Chapter 552

Zhou Yun felt he was dreaming, a long dream that repeated endlessly, each iteration slightly different.

In the dream, he was transported to the Warhammer universe, to the planet Asford in the Avernus system, dragged from a trash heap by a gang member named Luo Ge, and became a scavenger in the Underhive.

And according to Zhou Yun's memories, the Tyranid swarm was about to arrive in the Avernus system, and inexplicably, a glowing, radiant bird-like figure had appeared in the corner of his eye.

If not for his Doraemon-style fourth-dimensional pocket as a cheat, Zhou Yun would have already been sobbing like a crushed gretchin.

Then, in that long dream, Zhou Yun dreamed he fought the Tyranids on Asford, resurrected the Archangel on Baal, and met the Emperor on Tara.

He helped Khaen complete his revenge, killed Erebus, devoured Angron, and resurrected Leman Russ.

But the key question was: what next?

He chose to ally with the Necrons, attempting to blanket the entire galaxy with Blackstone Towers, overlaying reality with a weaker anti-warp field that did not disturb the souls of sentient life, drastically weakening the warp's influence on reality, and replacing warp travel with Kael's improved gate technology.

He spent centuries, enduring countless hardships, finally placing Blackstone Towers at every critical node.

During this time, he faced endless resistance, made enemies of the gods themselves—even the Warmaster no longer wished to support him.

But he seemed to have done this hundreds, even thousands of times before; every step was calculated, every obstacle anticipated.

Yet just as he was about to activate the anti-warp field across the stars, Mars shattered, the seals binding the Dragon of Mars crumbling to dust.

Blackstone was the creation of the Void Dragon; in an instant, it reversed the polarity of every Blackstone Tower, turning the suppressors into amplifiers, and in a blink, the Rift swallowed the entire galaxy.

In the boundless flood of the warp, the gods and their demons lifted the fragments of the Void Dragon, restoring it to wholeness.

More bizarre still, the Blackstone Tower matrix designed by Kael, the Silent King, and the Enlightened Zelas transformed into a single, intricate, star-spanning device capable of adjusting the polarity of each tower to manipulate every strand of warp energy across the galaxy.

Thus, the Void Dragon, using the Blackstone Towers scattered throughout the galaxy, gained dominion over warp energy, and with the relics of the Old Ones as sacrifice, began its ascension toward the Lord of Malicious Arts, nearly becoming a god of both material and reality.

Simultaneously, the Void Dragon rewrote the Master Protocol, turning the Necrons into its puppets, ravaging the stars already wracked by the warp flood.

The Emperor, helpless, rose from the Golden Throne and ascended as the Dark King.

On that day, Zhou Yun saw only one thing: a black sun rising simultaneously in both reality and the warp, its disk flanked by Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Khorne, and the Void Dragon, who had ascended at the same instant as the Emperor.

In the end, the galaxy perished, the universe fell silent, all things returned to death.

But it did not matter.

Zhou Yun could still try again, for all that had just happened was merely a dream.

This time, he dreamed he allied with the Tyranids.

He led Sanguinius, Leman Russ, and the cloned Fulgrim through countless Tyranid swarms, pushing straight toward the Tiamat system.

In that system, the Tiamat Hive Fleet had built a bio-tower that continuously emitted intense psychic light.

When Zhou Yun's Imperial fleet advanced on Tiamat, the Tyranids reacted as if provoked—every Hive Fleet, whether Leviathan, Kraken, or Behemoth, surged like mad to defend the Tiamat system.

Yet he displayed tactical brilliance that left Guilliman stunned; as if he had fought these swarms thousands of times before, he knew every move they would make, and even convinced the Orks, persuading Gorgutz to lead his Green Tide through the Tyranid ranks, carving a path.

He reached the Tiamat system and entered the viscous bio-tower, facing the Great Devourer at its peak.

He offered the Great Devourer his terms, showed him the miraculous effects of the Multiplication Serum, and created chestnut buns that replicated every five minutes, in exchange for Tyranid cooperation.

But he was betrayed.

He remembered only his physical body being pierced by a sword wreathed in flame, the heat consuming him, leaving behind only infinite proliferating chestnut buns spreading across the endless void.

Countless Tyranids devoured the exponentially multiplying chestnut buns, and drawn by their call, more and more Tyranids poured from the void—all Hive Fleets flooded into the galaxy, sustained by the buns' endless replication.

Eventually, the Tyranids sank into endless consumption; the Great Devourer completed itself, sacrificed its own being to ascend to the Throne of Gluttonous Dissolution, and boundless warp shadows began devouring the material universe.

And because the Tyranids had eaten so much, they overwhelmed the four gods, spreading through the warp itself.

In the end, the Emperor, helpless, rose from the Golden Throne, ascended as the Dark King, joined the other three gods in beating Slaanesh senseless, then became a black sun and collided with the Great Devourer.

In the end, the galaxy perished, the universe fell silent, all things returned to death.

But it did not matter.

Zhou Yun could still try again, for all that had just happened was merely a dream.

This time, he dreamed he boarded a time machine, returning to the Great Crusade era, to the moment before Horus fell.

He saved Cypher of the Shadow Wolves, earned Horus's trust, and met Sanguinius of that age—who, through his prophetic sight, also trusted him.

He crushed Erebus's skull for trying to deceive Horus, and obliterated the Daemon World of Dai Wen with an Earth-destroying bomb, successfully saving the Warmaster Horus and preventing his fall to Chaos.

Later, he sold Fulgrim's dagger, rescuing Fulgrim from Slaanesh—but just as all seemed bright, as if the Horus Heresy would never come…

Robert Guilliman betrayed him, became an Eternal Champion, and the five hundred worlds of Ultramar were swallowed by a storm of blue and gold warp energy.

He felt unbearable anguish—Guilliman's rebellion was worse than Horus's. Horus was merely a military man, his tactics limited to lightning strikes and surprise attacks on Terra.