It did not take long for the group to make it to the great hall for breakfast. Revelation was impressed at the stonework as they walked through the castle, listening to Dumbledore's explanation of the history of it and the wizarding world. Vitaetus however was overall indifferent about it, sure the castle was nice but compared to the Imperial Palace or the many great forges on Mars, it was below average at the absolute best.
As they walked, the small group passed a few paintings depicting various scenes though the subjects in them moved. The first time Vitaetus saw this, it caught him off guard though he only showed mild interest in it after. Before long the group entered the Great Hall. As they entered and the doors creaked open, the students all looked at them as they entered and went quiet when they saw Revelation and Viteatus. Unseen to anyone, by the head table a ghost, Professor Binns, upon seeing Revelation, had stopped talking and simply sat in silence, his eyes tracking the huge figure. Quickly, Binns went through the wall to find the other ghosts of the castle. He had finally come for them to allow them to pass on.
Revelation and Vitaetus saw the room was full of students all split into 4 tables that ran along the length of the room. Looking around, mildly surprised at just how many psykers were still around, Revelation looked up and gasped when he saw the ceiling. It depicted a nice blue sky, an exact image of what the sky would be at this time of day. Dumbledore, looking up as well and smiled. "Quite the sight isn't it? A charm from the founders allows it to show the sky as it actually is at any time of day."
Revelation looking at him smiled back and replied, "Indeed it is. Vitaetus, make a note. If I am ever put on that damned throne, I want this done with the ceiling" Vitaetus would say nothing as he made the note, himself staring in wonder at it. He had never seen a blue sky before. He had heard of them but to actually see it was different and on Holy Terra no less. It was a sight he would not forget in his life. As he gazed up at it, Vitaetus found the pale blue oddly calming.
As he looked the group made their way to the head table, getting looks as they passed the students. Vitaetus metal legs and ax making loud, echoing thumps as they beat against the stone. 1 bushy-haired girl with a red tie seemed to take interest in Vitaetus as he walked by, looking at his various limbs in wonder. When they reached the front, Dumbledore walked to a podium and pulled out his wand to address the student and staff. The wand itself caught Revelation off guard but he saved that talk for later as Dumbledore spoke. "May I have your attention before you get back to your food. Now I am sure you all noticed Hogwarts has a couple of new guests this morning." Gesturing to the two, Dumbledore would introduce them, "These are Revelation and Magos Cogblade."
Vitaetus would speak up to correct the headmaster. "It is Fabricator-General now headmaster though you may address me as simply General if you wish."
Dumbledore would look back at him with a nod before continuing. "Ahh, my bad. Congratulations on the promotion it would seem, but as I was saying. I ask that you all show them respect as you would the staff of the school and please leave them be for the next few days while they are here." In a jovial tone that causes the person being addressed to blush, he would add, "That means you too Miss Granger, I saw you looking at the General and his various technological bits as he walked by. Now please all enjoy your breakfast before your finals today."
The students could only stare at the group before a shout from a platinum blonde came from the Slytherin table, "What is a filthy muggle doing here? Everyone knows the muggle machines don't work around magic. Just wait until my father hears about this."
This was met by a number of shouts from that table as well as the others before Revelation would extend his hand to Vitaetus. After a moment the priest offered his ax, Revelation nodded before channeling some of his power through it so it could be felt by everyone before he slammed the hilt against the stone floor. The loud thud ringing around the vast room and causing the children to all quiet down and look at him with eyes wide as he shouted. "Your headmaster asked you to show respect to guests in your school. Please do so."
The students and even the staff all quieted in an instant, none expecting the rush of power and a booming voice from the man. If one were to listen, they would even have been able to hear Draco Malfoy audibly gulp. With a soft cough, Dumbledore would speak again. "Thank you for that Revelation. And as for you Mr. Malfoy, that will be 50 points from Slytherin. If you wish to speak to your father, I am sure you can this afternoon when he comes to speak on the behalf of the board of governors. I can assure you all they are not muggles. Now everyone please…" Though at this the headmaster trailed off.
On the far wall, he could see every Hogwarts ghost floating in, lead by Mr. Binns. The students all looked at where his gaze was going before they started muttering between themselves.
"Mr. Binns, what is going on, why are you all here? You all never come together except on the first day of the school year." However, he was ignored by them all as they floated past him and stopped before Revelation. Some had looks of joy while others relief or shock.
Slowly Nearless Headless Nick floated and spoke to Revelation. "You came. We had all but given up hope that you would come for us. Thank you. We have waited for centuries for you to find us. When Binns told us, many didn't believe but to see you now, words can not describe the relief and joy we all feel that we can move on now." Looking back, Nick received nods from all the other ghosts, "We are all ready, please let us move on now."
