There was no doubt that Queek had lived up to the Great Horned Rat's gaze and expectations. Under Lucius's appreciative watch, the Skaven warlord instantly severed the limbs of the Greenskin Warboss with his power sword. Only after hacking the mighty brute into a literal stump did he proceed with a slow, performative execution.
The effect was instantaneous: the Greenskin legions in the northwest continental region collapsed. So fled in terror at the sight of their chieftain's butchery, while others imdiately fell into fratricidal infighting to seize the vacant throne of leadership. Their chaos would not end until another Warboss erged, one strong enough to beat every other Greenskin "boss" into submission. It was an exact mirror of the Skaven clans; without Queek's intervention, the clans whose warlords had been slain would have surely descended into endless internal strife.
"Now, the only one left to make things interesting is you," Lucius muttered, nodding as he watched from the Warp. He decided to add more fuel to the fire.
The Necron dynastic fleets, currently leeching off the Webway, were observing the carnage, waiting for the perfect mont to strike. Such parasitic behavior would never be tolerated by the Great Horned Rat, who prided himself on being "upfront and honest" in his own twisted way. The only ones capable of punishing those who dared to brazenly hijack the Old Ones' Webway were the Aeldari.
Lucius glanced at the final Cronesword in his hand. Like a gambler tossing dice, he hurled the artifact, which he had personally plucked from the Palace of Slaanesh, straight from the Immaterium toward the Shattered Star!
"Oh~ what a delicious performance~"
A snide, eccentric voice rang out, sounding like the cackle of a bizarre court jester.
Lucius turned to see a figure dressed like a harlequin from a deck of cards, wearing a mocking mask and approaching with a series of jaunty, skipping strides. To a mortal, such a sight would be terrifying, but Lucius's status and "firepower" were of a different magnitude now. He rely stared at the clownish entity and said:
"To think this would draw you out, Cegorach. Have you grown tired of playing your little pranks?"
"Don't be like that~~ I simply wanted to see what kind of Chaos God could trigger Slaanesh's 'Great Joke' ahead of schedule~" Cegorach, the Laughing God of the Aeldari, never ceased his frantic dancing and gesticulating. "And Isha... she has already played the cruelest joke in Aeldari history. Countless mortals of her race believe they have found the protection of their Mother Goddess, unaware that they have rely dragged themselves into the palm of another dark deity. Oh, how theatrical! How dramatic!"
Just then, Isha, the Aeldari Mother Goddess, appeared, her silver-white hair nearly reaching the floor.
"Cegorach, you traitor," Isha said. Her voice was stern but not cold as she looked upon the Trickster God, the one who had played the role of the pantheon's fool in the ages of old.
"Traitor? ? Oh... how you wound ~" Cegorach chuckled. "But tell , rciful Isha, do you truly know what you are doing? The Great Horned Rat, Lord of Formless Distortion, the Master of Mutation... you intend to use one Chaos God to combat another?"
Isha glanced at the black-robed Lucius with a hint of trepidation. She closed her eyes, reflecting on her ti spent with this entity. She was certain of one thing: this god was different from the Ruinous Four. He did not intend for the Warp to completely consu the materium.
According to a certain "late-night conversation," the Great Horned Rat had told her: "Reality and the Warp are two entirely different playgrounds. Why would I discard one just to let the other erase my fun?"
He bore no goodwill toward the Aeldari, nor even toward his own rat-kin, but as long as he did not intend to destroy the physical universe, he was infinitely better than the other Dark Gods. While the Four might not consciously seek the destruction of reality, their very nature inevitably dragged the materium into the Warp.
"I am certain this is a path my children can walk," Isha stated firmly.
"...Oh, very well~" Cegorach nodded. "Isha surrendering to a Chaos God... I suppose that's hardly news anymore."
Lucius had no idea why Cegorach had co just to spout this mad gibberish, but he knew that in the Warhamr universe, one can play the "riddle-master," provided one knows who they are talking to. Tzeentch's Crystal Labyrinth can trap anyone with infinite change, but against Khorne, it would simply be shattered by a single fist.
Thus, Lucius decided to give the Laughing God a small lesson to ensure he wouldn't disturb his "dark-beast" life with Isha.
Twisted horns began to sprout from the black-robed man's head, and his body swelled to a colossal size. The mad, chaotic power of Formless Distortion surged forth. In an instant, the "mortal" Lucius vanished, revealing the terrifying gulf between a standard Chaos entity and a Supre Lord of Chaos.
Isha stepped back in alarm, while Cegorach watched with a confident, knowing smile.
"You have courage, Cegorach. The Great Horned Rat admires that. When Slaanesh was born, nearly all the Aeldari gods were slaughtered. Now, I should like to test if those legends are true," the Great Horned Rat spoke. He was a mass of shifting, twisting shadows, his voice changing thousands of tis every nanosecond.
Just as the Great Horned Rat was about to strike, Cegorach suddenly produced a thin, booklet-like object as if offering a precious treasure.
"Oh~ pray forgive , Mighty Great Horned Rat! I hope this unique and precious treasure of the world may serve as my atonent," Cegorach said, holding up the cardboard-covered booklet with both hands.
The Great Horned Rat had intended to beat him half to death, but when his eyes fell upon the cover of that booklet, his composure wavered. He snatched the item away. Lucius looked at it, his expression a mix of curiosity and amusent.
"This is... from the Black Library? Hmph. Things are becoming more interesting by the second."
"Then, will this spare my life, O Powerful Great Horned Rat?~" Cegorach asked with an insufferable smirk.
"For the sake of this... you may go. This is indeed a most precious treasure." Lucius nodded, waving a hand to conjure a black wave that swept the Laughing God away.
"What is that?" Isha asked curiously.
Lucius didn't mind showing her. He held up the thin booklet so she could clearly see the words written on the cover:
[WARHAMR 40,000: 10TH EDITION CORE RULES]
"What is this?" Isha was completely baffled. She couldn't understand why a seemingly dull ga-manual could induce the Great Horned Rat to spare Cegorach's life.
"Heh. This ans there are definitely things in the Black Library that I will find interesting." Lucius knew Isha wouldn't understand, so he didn't bother explaining. He even suspected Cegorach had done this specifically to pique his interest in the Library.
"Well then... let's see how far your children will go to fight for this 'gift'." Lucius reverted to his human form and put an arm around Isha's slender waist.
Isha did not resist, seemingly long accustod to his touch. She rely lowered her head and whispered, "I fear... they will not fight very hard at all."
It was as Isha predicted.
The mont the final Cronesword was hurled into the mortal realm, the Yncarne sensed it imdiately. Soon after, the entire Ynnari host beca aware of its presence.
However, when Yvraine attempted to rally her allies, including Iyanden, just as she had for the rescue of Isha, neither the Drukhari nor the Craftworld and Exodite Aeldari were no longer willing to commit their forces.
Iyanna Arienal, the Angel of Iyanden, told Yvraine: "I am sorry, but Iyanden will not participate. We have already secured the protection of Isha. There is no need to gamble the lives of our people for a re possibility of a god being born, or the chance to kill 'She Who Thirsts'."
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