Emperor's Bane

Chapter 722 Mortarion's Plan

"Where have you been, Mortarion?"

"You don't need to know: your part is over, Ruth."

"Now: stay still."

From the moment he pushed open the bronze door of the Temple of Nikea, Mortarion took exactly seven hundred steps before finally arriving at his seat: the number seven, this magical mark, as always, was entangled in every aspect of the Lord of Death's life.

In many cases, Mortarion did not even deliberately maintain it, because he believed that this unique number had become an indispensable part of his life: out of the inherent arrogance of the Barbarus people, the Primarch once tried to deliberately get rid of the influence of [Seven] and place himself in the realm of other numbers, but the final result was always inconclusive.

Either some unexpected accident would bring him back to the track of seven, or he would find, in comparison, that the new number could not bring him the same benefits as seven. In the most extreme case, if the original body did not abide by the law of seven, his interests and life would be affected.

The most extreme example occurred in a stranglehold operation against the aliens: based on past combat experience, the Lord of Death speculated that he needed to deploy at least seven teams at once on a crucial high ground to ensure a complete tactical victory.

However, in order to test how much influence the number seven had on him, Mortarion stubbornly invested in six teams: even though Typhon and Garro opposed this arrangement, it did not change the Primarch's decision.

In fact, when it comes down to it, there is no need for Mortarion to take such a risk, using the direction of a war and hundreds of lives to test an illusory lucky number: but the character of the Lord of Death is born like this, he is unwilling to submit to any "tyrant" who may even be controlling his will, even if this tyrant looks like just a number.

For Mortarion, resistance itself is the most sacred act. Even the slightest manipulation is worth resisting. As for the price of resistance, that is something that needs to be considered after the dust settles. However, the fruits of resistance are definitely priceless.

This achievement is totally worth exchanging for the result of an offensive operation.

As a result, in the alien army guarding the highlands, there exists a type of genetically enhanced warrior that is completely unmentioned in the intelligence: in fact, judging from the technological level displayed by this alien race in the war, it is impossible for them to possess such advanced biological transformation skills, but this is no longer important, because the vigorous vitality displayed by these twisted creations during the battle is enough to make the Astartes despair.

Half an hour later, Mortarion received a report that the assault team had suffered heavy losses and a death rate of 70%. This coincidental number angered the Lord of Death, and the humiliated Primarch personally led six new teams to launch a second assault, but was caught in a bitter battle with the aliens who had been prepared.

When the situation was most critical, the alien modified creatures that surged in like a tide even severed the connection between the Primarch and the Death Shrouds. Their claws, sharper than metal, left a total of thirty-five scars on the Primarch's armor. It was not until Typhon led two specially reinforced heavy fire support teams into the melee that this high ground, which should have been a sure thing, was firmly held in the hands of the Death Guard.

After this round of lessons, even Mortarion, who was usually fearless, couldn't help but have a deeper sense of awe for the number "seven": he finally mobilized a full fourteen teams to complete the goal, and this was a multiple of "seven", a number that made people think deeply.

It seemed that only when this condition was met would victory come to him: the unyielding Primarch conducted large and small control experiments in the many years that followed, and when the time came to Nikea, Mortarion had already vaguely figured out a pattern.

That is, compared to manipulation, the number seven seemed to be another kind of help to him: If it was really the tyrant's manipulation, then why did the number seven only bring benefits to itself for such a long time but never ask for any reward from him?

This was not the work of a tyrant: Mortarion had seen tyrants, both the naked and the veiled, both those who enslaved and those who deceived him, but whose ultimate goal was to extract benefits from him, to make him work like a slave for them, to do slave work in the name of noble things.

But [Seven] did not, it only gave unilaterally for the Primarch, but never asked for anything in return: and no matter how Mortarion tried, he did not realize that there was anyone controlling [Seven] behind the scenes.

This is another piece of solid evidence: The Lord of Death was confident in his observation skills. He confirmed the tyrant's ill intentions at the first sight after meeting the Emperor. Even when he was on Barbaros, without any relevant experience, he only needed to make a brief comparison between humans and his alien adoptive father to easily see through the latter's lies.

