Chapter 122 Alternate Timelines (Bonus)

Endless swarms of daemons surged forward in a boundless, unending tide, crashing like furious breakers against the newly manifested human sanctuary within the Warp. They clawed and battered at the walls, desperate to breach the defenses and feast upon the human souls harbored within.

Stepping into the breach were the legendary heroes of the Imperium, now reborn as glorious spirit warriors. Wielding weapons wreathed in raging flames and burning with unquenchable fury, they plunged into the thick of battle, fighting in humanity’s name to beat back the demonic horde.

Alongside the fallen Astartes and mortals of the past, even the ancient Perpetuals had returned.

Within the grand, towering halls of the Human Pantheon, the souls of Malcador the Sigillite, Johnny Busse Grammaticus, Oll Persson, Alivia Sureka, and others stepped out from the radiant light, walking right up to the Emperor.

“I’m already dead, and you still won’t let me rest?”

“The single biggest regret of my entire life was ever meeting you, Neoth.”

“I can’t even get peace in death without you dragging me back.”

As a disembodied spirit, Alivia glared at the Emperor, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists so hard she looked genuinely ready to punch him right in the jaw.

Alivia had been one of the few Perpetuals who consistently backed the Emperor. She had accompanied him through countless adventures, witnessing firsthand how he acquired the power to rival the gods and how he meticulously laid out his grand blueprint to save humanity.

To help see his grand plan through to the end, Alivia had given up everything she possibly could—including her very nature as a Perpetual.

She had thought death would bring eternal peace, allowing her to slip into a quiet, undisturbed slumber. Who could have guessed that shameless bastard of an Emperor would just reach out and yank her right back? Honestly, anyone’s mental state would completely shatter under those conditions.

The Emperor looked slightly awkward, feeling a genuine twinge of guilt when it came to Alivia.

Back before the Great Crusade officially kicked off, he had promised her that guarding the Warp gate at Molech would be her absolute final mission. Later on, Molech fell to Warmaster Horus. Horus’s objective had been crystal clear: breach the Warp gate, step directly into the realm of the dark gods, and seize their power to use against the Emperor.

Alivia tried to stop him and was struck down by Horus right in front of the gate. Reviving through her Perpetual constitution, she clawed her way out of Molech by any means necessary, blending in with refugees to make her way to Terra.

During the Siege of Terra, clinging to that fragile spark of human hope the Emperor always went on about, Alivia sacrificed her eternal life to Malcador, resurrecting him and giving him the power he needed to sit upon the Golden Throne.

Every single time, Alivia loved to play the part of a selfish jerk, swearing up and down that she would never help the Emperor again. Yet whenever push came to shove, she always chose self-sacrifice, doing whatever it took to carve out a chance at victory for him.

“You’re spot on. Alivia, he is a total jerk,” Oll Persson said, crossing his arms and nodding in complete agreement with her.

Oll Persson was the Emperor’s very first Warmaster. He had shared a tightly knit, hard-fighting brotherhood with the Emperor across countless campaigns, right up until the Tower of Babel.

After leading their armies to crush a pack of loathsome enemies, the two of them had stumbled upon a brand-new language—Enuncia.

This language held literal power; merely speaking its words allowed one to manipulate the rules of realspace and bend reality to their will. However, every time a phrase was spoken, its exact meaning would shift, requiring painstaking study just to master.

The Emperor wanted to harness this power to achieve his grand ambitions. Oll, on the other hand, believed that human civilization was still in its infancy, and recklessly utilizing Enuncia would plunge the entire species into irreversible ruin.

Neither side would budge, and neither could convince the other. In the end, desperate to stop the Emperor, Oll drove a sword straight through him and destroyed the knowledge of Enuncia, causing the two friends to part ways for good.

During the Great Crusade, Oll enlisted in the Auxilia as a lowly grunt. Years later, he applied for a discharge, collected a decent severance package, bought a plot of land on Calth, and settled down as a farmer.

For a long time, Oll enjoyed a quiet, peaceful life—right up until the Battle of Calth broke out. The traitor Primarch Lorgar ordered his fleet to bombard the planet’s surface, reducing everything to a smoking wasteland and having his men ruthlessly slaughter the civilian population.

Oll managed to save a handful of survivors and wrested a ritual dagger from the hands of a cultist. Using the blade to tear through space-time, he and a few companions embarked on a harrowing journey toward Terra.

