Chapter Fifteen: The Aquila and the Dragon (Part II)

Ages past in his youth he had cast the monster down after discovering it feeding off primitive humans. It had been weak and near dead then. If he had been an instant faster that would have still been the case. At that moment before Revelation reached it the Dragon had slipped its Eldritch Tendrils into the Neurosphere. The grand data-web that linked humanity across the Stars had been breached.

Like the ravenous predator, it was the Dragon gorged itself on the trillions of digital life forms living within the Neurosphere. Entire civilizations of digitized Humans were slaughtered and consumed. Data-Habs were emptied into the Monsters maw in a futile effort to satiate its endless hunger for sentient life.

Those unlucky enough to be spared the devouring were corrupted, an intellect older than Terra itself turned its malignant desire to creating new slaves and thralls. Super Intelligences that had faithfully served humanity since the Age of Old Earth ordered the extermination of worlds. Uploaded ancestors and Cybernetic gods butchered trillions.

The Solar Federations mighty fleets broke apart, busy fighting corrupted members and racing back to Federations Space in a vain attempt to stop the Slaughter. The Galaxy burned as allied species that had sworn blood-oaths of loyalty and brotherhood to humanity turned upon us. The Eldar were content to watch the insanity and slither back into their debauchery undisturbed.

Machines and cruel intelligences unleashed weapons beyond the understanding of mortal humans. The Neurosphere became the Dragons domain and the Federation was fractured. Each world desperate to survive the Cybernetic Holocaust. Silica Animus, once humanities greatest ally and tool became its downfall.

Yet before the Dragon-Reborn could slip its fetters and began its conquest and consumption Revelation reached it. The Dragon and the Warrior-King faced each other once again. Glutted on the energy of entire civilizations the Dragon was quickly becoming the Lord of Oblivion that broke the Old Ones, yet as long as it was bound its might was diminished.

The Dragon had indeed grown mighty but so had Revelation. The psychic light of the being now known as the Emperor of Mankind called to all human souls untouched by the Great Enemy. Any fallen Child of Terra who was within its range became one with it. Protected and safe they could rest for eternity as their psychic spark increased the might of the Emperor.

For over thirty-three millennia Revelation had protected humanity and grown in power and wisdom. Reaching heights only ever matched by the Greatest of the Old Ones. Now the deaths of trillions who had been lucky enough to be within the glow of the Beacon network empowered him further. It was one of the Federations most classified secrets that he provided the spark to the Navis-Networks series of Warp-Pyres.

The Dragon and Dragonslayer both reaching a state any mortal would call Godhood clashed. Material and Immaterial energies battled as the Federation crumbled. Through herculean effort, Revelation plunged his ancient blade into its neck and bound it with chains of white-hot psychic power.

Psi-Flames burned through the Dragon and the visceral roars it produced shook the very fabric of spacetime. Yet it still reached out through the Neurosphere, that domain utterly within its grasp. The Iron War would only worsen if the Dragon could still manipulate the Legions of Automata and Digitized Humans future generations would name the Men of Iron.

With a heavy heart, the Dragonslayer unleashed a final and terrible weapon. One that would protect humanity and the galaxy from the Dragon while also destroying so much the species had worked for. This final weapon was born from the ignorance and arrogance of the Dragon.

The greatest mistake and weakness of the so-called Star-Gods was a product of their very nature. The long dead species that gave them form had mistaken them for simple but powerful Energy beings, but they were so much more. The race the Hrud called Mirror-Devils had found living avatars of the cosmos's natural order and molded them into Cruel Gods.

Entropy became a Reaper of Life. Gravity and Love became linked and went insane. Energy sought nothing but ruin an inferno. The greatest and most terrible of these avatars was Time given Draconic shape. The Lord Oblivion that had slept within the Red Planet. As incarnates of Natural laws and fundamental constants the Realm of Impossibility was not just corrosive and destructive but outside their influence and sight.

If the Dragon had not been blind to the Warp it would have never breached the Neurosphere. For this great domain of information and data was not some massive computer network or Data-link like the Dragon thought. It had been built into a pocket of sanity within the Warp itself using impossible technology. These Akashic Records had been crafted to safeguard all human knowledge and digital creations. The Dragon had violated them and consumed its inhabitants, and exposed itself.

