All of humanity shuddered under the terrifying psychic aura unleashed by the Crimson King and the Lord of Change. Even warriors as formidable as the Astartes could not stand against the crushing force.
Across the command bridge, every mortal and Space Marine was pinned to the deck—save for two figures. Alexei stood rooted in place with an unruffled expression, the suffocating psychic pressure failing to register on him entirely.
His deep, unfathomable gaze remained fixed on the far end of the warship, while Inquisitor Diana stood unscathed in his protective shadow.
After a moment of silence, Alexei let out a soft sigh and stepped forward toward the center of the inescapable storm. Before him, the dense waves of psychic force parted smoothly like tide waters breaking against a reef.
Those pinned to the deck felt the crushing weight vanish without a trace in an instant. Stunned, confused, and filled with disbelief, they stared up at the figure walking forward with measured steps.
Toqill, Chapter Master of the Scythes of the Emperor, lay pressed flat against the deck of the spine avenue. His cheek was jammed hard into the cold floor, forcing him to watch his Gene-father pinned down nearby in bitter helplessness.
Though fury raged in his heart, his body refused to move. Then, footsteps passed by his side, and the paralyzing pressure dissolved completely.
Scrambling to his feet, he stared in shock at the familiar back. "Alexei..." Toqill muttered, his voice laced with complex emotion, before raising his power sword and rushing toward his Primarch.
Nearby, High Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars did the same. The man had once again defied all imagination; Helbrecht could not fathom how Alexei achieved such a feat. The force radiating from him gave the impression that he alone was the absolute ruler of this domain.
From the command bridge down to the spine avenue, warrior after warrior regained mobility. The power of the C'tan within Alexei unleashed itself at maximum output, cascading outward in a relentless torrent.
This was realspace; this was his domain. Even so close to the Maelstrom, where psychic energy could not be totally negated, Alexei—having consumed two C'tan Shards—could easily shield his immediate surroundings from Warp corruption, short of the Chaos Gods themselves manifesting.
He could already see the towering figure kneeling on the deck ahead, surrounded by daemons and the fallen Primarch, who were mocking Guilliman's futile struggle—until Alexei stepped into view.
Kairos Fateweaver's gloating screech cut short. He stared in absolute disbelief at the small figure advancing toward them. "You!"
"You damned insect!"
Magnus ceased his maniacal laughter, turning his single eye onto the mortal who had shaken the Lord of Change. "How can you withstand our psychic power?"
He did not wait for an answer. The moment the words left his lips, a thick bolt of psychic lightning tore through space straight toward Alexei, threatening to obliterate everything in its path—only to vanish into nothingness the instant it reached the composed man.
"A Blank? No, that's impossible!" Magnus gasped. Yet in the next instant, he rejected his own theory. This mortal was forcing everything around him to reject psychic power entirely, repelling every trace of the Immaterium.
He stood like an unshakeable master of the material universe itself. "The power of the C'tan..." the Crimson King muttered once more.
Alexei ignored the two figures ahead. Smiling faintly, he walked up to the kneeling Guilliman and tapped his shoulder guard. "Stand up, Roboute Guilliman."
At the center of the psychic storm, Guilliman suddenly felt a lightened weight as the terrifying aura pinning him down vanished into thin air. He turned his head in shock to look at Alexei—his smiling adjutant standing right beside him.
"Why..." The Primarch gazed at Alexei with a complex, questioning look. In that single moment, he realized that the man before him might not be human at all.
"Now is hardly the time for that, is it?" Alexei replied with a light smile, casting a glance back toward the two horrors ahead.
"You are right." Guilliman rose to his feet, the longsword in his grip igniting into flames once more. This time, he was unstoppable.
Guilliman charged at Magnus, and the two massive demigods collided once again in a brutal clash. Psychic forces tore at their surroundings, melting even the adamantium structural ribs of the warship.
Elevated to daemonhood, Magnus was not only bolstered by vastly enhanced sorcery, but his raw physical strength had been augmented by Tzeentch as well. The Emperor's Blade in Guilliman's hand repeatedly struck against Magnus's Blade of Ahn-Nuurta with deafening cracks.
The sheer shockwaves from their blows blew nearby daemons off their feet, while Kairos Fateweaver constantly unleashed Tzeentchian sorcery to disrupt Guilliman's movements.
Yet, they seemed to have forgotten something. A short distance away, Alexei remained standing in place, casually observing the duel. Any low-tier daemons or Rubric Marines that tried to rush him were instantly reduced to ash under the decaying power of Tissakra the Witherer.
"In that case, let me lend you a hand," Alexei murmured softly. An immense, unknown energy erupted from within his body, manifesting in a breathtaking phenomenon behind him.
Across the battlefield, warriors locked in combat froze once again, their attention drawn toward a radiant cocoon woven from countless strands of blinding light hovering in midair.
Magnus knocked Guilliman back with a blast of psychic force, both Primarchs pausing their assault to look up at the luminous structure. Inside, something was struggling to break free.
Alexei looked up at the light cocoon. It was a creation coalesced from every soul shard, every drop of vitality, and vast quantities of biomass—a organism representing the absolute pinnacle of the material universe, about to hatch.
'Thump... thump... thump...'
The trembling grew faster and louder until it became deafening. Moments later, a sharp tearing sound echoed in everyone's ears as a terrifying, pale claw thrust out through the casing.
Then came a second. With an earth-shattering roar, the two razor-sharp talons ripped the structure open, shattering the cocoon into a shower of glittering light specks that filled the air.
Enveloped by the drifting light, a figure revealed itself.
It was an astounding, horrifying entity—massive, uncanny, and graceful. Six flowing ribbons of blue-white light drifted gently behind its back. Its body was encased in a pale, biological carapace that flickered with blue, psychic-like tendrils of energy.
Its horned, crowned head bowed slowly, offering its total allegiance to the figure standing below.
"Kill them," Alexei commanded, pointing toward the Crimson King and the Lord of Change.
At his command, blue-white fire ignited instantly within the empty eye sockets of the Hybrid Destroyer. A surge of psychic energy no weaker than Magnus's own exploded forth in a single heartbeat.
"It is time to end this farce," Alexei said calmly.