Revelation would put his hand on his chin and stare for a moment. He knew ghosts existed. Very rarely when someone died he would miss their soul and they would wander the earth until he found them or them him, but to see so many in one place was shocking. He could only assume that the barrier around the school hid them from his sight. He removed his hand from his chin and gave a kind smile while holding out his hand. "Please forgive me for not finding you all. Had I known you were all here, I would have come sooner to give you peace. I am sorry to leave you waiting but you won't have to anymore. Please come, I will take you all in."
The ghost would all link hands and gently, Nick would touch Revelation's hand. In a flash of bright white light, the ghost would all disappear from the universe. Their souls joining Revelations oversoul in the warp, essentially, the closest thing to an afterlife for all uncorrupted humans.
Looking around at the students and staff with their eyes wide, he would sigh and speak with a soft, sad voice. "Forgive me. None are meant to see that. I am sorry for doing what I must but know that your ghosts are all safe and happy now. And headmaster, I promise I will explain later after we eat and I get some sleep." Before any would respond, he raised the ax and channeled his power through it. In a burst of gold that engulfed the whole room, he wiped the memory of what happened from everyone's mind save for two. Vitaetus was spared as he wasn't sure he could properly and the headmaster as he deserved an explanation for what happened to the ghosts. Handing the ax back to Vitaetus, Revelation went to sit and eat some food as a shout was heard from the blond boy again. "Well headmaster, what are they doing here?" Vitaetus followed behind and stood behind his lord, not sure what to do. He doesn't really eat.
It did not take long before the 2 were outside the Great Hall, having finished and left before the students all did so they could wander the castle and find a place to sleep. They had gotten up to the 7th floor and were walking past many paintings. After a few minutes, Vitaetus was the one to break the silence. "My lord Omnissiah, what happened there? To the spirits I mean?"
Revelation would look at Vitaetus before he continued walking along, "When someone dies they join my soul in the warp. Very rarely, I would say around around 2 or 3 in 10,000,000 in our current environment, I fail to get one. I simply brought them into the warp. It is an instinctual thing that all humans know when they die, that they will join my soul in the warp for protection. It is actually where the idea of heaven, Valhalla or the other various came from I suspect, that some latent psyker had seen ti in the warp and spread stories of what they had seen."
Vitaetus would think about this. As all people from his time, he knew of the oversoul in the warp but why the spirits? Only loyal Imperial citizens should be joined with the Omnissiahs Motive Force. "Yes, but how my lord? I know of the oversoul in the warp, it is known that only any loyal citizen of your Imperium joins you in the warp so they should have never joined, they should have been lost in the warp like the heretics they are."
Shaking his head, Revelation would respond. "That is close but not quite right, General. Any human can join, even from your time. It doesn't matter if they were a member of The Imperium or not if they were a saint or mass murderer. Any person that has no corruption of chaos staining their soul will join me. I can only assume that the truth was twisted as it was passed down in your time."
Looking around, he would sigh and change the topic. "But I do not wish to speak of it. Tell me, how does your ax work? I know it is a psychic focus but the actual ax seems lacking due to the large blunt edges of the cog."
This change of topic would make Vitaetus have a small smile, his lord was asking him to explain how the technology works, something he would gladly do. He would activate the power field on the ax, causing the head to get an electric blue glow. Swinging it at a nearby wall, the head would slice through it like it was made of softened butter. "I think you will find it has no difficulty in performing its task, my lord. The blue field you see around the head is a power field. All throughout the head of the ax are channels and superconductors used to contain an alternating field of up and down quarks which are formed in such a way as to cleanly and easily disrupt if not outright breaking the bonds holding atoms to one another. An amazing and grateful gift from the Machine God used by every branch of your armies."
Revelation nodded while staring at the smooth gash in the stone, "That is amazing. The technology in that weapon alone would push humanity's understanding forward thousands of years. However, did you need to damage the wall? This castle is a thousand years old, please don't do such a thing again." Vitaetus wanted to simply shrug. The castle, to him, was fairly new and just a simple stone. It would be simple to repair. He idly noted a small amount of embarrassment in his systems but paid it no mind. Much like his father, Vitaetus kept his emotions on. The benefits they provided to motivation outweighed any temporary inefficiency they may create. That, and in his limited interaction with those of the Imperium outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus, he found interacting much faster when he had his emotions on. According to one officer he met, he was very, "human", whatever that meant. As if implying he was ab-human. Or worse. "We will inform the headmaster of the damage later. How long and what would it take for you to make a weapon like that for me? The focus is very good and the power field is simply amazing. I am thinking of a sword if you can with a weight of no more than 10 kilograms."
