C208: Paradise of War
Alt Title teaser: Giant smith
Date published: 4/12/2025.
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Blood and war.
That is the simplest way to describe the domain of Khorne within the warp. Of course there are also the bronze totems which have various humanoid and non humanoid creatures staked to them via thorny chains as their personal torturers work to excavate every potential source of agony from their victim and then help them heal only to restart the process all over again.
In the distant lands of The Hunting Field, a few greater daemon are wandering with their brood as they seek to settle a dispute between them all. They will release their prisoners and brood across the land and the ones who lose all their servants would lose, the 'lord' with the ones who survived the longest would be the victor and allowed to plunder resources and people from the others.
This roundabout method of fighting was implemented to ensure that the greater daemon did not diminish too far in number as it was a hassle to anoint/create new greater daemon. Lesser daemon are free to kill and plunder each other as they wish but must follow the rules of war when they become strong enough to be titled 'greater'. Afterall, the rules of war are the rules of Khorne and no demon or metallic torture doll wishes to draw the attention of the chaos god of skulls, lest they become a new addition to his throne.
Axel's journey through this realm was eventful but not very interesting as he has had many encounters with lesser daemon like the bloodletters, flesh hounds and juggernauts (mechanic beasts that likely held the souls or flesh, likely both, of various beasts). These creatures would all attempt to rip and tear him apart yet as Axel is leisurely passing through the realm, he becomes more and more accustomed to his new found strength.
Re-enacting the same desire upon him, he ripped and tore the daemon apart in his pursuit to master his power, of course Axel can tell that the chaos token he was given by Khorne is happily guzzling in the destructive energy from all the death and desecration Axel exacts. In fact, it had been doing so everytime Axel had openly killed someone to their face, be it demon, human or tyranid.
Thankfully Axel had never gone on a proper killing spree except at Cadia but that was mostly Ais and not him. As even there he mostly used his magic except until he fought the daemon prince of Khorne. That and the destruction of the blackstone fortress but even then that was mostly done through magic but the sheer vastness of the destruction earned Khorne's approval and thus was added to the chaos mark of Khorne.
Axel makes his way through the hunter field but finds himself in the Blazing Rampart, a lava ridden land of fire breathing and bronze skinned daemons who ride all sorts of abominations to traverse the hazardous environment. Axel just quickly decapitates them or blows their heads off. Axel quickly spots a floating island 'nearby' and begins to head to it to explore.
The warp senses his intent and assists him in traversing the land as if he couldn't fly and he soon finds himself on the floating island and beside a bloody red river. In fact, that so-called river is not an actual river. Upon closer it is easily revealed that the river is a collection of organs and actual blood.
He finds an occasional portal open up which deposits another stream of blood and organs into the river. This offering was likely from other daemons of Khorne in the Materium; it could also be the other chaos insurgents providing offerings and prayer to the lord of war while the last possibility is that the warp just randomly teleports random organs from hundreds of worlds, collects them and dispenses it down here at once.
Axel can't help but wonder where the end of the river is. Does it just 'fall off ' to an empty space where it's just destroyed or is there an ocean of organs and blood? The last possibility is that all these things simply loop around but gradually grow bigger from the actual prayers and sacrifices to Khorne.
After exploring for a bit and killing a few more lesser daemon, Axel left the floating island, his next destination was a volcanic mountain that holds various creatures working hard with hammers, twisting, turning and shaping various metals but mostly bronze into weapons, armor or statues in honor of Khorne.
There are demons that act as slavers here to torture any smith that slacks off at all, to not disturb the environment, Axel goes invisible through a mix of wind and light manipulation that allows him to not be seen or make a sound as he pushes away the air around his feet so there is no air for sound to travel through as he walks.
As he is walking, Axel stumbles upon a much larger forge that holds a giant who constantly hammers delicately to shape what Axel can tell is a deadly weapon. Axel watches over as the giant smith creates his newest masterpiece, strike after strike of hammer against the refined demonic steel of the warp. Slowly but surely a very impressive sword is made as it slowly with what looks like runic sigils. Axel can appreciate the craft of it and thus does something about it.
Stepping back, the giant takes a deep breathe as it finishes the sword, it is about to grab it and hide it, in hopes that the warp would respond to it's wishes and give it to a worthy hand, yet his hand pauses as he spots another hand lay claim to the handle of the sword. Lifting it up with an admirative gaze is a blue haired being that completely stands out from all the other denizens of this accursed land.
The giant flinches as he has been making these types of swords in secret but it is now known by one other who he has never seen before. While Axel is admiring the sword, even stabbing a few things to check it's quality with surprise evident on his face, the giant lifts his hammer, hoping to squish the intruder with a single blow.
BANG
The hammer comes down but is stopped by the palm of Axel's hand as he is impressed by the strength of the giant which equals the daemon prince he had the pleasure of killing. The collision attracts the attention of the slaver demons who primarily have bull-like heads akin to minotaurs with small wings on their backs.
"Idiot, what are you doing? You better have not broken anything!!" One of the daemon shouts as they grip their whip to strike at the giant smith, each strike lands but the giant doesnt move, not because he doesnt want to but because he can't. Axel is using his magnetism to keep the hammer attached to his hand as he watches the scenario.
