Interlude Hela: Black Empress of Death

Hela POV

It has been several months since our husband; my husband fell into hibernation after his fight with the Hivemind of the Void Insect Swarm. It was clear that he would be in hibernation for a long time; in the worst case, it could be centuries or even millennia because such cases were not unheard of completely.

But for the Chthonian Empire of the Baator, this was grave news. While the Hivemind was defeated and killed, and for the most part, the Astral Boundary Universe was saved from it, the Empire was in another kind of danger, as it seemed.

And that danger came in the form of the Blood Ancestor and Dragon Primordial, who were Tier 12 experts and protectors of the Divine Blood Plane and Dragon's Nest, respectively.

Each of the two were a very powerful Grade 1 Planes with a lot of Tier 11 experts.

While their overall strength individually is lower compared to that of the Chthonian Empire because were are superior in military strength, coupled with the Arcanotech and Voidfleets.

Yet were are lacking in terms of a number of Tier 11 experts, from which they have more, and right now, they also have active Tier 12 experts, something which we don't presently have.

Currently, the Empire didn't have an active Tier 12, and at the same time, there were a few people who were at the peak of Tier 11, from which only I and Asura were close to reaching Tier 12.

From the two of us, I was closer to reaching Tier 12 as I was one of the few Gods that were worshipped in the Chthonian Empire of the Baator and planes connected to the Baator.

There were not many religions that were widespread in the Baator, or rather there existed only sole Baatorian Pmnatheon, which consisted mainly of my husband, me, Sigmar and some other people who were allowed to practice Godhood Methods.

Even right now, I could feel an overwhelming amount of Faith energy flowing to my Godhead, as the Godhead was purifying the Faith Energy because the energy of Faith is fundamentally tainted, and that was the reason why the Gods were just slaves to their believers.

Of course, not with the Godhood Method that my beloved obtained from another Universe, as the Godhead was purifying and transforming the Faith into the God-Force and increasing my power with each passing second, as my Godhood Index was rising.

"This Faith... it is Zeo's."

I stated with a gasp as I realized that I was getting the Faith Energy that was originally of my husband. It must be something that he did before he fell unconscious for me to reach Tier 12 during the time he was out so that I could protect the Empire in his place.

As I realized the mighty and quantity of the Faith Energy, which was flowing to my very own being, I started utilizing it to its maximum while continuously increasing my Godhood. I was already at the peak of Tier 11 as my Godhood Index was long stagnating and my Godhood remained idle.

Now, after several decades and so much time and resources, my strength was increasing once more as I approached the Annulled State.

Several seconds later, I felt that something in my Godhead was cracking and changing as an enormous wave of Death Energy burst out of my Godhead lashed out.

"Annulled."

I muttered as I enjoyed the first bites of my newly founded strength. It was absolutely intoxicating, and at the same time, I felt freedom, unlimited freedom like I wasn't tied to anything.

"With this... it would be a great shock to those old fossils when they came to attack us for resources, technology and other things..."

I said to myself; for the time being, I decided to conceal the fact that I reached Tier 12 from the wider populace; only some selected members of the Empire should for now know about this.

Probably only Five Elders and Captain General of the Adeptus Custodes would be suitable.

Right now, the Captain-General was Sairaorg Bael, while the former Captain-General took the side of my husband, as he was even right now guarding his form non-stop without any pause.

A small part of me wanted for those idiots to attack the Baator so I could use it as an opportunity to beat them black and blue, possibly to obtain some gains from their severe defeat.

Even Tier 12 experts could be severely suppressed by the Grade 1 Plane, which the Baator certainly was, and the Baator was far stronger than an average Grade 1 Plane. So, technically speaking, when they entered, their power would be suppressed enough for me to compete with them easily.

With the offensive nature of my Godhood as Black Empress of Death, I was confident that under such conditions, I would be able to defeat them. If I could coordinate it with some of the more fearsome and destructive Arcanotech weaponry.

In that case, we could send them packing with injuries severe enough to send them into hibernation for whole centuries.

Fortunately, right now, nobody in the wider population of the Empire is aware of the truth that my husband has fallen into deep hibernation, and the Empire is functioning as it should be. If not for that, then it would be highly possible that mass panic would erupt from the citizens.

Unfortunately, though, so we didn't have only good news, it was only a matter of time before some of the problems would arise, but now that I have reached Tier 12, I could sleep more peacefully at night.

These series of wars have shown me that there were still many things that could be done to advance in the Empire, especially in the administration, where I noticed some serious blank spaces, which were absolutely unacceptable.

I was thinking about creating a new position, which would have authority over all of the armed forces of the Chthonian Empire for better coordination between them because I noticed that it was the aspect that was most lacking during the wars.