In a great psychic blow, Revelation ripped open the envelope of reality than contained the Neurosphere. The frothing acidic insanity of the Warp surged into the semi-digital realm of mankind's wonders. Like an ocean of cancerous bile it filled and corrupted this new domain. Adding a new source of corruption and horror to taint the increasingly mad mechanical legions

Legions of Steel and Electricity fell upon themselves as the twin corruptions of Dragon and Daemons battled. The twin calamities of humanities suffering and the Eldars debauchery stirred the Warp into a frenzy unseen since the End of the War in Heaven.

The Psychic backlash had coursed through the Neurosphere and into the Dragons own being. Forcing it back fully into its own body where it was bound utterly by Revelations power. Poisoned by the Warp and broken by Emperor-to-be it returned to its previous existence as a Dead-God Dreaming.

Now the Emperor of Mankind had come to ensure the imprisonment of the Dragon, ensure the survival and sanity of its Guardian and maybe just maybe gain yet another weapon in the War against the Great Enemy. As much as the Yngirs nature made them a victim of the Warp it offered a measure of protection from one of its weapons. The sight into possibility offered by the Warp was always murky in regards to them.

It was worryingly similar to a Blank or Pariah in some ways. An empty spot on the canvas of destiny that could only be deciphered by viewing the picture around it. In the God-Emperor's reality, this expedition never occurred, yet his own visions of the future changed by the Primarchs new fate and memories from his broken counterpart informed him this was the best path to take. With grim certainty, the Emperor of Mankind clad in the Shadow of Judgment reached the entrance to the Dragons tomb.

Landing softly the Emperor willed his armor to change from its eerie avian appearance to a more subtle battle-plate. The rocky crag where he stood hid one of the numerous entrances into the sprawling tomb of the Dragon. During the 17th wave of Martian colonization, Revelation had bankrolled a secretive construction project in and around the Noctis Labyrinth. Supposedly it tried and failed to clean up the pollution Revelation himself was responsible. Unknown to all except him and that eras acolytes were the truths of the project.

A colossal subterranean series of chambers had been constructed around the broken corpse of the Dragon. Ornamental chains to encircle the desiccated remains of the Star-God. Millenia ago it had housed research facilities and monitoring stations. Many wonders of the Age of Technology were helped by the secrets deciphered there. From animated Shards sealed away on Medusa to vicious nanite plagues.

That was all gone now, the Dragons tomb had become truly that. An empty ruin that acted as both container for the corpse of a Fallen God and as a monument to Mankind's rise, fall and if the Shining Path was walked Eternal rise. Now it was time to meet with the tombs ghost and its keeper.

Telekinetically the Emperor moved the boulder that blocked the entrance and walked into the eerie abyss. Shutting the stone behind him he began his journey deeper into the tomb. The polished basalt echoed softly with his footfalls. He cared not if any heard them, it was better this way actually. Catching a mad-inventor no matter what era they originated from unaware was a distasteful proposition.

Through miles of tunnels he journeyed. Broken machinery and facilities littered the tomb and the only illumination was a faint sickly green glow. It would have been undetectable to any being whose senses were less advanced than a Primarchs. To the Emperor, it was a bright ugly beacon that guided the way through the crumbling chambers.

Even with his superhuman speed, it took the Emperor an hour to reach his destination. The Dragon Gate lay before him. The massive adamantium structure was the single portal of entry to the Cavern below. Esoteric and Formidable technologies were interwoven in its very molecular structure.

Matter, energy, and more impossible things could not bypass the barrier. Even so, it would be utterly useless if the Dragon ever awoke. For this gate and most of the Tombs defenses were not built to keep the prisoner in but potential liberators out.

In some physics-defying way the sickly green glow of Yngir technology seeped from between the twin doors of the gate. As if the impossible energies were alive and fighting to escape. The Dragon Gate was large enough for Titan class walkers to enter and the basic blueprint had actually been used in the designing of the Eternity Gate.

