---Evening---
After finishing my report, the noblemen began discussing how to proceed. There were several differing opinions, but everyone agreed the first move was to purge enemy spies from the royal palace and the capital. No matter what plan they settled on, it would be for nothing if enemy agents relayed the details back to their superiors. With everyone in agreement, the immediate issue was locating them.
The royal palace employed over a thousand servants to maintain the premises, not including the aides to the King and Queen, the kitchen staff, the guards, or those in the service of the various ministers. Time was of the essence, making a lengthy vetting process impossible. Just as the men reached their wits’ end, I offered my help. With my telepathic powers, all I needed was for those in and around the palace to be brought to a single place so I could identify the culprits. Since I was the one who had brought this critical information to their attention, they entrusted the matter to me.
<If I may, why did you not inform them of the Chaos cult? You shared that knowledge with the Guildmaster, but withheld it from the nobles.> Luxion floated beside my head, cloaked in his stealth field.
‘Luxion has been acting strangely since the incident last night. He has always called me “Master” at least once every time we speak. Now it is hit or miss—strange for an AI.’ I watched as the knights’ training ground filled with people. “In an ideal world, the only ones who would know about the cult are Malcador, Solaris, you, and me. Most of Chaos’s power comes from emotions, but they also gain strength from belief, faith, and thoughts. The more people in the know, the stronger our enemies become.”
This was why the Emperor of Mankind had kept my brothers ignorant during the Great Crusade. It was a calculated risk; he hoped to quash Chaos before they could stop him. Back then, I thought he was a fool. He kept his generals in the dark about crucial information that might have stopped Fulgrim and Horus’ fall to Chaos. Now that I was in a similar position, the choice made sense.
“The Guildmaster was a calculated risk,” I said as the last few individuals trickled in. “Although your drones are reliable, I do not want to depend on them alone. He did not achieve his position by good fortune; that old man is a master of subterfuge. I know he will keep the information close to his chest while his people track down leads. The reason I kept the nobility in the dark is that this is not their battle to fight. They already have their hands full with the Holy Kingdom of Rachelle and the Principality of Fanoss.”
<That makes sense, but won’t they still find out when you single out those possessed by daemons? They will not go down without a fight...>
Individuals possessed by Warp entities gained immense power, sometimes putting them on par with Space Marines. When a daemon exerted full control over a host’s body, they mutated into horrid monsters that were difficult for ordinary people to kill. With so many unarmed bystanders around, I had devised a plan to bypass the problem.
"I will only single out the non-daemonic spies hidden among them. When no one is watching, I will cast the possessed into the Mirror Dimension. They can be dealt with there, inflicting no damage on the real world." I grinned subtly. "I found some magic tomes about the dimension while I was browsing the Academy's extensive library. It was tucked away, hidden beneath a bookshelf in the backroom."
<You’ve thought this out very well, Leon. I’m impressed.>
I gave my AI companion a confused glance. He was beginning to talk more like a human than a machine. If I had asked him to, or if we had been together for an extended period, I could understand the shift—but neither was the case. For now, all I could do was remain silent and observe.
With everyone in the vicinity gathered together—save for the King, the Queen, and the King’s harem—I joined the Duke and his allies at the podium. Positioned on a small stage, before the crowd, the Duke scanned the sea of faces before speaking.
“My apologies for calling you away from your duties. We will do our best to finish this quickly so you may return without delay.” The Duke’s expression hardened. “Our intelligence has revealed that several spies from the Holy Kingdom and the Principality have infiltrated the royal palace. We have summoned you here to weed out the enemies hiding among you. Baron Aremus, if you please…”
At his command, my awareness expanded across the training ground, encompassing the vast sea of faces in a single, effortless breath. The thoughts, emotions, and suppressed malice of everyone present laid themselves bare before me in less than a heartbeat. I pinpointed one hundred and fifteen enemy agents flaring like beacons within the collective consciousness. Yet, seven of those individuals stood out, devoid of human mental activity. Applying the techniques Malcador had shown me this morning, I examined those black holes closer, confirming what they truly were: mortal shells possessed by daemons of varying strength.
