130 The 5th God
"We shall deny Nurgle their flesh to fester and rot. We shall deny Khorne their blood and skulls. We shall deny Tzeentch their destinies and fates. We shall deny Slaanesh their pleasure and pain. Death to the Dark Gods! For the Renegade God! Let the galaxy burn!"
By: A Dirge of Malal
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Number 11 represents Malice, a renegade Chaos God and was considered 5th among his siblings. Unlike his brothers, Malice embodies complete chaos and anarchy which leads to his ultimate goal of destruction, including his own.
As a renegade and outcast God, Malice's power is parasitic in which his power grows when Runious power grows more powerful. This means in the 41st millennium, Malice is currently more powerful than ever as the world of 40k is in complete chaos.
Even though Malice is a Chaos God this doesn't mean he is on good terms with his siblings. All four Gods banished Malice from Chaos itself, which left no good relationship between siblings and place Malice in a unique situation.
Malice is outside of the Great Game and not part of it but still feared and hated by the other four powers for Malice's purpose is to end all things including Chaos itself. This is why followers of Malice purposely attack other chaos factions, interfering with the Great Game just like how the youngest among siblings always disrupts the game which leads to an argument and chaos.
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William flattened a floating undead with his hammer which stone floor cracks and shook the ground. Meanwhile, Rana cut down the enemy one after another as she covers William's rear with no mercy. With all this effort and killing for some reason the number of enemies didn't decrease. Instead, more enemies start to appear and enter the battle while defeated Boneclaws (Undead Monsters) regenerate the injuries and rejoin the fight.
The new monsters that entered the battle started the low level. From small monsters from goblins to rat-men, their interruption was nothing but a nuisance as William's combi-bolters finish the job. That is until larger monsters such as Oni, Demigryph, Chimera, and other formidable monsters began to appear. Soon, the chamber began to fill with endless enemies and more are just waiting within the opposite tunnel.
From this nightmare situation, the only positive thing was that none of the new monsters came back from death. The only creature that comes back are five Boneclaws and they are somewhat easy to defeat as long as William focuses his null effect on his weapon instead of the area effect. The reason why William is restricting himself is Rana is with him and he doesn't know how his null ability would affect the holy being such as Living Saint. For this reason, William focuses his ability on his weapon and takes the role of the tank and primary target in the battle.
"There is no end to this." Said Rana as she decapitated a troll's head with her flaming sword.
"I know," William replied while switching his combi-bolter with a twin barrel heavy flamer and proceed to wash the whole area in front of him. He has a near-infinite amount of items inside of inventory and his armor is indestructible with superhuman endurance. Rana on the other hand isn't as she is still a living, breathing being with limited options when it comes to weapons and defense.
"No signal still?" Rana asked since signal means William can call reinforcement through his armor-built-in Vox communicator.
"I got nothing. It's as if something is interfering with the signal. 'Or someone.'" William didn't say the last part to Rana as he began to suspect something is wrong with his situation.
Minators and Drows are somewhat understandable as both beings are from underground and Drows have a tendency to have various races as slaves. But to have this many monsters unleashed is just ridiculous unless someone with a higher power has a grudge against him. Just then, something big entered the chamber as a single step shook the very ground similar to what William's hammer did.
A giant humanoid monster entered the chamber as his both hands are sparking with lighting magic. The entire body is bulked with muscles, covered with blue tattoos of lighting symbols and the only cloth is a leather rag. Above everything else, the most noticeable thing about this monster is his single large eye that indicates what kind of monster race he belongs to.
A Storm Oracle Cyclops entered the chamber by crushing other monsters with ease as his body generates a lighting surge around him. The rest of the monsters did their best to evade the friendly attack but it was futile as Cyclops's massive size and magic destroyed them without a question.
The only thing William can say to himself is "Damn it," before the big monster unleashes a full lighting attack on William and everything around him.
Rana, who was a distance away from William at that time witness the whole thing after she slew a few small monsters with her sword. It was at this moment one of the Boneclaw ambushed her from above while she was distracted and delivered a severer cut from tainted claws.