"What is your name?" Axel asks the giant who looks at him confused as his throat seems to hum as if it hasnt been used in hundreds of years. The demon continues whipping him until he finally states it by saying, "idiot. That is my name".
Axel seems to pause under this introduction but while he is thinking, the demon continues whipping, causing bleeding welts to rise in the leg, back and left arm of the giant. "That's right you moron, you're an idiot and will never amount to anything in your entire pathetic life, get back to work!" The demon knocks the giant down even more, continuing to extend its misery as much as it can while still whipping.
Axel grows tired of the insults and injury as he grabs the whip mid swing, "huh?" The demon finally spots Axel who takes down his invisibility as he looks towards the giant, "Which one is considered your master?" The giant calmly points towards the demon whose whip Axel is holding as he grins at the realization.
"Lovely" He drops the whip and the demon tries to shoot some insults at Axel but he just grabs the bull headed demon's neck and lifts him up a bit. "Weak, blasted creature, unhand me before I flay you, ill be sure you burn you up just right." The demon insults Axel but upon finding that he cant shake Axels grip off he seems to quiet down and he just stares at Axel with a horrified expression.
In Axels right hand, a certain spikey token appears and spins on Axels finger. The daemon visibly pales at the realization that the 'untamed' mortal before him has the personal token of the lord of this land. Yet his realization is not enough to earn him any mercy as Axel grips the token and stabs the spikes into the bulls face.
SQUISH, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH". With the inclusion of the snout, a total of 6 of the 9 spikes on the chaos token stab into the demons face with one spike into the eye. The bull demon thrashes in his hand but still fails to get away as his remaining eye can only focus on Axels face as he is brought closer.
"I trust there is no problem with me taking the giant?" The demons thrashing seems to stop as the horror is now inflicted upon it but even trembling, it still nods a little bit. Afterall, the strong take from the weak, that is the entire premise of Khornes land. It's technically a cultivation novels wet dream, resources everywhere, dominion if you have the bigger fist and the biggest one here is Axel and Khorne.
"Great, ill be taking him now" Axel waves his hand and the giant is brought to Axels [territory] where a clone appears before him. The giant is in awe of the environment as it could very well have been the first time that it has even seen green grass or felt normal soft dirt below his feet.
"Your name is Iji from now on. You will be granted a forge and allowed to make whatever you wish."
"What illusion of the prince of madness is this?" the giant now named Iji questions the clone as even the warm gentle sun feels foreign to it and the madness that has been it's life.
"No illusion but you will understand that in the years to come, take some time to rest. Here, let me heal that" the clone states as it extends its arm and a green soft glow is released which heals the whip marks and even a few internal issues that had stunted the growth of the giant. Surely in the coming days it would tower over most creatures of his territory but he doesnt mind it.
After Iji was given a home of his own, Axels main body used the chaos token of Khorne to bludgeon the bull demon to death. The token which is now covered in the blood of a demon glows a deeper red as a rift appears before Axel.
An intense pressure descends from the portal and all in the Slayer Forge tremble and kneel under the presence of Khorne himself. The very workshop trembles under his might as he steps inside.
Standing at an impressive 12 feet tall, the incarnation of war stands head and shoulders far above any normal man or psyker. The only one in terms of battle prowess who can match or surpass him would be the sole emperor of mankind.
Taking on a humanoid form, the towering god wears thick demonic bronze armor that is a marvel of craftsmanship, though a skull designed visor blocks the gods face, the intense bloody red eyes are undeniable.
The god gazes down on Axel as he assesses him but Axel just casually looks back, disinterested on his face. Not for a lack of interest in the god of skulls but just due to the desire to leave already as everything here is so time convoluted and he feels he has done enough here in this 'short' period of time, at least it was short to him but it had large repercussions due to the so many time differences.
"Can we get this over with, you have an arena or something so I can fight a bit and then leave. I kept my word to visit but now it's up to you, the host, to ensure I stay longer than I wanted to." His Words rile up the atmosphere as the words and tone of the words ensure that Axels dislike for being here is known but the mighty war god takes it as a challenge, a battle for loyalty to him. A challenge to ensure that Axel falls underneath his banner. He hoped that Axel's time in the Materium would have stoked his passion for battle but finding that he came to this galaxy to assist in training another while he found most battles to be a chore or never had an interest in fighting anyone here as he knew he would grow too much too fast.
That is precisely what happens as Axel walks through a new portal that the lord of Rage opens up which leads to a wide skull shaped battlefield. The enclosed space has a massive fireplace that is only half blocked off by pillars of bronze spikes that connect to stairs to a second as well as a third elevation. Much higher above is a set of stands and seats for any audience that are indeed seated. Hundreds of thousands of daemon are gathered around to watch the festivities of blood and gore to commence. In the highest seat, Khorne himself appears to sit down as his gaze focuses on Axel.
"Well, let's get this show on the road"
["I believe you should activate the divine domain when you get a free chance. I do believe some unwanted elements have come to cling to you"] Raphael warns Axel as he thinks over his actions and ponders where a possible intrusion point could be in his powers or psyche. He leans more towards his psyche as [Raphael] would have stopped any attempts of sabotage but his own actions being controlled are quite a possibility still.
"Raphael, can you do something for me?"
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Alt Title: Walk through paradise, gore river, Interesting smith.
Word count: 2434
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.