Aldar Singh the current Warmason and chief architect of the rapidly growing palace had learned decades ago not to ask why seemingly absurd things like the Gate were required. Many of the Emperor's followers and inner circle throughout the millennia had learned that ignorance was in no way bliss when it came to Revelations business, but helped keep them sane.

As he reached the titanic structure The Emperor reached out and touched its seemingly bare Adamantium surface. To any mortal lacking sufficient visual magnification, the gate seemed a massive perfectly smooth surface. In truth, every square centimeter of the structure was carved with infinitesimal circuits of both scientific and occult nature.

They were part of the defenses of the gate, providing protection from the most exotic of weapons, including Adrathic beams… Complicated self-regenerating energy fields organization from the Gate enclosed the Dragons corpse and as long as the gate held the Dragon's body and sealed remains could survive Exterminatus.

Recognizing one of the two surviving people permitted to open them at his touch the Gates hummed softly. They yielded under the Emperor's gentle push. More like oaken doors to a manner house then the ten thousand ton slabs of Adamantium barely suspended by Anti-Gravity that they were.

He passed through them and let the Gate shut silently. The only evidence of his passing was the waves of dust kicked up by its movement. The Green glow was omnipresent now. The air itself shimmered with etheric energies and stunk of ozone. Before him lay the entrance to the Dragons corpse.

Unlike the smooth basalt and machined perfection on the other side of the Gate, the chamber here was an ancient rough-hewn cavern. This was no research center but an excavation site. Ancient Gantries lined the Cavern walls, some leading to the left or right and a few being staircases to the bottom of the excavated cavern its siblings crossed. Yet the largest and most reinforced lead to the target of those long abandoned digs that formed the opposite wall of the Cavern.

Thousands of meters of mirror polished silver stretched in either direction. A small patch of the Dragons hide exposed and studied. Moving slowly along the decayed walkways the Emperor reached the reason the Dragon's gate was located at this particular part of the Tomb. This was not the most defensible nore deepest section of the tomb but the closest to the killing blow.

A Jagged puncture about two dozen meters tall and about hundred wide was the Cavern and gantries focus. The wound stretched from the beast's scales to its inner core. It was not the only of its kind. Six such marks were found at different parts of the Dragons corpse. All six intersected in the Dragon's heart.

Revelation could still remember the first time he entered this haunting chamber. The shock and wonder upon his then comparatively young face as he dragged the bound mass of writhing metal through the Martian sand. After subduing and crippling the Dragon a voice similar to the ancients who had guided him spiritually in his youth had led him here.

The Shamans souls had tutored him in the use of his powers and explained his duties as mankind's protector. That had been shortly after he left his home village. Eventually one by one they faded into his spirit, becoming one with him. No longer separate voices but part of the psychic chorus that composed his soul.

Each human soul protected by his light would meet that fate. It was not a painful nor dark experience. Humanities afterlife was not a place of punishment and reward but of rest and unification with those who had come before. The Shaman's had only stayed independent through their own formidable psychic powers and the ritual that had created him.

So it had been a great shock when he had heard the new voice. It felt and sounded like the ancestors but somehow much much older. It guided him through the Dragons binding after he bested it and told him where the rest of its body lay. Then it faded like the rest, but not without thanking him for finishing the task it couldn't. He would never admit it to anyone but aspects of his origin and being were unknown to even himself. That encounter was one of those occurrences that made him wonder.

As Revelation entered the Dragons wound he felt the metal. Unlike the Dragons smooth reptilian exterior or impossibly advanced mechanical innards this metal was warped and melted. More akin to badly welded metal or burnt steel than the perfect materials that made up the rest of the beast.

Revelation knew from experiments on the Dragons corpse nothing short of highly focused Psychic power would cause this level of damage. Anything else would heal almost instantly. Early studies had originally concluded the Dragon was somehow native to Mars. The complete lack of impact damage and crater had confused the first studies the Emperor had commissioned.

Eventually, they discovered the entire Noctis Labyrinthus was the Crater. Carefully and masterfully modified to appear as a natural feature by unknown Xeno hands. Revelation considered the Eldar the highest possible contender for such a role, considering their myths. The idea of them so close to Terra sickened him.

