Star Child
What was that, or who?
If this were the Marvel Comic Verse, the Star Child would be a juvenile Celestial born in the Sun, brought to the Immortal City by Leonardo da Vinci, and raised by the Brotherhood of the Shield.
Here, it was something else. The Star Child was a mysterious entity said to represent the soul of the Emperor of Mankind. It was also known as the Numen and, if you could believe it, the Chaos Child.
The Star Child is a profound aspect of the Emperor of Mankind. At the climax of the Horus Heresy, the Emperor deliberately shed himself of that aspect before his apocalyptic duel with his son, Horus Lupercal.
This separated essence contained the Emperor's most vulnerable and human qualities: his emotions, innocence, purity, nobility, hope, and compassion.
By casting these aspects into the immaterium, the Emperor ensured he could confront his corrupted son with absolute, cold focus, entirely devoid of hesitation or fear.
Originally, the Star Child was envisioned as a child rowing a reed boat through the Warp's turbulent currents. And over the last ten millennia, this entity has grown immensely powerful. Empowered by humanity's constant worship, prayers, and desperate dreams, the Star Child now stands as the literal manifestation of those hopes and dreams.
The Star Child's existence is critical to the broken, throne-bound Emperor. While the physical Emperor is entirely consumed with keeping the Terran webway gate closed, illuminating the Astronomican, and holding Chaos at bay, the Star Child is free to travel the Warp unbound.
The Star Child is believed to do much of the Emperor's divine heavy lifting, serving as the true source of living saints, the faith-based powers of the Sisters of Battle, and miracles or visions.
The Emperor's original intention was to reclaim the Star Child back into himself after defeating Horus. A genuine resurrection of the Emperor would require healing his physical body and re-merging all his scattered aspects, including the Star Child.
For Gerhard, this ancient entity has physically and spiritually fused with him, fully revealing his hidden skill and status as the [Star Child]. However, funnily enough, the Star Child is still inferior to The Gamer, or the Gamer system, and had been suppressed because it would have been too much for Gerhard.
Activating this Unique Status triggered a monstrous wave of pure psionic energy that instantly sealed the hole in his chest, purged his Chaos corruption, and fully restored his HP and Mana. This energy also flooded Gerhard with overwhelming euphoria and a sense of freedom, further elevating him. It gave Gerhard so much energy that it started to harm his physical body.
Tapping into this divine status let Gerhard create incredibly powerful new skills: the spatial repulsion technique "Reversal: Red" and the spatial attraction technique "Lapse: Blue". Although they are called that, they are essentially white and black holes. They had colour because Gerhard unconsciously wanted them to.
The golden psionic energy acted as a seamless bridge, letting him combine these fundamentally opposed forces into a single, devastating sphere of white energy.
With this immense power, Gerhard severely damaged the chains that Tzeentch used to control and imprison the Daemon Primarch and purified parts of Magnus. It was tragic that the big baby chose to shatter himself instead of waiting, since Gerhard could have purified him fully.
Now he had to wait and collect his shards again. But Gerhard had something in mind.
Gerhard hadn't even scratched the surface of what he could now do, but he knew he had to be careful, as his mere presence could harm those around him.
[A skill has been created due to Unique Status]
[Gained skill: Perpetual]
Perpetual (Passive) Lv. 1
| MP: 0
| EXP: 0.00%
| A transcendent biological and spiritual trait bestowed by the [Star Child] Unique Status. The Gamer is a true immortal, untethered from the natural cycle of life, death, and decay.
| The Gamer's physical vessel and soul are anchored directly to reality, granting cellular regeneration and the ability to inevitably reconstitute from complete physical annihilation.
Effects:
| Biological Immortality: Complete immunity to ageing and natural degradation.
| Extreme Regeneration: Automatically restores 5% of maximum HP per second. Rapidly regenerates severed limbs, crushed bones, and destroyed organs.
| True Resurrection: If HP reaches 0 or the physical body is entirely obliterated, the user will resurrect and reconstruct over time.
| Complete immunity to mundane diseases, toxins, and lethal terrestrial radiation.
| HP regeneration rate increases at higher levels.
| Resurrection downtime decreases at higher levels.