Vitaetus would bow his head and say a prayer before looking back at his god. "My lord, I am honored that you have asked such a task. I thank you greatly for your trust. As for how long, I shall have to acquire the materials to build and bless a proper forge as well as make the alloys for the adamantium in the blade. Between the prayers, blessings and forging needed from the first laying of the foundation of the forge to the last hymn needed for the sword I would predict about 10 years with an error of 6 months my lord."
Revelation would frown at this. He expected a long time but not years. And from his explanation, a lot of that would be needless prayers and chants. Perhaps he would convince the general to skip those. "I see. And how long would you need if you skipped the prayers, blessings and such on at least the weapon?" Before Vitaetus could argue, Revelation held up a hand. "I am your Omnissiah after all and would not my power flowing through the sword be as efficient or more than your prayer and blessings?"
Vitaetus was unsure what to say. His lord was asking him to skip all he had been taught, but his argument did make sense. "Well my lord, if I did such a thing, I could bring the time needed to about 6 years. This is due to it taking time to build and bless a proper forge as well as the cold fusion plasma reactor needed to produce enough power for the machinery and such. I will also need to locate the proper materials to build one. Perhaps I could speed up the time if I were to split my attention between building the necessary things for your weapon, my lord, and specialized servitors and craft for mining the asteroid belt for materials. Though I would need to find people for that. Maybe I can trade weapons…" He would look up at his Omnissiah and shake his head. "Forgive me, my lord, I got on a train of thought. I could have it in 5 to 6 years due to the need to build a proper forge for it as I doubt any forges on the planet are equipped to sublime and properly meld together tungsten, carbon and titanium."
"What does that create?" Any alloy that was made from such sturdy materials would be both complicated and durable to be sure thought Revelation.
"Adamantium my lord. Though it exists in a natural form as well, the ore is incredibly rare and as such a man-made version was created long long ago. It is the strongest man-made material I possess in my data banks, and the majority of the reasons for it taking such a long time for your weapon's fabrication. It is incredibly hard to work with, and nearly impossible to break or disassemble once in place. Artifacts made of it are frustratingly impossible to learn from due to being unable to take them apart." Revelation's brow rose at that.
"And such a material is needed for a quality focus like your own?" The question brought out a shaking of the priest's head.
"No, no. It is merely to ensure you have the greatest weapon I am capable of envisioning" the older psyker hummed then spoke.
"I see, well you can start on it in time, once we get to somewhere that you can set up shop. I am thinking of staying in Great Britain for a while as it seems to be your original home and I have not been here in a long time. But for now, I want to sleep." After saying this, Revelation would begin pacing the hall back and forth while thinking if they had passed any rooms with beds in them. However, after 3 times up and down, he was surprised to see a door simply appear on the wall. Glancing at Vitaetus, Revelation walked over and carefully opened the door to look in. Inside he saw 2 vast, comfortable-looking beds and beamed a bright smile. "Well isn't that interesting. Come Vitaetus, let us get some sleep before meeting with the headmaster this evening"
Vitaetus would shake his head, "I am fine for another handful of days without resting My Lord. That as well as the bed couldn't support me. I will stand guard outside so that none disrupt your rest." As his lord turned to enter the room, Vitaetus would receive an alert that his calculations for the tomb worlds were complete. Transferring the data to his datapad, he would pull it from his robe and hold it out for The Omnissiah to take. "Also my lord, I have finished adjusting my maps for the current tomb world locations for you. I have transferred all data to my pad for you.
Revelation would take the pad and glance over it, idly noting Vitaetus had also translated everything into English though looked at it with confusion. Vitaetus would see this and was not sure why before it dawned on him that touch screen technology may not have been commonplace enough. He quickly showed his lord the basics of using the pad after which he gave a smile. "Thank you, General. I believe we are about to make a huge change to your future. Now I shall sleep and have to make a couple of deals. I shall awake in around 6 to 8 hours. Please don't hurt anyone as you guard but peacefully turn them away." With this Revelation entered the room to look over the data and rest. After the door closed, Vitaetus began patrolling up and down the hall looking to keep his lord safe.
A/N
Hello everyone, sorry it has taken so long to post this new chapter. The last couple months of teh year are always super busy for me with family and work but here it is. As you read, I tried to give an explanation for why ghost exist. As for the oversoul, the idea of it I read in another fanfiction and really liked it. To me it gives a good reason for why is is constantly evenly matched with the chaos gods, that he is constantly getting power from faith and the dead and neither side can get an upper hand. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed and I'll try not to have a 2 month gap before the next chapter.