He knew for a fact some Aeldari Hunter-Cults had raided Terra during the Iron Age. Europa's cultural subconscious never fully recovered from it. He had personally killed the entirety of the Cult within the Sol system to stop the Xenos. Then he used the remains and his own abilities to blame a nearby Ork rampage. Two birds one stone. It amused him to know future versions of the once mighty Eldar would be reduced to similar tactics.

As he walked down the slowly descending wound he mused on what sort of technology or being could have done this to the Yngir. Theoretically, he was capable of such a feat of destruction, but he had never weaponized his power to that scale in the material realm. Whatever had done this had come extremely close to actually killing the Dragon. That was another mystery if crippling its body was the Old Ones goal or the death of its mind.

Personally, the thought the latter. The knowledge he had ripped from the minds of an entire Hrud Juunlak about thirteen thousand years ago told him the destruction of a Yngir would bring cataclysm to the universe. There normally clear and accurate genetic memory only held sights of terrifying monsters formed from glowing Metal and slathered with flesh and blood flayed from hundreds of victims.

That Glow was the same as the one surrounding him, the sickly green glow of Yngir technology. In the Cauterized tunnel, it was significantly reduced. The joints and creases where it normally flowed from where melted shut here. Leaving the ragged puncture atypically dark. Only illuminated by the eerie glow far below at the tunnel's end and the occasionally Jacobs Ladder of green lighting that flowed up from his destination.

Following the miles long scar, he reached the inner core of the Dragon. Glowing Emerald light and an eternal storm of eldritch lighting greeted his senses as he left the passage. Below him was a titanic cavity. Easily a few kilometers both tall and wide. It was a nearly perfect sphere of the broken melted Living Metal. Six punctures including the one the Emperor stood at the lip of opened up into the cavity. Each fluting out into the scorched metallic-flesh/floor of the chamber.

Approximately Sixty million years ago something of incredible power had struck the Dragon with six beams of psychic might that cut through the Dragons defenses. The Psychic lances intersected and then detonated within the central and most heavily armored section of the Dragon. Utterly annihilating a vast portion of the Yngirs essence and subsystems.

A central piece of the Dragons mind and being survived the cataclysm intact. Its powers and mind were crippled utterly, becoming a ghost of the destroyer-deity it had once been. Its massive country sized body had been ruined. Warp Energy had flowed through its systems and poisoned what it had not broken. The Dragon was reduced to a lump of dumb metal hiding away in its own corpse.

Yet for some unknown reason, its foes did not pursue it for either capture of destruction. Instead, it was left in the very chamber the Emperor now stood. For almost sixty million years it had waited for its enemies to come, they never did. It was not ideal though in that abyss of time for it was time and that was all it needed.

Feeding off upper dimensional energies, forms of matter unknown to humanity even during its height and even more exotic forms of sustenance it grew. Like a metallic parody of gestating life, it grew in size, strength, and intellect. For sixty million years a being that had grown accustomed to devouring trillions and snuffing out suns had clung to its own parody of life inside a prison of its own dead flesh.

Finally after its epoch of suffering the Dragon was strong enough to leave its dessicated shell and bath in the light of its prisons star. Invigorated by the melody of radiation and energy abundant on the red worlds surface it took to the void in search of prey. It thought it found an easy meal upon the red planet's blue sibling. Revelation proved it very wrong upon the windswept dunes of the Sahara desert.

Now the Dragonslayer had returned to its ancient foes prison. Revelation looked up towards the center of the chamber where the impossible lighting enemated from. They're suspended in the center of the chamber was the Dragon. Chains forged in psychic fire and imbued with the Emperors own might coiled around its massive bulk. Each Chain led to an anchor point across the chamber forming a web of power and ritual importance. Perfectly designed to keep the Dragon asleep and sealed within its prison.

Occasionally the chains would rattle and a bolt of eldritch lighting would flare as the Yngir twitched in its forced sleep. Energy poured from its body and illuminated the chamber in the morbid green glow. Its form was still distinctly reptilian, a coiling serpentine body wrapped in wings designed to ride Solar Currents. Every time it shifted in its dreams the Dragon's body rippled like a pool of mercury. Exposing its loose grip on its own flesh and the world outside its Dead-Dreaming.

