Emperor's Bane

Chapter 558: Finale of the Perfect City

Morgan once thought about something seriously.

That is, does her unprepossessing genetic father secretly possess powerful superpowers and hide it from everyone?
Don't get me wrong, these are not the mundane abilities like immortality, moving mountains and filling the sea, having words come true, and being a human computer, but truly powerful and rare skills.

For example, she accurately grasped the emotional red line of her, the original gene, and perfectly implemented the assembly line project of first using, then oppressing, finally squeezing out, and then discarding: every time, on the eve of an emotional outburst by her, a galactic worker who was forced to work overtime, she could wave goodbye and leave gracefully without any clouds.

It would be okay if it happened once or twice, but it happened too many times. Morgan didn't believe that the emperor didn't do it on purpose. She even had reason to suspect that her genetic father was deliberately playing a trick on her.

That is, is there a possibility that the Emperor is actually an experienced and sophisticated master of psychology and negotiation, and that he does not have any social phobia problems at all, and that everything is just another disguise of his.

After all, Morgan had seen clearly in various biographies how the Lord of Mankind met Vulkan, Leman Russ and others in the past, and more recently, the Spider Queen had witnessed the Emperor's previous encounter with Corax, a scene full of father-son affection and kind words.

Having witnessed the Emperor's words in front of the Raven King, and then looking back at his performance in front of himself and his other brothers, Morgan always felt that something was wrong: the Primarch couldn't help but begin to wonder, could he be part of the Emperor releasing his emotional garbage?

After all, the Spider Queen herself is such a person, so it is hard not to empathize with her: when she was ruling the Far East Frontier, she would prank the Chief of the Guards and other cubs under her to have fun and release stress because of the accumulated negative emotions...

It seemed only natural, then, that her genetic father, while commanding the Great Crusade, which brought even more negative emotions, would deliberately tease unfortunates like her, Morgan, in order to release his own emotional pressure: it could even be seen as a sacred family inheritance.

Although in the big family of the Emperor and the Primarchs, any word related to "heredity" is definitely not a good word, but the reality before him still makes it difficult for Morgan not to think in this direction.

After all, the facts were right in front of him: whether it was because he didn't want to play this hypocritical believer game with Lorgar anymore, or simply because the lines in the script had been finished, in short, when Morgan had just suppressed the trouble from Lorgar's side and hadn't had time to catch his breath, the Primarch felt the golden flames on his body gradually fading away.

Fortunately, the retreat was not fast, giving Morgan time to pretend to retreat and prepare himself mentally. He could also see clearly what the Emperor was doing: just like the divine light when he descended, the Lord of Mankind once again dazzled the eyes of the entire Word Bearers Legion, his body gradually transformed in the golden light, as if a god was returning to his kingdom in the clouds.

In places that could not be seen, the prayers in the Word Bearers formation were louder, but not everyone was praying. Warriors like Angertai were kneeling on the ground, with their heads bowed, silently paying respect to the God-Emperor. The one who prayed the loudest and with the most exaggerated movements in the crowd was Lorgar's adoptive father Kor Phaeron.

But Morgan no longer cared about these things, just as she was too lazy to look at the inexplicable excitement in Lorgar's pupils, and too lazy to care whether the Emperor's actions were in line with the exit ceremony originally planned in the script: when the figure of the Lord of Mankind completely disappeared from her sight, the Spider Queen was just glad that her father finally did not cause any trouble for her in this last shuttle.

+Mark my words, Luo Jia. +
Before he disappeared, the Emperor's disguise as a god had completely faded away. He stood in the dazzling light and spoke to his kneeling children: This time, even Lorgar could see that the Lord of Mankind was speaking to him as a "father" rather than a "God-Emperor."

These words were not in the script, but were entirely what the Emperor wanted to say: he remained repressed throughout this farce, but at the very end, the Emperor still intended to let the Great Speaker listen to his true thoughts.

Even if it's just a part.

+Wage wars the way you were created, serve the Empire as you were born to do, take the lessons you learned here today, the orders you received here, and set out on the road of expedition: when you reach the end of the sinking, you will find a path of responsibility. +
＋This will be your rebirth.＋
As the voice fell, the Emperor's figure also disappeared, leaving only Lorgar who was lost in thought, and Morgan who was sighing quietly: The Spider Queen called upon psychic energy, forming an invisible huge recliner behind her, and she leaned on it tiredly, maintaining a standing posture.

