The Emperor had always said that the Custodians were the most powerful warriors at his side, far beyond the Adeptus Astartes.
Since that was the case, he wanted to see just how impressive these golden-armoured warriors really were.
Back on Fenris, whenever Axis used this thing to hunt, there basically wasn't any prey that could survive a single shot from him.
"Is this some kind of energy weapon?" the Emperor asked.
"Yes, Father! I found this gun on that ship," Russ replied.
"There's no need to test its power on my Custodians. Let's head to the firing range and test it on a xenos," the Emperor said.
Currently, humanity's main weapons, the standard gear for Imperial Guard ground forces, were lasguns, while the Space Marines wielded bolters, meltaguns, and plasma weapons.
For close combat, they had monomolecular knives, chainswords, and all manner of power weapons: power swords, power axes, power claws, and thunder hammers.
A new type of energy beam weapon would be extremely important for the Imperium, and the next demonstration could be carried out right on the training grounds.
Soon, the group followed the Emperor to the training area, where two Custodian Guards hauled out a massive box.
From inside, there came a guttural roar.
Caged within was a creature two and a half meters tall, pitch-black all over, with an exoskeleton like some kind of humanoid insect.
Axis pressed his scouter and saw the creature's power level was actually 52, more than enough to instantly kill any ordinary human.
Even an Astartes would have a hard fight on their hands.
But the end result was inevitable: the Astartes would still win.
After all, besides basic combat strength, the superhuman organs and weapons of an Astartes weren't for show.
By Axis's estimation, a fully armored Astartes could handle enemies with power levels in the 140 to 180 range.
"This is a wicked xenos species we discovered while attacking a planet. They have thick exoskeletal armor and immense strength, even enough to rival Astartes. Let's use it to test the weapon's power," the Emperor said.
Russ nodded and tossed the energy weapon straight to Axis.
"Go on, my little cub. Blow it away with one shot," Russ said.
Axis nodded, strapped the energy gun to his arm, and aimed at the black armored bug-monster before him.
The Custodians beside him opened the cage. With a roar, the black bug-man charged straight for the Emperor and the others.
Without hesitation, Axis raised his weapon, aimed, and fired.
Zzzap!
A yellow energy bolt shot out of the gun and struck the black armored creature head-on. The instant it hit, the creature exploded, reduced to a cloud of shredded meat.
The black monster hadn't even charged ten meters before dying so thoroughly there was nothing left but a mess of black flesh on the ground.
Now that's some firepower.
For reference, if a regular Space Marine fired a full magazine from a bolter at that thing, it would only be seriously injured.
Usually, you'd need to finish it off by hacking off its head with a chainsword.
But with this weapon, even a regular Imperial Guardsman could instantly kill such a monster.
"It's more powerful than a bolter, stronger than a lasgun, outclasses standard melta weapons, and even plasma guns. For its size, there's nothing in the Imperium that can match its power,
"Can it fire in bursts? Does it use a magazine, or how is it powered?" asked a nearby Tech-Priest, who was recording everything.
"Of course, it can fire in bursts. There's no magazine, it just takes a single energy cell and can fire a thousand times in a row," Axis replied.
The standard-issue energy weapons of the Frieza Force were quite impressive.
Against anything with a power level under 200, it was basically a one-shot kill.
The very best of these weapons even once managed to sneak-attack and injure Super Saiyan Blue Goku.
You could only say Goku was being a bit too careless at the time!
"Let's run another test! Release ten more T0311-class xenos," the Emperor ordered.
The Custodian Guards immediately obeyed, heading to the back of the range and wheeling out eleven massive cages.
The Imperial shooting range contained a huge collection of imprisoned xenos.
Their power levels were generally above 50, and one of them, a bug-creature over three meters tall, had a power level of 105.
Once the cages opened, the black, bug-like xenos swarmed out.
Some charged the Custodian Guards, while the power-105 leader of the pack and a few others went straight for the Emperor.
Axis didn't hesitate.
He raised his gun, took aim, and squeezed the trigger.
Zzzap! Zzzap! Zzzap!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The yellow energy bolts struck the xenos and instantly blew them apart.
A single bolt could even blast apart two bug-men that were close together.
Within just a few seconds, only the three-meter-tall, 105-power-level xeno was left standing.
Axis switched the weapon from single-shot to beam mode.
A yellow energy beam lanced out, piercing the xenos instantly and burning a deep hole in the wall behind it.
"This weapon has two firing modes: single shot and beam. The beam mode is like a charged attack: the longer you charge, the more powerful it is, but you can only charge up to five seconds before the gun overloads," Axis explained.
"An impressive weapon," the Emperor said, nodding in satisfaction, "This will be extremely useful for the Imperium, and vital for the Great Crusade."
With something like this, even Space Marines in power armor would probably be taken down in one shot!
The power of this energy weapon even reminded the Emperor of a terrifying enemy from long ago: the green metal skeletons, whose own green energy weapons could literally disintegrate living beings.
This kind of weapon could definitely be studied and reverse-engineered by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
First, the Custodian Guard would be equipped with them, then the Astartes, and if mass production became possible, bolters could be given to the regular Imperial Guard!
"The Martian Mechanicum should attempt to replicate this energy weapon," suggested a Tech-Priest.
"Russ, are you willing to hand the weapon over for the Mechanicum to study?" the Emperor asked.
"Of course," Russ replied, "but when this weapon is mass-produced, the Space Wolves want free supplies, and half the profits from future sales."
Even if he handed it over, he was going to enjoy his intellectual property rights. It was something his little cub had told him: never let the Mechanicum take advantage!