Chapter 132 The Final Battle

“Is this the root cause of the Tyrant Star anomaly?” Vane pulled his Blade and the Reaper of Souls Suit out of his inventory, more than ready to test this Tyrant Lord’s strength.

“Valdor?” the Emperor asked, staring at the shadowy figure on the throne, his voice laced with pure shock.

Trajann and the rest of the Custodes whipped their heads toward the Emperor, absolute disbelief painted across their faces.

Did my lord just call that dark figure on the throne Valdor? Isn’t that the name of the very first Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes?!

Vane also glanced over, looking surprised.

Hearing the name ‘Valdor,’ the shadow on the throne shifted its gaze to the Emperor. It froze for a few seconds, a flicker of struggle flashing through those crimson eyes.

But the hesitation vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, replaced once again by cold, merciless apathy.

“I am the Lord of the Tyrant Star. I am the absolute symbol of ruin and despair.”

“You have trespassed into my domain. Now, embrace your doom.”

The shadowy figure rose, its voice booming like thunder, deafening and raising the hairs on the back of everyone’s necks.

“Valdor has lost his mind,” the Emperor said, his voice dropping to a grim timbre as he stared down the Lord of the Tyrant Star.

“Is that really Valdor?” Vane asked, glancing sideways at the Emperor.

“Yes. I would never mistake his aura.” The Emperor nodded. “That is Valdor.”

“How did he end up becoming the boss of the Tyrant Star?” Vane asked, genuinely puzzled.

“That is a question we will have to ask him,” the Emperor replied, drawing his sword. “But first, we have to beat him.”

A halberd wreathed in crackling lightning materialized in the hands of the Tyrant Lord.

Unleashing a terrifying, sky-rending roar, he leapt into the air, bringing the weapon crashing down toward the Emperor with the crushing force of a collapsing mountain. He was dead set on slaughtering every last intruder who dared set foot in his realm.

Unfazed, the Emperor swung his blade to parry.

The collision of their weapons unleashed a horrifying shockwave that ripped through the surroundings, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris.

The two combatants moved at blinding speeds, leaving a blur of afterimages in the air.

Every single clash erupted with deafening thunder and devastating shockwaves, causing palaces and houses to crumble in their wake.

Unable to interfere, Vane and the others could only fall back to a safe distance and watch the Emperor and the Tyrant Lord tear into each other.

The battle was insanely fierce.

Wherever they fought, grandiose palaces violently collapsed, and colossal statues and towers shattered into pieces. Endless showers of debris and thick clouds of dust filled the air.

After a hyper-intense slugfest, the Emperor—the Master of Mankind—ultimately proved superior.

The halberd was knocked from the Tyrant Lord’s grip, and a split second later, the Emperor’s psychic manifestation punched him clean into the air.

The Tyrant Lord slammed into the ground like an artillery shell, cratering the earth in a web of deep fissures and utterly losing any capacity to fight back.

Big E really is the undisputed heavyweight champion of Warhammer. His combat power is just off the charts.

Hiring him as my personal workhorse and enforcer was definitely the smartest move I ever made.

Vane dropped down into the deep, ruined crater to check on the Tyrant Lord.

The dark mist shrouding the figure had completely dissipated, revealing the massive physique of a giant.

The man lying there was none other than the first Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes—one of the former triumvirs of the Imperium who had never returned—Constantin Valdor.

“It really is him,” Vane muttered as he pulled an Enchanted Golden Apple out of his inventory and fed it to Valdor.

As soon as he swallowed the Golden Apple, Valdor’s injuries healed at a visible, rapid pace. The bloodthirsty crimson faded from his eyes, returning him to his normal state.

“Valdor,” the Emperor said as he descended into the crater.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Valdor hacked and coughed as he forced himself up from the dirt. The moment he laid eyes on the Emperor, he froze.

“My Lord… why are you here? Are you not bound to the Golden Throne?”

“The Traveler has healed my wounds and stripped the faith from me, allowing me to walk in the materium once more.” The Emperor gave a brief summary of his current situation before turning the question back. “Why are you here?”

“After the Siege of Terra, I followed your final command to find a way for you to retain your humanity and leave the Throne…”

Valdor began to explain everything that had happened.

Following the Siege of Terra, Valdor had continued to serve as Captain-General for a time, overseeing Terra’s reconstruction while gradually taking control of the intelligence network left behind by Malcador.

In order to complete the mission the Emperor had given him, Valdor dispatched agents to scour the galaxy for lore and artifacts.

During that era, the death of Horus had dealt a massive blow to the Chaos Gods, preventing them from interfering in realspace. Most Chaos traitors were cowering in the Eye of Terror, too terrified to show their faces.

Because of this, Valdor’s operations went entirely uninterrupted, and he successfully tracked down extremely precious intel and artifacts.

He recovered items like the daemon weapon Drach’nyen—which the Custodes had dragged away during the War in the Webway—as well as Warp relics like the desolate cities left by the Old Ones, fragments of the eight-pointed star of Chaos, and more.

Drach’nyen was the “First Murder,” fundamentally representing the “End of Empires.”

Any human who attempted to stop it from destroying the Imperium would be hard-countered by its very nature, and not even the Emperor was exempt from this rule.

