34: Chapter 34 I am the Empire

[What does 'concubine' mean?]

Just after arriving on Cheng Yu Planet, Vera received the imperial decree of her investiture.

[It means a secondary wife.]

Seraphie was filling out a form to declare her knowledge and skills, a process that every captive arriving on Cheng Yu Planet had to experience.

[Can't I be the primary wife?!]

Vera was utterly furious, nearly wanting to tear the False Emperor's imperial decree to shreds on the spot.

[Are you crazy!]

Vera looked up, her pupils shrinking in sheer shock.

A fleet of battleships that blotted out the sky was circling above the planet. These were the vassal forces that had just returned victorious to deliver captives, and their overall scale was no less grand than the parade during the last Feast of the Emperor's Ascension on Terra.

[Being a secondary wife is not beneath you!]

Before Seraphie could finish, a squad of clones approached her.

[Do you have skills in engineering thermodynamics?]

[Yes, I worked as an instrumentation engineer in the Water Purification Guild before I enlisted.]

[Hooray! Hooray!] Several clones tossed Seraphie into the air and carried her away just like that.

[Wait, who am I supposed to contact?!] Vera was also taken away by the guards of the imperial palace.

Once inside the depths of the imperial harem, it is as deep as the sea; the two parted ways, not knowing when they would ever meet again.

...

[My Lady, we have arrived at the imperial palace. Please step out and proceed on foot.]

Vera stepped out of the vehicle with sleepy eyes. It had to be said that she was incredibly bold, actually managing to fall fast asleep under such circumstances.

The moment she stepped out, Vera was startled completely awake.

Standing before her was not a palace in the traditional sense, but a living, twisted architectural monstrosity.

Its scale surpassed the limits of mortal comprehension; rather than a palace, it was more like a mountain range cast from steel, rock, and madness.

As far as the eye could see, its menacing, sprawling silhouette dominated the landscape, with towers piercing the murky sky like dense thorns, reaching heights that would make even the bravest lookouts dizzy.

This was a wonder built with absolutely no regard for cost, trampling over architecture and squandering lives, existing for the sole purpose of demonstrating the absolute authority of that single will.

Every "brick" that made up this palace spoke of horror.

Hundreds of millions of laborers, all sharing nearly identical faces, remained the "cells" within this colossal body.

Like walking corpses, they labored endlessly among the grand facades, endless staircases, and bottomless halls.

With their bodies of flesh and blood, they slowly hauled giant stones dozens of meters high on their shoulders, carving monolithic pillars that stretched out of sight with crude tools.

Casualties were but negligible wear and tear on the schedule. Clones that fell to their deaths were replaced by new ones like grains of sand, their corpses mortared into the walls alongside the building materials to become silent nourishment for this living palace.

Its style was a chaotic monstrosity, blending harsh Gothic spires, alien-like twisted curves, and brutalist, Ork-like riveting.

Every decoration was suffocatingly massive.

The archways were large enough for Titans to walk through, and the window frames held stained glass a hundred meters tall, upon which countless cold faces of Cheng Yu were pieced together from rubble and scrap spaceship fragments, looking down upon the busy clones below like a swarm of ants.

The plaza was composed of a single, monolithic layer of bedrock polished like a mirror, reflecting an unnatural, eerie glow, yet it was freezing cold without a single trace of warmth.

There was no imperial sanctity here, only overwhelming repetition and scale.

Ubiquitous, identical faces engaged in perpetual, silent labor, creating a deadly silence more suffocating than any howling from hell.

Energy surged within it, not from faith in the Emperor, but from the endless self-replication and self-consumption under the dominion of that single will.

This was not a palace; this was a hive.

It was the ultimate manifestation of solipsism, a cold altar dedicated to himself, built from an infinite number of his own selves.

[Those who do not bend to my will shall fill the ravines of the wilderness!]

Vera was paralyzed with fear by this will, which was comparable to the corruption of Warp. The Cheng Yu guards quickly lowered a sedan chair to keep her from collapsing onto the ground.

Most people seeing the imperial palace for the first time would feel dizzy for a while, so there were many such chairs kept on standby at the palace entrance.

...

[Summon Lady Istvaan to the hall to answer!]

[Summon Lady Istvaan to the hall to answer!]

[Summon Lady Istvaan to the hall to answer!]

[...]

Vera barely managed to stand up without wetting herself. "[Are there no elevators? Am I supposed to just walk all the way up?]"

[Indeed, My Lady. Your good days are still ahead of you. Let's go!]

Left with no choice, Vera could only climb the endless stairs of this magnificent palace step by step.

As she climbed higher and higher, the elevated view allowed her to see further, revealing more and more of the landscape.

She saw Hive Cities in the distance. She had seen plenty of Hive Cities before, even some larger than these.

But Vera had never seen so many Hive Cities standing densely packed together like fish scales; it was an incredibly eerie sight.

Vera saw an Altar of Slaanesh on the side of the imperial palace. As an Inquisitor, she was highly familiar with such things, which made her all the more astonished.

Thousands of people dressed in splendid aristocratic attire were being executed en masse, their souls sacrificed to the Lord of Pleasure.

In the end, Cheng Yu softened his heart and modified his orders, choosing not to pile up corpse pyramids anymore. It was too brutal, and Slaanesh did not appreciate such unbeautiful things.

So he ordered these nobles to wear their most magnificent attire, and then had a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh use a psychic siphon to harvest their souls.

This ensured they all died beautifully, and these gorgeous corpses could even be placed in glass display cases to serve as figurehead decorations for the ships' prows. Wasn't that far more intimidating to enemies than corpse pyramids?

[My man's power is actually so immense that he can openly sacrifice to Slaanesh without being held accountable by the Imperium?]

Vera was also quite devoid of humanity, as this was actually what she chose to focus on.

...

[Lady Istvaan, are you willing to marry me?]

In the deepest depths of the False Emperor's palace, at the end of the massive royal court, stood the Throne of Thorns, woven from countless pieces of twisted metal.

And seated upon this throne was the true body of Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu did not lean back lazily; instead, he sat as upright and imposing as a monolith, his spine perfectly straight, for he himself was the pillar supporting this terrifying hall.

His "imperial robe," crudely stitched together from the rough tanned hides of Ork Warbosses, fragments of Eldar Farseer robes, and the gold-threaded sashes of Imperial officers, exuded a raw, savage aura of pure plunder.

His very existence was a decree.

His will was the law.

His throne was a bloody stairway to godhood, constructed from his infinite selves.

All living beings are me, and I am all living beings.

He was the Cheng Yu Empire.

[Vera is willing.]

If Seraphie or young Drake were here, they would surely be astonished. This normally greedy, shameless, and ill-mannered Inquisitor could actually show such a bashful, girlish demeanor, proving that in this decaying universe, power is the only truth.