Emperor's Bane

Chapter 898 Kneel down, I'm begging you for a favor

Chapter 898 Kneel down, I'm begging you for a favor
Okay... let me take a look.

[Vulcan, it's resolved.]

[Angron, resolved.]

[Conrad should have already departed from the Nostramo system, and Guilliman has just arrived in the vicinity of Koss or Steelball.]

[Zhuang Sen is still in the Dark Realm beyond, but he should have received my communication: although it's uncertain how distorted the message will be by the time it reaches him after the warp storm, there's enough time for him to return from the north.]

In other words, I now need to consider whether to activate Horus's intelligence network.

And speaking of Horus...

The Spider Queen's voice trailed off.

She looked up, and the rose window so close to her reflected the Primarch's blue pupils, faithfully recording her contemplation after the silence. In the flickering, mottled light and shadow of the radiating stained glass wall, the lips of the Lord of Avalon touched one name after another, and the silence in the air made one feel as if they were in another world.

Unfortunately, no one was there to listen.

Even in the Primarch's most private meditation room, even confidants like Virgo or Rana must wait respectfully outside the door for Morgan's response before being allowed to step onto the white tile floor.

In fact, both Virgo and Lana had intentionally or unintentionally broken this rule: the former naturally did so because of a stubborn, spoiled pride, while the latter did so because of urgent matters. Regardless, they both rashly crossed the line and were fortunate enough to witness the Spider Queen's most stern side.

The specific details are now lost to history: in any case, even in the most private sisterly chats, Virgo never told the other Star Maidens about this experience.

Rana, who had once been in trouble, had developed the good habit of standing straight at least fifty paces away from the Primarch's meditation room and reporting loudly until the Primarch's approval reached his ears.

Fortunately, Morgan's Stargazing Tower, unlike Dorn's Gloves of Pain or Mortarion's Poisonous Snuff, is not a seemingly sufficient but actually necessary but insufficient necessity of daily life: since its construction, the Spider Queen has indeed rarely pushed open that bronze door engraved with a simplified star map of the entire Milky Way.

As a result, most people in the Second Legion were unaware of the existence of the so-called Stargazing Tower.

Even the senior company commanders with higher company numbers believed that their Primarchs only needed to meditate for a while every now and then, perhaps going into seclusion or sleeping for a few days to a few months: more details were unknown.

And at such times, if a Dawnbreaker think tank member is lucky enough, he might encounter the spiritual avatar of a Primarch who is also traversing the Ocean of Chaos during a cautious warp journey: and the Primarch will generously offer them guidance.

Some believe it's just luck, but others think that everyone fortunate enough to encounter a Primarch in the Warp is actually a carefully selected elite: because after receiving Morgan's personal guidance, their psychic power or a specific space-related ability will leap forward at a visible speed.

But there is one thing that everyone who has received guidance agrees on.

That is, as time went by, the power and aura that Morgan displayed in guiding her children also changed dramatically.
To borrow the words of a think tank member who had been fortunate enough to receive guidance from the Primarch twice: When he first had the privilege of receiving guidance from the Primarch, Morgan's psionic skills displayed before him had already reached the limits of his imagination. The way those stars changed was the most exquisite beauty that only the greatest psionicist in his dreams could perform.

But decades later, when he received guidance from the Primarch for the second time in the Warp, the power and attitude displayed by the Spider Queen far exceeded his imagination: it was no longer the limit of mortals, but comparable to the gods of ancient legends. It brought him no longer just a sense of shock, but a sense of powerlessness, a sense of stagnation, and a sense of realization after glimpsing a new world.

If anyone were to witness the power wielded by the Primarch, he would begin to doubt whether the Imperial truths that the Lord of Mankind had been so vigorously promoting actually existed.

Ironically, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened to the human empire: those elite veterans who had fought for the empire in the Great Crusade, especially those who had the privilege of following the Lord of Man himself, were actually dismissive of the empire's truths. Few warriors who had witnessed the Emperor's golden body were willing to believe that there were no gods in this galaxy.

This is probably why Imperial Truth was gradually shelved by the High Lords Council: they discovered that this theory was simply unconvincing to anyone.

But none of that mattered to Morgan.

Since that conversation on Ulano, Morgan had never cared about the question of Imperial Truth again, because the Emperor had openly shared with her all his views on faith and Imperial Truth: superstition and reason are just two parallel tracks, and the Emperor would choose which track to proceed on depending on the circumstances.

As for eliminating superstition and religion, and getting humanity to accept reason and science: these are just empty words.

