A/N: Happy holidays! Here's an early gift for all of you. Have a good one.

He Who Protects

Chapter 4

"You prayed to a god?" Tanaka's brows shot into her hairline. "And he answered? Forgive me, my Lord, but this goes against everything we've been taught by the iterators."

The Emperor pulled two books from his bookcase, both worn with time; one was thin while the other was thicker than her neck. He held them out to her.

"Tell me, Chronicler," he whispered, "How much do you know about the Dark Age of Humanity?"

Whispers droned in her ears, sounding as if they were coming from far off.

She waved her hand and scoffed. "It's a book with no named author who claims humanity ruled the stars through technical dominance tens of thousands of years ago. Supposedly, some 'Gods of Chaos' concocted a convoluted, multi millenia-spanning scheme to kill the Emperor of Mankind. As I recall, the ensuing wars and energies of this 'Chaos' caused a universe-wide extinction event. Science has proven no such things exist. Fairy tales, my Lord."

The Emperor looked down on her, a long-suffering smile gracing his features. "If they are fairy tales, Chronicler, then why do our iterators and universities continue to teach such things? Please, indulge me."

"Simple, my Lord," she replied. "They are tales meant to scare young children from delving into the dangers of organised religion."

He nodded. "An astute point. However, do the iterators not teach that gods and daemons are, in fact, quite real? Do they not teach that they only have as much power as we give them?"

"Your point being, my Lord?" Tanaka's brows scrunched in frustration. "I fear my intellect pales in comparison to yours. I'm unable to ascertain your meaning."

"Apologies," The Emperor chuckled. "Consider this. I am a human, a mortal man. Men believe me to be the strongest being to have ever existed. This belief grows with each passing day. I age, yet I do not grow old and die like my brethren. My strength grows every year. How is this possible?"

Tanaka scowled at the books in her hand. "Lectitio Divinitatus? The book about the God Emperor of Mankind? Are these books related, my Lord?"

"Very much so." The Emperor plucked the book of the Dark Age from her grasp. "I authored this book with the knowledge and memories I gained that night."

Her jaw dropped. "Surely, you jest, my Lord!"

The Emperor pushed the book back into her hands. "Read the books again. I assure you, Chronicler, The God Emperor and the Chaos Gods are very much real. It is through our beliefs, our technology and our society that we maintain our general safety from the warp."

He turned from her and muttered, "Though, the warp stirs once more as of late…"

◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸

Izuku raced up the stairs, his heart pounding, and slammed the door to his room behind him. He clutched and pulled at his hair, falling to his knees. His bulging eyes darted about the room.

"I'm going crazy," he muttered. "Absolutely insane. There's nobody here. There are no gods."

"I assure you, Izuku Midoriya," the baritone voice whispered, "I am very much real."

He banged his head against the wall until blood dripped down his cheeks. "Get…out…of…MY…HEAD!"

His head snapped up, hands against the wall bracing him from falling on trembling legs. "That's it! I'm just delirious because All Might died. Alright, Mister God, if you're so real then heal the cut on my head."

Seconds passed with no voice, his blood pattering onto the carpet at his feet. A delirious grin stretched across his face. Izuku chuckled, which rapidly devolved into deep-bellied laughs of delirium.

"Just as I though-"

A flash of golden light covered his body. Warmth spread down his head and through his limbs. Izuku's feet dangled above the carpet, his head nearing the ceiling. Blood roared in his ears and his heart threatened to leap from his chest.

After a seeming eternity, his feet hit the carpet with a light thud.

"...Fuck." He wiped his forehead with his hand. There was no blood. "I really am crazy."

A sigh resonated in his head. "It will be quicker if I bring your soul to me."

Silver mist plumed around Izuku's feet, snaking its way up his legs. He quivered when it reached eye level.

"I'd rather-"

The mist dove down his throat the moment he opened his mouth.

'I shouldn't have prayed.'

Izuku screamed, tears pouring from his eyes. Every nerve in his body felt as though they were being torn asunder. An eternity passed before a silver light consumed his mind.

◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸◹†◸

His hand moved, shielding his eyes from a blinding light. He stood, pain having fled his body. Izuku looked around when the light subsided and found himself surrounded by an endless void of pitch black.

"Where am I?" His disembodied voice echoed all around him, only to be swallowed by shadow.

"You are with me," the baritone voice replied, "In the warp."

Muffled screeches and the sound of claws scraping glass reverberated through the dark as if he were underwater. Izuku took one shaking step toward the sounds, drawn to it as a moth to flame. Whispers filled his ears, cackles and madness.