As Revelation approached the bottom of the chamber he noticed an oddity. Crafted from scrap metal and refuse found within the Tomb was a simple dwelling. A shack somehow anchored to the Chambers floor on stilts allowing to lay flat on the gently curving floor. As he approached it he heard a clamber of noises, the occupant was attempting to make its way out to meet him.

Clad in weathered and continuously repaired robes that had once been the brilliant Red of Martian rust-sand the Guardian of the Dragon exited his dwelling. He appeared neither old nor young. His true age of millennia hidden by the Emperor's power, yet like his liege the weight of ages could be seen in his green eyes. Adept Seymon: The Patron of Cybernetica, Father of Augments, Ancient Prophet of Deus Mechanicus and now Guardian of the Dragon knelt before the Emperor of Mankind.

As the nightmares of the Cybernetic Revolt ended and the start of the Age of Strife begin a few descendants of martian survivors who retained echoes of their ancestor's knowledge banded together. In order to preserve and expand the rapidly dwindling knowledge of the Martian People, they formed an organization built to guard and preserve the sacred machines that kept Mars alive.

Knowledge is Power, Knowledge is Survival and it must be Guarded. That was the creed of this ramshackle order who fought tooth and nail to protect the rapidly collapsing infrastructure and population of Mars. These were the forefathers and mothers of the Mechanicum.

As the Age of Strife bore on the teachings and philosophies of these sages grew and changed across Mars. Going from a society of presevers and memory keepers to a Religion of Machinery and Data. Revelation had actually helped the earliest members in their quest. He knew he must leave Terra in his quest to save mankind but someone must still guard the Dragon and preserve the knowledge of ages past.

In the early centuries of the Mechancium Seymon had been a brilliant Adept who discovered and improved upon countless cybernetic technologies. He was one of the first to preach the idea of becoming more like the Machine. This was done not out of the religious zealotry his descendants would possess, but survival.

The Artificial Ecosystem of Mars was long gone and its fragile atmosphere had been burnt by solar winds and polluted by War and the aftermath. So the people of Mars descended into there Habs and factories in order to survive. Yet which each passing generation the knowledge skills and parts needed to maintain these dwellings was sapped by the brutality of the rusting world.

Seymon realized they lacked the skill and equipment to keep their cities functioning, but they could keep their citizens alive. To survive the fall of Mars and the rusting of ruins they became one with the Machine. After decades of leadership and innovation as one of the leaders of the infant Martian Parliament, a stranger approached. A figure spoke only of in hushed tones by Martians as the benefactor. The Benefactor had asked him a simple question: "What would you do to ensure the survival of Mars and the human species?"

Seymons answer had been even more simple and utterly heartfelt "Anything"

The Benefactor had simply smiled at that and responded: "I have chosen you for a duty of incomparable importance. It will be beyond difficult and test your sanity and soul to limits beyond that of any human. There is no reward or ending to this duty, aside from death and knowledge beyond anything you could dream of. Failure means annihilation and extinction of all you know and holds dear."

Seymon had nearly laughed in his face at first. The Benefactor might occasionally lead them to useful staches of Technology or warn them away from dangerous regions. He was not a Man to order him or produce such dire proclamations. His words of condemnation died on his lips as he looked into the Benefactors eyes. The brilliant Golden Orbs bore into his very soul. Seymon swore they had been normal brown eyes a moment before.

Knowledge and purpose burrowed into his being and truths too terrible and impossible were forced into his mind. The Dragon the fall of Man and what must be done scalded his psyche. Falling to his knees he wept and ripped at his flesh and cybernetics.

Looking up into the face of the man known by countless names across time and space he spoke as he took in deep shuddering breaths: "I accept. I accept this burden. I will guard the Dragon with my life and keep it sealed away. I will do this duty for as long as it takes. Ten days, ten years ten millennia, I will keep my people safe and pay for my sins."

He spoke the truth that cut the closest to him. The one that pulled back the curtain and revealed the origin and inspiration for his life's work. Cybernetics, the art of turning man into machine had grown and spread throughout the Red Planet with him spearheading it and shepherding it.

