The bridge of the genesis was deadly silent.
In the center of the massive holographic star map, the tiny dot representing the ship was marked with a pulsating, blood-red miniature skull sigil.
It was like the heart of a living creature, and with every beat, it broadcasted a sinister rhythm into the cold void.
Fogremia stood tall and slender, dressed in her iridescent pink and purple crystal power armor. Her flawless, beautiful face was currently etched with gravity.
"Big Sister, this is Khorne's 'Mark of the Hunt'."
Her deep purple eyes were fixed on the sigil, her voice cold and clear.
"Every madman in the Subspace who worships the Blood God can vaguely sense our direction. It is like an unquenchable bonfire, guiding them through the darkness."
Standing on the other side, Valeria, the dashing former Imperial Commissar, also frowned. Her perfectly tailored black uniform appeared exceptionally stern under the cold lighting of the bridge.
"This means that every Subspace jump we make from now on could be a meticulously prepared ambush."
Valeria's analysis was precise and lethal.
"We have lost our strategic concealment."
The gazes of Fogremia and Valeria fell simultaneously upon the figure sitting in the captain's chair.
Leticia was not looking at the sigil on the star map.
She was simply watching the deep, unchanging sea of stars outside the viewport with calm.
"Since we cannot hide," she said, her voice not loud, yet it caused the tense atmosphere on the bridge to relax, "then let them come."
...
Holy Terra orbit, inside a heavily guarded space station codenamed "Moon Falcon".
In the dim office, the air felt like solidified lead, cold and heavy.
Inquisitor Hector of the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition was sitting alone on a chair crafted from the skull of some massive beast. His black power armor was covered in fine scratches, each one representing a bloody battle against demons.
In front of him, holographic reports marked with "Crimson - Top Secret" clearance were quietly suspended.
The first report came from Isstvan III.
The content of the report was chaotic and incoherent, stemming from the sudden ramblings of a rescued survivor, a Space Marine from the loyalist faction. During deep hypnotic therapy, he repeatedly babbled about the arrival of a black-haired goddess and the betrayal of the "Phoenix" and... rebirth?
Hector's fingertips lightly brushed over the report, marking it as "Potential Chaos God Tzeentch scheme or Slaanesh temptation".
The second report came from Griffin IV, a mining planet in the remote territories of the Empire.
This report was much more coherent, submitted by the command system of the local garrison. It detailed a Nurgle cult rebellion that almost overturned the entire planet, and how a mysterious woman calling herself "Leticia" had quelled all the turmoil within a day with god-like power.
The appendix of the report included a "Confession" left by the former Commissar Valerius, which was logically incoherent, along with his insane declaration of "voluntarily following the new god."
"Another poor wretch corrupted."
Hector made an initial judgment with an expressionless face.
He had originally intended to file these two seemingly unrelated events into different heretic dossiers.
But a hunter-like intuition born from being an Inquisitor made him stop.
He pulled up all Chaos-related reports classified as "unsolved cases" from the last half standard year.
Dozens of them.
Spread across every corner of the galaxy.
Their contents were bizarre; some involved entire Chaos warbands vanishing into thin air along with their warships after conquering a world; others involved the soul-mark of a notorious Chaos Lord being erased from the Subspace by an incomprehensible force.
The commonality among these unsolved cases was that no traces of intervention by the Empire or mainstream alien races could be found at the scenes.
The power of Chaos seemed to have been forcefully "overwritten" by another, more domineering and unreasonable power.
Hector input the detailed parameters of all reports into the analyzer.
The ancient machine let out a dull hum and began billions of logical comparisons.
Finally, a common characteristic was filtered, magnified, and presented before Hector.
The core of all events, all those Chaos powers that were "purified" or "erased," pointed to a brand-new power trait never recorded by the Empire.
It possessed "conceptual" strength on the same level as the four Chaos Gods.
Yet it was diametrically opposed to them.
It seemed to be able to "cure" Nurgle's plague, "soothe" Khorne's rage, "negate" Chaos God Tzeentch's schemes, and "reshape" Slaanesh's corruption.
"This is not any known alien power, nor is it a simple Subspace phenomenon..."
Hector's grey electronic eyes flashed with a dangerous light.
"This is a... system."
A brand-new third-party system capable of rivaling the Chaos system, and even the Imperial system.