---
[A new skill has been created after your WIS has reached 300]
Superior Transcendental Sage's Wisdom (Passive) Lv. MAX
| Sages are wise. They can see much in little and prepare for the future. You are superior to them.
Effects:
| +900% increased MP recovery
| +900% increased Magic defence
--
[A new skill has been created after your INT has reached 400]
Legendary Magic (Passive) Lv. MAX
| A natural-born ability of people with such powerful magical abilities that it is legendary even among efficient magic users.
Effect:
| +100% Mana Attack Power
| -80% MP Consumption when using magic skills.
--
------------------
|Name: Gerhard, the Gamer
|Class: Star Child
|Level: LV99
------------------
|HP: 10,000/10,000 (15,600/15,600) [+2500]
|MP: 50,000/50,000 (78,000/78,000)
------------------
STR: 273 (+153) [+68]
VIT: 330 (+185) [+83]
DEX: 282 (+158) [+56]
INT: 400 (+224)
WIS: 300 (+168)
LUK: 50
------------------
|Points: 100
|Money: 0
------------------
Derived Stats:
HP Regen
→ Passive: 4619.49 / min
→ Active: 11067.43 / min
→ Passive + Iron Will: 9238.98 / min
→ Active + Iron Will: 22134.86 / min
MP Regen
→ Passive: 201292.67 / min
→ Active: 557293.59 / min
→ Passive + Iron Will: 402585.34 / min
→ Active + Iron Will: 1114587.18 / min
MP Cost
→ General: 23.63% of normal
→ Magic Skills: 9.45% of normal
------------------
Gerhard looked around. Everything was standing still. He hadn't done it willingly, but his mind had processed things at that speed, and as time went on, he felt more of the Star Child's power integrating into his Mana, and his INT and WIS growing. But to do that, he would have to raise his other stats as well.
Nevertheless, he could feel his immense power as a psyker now. It was truly unreal and at the same time terrifyingly dangerous. He had now announced himself to all the Ruinous Powers, and they would hunt him and try to kill him if it was the last thing they did.
The only way to know just how powerful he was as a psyker was to test it and keep pushing his limits. He thought about it for a moment and then tilted his head.
With a thought, the shard he had managed to grab before they were shot into the Warp appeared in his hand.
[Instant Dungeon: Create]
Gerhard created an instant dungeon so no one would see what he was about to do, and chose a massive time dilation to buy them time. With a thought, he directed some of his energy into the shard and then threw it on the ground.
POOOOFFFF
In the next moment, a version of Magnus the Red stood before Gerhard. But this version was purified; though it was merely a shard of the original, it was no longer corrupted or under Chaos's influence.
"Y-you... Get back!"
Magnus gathered psychic energy in his hands and started weaving spells in the air. A massive wave of fire appeared and surged toward Gerhard, swallowing everything in its path. The power was impressive, considering that this was merely a shard of the true Magnus.
However, he was no longer dealing with the Gerhard of before. Gerhard reached out, and as if on command, the flames compressed into a thin line before gathering in his palm. Within a second, the large wave of fire disappeared, leaving only a pea-sized ball of flame in Gerhard's hand.
He flicked the small red pea and shot it back to Magnus, who tried to increase gravity on Gerhard while teleporting behind him.
CRACK-!
"WHAT!?"
Magnus' teleportation was forcefully broken from the outside, and the pea-sized ball of flame hit him square in the chest.
BOOOOOOOOMM---!!!
"AAAHHHH!"
Magnus was badly burned, but he channelled Warp energy to heal himself. Too bad that he didn't really get a chance, as Gerhard conjured lightning from his fingers. A massive storm approached, forcing Magnus to evade or suffer the consequences.
He changed the terrain and blocked parts of the attack with a massive stone wall. But the lightning kept burning through and finally pierced it.
