The Master of Mankind was gone!
Staring at the magnificent throne, Kaldor Draigo's eyes filled with a level of terror he had never known before.
"Could it be that the Master of Mankind has stopped fulfilling His duty, stepped down from the Throne entirely, and fled the Imperial Palace?
"And so the Savior, like Malcador the Sigillite before him, had no choice but to ascend the Throne and use his own body and life to suppress the darkness pouring in from the Warp?"
That thought rose in Kaldor Draigo's mind, and his heart felt as though it had been seized by an invisible hand.
This was no longer merely about dealing with the Emperor's dark avatar. It was about confronting His darkness itself!
And yet, if that had truly happened, then the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, should already have ascended into the Dark King.
However, his psychic senses had detected no trace of the Dark King in the relevant reaches of the Warp.
Humanity had not been corrupted on a massive scale into a newborn Warp entity either.
Then Kaldor Draigo considered another possibility.
"Or perhaps this Savior was consumed by ambition, corrupted by Chaos, and with the aid of the gods of the Warp somehow usurped the power of the Throne.
"If that is true, then where has the Master of Mankind gone?"
Whichever possibility was true, it meant the Imperium and all humanity had reached their most perilous hour. What, then, were the Grey Knights supposed to do?
Bzzzt.
The Golden Throne trembled.
In the eyes of the Grey Knights' Supreme Grand Master, that magnificent machine was wrapped in vast Warp energies.
Golden and black arcs of power intertwined, devouring one another.
The Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium, sat upon the Throne clad in radiant golden armor, looking down over those gathered beneath the steps like the Emperor Himself.
At that moment, the Savior looked like the Master of Mankind.
"Ah... pain, torment, the endless burden..."
Seated upon the Golden Throne, Eden let out a strained groan. Brilliant, blazing golden arcs of power spilled from his eyes.
Every word he spoke pulsed with psychic force, pressing down on the Grey Knights with crushing weight.
For a fleeting instant, the senior Grey Knights seemed to see dense darkness behind the Savior. Beyond him loomed the shadow of a burning daemon-god.
That red, blazing demonic silhouette had towering horns, and its monstrous body seemed vast enough to blot out the sky, spreading across great reaches of the Warp. Endless roars faintly echoed from it.
It was terrifying.
Even the Throne Room, under the influence of that daemon-god, intermittently birthed burning flames. In some places, molten lava even flowed across the floor.
That had to be some dark manifestation of the Savior's power!
Faced with such a sight, the Grey Knights felt even greater pressure. It seemed humanity now had to confront two internal powers of darkness at once.
Kaldor Draigo felt it more keenly than anyone. The overwhelming psychic pressure made his armor groan and creak.
He even began to think the prophecy might have gone awry. Perhaps the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium before them, was the true Dark King of legend.
"Grey Knights, you've finally arrived."
Eden had recovered somewhat and turned his gaze toward Kaldor Draigo and the other Grey Knight high-ranking figures.
Then he seemed surprised, and his tone returned to normal.
"Wait, what are you all still kneeling for at a time like this? Get up already."
In truth, Kaldor Draigo and the other senior Grey Knights had not wanted to kneel before the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium.
The moment they entered the Throne Room, they had knelt first and foremost to the Emperor, in repentance for the blasphemous act the Grey Knights were about to commit.
But by the time they realized the one on the Throne was the Savior, they had been too shocked and intimidated to react, let alone stand.
Now that the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium upon the Throne, had spoken, the Grey Knights felt even more despair.
They had hoped it was some illusion born of the Warp.
It was not.
The Savior truly sat upon the Throne. There was no mistake. And the Emperor's withered skeleton was nowhere to be seen.
It felt as though the sky itself had fallen.
The Grey Knights had forced their way to the Throne Room to carry out the Terminus Decree, only to discover that the Emperor was gone.
What were they supposed to do now? Could this be the prophecy's true ending after all, the Grey Knights executing the Terminus Decree upon the Savior and banishing him back into the Warp?
