"Rhodes, I am Aisha—formerly Slaanesh," the purple-haired woman said, gently stroking her rounded belly with a complex smile.
"Strictly speaking, I am the split off from the Chaos godhead—the true Eldar goddess."
Rhodes looked to Isha in shock; she nodded. "We shared one body for so long we nearly forgot we were originally two separate beings."
"Wait—so for the past twenty years, every night—" Rhodes suddenly realized.
He wasn't an idiot. In a flash he pieced it together: I've been sleeping with Slaanesh for over twenty years—no, I've been corrupted by Slaanesh for over twenty years.
Cold sweat beaded on Rhodes's back. A Chaos Dark God had lurked at his side for twenty years and he hadn't noticed?
But had he truly been corrupted by Chaos power? Probably not.
He could use spatial force, but that came from the Emperor evolving him with psyker power, and he rarely used psyker power anyway—he mostly relied on kaiju strength.
"Don't overthink it. I had no intention of corrupting you with Chaos power. Strictly speaking, you used the Order power of cosmic phantom beasts to corrupt me," Aisha rolled her eyes.
At first, leveraging Isha to get close to Rhodes, she had entertained the idea of making him her Demon Prince.
But after witnessing Rhodes's potential and encountering the cosmic beasts and their positive power, she changed her mind.
So in truth, Rhodes's Order power and the cosmic beasts had corrupted her, not the other way around.
"Does anyone else know about this?" Rhodes asked.
If she'd hidden at his side so long and even had a phantom beast, then surely one of his subordinates had done something.
And the most suspicious one—he already knew who.
"My apologies, master! It was all by your future self's command," Tartarus appeared beside Rhodes at some point, dropping to one knee.
"You're saying it was an order from my future self?" Rhodes asked.
"Yes, master. Your future self told me to tell you: 'Aisha will be your virtuous consort; Aisha is the Eldar goddess of love and beauty,'" Tartarus said.
He helped conceal it not just because of the order, but because Aisha bore no malice toward Rhodes. Otherwise, he would have protected his master at once.
This day was bound to come—by the future master's will. Tartarus was willing to bear it.
"I understand. Since it was my future order, and you're confessing now, I'll forgive you. But no next time," Rhodes said.
What else could he do—drive a pregnant woman out?
After twenty-plus years, there were real feelings. And in several past battles in the cosmic star realm, Isha must have secretly helped; otherwise Rhodes wouldn't have had it so easy.
"So were you two sharing a body, or swapping occasionally?" Rhodes asked.
"Sometimes me, sometimes her. At first we shared Lelith's body; later we used the giantess's body.
As for your cosmic beasts, our divinity could perfectly fool them—they knew nothing," the Life Goddess Isha said with a playful wink.
Rhodes nodded.
Against gods, phantom beasts were still outclassed—being fooled by two goddesses wasn't surprising.
So, he'd slept with two Eldar goddesses.
What a thrill. In the grimdark, to reverse-corrupt Slaanesh into the Order camp—probably only he could do that.
"Yes and no. The giant I used was Dark Faust, but Isha didn't—she used Camearra," Aisha said.
The first giant was for the Life Goddess—a pure shell with its consciousness gone.
"Camearra? I don't recall having that giant," Rhodes said.
"Great master, the giantess Camearra's body was something your future self specifically gave me to carry back to the past timeline.
When you sent me to the past, you required I bring that body," Tartarus said.
So that was it. He felt played by his future self—now each Eldar goddess had a giantess body.
"Then, whose child is it?" Rhodes asked.
"The pregnant one is indeed Aisha. Strictly speaking, I helped a little, but it's your and Aisha's child," Isha said.
"That won't do, Isha. When I rescued you, you promised me a child. You still owe me one," Rhodes said.
"No problem—if you like," Isha answered with a gentle smile.
"So you called me here just to tell me this?" Rhodes asked.
"Rhodes, I'm severing my Chaos godhead. Soon I'll only have Order power left, with over ninety percent of my strength gone," Aisha said.
"Good to ditch that thing early. Order power can be trained—you'll grow stronger. And you have me," Rhodes said.
Aisha smiled and stood. The silk gown outlined her evident bump. She looked at Rhodes solemnly: "Rhodes, I must tell you something urgent: my Chaos godhead is seeking a new host, and it has chosen Fulgrim."
"That treacherous Phoenix?" Rhodes snapped to alertness—this was bad news.
Aisha laid out her inference about reforging the godhead. Rhodes's face grew darker as she spoke.
When he heard it could mean sacrificing all human souls, he turned livid. He should have had the Slaanesh-killer finish Fulgrim. Humanity had suffered enough. He'd just optimized the Emperor's situation and indefinitely delayed the Dark King's advent—yet now something else threatened to devour mankind.
And given Fulgrim's nature, he'd relish it.
"We must resolve this before the godhead fully transfers," Aisha said.
"Rhodes, don't worry too much—that's the worst case. Things may not mirror ten thousand years ago," Isha said.
Rhodes paced, then stopped. "Wait—if the godhead is semi-detached now, does that mean—"
Isha's eyes lit up. "You mean we can tamper with it during the transition?"
"Exactly!" Rhodes snapped his fingers. "Since it hasn't settled on a new owner, we can assign it a suitable host."
"A controllable puppet?" Isha mused.
"Or a better option—" Rhodes smiled mysteriously.
If they could meddle with the Chaos godhead, he'd choose one of his own. He had an ideal Slaanesh-killer—imbued with Slaanesh's Chaos power, amped to the limit, combat strength far beyond typical Demon Princes.
What was Fulgrim? On what grounds should he inherit the godhead? Hand it over—you can't handle it!
"Rhodes, this is extremely dangerous. The Chaos godhead is an intensely corruptive power. Whoever gets it will be corrupted," Aisha said helplessly.
The Chaos godhead was uncontrollable—otherwise she wouldn't be trying to sever it.
"Trust me. My subordinate can absolutely control the Chaos godhead," Rhodes said.
Once his subordinate obtained it, control wouldn't be too hard.
It was strong, sure, but not above the System. The strongest monsters the System could summon could even defeat Dark Gods—like Dark Zagi, Delacion, the Mysterious Four Ultras, Hyper Zetton.
He had complete control of the Ace Killer. Even if that one inherited the godhead, he'd still be under Rhodes. Rhodes would gain a controllable Dark God as a subordinate.
"Worthy of the master. It's a perfect plan. The System can absolutely do it," Tartarus said.
"Aisha, the key is you. Can you divert the godhead into my Ace Killer?" Rhodes asked.
"If you're absolutely sure, I can help. But we should bring the Emperor in. With his psyker power we can suppress the godhead. Also, someone must distract the other three—while we seize the godhead, no one can be allowed to interfere," Aisha said.
They needed the Emperor's help, and they also had to guard against the other Dark Gods. If they detected the godhead vacant, they'd rush to snatch it.
"This needs careful planning. By the way—does the Emperor know who you really are?" Rhodes asked.
"Of course. Don't underestimate him—he's crafty," Aisha said.