The mind of a psyker is the most susceptible to this influence, which is why the Imperium so greatly fears and controls psychic individuals.

The Daemons appear in dreams and visions, infusing their mortal host with a portion of Daemonic power. This eventually leads to the destruction of the possessed mortal, who is known as a Daemonhost, as their physical frame is warped by the Daemon to suit its own inhuman aesthetic.

"Though with your Danger Beast Bloodline, there is a high possibility that your mind and soul would be protected by the Spirit of the Danger Beast in your body. If my hypothesis is correct, then the Partas Tribe would have a perfect method of protecting their souls against the Daemonic Possession."

This was a problem even for the Solar Terran Federation.

Daemons have no physical presence within the Warp. The Realm of Chaos is anathema to the laws of physics, and the starships that navigate its depths do so by taking a skin or bubble of "reality" with them when they enter using their Warp-Drive.

When humanity took for the first time to the stars, the Daemons of the Warp were one of the greatest dangers for the travelling starships. As the denizens of the Warp were greatly attracted to anyone using the starships to traverse through the Warp.

Not even the Solar Terran Federation has created a perfect method to protect the minds of the Psykers against the dangers of the Warp. Over the span of humanity's history, the Warp rifts that have led to a Daemonic assault have usually been the result of untrained psykers opening their minds to the baleful whispers of the Warp.

If such method existed, then humanity would become a true and geniue Psychic Species like the Aeldari or Orks. Unforutnly, nothing like that existed, and the human Psykers needed to depend solely on themselves to protect their souls from the denizens of the Warp.

"Don't tell me that you want to summon a Daemon and test the theory?"

When I saw the grin on her face, I instantly knew what she was thinking about, and I think that it was a terrible idea. While I was confident in my ability to exorcise the Daemons of the Warp from the realspace, taking such hazardous risk wasn't in my nature.

Not then.

Not now.

Not in the future.

 

[Trafford]

Chaos Daemons, or simply Daemons, also known as a "Neverborn" amongst the forces of Chaos, are intelligent and usually malevolent entities of the Warp comprised of purely Psychic Energy.

Daemons were both sentient and self-aware embodiments of Chaos and collectively the greatest servants of the Chaos Gods and of Chaos itself as a universal force. Daemons were created at the whim of one of the four major Chaos Gods from a fraction of the God's own power within the Immaterium and act as an extension of its will.

A Daemon's appearance and intrinsic character reflect the God's own nature. These Daemons may be reabsorbed into the God's Psychic Signature in the Warp at their whim because, in a certain sense, they were just the extension of the Chaos Gods themselves.

The Solar Terran Federation reached the Warp, Imperium, Ruinous Powers, and everything related to the Warp rather extensively. When I was still human and lived in the Federation, I wasn't really working on the projects related to the Warp, primarily ,and only oversaw a few projects that were pretty important to warrant my personal attention.

Though several of my good friends were working on the various projects whose sole goals were to create Psykers.

The ultimate goal of humanity.

To become the Psychic Species.

Like the Aeldari.

Who were like Gods.

With their ability to wield the Warp safely and bend reality to their wishes and whims... from a certain perspective, they really seemed to be Gods.

And then we found the Daemons.

They were very interesting creatures.

The denizens of the Warp.

When manifested in the material universe, Daemons have particular invulnerabilities and weaknesses, as well as many strange powers derived from their Warp-born nature as psychic beings.

Slaying a Daemon's physical projection does not kill it, but only severs its presence in reality; its true essence in the Warp remains unharmed.

Retrospectively thinking, this wasn't an ability that was exclusive to the Chaos Daemons, yet, even outside of the Immaterius Universe, the number of races that had such perfect conversion of energy.

As creatures of pure emotion and psychic energy that are native to the twisted mirror dimension of the Empyrean, Daemons cannot survive for long in the cold reality of the material universe.

They need some manner of focal point, some channel through which they can transfer their uncanny power from the Immaterium and make themselves manifest in the worlds of flesh and blood.

"Well? If something goes wrong, I have you to take care of it."

Hearing her to say something like that made me cringe, but alas, it was true, because I was confident in handling the Daemonic Possession if something like that even happened. If my theory were correct, then the moment something attempted to possess her, the Spirit Beast would emerge and destroy the Daemon.

Not to mention, I was wondering if the Spirit Beast could be cultivated and use the Daemons as it's food.

"As you wish... but it could be an extremely painful process. Daemonic Possession is no joke."

I said that because I witnessed a fair share of the Daemonic Possessions, and they were no joke and were extremely dangerous. Stating that, I removed the protections around the place, which were serving to prevent the Daemons of the Warp from noticing the Warp Presence of the Psykers.

Psykers were too dangerous to remain at liberty on humanity's myriad worlds; their minds were susceptible to Daemonic possession, as their strong presences in the Warp could serve as gateways into the material universe for all kinds of Warp entities if they were weak or undisciplined with their powers.

Uncontrolled, they can intentionally or unintentionally cause the destruction of entire worlds and have done so in the pre-Imperial past, such as during the terrible days of the Age of Strife.

Even during the Golden Age of Technology, during the heights of the Solar Terran Federation, there wasn't a method that would shield the Psykers from the Daemonic Possessions, much less right now when the technology of humanity has degraded.

Greatly at that.

Nevertheless, the very moment when I disabled the protections against the entities of the Immaterium, Esdeath's Psychic Presence appeared in the Warp, and it was like a beacon for the Daemons of the Warp that were close to her.

The stronger the Psyker was, the more powerful their Presence within the Warp was, and her's Psychic Presence was very powerful.

It was a combination of multiple factors, but the very potent Danger Beast Bloodline that she possessed was the main reason why she was physically very powerful, and her presence in the Warp was like a flame attracting all moths.

And as I predicted, soon enough her sheer presence within the Warp attracted thousands of Lesser Daeemons, because it wasn't every day that someone managed to project such a powerful Presence to the Warp.

Such a person would be almost a dream-like host for the Daemons to possess.

Yet the very moment they approached Esdeath, suddenly the entire area of the Warp shook as an enormous silhouette of the Danger Beast appeared. I couldn't really see it clearly, because it was in the Warp and my own power wasn't stabilized enough, but I could hear it.

The anguished screams of the Daemons of the Warp, that were being butchered in hundreds within the heart of the Warp.

Which meant that they were dead.

For real.

Killed.

End.

Finito.

I knew that it was being done by the Spiritual Manifestation of the Super Danger Beast that was the primogenitor of the Partas's Bloodline Lineage.

And the slaughter continued for some good time, as the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast didn't stop anywhere as it continued slaughtering it's way through the hordes and hordes of Daemons that wanted to possess Esdeath.

At the same time, every time it killed a Daemon, some part of the essence of the Daemon was being absorbed by the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast, as it grew stronger and stronger with each kill.

This was exactly the thing that I aimed to achieve.

 

[Trafford]

After slaughtering a really good number of the Daemons within the Immaterium, the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast that was dwelling in Esdeath's very own being. What was rather intriguing was that the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast grew considerably in power.

Well, it has assimilated the essence of several thousand Chaos Daemons, so it was only understandable that it would have grown much stronger during the time it was slaughtering the Chaos Daemons en masse.

The Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast was much more stronger as it looked at Esdeath in something that could be termed as fondness and calmness. Soon after that, the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast disappeared back, though I could sense its power...

Tier 10...

If Esdeath could assimilate the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast and absorb its power into her own. It would be a tremendous power update, and at the same time, she would obtain an immensely powerful presence within the Warp and also become immune to the corruption of the Warp.

The Chaos Daemons would become nothing more than just food for Esdeath.

"That's enough."

With a single command, I utilized some of the power from my True Self and dispersed the connection between the Immaterium and Realspace, because the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast started attracting too much attention.

Rather too much for my tastes.

Esdeath returned to normal, albeit she was feeling very weakened from the entire ordeal, as she was extremely close to being possessed by the Daemons. Not to mention, she was able to sense the Daemons that were attempting to possess her, which was also a pretty disgusting and nasty feeling.

I knew that she was now partially regretting her decision to let herself risk Daemonic Possession, but alas, at least she was happy that she got the experience and won't be bothering me about it anymore.

At least that was something that I sincerely hoped for.

"How are you feeling?"

I asked while running some diagnostics on her, to see if there were any aftereffects from the attempt at the Daemonic Possession, but there shouldn't be. There were no particularly powerful Daemons attempting something like that.

Nor even one of the Greater Daemons, Exalted Daemons, or Daemon Princes attempted to do something like that, or rather, she wasn't in the Immaterium long enough to catch the attention of some really powerful denizens of the Warp.

Maximally, she could catch the attention of some lucky Greater Daemon that was close to her location within the Warp, but even that didn't happen, and all that was attracted to her Warp Presence were the Lesser Daemons.

"Rather tired... mainly mentally... You were right, attempting the Daemonic Possession is a plainly stupid thing to do."

Esdeath muttered as she now knew that I was kidding when I told her what was in the game and how dangerous it could and would be if one was on the brink of the Daemonic Possession.

"What was that thing that appeared and protected me in the Warp?"

She asked when we sat down, because she was very tired from the attempts at the Daemonic Possession.

"That's a Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast. It seemed that the originator of your Bloodline, the very first Super Danger Beast that your ancestors used to make and create your bloodline, was so powerful that it managed to leave a Spiritual Imprint in the Bloodline of the Partas Tribe. Once the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast sensed that you were in danger of the Daemonic Possession, it manifested and started slaughtering the Daemons that wanted to possess you."

I explained to her the situation with the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast, and now, I also needed to explain to her the dangerous reverse side of having the Spiritual Imprint of a powerful entity deeply ingrained in the very own bloodline of the Partas Tribe.

