The truth of the world

Bona fell, crashing into the Crystal Labyrinth.

"Heh. How long has it been? I've almost forgotten who last dared to raise a weapon against him."

The Lord of Change's voice sounded beside his ear. Bona scrambled up and thrust his blade, only to shatter an illusion.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!"

Smoke suddenly billowed, and the Lord of Change appeared before Bona.

He still wore the guise of a middle-aged scholar, watching Bona with amusement.

"You want to kill me?"

The Chainsword roared as it swung down at him.

"If you don't want to save your father, then go ahead."

The Chainsword stopped just before his forehead.

"What do you mean?" Bona asked.

The Lord of Change gently swept a finger through the air, and a Warp Rift suddenly opened.

"Follow me if you want to know."

With that, he stepped into the rift.

Bona glanced around, then followed.

They passed through the bewildering Warp and arrived in a strange world in the blink of an eye.

Below a raised platform lay a galaxy encircled by numerous interlocking rings.

Bona looked around. Everything beyond it was pitch-black.

"Where are we? What is this?"

"This is the end of the universe. The truth of the world."

Seeing that Bona did not seem to understand, the Lord of Change frowned slightly.

"The grand unified theory of the universe. I call this the 'Microcosmic Galaxy.'"

Bona studied it. It certainly looked like a miniature universe.

"What does it do?"

The Lord of Change chuckled.

"It reveals the secrets of this universe."

With a gentle wave of his hand, the universe collapsed into a singularity, then rapidly expanded.

Bona saw planets emerge and the Warp come into being.

He witnessed the rise and decline of those giants, those strange beings capable of changing the world, the skeletons' counterattack, and the birth of the Aeldari.

Before he could take it all in, the scene raced ahead to the Great Crusade, and then to the Emperor taking his place upon the Golden Throne.

"What is this?!" Bona demanded.

"Keep watching."

It continued to evolve at tremendous speed.

Bona saw Abaddon's rise and the fall of Cadia.

The opening of the Great Rift, and Guilliman's impassioned speech on Terra.

"Is all of this the future?"

"Of course."

The Lord of Change gently waved his hand, and the universe rapidly rewound, returning once more to a singularity.

He looked at Bona, his expression serious.

"Now, let me show you something else."

The universe burst open again, but this time it was different from their current universe.

The speed of light was no longer three hundred thousand, and the smallest fundamental unit was no longer the atom.

It was an entirely different existence, with not the slightest connection to the universe they knew.

But what shocked Bona was...

The universe was changing rapidly.

In the end, it transformed back toward the original universe, once again reaching the beginning of the Great Crusade.

Before Bona could react, the universe collapsed again, becoming nine singularities.

All nine singularities were different-utterly unrelated, even. When they exploded, each revealed a different existence. No matter how one looked at them, they had nothing in common.

Yet without exception, they rapidly transformed into something identical to the real world, and the Emperor began the Great Crusade once more.

Bona was stunned. He could not be certain.

The Lord of Change smiled mockingly.

"Still don't understand?"

He gently altered a few outcomes.

Magnus failed to initiate his psychic communication, but the Webway still collapsed.

The Imperium's loyalists sent to reinforce Isstvan saw through the betrayal, but Horus still annihilated them.

The Imperium increased the number of Psykers it sacrificed, but the Golden Throne still drained Malcador dry.

Bona fell silent.

The Lord of Change toyed freely with it all.

Abaddon's Thirteenth Black Crusade failed, but Cadia still exploded.

The boundless Tyranid Swarm descended upon Baal, but they still failed.

The Black Legion fought their way to Ultramar's Primarch and personally plunged a profane blade into the sleeping giant's heart, but he still rose.

Then the universe collapsed, becoming a speck of light suspended motionlessly in the air.

A deathly silence filled the entire space.

"It's all fake, isn't it?"

The Lord of Change nodded with satisfaction.

"Yes. It's all fake."

"You, me, your father, every last one of us."

"All fake."

He toyed freely with the "Microcosmic Galaxy."

"No matter how we act, no matter what we do, we four Chaos Gods of the Warp will always attempt to corrupt humanity, and the Cursed One's Great Crusade will always fail."

"Any act that strays beyond those bounds will be corrected. The Cursed One must sit upon the Golden Throne, and humanity must fall."

"The stars above us are nothing but a false sky, and we are merely toys for others to manipulate."

The Lord of Change looked at Bona.

"Do you know what pains me most?"

Then he turned his gaze toward himself within the Microcosmic Galaxy.

"Despite being the 'Fateweaver,' I cannot change a thing."

"Everything in existence seems to change, yet it advances unwaveringly toward a single point."

"It looks as though everything is changing, yet nothing ever changes."

"Your father knew his future long ago, just as we knew all of this long ago."

"But nothing can be changed."

Beside him, Bona watched Tzeentch's futile struggles within the Microcosmic Galaxy, along with everyone else's.

He said:

"Like birds in a cage, kept to entertain people."

"Precisely."

For once, the Lord of Change spoke with a smile.

"Perhaps someone is watching us right now, enjoying the amusement we bring them."

The Lord of Change gently rested his hand on Bona's shoulder.

"But you are different."

The Microcosmic Galaxy started up again, this time with Bona added to it.

Unlike before, however, the Microcosmic Galaxy began to descend into chaos, until it finally collapsed.

"'Fate' does not account for your existence. You were never meant to exist here."

"With you, I, your father, humanity, and even the Warp and the entire universe will ultimately break free of fate's shackles."

"This is also the only way to save your father."

Bona nodded gently. He felt as though an immense weight of responsibility rested upon him, yet he also felt weak and powerless.

"All right. Go and rest. Your soul is already exhausted, and you still have the challenges ahead to face."

With a gentle wave of his hand, the Lord of Change sent Bona away.

He looked at the still-collapsing Microcosmic Galaxy and murmured:

"The next time we meet will be ten thousand years from now."

The Lord of Change left as well.

The Microcosmic Galaxy, still collapsing, finally managed to recover.

All things returned to a single point.

------End of the 30K arc.

PS:

This book has yet to be officially signed. Put plainly, regular updates haven't officially begun yet.

No recommendations, no traffic.

I only wrote this to reserve the title, so it wouldn't be taken by the time I started writing in earnest.

Anyone who found their way here truly is a Warhammer veteran among veterans. Thank you all so much for finishing the prologue.

Regular updates for the 40K story will only begin after I finish my previous book.

If you have any suggestions, please share them so I can improve.

After all, I'm not really a Warhammer veteran who actually plays the tabletop game, awa, and I haven't properly studied the army books either.