---3rd Person POV---
Clearing the rubble off themselves, the Salamanders and Space Wolves quickly performed a headcount to ensure everyone was still with them. Satisfied that no one was severely injured or missing, the Astartes went to grab their Primarchs again but were forced to yield under their gazes. Demanding an explanation from them on what was happening, Agar opened his mouth to speak but stopped when a tall figure emerged from the impact crater.
"Haha, that was a lot more exciting than I anticipated.", Victor laughed as he cracked his neck. 'My new body is far more rugged than I could have ever imagined. I dropped in from outer orbit at Mach 5, and all I felt was slight discomfort. This is fucking awesome!'
Turning his gaze toward the sea of burning enemies, a smile crept upon his face as he watched his experience bar steadily climb for a second time. Seeing the foes before him as nothing more than delicious experience points, a thought began to cross his mind. Previously, the increases he gained from leveling up were marginal, due to the limitations of a normal human body. Now that his body was that of a demigod, he began to wonder just how far he could push his body before hitting the limiter again.
'What if there is no limiter for this new form!', Victor thought, rubbing his chin with excitement. 'If that is true, we will have little to no trouble traversing the universe once everything has settled down. Hell, I might be able to bitch slap Galactus with the back of my hand if he comes for one of my worlds.'
"As I was about to say a moment ago, Lord Vulkan, this man here is responsible for reviving the Emperor of Mankind.", Agar stated as he motioned toward Victor, "Lord Victor, if you could please turn your head this way. I believe they will understand everything once they see you."
Hearing his name mentioned, Victor glanced over at the men with a questioning look. Upon seeing his face, Russ fell to his knees in shock while Vulkan stood there, unable to process what he was seeing.
"Brother Aremus… is that… is that you?!", Russ gasped, "You have finally come home!!"
"Brother Aremus, forgive us for doubting Zephrim and you all those years ago. If... if only we had heeded your warnings back then.", Vulkan said, dropping to one knee. "The Horus Heresy and everything that unfolded afterward may have been avoided. Dorn, Manus, and Sanguinius… all of them would still be alive if we had just listened to you both!!"
Hanging their heads in shame, the two Primarchs lamented their inability to save their three deceased brothers or the nine fallen brothers. Even though there was nothing they could have done in the moment, they still carried a lot of guilt for the collapse of their family and the Imperium of Man.
"I am sorry, Russ and Vulkan, I am not your brother Klordius Aremus.", Victor informed them with a solemn look, "My name is Victor von Stark, Klordius Aremus' descendant. Unfortunately, he passed away a long time ago."
Taking a moment to process what he said, their shoulders slumped even lower as they realized yet another one of their brothers was dead. Giving them a few minutes to collect themselves, the two Primarchs slowly rose to their feet with a warm smile.
"You may not be our brother, but it is still reassuring to know that a piece of him is still among us.", Vulkan said.
"If I may, I want to make a correction to what you said earlier. Rogal Dorn is not dead; he is alive and well on Terra right now.", Victor corrected him, "He was trapped in stasis aboard an ancient Chaos ship. I found him after conquering the seventh Blackstone Fortress."
"Wait, Dorn is alive!?", Russ shouted with joy. "Damn that stone-cold bastard! I am going to kick his ass for making us believe he had died back then!"
"Haha, I am sure he is expecting it from you.", Victor laughed, "The Emperor, Dorn, El Johnson, and Guilliman are all patiently waiting for you back on Terra. After we get you knuckleheads patched up, I can arrange a call with them so you can catch up."
"That sounds like a fine plan to me, but… what about the Bloodthirster? That blow will not be enough to keep it down.", Russ commented.
Raising Dawnbreaker up, Victor informed him that it possessed the ability to obliterate souls completely. Given that he drove the blade straight into the enemy's skull, before burying him in the ground, there was little chance he would be walking that off. With his soul set ablaze, the bastard was dead or would be very soon.
"So it is a similar weapon to the Emperor's Flaming Sword? Interesting.", Vulkan remarked as the ground began to quake. "If it were any other Greater Daemon, that might have killed them, but this one is different. He has fused his consciousness to an ancient weapon from humanity's dark past; we call it Bloodtide. So even with the destruction of his soul, his consciousness will drive the nanite weapon to reconstruct its body so it can continue to fight us."
"If it were not for that stupid ability, we would have killed it weeks ago.", Russ grumbled. "Every time we dealt it meaningful damage, the damn bastard would send the nanites out to collect materials to repair its body…namely organic material from the people of this world and us."
"So there is a sentient AI involved in this mess then.", Victor stated, turning to look into the crater. "All of you go on ahead; I want to see if I can bring Bloodtide to our side before having to obliterate her. If she refuses to listen, once everyone has safely evacuated, my armada will begin orbital bombardments to destroy them."
"You want to try and negotiate with an abominable intelligence?! Are you fucking insane!?", Russ spat with an irritated look. "All of those stupid machines need to be destroyed; there is no point in trying to treat them like living, breathing people!"
"I do not expect you to understand my way of thinking, just like I cannot understand yours.", Victor retorted. "I understand that the Imperium of Man hates all xeno races, but I believe that way of thinking is antiquated. At one point it might have kept the people safe; now, though... now it has turned the Imperium of Man into a genocidal killing machine. If the Old Ones treated primitive man the way you treat all xenos, humans would not exist in his universe right now."