From the very beginning, the Emperor knew that the Four Chaos Gods would not stand idly by as he did; they were destined to venture into the real universe to wage war against him. And when beings from the warp walked on the lands of the galaxy, even the most steadfast believers in the Empire's truth would begin to believe that gods and fantasy truly existed.

This was something that could have been expected long ago.

This was something the Emperor didn't intend to tell anyone beforehand: except for the planned Seal Holder and Morgan, who was not part of the plan.

The Spider Queen understands this.

After all, she occasionally maintains a sense of mystery.

As mentioned before, the Star Tower is not the only meditation room for the Primarchs. In addition to it, Morgan has many other privately owned retreats, half of which are unknown to the Dawnbreakers: this is the mystery that the Lord of Avalon needs.

If someone were to measure the duration and intervals of the Spider Queen's meditations by the number of times the Dawnbreakers' intelligence agencies encountered their Primarchs in the Warp, or by the Primarch status announcements made by Rana and others, they would certainly arrive at a completely wrong number.

The same thing happened in every discussion the sons of Morgan had about their genetic mother: most of the numbers and paragraphs were true, but the most crucial parts were carelessly ambiguous, making the whole intelligence extremely uncontrollable.

The reason for doing this dates back to forty or fifty years ago: after the Ulano Conference, the Spider Queen suddenly discovered that the Dawn Goddess, which she had almost worn out, had suddenly acquired some new guests she had never seen before.

They were, of course, spies, and not the familiar faces dispatched by the Master and Alpharis for mere routine duties: they came from a host of other forces or individuals' illicit groups.

From Horus to Rhodes.

From Fugrim to Chagatai Khan.

From Mars to Terra, a certain high lord...

If every agent lurking in the main fleet of the Dawnbreakers were captured and their master traced back to him, it would likely connect the entire power structure of the human empire; that is why it is impossible to eradicate them completely.

So, from that day on, the Spider Queen started adding more information to her personal whereabouts again.

The last time she did this was when she had just returned to the Legion, when the Spider Queen still kept a distance from the Dawnbreakers as a whole: until a certain Midnight Wraith, who was still a little rascal at the time, stood her up, which made the Primarch decide to invite her offspring to dinner in a fit of anger.

Looking back now, it turns out that the ice between mother and son was actually broken by the instigation of a certain scoundrel brother-in-law.

Looking back now, that was over a hundred years ago.

Morgan lay back in his chair with a sigh, staring at the list in front of him, feeling a headache coming on.

The list was simply divided into two categories: one column listed the names of the Primarchs, and the other listed the names of mortals, with several of their names circled in red and then linked to Horus: without a doubt, these were the guests sent by the Warmaster.

As early as the first day they boarded the ship, the Lord of Avalon had already captured these unfamiliar souls. The Ministry of Internal Affairs sent a report four hours later, but it was three names less than the list Morgan had found: the Wolf God still had no shortage of talent under his command.

Morgan had no intention of eliminating them. After all, whether they were spies from Horus or the Highlords, they were essentially the same as the agents of Macado, products of some kind of routine: such things were bound to happen sooner or later, ever since the Emperor had divided the Empire into political entities on Ulanor.

Morgan, of course, did the same: and she had already begun sending shadow agents to the various legions long before Angron's official return, and now, quite a few black pawns who obey the Spider Queen's orders have been in their positions for generations.

Moreover, compared to the Spider Queen's shameless large-scale infiltration of the Wolf Kingdom, these Horus followers could even be described as... quite polite.

But Morgan wasn't going to let them go: she realized these people might be useful to her.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, the most important task for these spies is to relay the interesting things they glean from the Aurora Ark back to the Land of Wolves: compared to thousands of years ago, humankind's skills in the field of espionage haven't seen much development.

Morgan could use this to her advantage. Through these unsuspecting spies, she could let Horus, the god of the wolf, hear what she wanted him to hear: she knew her warlord brothers, and she knew what information or intelligence could touch Horus's heart.

She can manipulate the hand of the Wolf God to accomplish things Morgan wants to do.

With that thought in mind, the Primarch slowly put a checkmark under Horus's name with a red pen.

The Spider Queen's lips curled into a smile.

She liked the arrangement.

To make things seem more believable, the Primarch's Ministry of Internal Affairs has been busy: they have been out in force and have captured many of Horus's guests and politely deported them, but the Shepherd's most trusted aces have managed to slip through the cracks with their shrewd experience, and even the Ministry of Internal Affairs is unaware of their existence.

But Morgan knew.

Looking at the names of these lucky individuals, a plan began to slowly take shape in the mind of the Lord of Avalon.

