"What's all the fuss about? It is exactly what it sounds like. Your marriage," Axis said with a wide grin. "The Emperor forgot to mention it to you just now. You are not getting any younger, so it is time to find you a wife."
The words brought the proud and spirited Guilliman to a halt.
He had been on the verge of marching out to slaughter the forces of Chaos, but now he stopped in his tracks.
Guilliman frowned deeply.
Wait. That was not the critical issue. The critical issue was that she was an Eldar. Why would it be a xenos?
He, Roboute Guilliman, would sooner die than marry a xenos.
"What is the meaning of this? My father said nothing of this to me," Guilliman demanded.
"Well, I am telling you now. Humanity needs allies. The galaxy today is ten times more dangerous and ten times more chaotic than the one you knew. To survive, we must band together," Axis explained.
"We can discuss this matter later. I imagine the Eldar lady is not particularly keen on the idea either," Guilliman said.
Without giving Axis a chance to respond, he shouldered the Emperor's Sword, strode through the grand doorway, and headed outside.
He needed to rally his Ultramarines and launch a counter-attack against the great enemy, Chaos.
Axis merely smiled and turned to approach Yvraine.
The warrior in red armor beside her grew tense, his hand dropping to the hilt of his sword.
But in the face of Axis, a cold sweat broke out across his body. He found he lacked even the courage to draw his blade.
Axis simply stood there, and his mere presence was enough to render the warrior in red armor completely immobile.
This man before him was terrifying, truly terrifying. Was this the power wielded by a human Primarch?
It was said that ten thousand years ago, the Farseers of the Eldar had received a prophecy.
They foresaw that the future Primarch Angron, now a Daemon Prince of Khorne, would unleash a bloody slaughter across the entire universe.
In response, the Eldar Farseers of that era dispatched assassins to eliminate the Primarch while he was still a child.
The result, however, defied all expectations. The assassination attempt ended in failure. Faced with a Primarch in his youth, even fully armed, highly trained Eldar warriors with consummate combat skills were utterly powerless.
The power of the Primarchs had profoundly shaken the Eldar. From their perspective, the Emperor was an absolute madman, for he had sealed twenty gods from the Warp, true deities, within the flesh of mortals.
The Eldar were a species of immense psychic power, so they could see things that humans could not and perceive things that were entirely beyond human senses.
In the eyes of humanity, the Primarchs were giants, the divine sons of the Emperor.
But in the eyes of the Eldar, the Primarchs were nothing less than gods themselves, monsters from the Warp imprisoned within human forms.
Yet this Primarch before them, this Axis, appeared strangely different from the Eldar perspective. He seemed like an ordinary person.
Neither the warrior in red armor nor the High Prophet of the Ynnari, Yvraine, could detect any trace of psychic energy emanating from Axis.
Axis smiled as he walked past the red-armored warrior.
The warrior gritted his teeth, trying to move his feet, trying to draw his sword to shield his charge, but his body would not obey his commands. He was completely paralyzed.
"You truly are twisted," Axis said, smiling at the warrior in red. "Among humans, we have a name for an older man pursuing a much younger woman. A cradle robber. It is a good thing you were unsuccessful."
The Eldar of now were forbidden from love.
Even relations for the sake of procreation had to be devoid of any personal feeling, performed as a numb, mechanical act.
This was because the slightest flicker of emotion, the smallest thrill of pleasure or satisfaction, would allow Slaanesh to devour their souls.
Thus, in Eldar society, the concept of love did not exist.
"You... you!" the warrior in red armor seethed, glaring at Axis, who had just spoken of the matter most difficult for him to admit.
"You are a being of such power. How do you intend to persuade me?" Yvraine asked, looking at Axis with a calm face.
She knew she could not resist his power. Before this man, she was utterly defenseless. Since that was the case, why not face it with grace?
"I need to speak with your God of the Dead, and I will do so through you," Axis said with a smile, placing a hand on Yvraine's shoulder. "Do not be nervous. Endure it for a moment. It will only hurt a little, and it will be over quickly."
