39. In the Name of Salvation (1)

Holy Terra.

The Emperor, who had not returned to the Imperial Palace in a very long time, was now strolling through corridors that had yet to be fully rebuilt. No one knew he had arrived.

The Imperial Palace was far too vast, and its uniqueness and artistry made it extremely difficult to restore. In many places, never mind repairs—even the marks left by the war had not been cleared away.

Bullet holes, the traces left by explosions, fragments of warriors' armor—all of these together instead gave it a completely different air.

Broken walls and ruins, nearly enough to be called wreckage—and The Emperor of Mankind was walking amid those ruins. The roar of aircraft came from above him. Without needing to look up, he knew it was a newest-model transport ship, fully loaded with grain seeds.

It was about to head for a planned planting zone in northwestern Terra, where they would be sown. Terra, which had lost its last patch of soil for who knew how long, had finally welcomed rebirth.

The Empire was the same.

So was he.

The Emperor raised his head, gazing at the streak the transport ship left in the sky as it departed—he and the Empire had both been saved, while the savior had now fallen into a predicament.

Psionic energy surged from The Void. Golden flames rose and fell, wrapping around his body. His eyes turned gold, and within the flames, his form began to change little by little.

From an unremarkable Eurasian barbarian, he became a tall man clad in exquisite Power Armor, with a laurel crown upon his head. He closed his eyes, and a Treefolk he had seen before was "pulled" out of The Void by him.

It was still wearing those ridiculous pajamas, except its eyes, which should have