Chapter 40: Alliance
Tzeentch. The Zerg. The Emperor. And Miraboreas, standing right in front of him. They were like the cords of a vast net, drawing tighter and tighter around Lin with every passing year. He had been in this universe for a century, and it had never once occurred to him that he might one day be worthy of such distinguished attention.
He had always assumed that kind of treatment would come after he'd cracked faster-than-light travel — not after cobbling together a handful of toys. And yet here these beings were, circling him. And it wasn't even the knowledge in his head they were after.
"I have to admit, I'm puzzled," Lin said, frowning. "What do I have that's worth this much trouble? My Blank constitution that suppresses your psionics?"
"It's more than suppression. Let me show you."
Miraboreas, still wearing Admir's body, stepped close to Lin and made deliberate contact with him. Lin watched as Admir's eyes cleared in an instant — awareness flooding back into them.
"What happened?" Admir said, disoriented. "Why did I just lose —"
The words died in his throat as control of his body was surrendered once more to Miraboreas.
"Well?" Miraboreas asked. "What did you observe?"
Lin turned it over rapidly, working through the variables. Souls recoiled from Blanks as a matter of course — weaker Blanks left people feeling drained and listless, while powerful ones like the Sisters of Silence could make a person feel their very soul being slowly drawn out. Warp entities facing a Blank would find their power diminished, their presence in the material universe suppressed — but suppression didn't mean instant erasure from a single touch...
Lin understood. "Not suppression. Banishment?"
"Still not quite precise enough. But yes — your constitution is singular. You aren't merely untouchable to psionics in the way a Blank is. What you represent is something closer to a negation of the Warp itself."
Miraboreas seemed genuinely fascinated. "Your existence reminds me of the Necrons from ages past — and the masters behind them. Less 'no soul, unaffected by the Warp,' and more... a symbol of the material universe's own solidity."
"Aren't the Necrons enemies of the Old Ones — and of you?"
"Times change. The Warp back then wasn't the open sewer it is now, and the material universe wasn't nearly so close to the edge. The material universe is riddled with wounds these days — a little more stability would be a welcome thing."
Lin tilted his head. "But you're a World Soul — a Warp entity yourself, aren't you?"
"That's a different matter entirely. We exist in the Warp, yes, but our physical forms are rooted in the material universe."
The word 'we' made Lin think immediately of the Emperor, bound to the Golden Throne. The Black Dragon, meanwhile, drew the dragon sword Red Leaf — Lin's own work — from Admir's belt.
He turned the tachi over in his hands, admiring it as he spoke. "You and your creations share this quality. Small wonder the fire-thief is so taken with you. I, too, find your abilities admirable — so much so that I set aside a near-completed Elder Dragon in favour of choosing you."
"If your mind was already made up, why wait? Why not reveal yourself before we fought the Silver Rathalos?"
"I have been arranging pieces for a very long time. The Silver Rathalos and the Astartes — one was always destined to become the sacrifice that elevated the other. My original intention was to guide the birth of a new Elder Dragon. In the end, I abandoned that path and let you lead the Astartes to victory over the Silver Rathalos."
"Now, those Astartes will serve as the gift by which I demonstrate my sincerity. You need their strength to expand your reach across the galaxy — don't you?"
Lin rubbed his chin, turning over everything Miraboreas had laid out.
"Abandoning the Elder Dragon's birth sounds like you came out the worse for it."
"Not entirely. The Astartes remnant was a force without a future — unable to forge new warriors, doomed to serve as someone else's offering eventually."
"But bring them back into the wider galaxy, and they gain new recruits — and through those recruits, a steady supply of new conflict for this world. I'll call them the Hunters, as their own traditions do. It suits them."
"To me, what the Hunters can bring about is worth far more than any single Elder Dragon. Managed well — kept in balance with the existing ecosystem — I believe they will drive a kind of... mutual advancement."
"But I don't need your permission to take them with me," Lin pointed out sharply. "This planet's ecosystem is withered. There are hardly any apex-tier creatures left. I'm heading out into the galaxy — what exactly can you do to me when you don't even have an Elder Dragon?"
"Which is precisely why this is a partnership."
The Black Dragon smiled with total confidence — the look of someone who already knew how this ended. He set the dragon sword Red Leaf down in front of Lin.
