I kept an eye on the situation with Balthazaar, who kept up his delicious deceptions until his big reveal as expected, but the primary aspect of my focus was on my super soldier projects. I finished adapting my enhanced Spartan III augmentations to the Charr and Asuran physiologies, with the Dredge soon to be finished. This was a big step up for my forces - who were already topping the list of strongest armies in Tyria - but I put it absolutely on blast when I finished my first Human Primaris Astartes.
And holy fuck I did a sick job on it.
For maximum heresy, I used as much magic and divinity to make the process possible, so even though I lacked the Emperors vast and I mean VAST body of experience and research, I was able to replicate the powerful effects he wrought upon the Space Marines and in some cases even boost them through the vastly gentler and swifter magical methods and the far more compatible divine gene seed.
Weird flex, but I can breed with barnyard animals, making the odds of an Astartes hopeful rejecting my gene seed zero.
It wouldn't be long till I can work this heresy on the other races of this world, as they are all pretty much hyper responders to forced mutation and augmentation. Thank you Eternal Alchemy, not everything you are about is shit.
On the whole, my Primaris Astartes are a full order of magnitude superior to those described in 40K lore and vastly consistent. And that is over the Primaris Astartes, not to mention the OG Space Marines. No wildly fluctuating capabilities, no weird mutations, no obviously superior specimens. Lets face it, the Emperor had a pretty cruel sense of humor and was not at all about equality amidst his creations.
Personally, I feel that if we are going to take nature out of the equation, then everyone should be given access to the best genetics available. As much as I enjoyed my genetic superiority in my youth, I am not interested in creating a bunch of haves and have nots amidst my legions, and I'd rather have every legion capable of raping as much face in as many scenarios as possible than have a bunch of specialized forces that get wrecked the moment they are out of their comfort zone.
Seriously, when your soldiers can live for millennia there is no reason why they can't get good at all different types of combat.
But I guess I don't have to be beholden to balancing a tabletop game.
I will give it to Balthazaar, the guy built up a top tier faction in a very short period of time, and was able to create a winning strategy for his vendetta against the other gods of his pantheon. But the guy ultimately was felled by the Commander being a clever boy, and when it came time for the Battle of Kodash Bazaar, my army had been inbound for days and our fleet was in position.
Balthazar lead the the Forged, his army of living armors made through a violent version of the ritual used to create the residents of Tarir, Kralkatorrik lead his army of Branded Dragon Minions, the beast a thousand feet tall with wings that smothered the sky, and the Awakened, an Egyptian themed army of the undead commanded by Caddock Ironclaw under a Mesmer illusion.
The enemies stretched beyond the horizon in a battle between man, primordial dragon, and vengeful god.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed.
Rather than blast them all down with airship mounted artillery, I lead my forces in leaping off our airships and landing right in the center of the ultimate battle. We wanted to fight everyone, and by God we did. We completely fucked the Commander's incredible plan, and I didn't care a wit.
No matter how many we slayed, more enemies came, and my army formed a giant flaming meat grinder in the heart of the conflict. Those unfortunate souls up above began unloading on the colossal dragon, and Balthazaar began targeting its weakness using a mobile weapon empowered by Aurene, one of the Elder Dragon's descendants. Apparently the giant crystal dragon who spreads crystals everywhere he goes is weak to… crystals.
It'd be like if Superman just threw out kryptonite at a parade, except Kralkatorrik telepathically controls the creatures mutated by his crystals right up until he doesn't. It is never explained why Kralk loses control of his minions and can't just put them back in their place, but what evs. I have given up on hating McGuffin based plots.
Balthazar hitting Kralk in the face with a die dragon die laser beam was my signal to lay mother fucking hands on the god of war, and I flew at him in a luminous blaze of glory. I collided with the big guy and we slid apart, ending up in an epic face off.
"Grax!" Balthazar spat, "The newly arisen god. I knew this day would come. You are too late, my power is restored, and you will fall now pretender!"
"You seem to believe that your full power is enough to beat me. Who decided that?" I asked.
