bookpower Chapter 589 589: Rhodes's Plan
Chapter 589 589: Rhodes's Plan
"Of course it's feasible—it's my plan," Rhodes said.
"Only you could do something like this. No one else would even dream you'd drag them into another universe," Aisha said.
In this universe, the Chaos Gods are undying within it—unless they voluntarily abandon their Godshards, they're immortal in theory.
Under those conditions, killing them was wishful thinking. Before Rhodes, there was no such thing as killing a Chaos God.
Rhodes had used his otherworld system to erase a Godshard, but erasing a shard isn't the same as killing the god.
But if you could drag a Chaos God into another universe, then it might be possible.
In another universe, they couldn't draw on the Warp. They'd lose their undying nature and existence across all time and space.
Theoretically, they could be killed.
"Rhodes, this idea is excellent. Killing a Chaos God versus erasing a Godshard—totally different concepts.
You'd massively intimidate the remaining Chaos Gods—maybe even make them cower in the Warp, afraid to come out," Aisha said.
Indeed, Chaos Gods are cowards at heart. When the Old Ones, Necrons, and C'tans rampaged across realspace, the Warp gods didn't even squeak.
You think the War in Heaven was intense because of the Warp gods? It had nothing to do with them.
Back then, those three were utterly gutless.
The C'tan's genocide of the Old Ones actually harmed the Chaos Gods' interests—after all, the Old Ones wielded powerful psychic energy. Strong psychic species could, indirectly, empower the Chaos Gods.
If the Old Ones were wiped out, and the Necrons and C'tan succeeded in sealing off realspace and the Warp, forever preventing contact—
the Chaos Gods would be done.
In the end, the Necrons pulled a galaxy-brained move and betrayed the C'tan, shattering those physical-universe true gods into fragments. Even the three main Chaos Gods were stunned.
They thought they'd be sealed forever in the Warp, never daring to show their faces—then their enemies turned on each other and both lost.
Even after the Necrons withdrew from the stage and the Aeldari ruled the galaxy—did the Chaos Gods dare peep?
No. At the height of the Aeldari, their gods were overwhelmingly powerful. The ordered deities occupied the bulk of Warp power, suppressing the Chaos gods.
This lasted nearly sixty million years, until the Aeldari began to degenerate. Their gods could no longer draw strength from worshippers and grew weak. Even then, the Aeldari gods proudly believed they weren't inferior to the Chaos gods—until Aisha's birth taught them a harsh lesson.
The Aeldari gods' plan was to let their youngest goddess inherit Chaos power, while they faced their inevitable fate.
The Aeldari's fall heralded the Chaos gods' true rise. The galaxy entered the era of the Four Chaos, who spread corruption and grew their cults.
Ten thousand years ago, the Emperor of Mankind erupted onto the scene and nearly ended the Chaos gods' heyday.
The Four are powerful, but when faced with a hard target, they're more craven than anyone.
"Let's refine the plan—how do we lure Nurgle into realspace?" Rhodes asked.
How to trick him into entering the Ultraverse with them—that was the problem.
"Do we even need a complex plan? If it were another Chaos God, maybe. But Nurgle? Who's a better lure than me?" Isha flicked her hair confidently.
Handling that green fatty was child's play. If she made a move, he'd bite the hook.
"..."
Rhodes.
"True. If it were the others, it'd take effort. But Nurgle? If Isha acts, that green dead fatty will absolutely take the bait," Aisha giggled behind her hand.
"Alright. So how exactly?" Rhodes asked.
Isha was Nurgle's nemesis. If not for the Goddess of Life, that "Grandfather" wouldn't have left his little garden—he launched the Plague Wars and went head-on with the Imperium because of her.
"I'll leave the Cosmic Beast planet and stroll around. Without the phantasmal forces suppressing him, Nurgle will quickly detect me and try to capture me," Isha said.
For her, baiting Nurgle wasn't hard.
"Not so blatant, or he'll smell something. The Imperium and the Necrons are about to erupt into a fierce war.
I'll head to the front under the pretext of reinforcing a strained line. Then you can openly come with me, Isha, and let Nurgle 'discover' you," Rhodes said.
After stripping and erasing the Godshard, during the Indomitus Crusade, the Necrons had quietly crossed blades with the Imperium.
Recently, reports came in—several Imperial sectors had gone dark. The Necrons had begun their plan:
Forge a region completely isolated from any Warp influence. The Necrons had already engaged the Imperium in preliminary battles, led by—
Rhodes's two sons, supported by Archmagos Belisarius Cawl.