Seymon never knew nor questioned the origin of his passion. He never guessed his intellect and emotionally detached countenance had attracted the attention of a sleeping monster that hungered below his home. That the dark twisted dreams of the Dragon had lit a spark within him. A spark to convert flesh to metal. To mirror in some obscene way the consumption and conversion of countless species at the Dragon's claws.

Its dreams had touched all of Mars, blessing them with insight and imagination to plumb the reaches of technology and the universe. While cursing them to subconsciously reenact the dreams and memories of the Dragon. Seymons brilliance had allowed a Dead god Dreaming to influence the universe once again. His actions to allow Mars to survive would doom them to a fate of Mechanical half-life as fanatical obsession spread like a virus and became entrenched as dogma.

The Machines of Mars were safe from the Dragon, protected by cloned spirits. Its people were not. The festering dogma of the Mechainiucm would slowly cut its members from Emotion and humanity. The Warp no longer keeping the monster at bay. Leaving them exposed to its Dreams and ambitions. All of this, all of this horror was sparked by Adept Seymons desire to save his people.

After faking his death and disappearing into the Dragon's Tomb he met the Benefactor and learned his name and saw for himself the monster sealed below. Revelation and the Dragon both stood before him. Equally wonderful and terrible. Bathed in the Dragons glow his souls was bound to the seals, bindings, and fetters keeping it locked in a state of unlife.

Revelation told him the reason for this. To guide humanity further along the shining path he must leave Sol and brave the distant void. The Warp was frothing insanity reaching a crescendo of storm and stress as the Aeldari damned themselves. It would weaken or disrupt his connection to the Seal as he became more separated from it by time and space.

This could not be allowed. Yet reinforcing the seal was possible. A sufficiently strong-willed mortal who had been touched by the Dragon could be bound to it. Acting as a receiver for Revelations power and keeping the Dragon asleep and bound while protecting the actual location.

For Millennia Seymon had stood guard. His mind and body empowered with psychic energy. Each night as he slept he caught glimpses of the Dragons Dreams, pulled from its mind by his link to it. The nightmarish and wondrous things he saw were recorded as per Revelations wishes. To form an archive of such things and prepare his successor.

Revelation knew the pain and exhaustion the ages could bring and did not want to damn a good man to an eternity of solitude and service. A successor would eventually be found. He assured Seymon that.

Now the Adept knelt before the Emperor of Mankind. The sights and horrors he had seen forging an adamantium clad loyalty to Revelation. The Dragonslayer had saved humanity and the galaxy from a nightmarish fate through his actions. Before he could even ask Revelation answered the question boring into Seymons mind.

"Soon, I can feel a candidate arising in the future. It will not be long, another century or two."

Seymon let out a deep shuddering breath. A century or two, a century or two. Another century or two alone in this pit…. He could feel his mind starting to crack under the pressure.

Before the weight of millennia could come crashing down on him Revelation continued: "I am sorry, you should not have had to share this burden alone. Soon another will join you here. Not as guardian but as a friend and companion. Your successors will come in twos to prevent the suffering you have experienced."

Nodding slightly the still shaking Seymon got to his feet and asked: "So you are here to talk with it?"

Seymon did not know if he imagined it but a grimace seemed to pass across Revelations features. Remembering and observing him was always difficult. His presence was like an intense dream. You could remember the basic outline and the experience vividly but the details seemed to always be hazy and shifting.

Answering his question softly Revelation said "Yes, before I can continue I must speak to it. I intend to make it an offer."

Seymon was shocked: "An offer?"

"Yes, servitude and knowledge in exchange for having its shackles loosened. A war is coming that if humanity is to survive it every weapon in our arsenal must be used.": replied the Emperor.

Still aghast the Adept continued: "If it refuses it will be more conscious and vicious. If it accepts… I dread to think of what things would require *that* to win."

To Seymons surprise Revelation replied "Both are valuable outcomes. Even if it refuses I will anger it and its dreams will become more war-torn violent things. Birthing new innovations in warfare and weaponry to assist our survival in the coming conflict."

Biting his tongue Seymon knew the idea had merit. The Dragons influence had directly influenced some of the greatest technological wonders the species had ever created. That is why it was sealed away here on Mars, why the organization now known as the Mechancium existed. To allow humanity to unknowingly wield the dragon's power. To grant us an edge against the horrors of the universe.

