At first, there is nothingness—then, the next thing I know, I'm standing in the middle of an underground facility with a single mission in my mind. I know how I got here, and I know exactly why I arrived.
This universe is the universe of NieR: Automata—a place where androids fight endless battles for humans who have long since perished. A hopeless universe where no good ending exists.
As for me, my name is ▉▉▉▉▉▉.
I frown slightly when I realize I cannot say my own name—not even in my head. It seems ROB (Random Omnipotent Being), who placed me in this world and forged this new body for me, decided to erase my name. I remember my previous life perfectly. Every second of it is crystal clear thanks to my new powers. But my name? Gone. Even my nickname has been wiped clean.
So, I need a new name. And with my newfound power and memory, there is only one name that feels appropriate:
I am Neoth—The Emperor of Mankind, Star Child, and Nascent God of Humanity.
ROB, who brought me here, decided to use the CYOA I filled out as a joke… and then followed the plan I created for it. It was a Sandbox CYOA where my character's power depended on the franchise I chose. I chose Warhammer 40k—and the build also allowed one additional power from outside the franchise.
As for the plan… It will give me five more powers each time I complete a world or mission. It appears that ROB has decided to follow this rule as well.
Anyway, because of this build, I am now the Emperor of Mankind… but more. I am the Emperor of Mankind post-Molech, yet also an Eldar. But thanks to the perks I chose, I remain physically human despite the Eldar blood in my veins.
What does this do? It doubles my psychic potential.
If that wasn't enough, I became a nascent Warp God—a God of Humanity. And because of that outside-franchise perk, I also became humanity's afterlife incarnate. The power that allows this to happen is called [Soul Garden].
This power lets me create a dimension tied to my soul—where all souls may rest. Originally, it was not a true afterlife but a soul-refuge, a place where spirits could rest and dream, healing their wounds and purging curses lingering from life before disappearing into nothingness.
It is a place where they can rest before True Death claims them. It is just like how the Warp works. At least before the Four Cancers take over most of the Warp.
But with my [Star Child] power, the Soul Garden evolved. It is no longer a false afterlife. It is now the final destination for all human souls and even other races' souls. Within it, they are safe—beyond corruption, beyond hunting, beyond manipulation.
As a result, any necromancy that requires summoning a soul will fail unless I allow it. Basic corpse animation without a soul is unaffected, sadly.
As humanity's true afterlife, all concepts of human afterlives can be found as separate realms within my garden, be they the Christian Heaven & Hell, the Egyptian Sekhet-Aaru, the Greek Three Realms of Hades, the Aztek Thirteen Heavens, the Norse Valhalla, the Sanzu River and the Japanese Yomi, all can be found within my Soul Garden, along with realms where intellectuals can meet peers for debate, warriors and athletes compete, grieving souls reunite with their loved ones, and the weary simply slumber and rest until their worn souls have recovered to seek out something else. Nothing of any of the afterlives can be removed from it; they are purely part of your Soul Garden for the souls who dwell within. I can even change it to my liking if I want to create something new.
My Soul Garden also took on properties of the Eldar Infinity Circuit. This means I can collect excess energy produced by souls, powering all of my abilities from a secondary source. It makes my Soul Garden into a secondary power generator that I can use at any moment.
My already staggering power grows even further.
As humanity's afterlife incarnates, all human souls will go to me after their death. Other forces can still snatch them away before they reach their destination, though. To counteract my innate claim on humanity's soul, they must either fight me for them or steal them away before my claim can take hold, using, for example, sacrificial rituals as a conduit.
Only souls that were willingly sold to another patron are beyond my reach. All others will eventually return to me—though the journey may take millennia, and the time needed to reconstitute their tattered essence into their original form is impossible to guess.
As long as their souls still exist somewhere, they will eventually come to me. A True Death is something that my power cannot affect, as their souls truly disappear into nothingness.
I can resurrect them briefly as Living Saints, or fully through True Resurrection—repairing their bodies or crafting new vessels through Biomancy.
I shake my head and draw a deep breath. My awareness spreads into the warp of this universe, and immediately, I sense the difference. As the new Emperor of Mankind, I recall the Warp of the 40k universe well.
The Warp in the 40k universe is a storm-torn ocean—violent, chaotic, consuming.
Here? It is calm. Gentle. It is like a calm ocean. It ebbs and flows gently. It is still deep and mysterious.
I drift through this warp and notice something important:
There are no souls inside it.
