Chapter 16

I found myself submerged in the Great Ocean. Its usually calm tides and currents were raging and sending waves in every direction, threatening to suck me deeper into the depths. All because of the mere presence of the being before me. It was like the echo of a half-remembered dream, consisting more of hazy outlines than solid matter. It floated and curled through the air before me. Its form was roughly spherical, about the size of a basketball. The only clear feature was the nine eyes that smoldered with blue flames staring at me. Inside each eye was the reflection of billions upon billions of years of knowledge, both mundane and supernatural. There was also the cunning glint and primordial hunger in those eyes that seemed to look through me as if every deep thought and desire of mine was already known to the creature.

I felt an instinctual pang of fear and existential dread at being confronted with such an unknowable being. I was under no illusions that this was its true form. I was merely speaking to the shadow of a fragment of a fragment's power that only held a sliver of the being's attention for a fraction of a moment. I was less than a speck of dust when compared to the might of this creature. However, for all its power, I was still in control of the situation. As I studied its form, I could see that power was being sapped by the moment, and the surrounding power of the Immaterium sought to crush this creature and expel it. The cost of maintaining even this small sliver must be immense since I exist in a different universe than the being controlling it.

Due to these factors, I knew that I could reach out with the slightest movement of my hand and shatter this creature's form as if it were made of smoke or mist. That gave me at least a little bit of confidence, which was further boosted by the fact that the dark gods of the 40k Universe have no power over me if I refused them. Even still, I was messing with a being so far beyond my comprehension that it wasn't even worth it to guess at its intention and schemes. The creature and I stood, judging each other for a silent moment. Even the crashing chaos of the waves and currents around us seemed to dim as the creature spoke directly into my mind since its alien form had no mouth.

"You know me, don't you?" the being said in a voice that seemed more like a chorus of nine different people of all different ages, sexes, and statuses speaking at once.

"You are The Changer of Ways, The Great Conspirator, and The Architect of Fate, one of the gods of Chaos," I said, every fiber of my being screaming not to name the god directly.

"Yes," the god said with a booming laugh, "I am the god of Sorcery and Psychic power, and I can offer you so much. All you need to do is reach out and take it."

"You are also the god of deception and lies, so why should I trust anything you say or give me?" I asked.

"You need not trust anything I say. I came to give you a gift with nothing asked in return," a glowing rune flared to life in the air before the creature as it spoke, "This is the missing piece to your Force Weapon. It will increase the power and effectiveness of your psychic power tenfold compared to what the blade would be without it." 

"Why offer this as a gift and demand nothing in return," I asked, already knowing the answer.

"To tempt you," the creature said with a movement that I took to be a shrug, "I can see that you're a direct person, so I will be direct here too. This gift is nothing to me, it doesn't even represent a drop of water in the ocean of power and knowledge I could offer you with my patronage. I know runes and sigils to increase your power and potential by thousands of times. You only have knowledge of extremely basic powers, I can revolutionize your knowledge of what is even possible with your gifts. All you need to do is call out my name, and I will be there to guide you." the creature said as it faded into nothingness, only leaving the glowing rune burning in its place.

I sighed, then reached out and grasped the rune, grunting as its knowledge and functions burrowed into my mind like a worm. I knew that it would be safer to ignore this interaction altogether and have nothing to do with Chaos whatsoever, but I couldn't deny that I felt tempted. I would complete my blade with the rune that was offered to me because everything I had been told was true, and I knew it. I stood in place as I watched the tides and currents fade back into glassy stillness around me.

However, I felt another presence approaching, not from any of the Chaos gods, but from a being native to this Warp. I looked down toward the depth and saw an eye below me. I looked in every direction and couldn't see the end to the eye because it stretched off as far as I could see in every direction. Even though it was impossible to tell, I was certain that it was looking at me. My skin crawled as I couldn't even guess the size of the creature or its intentions. I assumed that it had been drawn by the disturbance in the currents, but I couldn't be sure. All I knew was that it was time for me to leave, so I quickly pulled my mind out of the Immaterium. 

I found myself amid a pool of sweat, my body shivering violently from everything I had just experienced. I quickly moved to the tub and turned on the wait, waiting for a few minutes before I laid down inside. The lukewarm water enveloped me and I closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths. I proceeded to take the next hour to peacefully float in the water before I got up and went back to my desk to finish my Force Sword. I sat down in the chair and picked up the engraving tool, then I placed it against the base of the sword, near the guard, and began to carve. The rune burned into my mind required no practice or tools to measure the lines and angles. I just knew how to draw it perfectly on the first try. It was only a few moments before I was done carving the rune into the blade and everything was completed.

Fateweaver seemed to shiver as the last line of the rune was carved, the blade taking on a completely different aura. I considered the runes effects as I picked up the blade. It was by far the most complicated and powerful rune on the blade, since it had two powerful effects. Firstly, it tied all the other runes together and increased their output and efficiency significantly, while decreasing the cost of any power I used while channeling through the sword. Second, it generated Warp Fire that had the added effect of draining some of the magical power of any enemy I killed with it. All I would have to do to gain the magical power is let the flames consume the magical stone of each monster killed. Of course, that also meant I would have to choose between increasing my magical power or actually making money for the monsters I killed. 

With Fateweaver complete, all that was left to do was psychically bond with the weapon so that it would officially become my Force Weapon. Due to Hephaestus mixing her blood into the creation of the blade it was bonded to the Hepheastus familia technically and while it would grow alongside me because I am the one wielding it, it would also work for another member of the familia using it. However, after this, I will be the only person able to use the weapon at all. If anyone else were to try and use it, then it would only be a piece of junk with some weird squiggles carved into the blade. 

I made my way to my bed and laid Fateweaver across my lap, before linking my mind with the blade. This process took another full day, but by the end of it, I felt a sort of psychic 'click' and I knew that I had done it. I stored Fateweaver and promptly fell asleep from exhaustion once the whole process was complete. The entire thing had taken me over a week in total, and had required long hours of work into the night every day, but I knew that it would all be well worth it. I couldn't wait to test my new weapon within the dungeon now. I had a feeling that I would experience an exponential growth in leveling speed after this.