"That's a statement which can easily be misinterpreted," Yvraine replied, "But I cannot resist you anyway, so do as you wish."
As an Eldar woman, especially one who had spent many years in the Dark Eldar city of Commorragh, she was no innocent maiden.
Her worldliness might even startle a human.
Axis smiled without another word. A powerful, divine energy surged from his hand into Yvraine's body, causing her to tremble.
The Eldar woman turned her head and gave Axis a faint smile. She did not make a single sound, instead standing perfectly straight, her chest out and her head held high as she met his gaze.
This earned Yvraine a measure of respect from Axis. The High Prophet of the Ynnari was no simple woman.
Axis quickly located the power of the God of the Dead and used it as a conduit.
A crimson aura ignited around Axis.
His physical form seemed to shrink slightly, becoming leaner, yet he appeared all the more divine and solemn for it.
At that moment, in the eyes of the two Eldar, Axis had transformed completely into a god, a true god, much like the God of the Dead they had witnessed before.
But how was this possible? Why would a god possess a physical body in realspace? This body did not appear to be that of a mortal follower.
Furthermore, they had never heard of humanity having any god other than the Emperor.
"Your courage is commendable, little girl."
"Do not call me a little girl. You cannot be that much older than I am. I can sense it. I am nearly a thousand years old," Yvraine said, her body trembling and her face pale.
She felt an intense pain coursing through her entire body, a stabbing sensation that pierced her very soul.
Yet she maintained her smile, gritting her teeth and enduring.
"Is that so? I existed ten thousand years ago," Axis replied.
"Perhaps. But I can see that your age does not greatly exceed mine. It is my intuition," Yvraine insisted.
The warrior in red armor managed to turn his head with great difficulty, his expression more pained than a grimace.
He pleaded silently with his charge.
Please, now is not the time to provoke this being! Her headstrong personality had always been like this. It was precisely that strength, however, that made him adore her, that left him in a state of insatiable longing.
Axis simply smiled and said nothing more. Wielding the power of a Super Saiyan God, he successfully locked onto Ynnead, the God of the Dead.
In a motion reminiscent of when he had pulled the Dark King from the void, Axis reached out and with a sudden clench of his fist, he tore a greyish-white figure from within Yvraine's body.
"Incredible. To think I would appear in the material universe in this form," the nascent form of Ynnead mused, its curiosity piqued. "What is this power? How did you do this? How do you possess a physical body of your own?"
Ynnead was not yet meant to be born.
His birth required the sacrifice of every living Eldar soul, to burst forth from the belly of Slaanesh. A weaker alternative was to gather the five Croneswords and emerge as a powerful, albeit lesser, Eldar god.
But now, he stood in realspace, with a complete and independent consciousness.
In a way, he was already in a state equivalent to being awakened by the five Croneswords. If he were to enter the Warp now and absorb enough of its energy, he could become a god of the Immaterium.
"I have come to offer you a deal regarding an alliance between the Eldar and humanity," Axis stated. "My relationship with the Goddess of Life is a special one. I granted her a vessel that allows her to walk in the material universe."
"The Goddess of Life? Isha?" Ynnead shook his head. "That is impossible. She is still imprisoned in Nurgle's Garden. She has been for over ten thousand years."
"I am not speaking of the Goddess of Life from this universe, but from another. The truth is, I am from a parallel universe," Axis explained.
He saw no reason to hide this from the Eldar God of the Dead. Ynnead could likely discern some of the truth with careful observation anyway, and it was not in a Saiyan's nature to be secretive.
"A being from another universe. Truly incredible," the god said. "Then, what sort of alliance do you propose with the Eldar?"
"You currently lack a suitable vessel. I can create one for you through certain special methods, a body that will allow you to manifest most of your power in realspace. It will allow you to appear before your people and lead them. In return, your High Prophet will be joined in marriage with humanity."
"In that case, Lord Ynnead, let me be the one to marry Lord Axis!" Yvraine declared, gritting her teeth. The High Prophet had regained her ability to move.
No one would control her destiny. If he wanted her to marry someone, she would the one to choose.
Axis narrowed his eyes.
...
..
.
ps?