Chapter 44

Adam stayed behind after everyone left when Malcador asked him to stay. Apparently, he still has another matter to discuss with him.

"This is regarding your acclimatization to your new environment." Malcador stated before his eyes bore into Adam. "Especially your… our Psychic nature."

Adam felt like saying something. But he kept to himself for now and continued listening.

"While the Immaterium of this universe is much more calm and safe compared to our previous universe. It is also very restrictive. Don't you feel the same too? As if something is trying to prevent… No. Limit our access to the Immaterium." Malcador concluded.

"It's hardly something new. You should have noticed it long before and you must have ignored it until recently." Malcador continued and finally set his eyes on Adam.

Adam saw his cue to start talking and took a breath before he said.

"This is about the Chaos Gods huh?"

"Indeed." Malcador nods.

"With the involvement of Slaanesh. We cannot discount the presence of other Chaos Gods."

"This time with Slaanesh, we are lucky because she is the weakest of the four and further weakened by her arrival in the Singularity. However, if in the future Singularities you encounter other Chaos Gods. Your crippled Psychic power will be a severe disadvantage for your future endeavours." Malcador stated with a severe look on his face, like he was about to have a headache.

Thinking about this, Adam agrees with Malcador.

Up until now, he had limited himself to his most familiar Psychic spells and hardly used anything else due to this issue. Otherwise, he could rip the Sodom's Beast in half with telekinesis alone considering an Alpha Plus psyker is generally strong enough to devastate an entire planet or fleet. The Sodom's Beast looks tiny in comparison. However, the nature of this universe's Immaterium is very strict and limiting.

Adam felt a tingling feeling that something is behind these restrictions. An entity of sorts and he had his guesses to what this entity is.

The Counter Force.

Adam realized this not long ago when Emiya mentioned its existence and it wasn't hard for him to learn more about the Counter Force itself through the information that the Immaterium passively feeds his mind.

The Counter Force is essentially an invisible force of nature that is tasked with duty to safeguard the safety of the planet and humanity. However, it was split into two forces. One focused only to safeguard the planet, Gaia, and another safeguard humanity, Alaya.

Coincidentally, Adam qualified to be the target of both due to his abilities that could devastate the planet and humanity.

Thus, heavy restrictions were placed on him or rather, the output of his Psychic power, the moment he entered this universe which is facilitated by the God's action to allow him to seamlessly integrate himself to Chaldea without triggering responses form the Counter Force.

(AN: Yeah, he was nerfed by Ray himself.)

For the first two Singularities, Adam never saw this as an issue since even without Psychic power. Handling the locals of this universe with his other abilities is already sufficient. It was until the most recent Singularity when a Chaos God suddenly appeared that Adam met difficulty.

To remove the restriction and regain his full Psychic power, Adam already gets the answer. He needs to negotiate with the Counter Force and possibly need to enter a pact with them to become akin to a Servant.

He could feel Alaya who represented the Will of Humanity did not welcome him a lot. Only barely tolerating his existence for what little 'humanity' inside him which is ironic. Something about the Gene-Seed of The Emperor inside him which Alaya does not consider the species of human under the scope of 'humanity'. Even feeling wary of him to some extent despite his actions of resolving the Singularities that is basically saving humanity and by extension, itself from extermination.

Gaia on the other hand… While equally wary of him as Alaya being someone capable of destroying the planet. Oddly enough, welcome him under its fold.

This contradiction confuses Adam as he himself knew little about The Emperor's origin and any stories past his involvement with Terra during the Age of Strife since there isn't even any written record of this topic in the archive deep under the vault of the Imperial Palace.

Lifting his head from his own silent contemplation, Adam glanced at Malcador who was patiently waiting for his response. He trusts Malcador, both as his mentor and his fatherly figure. But, even he knew that Malcador's loyalty to The Emperor is not something their father and son affection could waver. So, asking for clarification about The Emperor's true nature is nearly impossible.

Tapping his finger on the desk, Adam made a sigh before he finally gave Malcador a response.

"I will try my best to do something about it."

However, Malcador is quite perceptive to see an unasked question that Adam swallowed back and refused to ask.

"Is there something that troubles you?" Malcador asked with genuine worry.

"It's nothing… I can figure it out on my own."

"Anything else?" Adam asked as he prepared to stand up and leave if there's nothing else to discuss about.

Malcador nodded.

"There is actually a project that Da Vinci and I have been up to lately. It is regarding the Gene-Seed."