"Remarkable weapon, isn't it? A beast's soul hammered into iron — techniques and combat instincts buried within the weapon's very spirit. Not even the Old Ones in their age ever conceived of such a construction."
"I despise the practice of forging a dragon's life into a weapon — it desecrates the wildness of their soul. Yet this blade strikes a peculiar balance between the two. It honors rather than violates."
"The pity is that the Hunters cannot yet draw out its full nature. Without psionics, they cannot feel the soul surging within it. I, however, can channel those souls — souls that were always mine to begin with — and guide the Hunters, helping them unlock what these weapons truly are."
"Wait — so that Dragon Ascent technique..."
Lin had been quietly puzzling over how that strike had been executed. He'd assumed it was the World Soul lending direct assistance. It had never crossed his mind that the ability was built into the weapon itself.
Then again, Monster Hunter's protagonists always picked up a weapon and immediately used every technique it offered. Thinking about it now, the 'built-in manual' concept made perfect sense.
Still — psionics as the trigger. No wonder the dragon sword Red Leaf had felt unremarkable when he first forged it. The depth had been there all along, hiding.
Lin had already absorbed the full breadth of Monster Hunter's forging knowledge. What he could craft was no longer limited to materials from this single planet. But psionics as a prerequisite for unlocking weapon abilities remained a genuine threshold.
Outside the Grey Knights — who remained nowhere to be found — there was probably no Chapter in existence that fielded an entire force of psykers. Given that, wielding weapons of this kind would require the willing guidance of a World Soul, every single time...
Seeing Lin's expression shift toward interest, Miraboreas pressed the advantage. "And there's more. Once you've returned to the galaxy, you can send their aspirants and new recruits here to be cultivated."
"You may have your own methods for purging the traces Tzeentch left in their Gene-Seeds — but nothing you have will be as convenient or as systematic as what I can offer. You provide Hunters who enrich the ecosystem; I provide warriors fit to campaign across the galaxy. Neither side loses anything in this arrangement."
"All you ask for is Hunters?" Lin was already convinced, but he wanted final confirmation.
"Increasing the competitive pressure within the ecosystem is my most urgent need. You're winning your future; I'm winning mine. With Hunters who can wield weapons bearing monster souls, this world gains the foundation from which blood and fire may forge more Elder Dragons. When the species of this planet grow rich enough in number and power, perhaps the Ancestor Dragon will wake once more. That is my purpose."
"As for everything else — consider it a future investment. The details aren't essential right now."
The Black Dragon raised his head. Even inside the space hulk, his gaze seemed to pierce the hull overhead — reaching past it to the galaxy beyond, and beyond that, to the highest heaven of all.
"Your unusual constitution can drive out the Warp's corruption and anchor the material universe. Perhaps one day you will become its guardian. When that time comes, I will no longer need to raise Warp storms for self-protection, and the Azure Star can rejoin the wider world once more... but who knows? I find myself looking forward to that possibility, even if I won't hold my breath."
"Whatever the case, our mutual interests right now are more than sufficient to ground our partnership — among the Hunters, and between you and me."
Humanity had never trusted aliens. But whether to cooperate had nothing to do with trust — shared interest was the only foundation that actually held.
Besides, this World Soul's every waking thought was consumed by his dragon lineages.
The dragon kindreds did not appear to be the sort of sapient beings who expanded outward, grasping at galactic dominion. That meant there was precious little potential for conflict of interest between the Black Dragon and Lin.
Perhaps when the Cunning One had dropped him onto this planet, he had already foreseen exactly this outcome.
Lin didn't know the answer — just as he didn't know whether the being seated on the Golden Throne was still a man or had become something more. But approaching it from the same pragmatist angle as that figure, he found he had no reason to refuse.
"Then let's make this a good partnership."
Lin extended his hand to Miraboreas, and the Black Dragon took it.
"Indeed. A good partnership. I don't imagine it will be anything less."
A World Soul born in the age of the War in Heaven. A transmigrant whose constitution approached that of a Star God. And a ragtag band of Monster Hunters. Having unravelled at least part of the mystery, Lin found himself possessed of an alliance that strained the imagination.
More mysteries still coiled around him — but he believed that here, a full century after arriving in the Warhammer universe, he had at last taken a firm step forward.
— Author's Note 1: End of Volume One! Next time: Beast War!
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