He was silent for a long time, finally extending his mechanical finger to create a brand-new, top-clearance, top-secret file in the void.
For the title of the file, after much deliberation, he entered two characters.
"Kingdom of God"
...
Eye of Terror, that eternal purgatory where reality and Chaos merge.
On a planet made of crystal and lies, Ahriman Zorn, a diviner of the Thousand Sons sorcerer legion, was kneeling before a sand table made of pure psychic grit.
He was divining for his master, the Red King Magnus, regarding the anomaly of the "World Eaters" legion that made him feel uneasy.
His eyes were closed, and countless silver runes circled and danced around him, probing into the surging river of fate.
He saw it.
In a tributary of the river of fate, he saw Angron, who should have ascended to daemonhood in blood and fire and become the Blood God's most perfect champion... disappear.
In his place, he saw a Valkyrie with hair like fire and a soaring Battle Intent.
Her rage no longer brought pain, but transformed into the glory of protection.
Beside the Valkyrie, he also saw two other figures.
One had silver hair and purple eyes, with a figure as perfect as a work of art carved by a god, her sword flowing with ultimate charm and sharpness. That was... that was the incarnation of "perfection" that should have belonged to Slaanesh!
And standing in the center of them was a black-haired goddess.
Zorn could not see her face clearly, only those pure black eyes that seemed to be able to swallow everything.
He saw her reach out her hand and easily twist, purify, and reshape the "gifts" of Chaos—the "power" that they, as followers, had spent thousands of years praying for—just like kneading mud.
This was blasphemy!
This was the most fundamental and thorough negation of their faith!
Just as Zorn attempted to peek into the essence of the black-haired goddess, a beam of indescribable radiance, mixed with four pure divinities, surged back along his psychic link!
"Pfft—!"
Ahriman Zorn was struck by lightning, violently spitting out a mouthful of scalding blood mixed with psychic fragments.
Silver blood flowed from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and he fell backward in terror, crazily and haphazardly scratching at the sand table.
His colleagues were stunned by this sudden turn of events and rushed forward to try to support him.
"Get away!"
Zorn screamed hysterically, his eye sockets, which had already turned into two bleeding holes, "staring" fixedly at a point in the void.
"That is not a new god! It is not!"
His voice became distorted and shrill due to extreme fear, like fingernails scraping against crystal.
"That is a plague that devours gods! It is the... fifth calamity that transcends the Chaos Gods!!"
He used his last bit of life and soul to turn this divination result, stained with endless fear, into a blood-red psychic signal, shooting it towards the top of the Tower of Sorcery.
"Moon Falcon" space station, Inquisitor Hector's office.
He finished reading the final report given by the analyzer, leaned back in his chair silently, and closed his eyes.
After a long while, he sat up straight again and began to write the concluding remarks for this file codenamed "Kingdom of God".
His mechanical fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard, each word carrying the coldness and weight of metal.
"...Its essence is unknown, its purpose is unknown. Based on existing intelligence analysis, this unknown force shows clear hostility toward Chaos, but its logic of action has nothing in common with the Empire and cannot be defined as an ally."
"It does not destroy Chaos through traditional physical or psychic means, but rather 'assimilates' or 'corrects' it through a higher-dimensional 'conceptual overwriting' method."
"This behavior constitutes a subversive threat to the existing theological and political order of the Empire that is equal to, or even more dangerous than, the four Chaos Gods."
Hector's fingers paused, as if looking for the most precise word.
"In summary, this force is an unknown variable at the level of a cosmic constant, constituting a fifth form of unpredictable, catastrophic threat to the existing balance between the Empire and Chaos."
"Provisional codename: the fifth calamity."
genesis, Leticia's room.
Angronia was still asleep, her face, which was always tense, carrying an unprecedented serenity.
Leticia was preparing to contact Valeria to formulate the next step of the action plan to deal with Khorne's "Mark of the Hunt".
Just then, Terrania, who had been sitting quietly by the bed like a doll, suddenly raised her head.
Her golden eyes, which were pure and free of any impurities, clearly reflected Leticia's figure.
The little girl's face carried a trace of confusion and a trace of curiosity.
She said softly:
"Big Sister, I heard it..."
"In a place very, very far away, there are many people calling out a new name."
"They... are very afraid."
"But also..."
Terrania tilted her little head, seemingly trying hard to understand that complex emotion.
"...Very expectant."
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen
Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.