Evolto City: The Nexus of Eternity

After a long, suffocating silence filled only by the sound of armored breathing and the faint hum of the Throne itself, Vidarath finally managed a breath.

"Uh… hey," he said with a weak, nervous chuckle, raising his bound hands slightly. "Y-You all haven't changed at all! Still… radiant. Terrifying. Obsessive in that charming way…"

He glanced around the throne room, eyes darting past the Primarchs who were now practically circling him like lions. One of them possibly a female Fulgrim licked her lips slowly, unnervingly.

"So," he tried again, voice cracking slightly, "What are you girls up to these days? Crushing heresy? Burning planets? Hosting... tea parties?"

The Empress tilted her head, her golden gaze piercing into him like a hot blade. She took a single, deliberate step closer. The click of her heel echoed like a gunshot.

"Where have you been, dar–ling?"She dragged the word out, each syllable coated in silk and threat.

Vidarath's mask shattered instantly. He laughed awkwardly, too fast. "I—uh—oh, you know, here and there! Jumping rifts, saving timelines, nothing big, just multiversal errands really! Very boring!"

"Mm," the Empress purred. "You ran."

"No! I temporarily relocated with style! Very different! I mean, who wouldn't go a little stir-crazy when half the palace is singing your name backwards while you sleep "

"You left without saying goodbye," another Primarch said possibly Lorgara, her voice like a heartbroken hymn. "We searched for centuries."

Angrona was breathing harder, her eyes wide and wild. "You didn't even write."

"I—I didn't know where to send the letters?" Vidarath squeaked, backing up into the throne dais. "Also interdimensional post is awful, like trust me, customs alone-"

The Empress reached out and gently touched his cheek.

"You shattered our hearts, Cain."

Vidarath flinched.

Nyxia, still shackled a few steps away, just blinked. "Cain? You used the name Cain? Oh my stars, this just got ten times weirder."

Vidarath shot him a panicked look. "Not helping."

The Empress leaned closer. "You belong here, Cain. At our side. At my side."

Vidarath gulped. "Well, technically, I belong wherever the plot demands I—uh—I mean…"

He was cut off as Angrona grabbed him in a crushing hug, lifting him off the ground like a ragdoll.

"We'll fix you," she whispered. "We'll fix everything. You'll never have to run again."

Vidarath, barely able to breathe, wheezed, "I miss the Adeptus Sororitas… they just wanted to kill us…"

After a while

Angrona finally finally released Vidarath from the crushing hug. His face was flushed red, his spine probably compressed a full inch, and his lungs fought to remember how to breathe.

He stood there panting, shoulders heaving. Then, with a faint, dizzy smile, he looked up at her and managed: "I… I have a gift for you."

The entire throne room froze.

Every Primarch's eyes lit up in unison. Armor creaked. Wings twitched. Blades subtly unsheathed with excitement. Even the Empress leaned forward from her cosmic throne, intrigued.

Vidarath blinked once.

Then immediately turned and bolted.

"NOPE NOPE NOPE NOT AGAIN!" he yelled as he sprinted across the grand hall, cape flailing behind him like a flag of surrender.

Nyxia, still chained to the obsidian pillar, just stared, wide-eyed and completely dumbfounded.

Vidarath skidded to a halt next to him, wild-eyed and breathless. "What the fuck are you doing?! RUN! You've SEEN what yanderes do to you!"

He snapped his fingers with a burst of chaotic energy the chains shattered like glass, vanishing into the floor.

"RUN, FORREST, RUN!"

And without another word, the two sprinted together Nyxia barely catching his balance before booking it across the polished floor.

Behind them, Angrona blinked innocently. "He's so shy today. Cute."

Then her eyes glowed.

"AFTER THEM."

Twelve female Primarchs each more terrifying than the last erupted into pursuit.

The walls shook.

Reality trembled.

One of them screamed, "I'LL CATCH HIM FIRST!" while another yelled, "HE'S MY HUSBAND DIBS ON HIS SOUL!"

Nyxia growled mid-sprint, "Vidarath what the hell did you DO to them?!"

"Nothing!" Vidarath shouted, leaping over a collapsing golden statue. "Except maybe marry them during a cosmic drunk bet in the Time Vortex and forget about it for 12,000 years!"

"…WHAT?!"

"Long story portal first, panic later!"

As they tore through the endless corridors of the obsidian palace columns blurring past, divine tapestries flapping from the gusts of their sprinting a gilded door suddenly creaked open with a slow, almost eerie calm.