And it wasn't anything nice.

"And now, before you start celebrating the fact that you have something so powerful like the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast in you, there is also a great deal of danger to it. Beucase the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast is so powerful and also capable of growth, if it grows too strong, it would gain self-consciouss and once that happened, it would grow stronger enen fastster... and then, after some time... you would be risking of getting possessed by the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast."

I said that having something like a Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast was an immense benefit, yet at the same time, it was also an immense danger and hazard for Esdeath.

If she was too weak, her own consciousness and very own being would be assimilated by the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast, because I was sure that the Super Danger Beast would want to revive itself.

And what was a better container for the revival if not the vessel that bore its Bloodline, which was incredibly pure, potent, and powerful?

"Well, I guess that it was too good to be true..."

Esdeath muttered as I gave her a sympathetic nod, because well... it was true.

The Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast was practically too good to be true.

"Can you do something about it?"

She asked while looking at me expectantly and as if I had a solution for every problem that could emerge.

"Maybe... the power of the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast isn't that powerful yet, so hopefully I would be able to help you devise a method where you can start assimialting the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast. Though... there is a certain problem with this."

I made a small pause while looking at Esdeath.

"What problem?"

I can see that she was half satisfied and half annoyed hearing my words.

"As you grow stronger, the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast in your blood will also grow stronger. You are having too many interviews, and any separation is impossible... we would need to create a method to hinder its growth, and this escapade of yours certainly didn't help the situation overall."

 

[Trafford]

This was the main problem of the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast within her Lineage, as it would be growing stronger with her, which in turn, would make it much more challenging to deal with the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast.

We needed to destroy it, because the underlying dangers of the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast within her blood were too high. Devising a method that would deal with this problem would be very hard, because the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast was an essential part of her entire being.

Any possible tampering with it could be potentially fatal and extremely hazardous, so that was the main reason why I was refraining from doing something about it right now. And this wasn't about just Esdeath, but also about all of the members of the Partas Tribe.

Every single tribesman had some blood of the danger beast in their veins, so all of them had something like the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast dwelling in them. Of which, some were stronger and some were weaker.

Still, it would be a problem that needed to be addressed, and technically, while I can use some more esoteric methods that were stemming from the power of my True Body, that wasn't something that I wanted.

We would need to address it at a later date, because for the time being, the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast wasn't posing a huge threat as long as Esdeath's growth was controlled.

Once I got a better handle on my Psyker Powers, I could recreate the Magic Seals from the Chthonian Empire and seal the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast until we were ready to completely deal with it.

That was the best solution that I could create right now from my head, because there was nothing better on the table without sufficient research on the topic. The only problem with this was the time that I would need to get a handle on my Psyker Powers, which wasn't really that easy.

Getting used to using energy that wasn't my own but was stemming from the different Dimension, a hostile Dimension, to be added and filled with the Chaos Daemons and under the constant oversight by the Dark Gods, wasn't something easy.

Though, fortunately, once I downloaded the knowledge of the Imperium on the usage of the Dimensional Energy, the process became much faster and smoother, but it was still a pretty lengthy process.

For instance, combined with the library of the Frozen Coven, which was pretty extensive at that, I was making some really steady progress.

"You should go and train to adapt to your power. For the first days after becoming a Psyker, you will need to get used to the new worldview and everything. The senses of the Psykers are much different from those of the non-Psykers, because Psykers see the world from the perspective of the Immaterium. I will prepare some exercises for the Psychic Energy Control and some Runes that would help you to hide your presence within the Immaterium when you would be drawing the powers of the Warp."

The Runes which I had in mind wouldn't be powerful enough to conceal drawing out the energies of the Warp on the Tier 9 or above, but it would be enough to hide her Warp Presence that was below the Tier 9 rather well.

These runes were a must, because if not for them, then she would need to depend once again on the Spiritual Avatar of the Super Danger Beast to destroy the Chaos Daemons that would want to possess her.

Every Psyker's Warp Presence was a target for the Daemons.

Ones like Partas Tribesmen that had bloodlines of the Danger Beasts and had some of the Warp Energies deeply ingrained in their DNA were perfect Daemonhosts for the Daemonic Possession.

***

Several Weeks Later, Fenran Rex IX, Feris Continent, Icecrown Citadel

Several weeks have passed since the Genetic Surgery and Gene Therapy, and one more positive news has finally reached my ears, and it was something that I wanted to hear since I transmigrated part of my Soul into the Immaterius Universe.

Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was finally finished, or rather, it was capable of flight, defenses, and stealth. The rest of the things could be finished by the droids when we are in space.

Once the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was finished and capable of Wartravel, I knew that it was time to leave the planet, and most obviously, Esdeath was coming with me.

She was extremely eager to see the outside world, and now that the Partas Tribe was stronger than ever, she could wander into the stars, knowing that her tribe would prosper.

And that was bringing us here, to the command deck of the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, as I was giving the orders to the AI that was in charge of the starship and activating the engines.

Most of the weapon systems were not activated, that would be done during the journey through the warp itself, because well...

As long as the main weapon systems were working, it was more than enough, and I wasn't planning on engaging in any kind of combat with the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought.

"Are we leaving already?"

Esdeath asked as when she saw me adjusting some buttons on the command chair and checking over some things.

"Be a bit more patient, I need to check some things."

I said while checking over the systems and when I concluded that everything was alright, I gave it a green light and we could go.

Soon enough, the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought's engines came to the life and the Gellar Field was being activated.

The technology that generates a protective Gellar Field around a starship intended for faster-than-light travel was invented along with the Warp-Drive by Humanity sometime in the 18th Millennium AD during the Golden Age of Technology.

 

[Trafford]

Several Days Later, Fenran Rex IX, Feris Continent, Icecrown Citadel, On the Command Deck of Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought

Generally speaking, travelling between the Star Systems could take many generations of travel, and most human interstellar colonies were isolated outposts established by the crews of generation starships or vessels that made use of suspended animation technology.

The Warp-Drive was one of the most revolutionary inventions in human history. What had once taken many generations of human lives now took only Terran days or weeks.

I still remember the Golden Age of Technology where the Warp Travel was much faster and safer, compared to the scraps of the technology that I managed to get on the Fenran Rex IX.

In approximately the 22nd Millennium, further technological progress led to the creation or the discovery of the human mutant Warp-pilots known as Navigators. These mutants allowed Warp-capable spacecraft to make longer, safer, and more accurate jumps through the Warp, and further accelerated the galaxy's colonisation by humanity.

This lasted until the Warp Storms of the Age of Strife in the 25th Millennium prevented further Warp travel and once more isolated all the human-settled worlds from one another for almost 5,000 Terran years.

Before a starship can enter the Warp, it must first travel at sublight speed to a star system's so-called Mandeville Point. This is the closest distance that a voidship can safely enter or exit Warpspace from its origin or destination system, respectively.

Right now, the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, which was named as Fenrir's Rage, would be leaving the planet Fenran Rex IX and heading toward the vastness of the galaxy.

Over the past few days, I used Fenrir's Revenge to destroy strategic locations in the Northern Tribal Alliance and in the South, pushing the southerners back to the Stone Age with relative ease.

Currently, the entire South has fallen into a state of very brutal civil war between the Southerners for the remnants of the technology that remained and were not destroyed by me.

"Hold onto the seat... we are going to the atmosphere."

I said to my companion, as the Architect's clone, that was in the control of the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought Fenrir's Rage, did its job, and the ship started rising from the ground and headed toward the stars.

"Activate the Warp-Drive."

The Warp-Drive, which was installed in the Fenrir's Rage, was far better and more advanced than anything that was currently used by the Imperium of Man. It was rather staggering how much humanity has regressed in terms of technological advancement, because they were reduced to a bunch of superstitious fools who were worshipping technology like it was some kind of God.

Plainly stupid.

And rahter ironic.

The Warp-Drive was soon enough activated by the Architect as the entire ship started shaking a bit. This would be the first flight, not to mention, they were going straight through the Warp Storm that was covering the entire region and a bunch of Star Systems.

Once a spacecraft activates its Warp-Drive, it would be plunged into a dimension very different from the material universe. It is convenient to imagine Warpspace as consisting of a relatively dense, almost liquid energy, devoid of stars, light, and life as it is commonly known.

Once within Warpspace, a Warp-capable voidship may move by means of its main reaction drives, following powerful eddies and currents in the Warp, eventually reaching a point in the Empyrean corresponding to a destination in realspace.

Though...

This was just a theoretical basis in the ideal world.

From a distance, one could see how the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought disappeared from the Realspace and entered the Warspace.

***

Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought Fenrir's Rage, One Hour Later

"Okey... we are now stabilized and are en route through the Warp Storm... The most difficult aspect of Warp travel is that it is impossible to detect the spatial movement of Warpspace once a ship is in the Warp. The ship can only blindly carry on, its crew trusting that it is going in the right direction. The longer a ship remains in Warpspace, the greater the chances of encountering some unexpected current that can turn it unknowingly off-course."

Travelling through the warp was very dangerous, and sometimes I wondered why nobody in the Solar Terran Federation bothered to invent a new system of FTL, the Faster-Than-Light travel.

Just within the Milky Way Galaxy, there were several methods of Faster-Than-Light Travel, and the most prominent among them was using the Webway and the Dolmen Gate.

The Webway is an extra-dimensional pocket dimension partitioned off from the Immaterium millions of Terran years ago by an extremely advanced xenos species known as the Old Ones that traverses most of the known galaxy and perhaps beyond. Today, it is utilised by the Asuryani of the craftworlds and their Drukhari and Harlequin kindred for faster-than-light travel.