Bowing curtly Seymon said "I put my faith in you Revelation. If anyone can save our people it is you."

Internally Revelation winced. He could say that very phrase himself. The impetus of this plan came from the God-Emperor. It had been its idea to offer the Ruinous Powers terms of surrender, now this. The memory locks were firmly in place and it worried him constantly about what the consequences of this plan could be.

His own visions of the future could also not be fully trusted. The Chaos Gods and the God Emperor's meddling had stirred time into an ever-shifting maelstrom of cause and effect. Revelation knew broad strokes of various outcomes and how to ensure them but his once near perfect sight of the future was muddied.

Seymon retrieved the great tome he recorded all he could of his custodianship and prisoner. This event must be recorded for posterity. He positioned himself in full view of the Dragon and watched Revelation, no... the Emperor of Mankind rise into the Air. News of Revelations crowning and arrival on Mars had even made it to him through the dingy caravans of Water Traders who visited him and traded supplies for scrap.

A Corona of psychic light and fire formed an aura around the Emperor. Like a living psychic star he rose up and up towards the chamber's center. Seymon could only watch as the Dragon started to shake and stir in its sleep. Reacting even in its unliving state to the power of its nemesis.

The Emperor of Mankind reached maneuvered to face its head. The metallic serpentine skull shuddered and rippled at his approach. Protruding from it and glowing a brilliant golden radiance was the Emperor's Sword. It was stabbed through the Dragon's forehead and straight into the mass of glowing metal and wyrd energy that formed its brain. The Chains that bound the Dragon and stretched across the chamber all began here. Psychically forged to the blades pommel the chains encircled the Dragon and bound its mind and body in a corona of Psychic power and searing adamantium.

Grasping his sword's hilt The Dragonslayer began to commune with the Dragon. The Emperor's power and consciousness flowed through the blade and into the Dragon's mind. Psychic power became electrical signals and electrical signals became ones and zeroes. Soon his mind translated through multiple media entered the Dragons brain.

It was a digital realm, a false-reality created by the massive computational units that acted as the host for the Yngirs power. Yet despite all its potential power, it was stuck in a continuous loop of repair protection. The Dragons desperate attempts to keep the corrosive Warp away from its most precious and sensitive thought patterns and memories kept it in a state that could be argued was both sleep and Death.

The Dragons actual consciousness was compressed and sealed away under layers of protection, forcing it to sleep and dwell in a virtual subconscious. Which is where a part of the Emperor's own mind had journeyed. His brain had been translated into Warp-currents and then back again into electrical signals in an unmatchable feat of Fulmination.

Here he existed, before the titanic ancient intellect of the sleep Dragon. Mustering himself The Emperor prepared to speak the eldest and purest language of the universe. The tongue the Yngir knew and mastered from birth. For it was the only universal language of the Material Realm: Mathematics. Revelation spoke a simple phrase and used the knowledge he had fought and paid bitterly for. That knowledge was the Dragons true name.

*Mag'ladroth I have come to bargain.*

At once a world-ending storm of virtual energy and matter detonated across the realm of Ones and Zeroes. The Void Dragon stood before him. In this form of thought-being, it could be what it once was, unshackled by physical constraints or psychic fire the Dragon was as it had been and what it would be if the Emperor ever failed. The being rightfully known as Lord Oblivion stared down at the Emperor from cruel eyes that burned with the intensity and horror of an emerald tinged Supernova.

Answering the Emperor in equations of its own the Star God let loose a torrent of Data that would destroy the greatest of cogitator and lobotomize the cleverest savant. Each stream of numbers was terrible and unique for each held the exact same meaning.

*DIE*

The Emperor weathered the storm of the materium as easily as he had the storm of immaterium when he faced the Four. His answer to both typhoons of murderous desire was the same

*Are you done?*

It continued the onslaught till with a thought the Emperor tightened the chains that bound its physical form. It let out a mathematical roar of distress and fury as searing impossibility burnt away at its metal flesh. After a few moments of anguish, the Emperor loosened the chains again. The Dragon seethed with star-crushing fury but made no move. Taking that as a sign it would lessen the Emperor continued, drawing upon his own knowledge and the plans laid forth by the God Emperor.

