The Warp, a corner no living thing could ever find.
With a roar, a figure clad in blood-red armor beat the stuffing out of a blue feathered monster, shouting as he did, "I'll beat the shit out of you, you blue-feathered freak! You broke the rules!"
Nearby, a fat green figure simmered a pot of thick soup, occasionally dipping a spoon in to stir it, while a purple apparition gazed dreamily at Hogg's image in the void, pink liquid spreading beneath him.
"Enough! You mindless fool, this is all part of the plan." Seizing an opening to dodge Khorne's blows, Tzeentch fled back to the card table and shouted:
"Change! I see endless change!" But that did nothing to stop Khorne from catching up and beating him again.
For Lyla Lynn, who had endured the Unification Wars, the Battle of Luna, and endless warfare, and was known as the Reef, things were far from peaceful. In fact, he was a little nervous.
Twenty-seven Terran hours earlier, the communications array had received a message sent from Holy Terra. The Emperor's own ship, the Bucephalus, had arrived along with it.
"Our Primarch's been found! Do you know, Lynn? Our father's back! We have a Primarch!" Rossmanderson, clad in Mark II Power Armor and sporting a killer hairstyle, paced excitedly back and forth across the bridge.
"Stop, Ross. That's the fifth time you've asked me. Of course our Primarch has returned. He's on a planet called Alicia. In three Terran days, we'll leave the Warp route, emerge at the Mandeville Point, and reach the planet where the Primarch is.
"Damn it, I've answered you five times already. If you keep bouncing around in front of me, I'll cut your hair off."
Lynn rubbed the hilt of his sword, which glowed with an eerie green light, as he looked at the Battle Brothers before him. They all had different faces and equally ridiculous hairstyles. Exhausted, he asked, "Do you think Father will be pleased with us? Our reputation isn't exactly great." The Legion Commander of the Eleventh Legion's Dark Raiders turned to the various company captains on the bridge.
...No one said a word. Nobody could guarantee anything. It was like waiting for exam results: you longed to see your score, but dreaded finding out you'd done badly. It was agonizing.
"Sigh! I'm sure Father will be pleased with us. What's done is done. We shouldn't sit around imagining things. We still have time, so let's eat first." Lynn, acting as Legion Commander, gave the order.
"Eat? Sure! Sounds great!" Heavy footsteps sounded from the cabins, and soon everyone had gathered in the mess hall.
Still, anyone could sense the tension hanging over the ship. Even the Imperial Guard, who would usually be chatting and joking, had returned to their quarters.
So what was their Primarch doing? Selling flatbread!
As the saying went, you had to love what you did. Hogg loved to eat, and even back in the wilderness, he had done his best to maintain his quality of life.
He also had an insatiable curiosity about all the different foods found across the Imperium. He wanted to try everything, but whenever he did, something seemed off.
Take the dough used for flatbread, for example. It was made from powder ground from some sort of tuber. Wheat had gone extinct ages ago. A crop might look like wheat, but that didn't mean it was—maybe it was some peculiar species from another world.
Busy behind the counter, Hogg looked at the woman who had come by for the 1,453rd time. Every visit, she bought a wrap.
As usual, after he handed her the food in a paper bag, she invited him again, just as she had ever since he saved her during a rebellion seven years ago.
A vague feeling stirred in Hogg's mind. This time, he gave her a different answer.
"Miss, my journey is about to begin. Perhaps you could come along with me. I don't know if this is the start of the road or the end, but who knows? So, tell me your name."
"Emilia Aziz." The tall woman, with her neat golden hair, called out her name.
At that moment, a shadow fell over the distant sky. A massive warship burst into the airspace above the Hive City, its artificial might blotting out the natural sky.
As the air surged, warriors clad in golden Power Armor and wielding Custodian spears filed in, protecting the one who followed behind them.
They didn't look friendly!!!
