Chapter 36 Scapegoat Bonus

This is the bonus chapter for reaching 300 Powerstones.

— Following Vane’s master plan, the Tzeentchian cultists aggressively fanned out across Phodia Hive City.

They meticulously infiltrated the localized cells of the other three Chaos Cults, systematically gathered intelligence on their leadership, safe houses, and logistical networks, and immediately anonymously reported everything to the Imperial Enforcers and the Inquisition.

Within a matter of days, dozens of deeply entrenched Chaos Cults were completely uprooted and violently annihilated.

Countless heavily corrupted cultists were dragged out into the streets and publicly roasted on pyres by the Ecclesiarchy.

The moment their burning souls plummeted into the Warp, they were immediately snatched up and eaten like popcorn by passing Daemons.

Meanwhile, Vane reaped the rewards.

By personally ‘processing’ the confiscated contraband from the arrested cultists, he successfully secured the localized Idols of Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh.

As he touched each Idol, the system prompts flared to life.

[New Crafting Recipe Unlocked: Idol of Khorne] [New Crafting Recipe Unlocked: Idol of Nurgle] [New Crafting Recipe Unlocked: Idol of Slaanesh] Idol of Khorne: Requires 2 Stone Blocks, 8 Skulls of War, and 1 Blood-Soaked Battlefield Weapon.

Idol of Nurgle: Requires 3 Plaguestone Blocks and 7 Plagued Corpses.

Idol of Slaanesh: Requires 2 Stone Blocks, 2 Crystals of Desire, and the Ashes of a Hedonist.

With the Equivalent Exchange mod fully integrated, gathering raw materials was a trivial task for Vane.

It took him less than two days to synthesize the required materials and craft a pristine copy of each Chaos God’s Idol.

“Alright, let’s test these out and see what kind of broken stats they provide.” Finding an isolated, structurally reinforced bunker deep within the mobile fortress, Vane set up his testing range.

Just like the Idol of the God-Emperor and the Idol of Tzeentch, the remaining three Idols possessed three primary mechanics: Divine Blessing, Demonic Summoning, and Weapon Enchantment.

Vane decided to test the Idol of Khorne first.

He activated the Divine Blessing.

Instantly, a column of violent, blood-red light crashed down, completely enveloping his body.

In a microsecond, he felt an incomprehensible, explosive surge of raw physical strength flooding his veins.

A deep, instinctual understanding materialized in his mind: As long as I slaughter my enemies in honorable melee combat, my strength will exponentially, infinitely scale.

However, this divine buff came with a severe psychological debuff.

He could literally feel an ocean of inexplicable, blinding rage and an absolute, suffocating thirst for slaughter aggressively trying to hijack his neural pathways.

“So this is the Blessing of the Blood God.

Infinite scaling physical strength, but the cost is permanently losing your mind to mindless rage.” Vane analyzed the localized buff data, immediately canceled the blessing to purge the rage, and moved on to testing the Enchantment and Summoning mechanics.

The Khornate Weapon Enchantment was entirely focused on slaughter.

The more entities the enchanted weapon killed, the sharper and more indestructible it became.

It even possessed a vampiric sub-routine, siphoning the lifeforce of slain enemies to actively heal and artificially extend the lifespan of the wielder.

Honestly, the mechanics sound remarkably similar to the Dawn Blade wielded by Commander Farsight of the Tau Empire.

When Vane triggered the Summoning mechanic, a massive Bloodletter of Khorne tore into reality.

Exactly like the Tzeentchian Daemons, the Bloodletter was completely hostile and refused to follow Vane’s orders.

Upon being casually chopped in half, it dropped extremely rare crafting materials: Hellfire Crystals and Shards of Slaughter.

Equipment forged from these materials provided massive percentage-based damage reduction against ranged attacks.

The materials could also be brewed into Potions of Wrath, which temporarily provided a massive, flat boost to all physical combat stats.

The loot mechanics were identical to the Idol of Tzeentch.

Killing Tzeentchian Daemons dropped materials used for high-tier magical enchantments and Potions of Mutation.

As for the Idol of the God-Emperor?

Vane hadn’t tested its summoning mechanic, and he had absolutely no intention of ever doing so.

The Legion of the Damned were the heroic, burning souls of fallen Space Marines.

He genuinely couldn’t bring himself to farm them for loot.

“I can absolutely set up automated mob farms using the Chaos Idols.

If I funnel them into a kill-chamber, I’ll have an infinite, passive supply of high-tier Warp materials.” Mentally drafting the blueprints for an automated Daemon-grinder, Vane moved on to test the Idols of Nurgle and Slaanesh.

The Blessing of Nurgle drastically increased the user’s base Constitution and Damage Resistance, granting near-invulnerability to environmental hazards and extreme physical trauma.

The debuff was horrific: the localized bacteria and viruses within the user’s body became hyper-active.

Prolonged use of the buff would inevitably cause the user’s flesh to necrotize, violently rupture, and constantly ooze pus.

The Nurgle Weapon Enchantment was highly entertaining.

It caused the weapon to become severely rusted and corroded, applying a permanent Tetanus and Hyper-Viral debuff.

Even if the weapon only inflicted a microscopic scratch, the target would suffer catastrophic, lethal biological infection.

Summoning produced Plaguebearers.

Upon death, they dropped Shards of Pestilence and Essences of Fecundity.

These materials could be used to craft virulent biological weapons, extreme poison-resistance armor, and ironically, incredibly potent Potions of Healing.

