When he heard the Malcador guy calling for him. The last thing he expected was to be escorted to the biggest building in this place.
Stood before him is a grand gate with a mural depicting the Emperor slaying a dragon with two gigantic machines of war guarding its hall.
Once he reached the steps, he noticed his servant and the Custodian stopped before the stairs. He wanted to ask why they wouldn't follow him but the two Warhound Titans already pushed the gate open for him and he felt a call that urged him to enter.
Adam climbed up the stairs and ignored the two behind him. He wanted an answer and the only one that could provide him was the Emperor.
Inside the gate is a grand throne where the Emperor sat and bathed in his glory, guarded by exactly 300 more Custodians that look different from the Custodian Guard. They look much grander, each with many deadly weapons and exuding an intimidating aura that could even briefly shaken his Indomitable Spirit.
At the base of the throne with the Custodians is Malcador, expecting his arrival and beckoning him to come forward until he is standing next to him.
"We finally meet, human from another Earth." The Emperor spoked with a voice that showed none of his emotions. But his voice exuded an unnatural Charisma that made it hard to ignore.
"Indeed." He replied with his fist tighten, dying to ask his question. To demand an answer out of the Emperor's own mouth.
"Hmn. I am sure you have many questions to ask and also a desire for revenge too." The Emperor said after dissecting Adam's expression and body language.
"But let me answer all of them for you."
"Firstly, had I not done it forcefully. Would a person who was spoiled by the peace from your Earth would consent to it?"
'No…' Adam thought of his truthful answer. No way he could consent to something absurd like that.
"Secondly, as you may already guess from your visit to the Grand Library. Your previous state. Even your current state is inadequate to provide me any significant help. You are only slightly stronger than a normal Astarte as of now and require much more to reach an acceptable level. Not just physical strength. But you also need to have unparalleled martial skill, leadership, Psychic Mastery and many more which you will be trained for later."
"Is that sufficient for you?" The Emperor asked.
"One more." Adam spoked. "What is it that you want me to achieve? I am just a slightly stronger nobody compared to the likes of the Warmaster Horus. What is it that you people can't do that I could?"
The Emperor smiled at Adam's attitude unlike others that were filled with worship. Adam had the guts to raise his voice in his presence. The first time since he sat on his throne someone would openly question him.
The smile then disappeared as the Emperor looked crestfallen and desolate. The aura hanging around him also dimmed as his emotion fluctuated.
"I, like you, had made a deal with that entity. I had returned back in time from the future. The grim future where the Imperium I built with my own hands, torn asunder by a cataclysmic event that will take place in the far future. A grim future at the end of the 41th Millennium.
The event known as the Fall of Cadia, the great turning point of history and the culmination of fate. The victory or defeat will decide the future of the Imperium of Man and I came from the timeline where the Imperium was defeated.
The pact I made with the entity is to return back in time to change the fate of the Imperium of Man. However, as a term set by that entity. Only you can change the future as the sole variable in this otherwise conclusion that had already set in stone.
I am powerless as any native of this universe. My story had already been set with my role being merely a character in the story. Nothing I can do to change any outcome. Only you who isn't a character in this story could." The Emperor gave his long and full answer he poured out from his heart to Adam.
Of course, the reaction to the Emperor's confession was extreme. They are already raring to burst out the throne room and drag this Horus guy's sorry assed here and to be executed for his treachery in the near future. However the Emperor stopped them and said, the future is set in stone for them like a script. Nothing they do will be able to change the outcome unless they are more powerful than the entity that helped the Emperor.
Thus only Adam can change this fate. That is his importance. Only he could overturn the fate of the Imperium of Man and to do that, he needed to be stronger and better.
As for Adam himself, he fell into silence. To be honest, it's a heavy responsibility, a very immense one for nobody like him. Why must it be him, he wondered. Can't it be someone else? All he wanted was a better life with a second chance of living. Not to be forced to shoulder the fate of trillions upon trillions of lives on his shoulder, to save the Galactic Empire that spans the Milky Way.
Perhaps noticing his turbulent state of mind, the Emperor waited patiently for Adam to sort himself up despite his companions glaring at Adam to force him to accept and help their Master as it is their greatest honor to be of use to their Master. But Adam isn't the same indoctrinated warrior like them. He doesn't show the same mindset as them.