The Dolmen Gate was something like a living stone portal that served as a gate into a portion of the Webway created by the Old Ones. Dolmen Gate technology was first developed by the Necrons with the aid of the C'tan Nyadra'zatha, "the Burning One". With this technology, the Necrons were able to gain a major advantage during the War in Heaven and were finally able to move rapidly through interstellar space without relying on sublight, anti-matter-powered stasis-ships.

This many species of the Federation were able to gather from the Aeldari Empire when the Aeldari Empire was the dominant and prominent power in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Interestingly enough, both of them were pieces of technology that I greatly desired. Even though the Chthonian Empire of the Baator was technologically very well advanced, the technological trees of the Aeldari and Necrons were...

In many regards, eclipsing that of the Chthonian Empire of Baator.

Not to mention, something like Webway and Dolmen Gates would provide an immense advantage to the Kadath Universe, if they were recreated back home, and most importantly, once placed under the control of the Imperial House, it would greatly strengthen our power and control once again.

 

[Trafford]

"So what now? Are we going to be just lost in the Immaterium? Won't that attract the Daemons sooner or later?"

It was not like Esdeath was fearing the Daemons of the Warp, especially with the Spiritual Manifestation of the Super Danger Beast within her Soul that was protecting her from the corruption of the Daemons.

But right now, we were on the home ground of the Daemons and Warp. Daemons were immensely stronger in the Warp when they could fight on their playground, and right now, even I was cautious about being in the Immaterium.

There were many ways through which this could become a huge problem.

Like attracting the Daemon Princes, Champions of Chaos, or other monstrosities in the Warp.

Much less being said about the Chaos Gods, the better; aside from the Four Great Gods of Ruin, the Warp was also home for many, many Lesser Gods of the Chaos that were no less dangerous than the current me.

Right now, despite the Psyker Gene and becoming a Psyker, I wasn't in a state to fight the Gods of Chaos. While I was confident taking on the Daemons Princes and Exalted Daemons, taking on the Chaos Gods was out of the question.

Until this Avatar wasn't at Tier 12, I would be staying away from the Chaos as much as possible.

"No. As you would have known, if you bothered to read the books that I gave you on the topic of Immaterium, the Warptravel could be navigated through. A person can gaze into the Warp and guide the ship around the hazards to be found there, and a stable reference point to triangulate one's position against. If these two conditions are fulfilled, we can safely navigate through the Warp and arrive where we want to arrive."

I said as I was exactly doing that. I wasn't the Navigator, but with my spells, I could mimic the effect of the Navigation through the Warp, not to mention, my very own Soul was rather apt for something like that.

In the Golden Age of Technology, Humanity first learned of this realm of unreality and how, in part, to manipulate it, and found that they could project vessels through its depths and have them emerge into realspace, having crossed vast distances that even at light speed would have taken generations to accomplish.

Yet the travels were always dangerous, and only relatively short jumps (although still many light years in span) could be attempted with any margin of safety as the tides of the Warp move in complex and inconsistent patterns; voidships attempting long journeys often end up wildly off-course, lost permanently within its complex weave or simply shredded to splinters.

But there were some humans, Psykers in fact, albeit different from the common Psykers, that possessed the Navigator Gene. This gives a Navigator the unique ability to navigate a faster-than-light starship accurately through Warpspace to emerge safely at another point in realspace.

This ability makes Navigators absolutely essential to humanity's continued survival and to all Human interstellar transportation, communication, and commerce. All Navigators have a third eye, commonly called the "Warp Eye", on their foreheads, which allows them to perceive the Empyrean.

And that was something that I was mimicking with my Spells right now.

"And right now, we are going to one of the Imperial Worlds... more precisely to the world that had forgotten facility from the Age of Technology in which there is a Gate to the Webway, and from there on, we are en route to the Commoragh."

I explained that Esdeath was already aware of some things about me and my connection to the Golden Age of Technology, so she was rather eager for the exploration. But what she was mostly eager for was the trip to the Commoragh and to fight Drukhari.

"I heard that Imperium is rather... a dangerous place for the Psykers."

Even though the Fenran Rex IX was a world that was covered by the almost permanent Warp Storm that had already lasted for many centuries, here and there... some voidships of the Imperium of Man managed to land at the

The Partas Tribe managed to find some and obtain a lexicon of knowledge about the Imperium, and knew that the Imperium was rather hostile toward Psykers and Mutants.

Technically speaking, the Partas Tribe was both, so they would be instantly declared as the target for the cleansing due ot their Psykery and also the fact that they had a bloodline of the Danger Beasts in their veins, which was making them Abhumans.

An Abhuman is a descendant of baseline Human settlers whose ancestors mutated and physically adapted to various extreme environmental conditions after being isolated for thousands of standard years on colony worlds across the galaxy. Some Abhumans may also be intentionally genetically engineered mutants created for a specific purpose.

The term may be short for "Aberrant Human", "abnormal Human" or less pejoratively, derived from the High Gothic term ab humanis, "from Humans".

In an Imperium of Man where genetic mutation from the Human baseline and spiritual corruption are often viewed as interrelated or one and the same, Abhumans are a focus of much controversy for the Imperial government.

So she wasn't really happy hearing that they would be going to the Imperium.

"You don't need to worry... according to the information that I managed to obtain, most of the Imperium won't be able to injure you... Obviously, we need to avoid the Emperor's Blessed and other people whom he could make his Vessels or Champion."

The Emperor of Mankind.

The God Emperor.

Anathema.

Within the current Imperium, where the Primarchs have been lost, and most of the genetically engineered supersoldiers could be dangerous only physically, not Psykery-wise.

Though I wouldn't underestimate them even a bit.

The Imperium of Man had a lot of technology that could unleash an unprecedented degree of destruction, and there were many fanatical believers in the God Emperor of Mankind who believed their God could make their Vessels channel his powers.

 

[Trafford]

Segmentum Solar, Imperium of Man, Necromunda System, Planet Necromunda

In the end, we spent several weeks traversing through the Immaterium. Even though the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was constructed as the pinnacle of the technology of the Chthonian Empire of the Baator, coupled with the technology of the Golden Age of Technology, the Warp was...

Unpredictable.

Before a starship can enter the Warp, it must first travel at sublight speed to a star system's so-called "Mandeville Point". This is the closest distance that a voidship can safely enter or exit the Immaterium from its origin or destination system, respectively.

This alone was a pain in the ass on its own.

It took a lot of time to do, because I wasn't the Navigator, and the methods used during the Terran Solar Federation couldn't be really used anymore. The state of the Warp was much different because the Warp today was extremely violent and hostile to everything that was alive.

On the bright side, I managed to stabilize my power at the peak of Tier 10, and soon enough, I would be able to exert the power of peak Tier 11 rather easily. Being Psyker was... weird.

Long short story, Psykers only drew on the energies of the Warp; they didn't have the energies in their own bodies. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time.

One could possess the power to destroy the entire world, yet could be killed by a peasant with an axe.

Rather ironic thought.

The Psykers could draw the energies from the Warp, but because they cannot directly store the energies in their bodies, it meant that they were physically weak. Those smarter ones would find a way to remedy this, by conducting various rituals to strengthen their physical dimensions or using the technology.

This was also done because if the body was too weak, it could be destroyed by the violent energies of the Warp.

"You are already awake."

Not long after I woke up, I was greeted by Esdeath, who also woke up when she walked from our chambers. Esdeath usually slept more than I did; I was used to a little sleep, and at the same time, I had far more things to do than just continue lazing around.

Since we agreed to court each other on the Fenran Rex IX., Esdeath insisted that we were to sleep together, but not in a sexual way. She actually liked hugging me when she slept; apparently, it brought her calm.

And I couldn't really say no to hugging a beautiful woman when sleeping, even though it could be rather torturous at the time.

"Yeah... the systems needed some calibrations as we would be soon exiting the Warp."

I said because we were already very close to our first stop.

Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought had a highly advanced Warp Drive that I could construct, and it was faster than most of the Voidships that were in existence in this Universe.

This was the culmination of knowledge collected across many Universes.

"Well, where are we even heading? And are there any worthy opponents?"

Hearing that, I suppressed the need to cringe, because these ones belonged to her usual questions.

Over the past three weeks or so that we were stranded in the Warp, our usual schedule consisted of training with the Psychic Energy of the Immaterium, sparring and fighting to hone our skills, and then some little casual time.

My own power stabilized at the solid peak Tier 10 while Esdeath also reached the Tier 10...

At least the initial realms of the Tier 10, though she solely focused on strengthening her physical capabilities as much as possible and her Ice Control. Now that she already knew that she could not win against me, which she accepted rather easily, considering the fact that she knew the true might of my True Body, she wanted another opponent.

Obviously, as we were in the Warp, there was no way that I could procure head Daemons to fight. According to my calculations, Tier 10 should be above the level of Greater Daemons; most probably, that should be the level of the Daemon Primarchs that I heard about.

Or some of the most powerful Greater Daemons... directly in the Warp.

Daemons were far weaker in the Realspace than they were in the Immaterium.

I needed to tread my answer carefully, because if given any hope, she would dare to challenge even Daemon Primarchs to the fight within the Immaterium. Esdeath was as much battlemaniac as Hela, and she thrived on the battle.

Good fight was everything.

"Do you want truth or a lie?"

I asked as I dodged her hand that was heading toward my head to slap.

"Idiot."

She muttered as she sat down behind the table as we were about ot have breakfast. Even though, technically speaking, none of us really needed to eat. It was more like a habit, though even back home we always used to eat together with Vena, Fia, Hela, and everyone else.

It was nice.

Memories like that were a precious treasure.

Something that I missed as I was stuck in seclusion... but the goal was worth it.

