"A Pantheon of gods belonging to humanity?"
As he spoke, Datch took out the Pantheon and displayed it.
The Emperor, Malcador, Valdor, and the Primarchs exchanged looks of disbelief.
Surrounded by countless stars, the Pantheon in the Nameless One's hand gave off a strange radiance.
Each star symbolized a power: war, life, desire, knowledge, wisdom, death, courage, and rebirth.
Their gazes went back and forth between the starry sky and the Nameless One.
They all knew the Nameless One was tremendously powerful. With a mere snap of his fingers, he had closed the Great Rift, purified Warp rifts like great vortices, and even pierced Nurgle's chest in a single blow.
But they had never imagined he could actually create gods.
This wasn't seizing power from the existing Chaos Gods and redistributing it.
He had meticulously built a complete system of divine offices from the very foundation of the Warp's laws.
The path to godhood that otherworldly beings had chased for ages had become a process of appointment and dismissal that the Imperium of Man could run freely.
Such a feat was beyond words. Even "turning heaven upside down" didn't do it justice.
And yet, considering everything he had done so far, it seemed perfectly reasonable.
"I once wished to create a world without gods," the Emperor's voice echoed in the hearts of Malcador and the others. "But now that dream may have to change."
When the Emperor and Malcador began the Great Crusade and tinkered with the Webway…
their true purpose had been to free humanity from its dependence on the Warp, and with it from the dominion of the gods.
Over campaigns spanning centuries, the Emperor had ordered countless ancient temples destroyed and preached the Imperial Truth to the civilizations that submitted.
In this world there are no gods, no fate, no inescapable divine will. There is only human will and reason.
He had condemned every religion, wanting humanity to break free of religion entirely and walk the path of pure reason.
Later, that approach was proven to be a mistake.
Religion was a spiritual lifeline for people facing despair. Trying to tear it out by force only left a wound that never stopped bleeding.
It drove people, amid unbearable suffering, to seek out new faiths for themselves.
That was the main reason the state religion had risen.
For ten thousand years the Emperor had sat on the Golden Throne and watched helplessly as the very religion he had tried to eradicate enslaved the entire Imperium of Man in an even more twisted form.
Now, looking at the Pantheon in the Nameless One's hand and the countless stars representing Warp authority, he had found an entirely new path.
Gods could exist, and religion could exist. But humans would become beings that stood above every god and religion.
"A god bound by humanity is nothing more than a tool. Like a system, a convenient tool."
As he laid out his thoughts, Guilliman walked over beside the Nameless One, reached out, and lightly touched one of the slowly rotating stars of authority with his fingertips.
At his touch, the star flickered ever so slightly, as if responding to it.
"I support Guilliman's view," Sanguinius said, rising to back his brother's claim.
In the soft light of the strategy room's dome, the Primarch's pure-white wings spread slightly, sacred and beautiful.
"These authorities are not for worship but for management, the same way we manage Legions, star systems, and the Imperium."
"What we need is not a god to be worshipped but a god that bears responsibility. If a god cannot serve humanity's good, it should be removed from its post, just like a negligent governor or general."
"With the appointment of the gods in humanity's hands, the gods are no longer distant or unapproachable," Leman Russ added.
The Wolf King leaned against the edge of the strategy table, an ancient, sharp wariness in his wolfish eyes.
Raised by wolves in the blizzards of Fenris, he understood better than anyone the difference between taming and being tamed.
"A wild beast in the wilderness is humanity's enemy, but a wild beast chained and caged is humanity's companion."
"Every one of these authorities is the same. Scattered in the Warp, they become Chaos. But bound within the Pantheon's framework and put to work for us, they become one of the Imperium's mightiest weapons."
"That's right," Jaghatai nodded. "With the reins in our hands, the horse is our mount. An untamed horse is just a wild beast."
Datch silently watched the NPCs voice their opinions, simply observing their discussion.
The discussion soon shifted from "whether to accept gods" to "if we accept gods, who should fill the posts."
Every Primarch wanted his own sons to receive godly posts.
