Warhammer: The 11th Primarch - The Black Emperor

At the tail end of summer on the great world of Fenris, a gunboat soared into the sky above the Sea of Storms, defying the raging weather.

Most Fenrisians, having grown up surrounded by endless, tumultuous oceans, naturally envisioned their entire world as one great sea, thus naming it the Sea of Storms.

Indeed, the living realm of Fenris, apart from the one permanent continent of Asaheim, was nothing but this vast, stormy sea.

Inside the gunship, two figures approached the hatch.

The Wolf King shed his fur cloak, revealing the armor crafted by Fenrisian smiths, engraved with runes carved by the Gothi.

Nareth glanced at the runes, immediately sensing the raw and savage warp energy pulsing within them.

He himself wore custom-forged armor made in advance by a tech-sergeant. Though its protection couldn't compare with the finest works of the Mechanicum, it was much lighter and more agile in water.

The Emperor looked ahead at his two sons, golden light flashing in his eyes as he peered into the strands of fate, foreseeing the outcome of their coming contest.

Nareth's proposal for a hunt had disrupted the results of the Emperor's earlier divinations via p, those results were now unreliable.

Sympathetic magic and psychic prophecy both revealed the future, but differed greatly in complexity and effect.

While prophecy mapped out countless strands of fate from a present moment, sympathetic magic was dynamic, the Emperor could incorporate variables into a simulation of the future.

It was this method the Emperor trusted more, using it as the basis for many of his strategies.

Every factor accounted for in a plan could alter the outcome, which made sympathetic magic more difficult to use. Even the Emperor suffered pain each time he employed it.

Moments later, the golden glow faded from his eyes. As the two Primarchs leapt from the gunship into the sea, he turned to Alpharius and asked:

"Vostroya is like Terra, covered in hive cities and wastelands. Leman Russ is more adept at hunting in the icy seas."

"Nareth will win."

In the first image seen during his foresight, Nareth hunted a far larger sea monster, securing victory.

Among the countless possible outcomes, both Primarchs had their wins and losses, but the Emperor trusted the first vision.

As the Emperor and Alpharius conversed, both Nareth and Leman Russ dove like missiles into the sea.

The Wolf King let out a loud howl, shouting a challenge in the Fenrisian battle tongue, Vogan:

"The victor will be me! Your sorcery tricks are useless!"

Nareth was about to respond when a psychic-pulse flashed through his mind, the voice from the Emperor himself:

"Do not use psychic powers. Win in the Fenrisian way."

Just as Nareth frowned slightly, the Emperor's voice came again:

"I will reward you with a relic-class battleship."

At that, Nareth agreed readily, sending a thought-pulse back to the Emperor aboard the high-altitude gunship.

"Agreed."

He then closed his eyes. No longer relying on psychic powers, he also refrained from using Warp Insight, which was deeply connected to the Sea of Souls.

But even without psychic abilities, he still had access to mystical items.

Over time, he had successfully linked with the gauntlet through the Third Layer of Reality in the Kingdom of Disorder

He learned that it was tied to Sequence 1 of the "Adjudicator" pathway, The Hand of Order.

Now, Nareth infused the power gauntlet with spirituality, activating a Sequence 1-level beyonder ability known as Supernatural Intuition, belonging to the "Sheriff" stage of that path.

Normally, a Sequence 7 being wouldn't be able to channel power from such a high-level item, but the Hand of Order belonged to one of the two main paths recognized by the Kingdom of Disorder

Essentially, a being of high spiritual rank could exert absolute control over mystic items from the same path. Once linked, Nareth could use its higher-tier abilities to a limited degree.

In an instant, his perception swept across the entire Sea of Storms. All unshielded entities connected to evil, chaos, or madness lit up in his mind.

He saw ice worms burrowing into Asaheim's glacial fjords, sea serpents hunted by nomadic tribes, and countless potential targets of his hunt, especially the kraken, a titanic, octopus-like sea beast.

An overwhelming flood of information, enough to rupture a mortal's brain, surged into the Nareth's mind.

With superhuman speed, Nareth processed and analyzed it, quickly locking onto the largest kraken in the Sea of Storms.

According to the agreed terms of victory, whoever hunted the largest kraken would win. The outcome was now certain.

Once he confirmed its location, Nareth surged toward it.

His muscular fibers trembled at a frequency of 3,311 oscillations per second. The ocean currents became propulsion for his superhuman body.

The wake trailing behind him resembled a shockwave from an explosion, any fish unlucky enough to be caught in it were shredded instantly.

Aboard the gunship, the Master of Mankind shifted his gaze from the Wolf King to the crimson line slicing through the sea.

He frowned. In that moment just now, only the Emperor had sensed a faint ripple of energy, something different from psychic power.

It wasn't warp energy, but another strange force.

The Emperor tried to recall the fluctuation, analyzing what it could be.

Moments later, he gave up. The energy had lasted only a moment, was unfamiliar to him, and too weak to classify, he could only draw vague conclusions:

'Its effect seems similar to an auger or divinatory matrix. Given the contest's goal, Nareth likely used some form of biological detection. Does he possess an item capable of scanning Fenris's vast oceans?'

Based on this limited information, the Emperor deduced that the item allowed for vast-area marine detection.

'To scan oceans that large, it must be a relic from the Dark Age of Technology. But what could it be? The power gauntlet I gave him only alters the environment in strange, law-enforcing ways, it shouldn't be related. The power sword is sharp, but has no special abilities'

After pondering a while, the Emperor still couldn't find a definite answer.

'Whatever it is, if Nareth can detect the largest kraken's location, he will win. The sympathetic magic forecast was accurate after all. The process deviated slightly, but Nareth did not disappoint me. I should reward him with a few more relic-class warships.'

Meanwhile, as Nareth surged through the Sea of Storms, he suddenly felt something inside him begin to melt, the Briber potion had digested further.

His nearly depleted spiritual energy recovered by about 10%.

"Huh? What did I just do to trigger that digestion?"

He was confused, but based on past feedback, Nareth had already deduced part of the Briber's persona requirements.

He needed to engage in bribery, whether deliberately or subconsciously.

Since he hadn't intentionally bribed anyone just now, it must have been subconscious, but still counted and yielded a reaction.

"The feedback must have come from the Emperor… But what exactly was it?"

His thoughts were interrupted as he returned focus to the physical world.

He had sensed it, the presence of a colossal sea beast.

The sea monster moved slowly, yet caused a violent disturbance in the water.

Its every breath stirred massive currents.

The sea monster of Fenris, the Kraken.

...

If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.

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