40 Thousand Reasons

With a gentle shift, the golden pillar spread out like a fog clearing over a mountain valley, and in fact transmuting the Warp itself into a solid area of hope and dreams.

Acid clouds and fleshy mountains transformed into white-glowing mountains with castles and walls all around us, dotted with angelic figures manning turrets and weapons sparkling with holy sigils.

A host of angels and seraphs, with giant wings and fiery swords converged on the Chaos God, lead by a blinding figure in a golden armor.

"The Emperor of Mankind is here, Lord Pef." Darcy announced in a reverent tone.

Well, I could see that for myself, even with my eyes closed. And the Emperor had also dragged his entire Warp domain along, radically changing the battlefield and returning the fight to a home advantage.

"Lord Cegorach made this possible, just so you know, human." the Solitaire Harlequin added with a gleeful snort, just as the Emperor struck with his own burning sword at Nurgle.

I cut off the Immaterium beam before I passed out, then opened my eyes to see the fight directly. Sadly, it was a blur of sparks and claws, even in the nearly frozen temporal horizon of this new domain.

To no one's surprise, the Ork god Gork didn't stick around to find out the winner, and sped away while clutching the head of Mork under one arm and a trove of gems and gold under another.

"Orks will probably lose half of their Waagh strength for the next millennia." Inquisitor Ramaeus concluded while watching the events.

That was possibly good then. Weaker Orks would allow humanity some respite and time to recover, or better said focus on the more pressing enemies like the Tyranids.

I didn't have time to muse to long on that problem though, as Nurgle shattered into a thousand bits and scattered all over the Warp, with Primarchs and Avatars chasing after individual bits to end them once and for all.

I resumed firing the Black Lament's beam as soon as the Emperor cleared the line of fire, striking a hundred fragments of the former Chaos God and annihilating them.

Funnily enough, most of the escaping fragments were retreating towards the infested Garden, where they were soon attacked by the ravenous Tyranid fleets.

I wasn't going to chase them into that abattoir, especially as the Tyranid seemed to have a field day gorging themselves on the small bleeding Nurgle shards, and his demons.

The demons themselves seemed suddenly much weaker, or at least here inside the Afterlife domain of the Emperor.

The battlefield clean up took mere minutes, with untold numbers of Warp angels and the immortal Astartes of the Legion of the Damned killing billions of demons with ease.

Soon, I began collecting the deployed troops and vehicles, returning them into hangars and depots just as techpriests began reconsecrating their holy engines and covering the machines and armor in oil and prayers.

The tesseract vision offered me the privilege of observing this universe's powers gathering for an ad-hoc meeting in a white stone spire of the Afterlife. The Eldar god of pranks, Cegorach himself was there as well, his feet carelessly laid on the marbly table and one hand draped lazily over the arm of his chair. Everyone else, from Primarchs to Avatars and Phoenix Lords were struggling to ignore the obnoxious god and his antics.

"Why is your lord so smug?" I wondered with a glance at the usual suspect.

Mnemorach chuckled and glided beside me, then leaned over to poke at the hololith screen. A galactic map appeared at his touch, with the Screaming Vortex circled in blue by an Eldar rune.

"Lord Cegorach has closed this Warp vortex just now, using the Talisman of Vaul. You realize what this means?" the Eldar Harlequin asked in a teasing voice.

I admit, galactic politics and the games the gods played among themselves were still way above my head. I could deduce some of the implications though.

"Something about a larger godly domain, I suspect?" I asked with a glance at the Ordo Xenos expert.

Lady Valeyne shook her head slightly, so I possibly missed the point.

"Perhaps it is better if you avoid galactic politics, Pef Lancefire. Anyways, you will be called upon soon. Try not to die." Mnemorach advised me with a snicker, then jumped away and vanished in mid-air.

The tesseract tracked the Solitaire as he reappeared beside Sister Stern in her room. Damn cheater! He didn't even have a tesseract, yet he was able to do most of my tricks anyways.

I just patted Canis on his head, secure in his complete friendship and support.

