The momentous battle had entered its climax.
Each breath of the Great Golden Ape churned the very essence of the Warp, its golden-green aura forming an energy storm that swept across the entirety of Slaanesh's domain.
The once-purple world was now stained a shade of gold, tinged with flashes of green light. The berserk ape frantically swung its fists before pounding its chest in a display of primal fury.
Axis's form let out a furious bellow.
A golden light erupted from his mouth, manifesting as a golden-green beam that extended for tens of thousands of meters, obliterating nearly all of the surrounding purple landscape. Countless Slaaneshi daemons were annihilated.
Even the Palace of Pleasure itself was struck by the destructive wave. However, Slaanesh's Palace of Pleasure had no physical dimensions; it was a conceptual realm of the spirit, much like the Garden of Nurgle.
Nevertheless, the damage drew an irritated hiss from the Chaos God.
"You dare," Slaanesh's voice echoed, "you dare to destroy my domain."
"And what if I do destroy it? What can you do to me?" The Great Golden Ape, continued his rampage.
While in this bestial form, the stamina Axis had previously expended began to surge back, replenishing endlessly from within. He felt an indomitable strength coursing through his entire being. Innumerable green orbs of energy erupted from the Great Golden Ape's body. At that moment, Axis had truly become an incarnation of destruction.
"Hahahaha!" The great green-furred ape savaged the landscape, transforming the purple domain into a swirling vortex of gold and green.
Slaanesh's conceptual form suddenly fragmented into countless streams of purple light. Each stream revealed a twisted humanoid figure or a bizarre monster. These were the most powerful and warped of the trillions of souls the Chaos God had collected, now all weaponized and launched toward the Great Golden Ape.
This was a Warp-based assault, completely different from the powers of the materium. At first, the attack put Axis on the defensive, leaving him in a disheveled state. The tormented souls inflicted a deep discomfort upon him, but it was only temporary.
One should never underestimate the evolutionary speed of a Saiyan, especially in the heat of battle. At times, they could defy all common sense and logic.
"Roar!"
The fur on the Great Golden Ape's chest suddenly bristled, standing on end to form a natural protective barrier of green energy.
Even in this primal state, Axis had successfully manifested the Legendary Super Saiyan's shield. The soul piercing attacks were deflected the instant they touched the golden fur, some even disintegrating from the rebound. Axis's Saiyan cells were evolving, adapting and growing stronger from the very conflict he was engaged in.
By now, Slaanesh had coalesced into a gigantic, six-armed purple monstrosity and began to engage Axis in close combat. Its body, formed of pure, elegant warp energy, hammered blow after blow against the golden-green ape.
"ROAR!"
The Great Golden Ape's roar nearly shattered the structure of the Warp itself, his golden-green aura sweeping through Slaanesh's domain like a tempest. Faced with Slaanesh's six-armed avatar, Axis felt no fear.
Instead, he beat his chest in excitement, his will to fight boiling over. The Saiyan blood burned hot within him. This was even more exhilarating than his battle with the Emperor.
"I'll make sure to shove your head up your asshole you degenerate Chaos God!"
"And I'm looking forward to it, you Ape!"
"...!"
Slaanesh's six arms moved in unison, each strike carrying the purest corrupting energy of the Warp, a force capable of twisting the physical laws of the material universe. But the Great Golden Ape was undaunted.
The thick, knotted muscles of his arms flexed as he met Slaanesh's assault head-on, even landing a heavy counter-punch squarely on the Chaos God's face.
Boom! Boom!
Purple energy scattered as Slaanesh's head was warped and distorted by the blow, but its other four arms immediately retaliated.
Sharp talons, like deadly blades, lanced toward the ape's chest. Axis's protective barrier was pierced, and the golden fur was torn by Slaanesh's claws, drawing copious amounts of blood. Yet this only served to further ignite the Saiyan's ferocious nature and battlelust.
Squelch!
Blood sprayed as the Great Golden Ape's hide was torn, but Axis merely grinned a savage grin. Pain only made him more ferocious.
This was the battle he had long craved.
The ape's giant hands suddenly seized two of Slaanesh's arms. Muscles bulged and veins stood out starkly. Then, with a sickening tear, he ripped the two purple limbs clean off.
