2nd Primarch

Lymphatic died, and he died very peacefully. From now on, this Great Unclean One would return to nothingness, embracing eternal silence.

Before his death, he left a huge mystery to the Primarch.

But Dukel had no time to dwell on it.

On the chaotic battlefield, the war did not end with the demise of the Great Unclean One.

Nurgle's Withered Legion fell into a state of complete frenzy at the death of their Great Daemon. Although the few remaining Plague Lords lacked the strength to command the vast legion, their offensive remained fierce.

Dukel wielded his chainsword, the fire of his soul spreading wildly.

When the last plague zombie fell, the planet finally returned to the control of the Imperium of Man.

The war was over.

Some cheered for the victory, but many more remained silent.

This war had not been an easy one—it had been fraught with peril. It was the most difficult battle the expeditionary corps had ever faced.

They had used the World Purification Army Gang as bait.

They had endured an ambush by the Blight Legion with hundreds of thousands of units.

They had faced the horrors of the Seven Stews of Nurgle.

Every step had been fraught with danger. To achieve their goals, countless lives had been manipulated and tormented by the dark gods.

The malevolence of Chaos was as terrifying as ever.

Yet the gods had made one crucial mistake: they had underestimated the power of the Primarch.

No matter how many schemes they wove, the final outcome was decided on the battlefield.

And this time, Dukel had emerged victorious.

But this victory was only the beginning. The gods had already woven more conspiracies into an enormous web, ensnaring the Primarch and his expeditionary corps.

For now, however, there was no time to worry about the future. The survivors needed rescuing.

Countless Imperial aircraft swept across the planet, extracting the empire's citizens from bottomless underground shelters. The survivors were pale, their skin bloodless from long periods without sunlight and malnutrition. Children were skeletal, and women so frail they seemed ready to collapse with the slightest breeze.

But they had survived. That was enough for now.

Dukel, uncharacteristically, did not appear to comfort the rescued citizens. Instead, he returned to the Inner Fire in silence. Once inside his chambers, he did not emerge again.

During this time, few saw him.

If not for Efilar confirming the Primarch's condition after a brief exchange, rumors of his injury might have spread among the expeditionary force.

Inside his chambers, Dukel brooded.

"The Great Unclean One has been destroyed," he mused. "Completely gone, erased into nothingness."

"Even its essence has been absorbed by me, transformed into my power."

Dukel's mind, honed by the power of the warp, was sharp and calculating. Yet even with all his intellect, he could not comprehend why this had happened.

What was the true nature of the Great Daemon?

Great Daemons were not living creatures in the conventional sense. They were extensions of the authority and essence of the Chaos Gods themselves. Though they possessed independent thoughts, their existence was semi-autonomous—fragments of their gods, incarnations of divine will.

Destroying ordinary daemons was straightforward, but Great Daemons were different. They represented their gods' authority. To destroy one was to erase a fragment of that authority.

Even with all his confidence, Dukel knew he should not have been capable of such a feat.

Yet here he was, having absorbed a portion of Nurgle's power—eaten and digested, merging it with his own being. Even if Nurgle himself descended to destroy Dukel, this power would remain.

This was undoubtedly a boon.

But why?

Dukel speculated.

He had always thought his warp essence aligned with the realm of "Greedy Dissolution," considering his talent for absorption and transformation. His mind network bore similarities to the Tyranid Hive Mind, and he had once imagined challenging the Great Devourer for dominion over this realm.

But now, it seemed his essence lay elsewhere.

Even the Great Devourer could not consume the power of Nurgle. That much he was certain.

Unless...

Dukel sifted through his knowledge and memories.

He recalled a hidden truth from his past life: the Chaos realm did not consist of eight domains, but nine—just as the Four Gods had five rivals among the Four Heavenly Kings.

The ninth domain belonged to the "Original Destroyer."

This entity, the creator and destroyer, embodied chaos itself. All demons and gods existed within His realm. He was the supreme being, the end and the beginning.

[Deity's position: Unknown. Status: Active (missing).]

"Could my essence be a fragment of this Original Destroyer?" Dukel wondered aloud.

"What strange relics did the Emperor uncover from the Warp?"

Dukel recalled the other Primarchs. Of the nine fallen, only four aligned with the Chaos Gods. The others seemed to embody different aspects of the warp.

Perturabo's affinity for "Vicious Skills," his collaboration with Vashtorr, and even Lorgar's worship of the "Original Truth" all pointed to this possibility.

If Dukel's essence truly belonged to the central domain...

"Then this is going to be very interesting," Dukel murmured.

"The last being who wielded a fragment of the Original Destroyer laid waste to hell and terrified the gods themselves."

Still, these were just theories. The truth would reveal itself in time.

For now, Dukel turned his focus elsewhere.

"First, I need a group of greenskins for research. Mental cultivation techniques and biomagnetic field technology must be improved. Chaos is a deep, treacherous sea, and I need a sturdier ship to navigate it."

"Perhaps Kane, who claimed to have entered this world chasing a greenskin ship, can help. I didn't have time to question him before. I'll summon him now."