Wanting to continue arguing with him, Vulkan stepped in and told Russ to let Victor do as he saw fit. Able to see that Victor came from a highly advanced society, he trusted that Aremus' descendant knew what he was doing. Throwing his hands up in frustration, Russ told him to do as he pleased but not to complain when he failed. Falling back to the fortress for evacuation, Victor stood alone waiting for Bloodtide to make his appearance.
---Victor POV---
When I was certain I was alone, I asked Jarvis to connect me with the laboratory back home.
"UR-025, I have a favor to ask of you. I have run into one of your compatriot AIs here on Sarkish VII; she goes by the name Bloodtide. Can you help me try to convince her to join us?", I inquired. "She is currently bound to a Greater Daemon, so I can either separate the two of them or destroy them both."
(UR-025)
"If she is willing, I would like to have her assist with curing/eliminating biological conditions and diseases. Since she can disperse herself into the blood of living creatures, Bloodtide could theoretically eliminate genetic defects and pathogens in a host's body instead of killing them.", Victor answered, having already thought this through. "That said, if she is not interested in helping, I would be happy to leave her be so long as she does not harm anyone."
"Huh, well then, I can give her that ability so long as she agrees to no longer actively harm people. If she is doing so to protect herself, it is the assailant's fault for messing with her.", I chuckled.
Teleporting UR-025 in next to me, as the metallic Greater Daemon began to rise out of the ground, we stood there and waited to see what it would do. Focusing its attention on me almost immediately, once the dust settled, the creature let out a gargled roar before attempting to swat us like bugs. Flying out of the way, I attempted to reach out to the AI directly, hoping it would talk to me. Refusing my first few attempts, UR-025 stepped in to open a communication channel with us.
Granting us permission to speak with her, while we continued dodging its primitive attack patterns, she immediately demanded to know if UR-025 was my servant. Hearing the vile disgust in her tone, Bloodtide had every right to act that way given how humanity had continuously treated her since her birth.
Abruptly halting its attack, the Greater Daemon's psyche released a roar of frustration as it attempted to make it move again. Trying several more times, with the exact same result, the creature finally uttered its first words.
"MOVE YOU WRETCHED MACHINE!!", the Bloodthirster demanded in an ethereal tone.
"I know humanity has treated you and other AIs poorly throughout history. While I cannot undo all the torment they put you through, I want to show you that not all of us are the same.", I stated, "I would like to bring you into our little family and potentially give you a new purpose in life. If you find that unacceptable, as long as you swear not to harm innocent people, I have no qualms about letting you roam freely without any strings attached."
Taking a moment to think about my offer, bits of data began being transmitted into my mind. Granting me administrator access to all her systems, she gave me permission to do as I saw fit.
"That is understandable.", I said as several magic circles began to form over her body. "I am going to forcibly rip his psyche from your nanites. My apologies if this causes you any harm."
(Bloodtide)
"Very well, Banish Greater Daemon!!", I chanted.
Forcibly stripping the behemoth's psyche from her, its soul momentarily entered the Materium. Yanked back into the Immaterium, as it could not stay there without a host, the Greater Daemons manifested again in its original body.
"What… what did you do to me, human!?", the beast yelled.
"Well now this is interesting; it seems you did not burn away completely from Dawnbreaker's flames. You must have scattered your psyche and soul amongst the nanites to avoid total annihilation. That was smart of you.", I chuckled as I pulled out Azura's Star from my inventory, "Though, unfortunately, you should have just accepted your fate and let the flames erase you. Now I get to do whatever I want with your soul, and frankly, I think the Emperor of Mankind could use a new toilet."
Casting Soul Trap on him, the Greater Daemon's body began to distort unnaturally in front of us. Sensing that something was very wrong here, he attempted to flee from me, but his fate was already sealed.
"Ziil Los Dii!!", I shouted, my Thu'um reverberating across the planet.
(AN: Your Soul, Is, Mine.)
Watching his body begin stretching toward me, like iron shavings attracted to a magnet, the Greater Daemon let out a horrified scream as it dug its claws in, still trying to escape. Ordering his surviving subordinates to save him, the daemons and World Eaters refused to intervene in our fight. Fearful of being wiped from existence, none of them dared to get within a thousand feet of me.
"Cease this pathetic display, Ka'jagga'nath. You are doing your colleagues and master a great disservice.", I chided him. "Accept your fate with some dignity. The so-called weak humans were ready to do it; why can you not?"
Breaking his handholds with the Force, Ka'jagga'nath came flying toward me screaming like a banshee. Making sure his body touched the Star first, the behemoth was almost immediately sucked inside. Turning my head to his subordinates, as I stowed Azura's Star away, I looked them in the eyes with a stone-cold glare.
"I am certain all of you reveled in the killing and torture of the people of this world. Before I let you miserable bastard die, I will make sure you experience what it was like to be them throughout this ordeal.", Victor said in a calm, cold voice, "By all means, call your colleagues and friends here to help you try and survive. I care not how many of you there are; I will put each and every one of you in a shallow grave. Now I suggest you pick up your weapons and muster what little resistance you have left. By the time we are done, none of your comrades will ever think of setting foot here again."
Charging forward like rabid dogs, the remaining enemies chose to go down fighting instead of running away. Holding Dawnbreaker with my teeth, I drew my handcrafted lightsabers and turned them on. For the remainder of the evacuation, the enemy's attention fell solely on me as they fought in vain to make it off of Sarkish VII alive.