"You think I'll get a medal?" I asked him without much hope.

The wolf turned to measure me for a minute, then sniffed in dismissal. Yeah, my thoughts exactly, buddy.

I kept watch over the glowing Avatar of the Emperor as a familiar map of swirling circles was produced and discussed among the winners of the Garden War, with new symbols and runes appearing over the map as each participant pointed a finger towards it.

Hours later, the focus of the conference changed towards the Eastern Fringe, and I became suddenly a lot more interested.

Certain runes were familiar to me already, like those for the Celestial_Orrery on planet Thanatos, or the Ymga Monolith, and new runes marked the Ultramar space, and my own kingdom at Illevar.

Further south, the Tau were marked as well, as were the Ghoul Stars to the north. The crownworld Gheden of the Necron Nihilakh_Dynasty featured three different runes for some reason, and Solemnace featured both a Necron glyph and an Eldar rune.

It didn't take a genius to figure out they were partitioning spheres of influence and galactic borders, as well as quarantine zones and important artifacts.

"I wonder what are they saying about the Lancefire lands..." I muttered with concern towards my future wife.

"I guess you'll find..." she began saying when I was suddenly yanked away from my chair and displaced right into the map room.

"Hello there!" I quipped in a jovial tone.

Nobody bothered to answer me, although Primarch Khan blinked and looked away.

"So you're going to send your soulless hammer to solve such a delicate problem?" Khaine asked with a derisive tone, and pointed at a glowing green rune marking Solemnace and the lands of Trazyn the Infinite, Necron Overlord and jailer of Isha.

That was rather discriminatory though. And I was not a hammer. Perhaps I wasn't the most delicate of men, but I never wanted to be one.

"My son has his flaws, but he gets results. Isn't that right, Avatar of Ynnead?" The Emperor asked the other divine being.

Again, the God of the Dead fixed his white orbs on me, and measured me for a long minute. Then he turned and nodded towards the Emperor, with some secret message passing between them, and above my head.

"Is this about Trazyn?" I asked to make sure.

Everyone in the room just stared at me in silence, which became quite awkward after a minute. Perhaps silence was golden?

"Things have changed in the past 90 years, my son. And with the Hive Mind gaining a share of Nurgle's domain in the Warp, we think it would be good if Isha was freed and started aiding the alliance. Lord Khaine is quite furious at the delay." The Emperor spoke in a soft and rational voice, although his holy aura and appearance as a divine avatar kinda broke the setting a little.

I could imagine changes had happened out in the real over 90 years. That was four generations and unknowable discoveries and social upheavals, especially with the Emperor returned to life.

Plus the consequences of my own actions before that, like spreading Blank genes and new technologies. And killing a few Chaos Gods.

Even worse, the Tyranid Hive Mind now had a domain in the Warp? Genestealers would spread like wildfire in that event.

Space Hulks could be directed to emerge anywhere in the galaxy and infest or attack more human worlds, perhaps even Eldar or Tau.

"Free Isha. Sure, I'll do it." I answered after considering the situation for a minute.

"We lost 3000 ships and billions of warriors trying to do that, human." A certain Phoenix Lord interjected in obvious scorn.

I blinked and turned towards the fuming Eldar woman. They tried a military solution? Against Trazyn?

How stupid could these people be?

"Don't you have Farseers? Surely they could predict the outcome of an assault, right?" I wondered in a surprised voice.

I think Cegorach smirked at that, while Primarch El'Johnson scowled profoundly.

"The odds get better if you are present, my son. Just let us know what aid you need from us. We do have substantial forces and armies, among ourselves." The Emperor explained with a gentle smile.

Maybe. The white might not have been his teeth, it was hard to say with all that glowing light. The voice was pleasant though.

I shrugged and waved my hand to dismiss the offer of more troops or ships. "I alone will be enough."

Again, a dozen pair of eyes stared at me in scorn or perhaps disbelief. Cegorach tapped his forehead for some strange reason, and I was expelled from the conference without more comments.

What did I do?