Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 933

Chapter 925, The Road to Godhood

Zakaria sat on his throne, his mood gloomy.

As a Chaos Lord, he was the master of this Calamity Fleet.

The Chaos army had numerous Calamity Fleets, formed upon the occasion of the victory at the Battle of Cadia and the Crimson Scar tearing the universe apart, by order of the Everchosen, the Chaos Warmaster, Archathon.

These Calamity Fleets had two main objectives.

The lesser of these was to operate across the universe, bringing disaster and spreading the corruption of Chaos.

This was common to most Chaos forces, Chaos Cults, and demonic forces.

Beyond this routine mission, the Calamity Fleet’s other core mission was to search the universe for “items,” in coordination with a being that had formed some kind of partnership with the Chaos Warmaster.

In reality, this intelligence was scarce; even a Chaos Lord like him, the master of an entire Calamity Fleet, was unaware of many crucial matters.

The Chaos Warmaster never revealed who this so-called partner was, or even if they even existed, let alone what this “thing” actually was.

Many Chaos Lords were displeased with this, Zakaria being one of them.

He believed it was a sign of the Warmaster’s distrust.

Of course, this was perfectly natural.

The Chaos forces gathered under Archaton were vast, encompassing the descendants of nearly every Space Marine Legion defeated in the Civil War, including even millennia-old veterans who had survived the civil war. This was supplemented by a vast number of Chaos followers, servants, and the Dark Mechanicus. It was practically a Dark Chaos replica of the Imperium.

However, unlike the Imperium, the Chaos Warbands that gathered around him—organizations similar to Space Marine Chapters—had many hidden agendas.

They rallied around the Warmaster with a variety of goals and motivations. The fact that he could barely unify his command was a testament to the Warmaster’s prestige, let alone the desire to completely unify everyone.

The internal strife within the Chaos forces was far more brutal than that of the Human Empire.

Zakaria, a descendant of the Wolf Pack, considered the Chaos Warmaster unworthy of loyalty, believing himself to be the most qualified “Alpha Wolf.” However, with Alchadon now so powerful, even the “White Wolf King” had to bow down temporarily.

Even the position of Overlord of the Scourge Fleet had been won after a period of open and covert strife, and he still had to work

for Alchadon .

He felt unhappy about it.

But the reason he still fought for the position of Overlord of the Scourge Fleet was because it offered real benefits.

After becoming Overlord of the Scourge Fleet, numerous warbands were shoved into the fold, receiving an entire fleet for free. This size was far greater than his own former group, the White Wolf Warband.

Of course, many of these were losers in the battle for Overlord of the Scourge. While they were his defeated opponents, they weren’t necessarily convinced. Within the Scourge Fleet, when it first came together, there was a rift

. It didn’t matter; Zakaria was considered quite resourceful and ruthless. After seizing the position of Overlord, he swiftly eliminated his opponents through exclusion, assassination, threats, and deliberate suicide missions. By coercing, bribing, and winning over others, he gradually transformed the entire Scourge Fleet into his own territory, absorbing it into his own strength.

Using the Scourge Fleet, he diligently gathered the remaining Wolf Pack Scions.

Currently, half of the more active Wolf Pack Scions warbands have already joined his Scourge Fleet.

Zakaria’s next ambition is to claim the position of “Wolf King” of the Wolf Pack. He doesn’t want to be limited to being just the “White Wolf King”; he wants to be the “Lord of the Wolf Pack.”

Even that isn’t his limit. Once he becomes “Lord of the Wolf Pack,” he could leverage the strength of this once-founding Legion to pursue the position of Warmaster of Chaos.

Of course, this alone won’t be enough.

The Wolf Pack’s power lags far behind Archaton’s loyalists, the former Moon Guard, and now the Dark Legion.

The prestige gap is even greater.

A fight for supremacy is difficult.

So, another approach must be considered.

Now that he’s the master of a single Scourge Fleet, one of the largest among them, his strategy naturally hinges on the Scourge Fleet itself.

When assigning missions to Scourge Fleets, Archaton never explained their specific objectives or any specific entities he was collaborating with. He simply gave them targets and told them to get to work.

Many Scourge Fleet masters were rather perfunctory about their assignments.

It’s hard to say whether the Chaos Warmaster’s creation of these Scourge Fleets was a way to exclude dissidents. He’d just have to see which fleets were disobedient, and to what extent, and then decide how to deal with them. Within each fleet, the Warmaster’s trusted advisors and watchdogs were present. Furthermore, the Warmaster also had ample means in place to seize power and purge the Scourge Fleets if their dominance became excessive.

At that point, it would be easy to discern who was truly loyal and who was rebellious, who were centrists worth winning over, and who were wavering elements who needed to be eliminated to establish their authority…

Using these tactics, Alchadon had already purged several Scourge Fleets, eliminating troublemakers and dissidents with inherently malicious intentions, thereby regaining a few loyal Scourge Fleets that truly and completely obeyed his command. His decisive actions fully demonstrated his skill as Warmaster and supreme leader of the Chaos forces.

However, none of these tactics were ever used against Zakaria.

The Chaos Warmaster knew that this “White Wolf” was not one of his own, that he was treacherous and ambitious. However, the Scourge Fleets under Zakaria had always been remarkably obedient.

Whenever assigned a mission, they eagerly undertook it, often completing it quickly and effectively, always bringing back what they were supposed to collect.

This also left the Chaos Warmaster with no excuse to attack Zakaria.

