Chapter 682: You Want Us to Fight the Tau?

Crunch crunch crunch, crunch crunch crunch.

The sound of gnawing echoed endlessly within the Brass Fortress, as the gods’ projections once again gathered in the domain of the Blood God.

Except for Tzeentch, all the gods held something in their hands and gnawed at it.

The Blood God clutched a bowl of crimson blood, Nurgling held a bubbling pot of thick broth, Zhou Yun held a dorayaki, and Slaanesh held a single rod.

These were all fragments of concepts they had torn away from Tzeentch’s domain during the recent chaos.

The crimson blood symbolized chance in war, the bubbling broth symbolized ceaseless mutation of life, the dorayaki symbolized curiosity, and the rod symbolized unintended conception.

Tzeentch’s projection now bore a bruised and swollen appearance, symbolizing the heavy price he paid in the recent battle.

Khorne, Slaanesh, and Nurgling had initially been in a state of hesitation.

Tzeentch’s deception had caused the Hive Mind to consume the Stack of Primordial Blood; though they believed this nine-tenths, they lacked concrete proof and were unwilling to act rashly.

But when Zhou Yun moved, Tzeentch’s damned beak was still shrieking, “All of this was part of the plan!”—an outright provocation to the gods, who were thus enraged and immediately joined forces with Zhou Yun, tearing away large portions of Tzeentch’s former domain.

Zhou Yun swallowed the fragment of curiosity in just a few bites.

He could pin this blame on Tzeentch thanks entirely to Change-Spirit.

All the gods’ domains contained inherent contradictions: Nurgling’s cycle of life and decay, Slaanesh’s indulgence and love, the Blood God’s courage and wanton slaughter—but none surpassed Tzeentch’s depth of contradiction, for contradiction itself had become an intrinsic part of Tzeentch.

This very contradiction drove Tzeentch toward self-separation: he forbade himself from becoming too powerful, from knowing all past and future, from having his schemes go undetected.

These prohibitions led respectively to the shattering of Tzeentch’s scepter, the separation of the Eternal Well, and the birth of Change-Spirit—turning Tzeentch, once the most powerful entity in the Warp, into what he is now.

Change-Spirit, in a certain sense, was a part of Tzeentch himself; Zhou Yun used an artifact to alter Change-Spirit’s memories, making it forget its true nature—equivalent to Tzeentch himself forgetting Change-Spirit.

Originally, Tzeentch had secretly slipped Change-Spirit into the Lion’s Dream, attempting to corrupt Leman Russ unnoticed, gaining another Daemon Primarch; thus, Change-Spirit’s movements were concealed from the other three gods, who did not know it had been captured by the Emperor and fallen into Zhou Yun’s hands.

The traces left by Change-Spirit’s actions appeared to the gods as Tzeentch’s own traces; combined with Tzeentch’s reputation, even Tzeentch himself instinctively suspected he had done it.

“Did I really do this?” Tzeentch asked, sounding confused and uncertain.

“Who else could have done it?” Zhou Yun glanced at Tzeentch and asked coldly.

“Perhaps I did,” Tzeentch mused after a moment.

After all, Tzeentch had carried out grand schemes before—ones he himself had forgotten.

After all, everything was part of the plan.

“The situation is clear now: we must prevent the Birth of the Lord of Greedy Dissolution. The Cursed One cannot bear the burden of another domain,” Slaanesh said, voice tinged with gloom.

He had secretly allied with Tzeentch, never expecting Tzeentch to go rogue and create this mess.

Slaanesh now bore deep resentment.

Yet Slaanesh could not deny that Tzeentch had played an excellent move.

“The Hive Mind, the Warp Shadow—though it possesses the potential to rival us, it is fundamentally unlike us.”

“It draws its power from the mindless insect swarms of the material universe, rising from them, integrating them, and binding them together.”

“For our demonic legions to harm it, we must enter the material universe, step into the range of its shadow—something far too difficult for our demons.”

Slaanesh murmured, his gaze shifting toward Zhou Yun:

“You hold the most Primarchs, possess a physical body in the material universe, and can command humans, Necrons, and Eldar—only you can.”

“No time. Busy fighting the Tau.”