"This is but a beginning," Sigismund whispered. He slowly sheathed the Black Sword at his hip, his voice echoing hollowly through the desolate cavern.
"The war to end all wars."
"And so, the life of the Chaos Warmaster, former First Captain of the Luna Wolves, and Lord of the Black Legion—Ezekyle Abaddon—came to its end."
The Warp.
Within the realm of Chaos, the eternal tides continued to churn without cease.
Yet, at the very center of this upheaval, deep within the thrashing currents of the Immaterium, a quill was moving rapidly across the pages of an open book. The nib glided over the paper, leaving line after line of orderly script.
Finally, the quill reached the end of the last line. It paused for a heartbeat, then slowly drew a period.
A pale, slender hand reached out from the side, tossing the quill carelessly away. It grasped the open book and snapped it shut.
Clap.
The sound of the closing book rang out crisply within the Warp. It wasn't loud, yet it seemed to pierce through the layers of chaotic waves, echoing clearly in every corner of the Immaterium.
Adam looked away from the book—an object generated by his own reality-warping abilities. His power had been manifested. Destiny was now locked.
Just as he had predicted, within the chain reaction of causality fueled by this momentum, even Abaddon—the bearer of the Mark of Chaos Ascendant—was powerless to resist. He had been reduced to nothingness under the primary battery fire of the Macragge's Honour.
A faint smirk touched the corner of Adam's mouth. After all, he was hardly a "Mr. Nice Guy."
Those four "blobs" on the other side had engineered such a massive plan, meddling so extensively with Cadia and weaving such an intricate web—it was only right that he delivered a corresponding counter-attack.
However—
Adam looked up thoughtfully. At this moment, the Warp currents were still surging relentlessly. Wave after wave of chaotic tides crashed toward him, each strike carrying terrifying power capable of crushing a soul.
Right now, the Emperor's golden light, vast as a sea of stars, was spreading out with majestic force. The bulk of that power was poured into the space above Cadia, death-gripping the gateway of the Eye of Terror to prevent chaotic corruption from encroaching another inch.
The effect was significant.
The Cadian defenders, who had been deluded by the whispers of Chaos, snapped awake as if from a long nightmare. The crimson tint in their eyes faded rapidly, replaced by a returning, sober resolve. Before they even had time to wipe the blood from their faces, they were quickly reorganizing their battle lines under the harsh reprimands of Commissars and officers.
Because of this, Adam currently had to face the full, concentrated assault of the four Chaos Gods alone.
The enemy's power was titanic. Every time he used his abilities to neutralize a surge, a more violent force would replenish it in an instant. Yet, through Adam's exquisite control over reality warping, the world-shattering power of the Four Gods never truly managed to land on him.
The Chaos Gods, of course, had more to give. They continued to exert their will, wave after wave of energy surging forth, only to be neutralized on the spot by the superior defensive performance of his reality-warping power.
"Interesting. You've actively abandoned Abaddon, such a useful pawn, right then and there."
Adam murmured to himself. Once they realized the Chaos Warmaster had no hope of victory, the ritual in the Pandorax System had utterly failed, and the pylons on Cadia were about to seal the Eye of Terror, the Four Gods found the outcome unacceptable.
Therefore, abandoning Abaddon—a pawn who had outlived his usefulness—and concentrating all power to break Cadia became their primary choice. They were the definitions of darkness and disorder in this universe; they would never waste a shred of extra power on a spent piece.
But the Four Gods never expected that this decision would provide Adam with the perfect opportunity.
"You have misjudged me this day, and perhaps you shall continue to underestimate me hereafter."
Adam chuckled softly, slowly extending both hands forward. "But I shall show you nonetheless what reality warping truly is."
He slammed his palms together in the void, then lightly hooked his fingers as if plucking a flickering, dying spark from the churning Warp currents. A faint white speck of light appeared quietly in his palm.
It was a fragment of Abaddon's soul, which had just scattered into the Warp upon his death.
In the next second, Adam's reality-warping power surged to full capacity.
—Because the soul remains, Abaddon is 'dead yet not dead.' Because Abaddon once held the blessing of all Four Gods, he is eternally the Chaos Warmaster, the Chosen of the Four, the sole vessel into which they must pour their power.
The conclusion was set.
Endless chaotic energy from the Warp, like a catastrophic flood finding its spillway, surged crazily toward the faint white speck in his palm. The speck acted like a ravenous black hole, devouring it all.
The Four Gods realized something was wrong instantly.
Their original power was spread too thin: the war of attrition on Cadia's surface required a steady stream of daemonic reinforcements; the Chaos fleets surrounding the Cadian System required energy empowerment; they had to divert strength to stall the six thousand Gloriana-class battleships rushing toward the main theater; and they had to use the majority of their power to intercept and corner Adam's in the Warp, preventing this "player" from pulling off another world-shaking stunt.
There was too much to handle.
But now, the vast majority of the power they threw out acted like a fatal software bug—completely out of control, it all projected madly into that single white speck of light.
What was happening? What concept had been skewed?
To be able to achieve such a thing... Amorphous Warp, you bastard—!
As the violent torrent of Chaos poured incessantly into the light, Abaddon's heart-wrenching wails of agony began to drift out from the speck. The Chaos Warmaster, who had thought death would bring final rest, was now enduring a torment more horrific than any torture he had faced in life.
"Bear with it, it'll be over soon," Adam said quietly. "After all, this is only a one-ten-thousandth repayment of the countless blood debts you've accrued."
Meanwhile, within the Divine Realms of Chaos:
Sibylal and the others under Adam's command sensed the sudden weakness of the Four Gods. They immediately reactivated their "vandalism mode" with extreme prejudice.
The entire Chaos Realm turned into a chaotic mess in a matter of moments. Even the Four Gods, masters of the universe's primordial darkness, were now thrown into a state of total, frantic disarray.