Morgan was tired.

Indeed, it was satisfying to act like a god in front of Lorgar and the entire Word Bearers Legion, using the Emperor's power to make a Primarch and a hundred thousand angels obey him. Although it was dangerous and tiring, Morgan would not mind doing it again if possible.

But it is indeed very tiring, especially when your partner is the Emperor and you have to carry his glory: the constant thinking in your mind and the pressure on your soul are far more torturous than the physical body. Although this is not the first time he has done this, Morgan still feels uncomfortable in every way.

Is this what it feels like to be possessed by a greater power?

The Primarch pondered this question for the first time.

Although Morgan had also been possessed by the Emperor when executing the Lost Man, and unlike the pretense this time, he was truly entrusted with powerful power that time, the battlefield was catastrophic at the time, and the tension and excitement in his heart left Morgan with no energy to think about the feeling of being possessed by the Emperor.

Even if I recalled it later and worked it out carefully on paper, I still couldn't get the point.

But this time, the situation was different. Morgan had been prepared in advance and had truly felt what it was like to be possessed by the Emperor's energy (even if it was only a small part of the energy): these things that happened only a few minutes ago were particularly clear in his memory.

The Primarch rolled his eyes twice and came to a general conclusion: if Morgan wanted to be like the Emperor, freely bestowing her energy on a chosen weak person and maintaining a high level of influence, it would not be a difficult task for her.

What's more, the moment the Spider Queen came to this conclusion, she vaguely felt something, as if the instinct in her mind was giving her advice: if she wanted, she could completely [possess] certain weak people permanently.

In other words, Morgan could select some qualified people among the Dawnbreakers and grant them a portion of his power permanently, thus obtaining a group of absolutely loyal and powerful warriors: not the kind of bestowal like genetic modification, but a binding that occurs in the soul realm.

To be more specific, it is to grasp their souls, and then knead a part of Morgan's own power into an entity in the subspace. Let the two be organically combined to form an extremely powerful soul...

【hiss! 】

The Primarch shuddered and gasped.

She realized something was wrong.

This instinctive reliance on and squandering of the power of the warp...

Why did she just come up with such a dangerous idea?

Morgan frowned and glanced in her mind: the Emperor's greatsword remained silent. Ever since Morgan completed the execution of the Lost Man, this symbol of the Emperor's will had never moved again except for some special moments, but it was still diligently protecting the Primarch's brain. Whenever Morgan passed through the warp, she could feel the protection from the greatsword.

This is also the reason why the Primarch could be dismissed by the Emperor at will: because she really had been receiving the Emperor's favor. Although the Lord of Mankind was not a human being, he was still very generous when giving rewards, and he was good at doing what he said and keeping his word.

On the other side, the territory belonging to the two gods was still vast, but it had shrunk slightly compared to decades ago, leaving Morgan with a foundation to stay. What supported this territory was precisely the part that the Spider Queen devoured from the lost man decades ago.

The gods feared this power.

In the recent long period of time, both the Lord of Change and the Prince of Pleasure seemed to have ceased their activities, and their presence became weak: Morgan was not sure when these two Chaos Powers stopped stirring up trouble in his mind, as if it was around the same time as the Emperor?
But she also understood that the gazes of these two gods had never left, especially the Dark Prince, which was always constantly wandering around the Spider Queen: but after wandering for decades, even though Morgan was on guard, she had already passively become accustomed to the gaze from the Lord of Pleasure.

In other words, this was an open conspiracy: no matter how wary Morgan was of the Prince of Pleasure, after so much time had passed, the Primarch's physical instincts had become accustomed to the sight of the young god, and the original creepiness and uneasiness had been replaced by numbness.

To put it more clearly: Morgan's SAN value has reached a threshold.

This is a good thing, but also a bad thing.

Needless to say, the good side is that Morgan has been able to actively and effectively cooperate with the Emperor's various actions over the past decade, which is closely related to her increasingly stable spiritual world. The Primarch can even accumulate more souls and no longer use them to offset the influence of the gods, but store them for future needs.

But the bad news is that the silence of the gods does not mean that they have retreated. On the contrary, the Primarch can clearly feel that whether it is the Lord of Change or the Prince of Pleasure, their silence is just a temporary wait.

They are waiting for the next show.

This drama called the Great Crusade has already passed its early and middle stages, and is currently lingering on the eve of the penultimate curtain call. The gods' preemptive layout has already been laid, and the final harvest has not yet come. All they can do now is to wait quietly like this, waiting for the Emperor to return to Holy Terra, waiting for the real climax of this drama to come.