Only by becoming Paragon would I have the protection for my wives and family that I wanted. The Paragon Realm was the only way I could protect everything that I have from the other threats that were out in the Endless Void.

The Paragons were considered to be the peak of existence.

Nobody aside from the three Singularities stood above them.

I didn't really know that I could even have a shot at becoming a Singularity among the innumerable numbers of powerhouses that were all striving to reach that Realm, but I was very confident in reaching the Paragon Tier.

"So where exactly are we heading and when will we arrive?"

Contrary to me, who had no problems spending time on the voidship, for Esdeath it was... not the most pleasant experience.

Though that was most probably due to the fact that this was her first interstellar trip.

"Necromunda System, Planet Necromunda, also known once as Araneus Prime during the times of the Terran Solar Federation."

 

[Trafford]

"And we are here, why exactly?"

She waited patiently for me to explain the reason for our current destination, because she didn't have a clue where we were and why we were here. Obviously, she didn't look into the materials that I passed her before we even boarded the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought.

I already knew that Esdeath wasn't the most studious person around, but I guess that she could at least give the things some time. I have already put the effort into creating a compilation of the information on the Milky Way Galaxy of the 41st Millennium and all relevant factions.

Obviously, some factions were more detailed than others, because we would be staying here only for a short time and keeping our heads low. This Avatar wasn't ready to catch the attention of Anathema or Chaos Gods, who were for sure at least solid Tier 13 Primarch Level entities.

"Araneus Prime was first settled over 15,000 Terran years ago during the Golden Age of Technology as a mining and manufacturing colony. It became the capital of a small stellar empire known as the Araneus Continuity. The worlds of the Araneus Continuity were a series of planets close to the Sol System in the Segmentum Solar, which had maintained commercial and communications links to one another, and for the Terran Solar Federation, it was one of the most important Federal States. It was also here, on the Araneus Prime, where we were developing some of the most destructive weapons for the Federal Military in the top-secret laboratories deep near the planetary core."

Normally, under any circumstances, I would never come even near the Holy Terra.

Even though the Emperor sat immobile on the Golden Throne, the power he wielded was still enough to obliterate this Avatar from existence. But at the same time, I needed to recover a few things from here, because the Araneus Prime was, according to my knowledge, one of the few locations that had the things needed for my plan to work.

"So it's impressive?"

All of these technical things were something that was totally unfamiliar to Esdeath, but she understood the weapons, as that was something she was aware of. The more destructive, the better... and seeing how the technology changed the warfare of the Partas Tribe caused her to marvel at the wonders of the technology.

"Yes... There are some things that we need to recover to be able to safely navigate to and explore a specific place that would be needed to reach another place, which is technically speaking our final destination of ours."

The final phase of the plan was to reach the Commoragh.

The Dark City.

"And what is that final destination of ours? And would there be someone strong to fight?"

I was already pretty tired as I gave her two tods with my head.

"Commoragh, the 'Dark City,' is the massive city-state within the Webway that is the primary home of the Dark Eldar, or Drukhari, kindred of the Aeldari species. Commorragh's origins date to the apex of the lost Aeldari Empire, Terran millennia before Mankind even knew of the Aeldari's existence. The Commoragh is the key to the grandest library that the galaxy has ever seen... a library containing all the knowledge of the entire ancient Aeldari Empire and even the records left behind by the Great Ones, and that, my dear... It's the Key that I need to obtain at any cost."

As someone who had access to the highest information gathered by the Terran Solar Federation, I knew a lot of things. Especially about the things that were located within the Webway and with the destruction of the Aeldari Empire and their Throne World...

Commoragh was the last thing that remained from the Ancient Aeldari Empire

And the Black Library was the last thing that remained from the Aeldari's lore.

To reach the Paragon Level, one needed to comprehend Concept... something which my True Body was already steadily progressing with, but not fast enough.

And within the Immterius Universe, there was a method that would save me perhaps even millions of years. I needed to reach the Paragon Level as soon as possible, and this was a heaven-sent opportunity to me.

"Sooo... It's like something impressive, right?"

Obviously, Esdeath had only a rather faint idea who the Aeldari were... though they were apparently calling themselves Eldar these days, which was pretty ironic. If their stupid species didn't create the Chaos God of Pleasure and Excess, then perhaps the fate of this damemd Universe would have looked different.

Though from the pure academic point of view, it was even questionable whether the Aeldari were really behind the creation of the Chaos God of Pleasure. Nobody really knew, and I was no expert on the Immaterium.

"Obviously... The Black Library of Chaos, also known simply as the Black Library, is the secret Asuryani craftworld that serves as the Aeldari's repository of forbidden lore not only of the Ruinious Powers but practically everything in the Milky Way Galaxy. It was created by the Aeldari deity Cegorach, better known as the Laughing God, though for what purposes the god created this repository can only be guessed. The Black Library is spoken of by the Aeldari as a Dark Craftworld existing within the Webway, far beyond the reach of the Imperium of Man or even the Solar Terran Federation when it existed."

I said while reminiscing over it.

"More than 60 million years of Knowledge is stored there, and that's the only thing that I know of."

Even the Terran Solar Federation didn't really know what exactly the Aeldari had... we only had incomplete information, parts and shards of the whole image, and things gathered from the rumors.

It wasn't the ideal...

But we knew it existed and was located in the depths of the Webway, inaccessible to most, hidden and protected from the prying eyes of those who might want to uncover its secrets.

Not like any had the power to do so, because during that time, the Aeldari Empire stood at the pinnacle of its national power and was second to none. Great Ones were long gone, C'than shattered, Necrons sleeping, Orcs were just ragtag groups...

 

[Trafford]

"To reach the Black Library, we need to go through the Commoragh because the Drukhari have the means to reach the Black Library and I cannot think of any other means of reaching that place aside from that one..."

I said that because going through the Commoragh wasn't something I was really pleased about, but there wasn't another choice. Due to the extensive efforts of the Terran Federation, we managed to get the location of the Commoragh within the Webway, as it was one of the most important Imperial Cities for the Aeldari even during the age of the ancient Aeldari Empire.

But the Black Library?

That was an entirely different manner.

According to the rumors, only those whom the Laughing God personally permitted could find their way to the Black Library. The existence of the Black Library was known to only a few and entry is allowed to even fewer individuals.

The library defends itself against the weak and those who would misuse its knowledge by refusing entry to all except those who have acknowledged and tempered the Chaos within themselves.

The fact that I was aware of its existence was already considered a minor miracle in itself, because the Terran Federation was preparing to wage all-out war against the Aeldari and thus was sparing no effort in espionage and information gathering.

And as one of the Prime-Core Personnel of the Federation, I had acess to all the information that the Terran Federation gathered.

"Also, when we arrive there, you can go wild and kill anything you see... according to the info, the Dark Eldar are the plague that needs to be eradicated from the face of the galaxy."

The Drukhari or "Dark Ones" in the Aeldari Lexicon, also known to outsiders as the Dark Eldar, are a forsaken and corrupt Aeldari kindred, the sadistic, malicious counterparts of the Asuryani.

The Drukhari feed on negative emotion, dedicating themselves to a non-stop war with the peoples of realspace in which they strive to inflict as much pain and misery as they possibly can.

They and their kin were the reason for the birth of the 4th Chaos God.

And also for the fall of the Terran Solar Federation.

"Well, excellent... and here on this world Necro--- Necro something... are there any worthy foes?"

Soon enough, Esdeath was in a good mood, even though I seriously doubt that she would encounter some really powerful Dark Eldar in there, but one could always hope. With her current power, there were not many who could give her an actual challenge outside of the Warp.

Or the Emperor's Primarchs.

Not the Primarch Tier.

That was a bit confusing in my head.

"I seriously doubt that... The ordinary Space Marines would be killed in one hit of yours... "

I muttered because, according to the information gathered on the Araneus Prime, now known as Necromudna, there was nothing significant. Not even powerful Psykers were present, though the Imperium was greatly wary of the Psykers.

On one hand, I considered their approach to be utterly foolish and ignorant, while at the same time, I can understand it. Daemonic Possession was something that was extremely dangerous, and all Psykers were in danger of being possessed.

"This planet is now called Necromunda, a Hive World in the Imperium of Man's Segmentum Solar, and a major producer of weapons and munitions for the Astra Militarum."

I then proceeded to explain about the planets, and the more I spoke, the less interested Esdeath became. When she

Necromunda's great hive city-based manufactoria produce Lasguns, Autoguns, Shotguns, and Bolters, among other weapons important for the Imperial Armed Forces. The planet also levied huge numbers of troops for the Astra Militarum, most notably the regiments of the Necromundan Guard, as well as other crucial supplies.

Necromunda is one of the worlds from which the Space Marines of the Imperial Fists Chapter recruit new neophytes, often from the vicious criminal gangs that riddle the lower levels of the planet's hive cities.

The Imperial Fists maintained a recruitment keep on the world in one of its hive clusters.

The overall conclusion was that the planet was relatively harmless aside from the sheer number of its inhabitants because they numbered in the trillions.

"That's why I hate Hive Cities..."

I muttered while looking at the images from the scans of the planet Necromunda.

"Hive City is that big city? Like a continental-sized one?"

Esdeath asked because this was the first time that she would see the Hive City of any kind, and I just nodded.

"Technically, yes. Hive City is a massive arcology, or fully self-contained city, that is home to millions or even billions of Human beings packed in one place, which is often too small for them to live properly. They are layered constructions of rockcrete and adamantium, comprising thousands of residential and industrial blocks leveraged one atop the other, forming a massive, man-made mountain usually capped by a crown of great spires that stretch thousands of metres into the sky. "

I said with enough disdain for the concept, more than evident in my voice. Within the Terran Solar Federation, the Hive Cities were not really a thing. Mostly because the Federation had more than enough worlds to settle and no real need for things like Hive Cities.