This was exactly why the Emperor had been so severely wounded when facing Drach’nyen during the War in the Webway.

To eliminate this hidden threat, Valdor made an absolutely insane decision: he orchestrated events to ensure that the Despoiler, Abaddon, would acquire the sword.

Abaddon was the greatest warrior beneath the Primarchs, and even during the Siege of Terra, prophecies had spoken of him.

He was fated to unite the traitor legions, become the new Warmaster of Chaos, and launch the Black Crusades against the Imperium of Man.

But at the end of the day, the greatest warrior beneath the Primarchs was still not a Primarch. Even armed with a daemon weapon, it would be incredibly difficult for Abaddon to actually kill the Emperor.

If the sword had fallen into the hands of a traitor Primarch, however, they might have actually succeeded.

Once Abaddon claimed the blade, Valdor resumed his primary mission.

He traveled across the entire galaxy, researching the ruins of the Old Ones and the Aeldari, desperately searching for a way to save the Emperor.

And during that process, he received an unexpected revelation.

A Chaos God in the Warp was a singular entity. If Valdor could find a way to beat the Emperor to the punch and steal the mantle of the Dark King, then the Emperor would be fundamentally unable to ascend to that godhood.

So, utilizing the artifacts of the Old Ones and years of accumulated lore, he essentially slapped together the Tyrant Star in an attempt to prematurely mantle the Dark King.

Unfortunately, while the theory was brilliant, the reality was brutal.

Valdor lost himself during the experiment and ended up mutating into the Lord of the Tyrant Star.

“The Imperium of Man really is just overflowing with talent.”

Eldrad, who had been listening to the story like a bystander eating popcorn, was absolutely floored.

What kind of lunatic actually tries to steal a Chaos God’s throne? He’s completely insane.

“You have endured much,” the Emperor said, patting Valdor on the shoulder.

Valdor looked the Emperor up and down. “Are you truly my Lord?”

“My Lord could never be this… human.”

The Emperor: “…”

Take back the sympathy I just felt, you bastard!!

Seeing that the Emperor and Valdor were about to keep chatting, Vane quickly interrupted.

“You guys can catch up later when we have free time. The Tyrant Star is dealt with; now it’s time to fix Scintilla.”

“Once we clear out those nobles, we’re heading back to Terra to rally the armies and wipe out the Chaos Gods and the traitor Primarchs.”

“Right. Let’s take care of those bastards first.” The Emperor turned and issued an order to Trajann, instructing him to lead the Custodes down to Scintilla and aggressively ‘promote’ those corrupt nobles into early graves.

“By your will, my Lord.” Trajann immediately turned and left with a squad of Custodes.

They deployed to Scintilla to handle the aristocracy and help restore order to the planet.

Meanwhile, within the Warp, a storm unlike anything the galaxy had ever seen was brewing.

Watching Vane help the Imperium construct the Pantheon, build a massive perimeter wall outside the galaxy to block the Tyranid invasion, and broker a peace treaty with the Necrons…

Even the Squats hiding in the galactic core were being lobbied by Imperial diplomats and were actually considering joining the Imperium.

Seeing all of this unfold, the Four Chaos Gods could no longer sit idly by.

If this trend continued, the Imperium of Man would unite the entire galaxy in no time.

Once they finished mopping up every problem in realspace, their next target would undeniably be the Warp itself.

Ultimately, the Four Chaos Gods decided to strike first.

They marshaled every single army under their command and summoned the Daemon Primarchs to launch a massive, unified assault against the Pantheon of Mankind.

They were going to annihilate the human Pantheon at any cost and seize the initiative once more.

An endless tide of daemons surged toward the Pantheon of Mankind.

The heroic spirits of the Imperium manned the towering defenses, roaring as they unleashed their fury upon the demonic horde, swearing an oath that the enemy would not advance a single step into the city.

The loyalist Primarchs scattered across the galaxy received the news and immediately rallied back to the Pantheon, leading the heroic spirits to war against the Gods.

—

“Wait, we’re already at the final boss fight?!”

Vane was stunned when the Emperor relayed the news.

He had fully expected that they would need to rally a massive crusade, punch their way into the Warp, and breach the realms of the four Chaos Gods one by one before claiming total victory.

He never expected the Chaos Gods to take one look at the shifting tides and just hit the ‘final battle’ button themselves.

“Damn it, I don’t have enough materials for the Sword of the Cosmos!”

Crafting the Sword of the Cosmos required 16 Infinity Ingots, 4 Crystal Matrix Ingots, 2 Neutronium Ingots, and 1 Infinity Catalyst.

Vane didn’t have anywhere near that amount. Even if he liquidated every single resource in his inventory, he would barely scrounge together two-thirds of the required materials.

“Progressing through the game this fast isn’t always a good thing.”

“Thank god I maxed out the Bloodletter [Carnage] and slapped a ton of enchantments on it earlier. Combine that with a fully leveled Reaper of Souls Suit, and I should be able to at least scratch the Chaos Gods.”

Even though he wasn’t perfectly geared for the fight, Vane had no choice but to bite the bullet and dive in.

At the very least, with the sheer number of allies on his side, their odds of winning were still pretty damn high.