During the month spent on the ship, the Emperor had conducted a few small experiments, and discovered that the power of Ki possessed by Axis could neither be inherited through bloodlines nor acquired through later training.
Yet, this energy could significantly enhance physical abilities, and, more importantly, it could even resist the influence of psychic energies from the Warp to some degree.
The Emperor had tested this himself.
He found that Ki had remarkable resistance to the energies of the Warp.
In other words, Axis was not affected by the Warp's influence, because his Ki actively counteracted the chaotic energies of the Warp.
Many scholars believed that the chaotic energies of the Warp were neither good nor evil, they were simply chaos, devoid of moral value.
But the Emperor scoffed at this notion.
To him, the energies of the Warp were unequivocally evil. He was absolutely certain of this!
Those who wielded the Warp's power as psykers would, if they were careless for even a moment, inevitably fall victim to it.
The demons and minor gods spawned from the Warp. Were any of them ever friendly to life in the material universe?
If the Warp's energy were truly neutral, it shouldn't have had such devastating effects on humanity.
Yet in reality, while the Warp could bestow great power, it always came with the cost of corruption.
The Warp's energies were intensely corrosive.
Perhaps, in ages past, the Warp truly was neutral.
But ever since the birth of those four vast and malignant entities, its nature had changed entirely.
Ordinary humans, without the protection of a Gellar Field, would find their very genes corrupted after even a brief exposure to the Warp.
The Emperor had long been searching for a way to resist the corrosive influence of the Warp.
Even though human psychic potential was not as great as that of the Aeldari, it was still extraordinarily high, much higher than that of most races in the galaxy.
This was an undeniable fact.
Humanity could not escape the Warp, at least not yet.
Even the Webway, after all, was just a special network of routes created by some ancient beings, sat between realspace and immaterium.
The Aeldari claimed that the Webway was a divine realm, crafted by their gods and ancestors.
But the truth was otherwise.
The Aeldari were merely inheritors; the Webway had been created by an even older and more powerful civilization, which the Emperor temporarily referred to as the Old Ones.
"I think I understand what you're planning!" Malcador stared at the Emperor in shock, as if unable to believe it, yet with a sudden dawning realization. "You want this child, when he's grown, to fight Chaos itself!"
Others believed the Emperor was a visionary conqueror, a natural ruler, a born leader, even a true god.
But only Malcador knew the truth: his old friend had never cared for power.
If not for Malcador's own pleading, the Emperor would never have stepped forward to unify mankind and found the Imperium.
What the Emperor truly loved was to hide within history, playing the role of some unremarkable bystander, quietly watching the course of human events.
But after the disaster of the Cybernetic Revolt and the storms of the Warp, humanity had been driven to the brink of extinction.
The Emperor had no choice but to act.
He did it out of love for humanity, love greater than anything else in existence.
But in truth, this old friend of his was actually quite lazy. If possible, he preferred to let others finish the tasks in his hands, after all, a single person had his limits.
That was why he created the Primarchs.
Halfway through the Great Crusade, he planned to return to Holy Terra and devote himself entirely to studying the Webway project.
He would select a leader, a successor from among the Primarchs, to continue leading the Crusade in his stead.
If Axis's Ki truly had resistance against the energies of the Warp, then this child would undoubtedly be the best candidate to stand against Chaos.
Because of their connection to the essence of the Warp, the Primarchs were particularly susceptible to its influence.
There was always at least a fifty percent chance any one of them could fall to corruption, but this child would not.
"I will never gamble the future of humanity on a single person! Axis is only a backup, nothing more!
"He is just like Horus, just like the rest of my Primarchs.
"If, one day, any of us meet with misfortune, if we're killed by those evil entities in the Warp, or fall into one of their traps, then these children we have raised will become the vanguard against the Warp and continue to lead humanity," the Emperor said.
[A/n: Some readers may complain the Emperor is too "human." But he was always deeply human. Only after he sat on the Golden Throne did divinity start to overtake that side. If he were truly inhuman, he'd have ascended from the Throne long ago. It's his love for humanity that kept him going, that makes him the Emperor-turned-Carrion Lord.]
"All right then! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the Great Crusade really can't do without you," Malcador replied.
"If I'm not around, isn't that what you're here for?"
The Emperor smiled. "Except for some critical battles and the search for the Primarchs, I plan to stay on Terra and work with you on Axis's enhancement."
As the Primarchs gradually returned, the less important battles could all be left to them. \
The Emperor only needed to personally intervene in decisive campaigns.
Malcador nodded, agreeing with the Emperor's plan.
In the following days, the Emperor taught Axis much about the Imperium of Man, and repeatedly had him focus and condense his Ki for tests against the Emperor's own psychic power.
"Axis, today is the start of your transformation. Be prepared, this procedure won't be ordinary. You'll have to remain in the growth chamber until the process is complete," the Emperor instructed.
Even the modification of ordinary Custodians required them to lie in a gestation pod for more than ten years, to say nothing of the kind of physical transformation Axis was about to undergo, a process designed for a Primarch.
This was nothing like an Astartes augmentation.
"I'm ready! I'll just treat it as if I'm going to sleep, and when I wake up, it'll all be done, right?" Axis grinned.
For the sake of a long life and a stronger body, Axis felt that even decades of slumber would be worth it.
"That's right. Treat it like a long nap. But while you're dreaming, I'll use some devices to impart knowledge directly into your mind.
"You'll learn all about the Imperium, and even acquire military tactics and leadership training," the Emperor explained.
"I understand, Your Majesty. I'll make sure to study hard, even as I sleep," Axis replied, clenching fists like a determined child should.
The Emperor nodded approvingly at Axis, then led both him and Malcador into the deepest reaches of the palace.
There, Axis saw the massive Golden Throne, but their destination lay even deeper, in a place even more secret.
The path forward was so secretive that only the Emperor and Malcador escorted Axis; even the Custodes were not permitted to follow.
The three entered a vast, hidden laboratory, the very place where the Primarchs had been created.
"This is it, Axis," the Emperor said, turning to look at him.