Chapter 30:
Apotheosis "War always changes. It is the only thing that ever does. The way they are fought? The places they are fought in? The nations that fought in them? They always change. If you want a world that is worth living for? What you have got to change are people, because they never do. You never change. They never change. Change yourself. Change them. Change the world. Don't come to my doorstep, and complain about how it is impossible. Do it, because you got to. Do it, or none of this will ever mean anything. Do it, because you got somebody back home waiting for a fool like you."
- The Courier The Godhand was no more.
I had seen to it. This world, this Earth, which I had grown to love as my own, and which I would
christen as Holy Terra? This universe would know of peace. This crystal sphere? The plane I had won by conquest. There was only one stitching in my soul that had persisted throughout it all, but it would not last. It would come undone, and it would come undone because I was not
satisfied with this.
The Heart of Darkness had to answer for every crime. What it had done to every person on this planet. The
Sword of Damocles was hungry for retribution, it was starving for justice, and it would collect on that life. Just as it had collected on the lives of
every monster. I would not be denied, and I would meet the Abyss. I would become the bane of every demon lord.
The Hero of Many Faces. Then I would return, but not as myself.
No, I would be The God Emperor of Mankind.
This I had woven. The choices I had made would be what led to my damnation, but there was a
chance. It was with that
grievous miracle. I would leave my Golden Throne, and I would save all of them. The Imperium of Man was not lost. The road I would need to tread had revealed itself, and at the end of it? There was a home. A
house I could call my own. There were people I loved who were still waiting for The Crow, The Knight Commander, and The Emperor!
They were waiting for Arlan Vorlesh, and I would be there to greet those children who meant
everything to me. Whether I had to face a dozen demon lords! A hundred of them! A
thousand of them! The Abyss could throw every obstacle it had at my doorstep. There was nothing that could stop the
anathema. What I had become? It would lead to
transience. The ephemeral would overthrow the ethereal.
This world would not be the same. It will not be eternal. That
stasis which had entrapped it? It will be no more, and it will be no more because that is what I have chosen!
In the grim darkness of the far future?
There was only hope. <<X>>
Leman Russ had been searching for it. That which he lost. Which he had
relinquished. An heirloom of the past. When he was not lost in The Warp. He had embedded it into Yggdrasil, or whatever amounted to it in this realm. The Tree of Life, and many other names besides that one. The weapon had stood by him whenever he was alone.
It was family. That blade had never failed him, and whenever he was in need of it?
The sword would make itself known.
It had a name, and it was Grunbeld. There was stories that had not always been the case, and that it had
another name. Only Leman Russ could say for certain. The blade had divulged all things to the primarch. The Lord of Wolves was the person that had won the loyalty of it, and from that came a bounty of knowledge. Who his father had been. When war had not consumed the galaxy as it had. The stories were hard to believe, but if there was any truth to these tales? These
myths that had been shrouded in mystery and hearsay?
Dragon Slayer would be salvation.
The wound had to be unmade, and it could
only be unmade, if history was rewritten. The power to do this did not exist in The Imperium of Man. It did exist in this relic.
There was only one problem.
"It is a pleasure, brother." Angronius of Nuceria, the Daemon Prince, had been given a task. This great sword had to be concealed. It could not be found again. "The Lord of Wolves has come to my lovely abode."
Yggdrasil had been
desecrated. The Tree of Life made to be a monument to death. It had been decorated with the corpses of countless valkyries. These sisters of battle who stood watch over it, if only for the sake of their duty. Who had been impaled on many of the branches. They fought bravely against The Lord of the Red Sands, but it was for naught. Angron was the epitome of what it meant to embody violence. He had inherited that. It was the only thing I had ever given him, and there was no escape from the
mortification I felt now.
It was all poison. That which I had bequeathed to my children? There was always a price for it. This blood was no gift, and through it they had
known parts of my soul. The Warp played no part in it. These were the flaws of a mortality that was unfiltered. They had to endure all that I was. Both good and bad. Both love and fury.
The grievous miracle did not come without any consequence.
The Red Thirst, and The Black Rage.
The Flaw. Sanguinius was not the only one who had to live with that insatiable thirst. However, when The Brightest One had won against it? The Red Angel reveled in the act of lascivious barbarity. It was a comfort. When all things had been taken from him? War had come to claim him, and in the same way it had claimed Arlan Vorlesh. The Immaterium despoiled this holy land, and only for what one could claim was dreadful truculence.
This is what I was. This is what I could have been. This is what I deny now.
"Do you have anything to say? Anything at all, or will you die a mute?" The Red Angel would not hesitate. Not even against any of his siblings. "If
silence is to be the last thing on your lips--"
"Only this, Angron." Leman Russ wears a condescending grin. Those fangs of his glistening, in this sacred realm which had been painted red, and left violated by the corruption of The Warp. "
Do well to remember it." As if in response to this declaration? This plane began to convulse. There was a storm in the distance. The rain would wash away all of the blood.
It would purify this sin.
"I am the wind."
<<X>>
The Heart of Darkness was born when
murder was conceived. There was a brother, he held an envy, and that envy grew. He saw the love that he was denied. Envy would become hatred, and from that hatred? There came an idea. This idea would become an ambition of sorts, and from that ambition there came tragedy. The demise of the favored son, and the birth of
malice.