Guilliman recommended several of the most outstanding Chapter Masters and fallen heroes in Ultramarines history.
Vulkan named several sons of the Salamanders who had given their lives for the Imperium of Man during the Horus Heresy.
Corax, meanwhile, fought to win seats for the Raven Guard who had died in the brutal Istvaan V drop site landing.
Even Sanguinius, normally gentle and calm, pushed back hard.
He wanted godly posts for Amit and the direct descendants of the Great Crusade.
The heated debate was finally interrupted when one of the Custodian Guard entered.
Clad in full golden power armor and carrying a long halberd, the Custodian advanced with steady steps.
Under the eyes of everyone in the strategy room, he walked up to the Emperor and the Nameless One, saluted formally, and held out an encrypted data-slate with both hands.
The Emperor reached out to take it, but Datch was faster, and the Emperor could only awkwardly withdraw his hand.
Datch took the data-slate and skimmed the encrypted contents.
The message was simple. An embassy from the dwarf civilization called the Silver Heart had arrived.
They wished to have a frank and sincere talk with humanity's leadership, and they wanted the Nameless One to attend.
Each race that joined voluntarily added weight to the final score.
For the sake of the final score, Datch didn't hesitate. He casually used the Infinity Gauntlet to open a spatial portal.
He took the Emperor and the others to meet the dwarf representatives, and the dwarfs made the final decision to join the Imperium of Man.
The delegation was led by Uthar, the Chosen of the Greater Thurian League.
According to legend, this dwarf hero had been born by divine decree.
He was born of the Votann of the Gate of the Abyss, and a prophecy about his fate had existed since his birth.
The forge had even manufactured a magnificent energy blade for him on its own.
Uthar's life was full of legends, such as his victory in the Death Star operation and his defeat of the iron beast Gobrak.
Besides the Greater Thurian League, the delegation included representatives from other Leagues of Votann, such as the Pan-Hyperion League and the Kronos Hegemony.
Datch spotted an old acquaintance among the envoys.
Osona of the Eternal Star.
The instant he saw the Nameless One, Osona's lips twitched, and his gaze grew even more complicated, a mix of admiration and helplessness.
He would never forget how the Nameless One had made him write a joke about dwarfs into the Book of Grudges.
The purpose of the dwarf delegation's visit was extremely simple. They truly wanted to join the Imperium of Man.
There had been several alliances between the Imperium and the dwarfs before, but none had addressed the fundamental problem.
Now, with the Imperium of Man continuing to expand…
the dwarfs realized its rise couldn't be stopped. Rather than try to stop it, they chose to take part and adapt to the new age.
The Nameless One was another reason.
Thanks to the Eternal Star incident, the Nameless One enjoyed a very high reputation among the dwarfs.
Of course, every member of the Leagues of Votann kept one rule firmly in mind: the Nameless One must never be allowed near the Book of Grudges.
The dwarfs were a branch of humanity.
Their ancestors were human colonists who had migrated to the galactic core.
The high-gravity environment of the galactic core had shaped the Squats into the beings known today: shorter, stronger, with tougher skin and denser bones.
Their technology and culture were still inherited from the people of the Golden Age.
Such a request was not excessive for the Imperium of Man.
Accepting an ancient branch of human civilization was far more beneficial to the Imperium than allying with xenos.
After a short consultation, the Imperium agreed to the delegation's request and immediately drew up provisional terms for the dwarf civilization's accession to the Imperium of Man.
Once he was sure nothing unexpected would happen, Datch left the cleanup to the Emperor, Malcador, and the others.
He then headed to the museum on Solemnace to find the Undying Trazyn and asked him to bring out the Silent King.
Trazyn's museum had been expanded with many new galleries since Datch subdued the C'tan and defeated the Chaos Gods.
In the newly built exhibition halls, Trazyn used the finest craftsmanship to display holograms and specimens of major historical events, such as the battles of the Eye of Terror and the wars of the gods.
The Silent King himself was part of that history, so he was confined in one of the new exhibition halls.
The former king was imprisoned inside a hyperdimensional Rubik's cube caught in an infinite time loop.