His legs seized, shackled by unseen chains.

"I can't see," he yelled over the growing din. "Why can't I see?"

"To preserve your sanity," the voice replied. "Mortals were not meant to see the monstrosities contained here."

Izuku struggled against his invisible bindings but found they wouldn't loosen in the slightest. 'I don't understand. Is this a nightmare? Did I pass out after All Might died? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!'

"There is more happening on Terra than you realise, my son." The voice, though a mere whisper, dominated the blank scape. The maddening chitters and scrapes retreated into the darkness. "The immaterium stirs and writhes for the first time in countless millennia. Khorne hungers, Slaanesh revels, Tzeentch plots and even Nurgle awakens from his long rest in anticipation for the coming madness. The game is afoot once more, Izuku Midoriya, however premature it may be. Mankind is ill prepared. It must be stopped before history repeats itself."

Raking claws and cackling returned like a monstrous, clanging war machine at the uttered names. As if magic, the names tore at his brain. The air turned rancid, burning his innards with eldritch flame.

Clutching his hair to the point of tearing it out, Izuku yelled, "I don't understand! Just send me back! Let me wake up! This is just a dream." He wheezed, his breathing laboured. Madness and a feral, sentient anger clawed at his mind. "I can't stop it. Please…please…help me."

Golden light, a mere torch among the shadows, flickered to life. It was little more than a guttering flame amid a maelstrom. From it sprang warmth, which flowed through his limbs and drove the madness back, though not completely.

Izuku opened his eyes. Pale gold light illuminated his skin. It, along with the flame, grew in intensity until it nearly blinded him. Air soothed his burning lungs like a first, cool rain over scorched soil.

"You begin to understand," the voice boomed, "but there is much left to learn, my son."

"Show me what's happening." Izuku stood on shaking feet, his strength trickling back into his limbs. "What are we not prepared for? Why can't you stop these…things?"

Silence surrounded him for what felt like an eternity. The madness he felt looming at the edges of the dark stilled but did not retreat. It felt as if they were merely waiting, hunched in anticipation for the slightest window of opportunity to strike and kill.

"Very well," the voice replied. "I will shield you from the psychic energies the best I am able. However, I can only permit you to see what lies beyond for an instant lest your mind break beneath the strain."

The light beneath his skin crawled over the expanse around him. Izuku followed the light's path to see a room, its distant edges blanketed in writhing shadow.

Ancient marble flooring stretched into the distance, cracks and grime covering the once regal surface. Aetherial currents flowed like streams over the surface in a kaleidoscope of colour. His eyes tracked the current up to a cavernous ceiling of gothic design covered in dust and cobwebs.

A hint of gold brought his eyes back down to ground level. Statues, rusted with time, stood at attention to either side of a deep red cloth path. Something in his mind whispered that these gigantic men covered in strange, thick armour had once been heroes in their own right. Their dull, serious eyes seemed to track him as he walked over the torn, stiff path of cloth. Judgement filled their metal eyes.

Izuku walked for several minutes, the dust in the air parting as he trod the path. Finally, he reached a set of ruined marble stairs. Far above, upon the zenith, sat a throne of skulls and foreign, vibrating machinery. Inky clouds of smoke belched from the tittering skulls making up the throne.

Whispers buzzed in his ears.

"Are you certain, Lord?"

"This is the one? Look at how small he is?"

"Hardly the one who could bring the Imperium back to its former glory."

"See how he falters? He is not worthy, Lord."

"Silence," the voice whispered. The whispers stilled, though his head continued to hum with an unidentifiable power.

And, finally, he noticed the figure sitting atop the throne. A hulking, regal man, both beautiful and terrifying beyond words, looked down on him with fiery white eyes. His body was encased in a time-dulled, gold plate. A browning laurel wreath circled his grey hair. Gold light fell off him in waves like off of asphalt on a hot summer's day.

His hands clenched a cracked sword, its lacklustre metal covered in guttering orange flame, its embers alive yet fading. Still, a domineering strength oozed from the larger than life man despite his clearly waning strength.

"Who…" Izuku fell to his knees and bowed his head to the ground, unable to keep his gaze upon the man. "Who are you?"

"I have no name." His whispers echoed around the throne room, his voice at once strong and brittle. "But I have existed since the beginning so far as I recall. I was once known as the Emperor of Mankind. I ruled the galaxy, a thousand thousand worlds beneath my reach. I commanded armies and made war against the agents of Chaos. I united humanity, spread amongst the stars…or so I thought."

Izuku gulped, his throat scraped like sandpaper against skin. "What do you want with me…Lord."