Slaanesh's shriek, laced with pleasure, echoed through the Warp as raw Chaos energy spewed from the severed stumps. But the god regenerated instantly, four new arms sprouting from the wounds, more twisted and deadly than before.
At first, the two were evenly matched, but slowly, the Saiyan's combat genius began to show. Axis's cells continued to evolve in the midst of battle, his strength, speed, and reflexes all increasing, while Slaanesh's rate of regeneration began to slow. Axis laughed maniacally as the Great Golden Ape leaped into the air, clasping its hands into a single massive fist and smashing down like a meteorite.
BOOM!
Slaanesh crossed all six of its arms to block, but the impact hurtled it though it's own domain, sending waves of purple energy exploding outward.
"It's not over yet!" The Great Golden Ape's assault was a relentless storm, each punch infused with the berserker energy of the Legendary Super Saiyan, madly eroding Slaanesh's chaotic essence.
Although Axis's attack was furious, even appearing to suppress Slaanesh for a time, the surrounding purple soon began to reclaim its dominance. The golden-green energy was pushed back. The Chaos Gods of the Warp possessed no true physical forms.
Within their domains, their energy was endless, their existence eternal. If Slaanesh wished, it could have manifested ten such bodies to fight Axis. But in truth, the Chaos God was growing bored of fighting this raging green ape.
This kind of battle would appeal to that brute Khorne, but not to Slaanesh. The ape was undeniably strong, but he still could not touch the domain of a god.
A terrifying surge of purple energy crushed the golden-green storm, instantly erasing it from Slaanesh's realm, leaving only a lone, raging golden ape.
"Did you think anything you destroyed would cause me any real loss? Allow me to show you why we are called Chaos Gods, why we are the most powerful beings in this universe."
The domain Axis had just laid waste to was reborn in an instant. Countless Slaaneshi daemons began to regenerate under their master's power. The tens of thousands of daemons that Axis had slaughtered just moments before swarmed forth once more.
"Step aside, Slaanesh. This battle is mine." A crimson giant brutally tore through the fabric of Slaanesh's realm and emerged from within.
It was a towering hundred-meter-tall behemoth wielding a great axe.
The fight between Axis and Slaanesh had stirred the Blood God upon his Brass Throne. He was now burning with an eagerness to join the fight, even if only by sending an avatar.
"Such a dull creature," Slaanesh's colossal form dissipated into nothingness, "Fight to your hearts content, you brute. But do not loose sight of our goals."
Slaanesh left the battle to Khorne.
"I will not," the giant red daemon boomed, "Now, boy, the fight is between you and me. Come, let me feel your power." It hefted its great axe and charged.
"ROAR!"
The Great Golden Ape's roar echoed through the Warp as his golden-green aura surged.
However, Axis, who had just held the upper hand, now felt an entirely different kind of pressure, one of pure, unadulterated murderous intent.
Slaanesh's purple realm was ripped asunder, replaced by a blood-red battlefield. The sounds of slaughter, blood, and screams of war now resonated in Axis's ears.
`The air reeked of the Brass Throne, thick with the stench of rust and brimstone, while the ground beneath his feet had transformed into a wasteland of bones and magma.
"Boy, your battle gives me pleasure!"
Khorne's true form had not fully descended, but a mere avatar of his will was enough to make the Warp tremble. The hundred-meter-tall, blood-red giant held a massive axe, the unquenchable fire of war burning beneath its grim helmet. By comparison, Axis, at over thirty meters tall, seemed almost diminutive.
But retreat was not in a Saiyan's vocabulary. Even though he was covered in bloody wounds from Slaanesh's claws, it was nothing to Axis.
BOOM!
Without another word, Khorne's great axe descended, the blade tearing space itself, carrying with it the raw power to cleave planets in half.
The Great Golden Ape caught the blade between it's palms, but a foot stoped it hard, sending him hurtling across the domain.
The collision of golden-green aura and blood-red energy produced a deafening roar.
CRASH!
The balde of the Axe had grazed him, leaving a a gash so deep it exposed the bone on his left arm, from which blood gushed freely. He hastily directed his ki to begin healing the wound.
The Chaos Gods were immortal here, but he certainly was not.