The Silent King had used every scrap of knowledge and wisdom he had and worked through countless solutions to solve the cube and escape, but he had never once succeeded.
That was because the cube imprisoning him had been redesigned by the Void Dragon, Zarhulash, Tsara'noga, Nyadra'zatha the Burning One, and Aza'gorod the Nightbringer.
Its internal timeline was folded over and over into a looping prison designed specifically for Szarekh, and no known technology could break it. No matter how powerful his methods, he couldn't escape.
The instant he was released, the Silent King glared at Trazyn with furious eyes.
His eyes burned with rage, as if he were about to drink coolant dry and devour living metal.
He showed no courtesy at all to these traitors.
Even full of hatred, the Silent King kept his dignity and didn't act rashly.
The biggest problem was that even if he fought, he couldn't win. He would only be humiliated and become a laughingstock.
When he learned the Nameless One had come for information on the Great Devourer, the Silent King remained indifferent.
"You destroyed my dynasty and my rule, and handed my throne to another. And now you expect me to tell you what I know? That must be a joke."
Looking at the NPC in front of him and not wanting to waste time, Datch opened the game store directly.
A semi-transparent shop interface popped up at the edge of his vision, and a multi-page product catalog quickly unfolded before his eyes.
When he entered the keywords "interrogation, information gathering," the item he wanted turned up immediately.
In the center of the store interface floated an icon of a small device resembling an old-fashioned film camera, along with an extremely brief description.
[Item: Interrogation Device]
A machine specially developed for interrogating prisoners, with astonishing magical power.
Ask the prisoner anything, and they will tell you everything they know.
Review: Using this makes solving cases so much easier.
Datch selected Redeem, and the interrogation device appeared in his hand.
He pointed the camera at the Silent King and pressed the shutter.
"What are you doing?" The Silent King instinctively stepped half a pace back, looking wary.
Datch didn't answer. He set the camera down and began asking questions.
"Szarekh, how much do you know about the Tyranids?"
The Silent King: "…"
Does this man not understand speech?
Even if I die, even if I'm smashed to pieces, I will never reveal what I know about the Tyranids.
But the next instant, something happened that plunged the Silent King into terror.
He felt as if his own body had gone out of his control, and could only watch helplessly as his voice module activated on its own without any conscious command.
"The Great Devourer's true form is not in the Milky Way. It exists in galaxies beyond this one. As far as I know, more than a hundred galaxies are currently under Tyranid invasion."
"Their invasion of the Milky Way is only part of their cosmic-scale predation. The hive fleets in the Milky Way are just one tentacle of that gigantic predator's hunting network."
"Their main force is still locked in a war of attrition with ancient civilizations in galaxies even farther away."
"They devour everything, consuming all organic matter and the memory of entire civilizations, hungering to turn them into nutrients for their own growth."
"…"
The Silent King talked on and on for hours, revealing everything he had learned over the past sixty million years.
Sixty million years ago, the Silent King had ordered the Necrons into slumber and set out beyond the galaxy himself aboard his flagship, the Song of Oblivion.
During that long time, he had wandered countless star systems, made contact with ancient civilizations, and learned of the Great Devourer's existence.
After realizing the threat this race posed, he had deliberately started gathering information on it.
All of that information was useful to Datch.
"What on earth did you do?!" the Silent King demanded, glaring furiously at the Nameless One.
He was enraged at being in a position where he couldn't strike back at all.
Datch looked at the furious NPC without a word, then turned, opened a spatial passage, and set out to check on the Great Devourer first.
"Damn you, come back! What did you do?!" the Silent King roared, lunging like a madman to grab the Nameless One.
But the next instant, the Nameless One vanished into the spatial passage.
"Damn it!" The Silent King was enraged at missing him. When he turned, Trazyn was grinning.
"What do you want?"
"To put you back in your cell, of course." Trazyn tossed the hyperdimensional cube in his hand, and a strange blue light enveloped the Silent King.
"You despicable traitor…"
The Silent King shouted, but the moment the cube's radiance wrapped around him, his roar cut off, and he vanished.
…