*Serve humanity faithfully and dutifully and once my ambition is complete I will free you.*

For a second it seemed like the Dragon was confused, its massive processing ability had, of course, considered such a possibility but dismissed it as nearly improbable.

*There are two conditions to my offer. First, you must leave the Galaxy and never return, the rest of the cosmos will be yours as long as you leave this galaxy to humanity. Second to ensure your compliance a contingency will be installed in you. Ensuring you follow my orders and the conditions*

The Dragon did not even stop to consider, it did not even contemplate the possibilities. It never considered the possibility of an unending feast within the galactic void. It never considered what fate might befall it if it rejected the Emperor's offer. For it was the Dragon, the inspiration for a million myths across the galaxy, and those myths spoke true. The Dragon was a being of avarice and hubris. It would not Accept servitude even if it meant escaping bondage.

It gave a vicious roar of hunger and wrath as a response. In a hurricane of mathematical theorem and virtual power it spoke:

*YOU DARE! YOU DARE! I DEVOURED EMPIRES. DRANK STARS. RULED THE COSMOS! I AM MAG'LADROTH! YOU ARE PREY! KNEEL BEFORE ME!*

Calmly with no malice the Emperor responded:

*I dare because of exactly that, you have committed crimes against life and our universe worse than you could ever know. I offer atonement which is more than you deserve.*

The Dragon continued its tirade of fury and malice even as the Emperor left the digital realm.

Seymon had watched the exchange of energy between the Dragon and Emperor with a mix of awe and horror. It was like watching twin stars dueling. On some level, he knew without the Emperor's protection his mind and body would have crumbled under the psychic and material waves of force being emitted. Every moment had been recorded painstakingly within the Book of the Dragon.

So when the end came he knew not to expect. Some treacherous worm in the back of his head whispered that the sight of Revelations broken burnt body falling to the cavern floor followed by utter annihilation was soon to come. That did not occur, instead of with a burst of solar-tinged light Revelation ended the link and floated before the monster.

It thrashed and roared even as its mind was locked away within its digital subconscious. Seymon heart nearly stopped when he saw the expression on the Emperor's face. This was not the quickly fading half-remembered thing he was used to. This was the Master of Mankind's face forged into a mask of cold fury. The always stoic and polite physical god shone with an anger that could quench a sun and annihilate worlds.

At that moment Adept Seymon knew true fear. A being billions had worshipped and called a god across mankind's history floated above him. He knew at that moment why so many cultures had feared the almighty while claiming such beings were loving caring beings. Revelation was mankind's savior and champion, but utter Doom and annihilation to his foes. The Master of Mankind would burn the galaxy if it meant humanity would survive in its ashes.

Like a Sun setting the awe-inspiring and nightmare-inducing halo of power dimmed. The Emperor slowly floated to the ground and as he did raise his hand and closed it into a fist. As it did the Dragons chains tightened, it thrashed as the psychic fire burned it. Speaking more to himself than the Dragon or Seymon he said

"You have destroyed the galaxy twice in your greed. I will not allow you to do it thrice."

With that, the Emperor of Mankind said a few parting words to Seymon and left the Dragons tomb. He traversed the catacombs and then eventually the Martian desert with ease as he made it back towards Thrasis. The brilliant glow of Sol just peeking over the horizon as his journey reached its end.

As he finally snuck aboard the Bucephalus and deactivated the Cognatu Ferrums decoy the future became easier to read. He saw how the Dragons fury would help bring new weapons of war into the fray. Push Mars to reach greater heights in order to arm humanity for the Wars to come. Another step was taken down the shining path.

What he did not see was the complete tapestry of fate. Revelation could see the cause and effect related to his communion, but not the wretched details in between. His actions today would awaken nightmares and cost him dearly. Yet It would save humanity the galaxy and quite possibly the universe.

The price required would make the humane Revelation hesitate even if it cost him everything. The God-Emperor of Mankind would not. The Corpse-Emperor would pay any price and hide it from his counterpart. It mattered not to the Thing on the Throne if it cost a Friend, a child or a kingdom. If it ensured humanities Ascension and survival no price was too small.