For a moment, every Grey Knight tightened their grip on their Nemesis weapons, a storm of thoughts rising in their minds.
All eyes turned toward the Grey Knights' Supreme Grand Master at the front, Kaldor Draigo.
They waited for his decision.
If the Supreme Grand Master chose battle, they would unleash their rites and go to war against the Savior at once.
Some Grand Masters had already secretly sent messages to Corwin, asking for the true name of the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium.
But Corwin did not know the Savior's true name either. He was rattled too.
Things had gone far beyond anyone's expectations. Even the Custodians did not know the true situation here.
The Grand Master of the Seventh Brotherhood found himself wondering that if the Supreme Grand Master really gave the order and the Grey Knights clashed with the Savior...
What exactly was he supposed to do?
Kaldor Draigo tightened his grip on the legendary Titansword, forced himself upright against the crushing psychic pressure, and faced the Savior on the Throne.
He took a deep breath. Rather than act rashly, he voiced the question in his heart.
"Savior, where is our Master of Mankind? The one upon the Throne should be Him, not you."
Even if the Grey Knights ultimately had to face the Savior's darkness, they needed to know where the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, had gone.
"Hold on a second. Let me think about what exactly happened here."
Eden rubbed his brow and struggled to sort through his muddled thoughts.
He had sat upon the Throne for a stretch of time, and his connection to the Warp had become too deep. Even his human thoughts, memories, speech, and mannerisms had been heavily affected.
At last, he understood why the old Emperor hardly liked talking and so often lapsed into sleep.
It was not just that the Emperor had to suppress the dark side of the Holy Sun. The Golden Throne itself was part of the problem.
This damned toilet really was bad news. Anyone who sat on it got sleepy as hell.
Not long ago, the Throne Room had undergone violent tremors, and fully a third of the Golden Throne had split apart.
He had not even had time to deal with Kaldor Draigo's return before rushing over here.
At the time, the situation had been incredibly urgent. Humanity had been right on the brink of extinction. It had nearly reached its darkest hour.
Because the Throne had suffered further damage, part of the Emperor's dark personality had directly manifested as a Warp entity and entered the galaxy, trying to drag the Emperor's remaining skeleton off the Throne.
If that had happened, it would have meant the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, breaking free of the Throne's shackles entirely and descending as the Dark King.
Put simply, human civilization had nearly been finished. They could have started preparing the funeral banquet at any moment.
Fortunately, the Emperor still retained a fragment of consciousness and cooperated with him to suppress that dark manifested split that had been trying to escape.
It had been a high-dimensional war spanning both reality and the Warp, with the Hope Sun, the Holy Sun, and the Emperor's dark side locked in battle.
Even the higher-dimensional reaches of the Warp had been ground away.
It had been an extremely fierce fight.
In the end, he and the Emperor defeated that dark manifestation and drove it back into the Chaos Warp.
It once again fell under the suppression of the Holy Sun's brighter aspect.
"But then why am I the one sitting on the Golden Throne?"
Only then did Eden think of that question, and his scalp went numb.
He remembered that after the battle in the Warp, the Hope Sun had expended too much power, leaving him extremely weak.
Everything had become hazy.
And the Golden Throne itself, having endured that savage battle, had suffered irreversible damage and had nearly exploded again.
If that had happened, the Holy Sun would have spiraled completely out of control. At that point, no expert in the Imperium would have been able to save things.
But judging from the current situation, the Golden Throne clearly had not exploded.
With his flesh-and-blood body, he had suppressed the Throne's out-of-control power the same way the Emperor had.
"Don't tell me..."
A thought struck Eden, and he jolted upright, brows knitting tightly.
"That old bastard didn't screw me over and make me take over guarding the Throne for him, did he?!"
Though the Emperor had looked more kindhearted in recent years, most of the time he was still every bit the tyrant.
He treated almost everyone as tools for achieving his goals.
And for the sake of victory, he was willing to sacrifice anything, including himself.
Looking at it that way, it was not impossible that the Emperor might use him as a tool to hold the Throne, freeing up more of His own psychic power for some other plan.