The Red Primarch pushed himself forward, counting on his physical superiority. Several spells materialised and took effect. Among them were an enhancement spell to his strength and speed, several curses to slow Gerhard down, and others to lock him in place.
Chains appeared out of nowhere, trapping Gerhard's limbs in place, while gravity increased further. Magnus even added a space lock to stop him from teleporting out.
Magnus punched forward, sending another wave of Warp fire that exploded as it neared Gerhard. All the additional traps he set detonated at once.
BOOOOOOOMMMM--!!!
...
Magnus stood tense, his massive chest heaving as he stared into the obscuring grey cloud. The spells woven around him hummed with lethal intent, ready to obliterate whatever emerged.
But his instincts screamed that an apex predator was coming.
From the heart of the dust, a piercing golden light ignited. An invisible, localised gravitational shear telekinetically blasted the dust cloud away.
Gerhard stepped forward.
His clothing was untouched, his posture relaxed, but his face made the Primarch instinctively take a half-step back. Gerhard's left eye released blinding, golden psionic energy. Raw telekinetic lightning crackled from his eye.
The air around him warped and shimmered, groaning under the sheer density of the power he began to draw. This was perfect for Gerhard; he could practice and train.
"Is that all you have, Magnus?"
Gerhard's voice wasn't loud, but it appeared directly inside the Primarch's mind, bypassing his auditory senses and mental protections completely through a telepathic intrusion.
"RAAAAHHH! DIE!!" Magnus roared, thrusting his hands forward.
A torrent of powerful Warp lightning and spatial blades tore toward Gerhard, an attack meant to destroy and do as much damage as possible. There was little elegance to this.
Gerhard didn't even raise a hand. He simply walked forward.
[Intangibility]
He shifted his body's molecular density, phasing through the apocalyptic barrage as if it were a light mist. The spatial blades passed harmlessly through his chest, detonating somewhere in the distance.
"Impossible!" Magnus spat, attempting to trigger the spatial lock he had placed earlier.
"Hmm," Gerhard said, thinking.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Gerhard tapped into the astral plane. The crushing gravity Magnus had applied was instantly negated. The binding chains of Warp energy shattered into harmless glittering dust.
Gerhard stepped out of the normal flow of time, as he had seen the Lord of Change do in the Warp. Only that he did it differently; he entered the infinitesimal Planck length between moments.
To Magnus, Gerhard simply ceased to exist, only to instantly reappear floating inches from the Primarch's face.
Before Magnus could react and break the separate timestreams he saw, Gerhard unleashed a concentrated [Mental Paralysis]. A spike of golden psychic energy slammed into Magnus's consciousness, freezing the giant's brain for a brief moment.
The Primarch's colossal body locked up instantly, every muscle paralysed, his massive form frozen in mid-strike.
"You're acting like a spoiled child," Gerhard said. "And children need discipline. This is something your father should have done."
Gerhard extended his right hand, and psionic energy instantly solidified into a massive, glowing golden hammer. He swung it with a telekinetically enhanced strike that carried the weight of a falling Emperor-Class Titan. The psionic weapon smashed into Magnus's chest.
BOOOOOOOMMMM--!!!
The blow's sheer force launched Magnus backwards at hypersonic speed, sending a shockwave that carved a massive trench through the dungeon floor. The giant crashed into the ground, the stone shattering around him like glass.
Magnus gasped, the mental paralysis breaking just enough for him to feel the excruciating pain of his shattered body. Somehow, he was alive after that hit. He tried to rise, desperately gathering his sorcery to heal, to fight, to do anything to get away from that monster.
Gerhard was already there. He folded the space between them to zero.
Gerhard raised his fingers and aimed them at the crippled Primarch. A second later, massive bolts of lightning shot from his fingers and struck the Primarch.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ--!!
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
The Primarch's skin peeled away and disintegrated, while the stone floor grew very hot. A telekinetic push slammed Magnus deep into the ground and then slammed back together around Magnus's limbs, burying him up to his neck in immovable bedrock.
"Now, let's talk, shall we?" Gerhard said.
The golden lightning continued to arc from Gerhard's burning eye.