---3rd Person POV---
Providing his loyal followers with the names of those who were no longer acting in their homeland's best interest, the Emperor of Mankind instructed his men to publicly execute the traitors before the royal palace. Wanting them to serve as a warning to other corrupt nobles, this would be the one and only warning they would receive before they too were on the chopping block. Swearing to carry out his judgment swiftly, the men promptly departed from the throne room to rally additional forces. Sending out the call, as they teleported topside, the men took up positions outside the palace and waited for reinforcements to arrive.
"I have to say, Roboute, I am quite impressed with the kid. It is safe to say that in the past two weeks alone he has more than proven his worth as Aremus' heir.", Lion remarked, looking at Guilliman, "Given what we have seen thus far, do you think he might be able to bring Sanguinius back to us? He brought our father back from the brink, so presumably he might be able to resurrect our brother."
"Respectfully, I do not believe it is possible.", Valoris stated, "Unlike the Emperor of Mankind, Lord Sanguinius had no life support system to keep his body alive. At this point, his body is likely nothing more than bones or dust."
"I was not asking you…", Lion remarked, continuing to look at his brother, "What is your opinion on the matter?"
"While my mind agrees that it is not possible, my gut is telling me that Victor possesses the power to do it. He has exceeded all my wildest expectations by leaps and bounds; I want to believe he can do it.", Roboute answered as the men began arriving. "It does not hurt to ask him at the very least."
Agreeing that there was no harm in asking, Valoris felt they were too caught up in the Emperor's revival to hear what they were saying. The Blood Angels saw Sanguinius' remains as a sacred treasure; he was extremely doubtful they would willingly let Victor even look at his corpse, let alone mess with it. Deciding to just stand by and watch, the Captain-General secretly hoped that he was wrong in this time, as Lord Sanguinius' return would strike a deadly blow to the enemy's morale.
Falling into formation, the men looked to their leaders and silently waited for their instructions. Satisfied that they had enough manpower, Guilliman divided the men up into small groups and presented each with a list of names. Telling them that their targets were found to be traitors of the Imperium, he told them that they were to be brought back alive for public execution. Ensuring they knew that time was of the essence, once word spread of the roundup, their targets were liable to flee Terra to save themselves.
"We will carry out your orders to the letter, Lord Guilliman.", one of the Ultramarines acknowledged.
"In this case, the orders are not coming from me but the Emperor of Mankind himself.", Guilliman corrected him with a pleased smile. "Our Emperor has been made whole and is able to converse with his people once again."
"My Lord, is this true!?", a Custodian asked, looking toward Valoris for confirmation.
"It is as Primarch Guilliman said: the Emperor of Mankind has been brought back to perfect health by Primarch Stark. As we speak, our Lord is gathering his strength for the daunting battle ahead of the Imperium.", Valoris confirmed, "The names you have been given have all been deemed traitors by the Emperor himself. They are a cancer upon our homeland and therefore must be ripped out if we are to survive."
Elated that the Emperor of Mankind was whole once again, the men slammed their fists into their chests and swore to carry out the Emperor's orders flawlessly. Immediately departing the area, the group spread out to begin the manhunt for their enemies.
---Vengeful Spirit, Eye of Terror---
Sitting behind his desk, within his war room, Warmaster Abaddon reviewed the reports from the day's skirmishes. Currently at a stalemate on all fronts, the Warmaster was irritated that they had lost their momentum after the death of Khârn and his Butcherhorde. Using their defeat to rally their forces and raise morale, the Imperium of Man and their allies redoubled their efforts, forcing them into the gridlock he now found himself in.
'We have searched tirelessly for the one who slew Khârn but have thus far come up empty.', he thought, crumbling the tablet in his hands. 'When we find you, Victor von Stark, you will pay tenfold for hindering my plans. If you had not intervened, Khârn would have brought a large chunk of the Galactic Republic under our control. We would have cut the Imperium off from the rest of the universe and slowly squeezed the life out of them!'
Slamming his fist through his desk in anger, Abaddon got up and walked over to his war table to review the current layout of their forces. Looking for any potential vulnerability he could exploit, he knew they had to do something before he lost control of the warbands again. As he scoured the map and reports for answers, one of his men entered to announce the arrival of a messenger from the Thousand Sons had arrived.