"Hahaha! Boy, is this all you have?" Khorne's giant demonic form rested the axe on its shoulder, a mocking tone in its voice.
Strong, Khorne thought. This demonic form I have manifested is powerful enough to instantly slay a lesser C'tan, so powerful it cannot even exist in the material universe, yet this boy withstood it.
"Again!" Axis roared and charged forward once more.
"AHAHAHA, As you wish!" Khorne bellowed, charging as well, each step cracking the scorched earth as his great axe swept out again.
The Great Golden Ape did not try to block directly. Instead, he leaped into the air, condensing a massive golden-green energy sphere between his hands and hurling it at Khorne's head.
BOOM!
The energy sphere detonated on Khorne's helmet, and a searing light engulfed the Blood God's avatar. But in the next second a voice boomed from within the blast.
"Too weak!"
Khorne's great axe sliced through the explosion, landing a brutal strike on the Great Golden Ape's chest.
SLASH!
Blood erupted like a waterfall as a grisly wound was torn open across Axis's chest.
Yet, with his blood-soaked claws, he seized the axe blade, while his other fist slammed into Khorne's faceplate.
BANG!
Khorne's helmet caved in, but the Chaos God only laughed with glee. "Yes! This is it! Battle! Blood! Slaughter! Come and revel in it with me!" He roared with delight.
He swung his great axe again, this time with the crimson power of the Chaos God swirling around its blade.
"ROAR!" The Great Golden Ape no longer dodged but clasped its hands together to meeting the axe head-on with Ki.
CRACK!
The blade bit deep into the ape's hands, and blood streamed down its golden fur. But Axis only snarled, his rage building.
The Great Golden Ape went completely berserk, its fists raining down upon Khorne like a tempest, each blow carrying enough force to shatter continents.
Khorne was not to be outdone, his great axe and fists meeting the onslaught in a furious exchange.
The battle between them shook the very foundations of the Warp, and countless daemons were crushed by the shockwaves of their clash.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BOOM!
Flesh flew and energy exploded.
It was a pure collision of power and brutality. Unlike the fight with Slaanesh, every one of Khorne's attacks was ferociously powerful, overflowing with a strength that seemed to surpass even his own.
By now, Axis was panting heavily. The golden-green ape had lost its earlier dominance. He did not know how long he had been fighting. Even for a Legendary Super Saiyan, Axis felt the exhaustion creeping in.
How long had it been?
The Great Golden Ape knelt on the blood-red, scorched earth. His golden-green fur was soaked in his own blood, and his heavy, ragged breaths echoed in the Immaterium.
His arms trembled. The horrific wound on his chest, carved by Khorne's great axe, was still bleeding freely, as the Saiyan's proud regenerative ability was slowed by the corrosive influence of the Warp.
"What is it, whelp? Is this all you have?" Khorne's demonic avatar stood tall, the great axe resting on its shoulder, its crimson eyes burning with the eternal fire of war.
Its own armor was damaged, but it repaired itself in an instant.
Axis finally understood why the four Chaos Gods were considered truly immortal and indestructible.
"Your blood, your rage, your will to fight... it all brings me such pleasure!"
Axis lifted his grimacing ape-like face, his golden pupils reflecting Khorne's mountain-sized form.
No... I'll lose if this goes on...
In the Warp, a Chaos God's power was nearly infinite, while his own stamina had its limits.
I need... more power! Right now! I must surpass everything I've been before!
He would combine the Saiyan's most primal, bestial power with the ultimate expression of the Super Saiyan.
A true return to his origins, the final form.
"ROOOOAR!"
The Great Golden Ape threw its head back and roared at the blood-red sky. Its golden aura suddenly contracted in ward, then erupted.
BOOM!
An unprecedented storm of energy burst forth, now tinged with a new, crimson power.
Axis's ape-like body began to change.
The golden fur receded, replaced by a deep, blood-red coat of fur covering his upper body. His form shrank, but his muscles grew more defined, his power more condensed. His hair turned from gold back to black, and red outlines appeared around his eyes.
CRACK!
The sound of his bones restructuring echoed as Axis's simian face shifted, returning to his humanoid form, his eyes now cold and calculating.
He gently flexed his fist, a small, confident smile touching his lips.
Super Saiyan 4.
...
...
power stones?