Hearing the Gene-Seed being mentioned, Adam stops himself from standing and listening.

A huge smile appeared on Malcador's face as he talked.

"It surprises me how brilliant Da Vinci's mind truly is." He praised her.

"Her idea is to extract a specific strain of gene responsible for making you a Perpetual and degrade it enough to only fix Mash's problem with her rapidly deteriorating physique."

"It was nothing surprising. But from there, she even managed to figure out ways to further improve and enhance your Gene-Seeds and remove the flaws through her numerous studies and analysis."

"Not just that! She also figured out a way to selectively extract and implant the gene mutation that can awaken Psychic power in another human!" Malcador said excitedly.

But Adam quickly stopped him.

"Is she really trustable with such important secrets?" Ray points out his doubts and suspicions. Perhaps even spiteful with what she pulled on Slaanesh.

Malcador gives Adam an offended look.

"Boy, I might be old. But I had yet to become a fool. Naturally I had tested her character and found her to be reliable." Malcador huffed before he added. "If anything, she seems to be the most trustworthy person amongst the three. Her loyalty to humanity is without a shadow of doubt despite her occasional mischievous nature."

Adam saw the subtle jab from Malcador and he immediately stopped questioning Da Vinci's character.

"Hmn. If you said so. Besides, isn't it something that is already possible? The creating artificial Psyker part. I remember The Emperor had a machine that can artificially evolve a normal human into a powerful psyker. Not to mention there are also drugs that can induce similar result to a lesser extent." Adam mentioned and was unable to understand Malcador's excitement.

"Yes. But you don't understand. She started from scratch with barely any knowledge about Psyker and managed to create a method to create artificial Psykers that is stable and without any flaws or mutations in under a week. Given enough time, only The Emperor could imagine what she could create."

"I swear if I wasn't by her side to observe her progress. I might have thought she might have been The Emperor himself in disguise."

Adam has to swallow a mouthful of air and smack his lips with a strange feeling bubbling inside him to imagine if The Emperor is actually disguising himself as Da Vinci and performing all her weird antics.

Adam felt the urge to quickly end this conversation.

"So, she had created a method to enhance my Gene-Seed?"

"Indeed." Malcador replied.

"However, we will require more time to perform clinical tests to verify the safety and effectiveness of this method first."

"Alright." Adam said before he quickly stood up. "If so, I will leave for now. I still have other things to take care of." He said and Slaanesh immediately came to his mind first as he sighed and walked towards the door.

———

Outside of Da Vinci's workshop, Slaanesh stood by the door waiting for Adam to exit as he had something important to discuss with Malcador.

She was immersed in her own thoughts, thinking what she should learn next to be the perfect maid for him. For etiquette, she had Marie, the Queen of France eagerly teaching her personally. For cooking, she had Emiya as her reluctant teacher. For housekeeping, she had Kiyohime as her stern and meticulous teacher.

Recounting the necessary skill a proper maid must have from Marie, that's basically all the skills that she needed. As for pleasing her Master… she got that department covered on her own.

After her fall from grace and reduced to the pitiful state of her present. She can't help but feel the obsession for Adam. She acknowledged him as the one who had felled her. In turn, she sought for his acknowledgement too as his companion, the role assigned to her by that mysterious God.

Even when met with rejection for obvious reasons. Her pride wouldn't allow her to give up. Instead, it motivated her to try even harder. She became proactive to seek a role for herself. Since he already has Alina and Sif as his companions in battle. She sees an opportunity outside of battle.

Thus, she became a maid of all things. As for why a maid? Maid seems to have been the choice with most opportunities to be intimate around their master. At least, that was what Da Vinci had told her. Charm and affection is her only sharp edge and being a maid is the best way for her to utilise her 'sharp edge' to win his acknowledgement.

Thinking about the intimate time with him in the future once she wins his acknowledgement and affection, it brings forth a sense of glory and euphoria to her mind seeing how she snatched him away under the nose of those little virgin girls that can't make any proactive moves.

———

(Ray PoV)

Exiting Da Vinci's workshop, he immediately greeted with Slaanesh covering half her face with her own hand and chuckled arrogantly at her imaginary foes like pompous rich people looking down at the poor peasants.

Taking a glance at her when she jolted awake from her own wild thoughts when he emerged from behind the door. He took a glance at her before and said.

"We need to talk."

Adam said sternly with an expression that demanded her to follow, which she eagerly did with clear sign of anticipation for whatever illicit thoughts going through her mind.