I waved my hand, using illusion magic to highlight the non-daemonic enemies in the crowd with a faint glow. “These are the parasites that have infected our sovereign land.”
Earl Roseblade and Viscount Arclight leaped off the stage with their swords drawn. “Seize them! Do not let a single one escape!”
Taken by surprise, the enemy agents froze. By the time they tried to move, dozens of guards and knights swarmed them. A few attempted to resist, but most surrendered without a fight.
“My word! Vincent had barely finished speaking before you found them. You work fast.” Prime Minister Atlee patted my back.
“I recommend speaking with the Head Butler, Head Chef, Head Maid, and Knight Commander soon. There are many here who are fed up with the current status quo. They feel overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid.”
There was a myriad of complaints from the staff, most centered on the King and his harem. While the Queen treated the servants well and remained self-sufficient, they bossed the staff around like taskmasters. They demanded help with almost every facet of their day. If they were any lazier, they would have the staff wiping their behinds.
“Understood. I will speak with Queen Mylene about this and see what can be done.” The Prime Minister shook my hand. “Once classes are finished for the day tomorrow, please come to my office. After everything you have done for us, it is only right we compensate you for your work.”
With that, he dismissed the remaining staff and departed with the other members of the Duke’s faction. As the crowd began filtering back into the palace, I made a few hand gestures and cast the possessed into the Mirror Dimension. No one noticed their disappearance; the crowd was preoccupied chatting about what had just transpired.
---Mirror Dimension---
Solaris and I followed the daemons into the parallel dimension. Confused by everyone’s sudden disappearance, they did not notice us until we were ten feet away.
“Lord Aremus, where did everyone go?” a chef’s assistant asked, feigning fear.
Before the others could join the charade, I raised a hand and channeled a fraction of my psychic energy. A flash of bright light engulfed them as burning runes seared into their backs.
“What are you doing!?” a beautiful maid collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. “Have we upset you somehow, my lord?”
“Cease your games, Warp spawn. I have seen through your disguises and dragged you here to receive judgment.” I continued my approach, drawing my glowing blade. “You will not lay claim to this world, or any other, filth.”
The woman’s body contorted violently, her spine snapping backward at an impossible angle as the flesh of her torso tore itself apart from the inside. A sickening chorus of wet pops and fracturing bones echoed across the training ground. Dark, oily ichor bubbled from her eyes and parted lips, hissing like acid where it struck the stone floor. Her jaw unhinged, stretching her skin to the absolute limit as a low, dual-toned screech tore from her throat—a sound that was half human agony, half unholy triumph.
When the horrific reshaping stilled, the mortal shell was gone, replaced by a grotesque tapestry of corrupted flesh and warp-born malice. She was a daemonhost now. Unlike a standard possession where an entity merely steers a living mind, a daemonhost was a living prison—a mortal vessel hollowed out, its soul consumed to anchor a powerful entity of Chaos into the physical realm. The creature bared rows of needle-sharp teeth, its eyes burning with a violent, unnatural light as it locked its gaze onto me.
“Fool! Do you think this will—”
A blur to its eyes, I appeared before the daemon and drove my blade through its heart. White cracks radiated from the wound, covering the entire body. Then, with an ungodly shriek, the creature exploded into ash, its soul obliterated from existence.
Ordinary weapons could only disrupt a daemon’s soul essence, casting it back into the Warp’s fractured timeline, where it might remanifest centuries in the future—or even days in the past. Special weapons—like the Emperor’s flaming sword and my own—could obliterate their souls, leaving nothing to reform. The Emperor and a handful of other elite psykers could achieve the same destruction through sheer psychic force. If Malcador was to be believed, I too would one day be counted among them.
“When I last fought your kind, over ten thousand years ago, I recall you were far more ferocious and powerful. Don’t tell me you’ve gone soft in my absence.” I turned my icy, emotionless gaze toward the remaining six daemonhosts. “I guess my evaluation of lesser daemons was too high.”
As the shockwave of their companion’s destruction rippled through the empty dimension, the remaining six warp spawn backed away in terror. The human masks on their faces melted as they recoiled from the suffocating weight of the aura bleeding into the room. It was a power that made their immortal flesh crawl—a distinct, blinding majesty that carried the unmistakable, searing scent of the hated Anathema.