A towering man appeared behind them. Golden radiance dispelled the shadow cast by the warship, and everyone present fell to their knees as if a god had arrived. Hogg only found it noisy.
The imposing warrior in golden armor immediately spotted Hogg in the crowd. [My son, I am the Emperor, ruler of mankind, and your father.] The Emperor stretched out his hand and gazed tenderly at the Primarch.
Honestly, no Primarch could withstand that—not even a traitor. But Hogg knew the Emperor's true nature. Though a voice in his heart whispered, "Follow him, follow him, follow him," it only made the usually easygoing Hogg feel irritated.
He exhaled, then looked at the Emperor's outstretched hand. Hogg stepped forward and clasped it. Their strong hands gripped tightly together. Everyone saw a moving reunion; some were even moved to tears. But Hogg was far from calm inside.
"Do you want to buy a flatbread?"
"..."
The Bucephalus
A squad of Custodians stood guard outside the door. Inside, the Emperor and the Primarch sat in silence, simply gazing at each other. Neither said a word. In the end, Hogg couldn't take it anymore and asked the first question.
"Father, may I call you that?" Hogg asked his first question, feeling apprehensive.
"..."
"Of course. I'm glad you asked, my eleventh son." Hearing the Emperor's answer, Hogg breathed a sigh of relief and decided to keep asking.
"Then do you know how I'm different from your other children? I mean, what makes me different. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."
"Don't be so nervous, my child. I understand your anxiety, and I know what you mean by different. It's precisely because you're different that we have a chance to turn things around."
"? You looked through my memories? You really looked through my memories—you know—"
Smack!! A golden palm came down from above and rapped Hogg on the head.
"(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ I knew it was you! So you really have been watching me all along!"
"...Not that much. Your memories are toxic."
"Outworld Wanderer. That's what we call your kind.
"Whenever you appear, disaster follows, whether for the Warp or for Realspace. Twisted, mutated, and mindless, you gnaw at the walls of the universe like worms.
"It's not just me. The others are the same. If we find one of you, we destroy you immediately." A cup of cola appeared from the void and landed in front of the Emperor.
Hogg picked up the cola on the table and downed it in one go. The familiar taste sent a jolt through his nerves. Now that they both knew the score, there was no need to hide anything. "Then why didn't you destroy me?"
Watching Hogg completely let loose and slide into the sofa like a puddle of mud, the Emperor felt a hint of regret about the decision he had made.
"No! This is all part of my plan!!" The Emperor's answer made Hogg spring out of the sofa in fright (ω)!
"Shit, shit, shit! Old Man Yellow, don't scare me!"
That familiar golden smack came flying again. Forced to sit still on the sofa, Hogg continued listening to the Emperor.
"You're different, Hogg! Compared to the other Outworld Wanderers we've discovered, when you appeared, to put it in the words of your homeland—
"The moment you crossed into this world, your existence was reduced to a lower dimension. You came from a purely physical universe, and the vast amount of information you brought with you caused contamination. That contamination in Realspace formed you, while the part of you that didn't belong to the physical universe—the Warp—was partly devoured by you, forming a small black hole within the Warp to repair the parts of your Realspace self that were missing."
After downing his second cup of cola, Hogg licked his lips. The sweet, refreshing taste traveled from his tongue to his brain. His Primarch-level mind naturally analyzed the cola's recipe, making the drink in his hand seem as good as the real thing.
"When you manifested in the physical universe, you appeared on Terra—or Earth, as you might know it. You devoured half a continent before your condition finally stabilized.
"At the time, the Primarch Project was underway. Primarch 11 had been lost to violent mutation and contamination, and your appearance happened to fill that gap. At the same time, I was able to glimpse part of the future through your existence."
Listening to the Emperor's explanation, Hogg was stunned. As expected of that freeloading gambler. This really was just the kind of thing Old Man Yellow would do.
Though he said "part of it," Hogg suspected the Emperor had probably dug up every detail of his childhood, right down to what underwear he used to wear.
Before you continue