Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 608 06.0607: "The Essence of Me and the Lord of Humanity (?)"

"Wasn't I just on the deck of the Red October? Where is this?"

Horatio's brows were furrowed, his eyes full of confusion and vigilance, as he walked slowly alone in the darkness as thick as ink.

This was darksight, but it was different from the one he was used to.

This is a pure black, without a trace of light, as if being wrapped in a huge and airtight black curtain. The silence is so dead that it makes people feel a little uneasy.

He tried hard to recall, but he couldn't remember why he came here. He only remembered witnessing the shocking scene of an Alpha-level psychic using his psychic powers at a very close distance.

"What just happened...it's so cold..."

He trembled slightly, looked around, forced a smile on his face, and muttered to himself, "I'm not going to freeze to death, am I?"

Then Horatio shook his head to get rid of these inexplicable thoughts.

"This isn't like the Golden Throne. I've shed blood for the Emperor, I've served the Empire, so I deserve a seat on the Golden Throne."

He stopped, turned around jokingly with a bit of self-mockery, then slowly raised his head and looked towards the bottomless space ahead.

Suddenly, it was as if a pair of invisible hands suddenly pulled open the curtain of darkness, and the surroundings were suddenly filled with golden light.

A magnificent palace with golden splendor appeared before his eyes. The dazzling golden light made his eyes widen instantly, his jaw slightly opened, and he was literally dumbfounded.

His gaze followed the dazzling gold and slowly moved forward, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

"That is..." His legs went weak, his Adam's apple rolled up and down uncontrollably, and he swallowed hard: "Emperor?"

He stared at the skeleton in front of him, which was sitting on the golden throne with tubes inserted into its body, and his heart was shaking like a raging sea.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary people would be blinded by the terrifyingly powerful psychic energy if they took one look at the Divine Emperor.

But for some reason, Horatio only felt a little sourness in his eyes, which stimulated him so much that it seemed as if tears were rolling in his eye sockets, but his eyes were not burned blind.

[I should be on the Red October, not at the Imperial Palace on Terra. Perhaps this is not the Emperor, but a psychic projection?]
He racked his brains and could only come up with this explanation.

[Or, is this emperor a fake? Are all these forged by Chaos?]
Soon, he took a deep breath, trying to suppress the strong shock in his heart, and frowned tightly.

Based on the fact that I have no idea what is in front of me, I guess it might even be a fake.

He blurted out all the questions he had been thinking about for a long time, with a hint of anger at being brought here for no reason, and scolded as if the image in front of him was a fake illusion of the devil:

"So, great 'Lord of Mankind', why did you take so long to summon your so-called 'successor'? Well, if I remember correctly, that's what the Slaanesh demon I exiled when I was sailing in the warp said about me."

He stared at the withered bones in front of him, bowed slightly, and saluted with a playful smile on his face. His tone was full of questions, "I think you must know why I came to this world. It seems that the inside story of this matter is far more complicated than I thought. Did you do everything?
Speak up, who are you? I guess you must be an impostor! Nine out of ten times you are a demon pretending to be me. I am familiar with your tricks! "

The dry bones sat there quietly, without any response, as if they were really just a silent statue.

“If you are truly the Lord of Mankind, then I have seen the title of Son of Darkness from the first day I came into this world.

If you are the Lord of Darkness, what on earth does this have to do with anything?
What impact will my coming to this world have on my previous world? And what is the check and balance that the devil mentioned?
What do you want me to do? Why did you take so long to show up in front of me?

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and his speech speed became faster and faster. The questions that had been accumulating in his heart were like a flood that broke through a dam, rushing out towards the dry bones in front of him.

When Horatio finished asking his questions, there was still no reply from the skeleton. The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the sound of his own heavy breathing.

He snorted coldly, feeling disdainful in his heart.

[I told you, I am on the Red October, not on Holy Terra, how could the person in front of me be the real Emperor? Damn this devilish trick! How can I get out of this illusion now? I still have a mission to complete.]
"Checks and Balances. Going back to the distant era when this world was first created, you and I are both checks and balances in our respective worlds."

Suddenly, an extremely powerful voice seemed to come down from the sky, like a huge bell exploding above Horatio's head, making his ears buzz.