Only a few of the Federation Plans were actually arcologies, but they were nothing like the ones in the Imperium of Man. The Arcologies within the Federation were hyper-advanced megacities that were built with the most advanced technologies of the Federation, they were clean and self-sufficient in all aspects.

The ones here, though...

"The Imperium's Hive Cities are disgusting abominations of how the Hive Cities should look... You will find there an extremely divided society where few people have acess to all the wealth of the city, including fresh air, while the rest are fighting for every drop of water... On the lower levels of the City, in the Underhive, cannibalism and other more barbaric practices are still very much alive and encouraged."

 

[Trafford]

Hive Cities were originally created in the Golden Age of Technology as a way for a large number of Humans to live together in an advanced society without damaging the surrounding planetary ecologies and biosphere.

However, the terrible damage wrought by the Age of Strife on Human-settled space led many hive cities to lose the technologies and behaviours that had allowed them to remain in balance with their environments.

"As a result of the damages, incomplete construction and insufficient technological level, each Hive City creates millions of metric tons of trash and industrial waste that is directly pumped out into the surrounding cities' environment. Given the massive population of most Hive Worlds, this means that their surfaces are usually reduced to industrial wastelands covered in toxic deserts where nothing can live or grow save for the hardy mutants who call these 'ash wastes' home and often raid the covered train-like transports that move passengers and cargo between hive city clusters."

Even though there wasn't any talk about powerful foes, Esdeath was actually fascinated by this to a certain degree.

She never left the Fenran Rex IX., or rather, she never even crossed through the borders and reached the Southern Hemisphere of the planet where the more advanced remnants of the Federation were located.

I noticed that she was still pretty curious about the outside world and about everything outside of her home planet. So she even patiently listened to my ramblings with keen interest.

"We are we even here in the first place? Considering all the things that you said, this world should be very important for the Imperium, right?"

I nodded, knowing the gravity of the situation.

Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was certainly one of the most advanced starships of the Terran Federation, not to mention I made many adjustments based on the Chthonic Technology, meaning that this was a really wondrous piece of tech.

Yet, there was still the undeniable fact that this was only one single ship.

If the Imperium really attacked us, then we would be swarmed by so much firepower that eventually we would be overrun and destroyed. Not to mention, I was pretty sure that the Imperium had a lot of entities that were on the same level as Planetary Busters...

And there was the topic of the Emperor.

"One thing for the two purposes... You see, in the ancient past, Araneus Prime was one of the most important worlds for the Federation, and there was a very important research facility within the world. Deep near the planetary core, there is a research facility that not only contains a complete STC... but also one of the few mainframes of the MTC and my own laboratory with some things that we need to open the portal to Webway and do some other things."

I explained because this was one of the pristine research centers of the Solar Terran Federation in the past... during the Golden Age of Technology, Araneus Prime served as one of the core worlds for the Federation.

The Araneus Continuity also became one of the major hubs for technological development within the Federation and was one of the most crucial member states of the Federation.

"So how do you want to do it?"

Esdeath asked, as I could already read her thoughts without even having such an ability, because it was clear that she wanted to use frontal assault. Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought could certainly push through it and conquer the planet alone if there were not many ships that would overwhelm us with their sheer numbers.

Which they fortunately didn't have, but that wasn't the approach I wanted to take.

"We will infiltrate the planet and take the MTC and the things needed to open the Webway to the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, and then we leave. Necromunda is one of the most important Imperial Worlds for the Imperium of Man. Any frontal attack would be met with reinforcements, and even though I have confidence in my technology, we could be overwhelmed by their numbers."

In the Immaterius Universe, there were, technically speaking, not many things that could pose a viable threat to me, because this Universe had a somewhat random power structure...

Even the Emperor's Primarchs were barely a threat unless they awoke their Warp Essence and Warp Presence, which would elevate them to the solit Tier 10 or Tier 11 powerhouses.

Rather, I was wary only of the Emperor, Chaos Gods, and anything that was related to the Warp and could drag me into the Warp. Warp Entities, and being used by the Warp, were countless times stronger in the Immaterium than they were in Realspace.

Even the Greater Daemons, which were already Tier 9 peak and some of the most powerful Tier 10, would be enormously suppressed and weakened in the Real Space to the point where even some much weaker could slay them.

Nevertheless, when it came to these individuals, there was no need to provoke them and create unnecessary conflict. Contrary to some of my wives... I was always and constantly careful not to provoke or create needless conflicts if they could be avoided.

My main reason for that was that I wasn't really sure whether the powerful Psykers or others in the Immaterius Universe had a way of dragging me into the Warp with them.

"Don't need to stare at me like I killed your wolf... You will have an opportunity to wreak havoc within the Commoragh later. But not right now... though on the second thought, if we go into the Underhive, you can do what you want."

In common with most other Imperial worlds, Hive Worlds are often based on a very obvious class system, with a ruling noble class and a bureaucratic middle class, although with populations so tightly packed, there always develops a lower working class that often fuels the explosive growth of violent street gangs.

As can be expected, the upper classes are situated in the affluent upper areas of the hive cities, whilst the middle classes are situated in the middle areas, and the working classes are packed together in the lower areas.

The very bottom sections of a Hive City, the "Underhive", were often areas where the underclasses and criminals are sent to be forgotten about and anarchy rules.

 

[Trafford]

Infiltration of the Necromunda was actually much easier than one would have thought...

With the advanced stealth systems installed on the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was more than enough to bypass the "defenses" of the Planet and the entire Star System entirely.

The Planetary Defense Force was barely of any use.

"Those troops and ships were not really useful... what the hell are they?"

Esdeath asked as the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought passed around shabby-looking Voidships that looked as if they would fall apart every second.

"According to the info, those are the Planetary Defense Forces... the primary military force of an individual settled Imperial world. The PDF is under the control of the local planetary government rather than direct Imperial control; the raising, training, arming, leadership, etc., of such units is entirely in the hands of the world's planetary governor. According to Imperial Law, all Imperial planets must maintain a standing army in order to maintain the Planetary Government's and thus the Imperium's control over the world against any possible invasion or insurrection."

I said what I gathered about the PDF, and it was rather disturbing... mostly because the quality of the Planetary Defense Forces was shit.

The PDF, as essentially the local military of an Imperial World, has no standardisation and can take any form; some, such as the PDF of Hive Worlds, may be no more than legitimised gangs supported and armed by the local planetary government to keep down the more anarchic elements.

"I guess that they are not the most powerful ones around?"

Esdeath asked with a mocking voice. She could see that state of the Voidships of the Necromunda's Planetary Defense Forces were in terrbile shape.

Even though she wasn't really any of the scientists of the Voidships, she could see that the ones used by the PDF of the Necromunda were beyond old, and some were barely being held together.

"Yes... This is rather a common state of the Planetary Defense Forces across the majority of the Imperial Worlds. One of the reasons why I hate the Imperium so much... It's disgusting."

The main reason why I hated the Imperium...

Their worship of the technology as something sacred and divine resulted in a society that was stagnating, barely capable of maintaining their current technology, and even that was done very poorly.

"Adeptus Mechanicus is the official Imperial name for the Cult Mechanicus or Cult of the Machine based on Mars, which provides the Imperium with its scientists, engineers, and technicians. As part of this faith, the Adeptus Mechanicus believes knowledge is the true manifestation of divinity in the universe, and all creatures and artefacts that embody knowledge are holy because of it. This leads to the current state of the Imperium... decay, superstition, and praying to the washing machine."

I don't know if it was due to my nature as a scientist and researcher, or if there was anything else within it, but the Cult Mechanicus was something that I considered to be an abomination.

Worshipping technology?

Like a God?

I could understand if they were worshipping the God of Technology or the God of Science or whatever else...

"So they are idiots, right?"

I slowly nodded at Esdeath's statement because, in her opinion, worshipping technology was rather idiotic. It was like worshipping some random object that one could pick up from the street or yard next to the road.

It was a terribly stupid notion.

"Partially... the Imperium of Man is an absolute theocratic nation led by superstition and barbarism... after their Emperor was constrained to the Golden Throne of Terra, everything went to fuck... but enough of that."

I said because the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought was already reaching the atmosphere of the Necromunda. We were heading directly to the outskirts of the Hive Primus, also known as the Palatine Hive.

The largest and oldest surviving Hive City on Necromunda, the dynastic home of Lord Gerontius Helmawr, Imperial Commander or the Planetary Governor of Necromunda, known across the planet as "The Palatine."

The hive cluster it belongs to is known as the "Palatine Cluster".

"We would be landing several tens of kilometers from the outskirts of the Hive City. The Hive City itself also has the fortress-monastery of the Adeptus Astartes contingent and the headquarters of the Adeptus Arbites on Necromunda. Of course, with our strength, neither of them is any viable threat even if we encounter them in large numbers."

I explained that this planet was becoming rather interesting. While I even previously knew that Necromunda was heavily defended, this was even more than I had initially anticipated.

"From the outskirts, we would be going straight to the Special Spire set aside for the aliens and Abhumans who come to Necromunda from time to time in order to trade. Both Squats and Aeldari are among these visitors, and they are housed on separate levels of this spire. Afterwards, we would be going to the Underhive from which we should reach the planetary core."

Unfortunately, most of the infrastructure from the Golden Age of Technology, as they called it, already collapsed and been destroyed. Directly, there was no way of reaching my destination of choice aside from reaching the closest point and digging through the scraps and rubble.

That was the only viable opinion that we had on hand.

Far from the ideal one.