The Blessing of Slaanesh was incredibly…

sus.

It drastically increased the user’s Agility, Dexterity, and localized sensory perception, providing absolute, perfect control over every muscle fiber in their body.

The debuff altered the brain’s pain receptors: physical trauma no longer registered as pain, but rather as extreme, blinding euphoria.

Prolonged use caused a permanent, insatiable psychological addiction to sensory overload and hedonistic excess.

The Slaaneshi Weapon Enchantment applied a localized, highly concentrated hallucinogenic musk.

Merely smelling the weapon caused enemies to suffer severe psychological breakdowns, trapping them in inescapable, agonizingly beautiful illusions.

Slaaneshi Daemons dropped materials used to massively increase weapon attack speed, craft Illusion Wards, and brew extreme Potions of Anesthesia.

— Vane’s casual, rapid-fire testing of the three Idols instantly triggered massive, localized alarms across the Immaterium.

For the Chaos Gods, someone actively bypassing their divine authority to directly siphon power from their respective Domains was an absolute, unforgivable violation.

If this thief can steal localized power today, they can steal fundamental authority and usurp the Domain tomorrow!

The last thief who had dared to pull a stunt like this had been brutally killed by the Four Gods acting in absolute unison.

They possessed zero tolerance for intellectual property theft.

The burning gazes of Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh instantly snapped toward the Cryptus System, locking directly onto Vane.

And the absolute microsecond they looked at Cryptus, they noticed something completely infuriating: The Corpse-Emperor’s Inquisitorial lapdogs, guided by highly detailed intelligence provided exclusively by Tzeentchian cultists, were aggressively and systematically massacring their localized cults!

Khorne: “…” Nurgle: “…” Slaanesh: “…” Does that giant blue mutated bird think we don’t exist?!

He is aggressively, blatantly orchestrating the systemic extermination of our worshippers, while simultaneously allowing some mortal pawn to siphon our divine power?!

Does He actually think He is the undisputed, singular Master of the Warp now?!

ROOOAARRR!

Khorne, possessing the shortest temper by an astronomical margin, violently lost His mind.

He hurled His colossal, reality-shattering battleaxe directly at the Crystal Labyrinth and roared a command to His infinite demonic legions.

“MARCH ON THE DOMAIN OF CHANGE!” The infinite, brass-clad legions of the Blood God roared in fanatical bloodlust, immediately launching a catastrophic invasion into the Domain of Change.

Nurgle and Slaanesh didn’t hesitate for a microsecond.

They immediately mobilized their own demonic legions, launching a coordinated, three-pronged siege against Tzeentch’s realm.

Normally, the Chaos Gods didn’t care if a few million mortal cultists died.

But this?

This was a blatant, unapologetic insult to their pride.

Tzeentch was explicitly using the Corpse-Emperor’s dogs to assassinate their worshippers while simultaneously stealing their power.

It was a direct, humiliating slap to the face.

— Meanwhile, deep within the Crystal Labyrinth.

Tzeentch had been watching the Cryptus System the entire time.

Witnessing Vane’s flawlessly executed conspiracy—gaslighting His cultists into reporting the other three factions, while simultaneously hijacking the power of the other three Gods—Tzeentch was absolutely trembling with profound, ecstatic joy.

The sheer, unapologetic treachery!

The absolute deviation from established fate!

He couldn’t help but genuinely admire the Outer God.

This entity is honestly more Tzeentchian than I am!

Because Vane’s actions were actively, violently altering the established threads of fate, Tzeentch could literally feel His own power aggressively skyrocketing.

If this Outer God kept orchestrating massive, reality-altering conspiracies like this, Tzeentch would effortlessly surpass the other three and become the undisputed, absolute supreme God of Chaos!

However, His ecstatic joy lasted exactly three seconds.

He suddenly saw a colossal, reality-shattering brass axe hurtling directly toward His head.

The Crystal Labyrinth automatically reacted, instantly manifesting a hyper-dense crystalline shield to block the strike.

BOOOM!!!

The catastrophic kinetic impact violently shook the entire Labyrinth.

Millions of Lesser and Greater Daemons of Tzeentch stumbled, looking around in profound confusion.

“Huh…?

What is happening?” Tzeentch was equally bewildered.

Before He could even begin to calculate the variables, He looked out and saw the infinite, aggressively hostile legions of Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh violently crashing into His domain.

The coalition didn’t even bother issuing a formal declaration of war; they just started slaughtering everything in sight.

Tzeentch’s demonic legions instinctively retaliated, and the Labyrinth instantly devolved into an apocalyptic, reality-shredding warzone.

Witnessing the absolute chaos, Tzeentch’s mind went completely blank.

He instantly realized exactly what had happened.

He was the absolute, massive scapegoat for the Outer God!

The other three brain-dead idiots genuinely believed Tzeentch was the mastermind behind the purge in Cryptus!

[If I told you that this entire conspiracy was not My plan, would you actually believe Me?!] Tzeentch desperately broadcasted His defense across the Immaterium.

The other three Chaos Gods completely ignored His broadcast, continuously roaring at their legions to press the attack.

This damned blue bird constantly looks down on us!

He genuinely thinks He is the smartest entity in existence and constantly treats us like playthings!

And now, when He’s caught red-handed, He actually expects us to believe this pathetic, low-effort lie?!

That human in Cryptus is so obviously Your pawn!

He’s literally wielding Your magic!

— Next Bonus at 400 Powerstones.

Wanna read ahead right now?!