Oh Baal oh Baal, not sure if this is the right py but there is so much to be gained and the alternatives are far too inferior for my liking. I could nab the geic tempte of the Swarmlord, intact Astartes, and maybe even Guilliman's or a Norn Emissary's if my luck turns out to be stelr. Then there were the bunch of characters I could learn tricks from, I could copy the swordsmanship of millennia old space Marines or maybe even figure out how Mephistohat time stop thing that makes him so fug OP. So much to gain and what are my alternatives? Go to the Tau empire or the Farsight Elcves, why? Both would be good starting points for my future intergactic empire, I just had to throw some Ethereals into the trash and that'd be it but I don't want to do that yet, I'm still a small fly. Khorne could just shit out a Bloodthirster and I'd be toast along with my fledgling empire before it could eve off the shore. Okay, maybe a Bloodthrister wouldn't do it but a Lord of ge that actually wao kill me? A Keeper of Secrets? I think a Great Un one could probably deal with me the easiest, some blood-melting bullshit virus thrown at me and I'd be a good little puddle until my bio-energy runs out. Another option would be trying to get my hands on some Ne toys from under Imotekh's based on what a simple Gauss Fyer did to me I want to get stronger before attempting that, or at least figure out some trick to throw off those atomizing beams. My current running idea was to make several yers of separate symbiotic armors and have them cover me with yers of inanic armor iween and based on my tests a si should only atomize a single yer of the armor. Still, it was a shit method. There'd be millions of Ne infantry wielding Fyers and I couldn't put on more tan maybe a hundred yers, I'd run out of armor before they run out of bullets sihey didn't even use bullets. So with a weary heart I decided to head into Imperial territory and if I'm doing that why not go to the pce where I had the biggest ce for all the risks associated with the a paying off. So Baal it was. Were there Custodians on Baal? I think there were but I'm not sure, still I might not be able to take them o, didn't a single golden boy fuck up the Swarmlord?Okay, if I see a golden bananaboy with far too oily abs I'm getting out of there. "This'd be the pce where we part ways if you didn't want to stie like a hair-squig to an Orbsp;"Aroetaphor. I didn't think you could go lower after the st one," Valenith said as his oh so graceful eyebrows twitched violently. "I'm an artist at heart," I smiled serenely. "Your art'd make an Eldar artist weep." "You wound me," I grabbed my heart as I looked at him with a betrayed expression. "To return to our inal topic," he spoke, "I feel it is my duty to educate you in the ways of the , a being of your... potential without the education to harvest and trol those powers could be disastrous for my people." "Mhmm," I nodded, "I'd be more tempted to believe you if I didn't see your expression when you absorbed my energy." "... I opeeway now?" "Go ahead please," I waved him forward as I turo the other two people behind us. "So," I started, my gaze going from Seleo Zedev, "I am going to Baal, and Selene wants to e along with me." "Uood," Zedev's voiced crackled to life, "would you wao apany you or is this where I am eliminated for my knowledge?" "Your expertise would certainly e in handy," I said, I've been thinking much about what to do with the old Magos over the previous weeks, on one hand he knew far too mud his loyalty was dubious at best but oher hand, he helped me a lot and I felt his knowledge would certainly e in handy iure, "I think we e to an agreement that'd be us both." "Eborate." "You want to live." I stated clearly. "I keep you alive for as long as I want." "Tempting," he said with a static voice, his fleshy eye gzed over as if blind, "is that your offer?" "No," he'd be like a sve without any imperative to actually help me if I did that...aside from me keeping him alive, he'd be absorbed in finding a way to break free from those shackles, "I could upgrade you," I narrowed my eyes, "I ge anything that lives, if you want I could put your mind into the body of a Lictor in a minute." "The psychological side-effects would make the effort worthless." "I could add a buffer," I tilted my head, "a sub-brain if you will, that'd hahe transtion of information and feelings from the alien body to your human brain." "I am unwilling to part with my cyberics," he stated, "the only thing I am unsatisfied with is my mind." "I could add aype of sub-bran that'd act like aernal putatian or memory ste, or anything of that sort." "Could you ge my brain into something more effective?" "Yes," I nodded, "though I don't know if your memories would survive that or your personality." "I see," he said, "would that ge iure?" "Perhaps," I shrugged, "I am w on a way to extract memories from the dead or the living in a non-psychic way, I could develop a way to transfer memories if I ma." "Then that is my price," his red eye flickered, "I want my mind to be the best it be without promising my faculties or form." "A fully anic body'd solve that," I shrugged, "It'd be easy to add in an an that automatically revitalized your fragile brain a it in top dition along with a slew of mental enhas." "My mind is made up," he spoke in the same emotionless voibsp;"but your advice has been noted, I'll calcute the bes ariments of both options." "All I ask for return is your loyalty and service," I said, "I don't think that is too much to ask." "...Indeed," I saw unfamiliar emotions in his aura but none resembled the dangerous hues of rese ret, "I'd prefer if my services wouldn't result in the loss of knowledge or the downfall of humanity." "You have an awful lot of wants for a man with one leg in the grave," crossed my arms under my chest, looking unimpressed by his demands. "Knowledge is the only thing of value in this gaxy," he spoke lifelessly, "If I destroy it, the tinuation of my life would be meaningless." "I do want to preserve knowledge," I said, "and uncover new ones, are you willing to throw away the ways of your faith for this? I do not believe that all that be known has already been uncovered." "You make demands that make my own feel weightless," a meical snort came from him, "but that is agreeable, even if it is a fools errand." "And while I think my future pns will be overall beneficial to humanity I couldn't say the same about the Imperium." "You ask me to betray the Omnissiah?" "Yes," I nodded slowly, "If you follow me you will uand that it isn't much of a loss on your part." The sileretched on as Zedev stood still and Valenith worked oe in the background while Selene fidgeted behind me. "I ot throw away my faith," he said finally, "but I make your word be of higher worth to me than any others if that satisfies you." "That should do for now," I shrugged, "but know that I will only make certain upgrades on you once I know you loyalty is true." "Uood." I cpped with a smile as I turned around again, leaving the Magos to brood over his decisions. Of course I wouldn't just trust his words but whether he kept it would be a test on its own, I already had microscopidrils crawling around in his ium so my paranoia was suppressed to an insequential level. "Do we know where this gate will get us?" "It should be somewhere in the subsector in which Baal is located," Val said as he worked his space elf magi the gate. "How will we get from there to Baal though?" I wondered. "'t you just make them give you a ship?" Selene said with a tilt of her head, "you should be good enough at Telepathy to do that, no?" "Yeah," I shrugged, "but what if they don't have voidships, or even a popution?" "You will figure something out," Selene shrugged zily, "I hardly have experien not having a voidship." "Hmmm," I rubbed my in a sagely manner, what'd it feel like to caress my beard as I thought? "I could be the voidship!" Selene just raised a single eyebrow at me as she crossed her arms to match my pose and what an expressive eyebrow it was. It clearly unicated her i, doubt and humor at my words. "What?" I raised an eyebrow of my own, "You don't want to ride me?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she groaned. My flirting skills are without equal, I o myself in satisfa as the Gate came to life o us. Time to see where we'll end up. P3t1

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