"I understand. But I want to fight at a later date, preferably in the Underhive or against some of the Space Marines... I am interested in their power."

I shook my head in denial, because even after clearly explaining to her that Space Mariens wouldn't last a single hit from her, she still wanted to fight them. Esdeath was physically strong enough right now to flatten entire mountains thanks to becoming a Psyker and the enhancement from the Psychic Energy.

Though I didn't really doubt that if Hela was here, she would be doing the same thing, or gods forbid, Sigmar or even Gu Long. My son with Gu Yuena was usually rather tame, but sometimes when he was in a combative mood, he was worse than Sigmar.

 

[Trafford]

The ensuing millennia have not changed its basic purpose very much; Necromunda is still a world of mines, factories, refineries, and processing plants. The planet is a vast powerhouse of industry, making thousands and thousands of different items for use throughout the nearby Imperial Planetary systems.

Nothing which could contribute to the planet's output has been left untouched. From the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans, the wealth of Necromunda has been extracted.

Mountains have been reduced to rubble for the ore they contain; oceans have been turned into little more than chemical sludge ponds by the constant industrial pollution.

The once-fertile plains of the world have disappeared under huge urban developments of imposing housing and factory arcologies, forming new ranges of man-made urban mountains every bit as tall as the long-since flattened natural topographical features.

"It looks like a shit... and here I thought that my homeworld's plains looked terrible..."

Esdeath stated that as we had left the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, we were now crossing through the wastelands that were practically everywhere the eye could reach.

"Most of these worlds... suffered greatly during the Old Night and Rebellion of Men of Iron."

I felt a certain kind of sadness over this fate.

Even Esdeath looked more solemn than usual, because Fenran Rex IX. remembered vividly the horrors of the Old Night and what it had brought upon them. Fortunately for them, their planet didn't contain Nuclear Weapons, Anti-Matter Weapons, Chemical Weapons, or anything that was equally dangerous and destructive.

The Age of Strife, also sometimes referred to as "Old Night" based on the name for the era on Terra in older Imperial histories, is the name for the apocalyptic and highly-fragmented period of Human history that began roughly in the 25th Millennium A.D. and ended in the 30th Millennium with the birth of the Imperium of Man.

"When the Old Night started, due to the birth of the God of Pleasure, the Federation apparently descended into total chaos, and with the Cybernetic Revolt, many planets were embroiled in the nuclear civil wars, and with the Psykers appearing around all worlds... and what do you think will happen when Psykers start going out of control?"

I asked more like a rhetorical question as Esdeath nodded gravely because she knew what would happen then. I showed her some effects of it... and it was sometimes pretty staggering when a Psyker went berserk with his powers going out of control.

Uncontrollable Psychic Energy flowing into the Realspace directly from the Immaterium was more than enough to obliterate entire cities from existence during the Old Night.

"Come on... we need to cross these wastelands and reach the Special Spires for the Xenos and Abhumans... the checkpoints in there should be easier to bribe or more lax considering the kind of clientele that is arriving at the Hive City."

I said as we continued our journey, which would be rather dangerous to the average person.

Gangs, scavengers, scrap collectors, and who knows what else roamed the wastelands between the various Hive Cities, which were results of the proliferate usage of the Nuclear and Chemical Weapons during the Old Night.

It seemed that Terraforming Technology had been lost during the Age of Strife, which was rather a shame, because in the Age of Terran Federation it had been standart technology used for literally everything, and countless Federal Worlds were created through Terraforming Technology.

The Outskirts of a hive city are not as terrible a place to live as the Underhive, but the Outskirts carry their own terrible risks. The biggest problems are dealing with the toxic environment of the ash wastes that surround most hive cities and the constant threat of attack by the fearsome mutants of those wastes.

Obviously, the two of us travelling through the wastelands between the Hive Cities was something so rarely said that we immediately became targets for anyone who wanted to obtain something from us.

Be it the slavers that were selling slaves, gang members who wanted to rob us and sell us as slaves, scavengers who wanted to rob us and sell us as slaves...

It was like endless drama.

Though the added bonuses from everything were that, Esdeath finally got the fight she wanted as I let her loose on the poor humans.

If they could even be called such, because they were suffering from countless mutations and other genetic defects from being in the vicinity of the radiation and other dangerous materials that were causing them some really severe side effects.

"What are those things? They look utterly disgusting..."

And that was when we finally encountered the mutants after nearing the Hive Primus, as the radiation and poisonous smog was even more prevalent in these parts. Though for us it wasn't any kind of problem because of our enhanced physiology, which was taking care of everything for us.

Even Esdeath, who was a hardened general, looked at the figures that were rising from the hiding places with disgust and recoil, as he attributed it to being some female aversion to really disgusting and filthy things.

These mutants certainly were.

"These are the Mutants... There are millions of people across the Imperium of Man who have been deformed from the baseline Human phenotypic state by genetic mutation. This mutation can be caused from birth by environmental factors like ionising radiation acting in utero or by exposure to the raw psychic power of Chaos, but in the case of these unlucky individuals, it's the radiation and waste."

I explained as while I summoned a huge amount of Psychic Flames in my hands and hurled them toward the Mutants. Pyroamacy was one of the major disciplines of the Psyker Sorceries.

A Pyromancer is a master of fire and flame, a Psyker who is able to create searing infernos out of thin air, powered by the energies of the Empyrean. Pyromancy is one of the most spectacular and destructive forms of Psychic Ability.

Those who face a skilled Pyromancer in combat are often reduced to nought, but a pile of charred bones, and truly mighty Psykers could reduce entire cities to ash.

 

[Trafford]

Although the powers of Psykers are many and varied, they usually fall into one of several "disciplines". The five most common Psychic Disciplines are: Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy.

I was personally most skilled with Pyromancy, Biomancy, and Telekinesis.

Especially the Pyromancy that allowed me to create the Empyrean Flames to burn my enemies was pretty easy, because I just needed to recreate the Spells used in the Kadath Universe, specifically the ones used in the Higher Dimensional World of Baator.

Biomancy was also something that came rather easily to me, especially because the Biomancy in these Psychic Disciplines contained a lot of lighting-attributed spells, which were pretty weird for me, but it was something that I could work with.

Esdeath was, on the contrary, almost exclusively using the Biomancy to further enhance her physical attributes, and it was rather frightening how fast she was grasping the Biomancy Arts...

Even though we were pretty much constrained by the lack of knowledge and the Sorcery Lore that was obtained from the Frozen Coven on the Fenran Rex IX. wasn't anything great in the first place, truth to be told.

Another reason why I wanted the Black Library.

All knowledge on the Psychic Arts and Sorceries gathered by the Aeldari Species across sixty million years. Not to mention, it was highly possible that there were also Legacies of the Old Ones present in there.

And if I was right, which I usually was.

The Old Ones were genuine Universal Level Species, which meant that they were born at Tier 9 and, at adulthood, reached Tier 11, and with a little work, they don't have a problem reaching even Tier 12 or Tier 13 for the stronger ones.

There were not many Universal Species... each one of them was beyond rare, and they were extremely dangerous and powerful.

Even though it wouldn't be usable in the Kadath Universe, I could still repurpose a lot of that Lore to the Tier Magic System used in the Kadath Universe and elevate it to a much higher level.

The Empyrean Flames that I created burned all of the Mutants to ashes, and even I was rahter surprised by the fact that I now killed approximately two hundred of the Mutants.

This place was swarming with them.

"Well... this batch is already dead... we need to move."

Not like the Mutants were any problem for Esdeath or me, but they were annoying and disgusting to look at.

"Good riddance... they are revolting."

Esdeath said with mild tremor through her body as we smelled the scent of burned flesh in the air that was now filling the entire arena.

"These people are destined to become the outcasts and lower classes of Imperial society. They are shunned and are often hunted down and killed as the Imperium has little tolerance for anyone who deviates from the divine perfection of the baseline Human form in mind or body. Mutation is actually considered a heretical crime against the Emperor of Mankind..."

I made a slight pause, because despite this, I didn't really feel any sympathy toward the mutants... the world was fundamentally twisted, and either you had power, or now, everything was about that.

And luck to be born clean was also a power of its own.

"The Imperial Authorities consider this so because most of the Mutations of Mankind are connected one way or another to the Ruinous Powers. Either through the sheer sympathy for the Chaos or due to worshipping the Ruinous Powers."

Human mutants are often terribly misshapen creatures, abominably deviating from the normal Human form. On the other hand, not all mutants are degenerate beasts; many only bear a few extraordinary traits, setting them apart from the rest of Mankind. While many mutants are born mutated as a result of their ancestors' exposure to mutagens like radiation or extreme planetary environments over many generations, exposure to the psychic energies of Chaos can also lead to rampant mutation.

In the Terran Federation, we too had Mutants.

They were rare... indeed, but their presence was sometimes noticeable on specific worlds and planets, especially the ones in the Federal Frontier or among the most hazardous and dangerous planets.

"Did you know that we had the Mutants in the Federation, too? Not many people would think of Mutants when you say the Federation or the Golden Age. And I am not talking about the Mutants created due to the influence of the Ruinous Powers."

This time, it was Esdeath's turn to be surprised, because even though she wasn't a scholar, she knew that the Golden Age of Technology was the most glorious age for Humanity that ever existed.

Yet, she couldn't really imagine the presence of the Mutants and creatures similar to the ones that I, right now, incarnated into ashes within the borders of the Terran Federation.

"You don't need to be shcoked... not many knew about them as far as the general public was concerned. Most of the Mutants were put to death on the principle of preserving the human genome. Maybe aside from the ones possessing the Navigator Mutation, as that one was deemed to be useful and stable enough. But rest?"