“That light… it belongs to the Corpse-God…” one of the daemonhosts said, his eyes wide with dread as he stared at the golden pressure radiating from me. “Who are you!?”
“I am the Emperor of Mankind’s second son, Leon Fou Aremus.”
The sigils on my blade burned bright as the words left my mouth, the psychic hum vibrating through the air.
“Warp spawn like you are a blight upon the Materium. For ten thousand years, you’ve trapped humanity in an endless cycle of slow decay and terror. With my return, I will see the darkness driven from our Imperium, and peace restored for all those who call the Materium home!”
I raised the weapon, pointing it at the trembling warp spawn before me.
“Today, the reborn Primarch of the Second will show your masters that the Age of Chaos is ending.”
Driven into a corner, the daemonhosts reverted into feral beasts. They pushed aside their fear and threw themselves at me with abandon. With no organic allies or bystanders around, I used them as practice targets to retrain my control of psychic energy.
Immense, raw psychic power coursed through my body as a fiery phoenix manifested before me. The instant it took form, it soared forward and engulfed two of the creatures in a raging inferno. Unable to shake off the purifying fire, their physical forms and souls were consumed.
“Ha! I’ve only just regained my psyker powers, and your pathetic souls can’t withstand them. How pitiful!” I stared down my next target like a tiger hunting a wild boar. “Be gone, worm.”
With a flick of my wrist, I cut the entity into hundreds of pieces. They turned to ash a moment later.
As I turned to face the last three, the world slowed to a crawl. Without stopping to think, I tore my enemies apart, watching them snuff out in slow motion. The confused, horrified expressions on their faces in their last moments amused me.
“Well, that was a letdown.” I sheathed my blade and looked back at Solaris. “How did I do, Malcador?”
“Your declaration filled this old man’s metaphysical heart with joy.” Malcador appeared before me with a smile. “The rapid improvement in your control of psychic energy is to be expected of the Emperor’s son and my last pupil. All that said, I wish you had warned me before using your power beyond what you originally planned. I feared the warp entity anchored to your soul was trying to take control.”
“My apologies.” I bowed my head to him. “You are right, I should have stuck to the plan. I saw an opportunity to use my psychic powers with no risk of harming others, so I took it.”
Malcador smacked my head and sighed. He was not pleased with my answer, but he did not lecture me. In the end, my stunt only served to further my training, which was exactly what he wanted.
“Aremus, regarding those last three daemons, how did you speed up your movements to such an extreme degree? I sensed no variation in your psychic power, and I doubt it was the mysterious Force you spoke of. If it were, you would have used it during our fight last night.”
“I assumed it was my psychic energy acting without thought, or my Primarch physique returning to me.” I tilted my head.
Malcador shook his head. He had witnessed all the Primarchs in combat many times; that display was beyond the realm any had shown before. Even the Emperor of Mankind at his peak could not have matched that speed. It took everything the Sigillite had just to witness it, and even then, it remained a blur.
“I’ve triggered it once or twice before. The world around me slows to a snail’s pace while I move without hindrance.”
“Interesting. Curze and Sanguinius showed some degree of temporal manipulation, but nothing to that extent. Since your current body isn’t the one your father created, it must have something to do with that. If we can figure out how it works, I recommend learning to control it. Such a powerful ability will be invaluable in the future.”
“I can see glimpses of the future, too. Though I’ve only manifested that power once.”
Malcador turned his gaze over my shoulder. Luxion dropped his stealth field and stared back at him.
<I don’t have the slightest clue either. In the history of this world, no group or person has shown such power before. I was going to suggest this anyway, given the changes happening to Leon’s body: how about having him undergo a full physical examination? You helped your friend create the Primarchs, yes? Between the two of us, we should be able to find any genetic abnormality causing this phenomenon.>
I was interested to learn more about this body as well, so I agreed without hesitation. Malcador nodded in agreement. We settled on heading to Luxion’s island this weekend, since I had taken Saturday off for my date.
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