His eyes narrowed. 'Why did I feel compelled to add that?'

The figure chuckled. "I wish for you to learn, my son, of what is to return. They have slept for so long, but they shall soon fall upon you like so many wolves in the night. This is the first step of many, and I hope you will follow in my footsteps."

The ground rumbled and screams filled Izuku's mind. The aetherial currents writhed and Izuku's eyes darted around him. Shattered stained glass windows shimmered into view as the shadows retreated. His eyes widened.

Just beyond the windows varied, inhuman creatures shrieked, clawing at an unseen field. Fire and death wreathed their daemonic forms. Foetid bodies, dripping foul ooze, shambled and stumbled against stone walls. Indescribable horrors fell upon the fortress in waves.

"Khorne, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Nurgle…We…are…now…as…one," a retched, rasping voice whispered in his mind.

Izuku looked beyond the wave of bodies. A featureless aurora streamed in chaotic currents just beyond them, though the monsters paid it no mind.

Clenching his eyes shut, Izuku fisted his hair as whispers, cackling and gnashing teeth filled his mind. Strained screams tore from his throat, shredding his vocal cords to ribbons. An unseen pressure fell upon him, squeezing his mind in a vise.

In an instant the madness stopped and Izuku opened his eyes. Darkness covered the walls in writhing shadows, but he could still feel them at the edge of his senses.

"What was that?" he choked.

"Daemons, slaves to the Gods of Chaos," the Emperor spat. "Humanity's mortal enemies. They have awakened after millenia of slumber, though, the same as I, they are weakened. Soon they shall have the strength to cross into realspace. I fear for humanity when it inevitably happens."

"Can't you stop them?"

The golden figure shook his head, a lone tear trailing down his cheek. "Not as I am. Not as humanity currently is. My physical body was destroyed during The Reckoning several millennia ago."

Izuku glanced back at the shifting darkness. "What will happen?"

The Emperor shrugged, his plate screeching at the slight movement. "That is unknowable, but what is known is that it shall be the end of humanity. It will be a time of unending madness and despair. As you have seen, the Gods of Chaos, for the first time in known history, are collaborating to bring about my end."

Whipping around, Izuku stared up at the mountainous figure. "What will happen if they do?"

A small, sad smile sat upon the Emperor's face.

"Not if, Izuku Midoriya," he whispered. "But when. Even in my prime I could not have hoped to defeat the armies of Chaos alone."

Izuku collapsed to the floor as images seared his mind. Men rose from the dead, rotted flesh dripping from their bones. Screeching, bird-like daemons set Earth aflame in their zealous pursuit of unfettered chaos. Roaring, red monsters akin to a balrog from Lord of the Rings armed with axes crumbled mountains, fashioning the stone into vile, skull-filled shrines. Orgies of carnal desire writhed in an ocean of blood and viscera.

In every vision he saw only death, slavery and torment. Humanity was shackled, left to the desires of wicked gods who didn't care for any but themselves.

He rose to his knees as the visions stopped. Tears streamed from Izuku's eyes.

"These are but some of the things which could happen should the Gods succeed."

Unseen weight fell upon his back. Pounding steps descended the stairs, but Izuku couldn't move. Breaths wheezed from his lungs. Sweat poured down his back in rivers.

A blazing hot hand fell upon his shoulder and the weight lifted.

"But there is still hope."

Izuku looked up, meeting the Emperor's burning gaze. In the man's eyes he could see the flaming will of mankind. Their refusal to die. Their yearning to fight for a chance at tomorrow. Hope and despair. Love and hatred. Weakness and strength.

"I have seen both your heart and the minds of mankind's enemies." The Emperor knelt, his strong fingers gripping Izuku's chin. "You, Izuku Midoriya, can be their antithesis, the greatest hero to have ever existed."

Izuku stood, tears streaming down his cheeks, and stared up into the Emperor's near mythical eyes. "How? I'm too weak. I don't have a quirk."

The Emperor smirked, his white teeth glimmering in the twisting light. "My son, you can have a power greater than any one quirk in existence. With this power you can defeat the looming darkness and usher in an era of humanity never before seen. You can…will unite my sons and daughters. All you have to do is accept my offer and will it into existence."

He looked at the ground, his mind a scattered field of questions, of doubts. "What are you offering, Lord?"

The ground shook at the Emperor's simple reply, "Power."

Izuku looked back up at the man, resolve steeling his mind. "I accept."

Wailing screeches filled his ears as the Emperor of Mankind laughed. Golden light filled the chamber, burning his eyes and setting his skin aflame.

Izuku screamed as his soul was torn asunder.