For Zakaria, obedience, abiding by the rules, and completing the mission quickly and effectively not only prevented Archadon from taking action, but more importantly, he had ascertained something: the items collected weren’t necessarily for Archadon’s own benefit.

He further discovered that Archadon had partnered with a great being, perhaps second only to the four in the Warp. The formation of so many Calamity Fleets, and even the technology to build them, was acquired from that being.

From this perspective, Zakaria naturally had a nagging thought: If Archadon could strike a bargain with that great being, why couldn’t I, the White Wolf King, do the same?

They want something, and they don’t care who gives it to them.

Rather than having you, the Warmaster of Chaos, get in the way, I’d rather sell it myself for a good price.

Of course, this assumes Zakaria can also find a way to contact the great being he doesn’t know.

However, he wasn’t worried about this.

On the one hand, he had spies and intelligence sources close to Archaton, allowing him to find ways to contact that great being.

On the other hand, he could wait for the other party to contact him. As long as his fleet performed exceptionally well in finding the “item,” and as long as the other being truly valued it, there was no need to worry about the other party contacting him.

As expected, his assumption was correct.

Expecting a being in the Warp to be a trustworthy, top-notch ally?

No one should entertain such foolish hopes.

Since that being sought to wreak havoc in the real universe, it naturally desired power within the real universe that it could personally control.

And when Zakaria, a traitor willing to join forces and bypass Archaton, met him, the two sides hit it off, heading for it.

During their initial encounter, the being was incredibly frank.

He shared his power, which, to be honest, filled Zakaria with a deep-seated fear, which then gave rise to a frenzy.

Zakaria had indeed embraced Chaos, but unlike those Chaos Space Marines who specifically accepted the blessings of a particular evil god, he simply embraced Chaos without fully swearing allegiance to any particular evil god.

Many Chaos Space Marines shared his similarity, including even the Chaos Warmaster, Archathon. Archathon, known as the ‘Eternal Chosen’, essentially possessed the blessings of the Four Gods, yet was not completely subordinate to any single evil god. He represented a deeper power within the essence of Chaos. Archathon believed this was his own will. Zakaria shared

this sentiment, but if someone truly offered a high price, he wouldn’t be unwilling to accept it.

This great being, who displayed terrifying power, was a perfect candidate. While

he certainly wasn’t as powerful as the four true Chaos Gods, that didn’t matter. On the contrary, it was actually a positive factor.

Firstly, he wouldn’t be as controlled. To be honest, Zakaria sometimes felt disgusted when he saw the Pale Reapers, their bodies oozing with pus and stinking with utter depravity, who had almost completely surrendered to the Father. He also felt horrified when he saw the Secret Guards, driven to madness after their complete devotion to Slaanesh.

Tzeentch and Khorne were slightly better, but not much better.

He didn’t really want to become like that.

And while he was associated with this new being, while not as powerful as the Four Gods, the relationship between them had shifted from subordinates and servants to more of an equal partner.

This was what Zakaria was quite satisfied with.

Another point was that the being calling himself “Basthor” was a promising talent.

Besides being frank about the power he wielded, he was also very candid about his goals.

He wanted to become the fifth great evil god of the Warp—if you didn’t count the False Emperor of Mankind.

Of course, if you had to count the False Emperor, he wouldn’t mind being the sixth.

Ultimately, he wanted to become a new god.

Not some lesser god of the Warp.

He was already, and practically the most powerful of the lesser gods of the Warp, even without the word “one of them.”

But Bassol was clearly unsatisfied, intent on further advancement.

Conventional paths were practically impossible; the path to godhood was largely blocked. Without the unwavering support of one of the currently seated, success was impossible.

He had to find another path.

And his sights were set on an ancient artifact.

Bassol, calling himself the “Creator,” possessed significant powers in technology, intelligence, and manufacturing. He sought the artifact technology left behind by an ancient race of dominant cosmic masters.

Mastering it would allow him to complete his ascension ritual and ascend to a position of equal rank within the Warp, alongside the Four Gods and the False Emperor.

Zakaria believed this “I, Qin Shi Huang, pay for it” narrative.

He wasn’t one to be easily gullible, but the most important thing was that Bassol had already demonstrated his power to him, so impressive it truly convinced him that he had the potential to accomplish it, that he was truly just one step away. Furthermore, Bassol had clearly offered him numerous benefits before he even began his work.

Bassol, with his boundless divine power, forged a vast array of demonic engines and doom arks, bestowing them upon Zakaria.

This significantly enhanced the capabilities of the Disaster Fleet under his control.

Bassol had said this was a powerful gift to enable him to better accomplish his mission.

Since the other party had already paid him in advance, what was there to stop him from doing?

Zakaria then intensified his efforts in collecting artifacts for Bassol.

The dark, ancient technology had shattered into countless fragments, drifting across the universe. His mission was to do his utmost to recover them.

He and his fleet thus became one of the most proactive of all the Disaster Fleets in completing their mission.

—Not the most proactive. Apparently, Bassol had also co-opted other Calamity Fleets.

In addition to the objectives assigned by Alchadon, Zakaria would also receive new objectives directly from Bassol, actively completing them.

This allowed him to simultaneously receive supplies from both the Warmaster’s Chaos forces and the ‘Creator.’

The current mission in Papalil was sent by the Creator.

He had assumed it would be similar to previous operations; after all, he had run into conflicts with the Alliance before.

But he hadn’t expected to run into such a tough obstacle.

(End of Chapter)