Trust.
This is the power that governs the world of "To Be Hero X".
Like the Warp in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Trust is intimately linked to the spirit of the human race.
It can also bend reality according to the amount of "Trust" an individual has accumulated over the course of their existence.
To illustrate how powerful a Trust user can become, it is enough to take the example of one of the greatest holders of this power.
Hero X…
(Image)
According to the memories of Atreus' Earth, this man reached an inconceivable power for ordinary mortals. Hero X demonstrated a wide variety of abilities thanks to the immense amount of Trust amassed during his heroic career.
With a simple snap of his fingers, reality itself bent to the whims of this individual.
His power was so overwhelming that the inhabitants of his world began to consider a frightening possibility about him.
Divinity.
Indeed, people began to assume that Hero X had reached true godhood.
Given his power, this hypothesis could not be entirely ruled out.
And yet…
Such a level of power had only been obtained with a few million Trust.
A derisory number on the scale of a prosperous hive world in Warhammer 40,000, where the population is counted in hundreds of billions of souls.
All this to say that an individual at the head of an entire planet like Atreus could not be ordinary, nor possess an insignificant power derived from Trust.
Especially since the very nature of this force relies entirely on the perception others have of its bearer.
At this moment, the men present on the battlefield were shaping the very foundations of Atreus' power.
From now on, he would no longer be a simple conventional Space Marine.
"Is-is this… my power? I can feel the Materium and the Immaterium bending to my will… A sovereign… Yes… that's it… This is the will of a sovereign…," he muttered while observing the white aura slowly escaping from his Power Armor.
Under this cold light, his armor seemed to lose all the simplicity characteristic of the Iron Warriors style.
He looked more like the legendary heroes of Old Terra.
A transcendent silhouette.
"A-Alexander… ah…," muttered a soldier of Macedonian origin, before being interrupted by another.
"No… he is not that man… he can be a simple 'man', not him…," he stammered, refuting the officer beside him.
The officer wanted to argue to defend his point of view, but a young woman spoke before him.
"G-god… Lord Atreus is a god!!!"
Her trembling voice gradually gained strength, until it became audible across the entire battlefield.
All eyes turned toward the tanned-skinned woman, who dropped her rating device before kneeling in front of the Astartes.
An act going against the Imperial Truth.
However, this was no longer the era of the Great Crusade, nor a world subject to the Corpse-Emperor.
The sincere act of faith of the Nopoyein was soon imitated by others.
Then by dozens.
Then by hundreds.
An immediate domino effect.
"Our lord… a god?"
"Bu..t.. the legends were true…"
"A god… a-are we led by a god?!"
The idea spread quickly among the troops like an uncontrollable virus.
An illogical event in the middle of war.
But the demons were not taking advantage of the chaos to gain the upper hand over planetary defense.
No… far from it.
They were terrified.
One step.
Then another.
The heretical entities were retreating in the face of the light emitted by Atreus, but also in the face of the sudden weakness striking them.
Indeed, the demons were losing their strength.
They were even struggling to remain in the Materium!!
"The Immaterium… it wants to 'do it again'…," thought U'zuhl, striking his companion to force him to charge immediately toward Atreus.
Even if it was difficult to read the facial expressions of the greater daemon, Atreus detected a rare panic within the madness of the servant of Khorne.
It was clear that the latter did not want to let him complete his apotheosis.
"Go on…," Atreus said, throwing "the Blood of Kratos" toward the demonic duo.
He did not know why these words came to him with such absolute calm.
But he trusted.
In what?
In his will.
The energy axe sliced through the air at a speed difficult to measure after being thrown by its master.
U'zuhl was slightly surprised by the bold maneuver of the Space Marine, but did not change his charge to dodge the attack.
No.
He was not completely blinded by his thirst for blood.
The daemon of the blood god and skulls simply had confidence in his own strength.
Bam.
"How…," he thought in shock as he was torn from his faithful mount.
Until now, he had surpassed Atreus on every level.
Strength.
Speed.
Technique.
Dexterity.
Experience.
The only reason he had summoned his companion was the cunning of the human in front of him. Thus, he had absolute confidence in his victory against the enemy of his master.
But he had neglected an essential factor.
The evolution brought by Trust.
Even if Atreus' apotheosis was not complete, he was no longer a simple Space Marine.
Even Primaris level could no longer be comparable to him.
All these elements led to this situation: the impact of the Blood of Kratos against the demonic blade was so violent that the greater daemon did not merely stagger.
U'zuhl was thrown!
"Incredible… but I must not let them distract me!!," Atreus thought as he received the Juggernaut's charge with his bare hands.
The Warp beast let out a roar that made the air itself tremble.
The Astartes ignored it.
Even if he was slightly dragged by the creature, he managed to stop its charge.
"Return…," Atreus said, once again relying on this feeling of control.
The energy blade, still suspended in the air after throwing the greater daemon, froze for a moment before returning to its master.
