At this level, a black hole was no longer merely a celestial object.
It was a concept.
A manifestation of irreversible destruction.
A force capable of inflicting damage upon a universe that could never truly be repaired.
The daemons of Khorne quickly realized they were facing a newly born Chaos God.
An unknown one.
Worse, a god who might actually be stronger than Khorne himself.
For the briefest moment, hesitation appeared among them.
Only for an instant.
Then their bloodlust surged back, drowning all reason.
But that instant was enough.
The Havoc Demons seized the opportunity.
Their god accepted all sacrifices.
Blood.
Souls.
Life itself.
Anything slain by their hands became an offering to Havoc.
And the stronger the victim, the greater the reward bestowed upon the one who made the sacrifice.
The most terrifying part was that Havoc demanded no devotion.
No loyalty.
No faith.
Anyone could receive his blessing.
Mortals.
Daemons.
Gods.
Any living thing.
Regardless of whom they worshiped, if they offered sacrifices to Havoc, they would gain power.
Havoc didn't even care how the sacrifice was obtained.
If someone possessed the means to exterminate an entire planet and offer every soul upon it, he would accept it without hesitation.
Humans.
Elves.
Orcs.
Devils.
Undead.
Dragons.
Anything.
Everything.
Once sacrificed, the victim was erased completely.
Body and soul alike.
Nothing remained.
No resurrection.
No recovery.
No salvation.
Even multiversal entities would find themselves unable to retrieve a soul already claimed by Havoc.
Meanwhile, the invading Havoc Demons carved their way deep into Khorne's domain.
Eventually they reached the Brass Citadel.
And there, for the first time, their advance slowed.
The Brass Citadel stood as the sole entrance to Khorne's kingdom.
An endless fortress of brass, crimson metal, and black iron stretching beyond the horizon.
Jagged stone spires surrounded its walls.
Bone-carved pillars and bloodstained arches towered overhead.
The fortress also served as a prison.
Countless daemons were chained to walls by unbreakable iron restraints or crammed into inescapable cages.
They howled and screamed endlessly, desperate for freedom.
Any unfortunate traveler who ventured too close and lacked faith in Khorne would be torn apart the instant those prisoners escaped their bonds.
Beyond the gates rose the Stairway of Skulls.
The path leading toward Khorne's throne.
To mortals, each step would have seemed as large as a hill.
The staircase stretched so far upward that its end disappeared from sight.
Mad climbers wandered across its length, muttering incoherent prayers.
Patrolling daemon armies praised the Blood God's name with long, lashing tongues.
Chaos runes, blood-soaked stones, and countless corpses littered the route.
It was there that the Havoc Demons were finally stopped.
Khorne's patrol legions crashed into them.
The battle exploded instantly.
At the same time, Drex's consciousness descended into the Warp.
The result was immediate.
A new Warp Storm erupted.
Its scale dwarfed anything that had existed before.
The storm nearly gave birth to a true divine manifestation of Havoc.
Unfortunately for the Warp, Drex simply hijacked the process.
The emerging god-body became his.
Fragments of Havoc's authority fused with vast quantities of Chaos energy, creating an entirely new breed of daemons.
Unlike the Havoc Demons Drex had personally designed, these creatures emerged naturally from Havoc's concepts and domains.
Each evolved its own form.
Its own shape.
Its own monstrous identity.
"Interesting."
Seated upon a colossal obsidian throne, Drex studied the phenomenon.
"So becoming a Warp Chaos God is also a pathway to multiversal ascension."
The manifestation of Havoc sat high above the battlefield.
His armor was blacker than the void itself.
Yet countless points of light shimmered across its surface.
The suit resembled a living night sky forged into armor.
Behind him spread enormous wings capable of blotting out entire horizons.
The birth of Havoc inevitably attracted attention.
Khorne turned his gaze toward the newcomer.
The Blood God sat atop his own immense brass throne.
Beneath it rose a mountain of skulls and bloodstained bones.
Some had been taken by his own hand.
Others were trophies gathered by his followers in his name.
Like Havoc, Khorne wore masterfully crafted armor.
Its surface crawled with writhing runes and screaming faces frozen in eternal agony.
A massive winged helmet concealed his twisted, inhuman features.
The two multiversal demon gods looked at one another.
The Warp responded immediately.
Chaos storms intensified.
Their violence spread even into the material universe.
Across the Imperium of Man, the appearance of yet another Warp Storm drove entire worlds into despair.
Khorne examined Havoc carefully.
The newcomer was absurdly powerful.
He represented domains similar to Khorne's own.
Destruction.
Violence.
Death.
Yet somehow those same concepts felt broader.
More complete.
More dangerous.
Then Khorne looked downward.
The naturally born Havoc Daemons swarmed across the battlefield.
Every one of them was different.
Distorted.
Monstrous.
They possessed vaguely humanoid shapes, but none carried weapons.
They didn't need them.
Their claws.
Fangs.
Blades.
Exoskeletal limbs.
Their bodies were weapons.
Unlike Khorne's followers, they had abandoned external arms entirely.
They fought solely with what they were.
That, more than anything, earned Khorne's respect.
Not enough to make him an ally.
The Chaos Gods rarely formed lasting alliances.
But it did make him smile.
Fighting Havoc and his armies sounded far more entertaining.
The moment both gods focused their attention upon the battlefield, every daemon felt it.
The reaction was immediate.
Ecstatic madness.
The daemons of Khorne and Havoc alike hurled themselves into combat with renewed frenzy.
They wanted recognition.
They wanted glory.
They wanted their sacrifices accepted.
Rune led the charge.
The four-winged Archdemon swung his enormous claw.
One slash.
Dozens of Daemon Princes charging toward him split apart instantly.
They died before their bodies even hit the ground.
The moment they perished, their souls were offered to Havoc.
Khorne noticed.
He realized those Daemon Princes were truly gone.
No resurrection.
No rebirth.
No return.
And yet he didn't care.
Drex didn't care either.
Only a fragment of his consciousness remained within Havoc's manifestation.
The Chaos God himself simply watched.
Observed.
Accepted sacrifices.
When Havoc eventually matured into a true multiversal demon god in his own right, the combined strength of both entities would surpass anything Drex currently possessed.
At this level of existence, conventional measurements had become meaningless.
Power could no longer be quantified.
Sometimes one plus one equaled infinity.
A Havoc Daemon transformed its right arm into a massive axe and split a Khorne daemon in half.
A second later it was torn apart by a swarm of Blood God's followers.
Nearby, a Greater Daemon of Khorne ripped a charging Havoc Daemon to pieces.
Then something flashed across its vision.
A colossal blade descended.
Its final sight was a blood-drenched, four-winged Havoc Daemon streaking past.
The Greater Daemon felt it in that last instant.
The creature's presence rivaled a Greater Daemon.
Perhaps it was even stronger.