"Hehehe..." Lucius chuckled. Seeing Slaanesh's begrudging acceptance, he saw no need to press further; as one of the Ruinous Powers, the Dark Prince was not an easy foe to handle.
With a grand sweep of his hand, he declared, "This time, victory belongs to the children of the Rat. No matter how perfect the masterpiece, it cannot escape the fate of being cast aside."
Below, the Skaven and the giant rats erupted into a cacophonous twittering of cheers. Even among the rat-kin, a strange sense of clan pride existed, and for these daemonic vermin, the feeling was doubly potent. They shrieked their triumphs in piercing voices, already scheming how to calculate their own merit, slander the contributions of others, and grovel before the Great Horned Rat for favor.
At a nod from the Great Horned Rat, the erosion of the Realm of Ruin upon the Palace of Slaanesh began to recede. The Palace was the very manifestation of Slaanesh's power; had Lucius managed to fully swallow the Circle of Gluttony, he would have usurped its authority.
However, he could not… not yet. The reason he had breached the Circle of Gluttony so easily was that the Great Horned Rat held a portion of the portfolio of gluttony Himself; the Horned Rat's divine authority overlapped with all Five Gods, including the Emperor. Slaanesh would never simply abandon such a domain, and Lucius was not yet ready to commit to a total war of attrition against the Dark Prince.
Regardless, the two primary objectives of this excursion had been achieved. One was Isha, currently in his grasp. The other...
While Slaanesh's full attention had been diverted by the Great Horned Rat, the fifth Cronesword, once resting within the decadent halls of the Palace, had quietly vanished. In its place sat a rusted, filth-encrusted shard of iron shaped like a longsword, a mocking substitute.
With a singular leap, the Great Horned Rat led His daemonic legions back into the Realm of Ruin. In the mortal realm, Deathmaster Snikch snapped out of a trance-like daze. For a moment, the master assassin truly believed he had been dreaming.
Then, he looked at the Black Thirteen and saw only ten remained.
"Report-return to the Clan immediately," Snikch commanded, his voice cold and pitiless. "Tell-ask them to begin-start selecting three replacements for the Black Thirteen."
"Yes-yes, venerable Deathmaster!"
Snikch nodded, dismissing the survivors. He stretched his limbs and gripped his three Weeping Blades, only to find, to his astonishment, that the souls of Slaaneshi daemons he had slain was now sealed within each blade. The daemons wailed and shrieked from within the steel, utterly helpless.
Snikch realized at once that this was a boon from the Great Horned Rat. By wielding these weapons, he could harness the essences of the three: one representing the prowess of the duel, one the power of lurking shadows, and the third the ability to sever psychic connections. Bound by the Horned Rat's power, these daemons would never taste freedom unless Snikch was defeated and his blades shattered.
The Deathmaster dropped to one knee, bowing toward the direction of the Great Horned Rat's shrine.
"The Horned Rat walks among us," he whispered.
…
While Snikch received his reward in the mortal world, his mentor, Sneek, had perfectly executed his mission within the Realm of Ruin. A weapon resembling a dueling rapier was presented by Sneek to his god.
Lucius, having reverted to his human form, took the final Cronesword and gave it a casual flourish. In his hands, the blade's power was pushed to its absolute limit. Its enchantment granted the wielder speed beyond mortal comprehension; the velocity of its strike was something no mundane being could hope to match.
After a few passes, however, Lucius lost interest. He tossed the Cronesword onto the ground, letting it gather dust alongside the countless other treasures of the Realm of Ruin, until the Great Horned Rat or some enterprising Verminlord decided to scavenge through the wreckage.
"How pathetic. Your children actually thought such toys could defeat Slaanesh or resurrect Ynnead?" Lucius remarked to the figure beside him, a presence far removed from his own unremarkable, black-robed human guise. "The God of Death requires the genuine concept of Death to awaken. I know of a certain Golden... well, he can only truly be awakened when the subjects he cherishes have all perished."
Isha's raiment had restored itself, transforming into a flowing gown that seemed woven from the stars themselves. Her silver-white hair cascaded like the Milky Way, framing a face of such transcendent beauty it surpassed any aesthetic ideal, a perfect fusion of every grace known to the mortal mind.
The Mother Goddess of the Aeldari looked down at the discarded Cronesword, a flicker of deep sorrow appearing in her sapphire-blue eyes. The sword represented the doom of the Aeldari Pantheon, but it also signaled that Isha was once again under the thumb of a dark god.
When she had called upon the Great Horned Rat, she had effectively bound herself to His power by the laws of the Warp. Unless he chose to release her, as Nurgle once had, she would never escape the Horned Rat's grasp.
"What is it you want?" Isha asked, her voice calm yet cautious. So long as it was not Slaanesh, everything was negotiable.
"What do I want? Hehe..." Lucius laughed. "I told you, I am not like the other Dark Gods. I enjoy seeing a vibrant, colorful universe, one where I hold the strings and guide it in the direction I desire. To that end, I intend to govern the powers of all deities within the Immaterium."
Lucius grinned. Though Isha stood nearly two meters tall, forcing the 1.7-meter Lucius to look up at her, he didn't mind.
He reached out a hand. "I intend to build a Pantheon... a Supreme Pantheon that transcends all races. It will bring everything in the universe under my dominion!"
"And now... I require a Mother Goddess fit for a God King. Her power must complement mine, allowing me to touch realms the Great Horned Rat could never reach, yet she must pose no threat to me. Isha, that is you."
Isha's body trembled slightly. Though she could not resist Him, she couldn't help but ask, "I... and what of my children? What becomes of them?"
"They will remain in the mortal world like all other races, adding their flavor to the majesty of this universe. All species are but part of the Great Horned Rat's amusement."
"I want... I want to favor them. A little," Isha said, her expression a mix of resolve and resignation. She extended her porcelain-white arm and placed her hand in Lucius's.
"Damn," Lucius thought to himself, "why does this feel like an Elf Queen surrendering to a Goblin Chieftain?" He immediately began to console his ego. "What 'Goblin Chieftain'? I just don't want to forget my original human self. If I really tried, I could turn into a peak-tier heartthrob with a snap of my fingers."
"Oh~ YES-YES! Celebrate-rejoice the Great Horned Rat! My Master, it is truly wondrous-marvelous~!" Kritislik cheered, leaning on his staff with a fawning grin. Throughout the Realm of Ruin, every rat began to shriek and squeal in celebration of the Great Horned Rat's grand union.
"Step inside, my bride." Lucius took Isha's hand, offering a mockingly elegant bow before leading her into the black clocktower beneath the Great Bell of Doom.
The interior of the black tower never held a fixed shape; it usually manifested as the most opulent halls of fallen civilizations, a silent mockery of those who had perished. Lucius led Isha into a massive chamber that perfectly mirrored the halls of Asuryan from the lost Aeldari Pantheon.
"I hope you like this gift, Isha," Lucius said, his tone hovering between a taunt and a tribute. He then swept her up into his arms.
Despite her slender frame, the goddess felt substantial in his grip, every curve and proportion was a masterpiece of divine perfection, devoid of any flaw.
"Ah... no, wait... please, wait a moment!"
Isha cried out in surprise, but Lucius paid her no mind. He tossed her onto the Aeldari-style grand bed and, amidst Isha's timid gasps and sighs, began his first pursuit of pleasure as the Great Horned Rat that didn't involve tormenting the mortal plane.
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