Chapter 1 – The End Times

It was the end of the 43rd Millennium, for over 10,000 years he had sat entombed in the Golden Throne, its life support systems being the only thing keeping his mortally wounded body from finally succumbing to the wounds he had received in his battle with his son Horus. His existence since that time had entailed a constant battle with the Chaos Gods in the warp, as he attempted to safeguard his Imperium from their foul forces, whilst simultaneously providing the will needed to light the astronomican, allowing humanities ships throughout the galaxy to travel safely through he warp.

He had had to sit here impotent to defend humanity against her many enemies that constantly attacked from all sides and within. He watched as over the millennia the brave forces of the Imperium were slowly pushed back by the combined forces of those arrayed against, each day untold millions of his loyal subjects giving their lives in the defence of mankind.

Now he knew it was the end, the life support systems of the Golden Throne had been failing and would soon reach a critical point at which they would no longer be able to sustain him and his mortal body would finally die. When that happened he knew that the whole of the Sol System and those surrounding would be swallowed by a mighty warp storm, and that the loss of the Astronomican, not to mention the blow that his death would deal his faithful, would spell the end of his Imperium and mankind.

It was, at this point, inevitable.

"You know that your time is at an end Anathema, your precious children will soon know the power of Chaos, and you won't be able to prevent us any longer."

The constant jibes and jeers of the Chaos Gods had grown in intensity as of late, they too realising what he had had to come to terms with. Khorne promising that soon all of his world's would run red with blood, Nurgle tittering with excitement over the new plagues that would descend on humanity to torment them in their end of days, Tzeentch crowing with pleasure that all his plans would finally come to fruition, and Slaanesh whispering alluring suggestions of what pleasure was to come if he would just accept his fate and give up.

He had stood vigilant, safeguarding humanity as much as he could in his circumstances, but it had finally reached the end. The Golden Throne had failed; and he could feel the last of the living cells of his living being ceasing to function. He took in everything, every human within the galaxy, with the last of his strength he pushed his essence in the warp to connect with the souls of all of his children.

He felt what they felt, he knew what they knew, and in return they knew him as well.

All across the galaxy man was as one. United in their faith in their God who had watched over them for thousands of years, they found themselves linked in a psychic Gestalt, the final act of their God in his final moments.

He was overcome by the sheer faith they had in him, the power of such unshakeable belief amplified by the Gestalt of humanity resulted in a psychic backlash of unimaginable proportions, at once he found himself imbued with the combined psychic power of the entire human species, individually insignificant but combined it eclipsed any other single entity present in the warp.

Countless daemons were wiped from existence as the warp itself rippled and reverberated as a result of this new entity's creation, rifts opened up all over the materium, the barrier between both dimensions seemed to shatter, as humanity was joined together as one. Planets were ripped apart, seas boiled, fleets of ships and battalions of armies from across the galaxy just outright ceased to exist. The Tyranid hive mind lost contact with all of its underlings within the Milky Way galaxy, the beacon light of the Astronomican that had been drawing them to that galaxy like a moth to a flame increased by several orders of magnitude, and continued to do so, blinding the hive mind to the goings on of that galaxy.

The Gods of Chaos attempted to stand fast against the destruction that was occurring all around them, their power being the only thing that prevented their outright eraser from existence as had occurred to the lesser daemons of the warp.

"WHAT IS THIS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Khorne bellowed at the growing entity that had been the God-Emperor of Man.

Tzeentch was dumbfounded, he had foreseen the death of the human emperor, had predicted and planned for the birth of a new Chaos God as had occurred with the fall of the Eldar, but nothing had suggested that something of this order of magnitude would occur.

Slaanesh shielded himself from the growing light of the expanding entity, drawing all his power to him to stave off the tendrils that seemed to spring forth from it in all directions, utterly erasing that which they touched.

Nurgle turned towards the other three major Chaos Gods, long had they waited for the final downfall of the Anathema, but never had the expected something like this to occur. Tzeentch came to the conclusion that they would have to combine their powers, the combined might of the four major Chaos Gods being perhaps the only thing that could put an end to this maelstrom within the warp. He explained his plans to his compatriots and they prepared themselves to unleash all they had against the growing entity of light created in the death of mankind.

But alas, it wasn't enough, no matter what they threw at it, the entity kept growing, kept absorbing all that it encountered, the veil between the materium and immaterium seemed irrevocably destroyed, the entirety of the galaxy having been drawn into the currents of the warp; and yet it grew.

Slaanesh was the first of the four to fall, youngest of the major Chaos Gods, born from the fall of the Eldar, and now destroyed by the fall of Man.

Khorne, mightiest of the Chaos Gods roared in fury and turned the remainder of his anger and might to bear against it, charging forward the growing warp entity of light didn't even seem to slow in its expansion, swallowing Khorne whole, the only thing to show for his last act of defiance being the increased rate of growth of the entity, which had grown to now encompass several of the neighbouring galaxies as well. Tens of Thousands of alien species that had never heard of humanity or their God-Emperor perished in an instant as the local cluster was dragged into the destruction wrought by the events started in their neighbouring galaxy.

Nurgle, oldest of the four, God of Decay, had expected to be around to watch the stars themselves turn cold and die, perhaps even bear witness to the potential rebirth of the universe, but now found himself witness to the end of the cycle of life considerably earlier than previously envisioned. As his very being began to be pulled apart by the ever increasing turmoil that was the warp he reflected that it was slightly ironic that he would be witness to his own decay as well, such was his last thought as the light grew to envelop his entire being, and then he was no more.

Tzeentch cried out in anger, all of his plans ruined, all future plans ruined, everything ruined, he was the god of change, he lived for change, delighted in change, but this, this wasn't just change, this was an end, he knew it as certainly as he knew anything, the light showed no signs of stopping, the other three had been eradicated and absorbed into powering the entity's growth, and soon he too would suffer the same fate. All the threads of potential futures that he once saw as clear as day seemed to converge on this point, there was no future, it just ended, in his final moments he broke into hysterically laughter, he may not have intentionally caused it, but in his own way he was partly responsible for instigating the events that would spell the end of the universe.

The light continued to grow; the universe itself was pushed and torn in such a way as it had never been before, not even during the big bang itself. Time lost all meaning, space lost all meaning, and then, an eternity later or an instant later, for it made no difference, the light, which was all there was, began to recede towards a single point, rushing back to where it had begun to grow from.

And then the Emperor awoke.

A/N

I'm not sure how long I'll do this, but don't expect any masterful piece of literature, as the concept is pretty 'crackfic'y. Anyway, let me know what you think, as well as any suggestions or critiques you have.