"I advise against it."
"Don't confront it in close combat; there's a slim chance that its staff could strike you," Qin Mo warned, well-versed in the ways of the shape-shifting demon lord, Carlos the Deceiver.
Carlos's fate was entwined with something called the Well of Eternity, a mysterious well within the palace of Tzeentch. The Well contained all knowledge of the past and future, a fascination for Tzeentch. Yet, even as one of the Chaos Gods, Tzeentch did not fully comprehend it and had dispatched several demons to plumb its depths. Only Carlos returned—and with two heads.
Carlos wielded the Staff of Tomorrow, a tool once used to stir the waters of the Well. This staff, powerful in its own right, became even more formidable after being plunged into the Well's depths. Those struck by it experience ceaseless transformations. Apart from this staff, Carlos also possessed the Book of Fate, which recorded past and future events, its pages rewriting constantly as fates shifted.
Of these matters, Yaon knew nothing. He was a warrior, not a scholar; knowing the nature of the demon before him and how to kill it sufficed.
"I'll take him down with the shoulder cannon," Yaon muttered, locking onto Carlos standing a kilometer away. But as quickly as the targeting system honed in, an error disrupted it, showing Carlos at various, impossible distances. Only manual targeting remained.
"Defeating Carlos is your mission, but it's not your task right now," Qin Mo intervened. "The entire 13th Regiment is dead. Reload the timeline."
Yaon barely comprehended the term but nodded in a daze. "What should I do next?"
"Do whatever you like; it isn't our first time repeating this."
...
Within the celestial engine, the Stone Man received the order to return time by one hour. The Stone Man, for the twelfth time, monitored the energies overflowing from the dimensional rift, adjusting space with the power of the Star God, dragging the sealed chamber back into the past.
On his second rewind, the first psychic to appear did not arrive at the usual coordinates but emerged in the northern plains. The 13th Regiment, upon teleporting, dispatched him quickly. Then, ten more appeared across Cadia, opening portals to unleash demons.
The Stone Man rewound and intercepted for the third time, splitting the 13th Regiment across Cadia to hunt down the scattered psychics. A hundred then appeared, and once again, events spiraled out of control.
The Stone Man rewound again, initiating a fourth interception, feeling the silent opposition pushing back. Both sides were testing each other, probing for weaknesses.
By the tenth attempt, the enemy had set the initial psychic's position in stone, knowing the 13th Regiment would eliminate him wherever he appeared. The response had evolved: instead of relocating psychics, the enemy simply increased their numbers.
The Stone Man discerned their plan—to raise the numbers until even a rewind could not change the outcome, forcing Cadia to contend with an inevitable demon invasion.
Such was the reason the plains brimmed with psychics on the twelfth attempt.
"Strange," murmured the Stone Man aloud for the first time, finding the situation increasingly bizarre. The foretold "meteor shower" symbolized the psychics arriving on Cadia. Yet, this was still the material universe, their home ground; the enemy should not be able to endlessly spawn psychics here.
So how, in the last test, did such multitudes arrive?
Considering, the Stone Man deduced that the psychics were likely drawn from afar, pulled by an exceptional force across the Warp and "flown" to Cadia.
If not for a rift, it would be near impossible to summon such numbers repeatedly. Each psychic emerged from the rift.
Tracing this logic, the Stone Man saw only two solutions to prevent further invasions: return a century, perhaps a millennium, and eliminate every psychic in the galaxy, leaving no psychics for Cadia to face; or, seal the rift.
After weighing the options, the second approach seemed far more feasible. The enemy might pull psychics from various timelines, making it unlikely that eradicating one era's psychics would suffice.
These thoughts and judgments were relayed to Qin Mo's metallic form. The final decision awaited.
"Annihilating the psychics offers no viable solution," Qin Mo dismissed the first option. "Closing the rift is the only realistic path."
But sealing the rift required Cadia's Black Obelisk. Qin Mo, however, had no knowledge of operating such an artifact. Though created with the assistance of a Star God, the Obelisk was mastered only by the Void Dragon. Each Star God held its unique knowledge; for example, the Flamebearer could traverse the Webway.
Perhaps the Creator had once learned the use of the Obelisk, but none of his memories remained in Qin Mo.
"I'll need to study the Obelisk," he resolved, issuing orders to the Stone Man. "Continue intercepting the psychics. I need time."
The Stone Man, after calculating, responded, "Do not worry. Though we cannot succeed in each interception, this is the material universe—I can delay them indefinitely by returning to the past."
"Enough," Qin Mo interrupted. He saw no benefit in perpetuating the cycle of time. Carlos held the Book of Fate; it likely anticipated the Stone Man's attempt to rewind before he'd even begun. And yet, Carlos employed a gradual approach, incrementally reinforcing each attempt, rather than overwhelming Cadia with countless psychics at once.
Every return to the past brought changes. Unlike schemers, Tzeentch cherished change above all.
Qin Mo suspected Carlos toyed with time itself to amuse Tzeentch. Should this cycle continue unchecked, Tzeentch might intervene personally.
With the Eye of Terror in the galaxy, and the rift exposed, Tzeentch might deliver a small cosmic upheaval to Cadia.
"Do you wish mortals to confront demons?" the Stone Man asked. "According to the database, the Inquisition eradicates any who know of the demons' existence."
"Cadians and we alike must choose," Qin Mo replied. "They must either choose to fight the demons or resign themselves to Carlos's eternal cycle of changes to entertain his master."