Not even thinking about what just happened, Rana cut the undead monster's head and engulf herself with light to heal herself. The corruption of the undead attack slowed the healing process which resulted in Rana slowly retreating as she is being pushed by the other monsters.
The situation became critical as William emerged from the smoked ground after the lighting attack but couldn't fight back as Storm Oracle Cyclops slammed William with a large boulder directly on top of him.
William started to see a red alert from his visor as his armor started to overload due to stored energy reaching critical while Cyclops didn't give a moment for him to release it. Just as William got up and attempts to make his escape using teleportation, a giant fist slammed into him which shut down his armor temporarily as it finally reach the critical state.
With William down for short minutes and Rana on the corner with a limit, the defeat is near certain as more dangerous monsters entered the chamber. It was at this moment that everything froze in time as something extraordinary is happening in the real world.
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The real world (Designation: Prime World),
One after another, Mal gave his players playable sheet after sheet as the majority of them dies without an opportunity to attack the enemy. It came to a point where players simply rip the paper after receiving the sheets until Mal gave them much more powerful monsters.
"Hey Mal, are you sure this is ok? It is getting a bit boring." One of the players said to Mal after ripping the troll sheet.
"Yea, it's getting late, and at this point, we are just spending game time with a tsunami of monsters. Why don't we just skip to the part where we can stop for the night?" The second player said as he write down the damage his monster character have taken from the enemy Terminator.
"I agree. It's not like we are doing anything except pounding these two none stops for hours. At this point, we are doing nothing but pouring monsters until they are down." The third player said after he overviews the tabletop to review the situation. From his calculation, the Terminator unit has taken enough damage to kill an ancient dragon or other massive boss-type monsters.
"NO! We can stop after destroying these two. As I said, this part is the critical point of the story and I guarantee you that it will be worth it." Mal shouted at first and explain to his players that this will be the end of the session if they kill the two enemies. Of course, he promised a big reward to encourage his players but at this point, he ran out of time as someone approach his table.
"Hey guys, we are about to close the shop. Please finish the game and start packing." The shop employee said to Mal and his group and left as he have other stuff to do before closing the shop.
"Damn. I'm so close, I'm a few minutes away from proving to others that I can do what they can't accomplish."
Mal, a real name Malice said to himself as he attempt to make his roll using black dice. His power is limited in this world but he was able to connect links connection between two worlds using his black dice as a magic template. Due to his limited power in the real world, Malice decided to use players of the tabletop game as their gameplay can impact the other side without Malice spending his power.
There is a reason why Designation: Prime World is restricted to all beings including gods and beings above all divine. This world is where other worlds are created and branch off to infinite worlds. Humans of the real world are gifted with the power to create through their imagination. From the simple romance novel to a dark fantasy where humanity is suffering to near extinction, they are stories of incredible imagination and through these, the worlds are created and continue to live without their creators' knowledge.
With infinite worlds, come infinite beings with unspeakable powers but this doesn't mean they can do as they wish beyond their dimension. This is because going beyond their world means limiting or even cutting their god-like power. That is why four Chaos Gods were much easier to defeat in the world of D&D as they are restricted from obtaining power from other worlds.
This rule also applies to Prime World where there is no other source of magic besides people's imagination. Prime World has no magic, no chaos, no warp, and no supernatural things that could interfere with the natural order. To disrupt this order means disrupting infinite worlds and it could be the end of all things. If done right, it would result in complete chaos and Malice decided to live up to his name by breaking one rule that shouldn't be broken.
"Wait, young man. I have to talk to you. The rest of you can leave." An old man in a wheelchair approached Malice's table and spoke with a certain tone of authority. Tired and wanting to go back home, players gave simple goodbyes and left the shop, leaving human form Malice and a strange old man in a wheelchair. Before Malice can say anything, the shop light brightens and the entire shop began to experience the warmness of summer which is unimaginable because it is the middle of fall.
Sensing a power beyond the mortal realm, Malice was surprised for a second before identifying the true identity of the man in front of him. Smiling wide and cruel way, Malice welcomes a strange old man who possesses the presence of divinity.