But the moment that thought arose, Eden killed it.
He believed the Emperor would never pull something so outrageous without discussing it with him first.
After all, he, the Savior, was not some delicate Primarch. He had prepared countermeasures for situations like this. Not even the Emperor could forcibly override his will.
More importantly, he had already proven that humanity's chances of victory were greater under the Savior's leadership.
Eden rapidly sorted through the thoughts scrambled by the Throne and the Warp, and his earlier memories returned.
He remembered why he was on the Throne.
It had been his own suggestion. After discussing it with the Emperor, he had willingly taken the pressure for a while so the old man could have some room to move.
"This is only temporary."
Eden answered Kaldor Draigo's question.
"The Emperor will return to the Golden Throne very soon.
"You Grey Knights need not worry, and you certainly do not need to do anything rash that might cause unpredictable consequences."
He could sense the Grey Knights' wariness, so he spoke to calm them.
After a moment's thought, Eden raised a hand and pointed toward one area.
"The Emperor is still in the Throne Room handling matters. He should be in... that area."
With psychic power, he moved aside a heap of mechanical wreckage near the Throne, revealing the scene behind it.
It was a machinery-filled zone crackling with terrifying psychic arcs.
And there, within it, was the Emperor's skeleton, still linked to numerous cables.
More importantly, that withered, towering skeleton was shrouded in the Emperor's psychic afterimage, and it was moving.
He was squatting on the ground, backside in the air, his bones smeared with oil and grime, working away with a set of specialized tools as he grunted and repaired the damaged Throne.
He looked like he was having a rough time of it.
That was right. The Emperor had temporarily stepped down from the Throne and was now working as a repairman, doing His best to fix the very Throne that had bound Him for ten thousand years.
So that this magnificent seat might continue functioning.
That, too, was one of Eden's backup plans.
Because of the Throne's overwhelming psychic pressure, the Tech-Priests simply had no ability to withstand it and carry out repairs.
At present, the only people in the Imperium capable of enduring the Throne's pressure were the Savior and the Emperor.
Unfortunately, Eden's educational background in Mechanicus matters was abysmal. By Mechanicus standards, he was functionally illiterate.
Under those circumstances, the only option was to make the old Emperor work a bit harder and get off the toilet for a while to fix it.
After all, back then, it had been the Emperor Himself who had overseen the repair of the Golden Throne before putting it into use.
"The Emperor!"
Kaldor Draigo and the other Grey Knights were numb with disbelief.
Their heads were buzzing.
The Emperor really had come down from the Throne. Did that count as abandoning His post, or did it count as continuing to fulfill His duty?
And what the hell were they supposed to do with the Terminus Decree now?
"Oh, right. Didn't the Emperor leave a directive for the Grey Knights before this?"
Eden remembered the emergency report the Custodians had given him not long ago. At the time he had been in the middle of fighting the Emperor's dark side and had not been able to respond.
He looked toward the Grey Knights, his tone leaving no room for dispute.
"That directive is still necessary. From now on, the authority to decide the Terminus Decree will rest with me.
"I will be responsible for determining whether it must be carried out, and for commanding the Grey Knights in carrying out that important mission."
The Terminus Decree was still useful. If necessary, it could legally pin down the old Emperor and keep him from doing something reckless under the influence of the Warp.
Hearing this, Kaldor Draigo instinctively objected.
"Savior, that mission is..."
"Come on, what are you worried about? Putting the Terminus Decree in my hands is a good thing."
Eden waved lightly, cutting him off.
"It's also so the Grey Knights can carry out their mission more effectively. You'll be getting more new equipment and specialized wargear."
He did not bother to hide it.
"And whenever necessary, I will personally lead you with greater force and greater might to pin the old Emperor down and beat him flat, then drag him back onto the Throne.
"That way, we keep the situation stable."
Kaldor Draigo swallowed and glanced again at the Emperor, who was still repairing the Throne over there.
Discussing something like this right in front of the Master of Mankind felt a little inappropriate.
