The Waves of the Warp

The Warp.

Endless waves surged through the void. Time had lost all linear meaning here; fragments of the past, present, and future intertwined like bubbles, shattered, then gathered and were reborn elsewhere.

This was not water as mortals understood it, but a raging tide condensed from pure emotion, desire, and will.

Roaring, they washed across invisible dimensional barriers, sometimes becoming ribbons glittering with tempting light that coiled around the edges of nothingness; sometimes transforming into howling beasts that tore at the boundaries of Chaos. Every surge contained terrifying power capable of overturning reality, yet within that ultimate disorder lay a strange "order" belonging to Chaos itself.

Deep within this bizarre realm rested a terrifying domain renowned even in the material universe.

Its grandeur defied all description: concentric circles formed from the Circle of Greed, Circle of Gluttony, Circle of Star-Lust, Circle of Power-Lust, Circle of Vanity, and Circle of Sloth—the ultimate symbols of every extreme emotion.

—The Six Rings of Slaanesh.

At the heart of that terrifying domain stood a bedchamber belonging solely to the Lord of Pleasure.

At that moment, the being dwelling in the deepest reaches of the chamber finally stirred. Elegant in bearing, it possessed a captivating and androgynous beauty.

The Chaos God who ruled pleasure and indulgence slowly opened six eyes.

Each eye possessed an utterly different form. Some resembled burning violet flames, reflecting every hidden desire; some were like profound vortices, capable of infinitely magnifying the emotions of whatever they beheld; others had the texture of glazed crystal, flowing with an indescribably alluring sheen.

The instant all six eyes opened, the Six Rings of Slaanesh seemed to freeze for a moment. Even the emotions of pleasure drifting through the air solidified in place, awaiting their master's will.

An inexplicable tremor pierced through layer upon layer of mist and entered Slaanesh's awareness.

It was an indescribable... sense of loss?

As though one of its collectibles had been utterly crushed into nothingness.

Sensing such emotions, it finally shifted its gaze away from the game in which it had been engrossed.

In another bedchamber, its foremost Greater Daemon, Shalaxi Helbane, and the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim were performing a spectacle of pleasure filled with ultimate temptation and indulgence, one more than enough to keep it immersed for eternity.

But now, that powerful sense of loss overwhelmed everything else, leaving Slaanesh unable to continue indulging itself.

At last, it learned the details.

One of its favored children, a Daemon Prince that should have existed eternally, had been completely annihilated.

That realization exploded through the Warp like a thunderclap.

The next instant, a shriek sharp enough to tear apart all things erupted from the bedchamber within the Six Rings.

The shriek contained six hundred and sixty-six layers of meaning and emotion, intertwining into an invisible shockwave that swept across the entire domain of the Six Rings.

At the same time, six hundred and sixty-six openings suddenly split across its body. Each resembled a miniature mouth or another pair of watching eyes, spewing violent Chaos energy and displaying the Lord of Pleasure's emotions as they churned to their utmost limit.

It immediately drew upon its remaining connection to that favored child, tracing it along the still-unbroken sensation.

At last, its gaze passed through a gap in the Veil of reality that had not yet closed, falling upon the place where its Champion of Chaos had just perished completely.

However, an abrupt change directly interrupted its investigation.

A Golden Flame suddenly blazed forth. Within its raging fire seemed to lurk some supremely deep darkness, instantly obscuring everything. Even the Lord of Pleasure had no choice but to avert its gaze.

When the light faded, the Veil between the Warp and the material dimension had completely closed, without the slightest gap remaining. It could no longer see anything on the other side.

"The Accursed..."

Slaanesh let out a shrill, frenzied laugh within its bedchamber, its laughter wrapped around irrepressible rage.

Along with that laughter, six hundred and sixty-six armies of Slaanesh howled forth from the Six Rings. Meanwhile, across sixty-six planets of the Imperium, lurking members of Slaanesh cults suddenly felt their master's blessing. Ecstatic, they burst from the shadows where they had hidden and brazenly ignited rebellions capable of burning entire worlds.

In the end, Slaanesh gradually calmed down.

Though it still did not understand how the "Unborn King" upon the throne had accomplished all this, nor how that Champion of Chaos had fallen, it ultimately cast those turbulent emotions aside.

This blow was not particularly severe. At the root of it, that fallen favored child had merely been an existence elevated from traitorous Nuns of the Imperium.

Once the Great Rift truly opened, once the old stage curtain of this tiresome world—unchanged for ten thousand years—was fully raised to usher in a new chapter, it would have all the time it needed to discover what had happened.

The material universe.

Terra, Armageddon, Macragge, Cadia, Baal...

"Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong..."

In Ecclesiarchy churches across one Imperial World after another, nearly every church bell rang.

Whether priests or believers, regardless of status or any other distinction, all of them knelt devoutly upon the ground, falling into complete fervor before this miracle.

Anyone who heard those bells could feel a pure joy rising entirely from the depths of their hearts, as though something had occurred that even the Divine Emperor seated upon His throne rejoiced in and praised.

Yet no one knew why, nor what had caused a miracle on such a vast scale to suddenly appear.

"Lady Saint Celestine, do you know what has made the Divine Emperor so joyful?"

Within a Shrine World of the Imperium.

Pure white feathers drifted down from the sky. The Living Saint beat her wings as she flew through the heavens, swinging her wraithbone-colored holy sword as she led the Battle Sisters in a charge against the Daemon Army of Khorne summoned by a Chaos cult.

When the bells of a ruined monastery began to ring, a faint golden light shone over every Battle Sister, greatly weakening the attacks of the Khorne Demons against them.

This miracle inspired everyone present, driving them into greater fervor as they annihilated every remaining Demon in a short time.

After the battle ended, a Sister Superior summoned all the courage of her life and asked Saint Celestine the question above.

Hearing the question, Saint Celestine revealed a sincere smile.

She replied:

"...It is hope. Hope for humanity's future is growing."