But want or not, his opinion didn't matter. He is already cursed to be in a limbo state in the material world, cursed with an Immortality. He would rather not spend his Immortality in this kind of hostile universe.
Lifting his head with renewed purpose and determination, Adam looked straight to the Emperor who smiled, knowing his answer because he also knew about his situation.
"Good. Bare witness to my proclamation. From today onwards, his words are my decree, his actions are by my will and his authority is second only to myself and my trusted friend Malcador." His voice boomed with a tidal wave of psychic weight that echoed deep onto the Immaterium itself and the whole Terra.
However, despite the Emperor's finality. There are still those who doubted not him but Adam.
By all right, Adam is a stranger. Even now, only those present in the room know of his origin. An agent given to the Emperor by an unknown being of higher power, higher than the Chaos Gods.
Seeing their doubt the Emperor does not blame them. They are loyal to himself and their concern is for his well being.
"Worry not, in this galaxy. No. In this universe, even I do not dare to claim I am impervious to the corruption of Chaos. However, I can say without a shred of doubt that he is immune to the temptation and corruption from the Warp. Even then, he will always be on the Imperium's side." The Emperor reassured Adam's ultimate goal is to break free from his shackles and the only method is to fulfill his contract with the higher dimensional being.
———
After Adam was dismissed and given a home within the Inner Palace itself mainly due to Adam's training that will be oversee by Malcador and the Custodies themselves and on rare occasions, perhaps the Emperor in order to prepare him for his herculean task that he would have to bore on his shoulder in the future.
The Servant that initially followed Adam stepped before the Golden Throne. She was of no one important in the grand scale of the Imperium itself. A daughter of a noble house that swore their service to the Emperor and the Imperium as an acolyte trying to climb up the rank. Someone that is dime in the dozen within the Imperium. The reason she was chosen is by chance when Malcador was seeking for a serf to be assigned to Adam.
She willingly offers herself with great enthusiasm, thinking the Imperial Regent has a grand task for her and thus she came to be Adam's Servant or Serf. Upon knowing her task, she frowned but didn't voice any complaint thinking she is going to serve the demigods Astartes which itself is a great honor despite being a member of nobility herself because she is outside of the line of succession itself being the reason she seek for a greener grass else where to gain achievement and elevate her standing.
But once she realized that she was not serving an Astarte and instead a nobody, she felt depressed. But pressed on regardless because she couldn't possibly back out after jumping at the offer herself. However, her willingness plummets the moment she sees the 'lord' she is supposed to serve. Her first impression of him is a bumpkin.
But, from this mere 'bumpkin'. She is now kneeling before the Golden Throne and told the 'bumpkin' held authority second only to the Emperor and his Regent himself.
"You shall serve him to your best capacity. Serve him as you would serve me personally." She was told by the Emperor himself.
From a great shame, it becomes a great honor. To be given a decree by the Emperor himself. She shall spare no effort to serve her new lord.
———
From the next day onwards, Adam will spend ten years under the tutelage of many masters to learn martial arts, the psychic force, leadership, art of war, strategy and politics.
Every waking moment aside from the two hours sleep, he will spend improving himself. On some occasions, he would follow the Emperor into the depth of his Palace to improve his Gene-Seed which turned out to originate from the Emperor himself.
Due to Adam's Immortality, he becomes the perfect test subject to perfect the Gene-Seed and he himself also benefits from the constant improvement and optimization.
By the end of the ten year period, Adam is unrecognizable from himself ten years prior. Gone is the naive person he is with low esteem into an unparalleled leader under the Emperor's banner and participating in the Great Crusade although away from the limelight.
Due to Adam's advantage against the Forces of Chaos, the Emperor and Malcador created the Grey Knights Chapter ahead of time thanks to Adam accelerating the creation of the Emperor's Gene-Seeds. Creating a Chapter of Elite Daemon Slayer Astartes most adept and deadly when combating the Daemon of Warp on top of each being Blank after the Emperor discover the genetic code and experimented it on Adam until it was perfected.
