Chapter 48 Departure Reclaiming the Glory of Imperium Secundus!

Sanguinius’s formal declaration of war triggered a catastrophic, apocalyptic tsunami across the Immaterium.

The raging roars of the Chaos Gods caused the Sea of Souls to violently boil and churn.

They collectively swore upon their divine essence that they would make Sanguinius pay in eternal agony for his arrogance today.

Sanguinius, however, didn’t bother diving deeper into the Warp to engage them.

Having formally delivered his divine notice to the Chaos, he simply snapped his blazing wings and shot back toward realspace like a meteor, riding the chaotic currents of the Hellgate.

Just before he fully crossed the threshold, and before the surviving daemons could even begin to process what had just happened, he violently hurled his blazing spear back into the Warp, aiming dead center at the colossal Hellgate’s anchor structure.

BOOM!!!

The divine, conceptual energy packed within the spear violently detonated.

A blinding shockwave of pure holy fire completely engulfed the Hellgate, permanently atomizing its structural foundations and shattering the rift.

With the Hellgate completely destroyed, the torrential flood of localized Warp-energy bleeding into realspace was instantly severed.

The catastrophic localized reality-warping immediately began to reverse.

The screaming, mutated flesh-crust rapidly hardened back into standard desert bedrock.

The towering mountains of jagged bone spontaneously combusted, dissolving into harmless ash that drifted away on the wind.

The bleeding sky rapidly cleared, returning to the serene, natural blue of Baal’s atmosphere.

Deprived of their localized Warp-anchor and ambient background energy, the surviving Khornate Daemons desperately fighting the glowing spirits of the Blood Angels were instantly weakened.

They were rapidly cut down by the ethereal host and forcefully banished back to the Warp.

An apocalyptic daemonic incursion that possessed the mathematical capability to completely annihilate the Baal System had been casually, effortlessly crushed by Sanguinius on his absolute first day on the job.

Even the residual, hyper-toxic Warp corruption left behind by the invasion was actively, passively purged by the ambient holy light radiating from the Primarch.

Watching the final Bloodletter vanish into ash, Sanguinius snapped his wings and soared gracefully back toward the Arx Angelicum.

Behind him, the Sanguinor and the tens of thousands of glowing, ethereal spirits of the ancient Blood Angels slowly began to fade, dissolving into motes of golden light as they peacefully returned to their slumber within his newfound divine domain.

Sanguinius’s flight speed was incomprehensible.

He streaked across the sky like a continuous beam of light, arriving back at the Fortress-Monastery in mere seconds.

“For the glory of Imperium Secundus!” “Quickly, everyone!

Salute the Great Emperor!” Seeing Sanguinius soaring in to land, Vane violently threw his arms into the air and loudly cheered at the top of his lungs.

Sanguinius, who had been executing a flawless, hyper-majestic angelic landing, violently stumbled mid-air and nearly face-planted directly into the adamantium decking.

Please!

For the love of the Emperor, please stop shouting about my darkest, most shameful historical secret in public!

Taking a deep, stabilizing breath and aggressively suppressing his overwhelming urge to complain, Sanguinius smoothed his ruffled feathers, walked over to Vane, and offered a deeply respectful, incredibly formal bow.

The absolute microsecond he had absorbed the Divine Spark and ascended, his consciousness had automatically synced with the genetic memory of his sons.

He knew absolutely everything Vane had done.

“Honored Forefather.

I offer you my absolute, deepest gratitude.

Thank you for annihilating Hive Fleet Leviathan, and thank you for dragging me back from the abyss of true death.” Vane casually waved him off.

“Ah, don’t worry about gratitude.

Just remember to aggressively help your dad pay off his crippling cosmic debt, and we’ll call it even.” “Honestly, it’s not even that much.

It’s just a flat two hundred and fifty billion star systems.” Standing nearby, Dante, Mephiston, and the rest of the Chapter Masters felt their eyes violently bulge out of their skulls.

How much?!

Two hundred and fifty billion?!

Forefather, isn’t your localized interest rate a bit astronomically high?!

The last time we heard you complaining to the Sanguinor about the Emperor dodging His debts, the tab was only at two hundred billion!

It hasn’t even been a few weeks, and you’ve already arbitrarily tacked on an extra fifty billion?!

Literal robbery doesn’t have profit margins this high!

“Two hundred and fifty billion star systems?!” Sanguinius genuinely thought his newly forged divine ears were malfunctioning.

Even if we completely liquidated the entire Imperium of Man, we couldn’t afford that!

We would have to launch a completely unhinged intergalactic crusade and conquer several neighboring galaxies just to cover the principal!

“What’s with that tone?

Are you trying to dodge the debt?

A son is obligated to pay his father’s debts.

You absolutely cannot run from this.” Vane’s eyes narrowed in instant suspicion.

“Don’t think just because you’re a literal god now that you’re exempt from debt collection!

If you dare default on this payment, I swear I will absolutely sell you to the Super God universe!

I’ll let those perpetually single, hyper-aggressive old hags aggressively ravage you!” Dante and the others immediately, flawlessly synchronized their movements, firmly covering their ears with their hands.

The Forefather is spouting absolute, incomprehensible lunacy again.

We hear nothing.

We see nothing.

As for stepping forward to bravely defend the honor of their Gene-Father?

Absolutely not.

Mephiston was the absolute perfect cautionary tale—the Chief Librarian was currently booked for fifty consecutive years of localized reservoir-guarding duty!

“Forefather, please be reasonable.

I literally just resurrected.

I haven’t even formally inherited a single of my Father’s estate!

How can you legally force me to assume His debt?” Sanguinius threw his hands up, adopting an expression of absolute, flawless innocence.

“I have a counter-proposal, Forefather.

