"Is this... right?"
At this moment, beyond the galaxy, this silent void—so distant that not only life, but even stars were scarce—was now completely transformed.
Adam's body floated quietly in the void.
He had just halted his light-speed dance. His arms hung low, his breathing as calm as before, though his brows were slightly furrowed.
Looking out across the void spanning countless light-years around him, the Hive Fleets, layered over one another like shattered mirrors, were slowly retreating like a beaten beast, unwilling to accept defeat.
Yet, they were still baring their teeth.
The tendrils of those bio-ships writhed menacingly in the void, their gazes still locked onto this tiny figure that had forced them to pay a horrific price.
Another sky-blotting barrage of bio-plasma spewed forth from the depths of the swarm.
The blue-white fire poured down like a torrential rain, so dense that it could reduce any enemy fleet to ashes in an instant.
Yet Adam merely raised his eyes.
Before those plasma torrents could even reach within tens of thousands of kilometers of his body, they abruptly lost all kinetic energy at an invisible boundary, bursting into clusters of silently blooming fireworks.
For the current Adam, this was indeed no difficult task.
For a reality bender—especially one who had grown close to Class V—being able to achieve this on a universal scale was nothing to boast about.
Even if the Hive Fleet before him was vast enough to plunge any civilization into despair, even if it eclipsed the entire void, Adam had still repelled it inch by inch by his strength alone.
This battle fought in the dark abyss had no bloodthirsty audience watching.
Otherwise, it would surely have been recorded in the history books.
Yet, everything had an end.
At this moment, Adam truly felt a sense of psychological fatigue.
A reality bender's physical body wouldn't tire, of course—as long as he wished it, as long as his willpower remained, Adam could fight on forever.
However, that wasn't the issue.
The issue was that the enemy's numbers were simply too vast.
So vast they were as uncountable as the stars themselves, so vast that a sense of absurdity arose from the depths of Adam's heart.
I've already used this much force, how are you still alive?!
"Forget this for now, looks like I need to try again."
He muttered to himself in the void.
After a moment's thought, Adam snapped his fingers softly.
His reality-bending powers flared to life.
His body vanished from the spot, like a pebble tossed into a body of water, penetrating the veil between the physical universe and the Warp.
Then, Adam saw that entity once more.
Amidst the distorted light and shadow of the Warp, it stood towering.
Vast, famished, like a shadow stretching across every dimension.
Before it, Adam's form was so minuscule that describing him as a drop in the ocean was far from sufficient.
This gargantuan entity was like an insatiable devourer, opening its bloodthirsty maw wide toward him—a mouth expanding infinitely, as if it could swallow the entire Warp in a single bite.
The sense of oppression it brought far exceeded the visual shock caused by the Hive Fleet in the physical universe.
Adam raised his hand, just beginning to channel his reality-bending abilities.
However, before he could strike, the giant maw snapped shut with a thunderous crash.
His body, like a phantom bubble, completely dissipated the instant the jaws clamped together.
Of course, this was a decoy.
Utilizing the preparations set up before he moved, Adam's body materialized once more in the physical universe.
He was completely unharmed, not a hair out of place, but his brows knitted even tighter.
Indeed.
Within the Warp, the suppressive force of this Great Devourer was terrifying, even surpassing the Chaos Gods he had felt before.
A battle in the Warp was, in a sense, a clash of imaginations.
The illusions woven from countless dimensions, endless emotions, and uncounted fragments of consciousness were overwhelming to behold.
Even for a reality bender fighting on home ground, when facing a horrifying existence condensed from the swallowing instincts of innumerable living beings, he had to admit one fact:
His strength fell short of his ambitions.
Furthermore, this was far beyond the galaxy, in a place untouched by the light of the Astronomican.
The Emperor sitting upon the Golden Throne could not support Adam's battle at all.
Even if the Emperor's power could reach this far, Adam had no doubt that certain Ruinous Powers would desperately interfere to ensure it failed.
At this thought, Adam sighed with regret, withdrawing his consciousness from the Warp back into reality.
In the distance, the Hive Fleet that had just retreated a few light-years was beginning to gather once more.
Their psychic signatures skyrocketed in a straight line, and the bio-ships that had been retreating turned their prows back around.
Adam didn't even need to use his sensing abilities to guess what had happened—the Hive Mind that had just bitten empty air in the Warp was currently venting its impotent rage.
Psychic waves seeped through from the other side of the veil, roaring as they swept across the void.
Even across such a vast distance, Adam felt as though a gale was blowing straight into his face.
What a hassle.
So he thought.
The even more troublesome matters lay ahead.
Recalling the reports coming from the rear, Adam felt a mild headache coming on.
What on earth?
The threats he had casually listed back in the council chamber—Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, Eldar—how were they all taking the stage one after another, as if they had agreed upon it in advance?
The things he had once firmly believed impossible to happen held an inexplicable sense of absurdity when he looked back on them now.
"Is this the legendary matchmaking system of the Galaxy Server? Truly brilliant."
Adam muttered, crossing his arms as he floated slowly in the void.
His mind automatically sorted through the situation.
The Imperium of Man, decayed for ten thousand years, was originally supposed to face: a Tyranid threat whose true main fleet was endlessly delayed; Chaos forces that were equally divided and stabbing each other in the back; degraded Orks; fragmented, self-serving Eldar factions; Necrons fast asleep in their tombs; and the Tau, who, despite being upstarts, were still small in scale.
Truth be told, it was a battle royale in an ICU ward.
Every faction was dragged down by its own flaws, no one capable of completely overwhelming the other, leaving everyone locked in a stalemate.
And the result?
The moment he used his reality-bending powers to drag the Imperium of Man back up—pushing reforms, launching crusades, driving technological progress, and bringing this rotting beast back to life—
Good grief, the matchmaking system immediately arranged well-matched opponents for them.
Adam shook his head, brushing these irrelevant complaints out of his mind.
Right now, the one thing he couldn't do was leave this place.
His gaze fell back onto the gathering Hive Fleet.
The will of the Great Devourer was surging back into the physical universe like a tide, and an eerie psychic aura began to glow across the chitinous carapaces of those bio-ships.
If he failed to hold this creature firmly in place, and allowed it to charge into the galaxy, the situation that followed would likely be beyond what "a complete mess" could describe—it might truly grind the very foundations down to dust!
After a moment's contemplation, Adam waved his hand.
A clone was created in the void.
The other Adam opened his eyes, nodded to him, and immediately, wrapped in reality-bending power, tore through space to cross tens of thousands of star systems, vanishing in the direction of the galaxy.
This clone's destination allowed no detours or delays. It went straight through Terra's atmosphere, passing through clouds and sunlight, cutting through the incense smoke and chanting prayers that had lingered for ten thousand years between the grand pillars of the magnificent palace.
The heavy doors of the Throne Room opened once again.
The illusion unfolded.
Sunlight poured through the stained glass in the vault above, dyeing the entire cathedral in a holy, reddish gold.
Upon the soaring dome, the religious mural depicting the Emperor's martyrdom remained as solemn as ever.
Just like his last visit, this grand hall remained luxurious, completely unchanged.
Adam came to a stop in the center of the cathedral.
"Adam, what business do you have with me?"
The Emperor's voice rang out.