| Deep in the Warp |
"Oh," they replied with mild curiosity. "And why is it that you refuse?"
"I am Neoth Crucivus Aeternus X͞͞L and I am the emperor of humanity of this timeline," I said then, using the warp, I summoned my sword and raised it towards them.
"I do not need to prove my worth to anyone, especially you three. All of you will accept my proposal and pray to me. So that I may use your faith as my power. To crush the enemies of humanity and elevate our race, to its right place. As rulers of this galaxy."
"Bold claims for someone who is incomplete and lacks knowledge, power, and a plan. Though we are curious, you say we are arrogant yet aren't you displaying arrogance far greater than ours?"
'What kind of foolish question is that?' I thought, then I replied to them in a mocking tone.
"All of you lead humanity with empty promises and countless lies. Every time your sons had a concern you dismissed them. When they needed to know the truth, you lied and you expected them to just accept that each time. It's no wonder your sons turned on you and destroyed your half assed plan. Chaos won through manipulating your countless mistakes that could have been avoided if you weren't arrogant enough to believe your plan was infallible. Do not compare me to the likes of you."
Slowly power began to radiate from all three of them.
The warp around the Dark King became increasingly chaotic, as he unleashed his power that symbolized ruin and the end.
The God Emperor was cloaked in brilliant golden flames that felt alive and eager to consume all around it.
Star Child glowed in pure white light that did not shine, instead it only annihilated everywhere it reached.
"Even now you can not even fathom the full complexities of what truly happened. Yet you would dare mock the sacrifice we made in an attempt to save all of humanity? If you were faced with the perilous mission of saving humanity from countless enemies within a mere 200 years. Do you truly believe you can do better?
I replied back without hesitation, "I will and unlike you all, I will not ignore the concerns of my sons. I will not repeatedly lie to humanity, over time I will tell them the full truth. I will not stake everything naively on the webway project. Instead, I will prepare and lead humanity to attack chaos. I will ensure chaos faces the consequences of their actions for their innumerable transgressions against humanity."
For a long moment there was utter silence, and I braced myself for a fight to the death.
I just insulted them and practically spit on the plan they staked their lives for. Moreover I told them I wasn't even going to create a plan to block chaos influence.
Instead I wanted to fight chaos head on, but what I heard next shocked me.
"Good."
'What do they mean, good?' I thought in utter confusion.
"Us asking you to take our trial, was part of the trial itself," said Star Child. "If you agreed to do the trial, I would have annihilated you."
The God Emperor spoke up and said, "If there was even a hint, of a lie when you said your plans for humanity. I would have burnt your soul to oblivion."
"You dared to ask us to pray to you," the Dark King said. "If you never intended to use our faith to erase chaos, I would have erased you."
'I see, I guess that is somewhat reasonable, although their way of doing things is still infuriating as usual,' I mused.
Feeling the warp become calm again as they stop unleashing their power, I decided to also stop and dismiss my sword.
"So," I said slowly. "When do we start?"
They all spoke at once.
"We will start now, soon you will begin to feel faith energy surrounding you. Create a vessel inside of your soul and draw it in. Do not ever let it merge with your soul or else you will be forced to ascend."
I nodded to them, showing that I understood and that I am ready.
Once they saw me nod, their presence became utterly still as if they were never there.
I awaited the moment the faith energy from them became tangible.
It was quiet, and time seemed to pass at an abnormally fast rate.
I stood there in silence, until it wasn't silent anymore.
I began heard countless whispers calling out to me from seemingly everywhere.
I listened closely to hear what the whispers were saying.
"I pray to you Neoth X͞͞L, that you will lead humanity to salvation," said Star Child.
"I pray to you Neoth X͞͞L, that your rule over humanity will remain harmonious and eternal," said the God Emperor.
"I pray to you Neoth X͞͞L, that all the enemies of humanity fall to your blade," said the Dark King.
Besides the three of them, I could hear the whispers of the countless fragments of the Emperor praying to me, each with a different prayer not asking but trying to grant me a new strength.
These whispers soon became loud voices, and in front of me a miniature white ball that felt like a sun began to form. This was the Emperor's faith, taking form as energy.
With absolute concentration, I focused all my power onto the miniature white ball that grew bigger with each passing moment. Locking on to it, l guided it straight into the center of my soul.
I built walls using my will and the warp around the ball of faith in my soul. Anytime the ball of faith tried to dissipate and merge with my soul, I forced it back into a ball in the center.
Whenever it grew beyond a certain size, I compressed it to make it denser to ensure it stays within the vessel I designed for it.
This process repeated multiple times until I heard the three of them speak to me once again.
"You have done well to contain it, now you must learn to use it. Draw upon the faith energy with your will, and bend it to your will. Once you bend the faith energy to your will. Contain it within a part of your body and enhance it with warp energy. At a certain point, ignite it all and pure faith energy will be released. Immediately pull that pure faith energy back into your body and let it flow through you."
Following the instructions they gave me, I used my will to force the faith to follow my command and I then placed it at the center of my chest.
I enhanced it with the warp until I felt a searing burn within my chest and I ignited it. Pure faith energy that looked like holy white flames burst out around me and I immediately drew that energy back in and let it flow through every cell in my body.
In that moment I felt unimaginable power and satisfaction at what I had achieved.
Using the faith of the other Emperors, I created an ability that lets me ascend but also not ascend.
I am now a false god, I use both the warp and faith without any of the downsides. With this power, I don't have to worry much about the astronomicon leaving me almost powerless.
Using the warp, I viewed myself and I paused. Divine, that was the first word that appeared in my mind when I witnessed my appearance. This will be a problem later on, if I ever have to use this ability in front of people.
Behind my head was a pointed flaming halo, my blue eyes had a ring of flames going around them. On my armor were runes written in every language that humanity has ever created. Flames hugged my body in pulsating patterns as if it was alive.
"Congratulations Neoth X͞͞L, choose name for this new ability of yours. Think carefully because in the warp, names themselves can hold power and picking the right name can empower your ability even further."
Hearing that, I thought carefully and reflected on how I looked. My current look made me recall a character I greatly admired during my time as Andrew. I decided immediately that I will name my ability after that characters strongest form becasue it was very fitting.
I turned to the three and replied.
"I'll call this ability, The One."
-To Be Continued...
(A/N: If anything feels off lmk.
I'll have an image soon for the MC's "The One" form.
Going forward my update schedule will be 3 chapters a week. Maybe 4 depending on how much free time I get after work.
Idk if it's just me but something about this chapter felt kinda disappointing, mb if yall also feel like that. I'll make it up with later chapters.)