Every day, Kasgar woke aboard the more than twenty-kilometer-long Vengeful Spirit.
Yet he felt no joy because of it.
Because he had slept badly.
I am your essence.
Kasgar, accept me.
Accept me.
Me.
So Warp Entities really had terrible manners.
Harassed daily by what felt like endless spam calls, Kasgar helplessly closed his eyes.
There was nowhere to hide.
He raised his cracked right hand and continuously pondered the possibilities of his future.
What the hell even was this thing?!
The doubts in Kasgar's heart continued to grow.
It had been one thing when the Intelligent Machine on Chemos said he was not human, but why, after completing his Space Marine modifications, had he started racing ever faster in the direction of becoming less than human?
A few weeks earlier, at the Silent Star camp.
After successfully seizing that small Xenos Warship, he had controlled the alien crystals and their vessel to land on Silent Star.
As for how he controlled them, or why he could control them, Kasgar knew nothing at all.
Yet Kasgar seemed to share an unspoken connection with them and could sense their thoughts.
They seemed delighted to have encountered him.
The remaining alien soldiers aboard the warship had also chosen to lay down their weapons and surrender because of his communication link.
Kasgar had simply docked the ship near the Adeptus Mechanicus camp.
Just as he had expected, these Crystalline Aliens were indeed the maintainers of the Dalit Warp Gate, and they possessed the methods required to keep those portals functioning.
According to those Crystalline Aliens, they had existed from the moment their Creator made them for the purpose of guarding and maintaining those portals.
They had passed through the portal earlier because they had sensed unidentified lifeforms gathering nearby.
They had therefore come to drive away and destroy anyone who dared approach their Creator's sacred creations.
But they had never expected the "enemy" to possess the mark of their Creator.
Kasgar sensed the guilt and fear emanating from the crystals.
But wait?
Who was this Creator they were talking about?
It couldn't be Kasgar himself, could it?
It really was.
The core of the giant crystal bounced joyfully like a puppy.
That giant crystal captain had recognized him as its master precisely because it had sensed the Creator's aura from Kasgar's hand.
Now that the Creator had returned, they naturally handed over the portal technology and maintenance methods to him.
After the Tech-Priests who had obtained the technology skipped away in delight, Kasgar asked the crystal another question.
"Who exactly is this Creator you speak of, the one capable of constructing Warp Gates?"
They called him—
"First of All Creation."
"King of the Empyrean."
"Creator."
And the one name he actually knew.
"The Old Ones"—The Old Ones.
Who the hell am I?
Sitting in a cabin aboard the Vengeful Spirit, he sank into deep thought.
Kasgar's existential crisis seemed to have arrived earlier than everyone else's.
He remembered that he had transmigrated here.
But—
The Intelligent Machine said he was not human.
That guy holding the Jester mask acted like they were sworn brothers.
In the Empyrean, he had transformed into a ball of fire.
The Crystalline Aliens called him an heir of The Old Ones.
It's me. Kasgar, you are me.
Accept me, accept me.
Kasgar, me.
And there was still a Warp voice constantly babbling in his ear!
Wow.
What a gathering of rare talents and distinguished worthies!
Not a single one of them was human!
Kasgar gave an awkward laugh and glanced at the cracks on his right hand.
He could not possibly be a god.
But he was already some distance away from being human.
He would just call himself a divine being.
Forget it. Nothing from the Warp was any good anyway.
He would avoid using it whenever possible in the future.
Hmph!
I refuse to believe it.
With my formidable command skills and dueling ability, could I really not beat others without relying on this Warp sorcery crap?
Kasgar thought to himself.
"Achoo!"
Roboute Guilliman, seated at a desk in Ultramar and preparing expeditionary deployments, sneezed.
"My lord?"
Beside him, the Ultramarines' Second Captain, Ionid Hill, asked.
"It's nothing. Go on with your work."
Though no one knew why a primarch would sneeze.
After that, Horus's fleet completed its cleansing of the Xenos in the region and returned to Silent Star.
Guided by the crystal ship that had submitted to them, the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet successfully passed through the portal and reached the alien homeworld on the other side.
It was a group of planets made of crystal.
Not long after arriving, the giant crystal contacted their headquarters.
After several hours of talks, the crystal-based alien race formally declared its submission to the Imperium of Man.
They also handed over all their portal technology.
And this thing was truly far too valuable to humanity.
A stable Warp-navigation beacon!
Even the Emperor himself gave it extremely high praise after hearing of it.
Given that the portal technology they provided would greatly help the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus establish stable Warp routes.
Not long afterward, the War Council from Terra formally decided to overlook their previous attack and incorporate them into the Imperium as its most loyal client state.
They had not wanted to show mercy to Xenos.
But there was no helping it. They had simply offered too much.
So—praise the Emperor's mercy!
Of course, that was all later.
After finishing their negotiations with the Crystalline Aliens, the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet began its return journey.
According to rumors, they were returning because the Emperor was about to select one of the eight primarchs who had returned to serve as the Imperium's Warmaster!
Warmaster!
The Imperium of Man was about to have a Warmaster!
Wait, which Warmaster?
Hearing that title, one guaranteed to send chills down his spine, Kasgar broke out in a cold sweat.
But if the timeline had not gone wrong—
In the early days of the Great Crusade, the one who could be selected as Warmaster was not the Horus Lupercal everyone knew.
Instead, it was the mysterious Lord of the Second Legion, whose entire existence would be erased in the future.
Even during the time since his return, Kasgar had never seen him appear.
But Horus was in such high spirits, smiling at everyone he met—
Kasgar decided it was best not to shatter his fantasy.
So it was that Warmaster.
That scared the hell out of me. I thought it was some other Warmaster.
No wonder he had often heard the Emperor's Children veterans talking about the Warmaster before.
Walking through the ship's corridors, Kasgar let out a sigh of relief.
"So they're about to choose the Warmaster. I thought the timeline had gone wrong—"
Then several Space Marines in pearl-white armor passed by him.
They were muttering things about "thirty years of Centaur gold rings," words he only half understood.
What?
What what what?
Centaur. Gold ring.?
Kasgar froze in place.
The timeline really had not gone wrong, right?
This time, they couldn't possibly choose Horus as Warmaster directly, right?!
Preparing to emerge from the Mandeville Point.
Just as Kasgar's thoughts fell into chaos, the ship's broadcast sounded an alert.
Amid a powerful tremor, the scene outside finally returned to a star-filled sky.
The whispers that had lingered in Kasgar's ears vanished completely as well.
The familiar Solar System finally returned to Kasgar's sight.
They had reached the very heart of the Imperium: sacred Terra.
How beautiful, sacred Terra!
Though its seas were gone and the land had become a barren dark brown, Kasgar was still filled with nostalgia for this place.
It was time to go home.
Before you continue