Mortem Custodes

As I sit down on my throne, inspiration strikes me.

"Tartarus."

(Thank you Holo_Lover for the suggestion!)

The capital of the Abyssal Imperium will be known as Tartarus. I send out a wave of magic across my empire, waking up the people I've created.

I've implanted each of them with memories of thousands of years of development, to make them not realize that I've just created them out of boredom. I also implanted the designs of every ship, other than one.

The colossus.

So, the Juggernaut is a ship that rivals the size of the sun. What if you made a ship that uses an actual star as an engine?

What if you get a total of three stars to act as engines, and a black hole to act as your main weapon?

What if the ship itself is constructed from multiple planets, all ecumenopoli? (Planet-wide cities, like Coruscant.)

What if you had multiple full fleets, barring Juggernauts, that were based inside said ship?

You get a Colossus. A ship capable of killing a Demi-god.

There will only be one of these ships, because I don't want this to be TOO easy. This ship will mainly stay in the capital, only coming out when I wish to make a show. Which may be boring for the trillions of troops stationed on said ship, but they can deal with it.

Of course, this all enclosed in a gigantic metal hull, making the ship not just look like a bunch of cobbled together planets. The planets are inside said hull.

Now, time to make this more interesting.

————————————

[Custodian Odin Valorian]

It's been a while since his majesty last moved. I suppose whatever it was that caused him to shudder is no longer around, or has been pushed back. It has been quiet, as it always has, though, I cannot help but feel dread creeping up my spine. I've had this feeling ever since the emperor shuddered. Maybe I should inform Shield-Captain Alexander.

That sense of dread suddenly, and abruptly, jolts throughout my body as I see a warp appear in front of the golden throne.

Immediately I, as well as my brothers, jump into action. I place myself before the emperor, with my Castellan axe in hand. As I stand, ready for whatever horror may come from this rift, I see a single, pitch-black leg come through.

Despite its unnatural color, it is undeniably human. At least in shape. Slowly, the rest of the body comes out. I see a woman, dressed in what seems to be a toga. Without a second of hesitation, I swing my axe at her. Her face comes from the warp as the axe impacts her collarbone, and bounces off. I go to slash again, but she catches my axe with her bare hand and crushes the blade.

Looking at her once more, I can tell that she's no human. Two giant wings sprout from her back, and her eyes glow with the light of a thousand stars.

My brothers begin firing at her, thankfully. As a bolter round hits her, it explodes on impact. Is her skin that tough? That even a bolter won't penetrate it?

As other rounds come in, she simply raises her hand and every round explodes. As one final round comes in, she simply raises her hand and catches the miniature rocket between two fingers. I hear her speak in some alien language (English).

"Hmm. Bolters truly are fascinating. Maybe I should make a few for my armies?"

She then faces me, speaking once more.

"Maybe I overestimated this universe. The custodes are merely low C-rank. I guess I should nerf the regular soldiers."

She then takes the still-burning round and flicks it towards one of my brothers. A mere bolter round would never damage the-

And the round went through. It penetrates the armor, and explodes inside of his body. Killing him instantly.

While we were all watching him die, we notice the woman moving towards the golden throne. I reach out to grab her, and suddenly feel a jolt of pain come from my right shoulder. Then I hear a loud *thunk* as my arm falls to the ground beside me.

In that split second, she cut off my arm, and moved in front of the emperor. We failed. We can no longer fire at her, for fear of hitting the emperor. Another one of my brothers runs up to her with his Klaimor, only to be hit by one of the giant wings sprouting from the woman's back. This wing slams into him at a speed faster than even a bullet, ripping the upper half of his body from the lower half.

His courage reaches us, and my brothers and I take up arms. I take my dagger in my left hand and charge at her as I see her look down on the emperor. She turns around and faces us, and before I know it, I see a flash of light and feel myself falling to the floor. Without thinking, I speak,

"W-hat just… happened?…"

As my face hits the ground, I look to my right and see another one of my brothers. He's been split from the center of his chest, killing him instantly as his heart was split.

I reach down with my hand and feel that I was cut just below my heart. I can no longer fight.

I look back up at this daemon, and see her reaching towards the emperor.

We've failed. Again.

————————————

[Sera]

Damn, those guys were persistent. What they lack in strength, they made up for in annoyance. Well, anyway, time to kill the emperor so he can live. I know he's a perpetual, so if I decapitate him, he'll come back. It'll make it more fun to fight the humans.

Ah, wait, the emperor is protecting all of humanity from chaos' influence, right? Dammit, well, I'll take up that mantle while he recovers. I make a blade of wind cut off his rotting head, killing him, and starting the process of him coming back to life. I open a portal and appear back in my temple.

Why am I using a portal when I could just teleport in? Same reason I used a planet to make a black hole, it's more fancy!

Time to nerf my people. Instead of each of them being S-rank, I make it to where each of them is instead high F-rank, so, stronger than a regular human, weaker than a space marine. Then I'll have my own version of a space marine. A Valkyrie. They'll be B-rank. Then, I'll have an angel. They'll be the S-ranks in my army.

I may make more variants later, but this is what I'll do for now.

Ah, the emperor has already recovered. I can feel his protection falling over the humans again, so I withdraw my own. Several people just fell to chaos, but he got most of them before I withdrew.

I'm gonna speed up time for my galaxy. Time for a crusade!

--------------------------------------------

AN: *Notices your bulge* *leans on bar, lights cigarette, takes a shot of whiskey,* That a stone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

people on my pat.reon get advanced access to the chapters, just sayin'. https://www.pat.reon.com/sorrestwriting