"What... did you say? What separate worlds?" Horatio's face was filled with shock. He subconsciously took a step back, looking around frantically for the source of the voice.

[This can’t be the real Lord of Humanity.]
When he thought of this, cold sweat instantly broke out on his temples.

The voice was neither surprised nor happy, but simply filled with an inviolable majesty.

"Our world is just one of the myriad worlds.

The birth of a world, the reproduction and death of life in it, all provide "nutrients" to the creator of this world - the "Hanjie Tree". With "nutrients", it can create more worlds. This is "entropy".

The mission of the Balancer is to maintain the balance of entropy increase and decrease, allowing the world to continue to exist in peace and continue to supply nutrients to the 'Tree of the Vast World' that nurtures these worlds.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of this process and the prosperity of this world, checks and balances appear along with the emergence of intelligent life in this world."

The loud voice explained in an orderly manner.

"But...what does this have to do with the subspace? If our world is a so-called 'world bubble', then what is the subspace?" Horatio asked with a puzzled look on his face, his brows twisted into a knot.

"This is a disaster, a type of disaster." The voice was short and powerful.

"Disaster?" Horatio tilted his head slightly, his eyes full of confusion.

"Disaster is like a 'worm' on the tree of the vast world. It instinctively 'gnaws' at the 'fruit', which is our world.

They are the generation of entropy increase, bringing extinction and destruction to the world.

However, each world has a barrier, and disasters cannot directly penetrate the barrier to come to our world. They must use the "medium" to "melt" the barrier of our world.

An important mission of the Balancers is to prevent other intelligent species from discovering and using this medium, successfully breaking it and creating the "Melting Worms" that can allow disasters to penetrate the barrier."

"Medium...you mean psychic energy?" Horatio narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he understood something, and began to sort out the information quickly in his mind.

In this way, the reasons why the Emperor walked on earth, tried his best to block the news of the warp, and established the Imperial Truth all make sense. If it is true as he said, he is the "balancer" chosen by the Boundary Tree, and this is his mission.

"It's far more than psychic energy." The majestic voice continued, "It's just one of the manifestations of the medium that can cause the barrier of every world to melt."

"So, the subspace is the 'disaster' of this world. Its purpose is to destroy this world, plunder the nutrients (souls) that should be supplied to the 'Tree of the Vast World', and bring about an increase in entropy. However, it cannot achieve this goal directly, but needs psychic energy as a medium to melt the 'membrane' of this world bubble. Is that what I understand?!
But why has the world become what it is now? As far as I know, humans are not the oldest creatures. Have all the previous checks and balances failed? "Horatio asked a series of questions, and his emotions became more and more excited as the questions were about to come out.

"The earliest counterbalancers were born from an ancient alien race known as the Ancient Saints."

[Ancient Saint?]
Horatio knew this race. It was said that they were a group of toad-like creatures sitting on a magnetically levitated Mayan stone platform. They possessed unprecedentedly powerful technology, including the superluminal jump technology that the Emperor had been dreaming of.

[Well, if the Ancients were the first generation of checks and balances, then everything makes sense.]
Before the War in Heaven, the Old Ones were the most technologically advanced intelligent race in the universe. They were also the only users and caretakers of the medium of psionic energy.

The Necrontyr, now the Necrons, longed for the secret of immortality from the Old Ones. After failing to obtain it, they waged war against the Old Ones out of greed and jealousy for immortality and in order to maintain the increasingly divided dynasties.

In the early days, the Ancient Saints easily defeated the Necrontyr with their powerful technological power and the application of psychic energy, and they were exiled back to their home planet filled with toxic radiation.

The fragile unity within the Necrontyrdom was completely shattered by the defeat, and the dynasties fell into the Second War of Secession, until the Triarch Council came into contact with a being born from the stars in desperation - the C'tan, also known as the Star God.

After one of the C'tan named the Deceiver made a destructive deal with the Silent King at the time, the two officially formed an alliance. In the second phase of the War in Heaven, after the C'tan was gone, the Necrontyrdom, who had acquired a new form, almost overwhelmed the Old Ones' defenses.

When the war situation was precarious, those ancient saints who advocated the radical use of psychic power finally overwhelmed those fellows who insisted on the bottom line, using only technology and strictly prohibiting touching psychic power.

