Schrödinger's Emperor

140. Schrödinger's Emperor

"Hades! Wake up! Wake up!"

...That voice sounded so familiar.

Hades's consciousness gradually cleared. Physically, he felt as though he was falling in all directions at once. Then the C'tan part of him alerted him: he had fallen into a Black Hole.

Hades instinctively moved to erase the Black Hole, but another voice immediately rang out beside his ear.

"Hey! Don't! Don't do that!!!"

Ah, it was Trazyn the Infinite.

Hades opened his eyes and, unsurprisingly, saw Trazyn's face. The two of them seemed to be falling together, and a thread of pure white light was tied around Trazyn's waist.

"What—what happened?"

Hades asked. He immediately adapted to the gravity within the Black Hole and "stood" upright according to his own senses.

"Time is short, so I'll keep it brief."

Trazyn immediately began explaining.

"In short, The Emperor made a bet with Tzeentch. You need to go fight another battle—Slaanesh isn't dead yet. The shockwave before its death stirred up time. You should have directly returned to the moment Slaanesh revived because of it, but Orikan pulled something just now. You're currently undergoing a Warp Jump."

"???? Orikan??? The Astromancer?!"

"Yeah! Orikan!!"

Trazyn slapped his thigh sharply.

"That bastard formed an alliance with The Emperor behind our backs!"

"Look, a token."

Trazyn held out his hand, and Hades saw Neos's distinctive golden Psychic Power.

"???"

Hades extracted the information from Trazyn's words. Though he was baffled by how the Emperor had convinced Orikan to ally with him, the bet between The Emperor and Tzeentch seemed more important right now.

When had they even started betting???

The last time Hades had seen the Emperor, hadn't the guy been half-paralyzed and sprawled atop the Golden Throne? Was Neos putting on an act???

"Explain the bet and its terms in