Hounded by daemons and traitors at every turn, they endured a mind-bending trek across time and space. In the end, Oll and his companions successfully reached the besieged Imperial Palace on Terra just as it was on the verge of falling. There, in a chaotic blur where reality and the Warp bled together, they found the Emperor frantically gorging himself on Warp energy, moments away from ascending as the Dark King.

Oll had pleaded with the Emperor to cast aside the power of the Dark King and face the gods as a mere mortal man, warning him that humanity would otherwise repeat the tragic fate of the Aeldari.

The birth of the Dark King meant the utter doom of humanity and the entire galaxy; any survivors would be left to scrape by like Craftworld Aeldari, robbed of all hope and future.

When the Emperor fought Horus in a duel and began to lose the upper hand, Oll and Johnny Busse had stumbled onto the battlefield due to a temporal warp. Johnny used Enuncia to beat back Horus and tried to drag Oll away with him, but Oll refused. He chose to stay behind to protect the Emperor, sending Johnny off alone.

Oll shoved the ritual dagger that had accompanied him all this way into the Emperor’s hands, offering a parting blessing to his old friend. Then, he raised his weapon and charged at Horus. The outcome was entirely predictable—Horus battered him into literal nothingness, leaving not even a scrap of bone behind.

The Emperor didn’t dare talk back to Oll either. He hastily turned his gaze toward Malcador, hoping his old friend would throw him a lifeline. Malcador promptly looked away, pretending he hadn’t seen a thing.

“Alright, fine, everything in the past was my fault,”

“But this time, things are different. We’ve got a new ally on board.”

Left with no other choice, the Emperor conceded first. After offering his apologies, he introduced Vane to the gathered Perpetuals.

“He’s a traveler who journeys across countless worlds, a Perpetual born way back during Terra’s Industrial Age.”

“Terra’s Industrial Age??” Oll eyed Vane up and down, a spark of curiosity flashing in his eyes. “There were only a handful of Perpetuals around back then. How come I’ve never heard of you??”

“I’ve never seen you either,” Alivia chimed in, staring curiously at Vane as she racked her brain.

“Nor have I,” Johnny Busse shook his head.

Johnny was an operative of the Cabal and an artificial Perpetual—and Eldrad had once been a member of that very same organization. Their sole mission was the absolute eradication of Chaos.

During the Horus Heresy, the Cabal had wanted the Emperor to become the Dark King or let Chaos achieve total victory, believing that would cause Chaos to ultimately implode and self-destruct.

Later on, Eldrad realized that plan was absolute garbage, so he took Johnny and defected from the Cabal, eventually hunting down and wiping out every single remaining member.

Malcador remained silent. By the time he was born, humanity had long since entered the interstellar age, establishing a vast federation and becoming the masters of the galaxy. He knew nothing of Terra’s old Industrial Age.

“I only said I was born during Terra’s Industrial Age. I never said it was this timeline’s Terra.”

“It makes perfect sense that you don’t know me. After all, I’m just a traveler passing through this world.” Now that they held all the cards, Vane decided to drop the act and put everything on the table.

“You’re actually from an alternate timeline?” Malcador asked, his voice laced with shock. “I always thought the multiverse theory was pure fiction. I didn’t expect it to actually be real.”

“Infinite timelines, infinite possibilities,” Oll Persson said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Do you guys think there’s another timeline out there where this idiot Neoth actually managed to pull off a successful Great Crusade?”

“If our traveler friend here is telling the truth, then there definitely is,” Alivia Sureka chimed in. “After all, infinite timelines mean infinite possibilities.”

“A successful Great Crusade in another universe… sounds pretty interesting. But that kind of action isn’t really for an old bag of bones like me. I’d much rather just find a plot of land, mind my own business, and go back to farming and herding sheep.” After living for tens of thousands of years, all Oll really wanted to do at the end of the day was farm.

“Respected traveler, if the opportunity ever arises, could you take us to see these other timelines?” Johnny Busse stepped up to Vane and offered a respectful bow. “I’d love to see a universe where the Great Crusade didn’t fail. I want to see what the galaxy turned into—whether it became a utopia, or just another massive dumpster fire.”

The Emperor just stared.

Seriously? You guys have that little faith in me? If the Great Crusade had actually succeeded, the galaxy obviously would have been a paradise!

“If the chance comes up, absolutely,” Vane nodded, agreeing to Johnny’s request.

He already planned to construct a massive portal network connecting the multiverse once he finished conquering the Warhammer universe. That way, people from different dimensions could mingle, go shopping at a multiversal mega-mall, and buy tickets to watch the Desire Grand Prix.

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