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Sometime later,
"You do not have authority in this world. Why should I accept your request to simply leave? I'm having a blast and mind you, I want to be part of this 'Great Game,' even if I'm forcing my way to join." Malice who finished packing his stuff except for his ebony dice said to an old man sitting on the opposite side of the gaming table. Malice continued.
"When reality tore itself and created the great rift, it gave me an opportunity to make a few changes by coming here. The world, the world where fiction is made. A world where an entire universe can be created by mortals who simply imagine it and let it flow by itself like a river. I'm glad I came here while my siblings decided to spend their time and energy in another fictional world." Said Malice as he play his ebony dice with his fingers.
"You know you are not allowed here. Very few of us who possess power beyond our reality know the existence of the realm of truth and one rule that can't be broken. I'm here to take you back before all reality collapse into nothingness." The old man said as he place his hand up in the air to halt Malice from speaking. The old man continues.
"You had your fun and it is time to return before both of us cause unimaginable calamity."
"Are you done? Both of us know you have no authority or power over me since you entered this world. You are simply another me who is causing a massive problem just by existing here." Malice said as he stop playing the ebony dice and make a fist to show his seriousness.
"That may be true but my presence wouldn't be much impactful compared to yours. Let the flow of reality continue without our interference." Said the old man. The talk of order and the natural flow of things anger Malice as it wasn't his nature. He had been ignored for long enough in his world to forget about him which he didn't much appreciate.
"You are right about one thing. I don't have the authority to order you but you are forgetting something. While your siblings play their game in the other world they spent all the warp energy they could bring before falling back into their own. That rule applies to both of us and you have been here longer while I just got here." The old man opens his hand and with great force suddenly pulled from Malice's hand. In a matter of seconds, Malice lost his grip and dice which the old man managed to retrieve without any resistance.
"That is mine!" Malice protested and about to get up from his chair but it was too late. The moment the old man held the ebony dice he began to change as golden light surrounds him. In a blink of an eye, the old man in a wheelchair was no more, and instead, a man wearing a gold leaf crown, and a mix of red and gold clothes stood in front of Malice. Emperor of Mankind spoke as his voice echo through the reality of this world.
"Let us depart, Malice, the 5th Chaos god. You will enter this reality no more for I will close the entrance once and for all." The Emperor of Mankind then crushes the ebony dice, breaking the link between Malice and his anchor to the real world once and for all.
With terror on his face, Malice attempts to make a new anchor but as Emperor said, he didn't have his infinite power and by this time, he was nearly depleted to make any changes.
Malice vanished in the end, unable to finish his goal of complete chaos and return to his original universe. The reality slowly began to heal itself but not entirely as one more being's existence interfere with the process of recovery.
"I have done what needed to be done. As agreed upon, I will return and ensure none of my kind will come here again. Do you want 'him' back?" Emperor said in the empty comic book shop as if he was speaking to someone. The one who Emperor refers to wasn't Malice as he was asking about someone else.
A moment later, Emperor got his answer and smiled as he no longer have an obligation to stay anymore. With a sudden golden light, the Emperor of Mankind disappeared from reality and return to his own, letting the real world heal itself and forever closing the barrier between worlds.
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Back to Forgotten Realm,
Time resumed in which no one including the divine realm realized what just happened. William only has half a minute before his armor cools down and returns to fighting shape but time wasn't on his side as a Storm Oracle Cyclops is about to drop a giant stone pillar onto him. It was at this moment that everything changed as a barrier made out of pure light shielded William from being buried alive. To everyone's surprise, the new group joins the battle as a party of adventurers emerged from the tunnel with one particular old wizard casting a high-tier spell to save William and Rana.
"I don't know who you are but stand and fight! Don't let the dark forces win while you are down in your darkest moment. Stand, warriors!" A leader of the party, a paladin in golden armor, armed with great mace and shield shouts to motivate William and Rana.
William who couldn't communicate due to his armor in the process of rebooting simply blinked a few times and said to himself even though no one can hear him.
"Who the fuck are these guys?"
