What do I do?

Obviously, the Custode-General was not going to answer questions, but he also didn't give me a sign as to be relieved of his summons.

Was this some kind of test? I tapped the black table in deep thought when the door opened to allow two men to enter.

Captain Mirac_Chalosa the current Lord Phalanx of the Imperial Fists Chapter was escorted by Captain Orpheus_Taelos , commander of the Auric_Auxilia , the Imperial Fists' version of the Lamenter Auxilia, but formed from failed Marine Aspirants instead of regular people. Not that my Auxilia wasn't full of Blanks, cloneskeins and Catachans, with their own special genetic advantages.

"Lord Lancefire, it has been a while since we've met." the Lord Phalanx said first, and nodded towards me gently.

I was a Great Noble now, so I also nodded back. "You must mean that time I visited Terra, Lord Phalanx. I punched a bunch a Daemons while riding a Titan." I answered with a calm voice. We've never actually met in person, but we crossed paths defending Terra a while back.

"Your armor is bleeding?" Captain Taelos observed with a frown. Even for this magic universe, such things must be rare.

"Don't be silly, Captain. Armors can't bleed. The Custodes stabbed me with a flaming sword, that's all." I explained with a patient voice.

The two Imperial Fists glanced at each other, probably unaware of why the Custodes General had wanted to meet me.

"Ehem. Anyways, Lord Lancefire...how do you like the Phalanx?" Captain Chalosa continued in a pleasant tone, and tapped a button to turn over a section of the black table and reveal a tray fileld with drinks of all kinds. Must be his favorite party trick. Plenty of other Nobles would be impressed.

"Well, it is stronger than a Glorianna-class battleship, even in its current damaged and infected state. There are thousands of sub-systems in dire need of repair, and none of its ancient weapons are operational. But, considering its 20000 years of service, good enough." I said with a careless voice, yet speaking only the truth.

The Lord Phalanx sighed and sat at the table, while the other Captain grit his teeth in anger. "Good enough, huh?" he spoke in a sad voice.

"Is there a point, Lord Phalanx? I do have a Crusade Fleet outside, and a few more Tyranids to kill." I asked in a slightly shaper tone.

"Can you...come back and repair my ship, Lord Lancefire?" the old Astartes pleaded in a low tone.

Could I? Uh, the Phalanx was as large as a Blackstone Fortress. And filled with thousands of Golden Age devices of unknown functions.

"Sure, I'll fix your ship. But first, there is this Doom of Malan'tai I need to get rid off. The Auric Auxilia needs something more?" I asked just to make sure.

Captain Taelos managed to draw his gaze away from my bleeding chest and look into my pure, blue eyes. "If you're not too busy, Lord Lancefire. I've seen what wonders you did for the Raven Auxilia."

Right, I did provide 4 million Krieg cloneskeins for the Raven Guard Auxilia. And worked hard for a few days to provide them with Wyverns and other stuff.

The Phalanx was mostly empty though, they could house 4 billion troops easily, just like any of my big forts.

I raised my thumb and smiled, then vanished.

Back on the Singularity, the noosphere engulfed me like a torrential rain, with data pouring from every auspex and augury sensor, even before I sat down on the Command Throne.

Canis sniffed at my bleeding chest, and bit gently on my left glove. Yeah, buddy. We're going to reshape the infested Craftworld inside-out.

The fleet's bombardement with Lances and Nova Cannons had a minimal effect, for a Craftworld was extremly durable by design, and kilometers of Tyranid carapace and its psychic shield made it rather impervious to damage.

"Immaterium beams, splash the Malan'tai!" I ordered out loud, while directing the Lances onto the Warp Rift instead.

A loud howl emerged from the moon-sized vessel, so it probably didn't like being focused by soul-erasing beams of doom. A minute later, the Warp Rift closed as well, popping like a mirror struck by too many rocks.

Canis howled in return, the sound forming into a pair of gigantic golden jaws that crunched on the Malan'tai. It looked beautiful, but also deadly. The spiritual jaws managed to crush into the hull of the Craftworld, revealing a black-carapace Tyranid Zoanthrope , covered in lightning aura.

"All ships, cease fire!" I sent fleet wide.

'Dessima, Ordela with me!' I sent on the Sounding Board, then traversed the tesseract to appear at three points around the Tyranid creature.

Sister Dessima just held one hand out front, locking the creature in place with her Null powers, while Sister Ordela took out her C'tan Sword and plunged it into the big head of the Tyranid.

It still didn't die!

So, I joined as well with my time-draining sword, stabbing it into its heart while my Phase Claw cleaved the limbs of the Tyranid off, like branches from a tree.

Something evil moved behind the eyes of the Zoanthrope, and its tongue flicked towards my chest. Good luck going though the Null Box, stupid thing!

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But the tongue wasn't meant to hurt me, only wanting to lick the drop of blood from my armor. Sister Dessima stabbed the Tyranid as well, but too late.