His ability to observe was unquestionable; he had not seen the shadow behind the number seven, which meant that it was truly harmless: otherwise, could it be that a will more powerful than the Emperor had spent a hundred years of time and energy just to set a trap specifically for him?

Of course this is impossible: so, the answer is obvious.

Seven was his: this was the lucky number bestowed upon Mortarion by fate.

The idea had been firmly ingrained in Mortarion before he arrived at Nikaea: it was only natural that Mortarion designed a seven-fold siege for his fellow sorcerer, ensuring that Magnus's defeat would be inevitable and the Thousand Sons would be annihilated.

Typhon's first attack would leave Magnus with an extremely bad first impression on everyone present, and at the same time cut off as much of the connection between Prospero's wizards and his most powerful think tank allies as possible: the various [Witch Hunters] that followed formed the second step, further strengthening Typhon's victory.

The performance of Leman Russ and his alien visitors off the field was merely an unexpected gain that was somewhat beyond the Lord of Death's expectations; and he personally took to the field to fight Guilliman in the ring, just to try whether the results of the victory could be extended to the think tank system itself, but the Macragge people were really sharp-tongued, and the deep-rooted Psyker Group made the Lord of Death's idea of ​​​​achieving success in one battle completely bankrupt.

At this time, even Leman Russ was not on his side: his brother Fenris was an abominable appeaser who was happy to see Magnus's downfall, but did not dare to challenge the power headed by Morgan. His defection was not unexpected by Mortarion.

Instead, it was Ahriman's firmness and loyalty in the debate that made the Lord of Death take a second look at him: Mortarion even felt proud of this, because he knew that the reason why Ahriman was so different from those fools in the Thousand Sons Legion was because of the time he spent on the Far Eastern Frontier, because he had always been bathed in the light of Morgan, not the red Magnus.

Such a sharp contrast just proves Mortarion's judgment of the two: Morgan is an evil person with evil intentions but excellent abilities. She is the kind of demon king who will appear at the end of the heroic epic and run through the whole text. She has an upright and despicable character and powerful enough to turn the tide. The final showdown between the protagonist warrior and her will make the spectators in the audience so nervous that they forget to breathe.

Magnus, on the other hand, is a smart-aleck fool who accomplishes nothing. He only appears as an insignificant minor character in the first or second act of the play: if the writer dares to give him more than seven lines, or give him even one highlight, he will run the risk of being booed by the audience.

Look, decades ago, the Lord of Death had such a far-sighted view of these two people: Who else in the entire galaxy could do this?

A hint of pride flashed across the corner of the Lord of Death's mouth, which was covered in poisonous mist.

His tyrant father was unlucky in this matter: if Barbarus had been the first world the Emperor visited after leaving Holy Terra, he would have obtained a far superior choice for the Imperial Warmaster than Horus, and events like Nikea would never have occurred.

Although Mortarion had never had any ambition for the position of Warmaster, he believed that only he could do it best: only he could lead all of humanity to a future that represented science and truth, and only he could ensure the complete eradication of all aliens and the long-term stability of the human empire.

Similarly, only he can suppress people like Morgan and Guilliman and make their ambitions have nowhere to hide: if Mortarion is the Warmaster of the Empire, all Guilliman can do is to lock himself in his kingdom and dare not step out of line.

As for Morgan: If the Primarch responsible for educating the Spider Queen after she returned to the Empire was the Lord of Death, Morgan could have avoided this wrong path. She could have become Mortarion's best assistant. With the help of the Spider Girl's abilities, Mortarion believed that he would do better than the Emperor.

He even deserved the throne: Morgan could be his Sigillite, but she would have to learn the old man's humility first, and just as the Sigillite respected the Emperor, Morgan would also need to learn to respect her brother Barbarus and obey his will with her own flesh and blood.

What a fascinating future... Even Mortarion would never deny Morgan's ability, and the same goes for others: although the Primarchs' evaluation of their only sister was not all positive, in the minds of different Primarchs, the Queen of Avalon had different flaws and shortcomings.