"It worked!," he thought, smiling with satisfaction behind his mask.
Slash.
Bam.
The energy blade crashed against the absurd defense of Khorne's Juggernaut.
Normally, such a weapon would never have been able to bring down in a single blow a Juggernaut of Khul'Tyran's level.
However, Atreus' weapon was no longer a simple energy blade.
It seemed to vibrate in harmony with the will of its master and the Immaterium.
Even the Materium seemed to subtly guide it toward the right direction to complete the will of its user.
Thus, the unthinkable happened.
BAMM
"Ggr… HAAAAA!!"
The beast did not let out a roar of rage typical of its kind, nor a cry of defiance.
But a scream of pain.
Khul'Tyran's head detached from its massive body.
Boom.
The ground trembled under the titanic weight of the creature, which collapsed in a deafening crash.
A spectacle that inspired both admiration and fear.
Yet Atreus did not care.
He stepped forward calmly toward the carcass of the beast.
With a fluid gesture, he picked up the Juggernaut's head with the hand holding his shield.
The dark eyes of the Astartes remained invisible behind his helmet, but his own widened in surprise.
"S-so… I can do that too?" Atreus muttered, holding back the "essence" of the beast through his new power.
Capturing the essence of a daemon was not an achievement within reach of everyone in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Atreus only remembered rare examples where a man had "seized" the essence of a Warp daemon after defeating it.
Among those who accomplished such a feat were the Emperor of Mankind and Angron.
The first sealed the powerful Drach'nyen in a blade, which would later become the sword of Abaddon, Master of the Black Legion.
The second beat a Slaanesh Daemon Prince to death who had proclaimed himself the greatest gladiator of all time.
The unfortunate daemon was so brutally slaughtered that its essence fused with the weapon of the fallen Primarch.
Thus, a daemon essence could be used to forge exceptional weapons.
But…
"I do not play with the Warp," he said, releasing his trophy.
With a sharp motion, Atreus struck the Juggernaut's head with his energy axe.
An explosion rang out as the powerful entity was forcibly banished from the Materium.
Space warped briefly under the violence of the banishment.
Instinctively, Atreus raised his shield. However, he soon noticed that the blast caused him no real damage.
A situation due to his new nature, but also that of the defeated daemon.
Thus, the Astartes slowly turned his attention to the most powerful of Khorne's Bloodletters.
"Do you want me to help you return to your master?" he asked in a voice distorted by his helmet.
U'zuhl's eyes filled with even greater hatred after witnessing the banishment of his companion.
"M-miserable…," he let out, tightening his grip on his daemon blade.
U'zuhl knew it.
He already knew that defeat had become inevitable.
This man had become too powerful.
Yet the daemon could not tolerate the idea of retreating before a "mortal".
His master would never tolerate such humiliation.
"Of course… he will not flee," Atreus thought, observing most of the daemons being banished under the effect of his growing influence over the Materium.
Thanks to his recent victory, the Trust granted to him by his subordinates had become even purer and more powerful.
The demons could now no longer move at their full strength.
The weakest had already been banished.
The only reason U'zuhl still retained such vitality was that Atreus allowed it.
The Materium was now the master of this battlefield.
"M-me die!!" U'zuhl roared as he charged toward the Astartes.
Bam.
The energy blade and the daemon sword clashed once again.
The impacts between the two weapons followed one another.
They gave birth to a scene of unimaginable speed and violence, which did not fail to catch the attention of the Astartes present on the battlefield.
In particular, one of them.
"Magnificent…," said Barabas, the only other squad captain from the former Iron Warriors of the Great Crusade.
He was the best duelist in the warband, but seeing his companion dominate with such ease the unleashed fury of Khorne's champion made his blood boil.
"I did indeed follow the right man…," he thought while firing bolter bursts at the demons still trying to break their encirclement.
This background extermination did not escape Atreus.
It was now beyond doubt that U'zuhl was no longer a threat.
Atreus even felt boredom.
"Did I really struggle against him?" he thought, deflecting an attack before delivering a violent kick to his opponent's knee.
The entity collapsed onto one knee, before receiving a shield strike to the jaw.
The daemon was once again thrown to the ground.
Only one word could now describe Atreus' mood.
Disappointment.
"You are weak… so weak."
These words were an humiliation even more painful than any wound for a Khorne daemon of U'zuhl's rank.
But the Astartes didn't care.
He decapitated him the very next moment.
The act also caused an explosion, but this one was more intense than with the Juggernaut.
The Space Marine casually protected himself, then shook his axe to rid it of the demonic blood. After that, he fully extended his will to sweep away the last remnants of resistance that the Immaterium still opposed to the Materium.
"However, thank you… thank you for making me realize my former arrogance," he silently concluded.
Atreus spoke no more.
He watched the last demons disappear one after another, then raised his energy axe toward the sky.
He had won.
The war was over.
***
author's note: my biggest chapter so far, 1941 words… my skull