Time stood still, as the alien tongue touched the blood. A burst of Divine energy and golden flames errupted from my chest, as the Emperor's Sword launched itself out like a missile.

Choosing to be cautious, I drained time through the chronophagic blade and dialed the current time half a second back.

The alien tongue flopped severed on the floor, as the Doom of Malan'tai died in the Emperor's flames before reaching its target. Time was on my side now.

The two Omega-minus Pariah sisters nodded at me and vanished in the tesseract, while I walked the halls of the Craftworld, in search for more loot. It wasn't like the Tyranids would know what was valuable on a Craftworld, beside biomass.

To my surprise, I found a hundred Grey Knights armor suits, with the helmets ripped off and the bodies slurped out like soup. An entire Company of them, dead and eaten. Perhaps it was not a good idea to send psykers to fight a psyker-eating creature?

Even better, one of the Grey Knights had a Daemon Blade at his hip, exactly what I needed right now to increase my sword skills.

Then I searched more, and found hundreds of Wraith Knights and Titans, all empty of living occupants but valuable even so. Lastly, I located the armory of the Crawftworld, with millions of Eldar weapons and vehicles of all types, but only a dozen Spirit Stones still intact. Thanks for the loot, Hive Mind!

The crazy Zoanthrope must have fed on the souls of millions of Eldar to grow so strong, and then even more if it ate 100 Grey Knights.

No wonder the Emperor sent his Custodes-General to deal with this problem, even arming him with his flaming sword.

And then changed his mind and used me as the sword bearer, so to speak. To be fair, it was the better choice.

I was quite deadly, if I had to be.

The Daemon Sword in my hand seemed to think so as well, begging to be let go. Yeah, not today.

Ashes of iron and blood flaked off as the Daemon Sword disintegrated in my hand, and a warm glow emerged from my chest.

I glanced down, and the drop of blood on my armor flowed into my Null Box and remained suspended like a red tear outside of time.

Another miracle? Or was it on purpose?

Anyways. The hull of the hybrid-Malan'tai should make exceptionally strong armor plates. The Hive Mind had produced a miracle of its own.

Probably not intended as a gift for me, but I'll take it anyways. Anything that could withstand a Warp Leviathan and 300 Battleships firing at it for an hour should be quite durable indeed.

Now, I should meet Sanguinius too.

Storing the Craftworld in my inventory was very hard, but I pushed through the mental pain. I had become quite a bit stronger than my early days of using a Necron tesseract and fainting after moving a few torpdoes.

"...here already." Patrocles spoke as I stepped beside him.

"Lord Sanguinius, good to see you!" I began in a pleasant tone, and patted my son on his pauldron.

"Chapter Master Lancefire! Come, we should talk." the tall Primarch demanded in a noble voice, then teleported to his office.

I followed after him, not via teleport but just as fast.

"So, you heard?" he asked while folding his white wings away.

"The Emperor wants a new Warmaster? Yes, I was told. Bad idea." I commented with light voice and summoned my metal throne to sit in, as the Primarch sat in his own golden chair.

The Primarch's eyes glanced to the side, and his raven-haired brother emerged from a shadow, still covered in blood and gore.

"Corax, Khan, Angron, Mortarion and Perturabo. They will be your Imperial Fist, to be used as you deem necessary. If they turn, you know what to do, Warmaster." Sanguinius said in a soft voice, promissing death by a thousand cuts.

My fist clenched, urging me to punch his smooth angelic face.

"I can understand testing the traitors. This guy did not fall." I pointed with a finger at Primarch Corax.

"Technically, he did. Not to a Dark God, but to his own dark urges. Same with Khan, becoming a butcher for the Dark Eldar. The new Fulgrim instead...he is an innocent clone. You should hear him sing." my Primarch countered with a faint smile.

I already knew what the Emperor planned to do with Magnus, which was likely far worse than anything I could do. If I understood the Custodes words correctly, Magnus will become a vessel for the Starchild, while absorbing the souls of all the Thousand Sons in the process. At a minimum of 70000 souls, it will make the Starchild 100 times stronger than Sister Stern with her 700 souls.

"I don't like it. I'll do it if I have to, but this sucks. The entire Imperium sucks!" I exclaimed in outrage.

"You rage against the dying of the light, Lancefire. You lament, grieve and mourn, while trying to push against entropy with your hands alone. The truth is, we failed. The Emperor, my brothers and the Imperium as a whole. We can only build again, far away from the new Throne of Light. " Sanguinius spoke in a gentle voice.

Corax appeared at my side and knelt in front of my throne. "I hear and obey the Emperor's command. Use me well, Warmaster." the Primarch said in a simple tone.

Damn it!

"We should spar a little, Primarchs. To the first blood, nothing more. You have plenty of room on this Fortress." I demanded in a level tone, as I stood up and my throne folded in the tesseract.

Sanguinius raised an amused eyebrow, while Corax frowned. "Who goes first?" he asked cautiously.

"I'll take both of you at once. Don't worry, I'll be gentle." I explained in a mild tone.