In truth, the Emperor was perfectly willing to see it happen. He had always feared that the Imperium had no one capable of suppressing His rampaging dark side.
When He heard the Savior's words, He slowly turned His head, tool still in hand, and gave Kaldor Draigo a stern, authoritative look filled with unmistakable approval.
The Emperor agreed.
Kaldor Draigo bowed to the Emperor, sensing that the Master of Mankind was fully awake.
Too much had changed, and the Emperor had now given new instructions. The Grey Knights could only obey.
"Savior, the Grey Knights accept your proposal," Kaldor Draigo said solemnly.
Crackle!
Fresh dark-red psychic arcs burst from the Throne.
Eden fought to suppress the Throne's violent shaking, feeling the deepening pull of the Warp.
The restraining force of that magnificent Throne was growing stronger and stronger.
His brow furrowed, and he turned to urge the Emperor anxiously.
"Old man, what are you still standing around for? Get moving already. If you don't finish fixing the Throne, I'm afraid I'm going to end up sitting there right beside you.
"And you probably don't want me squeezing onto the same Throne with you, do you?"
If he and the Emperor ended up shackled to the Throne together, then humanity would really be screwed.
And if the Dark King and the King of Hell were both crammed into the same place, then even if they both went dark, they'd probably just start beating each other up.
Watching this, Kaldor Draigo and the senior Grey Knights felt deeply uncomfortable.
The Savior was acting as though he were ordering the Emperor around. Who, exactly, was the true master of humanity here?
Yet the Emperor showed little emotion. He cursed the brat, then forcibly gathered His psychic power and continued manipulating His own skeleton to repair the Throne.
Even for the Master of Mankind, controlling Himself in that manner was exhausting. Every so often, driven by sheer human habit, He even went through the motion of wiping sweat from thin air.
Before Kaldor Draigo could process any of it, the Savior's voice rang out again.
Looking down from the steps at the Grey Knights below, Eden issued an order.
"You lot move too. Establish a psychic barrier to soften the Warp's impact!"
Kaldor Draigo and the others did not dare delay. They scrambled into action. If the Master of Mankind Himself was not objecting, how could they possibly protest?
And besides, it was all for the Golden Throne. For humanity.
Hummm.
The Pure Ones chanted prayers of epic grandeur and burned the remains of Malcador's skeleton.
A vast silver-white psychic power gathered from somewhere within the Warp.
Kaldor Draigo and the other senior Grey Knights seized the chance, using their rituals to guide it and erect a special barrier over the Throne.
That reduced the burden on Eden, the Savior, and on the Emperor, making the Throne's repair go more smoothly.
Not long afterward, Malcador's skeleton had burned away completely, and the silver-white psychic barrier gradually dissipated.
Fortunately, the Emperor had made full use of that window, repairing the damaged section and stabilizing the Throne once more.
Bzzzt!
Eden tore at his own body with brute force, erupting with crimson psychic power before wrenching the cables free and stepping down from the Throne.
At that same moment, the Emperor's skeleton returned to it in time, once more suppressing the surging Warp energies.
The Master of Mankind would continue fulfilling His duty, enduring that endless torment and pain.
The instant He returned to the Throne, He fell back into slumber.
His earlier activity had consumed too much energy. He could no longer remain conscious in realspace.
"A shame. Malcador's remains have been fully expended, so you may not be able to perform another large-scale rite like that."
Now off the Throne, Eden felt light, comfortable, almost reborn.
Looking at the slowly dispersing ash on the floor, he felt a little regretful.
The Grey Knights really did have some tricks. Their combined grand rite had been remarkably effective at resisting the impact of the Warp.
Then Eden thought of something.
Crack!
To the horror of Kaldor Draigo and the others, he suddenly turned and snapped off several of the Emperor's ribs from the great skeleton.
It was an act of shocking desecration.
"The Emperor!"
The Grey Knights froze, their scalps prickling with terror.
In an instant, Kaldor Draigo gripped the Titansword tightly, his heart filling with tension.
He could not understand why the Savior would commit such a blasphemous, rebellious act!
(End of Chapter)
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