I wanted to laugh because people in this era seemed to have really weird ideas about the Golden Age... yes, it was countless times more advanced and... clean?

Yes...

But even the Federation had a lot of problems on its own, and Mutants were also present within the Federation in great numbers. Yet it couldn't even remotely reach the numbers of Mutants that were apparently in the Imperium of Man.

The Imperium had billions upon billions of Mutants across the Imperial Worlds, to the point where it was staggering. It was clear that the effects of the Age of Strife were far more severe than anyone had ever anticipated...

Even though I wasn't human for many millenias...

I felt a certain pang of sadness for humanity here.

Maybe it was sentiment.

Maybe it was because I helped to build the Federation and was one of the people who belonged to the highest level of the leadership within the Federation, and was even a contender for the Federal Council.

 

[Trafford]

"I guess that not even the pristine age of humanity's glorious history isn't without its stains."

Esdeath muttered as we finally approached the entrance to the Special Spire, or rather... the area where the Special Spire was located, because there was no viable entrance from the ground.

It seemed that due to the poisonous smog that was covering the entire ground and was reaching a height of more than a hundred meters, the entrance ot the Hive City in this area was permanently sealed.

And anyone who wanted to enter needed to use a ship or an aircraft to reach the Special Spire and land at the designated zone that was created for the vehicles.

"So what now?"

Because we wanted to infiltrate the place without attracting attention, much to Esdeath's dismay, I was already thinking of a new plan.

"Hold onto me."

I said as she did exactly as I said and pressed her body to mine while I started casting a rather complicated and taxing Spell that I calculated should work.

"What are y... Yiip!"

As Esdeath proceeded to ask me something, probably what I was planning to do, we shot into the air and started flying.

Albeit pretty clumsily.

Creating a flight spell under these conditions was a total pain in the ass.

That much I had to admit.

The energies of the Empyrean were absolutely not suited for anything that wasn't outright destructive in nature, or it would be more prudent to say that it was much more challenging to use them for anything not destructive.

Esdeath was pressing her body against me as we were rising through the skies until we finally reached an area where we could disembark, as her huge assets were shaking when we almost crashed against the wall.

"That was terrible..."

Esdeath muttered as we landed... the fight wasn't the most pleasant one around because I was still using the Spell that was technically speaking incomplete. My Psyker Clone was at the peak of Tier 10 according to the Tiering System of the Kadath Universe.

Even then, it was pretty challenging to repurpose the flow of the Empyrean Energy, especially considering the fact that I lacked the necessary Lore of the Warp Sorcery. The real problem was that the Frozen Coven basically lacked the advanced theory and everything about the Warp...

They were focusing solely on the battle applications of the Warp Energy, which was rather understandable because the Fenran Rex IX. was a planet of constant conflicts and battles.

I couldn't really imagine that they would be now playing scholars.

Now that we have landed in some area of the Special Spire, I cast more advanced versions of the Stealth Spells. The Stealth Spells that he was using were one of the most powerful that I could cast in the case that the Planet had some Psychic Wards or powerful Psykers.

Considering the state of the military forces stationed at the planets and the number of Adeptus Astartes, I couldn't really exclude this possibility at all.

"Now, no matter what you see or feel... ignore it and go after me. Don't pick fights and create problems. The Underhive is... not really a savory place."

I said that because I was already using the Architect to connect with the systems at the Palatine Hive and its systems. Certainly, it was rather troublesome because of all those technological limitations that the stupid Tech Priests put into place.

Fortunately, the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought had really advanced computers and STCs, which were providing necessary computing powers to the Architect as he was able to reach the systems in the Palatine Hive.

"Right now, we are at the outskirts of the Special Spire... we need to reach the Lower Hive first and then the Underhive."

I muttered as we immediately followed the Architect's instructions. As we were walking through the Special Spire, we indeed saw a good number of the Squats, or what I liked to call them, Space Dwarves, because they were indeed Space Sci-Fi Dwarves.

Even some accidental Aeldari or something that seemed to be Aeldari, but that wasn't right now the problem. Reaching the Lower Hive from the Special Spire took us around half an hour, because we were not particularly fast, but at the same time, we were not really slow either.

The entire Hive City was like one enormous maze of countless streets, corridors, and god knows what else.

"This place is filthy... Are there really people living in here?"

The Lower Hive was the layer of the Hive City that lies just above the Underhive. It was comprised of the city's industrial sectors and working-class residential housing. The people of this level make up the majority of any Hive City's population and are responsible for maintaining and operating the Hive's manufactoria and generatorium power plants to keep the rest of the hive fed, clothed and productive.

"Life in the Hive Cities is shit... most of the humans living in the Hive City are living in terrible conditions unless they live in the Upper Hive, where life is a bit better... the best conditions are obviously in the Spires."

This was one of the reasons why the Federation refrained from building and constructing the Hive Cities. There were usually far more problems with them than they were worth, and they tended to destroy entire planets.

The Federation itself had only a few Hive Cities, and even they were most strictly controlled and built with the most advanced technology possible. The ones that I remember were nothing like what we were seeing right now.

"Unless you have a lot of wealth to settle in one of the Spires or be lucky enough to move in the government and become part of the city's management, where you can move into the Upper Hive, then your life in the Hive City would be total shit."

I said as we were crossing through the Lower Hive under the navigation of the Architect, as the progress was fortunately fast enough. I wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, because being here was repulsive.

 

[Trafford]

Esdeath didn't reply much as we were walking through the Lower Hive and reaching the Underhive, which was far worse than the Lower Hive. Compared to the Underhive, the Lower Hive was like the most luxurious hotel for the Grand Nobles in the Holy Imperial Capital of Anor Long back home.

Even Esdeath stared at the streets of the Underhive and how they looked like hell on earth materialized... it was swarming with people like a ton of them, and all of them looked worse, like the scavengers and gangsters who attacked them when they were crossing the outskirts of the Hive City.

Even to me, the Underhive was something that was...

Beyond words.

I couldn't really understand how people could live in these conditions.

It was indeed true that within the Underhive, the living conditions were really bad. At the same time, I found it rather fascinating that humans could actually survive in a place like this, as it was almost shocking.

In the Underhive, things like food and water were far more precious than hold or anything else, and despite that, people were still prevailing and adapting to the enviroment in which they were living.

Navigating within the Underhive was...

I already stopped depending on the Architect's help, because a lot of information that my AI obtained from the systems of the Palatine Hive was either inaccurate or obsolete, because a lot of areas of the Underhive were either collapsed, repurposed, or something else done with them.

This was the place where the people of the Planetery Governor or the Planetary Defense Force wouldn't bother entering because it was not worth their time or effort. Most of the armed forces of the Governor's Mansion wouldn't bother themselves with the Underhive, and many considered this place really dangerous.

Even for the armed troops of the Planetary Defense Forces.

Which was already saying something about the current state of the things of the Underhive and how fucked up everything was in this place. I could understand that, judging on the number of corpses that were all on the corridors of the Underhive...

At least until the corpse collectors come and make corpse starch from them.

"They are eating them."

I answered Esdeath's question when she asked me what the weirdly dressed scavengers were doing with the remains of the corpses.

"Don't need to stare at them that intently... according to the information, it's the main source of the food in the Underhive and even Lower Hives... the Corpse-starch. A synthetic food source created from the recycled Human dead of the hive cities on many of the Hive Worlds of the Imperium of Man."

Necromunda was one of the Hive Worlds where this practice is most prevalent. On Necromunda, the Corpse Guild regulates the trade and production of corpse-starch, and it was the main source of food for the countless people.

Even Esdeath looked like she wanted to puke at the moment, because just the thought of it was disgusting.

What the Imperials were doing was no different from cannibalism, because well... it was cannibalism.

Recycling the corpses of the deceased into food and eating them.

"Without the orderly disposal of their corpses, plague and disease would run rampant across the Hive World. Without the food source that these corpses provide when rendered down in the great corpse grinder plants that dominate entire sectors in every hive city, the populace would starve. In a certain sense, it creates some twisted balance where everything functions as it should and maintains the balance between each other."

I said as we were descendign to even greater depths of the Underhive where the only thing that we could depend as form of navigation were my Psychic Abilities.

Divination Discipline.

Diviners seek to discern the hidden past of the galaxy and know the course of events yet to come. These abilities allow Diviners to look into the twisting strands of the Immaterium in search of the answers they seek, and sometimes even influence the outcome of Fate itself.

Simply said.

Yet, pretty useful because it was more than enough to lead us to the place where the Underhive was ending... technically speaking, near the base of the entire Hive City, where the foundations of the entire mega structure were located.

The deeper one went into the Underhive...

More twisted, dark, and disgusting it became.

Mutants, Chaos Spawns, and unspeakable horrors were on a daily basis.

Mutants killing humans, humans killing mutants, everyone slaughtering each other in exchange... we even saw how a bunch of cannibals were dismembering another person in plain sight in the middle of the street and started feasting on a child.

Children didn't survive long in the Underhive...

Safe zones within the Underhive were almost non-existent, and they were usually strongholds of the strongest gangs and cults that operated within the Underhive.

Yet the place where we were right now barely had any activity...

Only darkness and some remnants of technology from the Age of Federation that was still activated after many millenias.

"We are here..."

I said as we were standing in front of a half-destroyed alley that was actually an entrance to the underground research facility. The Underhive itself was located a few hundred meters under the planet's surface, because all Hive Cities were built from the underground and not at the planet's surface itself.

"There is nothing here."

Esdeath commented on the most obvious.

"Aside from the ruins and half-destroyed tunnel or what the thing is."

She continued as I nodded, but didn't really bother answering as I used my Holo-Brain on my hand that I constructed and used the console to access the control systems of the Research Facility.

