He Awakened

"Speaking of which, you're just letting Typhon develop within the Death Guard?" Sandman's avatar descended into the physical body stored by the Emperor in the Imperial Palace on Terra, raising his hands to move stiff joints, his bones emitting faint cracks.

He looked towards the Emperor not far away. After more than a hundred years, Typhon had finally fallen into Nurgle's embrace, which made him unable to help but wonder if perhaps from the moment the other party changed their name from "Karas Typhon" to "Typhon," the seeds of fate had already been sown.

The Emperor's gaze fell on Sandman's movements as he stretched his body. The bright golden Power Armor he wore was still as dazzling, but his voice was unusually calm, "Are you still groggy from sleep? You can't just 'deal with' Typhon for no reason. Without concrete evidence, if you act rashly, Mortarion will be the first to come knocking. How will you explain it then?

Golden flames, besides me and Luo Jia, who else? Even if I push the problem onto Luo Jia, it's useless. Everyone knows Luo Jia is an extreme fanatic." The Emperor said, looking at his body, which had been stiff for a century and now resembled aged cured meat.

Typhon was one of the core members who first followed Mortarion in the uprising on Barbarus, an old brother who walked out of the mud and flames with the Death Guard.

This camaraderie made Mortarion trust and tolerate Typhon more. Without ironclad proof, if Typhon were eliminated based solely on the suspicion of "falling to Chaos," Mortarion would inevitably question it, and it might even cause a rift between him and the Emperor.

Sandman nodded thoughtfully. The Emperor's current "leniency" was not indulgence, but merely waiting for the best moment.

Typhon was like a "probe" lurking within the Death Guard. Every action he took was collecting intelligence on Chaos for the Emperor and Sandman, and accumulating evidence for the final "reckoning."

Typhon's gene-modification surgery a hundred years ago, personally led by the Emperor, had already left various backdoors in his body. Typhon naively thought his actions were seamless, unaware that every move he made was already exposed in the Emperor's eyes.

"Then what should we do now?" Sandman stopped stretching his body.

"Wait. Wait for Typhon to make his final move. This battle against Chaos isn't about speed, but patience. Typhon's fall is a foregone conclusion, but the fate of the Death Guard has not yet been sealed," the Emperor said.

"I remember in the original timeline, Typhon killed the fleet navigator while the Death Guard main force was in Warp transit, and Mortarion was forced to submit to Nurgle," Sandman said, flexing his wrists with certainty in his tone.

"Even in that timeline, he could only resort to such despicable means. This timeline's Typhon will most likely have no other choice. When the time comes, I'll directly 'deal with' him and then personally confront Nurgle. I will never let Mortarion's tragedy repeat itself," Sandman said very firmly.

As for how to explain Typhon's sudden surge in power, he and the Emperor only needed to feign ignorance.

In the chaotic galaxy, "strength asks no origin, blessings ask no source. There's no need to investigate everything. It might be worse if something is discovered."

"Agreed. Korax and Mortarion are yours to handle. For the other Legions, pay attention if you have the energy, but don't force yourself," the Emperor withdrew his gaze from the pieces he had set on the board.

It was currently the peak of the Chaos Gods' power. He and Sandman couldn't keep a close watch on all the Primarchs and Legions, especially since Sandman had to "steal" someone from Nurgle – preventing Mortarion's fall would consume a great deal of Sandman's time and energy.

"I'll take care of those two. That's all for now. I'm heading back home first." As soon as Sandman finished speaking, his figure began to blur, clearly having initiated psionic teleportation.

"Going back to Savior Star again?" The Emperor looked at Sandman, who was almost gone the next second after being in the Imperial Palace on Terra, with a hint of helplessness in his voice.

He couldn't understand Sandman's obsession with "going home." Strictly speaking, Terra was Sandman's true "home," while Savior Star was at most his second home.

As the thought arose, the Emperor shook his head, "Oh, that's not right. For a god, the true home is their divine realm."

Perhaps the memories on Savior Star were more vivid – the Emperor speculated. There were traces of Sandman's battles before he became a god, people he knew, lands he protected. Unlike the divine realm, which was only Order and silence, or the Imperial Palace, filled with schemes and responsibilities.

This lingering attachment, filled with the scent of everyday life, proved that the humanity of this god of death had not changed in the slightest.

Sandman was unaware of the Emperor's confusion. As soon as he finished speaking, he activated spatial folding, his figure instantly leaving the Imperial Palace on Terra and heading towards Savior Star.

