A New Bargain

Ten thousand years? An instant? Eternity? Time held no meaning in the Warp, while the Sea of Souls churned without rest.

The mysterious soul remained unharmed under the guard of the Four Chaos Gods. Its power grew ever stronger, and the light of its soul illuminated the borderlands of the Four Chaos Gods.

The Warp surged violently, heralding a momentous event in the material universe.

The Aeldari, a people uplifted by the Old Ones.

During the War in Heaven, which reshaped the Warp's existing order, they received the Old Ones' grace and rose above their primitive state.

They ascended into one of the galaxy's superior races, aiding the Old Ones against the physical universe's gods, the C'tan, and their servants, the Necrons.

After an age-spanning war, the Old Ones were defeated by the gods of the material universe and the Warp's primitive inhabitants, vanishing from the galaxy.

At the war's end, the Necrons ambushed the C'tan. At an unimaginable cost, they shattered their former masters into countless fragments.

The price of slaying gods was ruinously high. The Necrons were badly weakened, and knowing they could not rule the galaxy, their entire race entered the Great Sleep.

The Aeldari, however, went from being the uplifted to inheriting the legacy of the superior races, rising in one leap to become the galaxy's foremost dominant race.

During their reign over the galaxy, their culture and technology developed without end.

With technological power and the psychic gifts bestowed by The Creator, they conquered the stars and ruled the galaxy for tens of millions of years.

Invincible throughout the galaxy, the Aeldari gradually grew arrogant and regarded every galactic race as inferior.

Blinded by their arrogance, the entire race failed to see the extinction-level crisis lurking in the shadows.

Aeldari society became addicted to pleasure. Hedonism flourished, and amid endless indulgence, they steadily sank into depravity.

In the elegant halls that had once witnessed Aeldari glory, copulating Aeldari could be seen everywhere. Even in temples dedicated to the gods, acts of desecration were commonplace.

As faith collapsed, the power of the Aeldari gods declined to its lowest point. They could no longer lead their people back onto the proper path.

The Aeldari sank into unrestrained indulgence, obsessed with the pleasure it brought.

When simple copulation and amusement could no longer stimulate their senses, they sought greater thrills and pursued extreme pleasures.

The powerful psychic talent granted by The Creator had now become the lethal poisoned blade pressed against the throat of the entire Aeldari race.

Psychic talent.

Psychic talent was an extraordinary gift in the material universe. Psykers drew upon Warp energy and released power in the physical universe capable of twisting the laws of physics.

Using psychic power was not without cost. Whenever a psyker wielded it in the material universe, the projection of their soul in the Warp became exceptionally conspicuous.

It drew the attention of daemons, which then devoured the soul, seized the physical body, and turned it into a gateway between the material universe and the Warp.

Nearly every Aeldari possessed psychic talent, and it was exceptionally powerful.

As the entire Aeldari race sank into indulgent depravity, the Warp was nearly filled with their intense emotions. The extreme feelings produced by fallen Aeldari stirred strange storms across the Sea of Souls.

The galaxy-spanning Aeldari Empire fell into corruption, and the dark emotions born from its souls gradually gathered in the Warp.

New and old became entangled. The Warp energy bred by Aeldari corruption surged like a tide, awakening an evil god buried within the Warp and gathering power, bringing about her birth.

Then came a shrieking cry.

The raging storms spreading throughout the Warp were blown apart, and a new evil god was born: Slaanesh.

From the moment of her birth, the evil god had already existed across every timeline of the past and future.

Events in the material universe merely "anchored" history, making what had already happened impossible to alter.

With Slaanesh's first cry of indulgence, a Warp rift was torn open in the heart of the Aeldari Empire in the material universe, swallowing most of its territory into the Warp.

It also alarmed the greatly weakened Aeldari gods within the Pantheon, filling their hearts with terror.

Slaanesh had been born from the Aeldari. She was the Dark Prince, the most unrestrained blasphemy.

The Aeldari nourished her, and they were also her food. The Aeldari gods worshipped by the Aeldari were even more potent nourishment to her.

She possessed an irresistible advantage against the Aeldari. The Aeldari gods, weakened to the extreme, could no longer resist Slaanesh. All were slain and devoured by her, becoming the first "milk" she drank after birth, nourishing the evil god's growth.

The Aeldari Empire, which had dominated the galaxy for tens of millions of years, collapsed with a thunderous crash. Its once-glorious central region was torn open by a permanent Warp rift, like a scar upon the material universe.

The soaring serpent rode the mist, only to end as dust and ash.

The once-prosperous Aeldari Empire fell, leaving behind only the laughter of the Chaos Gods.

Amid the apocalyptic disaster, only a small number of Aeldari survivors who had foreseen the crisis escaped. Of the gods, some fled and some died; few remained alive.

After feasting to her heart's content, Slaanesh returned to her divine realm and began her endless indulgence and pleasure-seeking.

The Warp's raging storms dispersed, returning once more to a brief calm.

The newly ascended god took her throne and joined the endless Great Game.

