"This is exactly what I needed. Abaddon, you did well."
Vashtorr nodded in great satisfaction, taking the black flesh chunk from Abaddon's hands. Chaotic divine power flowed from this piece of black flesh.
This flesh was something Vashtorr had specifically instructed Abaddon to cut off—a piece from Sidonis. During the battle with Horus, Abaddon had secretly collected a piece of Sidonis's flesh.
"I originally wanted to collect some of the flesh from Horus's dark giant form after wounding him, but what flowed from his skin wasn't physical matter—it was pure energy.
That giant seems to be something in between a corporeal lifeform and an energy being; I can't quite describe it," Abaddon remarked.
Vashtorr had previously tasked him with obtaining flesh from the fake child of Slaanesh, but after witnessing the terrifying power of the dark giant, Abaddon shifted his focus.
During the fight with Horus, he managed to wound him with his demon sword and cut off some flesh. However, once separated from the giant's body, that flesh immediately turned into pure energy and vanished entirely. Abaddon got nothing intact.
"No matter, this will be enough!
Honestly, their difference isn't that great. Theoretically, they're the same class of lifeform, it's just that these giants have higher potential." Vashtorr gazed at the black chunk of flesh, his face alight with excitement.
"So you think you can replicate that monster with just this little piece of flesh? Are you sure?" Abaddon asked his partner.
The galaxy had changed so quickly. Just over a year ago, he was one of the strongest in the entire galaxy. Now, a mere year and a half later, he had fallen out of the top tier.
First, he was utterly defeated and killed by the female Primarch, then met his father and was trounced again. The power displayed by the child of Slaanesh was also something he could not contend with!
He now had to improve his power quickly. If not, as the leading figure of the Chaos forces, he'd be eliminated rapidly—Chaos is merciless.
"Have you forgotten what I am the god of? I am the god of the Forge of Life. With this flesh, I can obtain that being's power," Vashtorr snorted.
"Recently, the Living Saints have become very active on the battlefield. I've noticed their combat prowess has increased!
Their bodies no longer seem to be pure warp energy; instead, they've become another form of matter," Abaddon continued.
The human Empire's fighting strength had increased tremendously! The new-era Astartes and the Living Saints, even the basic Imperial Guard, were about to be upgraded! The Emperor himself had awakened from the Golden Throne and could now communicate with the Empire through his manifestations. All of this spelled trouble for Chaos!
"You're not stupid. Let's talk about the Living Saints first: the Emperor did upgrade them, adding suitable bodies. Now, their combat power surpasses most daemon princes," Vashtorr explained.
"Upgraded? How? Even the four chaos god can't upgrade their daemon princes or greater daemons—they rely on their own capacity to channel Chaos power," Abaddon pointed out.
"This isn't a normal upgrade. The Emperor found a material that could contain their souls, creating bodies for them to survive in the real universe.
With physical vessels, the Living Saints' power completely surpasses pure energy lifeforms.
If I'm not mistaken, the special material is exactly this flesh I'm holding, only imbued with the Emperor's power," Vashtorr began to educate Abaddon.
With a physical body, a daemon prince's combat power increases by at least double. Both the Emperor's avatars and the so-called children of the four hunters are essentially lifeforms—just infused with the Emperor's or Slaanesh's power, respectively. As for the dark giant, he had once thought it was the same species as the Emperor's avatar or the Slaanesh child, just with the Dark Emperor's power. Now, however, he realized this was not the case.
They were similar but fundamentally different. The dark giant was an evolved lifeform, while the Emperor's avatar was some kind of bio-weapon, modeled on the giants.
"Now that you mention it, it is strange. Sidonis can absorb Horus's dark giant power.
When both transformed, the lights in their chests were identical, and Sidonis could even mimic the giant's beam attacks.
I thought they were the same species! Turns out Sidonis is a mere copy," Abaddon mused.
No wonder they seemed so similar—Sidonis was a bio-weapon imitation of the giant. Vashtorr truly deserved his reputation as a master of biomechanical fusion, uncovering secrets even the four Chaos Gods missed.
"This leads to another issue: I suspect Slaanesh and the Emperor have reached some sort of agreement, perhaps even allied in secret," Vashtorr said.
Unless the Emperor and Slaanesh had joined forces, he just couldn't figure out how an avatar identical to the Emperor's could exist.
The so-called child of Slaanesh was a ruse; that purple giant should be called the Slaanesh Avatar!
"What? You mean the fake Emperor and Slaanesh have allied? That's impossible! Slaanesh is one of the four Chaos Gods, among the highest beings in the universe, almost immortal!" Abaddon exclaimed in disbelief.
The Emperor actually allied with Slaanesh? That was just too much for Abaddon to swallow.
"Why not? Before the human Empire was founded, even when humanity was still in the Dark Age, the Emperor made deals with the four Chaos Gods through certain means.
He was the first human to interact and bargain with the Chaos Gods. Otherwise, how did you think the Primarchs came to be?
This time, the other three Chaos God and I had planned to seal Slaanesh and make me the fifth Chaos God.
But you know what happened? A golden power suddenly descended and sealed Slaanesh's Palace of Pleasure.
Even the master of change, Tzeentch, who is best at magic, would need over a hundred years to break the seal.
This is a completely unknown divine power! Think, whose power in the universe is golden?" Vashtorr snorted.
Ten thousand years ago, it was Asuryan, the Phoenix King of the Eldar. But after Asuryan's fall, only the Emperor possessed such golden divine power!
In fact, the Emperor's golden power now even surpassed that of the Phoenix King.
The Emperor had awakened from the Golden Throne and could manipulate his avatars. He always kept something up his sleeve.
Vashtorr had every reason to believe the Emperor was closely involved in these events.
The power that sealed Slaanesh's Palace of Pleasure had strong psychic energy.
"It's very possible. I never thought…the fake Emperor is no different from us—he's compromised with Chaos too," Abaddon said.
He now despised the Emperor even more. For all his righteous talk, the Emperor had been making deals with Chaos from the very start, and even the Primarchs were born of these bargains.
Having learned the Empire's dark history, Abaddon had every reason to believe that if the Great Crusade and the Webway project had gone as the Emperor wished, all the Primarchs, including the Astartes, would have been purged—just like the Thunder Warriors. In the Emperor's eyes, perfect humans were always his Custodians, the purest of all.
"You're not that slow. I think that the new Primarch, Rhodes, was secretly created by the Emperor.
I've found many suspicious things about him, and I suspect these are deliberate smokescreens from the Emperor to draw attention and conflict toward that golden Primarch.
He wants us to think that Primarch is the root of change in the universe, but it's all too easy, too obvious for Chaos to see through. That's abnormal.
Given our deduction about the Emperor's secret alliance with Slaanesh, and the Emperor's recent awakening, I'm fully confident in my conclusion," Vashtorr said.
None of the Chaos Gods believed a single Primarch could cause such cosmic changes, and those cosmic beasts would never submit to a weaker being.
So the only answer was that the Emperor was behind it all! That's why, in earlier conversations, he'd deliberately led Nurgle to believe the Emperor was the mastermind and that the Goddess of Life had been abducted by him.
If he was right, the Emperor and Nurgle would soon clash in a terrifying war!
That war would force the Emperor to reveal many of his secrets.