However, these shortcomings are mostly concentrated on her questionable loyalty and her weak character that is not so reassuring. No one will deny Morgan's own ability, just as no one will deny Guilliman's ability: it's just that the Primarchs don't like to get involved with Guilliman, but in their hearts, they always hope that they can have an outstanding assistant like Morgan.

We are not blind: who could fail to see that Jonson was leading a comfortable life? A man who had never been a candidate for the position of Warmaster was now, on the surface, the only person who could compete with Horus. Everyone knew who had done the work.

However, even such excellent behind-the-scenes manipulation ability could not reverse Mortarion's victory on Nikaea: the mere thought of this result was enough to give the Lord of Death an extreme sense of satisfaction that was more addictive than a hundred kills.

Oh, victory: how sweet.

The unwillingness in those blue eyes only makes the sweetness seem more mellow.

Damn: he'll get addicted to it.

Mortarion shook his head, his thoughts returning to Ahriman: Ahriman was the fifth step of his plan and the first blow of his victory horn, and the outstanding performance of the Thousand Sons himself only magnified Mortarion's advantage. With the cooperation of Leman Russ, Ahriman's declaration was used in reverse.

Magnus was completely isolated.

Then, things became simple: Magnus was never an opponent that could give Mortarion a headache at any time, and after he eliminated the threat of Morgan and others, he didn't even care about the Wolf King's [betrayal].

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The Fenrisians are of no use: Mortarion will strike out once again in person.

This was the sixth step: in the final moments of the break, while Malcador and the Custodes were focused on dispersing the crowd, and the other Primarchs were busy with their own affairs, Mortarion stopped his brother on the way back to the Temple of Nikea, and the Death Shrouds blocked the Thousand Sons' wrath, allowing the two Primarchs to communicate face to face in the shadows.

The process was so dull that it was not even worth writing about: it was nothing more than the old-fashioned mutual sarcasm and irony, with Mortarion pouring out his plan while admiring Magnus's increasingly broken face, and Magnus's almost roaring rebuttal after the Lord of Death triumphantly announced to the Prosperos that he was isolated and helpless and could only wait for the Emperor's judgment.

"Just wait! Mortarion!"

"I'm going to surprise all of you, all of you vile people!"

……

This was what he was waiting for.

Mortarion heard his own laughter.

It was easier to anger Magnus than he had first imagined.

And once Magnus gets angry and loses his only bit of composure, not even the Lord can save him: Mortarion knows his brother too well, and he can guess that Magnus' so-called trump card is nothing more than some psychic [discoveries] or [skills] that, in his mind, are enough to shock everyone.

Magnus always likes to use methods such as tightrope walking to prove that humans can fly.

Moreover, he dared to bet that Magnus must have prepared more than one set of plans, and the most radical ones must have far exceeded Magnus's own ability to control. Even if the Primarch of the Thousand Sons tried his best, he could only ensure a very low success rate. Failure would be a more normal development of the world line.

This is what he wanted: an angry Magnus would definitely choose the most "shocking" option among all the options, which would also be the most difficult, the most challenging, and the one that would challenge Magnus' skills the most.

The one most likely to cause him to fail.

And Magnus, who messed up his terrifying psychic skills in front of everyone, including the Emperor: it might even cause some harm, making the Sigillites and the Custodians feel threatened, making Magnus's actions look like an assassination, or at least a deliberate terrorist attack.

I ask, is there anything more that could make everyone, including the Emperor, completely disappointed in Magnus than this kind of failure?

And this is his seventh step.

The last step is also the decisive move.

He didn't need to do anything: everything was already prepared.

He only needed to watch quietly: witness how Magnus killed himself, how he used psychic power to kill psychic power, how he used his arrogance and stupidity to end his arrogance and stupidity, and maybe he could even witness the spectacle of the Emperor, the tyrant, having his hateful dead face broken after being affected by psychic power.

That was an unexpected gain.

Mortarion smiled.

He knew he had won.

after all……

Self-destruction: This is the inevitable final outcome for every psychic.

(End of this chapter)