How does one return home?
He didn't know why he had been given this name—Yuki. Perhaps it was a sudden whim of his long-deceased parents. Regardless, he liked the name.
"Brother Yuki!"
From a distance, he saw Ax. The devout believer and black-market trader was collapsed on the ground, reduced to only the upper half of her body.
"I'm sorry... I got what I deserved."
A swarm of starving refugees surrounded her. Yuki tried to rush over, but after two steps, he knew it was too late. He watched as Ax vanished from this world, and the refugees turned their heads toward him, completely indifferent to the raging fires consuming everything around them.
In that instant, he felt the Canoness might have been right. To live a life like this was worse than death.
But he had no time to grant them mercy. He knew there were still good people in the cathedral—innocent souls with no stain upon them, like Hopper. His heart told him he couldn't just leave.
Along the way, he felt as if he were walking through hell. The true civilians suffered the most: Chaos cultists wanted to sacrifice them, Imperial forces wanted to purge them, and even if they were lucky enough to evade both, the flames and their abandoned fate ensured they would not survive.
Yuki pressed on. He saw a Sister Superior nailed to the cathedral wall. The Astra Militarum soldiers besieging the cathedral recognized him and shouted, "Yuki! The interior has been overrun by Chaos! You're not a combatant, evacuate now!"
"No, I'm going in. This is a gathering place for the Emperor's faithful. I cannot let it suffer such an insult."
"Then... may the Emperor protect you."
The soldiers signaled him through. Yuki charged into the cathedral with a speed that startled them. He saw former colleagues brutally murdered; some bore the marks of blunt blades, but a significant portion had been killed by bolter fire. It seemed they had perished during the struggle between the Imperial Guard and the cultists for control of the building.
The fires were spreading. The soldiers outside had likely just received orders to burn it down; otherwise, they would have started with fire from the beginning. Soon, artillery fire would likely follow.
Yuki had to move faster.
He found Hopper in the cathedral's spire. One of her legs had been severed at the thigh, and she was barely clinging to life thanks to the miraculous resilience of human bodies in this grim dark universe.
"Brother Yuki... has the Emperor abandoned us?" She struggled to speak as she saw him. "Ax, Eli, Kira... they're all dead. They're all dead..."
Yuki reached out to comfort her, but words felt hollow. "Come with me first. This wound can still be treated!"
Yuki hoisted Hopper onto his back and rapidly fled the spire, which was already being engulfed in flames. After placing her in a slightly safer spot, he asked, "Is anyone else alive?"
"In... in the underground warehouse?"
Yuki rushed there immediately, but when he saw the warehouse had become a sea of fire, he knew there were no survivors left. It was terrifying; the heat was unbearable. After a moment of stunned helplessness, he decided his priority was to get Hopper out.
As he emerged from the cathedral's lower levels, the orbital bombardment and artillery began. A shell landed right beside him. The massive shockwave and shrapnel tore through his defenses. Yuki rolled several times, finally coming to a stop before the cathedral's grand icon.
The Great Chapel was now illuminated by fire, brighter than it had ever been since its foundation. He looked up at the icon; the Emperor's face was dyed golden by the flames, looking infinitely holy and majestic.
How terrifying. How great. How ironic!
The chapel had been blasted open. He could see the soldiers outside, and they could see him. They did not stop their assault. An accidental death during an Imperial purge—how mundane a thing in this galaxy.
Yuki tried to move, but his leg bones, shattered by the shell, made it impossible. He watched as the flames climbed his body, licking his skin. Pain began to dominate his mind.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!
His face was being destroyed. In an attempt to save him, his uniform began to disintegrate, fusing into his flesh. But beneath the merciless inferno, no biological creature could escape by luck.
Except for the Great Devourer.
A massive psychic scream killed the remaining survivors in the vicinity. To avoid killing Yuki with such a powerful attack, Yuno controlled the range perfectly. She mercilessly slaughtered the soldiers guarding the cathedral entrance and charged inside.
She coated her body in organic matter, forming a biological carapace that blocked the flames. Her beautiful appearance was hidden; what appeared before Hopper was a monster.
The girl with the severed leg cried out to the only god she knew: "By the Emperor!"
"Shut up."
Yuno's words could not be understood by any species other than Yuki. She tossed Hopper aside and rushed toward the collapsing icon. The face of that man... she had seen it in the Warp!
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
Why did this human mutant—this "Corpse-God"—always interfere with her affairs?
She shattered the statue with a single blow. Beneath the icon, Yuki had been reduced to charred remains. There were no signs of life. He was dead.
If Yuno hadn't used her own power to shield his soul, the entities of the Warp would have already torn it to shreds and devoured it.
What now? Should she consume this soul? According to her original plan, she should. That way, his soul would merge with hers, and they would be together forever. But she still had so many things left to do, so many things she wanted to complete with him.
Eternity is long, but love is fleeting.
She wept—psychic crystals formed by the intensity of her emotions. "Yuki, you absolutely cannot die like this!"
...
Yuki heard a rustling sound, like countless tiny insects gnawing on something. He could feel his sea of soul shrinking frantically. Countless hands reached toward him, trying to tear him apart and swallow him.
No, please.
Yuki recalled his life before the transmigration. To keep him awake, his classmates had even used the threat of "sending him to Warhammer." Now, feeling himself sinking into the Warp, he exploded with a powerful instinct.
Live. I have to live.
At least don't let the Warp catch me!
He saw four blurry figures attempting to divide his soul. But finally, something embraced him from behind, wrapping around him almost entirely.
It was so warm. So peaceful.
"Yuno."
"My love, come back."