"Very well, let him in.", Abaddon said, as the empty suit of armor pushed past his man. "I trust this is important, as I am not in the mood for games today."
"It is the most important news you will likely receive today… Lord Magnus believes that the False Emperor has been revived. A short time ago he sensed a massive surge in the False Emperor's power followed by the deaths of our daemonic horde within the Imperium's Webway.", the marine reported.
"I told you; I am not in the mood for your games today…", Abaddon spat, glaring at the husk of a man.
"Lord Magnus and Lord Tzeentch may indulge in some crude jokes every now and then, but they have never once joked about the False Emperor. We are certain that he has been revived somehow, and we should plan for his return to the battlefield accordingly.", the marine refuted, staring at Abaddon with his spectral eyes.
Unable to judge his words by facial expressions or tone of voice, Abaddon was forced to accept his words as fact, which further enraged him. Punching a hole through the table, he ripped the machine out of the floor and threw it against the wall. Already dealing with enough problems as it is, adding the False Emperor into the equation was simply too much for him. Aware of the power he wielded, there was little to nothing he could do to plan for his presence on the battlefield.
"Is that all?", Abaddon inquired, shaking with rage.
"No, Rogal Dorn briefly reappeared in the Imperium of Man. From what we have been able to ascertain, the mercenary you have been hunting found him in stasis aboard the Seventh Blackstone Fortress.", the marine added. "In addition, we have confirmed that Obsidius and his men were also slain by the mercenary and his subordinates."
"DAMN THAT FUCKING MERCENARY!!", Abaddon roared, slamming his fist into the wall. "If the False Emperor, the Lion, Roboute, and Rogal reunite, the tide of this crusade will turn in their favor. We have obtained far too much for us to lose now."
Turning toward his subordinate, he commanded him to summon all the warband commanders as they needed to plan out their next move carefully. Knowing they were working with borrowed time right now, they had to strike now before it was too late.
---Victor POV, Three Days Later---
Feeling my consciousness returning to my body, I slowly opened my eyes and gave myself a moment to adjust to the light. Wriggling my fingers and toes to confirm I was not paralyzed, Jarvis detected my movements and began draining the tank. Once the concoction was gone, nozzles sprayed me down with water to rinse off the residue. Opening the tank door after I was clean, UR-025 handed me a towel and welcomed me back.
"Did something happen while I was out?", I asked, drying myself off.
"So he finally took the plunge and won her over.", I chuckled. "It is about time he made a move; I doubt she was going to wait much longer."
Unable to refute his words, I confirmed that I would attend the family party to celebrate the engagement. Putting aside the topic for the moment, though, seeing the results of this painful procedure was all that I had on my mind right now. Retrieving a standing mirror from my inventory, I took a few steps back to see what I looked like now.
Prior to the procedure, I was just over six feet tall with a thin body covered in lean muscles. The new man I saw in the mirror stood at a towering nine feet tall and was covered in thick muscles that were brimming with unbelievable strength. Slowly turning around to confirm there were no deformities, everything appeared to be in proper order, which pleased me greatly.
'As I am now, that stupid Metal Gear RAY would be nothing more than a soda can.', I thought, stretching my body out to confirm I maintained my flexibility. 'I will need to modify my weapons before heading to Terra, but that can wait until this evening. For the time being, I want to show my wives this refined body of mine."
Having the nanites in my body construct clothing around my body, I headed upstairs to find my wives. Calling out their names, as I walked into the living room, the women leapt up off the couch to lecture me but stopped as I came into view. Slowly looking me over, all of them audibly gulped as they looked away in embarrassment.
"We knew something was up when you were not taking our calls, but this… this was not anything we could have expected.", Mylene remarked, shifting around nervously, "Let me be the first to say, you were handsome before, but now you are— "
"You look like a god now, and I like it… A lot!", Aela said, biting her lower lip. "How about you let us take a closer look?"
"Yeah… Just a peek…", Roxanne agreed, her tail wagging crazily.
Seeing no reason to turn them down, we retired to the bedroom for the day to thoroughly test out my body.