Morgan understood this, and the Emperor understood this, too. They both knew that the silence in the Primarch's mind was just the gods suppressing their laughter and waiting for the show, but all they could do was to seize the time and take advantage of this short window of opportunity to deal with the increasingly chaotic things. For the Emperor, after he had played out all the scripts, he went straight back to the Emperor's Dream, leaving behind Malcador and the other Primarchs, and led his direct fleet into Mandeville Point. It was unknown which star system he was going to, to perfect his grand plan that would never see the light of day.

As for Morgan, she will take over the remaining work related to Luo Jia.

Originally, this job was Malcador's, but after Morgan discussed with the Emperor and Malcador, they came to a unanimous conclusion that she should take over Malcador's job: after all, the three of them were afraid that Lorgar wanted to beat Malcador to death and then be beaten to death by Malcador.

Morgan had no objection to this. It was not difficult to appease a brother, especially one as gentle as Luo Jia. Moreover, the Emperor was gone, and no one else would come to make things more difficult for her...

"Do you need my help?"

Morgan turned her head and saw that Guilliman had stood beside her and Lorgar without her knowing when. Judging from the time, this Macragge man might have sneaked up a long time ago.

He did not seem to notice that his brother Lorgar had not yet stood up, and the same was true for the 100,000 Word Bearers in front of them: in this situation, he, the Lord of the Ultramarines, stood in plain sight before the entire kneeling Word Bearers legion.

Morgan could already feel the knife-like sharpness from warriors like Angertai, but Guilliman, the person involved, was unaware of it. He even took a step forward with a smile on his face, wanting to help his Colchis brother from the bottom of his heart.

"Are you okay, Roga?"

Guilliman spoke up.

"Do you need me to help you up?"

"..."

The Great Bearer did not speak. There was still a trace of relief from faith on his face, but disgust towards Guilliman was already rising in his pupils: this disgust was not serious, just like when one is hungry and sees a piece of pastry that does not suit one’s taste.

"No need, brother."

Luo Jia's voice was heavy.

"What can you do for me? Are you feeling remorse after witnessing the glory of the God-Emperor?"

"I haven't thought about that yet."

The Macragge smiled. He was so focused on his conversation with Lorgar that he didn't notice Morgan, who was standing beside him, winking at him, nor did he notice the psychic light gradually rising from the Spider Queen's body.

"I just want to ask you something: our father asked me to tell you one last thing."

"Go ahead."

Lorgar nodded. Behind him, Kor Phaeron and Angerte led about thirty or forty warriors who stood up first and wandered about a hundred meters away, not daring to disturb the three Primarchs.

"On my flagship, there are twenty warriors on standby. They will be on your flagship soon. As my representative, please do not refuse this request, Luo Jia, because this is an order issued by the Emperor himself."

"Is it?"

Luo Jia laughed, his voice full of mockery.

"Do you think I will believe such a lie, Guilliman? The Emperor has just shown his mercy to me. How could he send someone to supervise me? Even if he sends someone to supervise the progress of the holy war, the relevant personnel should be the Guards, not your warriors!"

"You can refuse, but I don't think it will do you any good."

Guilliman blinked.

"Trust me, brother, my warriors will be a better choice than those Custodes."

"I don't think so."

Luo Jia shook his head in disdain.

"Why should I accept your warrior: what reason can you give me that I can't refuse?"

"because……"

Guilliman hesitated, not wanting to use the Emperor's orders to pressure his brother.

[Because Guilliman still has some little ideas of his own. ]

Before the Macragge people could figure out what was going on, on the other side, the Spider Queen, who had lost her patience after seeing that her eyes were useless, casually inserted herself into this low-level game: Morgan simply winked at Lorgar and lightly uttered a short reason.

[He sent his warriors here to learn from you.]

"study?"

Luo Jia became interested.

"What to learn?"

He looked at Guilliman, and Guilliman looked at Morgan: the Spider Queen reminded the Macragge people with a look, and this look made Guilliman struggle in his heart, but under the gaze of the Great Bearer, Guilliman finally gritted his teeth and spit out those words from between his teeth.

"Study your sacred texts, brother."

"……what!"

Luo Jia laughed.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, my dearest Robert?"

"The Holy Word? Of course!"

"I'll welcome them!"

(End of this chapter)