Larger-scale psychic invocations began to appear in this universe, and the subspace became increasingly connected to reality, becoming turbulent and dangerous.

This is the beginning of the Warp invading the world and becoming unstable.

"If the Warp is a disaster and the Old Saints are a check and balance, then what are the Star Gods?" Horatio asked impatiently, full of curiosity.

"They are the 'Ancient Gods'."

"Ancient gods? I don't think I'm listening to a clichéd Cthulhu mythology story right now."

“Whether you believe it or not, the ‘Ancient Gods’ are the former Great Old Ones. The Ancient Gods in each of our worlds are different.

They came into being with the birth of this world, between matter and consciousness, and they also need to seek souls as nourishment.

Generally speaking, this is just stealing the nutrients supplied to the Boundless Tree, but they will not directly lead to the destruction of the world like a disaster.

Because to the ancient gods, if this world is destroyed by disaster, then they will also perish.”

The voice explained patiently.

“That’s why even the C’tan hate Chaos.

In other words, the War in Heaven was actually the Old Gods trying to devour souls to satisfy their own appetites, but in the end, the Old Saints who were supposed to check the existence of psychic energy abused psychic energy in order to save their own race, leading to the surge of the subspace and the invasion of the physical universe?"

Horatio sorted out the background of the Warhammer world in his mind and speculated. With this reminder, the causes and processes of many things became clear and complete.

"If my guess is correct, according to your inferences, after the Ancient Saints fled this world, the Eldar replaced them and took the position of checks and balances.

However, in the Pantheon Civil War after the Eldar, their counterweights may have been severely damaged, which eventually led to the increasing desolation and corruption of the Eldar Empire, ushering in the birth of Slaanesh, and intensifying the invasion of the world by the Scourge again. "Horatio pinched his chin and analyzed calmly.

"You are very smart, Check and Balancer. You have seen part of the truth." The majestic voice expressed approval.

"Then you, the Lord of Humanity, should be the third balancer chosen by the Vast World Tree, the King of Darkness."

Horatio stared at the withered bones in front of him with a sharp gaze, "But how can I be the balancer? I look like just an ordinary mortal."

"Are you ordinary?" the voice asked back.

"Well...at least it looks normal." Horatio touched his face and said awkwardly.

"This is just the appearance that your original world brings to you. Your essence is actually more complicated than you think."

"So, why am I in this world? Is it you who did this? What impact will this have on my original world?"

"Your coming here is not caused by me, but you will get the answer soon, the answer from the real culprit.

I am against forcibly removing the checks and balances from other worlds, but now that things have come to this, you are here, and we should do our duties.

Deal with the crisis as you wish, new balancer. Even my son, my tools, cannot replace a real balancer.

I look forward to the day when I can see you at the Terra Palace."

The golden picture in front of him was getting farther and farther away, and the sound was becoming more and more ethereal.

"Wait! In other words, the Primarch is you, as a check and balance, trying to replicate the genetic plan of 20 of your kind?

But the essence of the Primarch includes a part of the Warp! Isn't that the medium that you, as a check and balance, should constrain? ! "

The moment Horatio asked this question, his pupils shrank.

[So... Therefore, the third Balancer, the Lord of Mankind, originally hoped to use genetic technology and the essence of the warp to replicate the Balancer just in case, but in the end, because of the rebellion of the Primarchs, the current situation in 40K has occurred?]
The third generation of checks and balances also paid the price for his failed plan, and from then on sat on the Golden Throne, trying his best to maintain the final stability of the entire world.

So, in this context, how come I, a seemingly mortal who would not actively use the 'medium' (psychic power) of the neighboring world, was moved to this world by some mysterious force?
If I am not a mortal, then I actually have special abilities that don't rely on Iron Hands?
So, my body is indeed different from that of normal mortals.

His thoughts unfolded like flowers and branches that grew luxuriantly, and Horatio deduced many situations.

When he came back to his senses again and looked at the disappearing golden light, he shouted hurriedly: "Then I came to this world. What will happen to my original world without a check and balance? What is the medium of my original world? Will the four gods or other incarnations of disasters invade my original world?"

But even though he yelled louder, he still didn't get any response.

(End of this chapter)