GATE: Thus The Imperium of Man Fought There

Anathema pt 1

-M29. 671. Imperial Palace. Terra-

Rory walks around the seemingly endless corridor of gold. She had seen her schedule today, and it only brought her distress as discomfort slowly crept into her mind.

Yesterday she could feel the Emperor's mighty power; even her long distance could not protect her from it. From that, Rory is clearly able to deduce Emperor's true face. He was unmistakably a god, as no other terms describe such immeasurable power. Yet at the same time, he declined his own divinity, choosing to be recognized as a human.

"It doesn't make any sense." She murmured under her breath, burying her palm deeper into her halbert.

As she walked deeper into the corridor, she noticed a golden giant standing around five meters. The aura demands submission, although it was nowhere at the same level as the Emperor, inferior but still mighty. The giant held a spear, taller than him, with a crackling ethereal aura that seemingly could cut everything.

"The Emperor is waiting for you, Rory Mercury." He speaks with power and authority, transcending her as an Apostle.

"Who are you?" She asks the golden-armored transhuman. Even though, on the surface, she was seemingly infected, deep inside, she felt overwhelming distraught.

"My name is Glariodus, Prime Custodian of His Majesty's protector." He proclaimed, his red-colored visor staring deep into Reroy's soul.

"Prime Custodian." She muttered, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Which transhuman are you? I know the rest of your kind, but I never heard anything about Prime Custodian."

"We are his eternal guardian, protecting his existence from any threats, even from other transhumans." The golden man answers with a stern tone that successfully cripples Rory's mental fortitude.

Rory takes a deep breath to regain her composure, bracing herself to stare at the giant. "Very well, lead me to your Emperor."

"Follow me," Glariodus walked first, entering a certain path that the gods knew where would lead her.

The Imperial Palace is an intricate place. Its bizarre structure is something that even Rory's nearly a millennia's worth of experience could not take. How a very distant place can be reached only a few meters of step or even a short distance cannot be reached even after days of walking is beyond her to understand. As an Apostle, her mind had been designed by Emroy to be more than mortals, enough for her to gather a significant amount of data in order to sustain her long-lived body so that her mind did not go insane in the process.

Her immortal body and mind granted her the power to see this palace differently. Rather than a maze, she saw the entire structure as arteries connecting to each other, hiding secrets beneath its impossibly complex architecture.

The deeper they go, the more intense the Anathematic power is. Rory had many questions regarding Emperor's power. It was extremely pure as Rory's connection to her god slowly diminished as if it cleaned her soul by its sheer force.

To enforce her curiosity, the Imperial Palace slowly began to change but not in the five mortal senses.

Something about the walls around her was not right. Something that she could not tell or describe. She can sense the wall twisted and changed in her metaphorical sense as an Apostle. She could not find the right words to utter, as if something blocked her mind.

"What's this... I... What?" Rory muttered, touching the golden wall. It is a solid metal wall, but her magical sense says otherwise. The wall using the Anathematic power bent the reality. From her magical sense, the wall resembles a liquid, almost appearing in the form of a sea.