Rhodes wanted his sons to grow through this war, so he didn't rush to their aid.
The Necrons were strong, but with current tech, the Imperium could go toe-to-toe with them.
Moreover, his sons had cosmic beasts aiding them. Chaos forces on the Imperial Dark Side had gone quiet. Guilliman said he could dispatch a Primarch to help at any time if needed.
Swap that Primarch out for himself, and Rhodes could legitimately bring Isha to the front—and catch the Grandfather's eye.
"Crude, but for Nurgle, enough. We need a 'little accident'—arrange a supposed decisive battle near a Warp rift against the Necrons.
Then 'Grandfather' will watch more closely. When the Life Goddess appears, he won't resist trying to seize her," Aisha filled the gap in Rhodes's plan.
"Good. That's settled. Necron tech is very advanced. The Imperial refit—Ultra Knight mechs, King Joe, Ultra Brothers—will be very useful," Rhodes said.
For decades, Rhodes had been upgrading Imperial armaments precisely for this war.
Necron tech was advanced, but in the original timeline, the Mechanicus, armed with scraps of Dark Age tech, could already trade blows with the Necrons' taboo arsenal.
So they weren't that unstoppable.
Rhodes's new gear wouldn't steamroll, but the Ultramen and the King Joe, plus fully enhanced baseline humans and upgraded Astartes, would beat the stuffing out of the Necrons.
He even had moles among the Necrons—Barbarue and AsanethAyu. With Rhodes's help, AsanethAyu had become a Necron Dynastic Empress. Barbarue had infiltrated a Necron Overlord's tomb world.
He'd replaced the Overlord and become Rhodes's inside man. Through special revival-conversion methods, the dynasty's upper echelon—every Overlord—had been turned into Rhodes's people.
Now the Silent King faced external foes and internal woes. The Stormlord refused his orders, and the Empress AsanethAyu had grown close to that Stormlord.
This unsettled the Silent King, prompting the Spirit-Exclusion Dead Zone plan.
"Then let's proceed with your plan," Aisha said.
...
Elsewhere, in an unfamiliar star domain, Rhodes's two sons—Stark and Sterne—were leading their gene-sons, Astartes, against the Necrons.
"Brother! We must make Father proud in this war—prove our strength!" said Stark.
Years of campaign had stripped away youth; he was now a qualified Primarch.
"Careful, brother. We take this seriously. New Titan-class King Joe robots and refitted Ultra warrior-based Ultra Knight mechs must shine in this battle," Sterne said.
"Transmit to all forces: the war begins."
A Necron tomb world surfaced from a void rift, veins of sickly green energy pulsing across its surface. Sterne's fleet tore open its defense matrix; over a thousand new Emperor-class battleships volleyed, shattering the tomb world's outer shield.
"Landing forces, all legions—go!" Sterne's command echoed over psy-comm.
Drop pods hammered the surface like rain. Hatches blew and super-soldiers in new power armor roared forth.
These Primaris forged by Rhodes himself were stronger and more agile, wielding the latest Pedanium ray rifles.
Each shot turned Necron living-metal into quantum dust. These weapons weren't inferior to gauss; Necron line units were actually disadvantaged against these Astartes.
"For Father! For Humanity!" Sterne swung the twin-bladed power halberd "Vow of Endings," wreathed in phantasmal beast flame, bisecting three Necron Lords.
A terrible frost aura flowed from him—fire and ice both manifest.
Necrons were either burned to ash or frozen into statues and smashed.
His gene-sons followed, their grav-hammers pulverizing the Necron ranks.
"For our great gene-father—charge, brothers!" a legionary bellowed.
Like their father, these gene-sons wielded both frost and flame.
From the tomb depths came a metal shriek as dozens of Canoptek constructs rose, their antimatter cannons vaporizing half a company of Astartes. The sky split red—a trio of Ultra brothers descended.
"Ultra Knights—Imperial heroes—destroy those damned Necrons," Stark ordered.
The lead mech's chest core flashed; its arms crossed into a beam-lash that melted Canoptek engines into boiling slag.
Another transformed into a giant blade and cleaved a Triarch Stalker.
The Necron line collapsed under the new Imperial barrage.
Sterne's Emperor-class kept pouring Pedanium annihilation beams, each shot tearing huge gaps in the Necron fleet.
Stark led the Primaris in a crushing assault.
"For Father! For the Imperium!" a Primaris roared, punching a Necron Warrior; frost and flame detonated, the metal shell shattering under extreme thermal shock.
As the Canopteks tried to reform, a deafening mechanical roar rose from the Imperial rear—