After a brief walk, Adam opens one of the empty and unused rooms before entering, followed by Slaanesh closely behind him.

Once inside, Adam turned around and stared at Slaanesh with a complicated look on his face. Numerous questions emerged one after another but he found it difficult to accept the fact he had to rely on his nemesis of all people for help. However, due to the critical nature of the information. He could only swallow his dissatisfaction and ask.

Meanwhile, Slaanesh grew more and more in anticipation as she could 'taste' his negative emotions bubbling from his presence, particular hate.

She didn't mind which kind of attention he gave her. The gentle one or the violent one didn't matter. All she wanted was his acknowledgement. Even if as a punching bag. As a matter of fact, she would even enjoy being roughened up considering her nature and immortality.

But, she would be left disappointed as Adam isn't stupid enough to feed the Chaos Gods the very emotion they represent.

"I have a question." Ray said after making a deep sigh.

"Question?" Slaanesh replied with confusion and disappointment clearly showing on her face.

"Yes. It's about how you manage to enter this universe. I know for a fact that leaving our original universe is an impossible feat even for the Chaos Gods. Otherwise, neither of you would be insistent on fighting over control of territories like it's finite."

"Hmn…" Slaanesh tried to recall her memories regarding the question. "I think, I saw a portal? Someone was summoning me and I felt your presence which draw me into it. The next thing I knew is this feeble being that call itself Demon God Raum, tried to control me which I overpowered with ease and devoured in return."

Taking in this crucial piece of information, Adam returns to him mind and run analysis.

The only other Demon God he encountered was Flauros which he still had sealed within the Tesseract Labyrinth in his possession. However, he could hardly believe a Demon God would had capability to specifically target Slaanesh to be summoned.

No. The situation itself is too suspicious. As if it was premeditated. Someone caused it and Adam could already guessed who this 'someone' is. A certain playful and mischievous God that is very intent on making his life an entertainment. Just thinking about it make him want to punch the air to vent his frustration.

Can you imagine how annoying it is for your peaceful retirement to be annoyed with ghosts of his past just for the entertainment of someone?

Well, Adam is and he could already guess the next Singularity will definitely have Chaos God summoned for him to overcome.

Taking a deep breath and exhale. Adam open his eyes with the thought of having to live his life to be entertainment of a certain God lingering in his mind.

"Give me a damn break!" Adam suddenly punched the door behind Slaanesh which caved in and flew across the hallway, hitting the wall on the other side.

Underneath his still extended right arm from punching the door was Slaanesh with another face of disappointment and jealousy, even, on the wrecked door before she step aside knowingly as Adam storm off the empty room.

"Hmn… his rare expression of rage." She recalled the face he made when he punched the door. It made her shudder involuntarily in pleasure.

For one, Adam rarely does display his emotions even in the past as he usually wore his stone face that masked his emotions in battle. After all, the stronger a Psyker is, the more potent their emotions is which is why the Daemon loved to target Psyker aside them being their conduit in material realm.

To have the opportunity to savor his emotions, made her unconsciously trace her fingers on her lips recalling the delightfully intense taste of his rage in daze before she snapped out of it and quickly follow after him.

—————

(AN: I'm taking the story much slower from now to give opportunity to develop and increase character interactions. As for my focus on Slaanesh for the past few chapters is to flesh out her personality and purpose which I had initially gloss over and I'm making up for that. But don't worry, I will focus on other characters too especially on the Servants.

Also, for the next Singularity to the last. I felt like removing the cameo of Chaos Gods or other 40k antagonists. But this would make the remaining Singularities bland though as they are the main concept of this fic in the first place.

My reason were due to the many mistakes I written which readers pointed out. Like how Adam casually kill Greater Daemon like it's nothing when Greater Daemon is like the strongest? Below the Chaos Gods that can give other Primarch the run of their money.

But well, I already did it. So I have to see it though.

Now, for the Okeanos Singularity. The major antagonist is Poseidon. Got any idea what Chaos God to put? Or we go without one?

The one I already planned is

Fourth: Nurgle

Fifth: Khorne

Sixth: Khorne/Tzeentch?

Seventh: Tyranids

Also, any idea what character to pull from 40k? I'm kinda thinking a Primarch but then it's kinda too op to do that. But it's funny to see how Roboute meeting Adam after how Adam irresponsibly dump all his job along with a note that basically say 'I did my best and the Imperium is your problem now' to him and join The Emperor out buying milk. Or Lorgar post corruption appearing before the 40k casts.)

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