At the same time, she linked Horus's name with the one mentioned above, Johnson.

The Dark Angels' main force must have put a lot of psychological pressure on Zhan Shuai.

She can take advantage of this.

As Morgan pondered, he casually glanced at the area below the name Horus.

And then who?

[Chagatai Khan?]

Morgan nodded.

[A difficult guy.]

She made an assessment of her brother.

His only weakness is that he is still unaware of just how insane this galaxy truly is.

[Information gap: But you can't blame him for that.]

The Spider Queen stroked her chin: Compared to her large-scale infiltration of other legions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs' work on the White Scars has never been smooth. The Khan's offspring only open their hearts to those of the Jorgorians, or those who have deeply understood their path to immortality. Integrating into their inner circle is a challenge.

However, after operating for so many years, if they only want to release some non-critical information, they can certainly do it.

Morgan had just received intelligence that, despite the Bladestorm's well-hidden movements, the Spider Queen's agents could still assure her that Chagatai Khan was planning a secret meeting with War Marshal Horus: a private meeting unknown even to their own allies.

Clearly, the Wolf God needs more assurances and a more conciliatory attitude to completely persuade the eagles of the grasslands.

Morgan nodded.

Then they slowly erased Chagatai Khan's name.

This is not someone she needs to care about.

In the next thirty seconds, the names of Forgrim and Mortalian were also erased one by one.

Although their situation differed from that of the Khan, they were generally highly similar.

Before Chaos was exposed, the Spider Queen had no way to persuade these three people, and after Chaos was exposed, Morgan no longer needed to worry about them.

Saint Gilles was somewhat different: but the Spider Queen didn't have much energy left to deal with him.

Rather than dealing with the archangel, Morgan felt it would be better to prepare some secret weapons so that if they encountered Saint Gilles who had fallen into chaos, the Lord of Avalon would have sufficient means to completely kill him: this was clearly much simpler than saving the archangel.

【…】

Thinking of this, the Primarch fell silent for a moment.

After a long while, looking at the name Saint Gilles, Morgan rubbed his temples with a hint of helplessness.

Finally, with a sigh, the Spider Queen picked up her pen and drew another line next to the angel's name: although the other end was still blank, Morgan had at least left room for interpretation.

Now, all we can hope is that this archangel can hold out until the Spider Queen has some free time. Although this has nothing to do with him personally.

The Primarch then turned his gaze to Roger once again.

There's not much to say about this person, but there's a fatal label following his name.

Netway.

In the current galaxy, Luo Jia is one of the few people who have direct means to threaten the internet: heaven knows what his prayers might produce.

She should remind the Emperor of this.

Perhaps... there's still some room for maneuver?

Morgan paused for a moment, then drew a blank space next to Roger's name.

She had a vague plan: perhaps she could take some time to talk to the Emperor on the battlefield in Comoros.

So, who's next?
Dorn? There's no need to worry.

After all, she had just given all her experimental reports and insights on the technology of the Super Astartes warriors to Macado as a gift, which was in Lana's box, under the bracelet.

Leman Russ? May he live a long life!
She had witnessed the power of the Dionysian Spear; King Fenris wouldn't die so easily.

Ferrus, skip over.

Although it may sound impolite, in Morgan's eyes, Gorgon was practically a dead man.

If he can be loyal, that would be best.

But if he were to betray us, the Spider Queen might still be able to destroy the Tenth Legion.

The Lord of Avalon was intimately familiar with the weaknesses of the Iron Hand Legion: although Morgan had not sent many agents to the Iron Hand, the sons of Feralus had already laid out their strengths and weaknesses clearly, and with just a little targeting, they would fall apart.

And next: Corax?
The supplies and rare metals sent to the Lord of the Ravens had just set sail seven days ago, enough for the entire Nineteenth Legion to wage a war of attrition for at least twenty years. Meanwhile, Five Hundred Worlds and Nostramamo followed suit, sending large amounts of logistical supplies and strategic resources to the Raven Guard.

Morgan had timed it perfectly; the three fleets would definitely arrive before things got worse.

The sheer volume of supplies she allocated was so enormous that even if the Raven Guard lost all their bases, Corax could at least sustain his legions and fleet during the Great Rebellion with these logistical supplies from the Far East; perhaps even enough to fight two more Apocalyptic Wars.

Morgan even drew up a stable and safe interplanetary navigation map for her Corax brothers based on the intelligence sent by Riza: even if everything came to an end, the Raven Guard could head east according to this map, and both the World Eaters and the Five Hundred Worlds would accept them.