This time, he didn't choose to teleport directly above Savior Star. Instead, he deliberately planned several stops along the way. As a deity who had just returned to the material universe, he needed to personally assess the differences between the current material universe and that of a hundred years ago.

Even a god was not omniscient and omnipotent. Experiencing it firsthand was far more accurate than any intelligence.

Along the way, Sandman switched between the Warp and the material universe several times. Each time he crossed the Warp barrier, he could clearly feel the collision of two forces: the laws of the material universe were still tenaciously resisting the erosion of the Warp, but the influence of Chaos could already permeate the material universe in small amounts.

After several investigations, he gradually reached a conclusion and gained a clear understanding of the current situation.

The threshold for Chaos daemons to enter the material universe still existed, but compared to a hundred years ago, the restrictions had been significantly relaxed. Some low-level daemons could stay in the material universe for longer periods with just a brief surge in Warp fluctuations, without complex rituals. This would lead to a significant increase in the frequency of small-scale Chaos harassment incidents.

The efficiency of Warp travel had decreased by about half. Once stable routes were now filled with unstable Warp turbulence, forcing warships to frequently adjust their courses to avoid risks, greatly increasing travel time.

Taking "Savior Star to Terra" as an example, the time required now was nearly half longer than a hundred years ago.

The difficulty of future travel would entirely depend on the intensity of the Warp storms stirred up by the Chaos Gods. The more violent the storm, the more dangerous the route, and the longer the travel time would be.

Sensing these changes, Sandman reactivated spatial folding. This time, his target was very clear – Savior Star.

Raven Guard Legion Headquarters, Savior Star.

As the location of the Imperium's most powerful enforcement agency in the Storm Sector, Savior Star had undergone earth-shattering changes over the past hundred years.

To cope with the increasingly busy demands of military and civilian transport, Korax approved the expansion of several large spaceports. The mechanical arms of the spaceports loaded and unloaded supplies and personnel from various star systems day and night.

The original old starport was completely converted to military use, only docking Raven Guard warships. Countless giant metal ships were neatly arranged, their wings spread in the raven insignia on their hulls glinting coldly under the starlight, exuding awe-inspiring deterrence.

Those familiar with Savior Star knew that there was an anomaly hidden in the skies above the planet – in the highest docking area, a fleet with a style completely different from mainstream Imperial warships had always been docked.

The ships in this fleet were all sharp triangles, their hulls covered in dark gray special alloys. Dozens of such triangular warships were present, and the flagship was astonishingly large, its length comparable to the Raven Guard's flagship, the Gloriana-class Battleship "Shadow."

Yet, such a fleet, capable of shaking the galactic order, had been stationed in orbit above Savior Star for a century. For a full hundred years, this fleet had not carried out any missions, like a group of silent observers, quietly hovering in orbit.

Even with the intense supply tasks at Savior Star's military port, the triangular fleet had never moved an inch.

There were times when managers of the military port suggested transferring them to other ports to alleviate orbital pressure on the homeworld, but Korax refused them all without reason.

Thus, this mysterious fleet, like silent steel statues, had always occupied the most central berths in the skies above Savior Star, for a century.

But today, the century-long silence was finally broken – the previously all-black triangular warships suddenly lit up their side running lights, two thin strips of pale blue light cutting through the darkness.

The dark corridors inside the ship also lit up sequentially with warm yellow lights, and faint mechanical glows could be seen through the portholes; even more shocking was that the supply bay doors, which were only opened during regular maintenance at the military port, were now all wide open, revealing complex pipeline interfaces inside.

"He has awakened! I feel His presence! He is approaching us! Our Lord has awakened!" The flagship, the Styx, suddenly vibrated violently.

A low hum emanated from within the ship, and streams of data pulses frantically bombarded the military port's management system. The text on the screens flickered, revealing an irrepressible excitement.

The military port manager stared at the jumping scarlet markers on the screen, his scalp tingling. It was the highest priority supply signal of the Raven Guard Legion.

Within the entire Legion, only the Primarch Korax's flagship, the Shadow, was qualified to activate this level of command.

But now, this unfamiliar fleet, silent for a century, had triggered a supply request of equivalent priority.

"Quick! Supply the Styx fleet with provisions, highest priority. If there's not enough, requisition from the port's general reserves!" the administrator roared into the comms unit without a hint of hesitation.

The instant the order was issued, the starport erupted into activity. Immensely thick plasma injection conduits were connected to the Styx's hull, and robotic arms whirred frantically, hoisting crates of munitions onto supply barges.

"It's not enough! The Styx is too massive; our supply channel flow rate simply can't keep up!" The Mechanicus Sage's synthesized voice trembled with urgency.