"My daemonic army."
Lu Jin calmly accepted Uthlan's words.
Ever since discovering in the Heart Eater Domain that he would ascend to godhood, Lu Jin had wondered where the wandering souls in his Warhammer had gone. Only when he saw the hammer's empty haft moments ago had he realized they could be released to fight.
"I want them to regain themselves," Lu Jin said. "If the god I become is under my control, why can't I free them? I never wanted to confine them anywhere. I never wanted them to keep fighting after death!"
Lu Jin swore he had never wanted to enslave anyone's soul. He had never even wanted to keep a soul in one place, no matter how comfortable that place might be.
The first time he entered Khorne's daemonic realm and faced Khorne's Avatar, he had challenged Khorne in a fury because he wanted those souls to be free—to dissolve into the Warp like ordinary human souls.
Only a tiny few could return to the Golden Throne. Lu Jin did not expect the souls of those around him to receive that privilege.
Most human souls dissolved into the Warp after death, escaping this hellish world—unless the dead had worshipped Chaos or were among the lucky few chosen by the Emperor to be guided onward.
"It's complicated. What you want has nothing to do with it." Of all the emotions in Uthlan's expression, helplessness stood out most. "These souls are too weak. They aren't strong enough to retain wills of their own while bound to their god."
Lu Jin thought in silence, then asked Uthlan, "How can they be laid to rest?"
"Good question." Uthlan did not know either.
This blood-red black-box domain of the Warp lay beyond even the Laughing God's prophetic powers and methods. Gods and