In 40k, the Warp is called the Sea of Souls because it receives the dead. However, in this universe, the Warp is more akin to a parallel dimension composed of pure energy. Souls do not go to the warp in this universe, and it will not make this place into a dangerous place like the one in the 40k universe.
Hmmm… Warp drive here would function flawlessly. Nothing threatens a ship traveling through this calm dimension.
There are creatures here, but they behave like animals, not daemons. As long as you don't provoke them, they ignore you. They glance at me with curiosity, like wildlife encountering a human for the first time.
I leave the warp and return to the Materium.
There are no human souls in the warp. So… where are they?
I channel my psychic senses into the planet. It does not take a second before my eyes widen.
Millions of human souls float above the planet's surface—motionless, stagnant, and in agony. These souls do not journey anywhere. They linger in the Materium.
Why? In the knowledge of the Emperor of Mankind, souls that remain in the Materium should lose energy rapidly and fade into nothing. So why are these souls still here?
I push deeper, unraveling the mystery. A moment later, I grit my teeth. I hold back my psychic power from lashing out from the anger that is rushing through my body.
Something is holding them. A foreign energy holds them in place—the energy of a foreign God.
I reach for the warp to look into the past, and I see the faint echo of an enormous entity, devouring human souls like a ravenous parasite. I know this presence.
It is a God from the Drakengard universe—the origin of the cause for all that is happening in the NieR timeline.
Its Champion once arrived on this Earth and died, leaving behind a fragment of its creator's power in the form of energy. This remnant carried a final command:
Kill all humans and harvest their souls.
The energy obeyed. It wiped out humanity very quickly. But it couldn't fulfill the second command—it lacked the ability to deliver the harvested souls back to its universe.
Instead, it held them here.
But maintaining a grip on souls requires energy. It consumed itself to obey the impossible order its creator gave. After thousands of years, the energy began to fail, and the grip over the souls disappeared as the energy disappeared into nothingness.
Because of this, the souls slowly disappear, and only a fraction of humanity's souls are left.
The 3,567,234 souls drifting above Earth are the last remnants of humanity. They are weary, in pain, and afraid. They crave rest—any rest—even obliteration.
I inhale deeply and extend my psychic power.
Golden light pours from me as I embrace the souls, giving them the first warmth they've felt in millennia. Like parched wanderers finding water, they cling to my power. They are desperate. They are lost. They endure too much.
It turns out, androids are not the only things that suffer in this universe. Humanity that no longer has bodies is still suffering even to this day. What a sad universe. I decide to get them the rest they deserve and need.
I open my Soul Garden.
In an instant, they rush in like a tidal wave. I watch as their true forms return—men, women, children, elders—all of them manifesting, resting, healing. I envelop them in psychic warmth to accelerate their recovery.
I open my eyes after the last soul enters the Soul Garden. For now, I must focus on the mission given to me by ROB. He/she/it doesn't speak, but images appear within my soul. And I don't mind fulfilling the task.
The mission: Retake the planet from the Machine Lifeforms.
I think for a moment and observe my surroundings. This hidden facility is one of the CYOA options I chose, and it gives me everything I need to begin. I smile faintly as an idea begins to form.
I'm glad I chose the Secret Lair options—starting from scratch would mean hunting for tools and materials before I could build anything. But with this, I can immediately begin pushing against the machines instead of wasting time laying groundwork.
Now… time to summon them and begin.
I glance down at myself. I'm wearing the Emperor of Mankind's wargear. The One True Armor gleams even underground. My sword and bolter hang at my side. My lightning claw crackles with power, ready to tear apart anything I command it to.
All in all, I look awe-inspiring and intimidating. Good. I need that—to make it unmistakable that I am the real deal. The CYOA claims they will be absolutely loyal, but precautions never hurt when dealing with them.
"Come."
The room glows gold. A few seconds later, a thousand humans appear before me. All of them are wearing familiar power armor. All with the same white hair. All bearing holy symbols on their armor, weapons, and even their skin.
I know them.
They are the most zealous worshippers of the God-Emperor. They are the Sisters of Battle of the Order of Our Martyred Lady.
They are the very image that comes to mind when one speaks of them. They are Sisters of Battle, Nuns with Guns, and Zealots among zealots.
The moment they notice me, they kneel as one. I see adoration, awe, and unshakable zeal in their eyes. Even though this universe's warp is different, their devotion is akin to a bright beacon to my eyes.
I need to tread carefully around them. I don't want a casual statement to be interpreted as an order for genocide.
"Rise."
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