I fully, enthusiastically support you marching directly to Terra to collect the debt from Him personally.

In fact, if you manage to drag Malcador back from the dead as well, you can force them both to work.

The debt will be paid off much faster!” “Furthermore, I am currently available for mercenary work!

Not only will I fight for you, but I can also act as your personal debt collector!

However, since the Emperor is my beloved Father, extorting Him is going to cost you extra.” Vane: “…” Holy crap.

The lore always stated that the Great Angel was the Primarch who most closely resembled the Emperor.

They weren’t kidding!

It’s not just his majestic aura or his physical appearance; he absolutely, flawlessly inherited the Emperor’s complete, unadulterated lack of moral shame!

No wonder the fandom always joked that the Great Angel was secretly a massive troll.

They were absolutely right!

“Alright, fine.

If you refuse to assume your Father’s cosmic debt, then we’ll just start a brand-new tab exclusively for you.

Fifty billion star systems.

That covers the flat fee for your resurrection and the comprehensive terraforming package for the Baal System.” “If you refuse to pay, I’m immediately auctioning you off to the Ruinous Powers.” Sanguinius: “…” “Um…

is it possible to just put that fifty billion on my Father’s tab as well?” Sanguinius flashed a blindingly charismatic, absolutely flawless angelic smile—a smile so incredibly charming it could probably forcefully convert Ka’Bandha into a fanboy.

“He is my only Father, the absolute most important person in the galaxy to me.

He would absolutely be thrilled to pay it!

After all, what kind of father wants to see his beloved son burdened with crippling debt?” Before Vane could even formulate a response, the God-Emperor, who had been actively observing the situation on Baal from the Golden Throne, completely lost His composure.

Is that resurrected entity actually My Sanguinius?!

Why is his personality completely, fundamentally opposite to how he used to behave?!

The entity was, of course, genuinely Sanguinius.

The reason his personality felt so radically different from ten thousand years ago was entirely due to his Apotheosis.

The Great Angel now possessed the absolute, divine authority to actively shape and alter the future.

Without the crushing weight of inevitable doom, his naturally suppressed, highly mischievous true personality finally had the freedom to manifest.

Ten thousand years ago, Sanguinius, much like Konrad Curze, was burdened with absolute, flawless prescience.

He constantly witnessed hyper-realistic visions of the future.

This meant that from the absolute microsecond he first met the Emperor, Sanguinius knew he was mathematically guaranteed to die.

He knew his beloved sons would be permanently crippled by the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.

He knew the Imperium of Man was inevitably going to slide into an apocalyptic abyss of darkness and be slowly consumed by Chaos.

It was precisely because he carried the agonizing weight of those absolute, inescapable futures that Sanguinius had always appeared so profoundly melancholic and overflowing with tragic compassion.

Those rare moments when he displayed a dry, mischievous wit?

That was his true personality desperately trying to peek through the crushing depression.

But now?

Sanguinius wielded raw, localized power that allowed him to arm-wrestle the Chaos Gods.

The suffocating, deterministic visions of his inevitable death were completely gone.

Furthermore, he now had Vane—an impossibly overpowered Outer God—backing him up.

Sure, Vane constantly demanded astronomical amounts of astronomical debt and aggressively shouted embarrassing historical secrets about ‘Imperium Secundus’, but when it actually came down to getting things done?

Vane was infinitely more reliable than anyone in the entire universe.

Without the crushing, apocalyptic pressure of fate, Sanguinius’s naturally suppressed, highly dramatic personality finally blossomed.

“Absolutely not.

Your personal debt is your own responsibility.

If we start merging tabs, the accounting is going to become a complete nightmare.” Vane immediately shot down the troll Angel’s proposal.

“And don’t worry about being unable to afford it.

If there aren’t enough star systems in the Milky Way, just aggressively expand into the intergalactic void!

The universe is infinite; you’ll eventually conquer enough planets to cover the bill.” “Very well.

Once we have permanently resolved the Chaos situation, I shall launch an intergalactic Crusade to secure your fifty billion star systems, Forefather.” Sanguinius sighed, looking profoundly resigned.

It seems I am obligated to launch another Great Crusade just to pay off my medical bills.

“Alright, the Baal Campaign Quest is officially complete.

It’s time to move out.” Vane hadn’t forgotten his overarching Campaign Objective: ‘Gotta Catch ‘Em All: Loyalist Primarch Edition’.

Sanguinius was secured.

Now it was time for target number two.

“Where are we deploying next, Forefather?” Sanguinius asked.

“The Great Emperor has already returned!

Naturally, we must immediately deploy to Macragge to retrieve the Imperial Regent!

Then we track down the Warmaster!

Once we have all three, we can restore the ancient glory of Imperium Secundus!” “Besides, your father has been sitting on the throne long enough.

Don’t you think it’s time you took a turn?!” Sanguinius: “…” My reputation!

My flawless, ten-thousand-year reputation as the most loyal son!

It’s completely ruined!

Father!

I swear upon Terra and Luna, my loyalty to You is absolute!

Please do not listen to the Forefather’s treasonous gaslighting!

“Of course, before we formally deploy to Macragge, we need to make a quick pit stop back in the Cryptus System,” Vane added.

“Why is that, Forefather?” Sanguinius asked, genuinely curious.

“The Warp storms are way too violent right now.

I need to physically pave a high-speed Nether Highway through the Immaterium; otherwise, the turbulence is going to make me motion sick.” Vane intended to head back, heavily modify his mobile fortress into an automated, colossal road-paver, and construct a fully enclosed, hyper-secure highway network stretching across the entire Warp.

“Forefather, I have a minor tactical query.

If you attempt to physically construct a highway inside the Immaterium…

won’t the Ruinous Powers attempt to sabotage the infrastructure?” Sanguinius asked.

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