Our swords clashed, and the god of war swiftly found that his telekinetic hold of his blade would never be able to hold against the might of my arm, and with his weapon blown away he had no defense against the Hammer of Might striking him across the battlefield.
He held out his hand as his body tore through the lines of the undead army, his greatsword coming to his hand and when he finally bled off the force of my blow he spun around to guard against the next attack of my Sunset Greatsword.
"You need to fight harder. You are embarrassing me. I told people this fight would be incredible." I informed him.
"Then find the death you are seeking!" He yelled as he erupted into flames.
"I am fireproof." I countered by bashing him in the helmet with the pommel of the Hammer of Might then stepped back while twisting into a brutal horizontal swing that he blocked with his sword.
Balthazar thrust at my neck off the block and I pivoted, allowing it to pass me harmlessly.
"Faster." I commanded.
Balthazar tried to overwhelm me with crosswise strikes and tried to finish with a quick crooked strike, hoping the level change would have opened my guard. He failed.
"Faster." I commanded again.
The god of war howled while he used his fire power like the thrusters of a jet and bracing his sword to pierce through me. I parried the thrust up with my hammer and allowed his momentum to carry himself onto the tip of my wide greatsword.
"Dwayna…" the man gasped, "Melandru, Grenth, Kormir! Curse you all… to share in this fate!"
"They will." I assured the fading god even as I began absorbing his divinity into myself, "Or I might take a liking to them and allow them to live on as my concubines."
"They won't… submit." he grinned and passed.
Jack, Medusa, Wanda, Kat, and Linda appeared using teleport to friend one time use devices and together we set about collectively absorbing the dead god's power. Jack, Medusa, and I only needed roughly ten percent each to take the quasi out of our quasigod status, and the rest was primarily split between Kat and Linda with Wanda taking only a taste for herself. This boosted our two recent revives into the lower end of demigod status.
I marveled at the changes I felt in my being, the mortal nature now completely burned out by divine power, as Balthazar's warbeast continued its attack on Kralkatorrik. Between it and my ships, the largest and arguably most powerful dragon was on its last legs.
"Grax, stop!" shouted the former Pact Commander Caddock Ironclaw as he ran up.
"No." I told the huge Charr.
"Kormir revealed that the gods destroying the Elder Dragons would be the doom of Tyria." Caddock explained.
"Kormir and the rest of the six are uninspired in both vision and means." I spoke, "They submit themselves to The All, hoping that their compliance will mean something. They are simply cowards and fools, and I am so far beyond them that their warnings have less weight than the breath taken to fuel them."
"You would risk the fate of the world on your arrogance?" The big Charr fingered the hilt of his borrowed divine sword.
"And you would risk your place in the glorious future on the words of a hasbeen that abandoned this world to the dragons." I pitied the fool, "You speak the words of a slave, Charr. You think bowing down to The All is some noble thing? It is the shackles that have weighed you down since the day you were conceived."
"I…" he failed to refute.
"Take your little dragon." I offered him, "There is no further need for her. The great beast is at death's door."
"Thank you." He nodded and climbed the warbeast construct, prying open Aurene's prison and cutting off the weakening beam.
It was already to late for the dragon as he was too weak to escape as my ships rained hell down on him, slaying him and releasing his energy back into the system.
With six divine beings ready to absorb his power, very little of it escaped us as we added Crystal and Fury to our domains of power.
The destruction of Balthazar and Kralkatorrik signaled the end of the battle as all enemy forces either retreated or swiftly died.
I grew to a height of thirty feet outlined in golden light and addressed my victorious army as they fell into ranks as the broken field of battle allowed.
"My warriors!" I shouted, "I promised battle and glory and power and I have delivered on my promises."
I paused to allow the cheers to die down.
"And nothing is over!" I shouted as I swung my greatsword and tore open a portal into the Mists.
"Charge forth my legions and bring battle to the false gods of this world!" I ordered, "Everything our eyes fall upon is ours, and nothing will turn away our grasp! Forward, unto everlasting riches and glory!"