A hooded figure stood just beyond the threshold, cloaked in shimmering cosmic threads that whispered with starlight. They didn't say a word just raised a single gloved hand and gestured silently.

Vidarath didn't think twice.

"In. NOW." he hissed, yanking Nyxia by the wrist.

They both dove inside.

The door slammed shut behind them with an ominous thud, instantly muffling the thunderous sound of twelve unhinged female Primarchs stampeding down the corridor.

For a moment, silence.

Then gasping.

Both Vidarath and Nyxia bent over, hands on knees, panting hard.

Vidarath dropped to the floor like a ragdoll, limbs sprawled, eyes staring at the ceiling as if questioning every decision that led him here.

"They almost... tackled me into marriage again..."

Nyxia's chest heaved as he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. "What the hell did we just run from Primarchs or apex predator fangirls?!"

Vidarath didn't respond immediately. He was too busy whimpering softly into the floor.

The hooded figure stepped forward. Even in the low light, their presence seemed ancient. Not hostile just... watching. Patient.

Finally, they spoke, voice like a soft hum of solar winds: "You're safe here. For now."

Vidarath raised a hand weakly. "Thank you, Mysterious Plot-Saving Stranger..."

Then he flopped back down.

Nyxia narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

The figure slowly pulled back their hood.

And Nyxia's expression changed instantly.

"…You."

The hood fell back, revealing the stern, weathered face of Malcador his eyes blazing with a rare fury that seemed to dim even the flickering lights around them. The air thickened with the weight of his disappointment.

He fixed Vidarath with a piercing gaze, voice low but cutting like a whip: "You had to pick up that call."

Vidarath flinched under the intensity, blinking in surprise.

Malcador continued, voice tightening with restrained anger: "If you hadn't answered during one of her desperate attempts while she was still experimenting she wouldn't have grown so motivated. She would have given up. Everything would have played out exactly as you explained to me in one of your so-called 'lore explanations' during your drunken episodes, Cain."

He stepped closer, the shadows curling around him like smoke.

"But you did pick up."

Malcador's voice dropped to a deadly whisper: "And now she doesn't care how far she has to go."

He looked to Nyxia, then back to Vidarath.

"You've just escalated this beyond anything you imagined."

Vidarath swallowed hard, feeling the full weight of the consequences.

Malcador's voice grew strained, a flicker of something rare in his demeanor panic, or perhaps sorrow veiled as fury.

"She was about to use that device to find you," he said, pointing a trembling finger at Vidarath. "She was preparing to tear through the entire multiverse every echo, every timeline, just to track you down."

His eyes narrowed.

"But since you came here… it's no use. The device needs a target beyond the veil. And now that you're in this layer now that you're within reach she'll change tactics."

He turned his back for a moment, exhaling a shaky breath before snapping back to face them all, voice rising.

"What I want from you what I demand is this: take them far away. The Empress. The Primarchs. All of them. Take them to that blasted city you always rant about Evolto."

Malcador paced briefly, wringing his gloved hands, his control cracking.

"Because of their obsession with you… with that damned project… everything is falling apart. They've stopped caring. The reports of Chaos incursions? Ignored. Warnings from the Librarius? Buried. And now?"

He paused, the silence heavy.

"Now Chaos is everywhere. And it's too late."

He looked at them, the centuries carved deep into his features.

"I've been hunting down anyone who knew of the device… killing them and destroying their souls. Scouring them clean so they don't bleed into the Warp. No afterlife. No echoes."

His eyes, old and tired beyond imagining, locked with Vidarath's.

"I will not let her use that damned key to shatter the multiverse."

He turned to Nyxia, still chained and in shock.

"And you… you better remember this. You may be unhinged, but you are not immune. None of us are."

Malcador's voice dropped to a grim finality.

"I'm destroying the device removing every single blueprint and then killing myself. This ends with me."

He fixed Vidarath with a steady, heavy gaze.

"I want you to take them away. Far from here."

Without waiting for a response, Malcador turned and left, his footsteps echoing like the last toll of a bell.

As the heavy door sealed behind him, Nyxia looked over at Vidarath, eyes wide.

"Dude, Zalthorion is going to be pissed. Also... how the fuck did you get mixed up in all this?"

Before Vidarath could answer, he cut in, voice low but urgent: "I'll tell you later. Right now, we need to get them."

Nyxia blinked, confused.

"Why? Why get them? We could just leave bail out of this nightmare right now."

Vidarath's lips twisted into a grim smile.

"I ain't doing this shit out of love. I'm doing it at the request of a friend."