This
palpitation drew The Idea of Evil. The beat of this heart in everyone. There was no mortal who did not know of it, or who could escape it. The intimacy of this matrimony of sacrilege. This act of fratricide had become a contract. The price was not only his soul, but the soul of everyone like him.
Those who had his blood. Which would be pumped in and out of every heart. Those children would prosper, and they would have children of their own. The heart would grow with every life, and those lives would nourish it. Until there was not a person on this Earth, that did not feel it, this beat.
This rhythm of frenzy.
The problem lied in the womb. That place from whence it came. Conception had led to divergence.
Duality had been born. The destruction of the other? It had to be followed by the destruction of self. This was the balance.
The Heart of Darkness had to devour itself, in a way not unlike Ouroboros, and that was part of this purpose it had. It would eventually die, and all things would die with it. The covenant would be complete, this compact brought to a close, and renewal would come afterwards. There would be another Earth, and the people would call to it. This was the stability.
How many turns of the wheel had it been? The Idea of Evil had lost count. This link in the chain would be one of many, and the memories it had would begin to fade. Only purpose had the capacity to endure. Whether it was as a scapegoat, or as an excuse? The people always had need of it. It was easier than
acknowledgment. Their guilt was a foe they could not understand, and did not want to even permit. This was the dependence.
These three things are what it served. It did not serve anything else.
It could not serve anything else. It was like a machine, and it could not deviate. This was a program, and one that had been executed already. Which is why it had been disappointed by the conqueror. It had desired
exquisite defeat, but the conqueror did not meet that expectation.
I did.
The Knight Commander of the Sixth Crusade.
Arlan Vorlesh. That which bore the conqueror. Who would become a wandering specter entrapped in battle-scarred armor, and eventually return to the progenitor. The anathema. The Idea of Evil had found it. The death it had been seeking, and war which had clouded my vision. I was absolutely perfect.
I would be the executioner, and the absence of love would prevent any more interruptions. The wheel would turn. There would be no hesitation. It was war that would save it.
"No." I murmur. "It is not war."
It would be
love.
It began with the death of Void. When Destiny's Embrace had disappeared? This Earth, that would
become Holy Terra, had changed. It was like The Eclipse, but rather than being localized, the whole of this plane was drawn into it. Not just this planet, but the galaxy as well. I had no doubt the universe would be enveloped by it too.
This cascade of ether could only come from the birth or rather
rebirth of a god. This was The Heart of Darkness as it truly was. The Idea of Evil made manifest. The heart was floating at the center of it all. That nexus where all the souls it had devoured lived. Their torment which had been unending, and I could
hear their screams. This was my doing.
The death of this plane, and I was the harbinger. At least, that is what the heart thought. That I had come to answer that prayer. That I would be the hero. No, I was the
villain of this story. I would challenge it. The natural.
The nature of this world. The evil that had become the purpose of it. The corruption which I reviled.
If this was what world was? Then I would remake the world. It would be from the ashes of this monstrosity. This abomination. I would build my empire on these ruins of the past, and from it what would flourish? If not this love that I would venerate.
No more dead fathers and mothers. No more dead brothers and sisters. No more dead sons and daughters.
No more war. No more, no more, no more!
This was the end of tragedy, and it required of me a miracle. One that I no longer had, but there was
always a way. I had learned that much. I could not use Radiance. That ardent grace would mean my end. This soul of mine was about to break. After it had been fractured by the effort of casting
Wish.
The Godhand were all slain. I had made certain of that, and there was only one stitching I had left.
That tied me to this dark god.
"That was a mistake." I had every intention of
using it. I had been at a loss. How could I sever everyone from The Heart of Darkness? The answer was that I couldn't, but I didn't even need to. I should have seen it but I didn't. That was because I had forgotten that I would not survive this. The solution I had been searching for?
I already had it.
I cast
Tether Essence, using that stitching as a medium, and draw The Idea of Evil into myself.
It becomes my heart. I embolden the spell with
Conduit Surge, and pour as much of the ether as I can into it. I did not need to separate them all from this monster.
I only had to separate it from them.
I turn towards Guts Vorlesh, of House Vorlesh. The White Swordsman, and The White Wolf. The Lord of Wolves who I had nurtured into a hero. The son I could rely on.
"How about another spar?" I
knew that he would triumph. He would not lose. "Do not disappoint me." Victory was always in his blood, in the very marrow of his bones, and in his heart. Whatever that obstacle would be? It would taste of Dragon Slayer.
His father was no exception.
The White Wolf almost seems to recoil. He could
sense it, and what I had done. The divinity that was afforded to him by birthright? It had
expanded every faculty. All five of his senses, and it even granted him a sixth. This hyperactive intuition that had the ability to discern transcendental phenomena like this. "What the hell did you do? You crazy fucking bastard--"
The Eclipse is dispersed, and the vortex of souls is torn asunder! They would be free, and their torment would end! That torture is of their past, and their
deliverer was none other than Arlan Vorlesh!
Regardless of the protest of this
treacherous heart beating inside of my chest. The Heart of Darkness was livid. This was not part of the plan, but any dissent would amount to nothing. I was in control.
At least for now. It just had to remind me.
"Show me what you have become, my son."
I would make it count.
<<X>>
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