The Grey Knights are given to him as his own personal Chapter just like each Primarch would have their own. With the Grey Knights Chapter under his command, Adam is deployed in the battlefield with the heaviest presence of Chaos Forces and often waging war deep into the Realm of Chaos, bringing the battlefield into the Chaos God's realm themselves in hope to lessen the burden and breaches in reality.
His presence itself is like a thorn to the Chaos Gods. Not because of his Daemon Slaying capability. But because of his immunity to the Corruption of Chaos and their Psychic Might due to his Indomitable Spirit that gives him a soul impervious to all their methods. Not even capable of giving him the smallest harm when he is inside the Immaterium where everything is made of Psychic energy. An ultimate turtle shell that is unbreakable and impervious to anything of Psychic origin.
Relying on his turtle shell of an ability, he breaks into each of the Chaos God's realm. Wreaking havoc, assassinating high ranking Daemons, even harassing those Chaos God's out of boredom, strolling into their realm like he is going to a friend's house to hang out and then left them a nasty surprise being among the acts he did to stall the Daemon's advance into the real-space.
Although a mere one thousand of them is insufficient to significantly slow the Chaos Forces advance. Not to mention, while Adam is invincible inside the Immaterium. His Grey Knights aren't and each loss is a significant issue since their particular Chapter's recruitment is nonexistent since they spend majority if not all of their time fighting endless battles against the Daemon in the warp.
By the height of the Great Crusade, almost 100 years had passed and an even longer amount of time passed inside the Warp. His thousand strong Grey Knights Chapter had been reduced effectively to two thirds of the initial number.
Century long campaign in the Warp exhausted even the most hardened Grey Knights Grand Master, unlike Adam who is unaffected and his Willpower remains unshakable and relentless even when facing the Chaos Gods themselves. He remains steadfast and thwarted their attempts to cripple and decimate the exhausted Grey Knights.
That encounter with the Chaos God prompted Adam to put an end to his centuries long war in the Warp and retreated back to the reality to recuperate. However, that proven to be a mistake.
Indeed as the Emperor stated, the history will repeat and he is powerless to stop it. Only Adam, an outsider could.
Using Adam's close and almost secretive relationship with the Emperor, the Chaos Gods sow seed of doubts in the mind of Horus. The declaration the Emperor made century ago was used against the Emperor and convinced Horus that he and the Primarchs were below Adam and the Emperor would divulge his secrets to Adam but not them. It brewed distrust, discontent, jealousy and bitter resentment that sparked the beginning of the Heresy while Adam and the Grey Knights was purposely trapped inside the Warp by the joint forces of the four Chaos Gods. Perhaps his constant harassment on the Chaos Gods had aided in their partnership too…
But regardless, his desperate attempt to return to the reality finally bore fruit. Only to find it rotten when he and his Grey Knights Chapter was dropped into the far edge of the galaxy, directly on a Necron Tomb World.
By the time he returned to Sol System, it was already too late. He understands that this is what fate had ordained. The Emperor reminded him of this too constantly. But even so, he felt like he had a part in the blame. Had he been more cautious, he would be able to return in time and aid the Emperor to fight off the Traitor Legions and their Primarchs.
He wished to launch an all out attack into the Warp and hunt down those Traitors but in the end he didn't went through with his wish. For what is he trying to do something that is impossible. The fate wouldn't allow him to defy it. His only chance is only the event spoked by the Emperor, the Battle of Cadia, the juncture where the fate culminate and his only opportunity to overturn fall and decay of the Imperium.
Thus, he bide his time. He took his office as the Imperial Regent in the absence of Malcador. Stabilizing the Imperium and help it recover from the scar of the Horus' betrayal and sealing himself inside the Inner Palace for several centuries, stabilizing the Imperium as best as he could while crushing the rampant Demonic Corruption left by the Horus Heresy and reduce the inevitable decay of the Imperium as best as he could.
When he emerged from the depth of the Inner Palace, it was the beginning of the First Black Crusade in the Segmentum Obscurus. Thus begins once more, his warpath into the Immaterium to unleash his long seething wrath upon those Ruinous cucks that think the weakened Imperium is an easy prey. He will unleash his terror once more upon the Realm of Chaos and remind them of his presence once more.
—————