The Four Chaos Gods turned their gaze toward the borderlands, wishing at every moment to claim that soul for themselves, only to have their attention diverted by another curiosity.

A thread of golden light appeared in the Warp, rising into a golden sun.

The sun's radiance shone in every direction. Daemons dared not look directly at it, while its light was incomparably cold, making Warp creatures tremble.

Golden brilliance illuminated the Warp. Psychic light shone dazzlingly and sacredly, freely scattering its power.

A powerful psyker from the material universe had entered the Warp, proving himself with his power in order to draw the attention of the Four Chaos Gods.

Wherever the Golden Sun passed, Warp power retreated. Any daemon that dared look directly upon the golden soul was reduced to ashes, vanishing from the Warp in the truest sense.

"Chaos Gods!!!"

The words echoed through the Warp. Every known language repeated his declaration, while unknown whispers conveyed his will.

Yet the gods of the Warp gave no response. The Golden Sun hung silently there, waiting for their reply.

A warlike Greater Daemon under Khorne raised the twin axes in its hands and shot toward the Golden Sun on daemon wings.

The majesty of the gods could not be challenged!

"I will take your head and offer it to my master!"

The Greater Daemon of Khorne unleashed its full strength in the Warp, making it far more powerful than it could ever be in realspace.

Roaring, the Greater Daemon charged straight upward. Its blood-red arms raised twin axes, crimson flames enveloped their blades, and their might shook heaven and earth, their power capable of overturning all creation.

The golden will looked down upon the Greater Daemon of Khorne, paying it no attention at all.

He once again called out to the true powers deep within the Warp. "Gods, I have come to discuss terms."

The humiliation of being ignored enraged the Greater Daemon of Khorne even further. Amid its roar, its ferocity rose to greater heights as it raised both axes and brought them down with all its strength.

The chaotic Warp currents were cleaved apart, and a crimson axe-light split the earth.

Those disorderly, newly formed fragments of daemons were reduced to ashes beneath the mighty strike, utterly erased from the Warp.

Such a powerful blow made the Warp tremble, and even Khorne turned his gaze toward it.

The Golden Sun remained wholly unmoved by the terrible might. It did not even raise any defense around itself, as though it had not seen the Greater Daemon of Khorne.

As the Greater Daemon's twin axes struck the golden will, the onlookers eagerly awaited the sight of this blasphemer being grievously wounded and driven back into the material universe.

What happened in the next instant, however, exceeded the imagination of the Greater Daemons of the Four Chaos Gods. Since their birth, they had never seen such a powerful psyker!

The Greater Daemon's twin axes were unstoppable, yet the psyker made no attempt to block them. The abnormality that occurred the instant they made contact left the Greater Daemons of Tzeentch aghast.

The Greater Daemon of Khorne's strike hit the Golden Sun without achieving anything, while its daemon body was annihilated.

Before the eyes of the daemons, the Greater Daemon of Khorne's body approached the light, and those icy rays reduced it to ash.

The Golden Sun's will did not stir in the slightest. The Greater Daemon of Khorne approaching him gradually vanished within the sacred radiance, and its two great axes slowly disappeared into smoke and dust.

The power it had displayed now seemed like a moth flying into a flame, utterly devoid of dignity before its natural nemesis.

"Human, you have come here once again, displaying your power. What do you seek from us this time?"

Having displayed his power and gained recognition, the wills of the Four Chaos Gods descended before the Golden Sun.

The Four Chaos Gods descended together. They radiated majesty too great to behold, and the power they casually released invisibly distorted the Warp.

Burning fire meteors streaked down from above, lightning smashed into the ground, storms howled with frost, and daemons knelt in worship beneath their might, crying out the names of the gods.

Facing the majesty of the Four Chaos Gods, the Golden Sun showed not the slightest fear or panic.

The space around him remained calm as ever, without the smallest ripple.

He spoke softly, his deep voice recounting, "A new bargain. An unprecedented concept in the material universe and the Warp."

"My knowledge, combined with the knowledge you provide, will bring the Warp and reality together to create a uniquely powerful existence."

"Here are the specific terms!" Golden light flared as the Golden Sun cast out four spheres of light. The terms of the bargain were written within them, and they flew separately toward the Four Chaos Gods.

In the instant they touched them, the Four Chaos Gods understood what was written within.

After calculating every gain and loss, the Four Chaos Gods whispered among themselves, discussing the legitimacy and feasibility of the bargain.

The human before them had once used a Warp portal to enter the realm of Chaos, paying a price to exchange for forbidden knowledge of Chaos from the gods.

Now he had entered the realm of Chaos again, and he had gone even further.

The golden will said nothing. He understood that this bargain was destined to succeed; the Four Chaos Gods could not refuse the terms he had proposed.

"We accept your bargain, human." After a round of whispers, the Master of Change spoke on behalf of the Four Chaos Gods, agreeing to this unprecedented bargain.

"However... I believe we should add another condition." A huge mouth split open across Tzeentch's face, his smile chilling, dark, and unrestrained.