With the help of the Far East, Corax will one day be able to return home.

Hopefully, none of this will happen.

Morgan shook his head.

She knew she was being overly cautious. Although the Raven King was a guerrilla fighter, given his character, even in the most desperate circumstances, he wouldn't abandon his people and kingdom to flee east. But Morgan tirelessly ensured he had a way out, even the slightest possibility.

Corax deserves such treatment.

But it's not necessarily the case for Peturabo.

The Primarch's gaze turned cold as she looked at the names that had been giving her a headache lately.

What exactly is the Lord of Steel doing?
Even the Spider Queen was unaware that she had sent a considerable number of spies into the Fourth Legion, and that their survival rate had indeed increased in recent years. The Iron Lord had also sealed off his surroundings far too thoroughly: no one could penetrate into his star system and truly understand what was going on in the Primarch's mind.

But Morgan did not come away empty-handed.

She also had Kelifney as a special source of intelligence, and the Avalon faction of the Fourth Legion was happy to communicate with her. Through their accounts, the Spider Queen learned about the changes in the Iron Lord over the years: he was admirable like a saint, yet hateful like a tyrant.

This kind of autocracy, this kind of eccentricity, and this all-too-familiar tithe.

Naturally, in Morgan's mind, a strange golden light began to appear.

No wonder he is the son of an emperor.

How could they be so similar?

With this in mind, Morgan stopped worrying.

Peturabo has become very similar to the Emperor, hasn't he?
He'll definitely mess things up.

There is no reason: this is the powerful confidence that the Lord of Mankind bestowed upon his daughter.

Especially after hearing that Kelfinny had been taken away by Perturabo's men and was supposedly under house arrest, Morgan began to mobilize Danteok and the Dawn Warriors.

The Lord of Avalon instructed these people to secretly contact the Avalon factions within the Fourth Legion to see who would be willing to lead their forces and planets to the Far East in the inevitable future conflict.

She was certain that Peturabo would leave them with a major problem in the near future.

(The paragraph starting here was added later; please refresh the page if there are too many typos.)
Whether this was the Steel Lord's intention or not.

Don't ask: it's all about imperial style.

He looks exactly like his genetic father!
Unbeknownst to him, Morgan had already gritted his teeth.

【…】

No: It's even worse than the emperor.

At least in these past few years, the Emperor did some things that pleased Morgan.

Thinking of this, the Spider Queen's gaze involuntarily drifted to the last name, the Primarch that would no longer be mentioned by others, and the Legion that had been effectively erased: but its last remnant still stubbornly remained in the Far East, searching for the possibility of the past returning at all costs.

【Hey……】

The Primarch kept her lips closed and breathed heavily through her nose.

She looked at the simple name and patiently waited for footsteps outside the bronze gate.

He should be arriving soon...

"Mother."

As she spoke, a knock sounded slowly at the door, and a gentle voice came from outside.

"His Excellency Ariman has arrived and is now waiting for you in the rest room."

I'm coming right now.

Tell him to... calm down.

Morgan put down her list and picked up what she needed more now.

An intelligence report, detailing changes in the landscape, the living environment, and the progress of the battlefront, uses meticulous evidence and diverse figures to ensure its authenticity: all the outsiders' curiosity about the world called Prospero can be satisfied in this thick sheet of paper.

A codex containing the wisdom of the Spider Queen herself, her insights into the warp and certain more advanced psionic techniques: for an ordinary psionicist, simply turning to a page and seeing these obscure names is enough to be fatal.

Only the greatest, strongest, and most resilient psionic masters can wield it effectively.

Morgan happened to know of such a person.

Moreover, she is now holding onto what this person desires most.

The Primarch then turned its attention to the third object.

A smile played on her lips, her flawless face reflected in the thick glass barrier and the green nutrient solution.

A genetic seed.

A last remaining, pure legion, carrying memories of the past and the seeds of the future.

It is neither numerous nor special.

But this does not affect its existence; it will change the entire galaxy at some point in the future.

Although not now.

Although it has nothing to do with Morgan.

【…】

The Primarch extended a finger, tilted his head, and quietly pinched his earlobe—a symbol of contemplation. At this moment, even the Spider Queen had to begin pondering that somewhat comical philosophical question.

This problem is both simple and complex.

……

How much would a person who has nothing pay to regain everything they have lost?

……

She hoped that Ahriman could give her an answer.

After all, the Lord of Avalon is about to give this greatest Astartes think tank a difficult task.

A mission that will plunge him into the depths of hell.

------

【…】

Damn!

There was a moment.

She actually thinks she's quite like an emperor?
【…】