"Accessing the Research Facility Araneus Prime. Name: Jeron Egan Butler. Accessing Direct Control."

Suddenly, the entire tunnel came to life, at least what could come to life was activated, because a lot of systems were already destroyed, decayed, or just fell apart due to the passage of time.

Saying his human name really felt weird.

He only used it twice since he was reborn more than thirteen thousand years ago.

 

[Trafford]

"It's really working... this is a rather pleasant surprise."

I commented when seeing at least parts of the facility working... especially the defense systems that were fully functional. That much was clear, based on the number of skeletons and Mutant skeletons that were all around the entrance.

"I didn't really think that the facility would be functional around what? 15,000 years since the start of the Age of Strife when the Federation fell..."

I thought that it was highly possible that some of the bots were still functioning, mostly the Artificial Intelligence that were maintaining the entire facility, because I couldn't really imagine how otherwise this facility would withstand the passage of time.

Fifteen thousand years was even more than I had been alive in the Kadath Universe.

If my hunch was correct, this place should also have some of the remaining Men of Iron.

"Now... be careful. Even though you have reached the standards of the Tier 9 or so... there are some weapons and means within the Araneus Research Facility that were designed to specifically hurt entities like us right now."

A lot of those weapons were actually created on the excavated or stolen Necron Technology that the Federation obtained after robbing some Necron Tombs, as we managed to discover some minor dynasties and destroy them.

At terrible costs.

Necrons were really fearsome foes, and their technology was the most dangerous and advanced in the entire galaxy. They were also the only species in the entire Galaxy that possessed weapons that were able to destroy the entire Galaxy, which were developed during the War in Heaven.

Artifacts from more than sixty million years ago.

"Really? That sounds very interesting... would you mind letting me have some of such weapons?"

I chose hearing that because it was more than evident that she wanted to have such weapons and play with them.

Playing in her dictionary meant using it against huge numbers of enemies and reducing them to ashes. Not that I really cared about that, but right now, it wasn't the smartest thing around espeicalyl on the planet.

"Maybe later. Now come, don't touch anything and be always close to me... because it seems that we have some slight complications when it came to the control over the Research Facility."

It was pretty unfortunate because even with the support of the computing power from the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, it wasn't able to completely overtake the facility.

According to the data I was seeing on my Holo-Brain, parts of the facility where some of the servers were had completely collapsed, and thus the network was fractured into several parts.

"As you wish."

Fortunately enough, Esdeath wasn't really bad at following orders, and when I said something, she didn't really have a problem listening to me. It was her nature as a soldier, and because she spent her entire life serving in her clan's army, that she was good at following orders and not questioning them.

Sometimes, it's a good thing.

Sometimes, rather a catastrophic thing.

Nevertheless, right now it was certainly a good thing.

"And be on guard... if I am not wrong, then it's highly possible that some of the Anti-Warp Empyrean Mechs are not properly contained."

Esdeath raised her eyebrows because my voice was actually more serious than it would be normally.

"Something that you were developing in here?"

I nodded as this was one of the critical projects of the Federation, but never finished one as it seemed to be because the birth of the 4th Chaos God brought the end of the Federation and thus also of this project.

At least on the surface.

"The Terran Federation knew that it could not measure up to the Aeldari when it came to the Psychic Potential... we were very slow in becoming Psykers and obtaining Psychic Powers, so we had another idea of countering the Aeldari Empire."

I said as we entered the tunnel that was barely lighted, but that wasn't really a problem for our night vision as we were heading toward the central gate. Which was once in the long past, the first security checkpoint when the facility was still functioning.

"Thus, some elements within the Federation proposed creating something that would be anathema to the Psychic Powers and entities of the Warp. Thus, we started incorporating the elements of the Necron Technology and material called Blackstone to create Autonomous Combat Units, basically the Automatons that you have seen that were created with the sole purpose only... destruction of anything connected to the Warp."

I said with a certain kind of irony... because a lot of technology that humanity was using in the Golden Age of Technology was based on the Necron Technology itself and technologies from different species.

Humans were good at incorporating different technological trees into our own.

I wasn't working on this project directly, but rather as an Overseer and Consultant, so I was very well acquainted with it.

And I knew the capabilities of the Automatons of the highest-degree that we created, and because I was now a Psyker, these things proved to be highly dangerous and lethal even to Esdeath and me.

Despite our current power.

"Due to the Blackstone and some experimental Necron technology in the Automatons, they are quite dangerous even to us right now. Not dangerous to kill, but they would be a pain in the ass to deal with."

I said carefully because this was one of the few technologies that were missing from my MTC when I died and transmigrated to the new universe. At the same time, I was rather eager to obtain this to add it to my repertoire, because this could be one of the few last remaining technologies from the Terran Federation in existence.

The Blackstone, scientifically known as Noctilith, was a mysterious, black-hued, stone-like substance of unknown provenance that, under certain conditions, can outright nullify the Psychic Energies of the Immaterium or absorb them and unleash them with spectacular force.

Though relatively rare, it is found in concentrations on certain worlds across the galaxy, particularly those planets that are Tomb Worlds of the ancient Necron Empire.

 

[Trafford]

"Wait a moment... doesn't it mean that those tech-worshipping weirdoes are basically worshipping Xenos Technology?"

As expected, Esdeath caught on pretty fast as we were walking through abandoned corridors, with occasionally flickering lights that were malfunctioning, as the entire place looked like a horror book.

The Cult Mechanicus believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God, also known as the Deus Mechanicus or, in its embodied form, as the God-Emperor, the Omnissiah, an eminent and omnipotent spirit governing all machinery and knowledge in the universe.

The ultimate goal of the Cult Mechanicus is to understand and fully comprehend the glory of the Omnissiah. The communal and personal attempt at this form of enlightenment is known as the Quest for Knowledge. The Cult believes that all knowledge already exists in the universe, and it is primarily a matter of time before it can be gathered together to complete the Quest.

Obviously, this belief also includes a strict ban on the usage of the Xenos Technology or anything that wasn't of human origin, because these Technologies were unveiled and not intended for humanity by the Machine God.

I couldn't really understand and would probably never understand how such bullshit could have been born on Mars.

Mars...

The cradle of technologies and all scientific advancement in the Terran Federation.

"It's really funny, don't you think? Even the concept of the STCs was actually made possible because we too technology of some extinct civilization and incorporated it into our own tree."

The Terran Federation was exceptionally good at discovering, reverse-egineering and incorporating different technologies into our own technological tree. How else did our technological tree manage to grow so fast and advance that we were able to fight one-on-one against the Aeldari Empire?

It was through this...

Assimilation and incorporation.

One could say that approxiamtely 60% of the technologies used by humanity during the age of the Terran Federation originated from Xenos, one way or another. And when it came to the core technologies, this number would be around 85% beucase almsot everything came from some more advanced species.

We just reverse-engineered it and took it as our own.

Over time, the technologies that were taken from the other species were re-adjusted more and more, until they were thoroughly incorporated into humanity's technological tree.

"And that was how the Federation got to where it was... we knew that competing with the Aeldari in technological development was sheer stupidity because they had more than sixty million years for their development. So we sought another way... that would shorten the gap between the Empire and Federation."

I said as we finally entered the huge sealed room, where both of us stood in front of the huge vault doors, as I started typing something into Holo Brain and connecting to the console that was adjacent to the doors.

Uploading the Architect's sub-program into the next segment of the system architecture needed to be done manually. As many of the systems have collapsed, now what was once one entity was divided into several segments of the systems that were maintaining the entire facility.

And unfortunately, because of this, I needed to upload the Architect's sub-program into each new "Segment System" manually through some console or anything, as the Segment Systems were no longer connected with each other.

Nevertheless, we managed to open the next part of the facility and enter the elevator that was still working, much to my delight. I knew of the other paths that were leading to the core of the Araneus Research Facility, but none of them were direct and fast enough for our usage.

"Right now, we are heading to the core of the facility, and it's highly possible that some of the Anti-Psyker Knight Mechs are already waiting for us, and I have a hunch that they won't be really friendly."

I stated because after the Cybernetic Revolt, the Humanity grew pretty wary of anything related to the Artificial Intelligence, but not to the point of completely abandoning the concept because that would mean the destruction of our civilization.

The Men of Iron... these powerful and fully autonomous intelligent robots intended for both labour and combat won many wars for Humanity, but they turned against their masters at the end of the Age of Technology, sometime in the late 23rd Millennium, and unleashed a terrible war upon the Human worlds.

During this terrible conflict, remembered only as the "Cybernetic Revolt", both sides unleashed fearsome weapons of advanced technology.

The Cybernetic Revolt was eventually won by an alliance of galactic powers, some of whom may not have been Human, but at a terrible cost. The damage to interstellar Human society was catastrophic and shattered much of Humanity's hard-won economic strength and political unity, and laid the foundation for the later collapse caused by the onset of the Age of Strife.

Since the Cybernetic Revolt, the entire concept of the Men of Iron was scrapped, and humanity was very careful about the usage and research of the Artificial Intelligences...

Unfortunately, we were not capable of stopping it compeltely, because the very concept of the advanced Artificial Intelligence was deeply ingrained in every aspect of human society and on every single Federal Planet.

For humanity, it was just impossible to stop using the Artificial Intelligences... and in some cases even the Men of Iron.

And this was also the case of the Araneus Continuity.

"Perhaps if not for the Cybernetic Revolt, the fate of the Terran Federation would have been vastly differnet... but that is now history and we can only speculate about it."

I said with certain sadness, because this was my reality for many centuries in my life of Jeron Egan Butler.

The aftermath of the Cybernetic Revolt was something that was deeply felt in the Federation, even after centuries had passed since it had ended, and the wounds never healed.