Emperor's Bane

Chapter 954 Pit

Did you know?

[Conrad likes to call the tactic you're currently employing urbanization.]

I think you should have heard of this term.

[And I'm also very curious: how long exactly did you prepare for this plan?]

I think what's more intriguing is: why did you and Conrad end up talking about this kind of topic?
【…】

You can't expect the two of us to fight a war of attrition in a place like Ghoul Stars, can you?

……

The fighting in the Comoros is becoming increasingly intense.

However, this did not prevent the two nominal military leaders of the Imperial Army from spending a considerable amount of their energy, while fulfilling their respective duties, on mocking and testing each other.

Morgan was primarily the one mocking and testing the Emperor, while the Lord of Man was mostly on the defensive, though occasionally he would retort when the time was right.

This verbal exchange was extremely close: almost like a face-to-face firefight.

Although from the outside, it appears that the Lord of Avalon and her two Primarch brothers left the Emperor's side immediately after the start of the Comoros War, with Angron and Vulcan going to the front lines and the Spider Queen residing in the command center further back, this location was still thousands of kilometers away from the Emperor.

There's no way around it, the Comoros is just too huge.

However, this physical distance does not affect the father and daughter's spiritual connection, and it also ensures the privacy of their conversations.

After all, no Dark Eldar would be so foolish as to dare to pry into the hearts of these two Gods of Slaughter.

However, conversations in the spiritual realm, while unknown to outsiders, also mean that any concealment or lies between them become ineffective.

Whether it was Morgan or the Emperor, deceiving their psychic senses in the spiritual realm was no less difficult than killing Sanguis with a sword.

Even among the two most powerful psionic beings in the galaxy, the first and second most powerful psionic beings cannot conceal their abilities from each other.

Yes: Some time after the Warmaster Ceremony in Ulanoro, the Marksman Macardo confessed to the Spider Queen in a private conversation that her psychic abilities far surpassed his own.

According to the Marksman, the Emperor is a sun that no one can contend with. Unless the Primarchs can obtain power beyond the real universe, they are not qualified to compete with their Gene Father. But even with the help of outsiders, not all Primarchs are capable of challenging the Emperor.

There are no more than five Primarchs who are truly capable of becoming enemies of the Emperor.

Among them, Morgan, being a psionicist, was naturally the most important target for the Shaper. He personally admitted that the Spider Queen's current level was second only to his father, or at least had surpassed the Shaper. However, given that Macardo had never seen the Emperor at full power, he did not know how much of a gap there was between the first and second.

But they are definitely better than him: that's without a doubt.

As for Magnus?

According to Macado's description, Prospero's Crimson King also possesses the ability to kill him, which is why he was able to take the third position from Macado. However, the gap between the third and fourth positions is too close, and given enough opportunity and preparation time, the Marksman could also kill Magnus.

The reason for this is that the Thousand Sons' genetic prototypes lacked [fighting spirit] from the very beginning.

Morgan agreed with this point.

Compared to Magnus, the human lord standing behind her possessed an overwhelming fighting spirit.

Even though he had devoted most of his energy to protecting the tunnel boring machine and monitoring for possible intrusions and disruptions by the four warp gods, Morgan still couldn't gain the upper hand in words over the remaining small portion of his energy.

She also had to guard against the emperor's counterattack.

Don't forget, in the realm of the mind, neither of them can hide all their inner thoughts.

While the Spider Queen could use her unpredictable personality and occasional eccentricities to temporarily keep her little secrets from the Emperor, now that the Emperor was already well aware of her true nature and it was common knowledge, it was no longer possible to completely conceal it.

The Emperor also faces the same dilemma: Although Morgan has spent far less time with the Lord of Man than Horus, thanks to their deeper cooperation and more perceptive mind, the Spider Queen understands the Emperor better than anyone else. She even understands the Emperor better than Macardo, and has a deep understanding of the Emperor's thoughts and behavioral logic.

But this also brings up a problem.

A problem that had been troubling the Spider Queen even before the Battle of Comoros began.

【…】

Morgan opened the map that the Emperor had given her.

The full picture of the internet's scourge was laid bare before her.

As mentioned before, Comoros is a very, very large city.

When Morgan entered the Comoros, the destructive wave that covered 380,000 kilometers was an absolute apocalyptic attack: it was enough to destroy 32 Earths or all the planets in the solar system. However, in the unpredictable space of the Comoros, the Spider Queen's powerful attack only destroyed a small outlying city. Although this was the most severe offensive the Comoros had suffered in recent years since its fall from grace.

But it's still a long way from being destroyed.

Through the map of the Lord of Man, the Spider Queen could clearly see what a vast and malevolent nest awaited them ahead: at least dozens or even hundreds of districts stood in their path, each as enormous as the Primarch had previously destroyed. And this was only the upper reaches of Comoros. As for the lower nests, filled with the lowest of the low and dangerous laboratories, that was a question no one could answer.

However, Morgan didn't care about this issue. If her guess was correct, their mission would at most extend to demolishing every upper-level area, and the lower-level areas were not even worth considering.

The reason is also very simple.

Although Comoros's upper and lower districts are indeed distinguished by their distance from the ground, thanks to the city's unique structure, Comoros's true foundation lies in the core area of ​​the upper district.

In other words, if they could completely destroy the upper region of Comoros, the lower region at the bottom would also collapse due to the overall collapse: this kind of magical thing, which seems to only happen in the subspace, is unexpectedly normal in the Webpath.

According to the map's description, and considering Morgan's own strength and resources, although she couldn't destroy the entire upper region of Comoros in one fell swoop, if the Dark Eldar couldn't come up with a way to counterbalance the Primarch, the Spider Queen could take her time to achieve her goal.

Weeks, months, or even longer: Morgan can slowly dismantle this cancerous growth on the internet.

Of course, all of these are based on the premise that the Emperor's map of Comoros is basically correct.

After all, the city's vastness far exceeded the Primarch's detection limits, and Morgan could only rely on the Emperor's intelligence.

The Spider Queen had tried to use her psychic abilities to sketch out the general outline of Comoros in her mind, which would definitely be beneficial for the upcoming battle. Moreover, unless absolutely necessary, the Lord of Avalon did not like to rely on the Emperor for such important intelligence.

It's not that I have any lingering guilt or remorse.

Morgan simply didn't trust his father.

The Spider Queen had become accustomed to the Emperor's tendency to falter in every major event: and since the start of the Web Expedition, the Lord of Man had not done anything that would raise blood pressure, making the upcoming battles exceptionally dangerous.

However, even for the psychic queen, it would be extremely difficult to accomplish this: not to mention that the vastness of Comoros is measured in light-years, its vertical dimensional span alone exceeds all reason, with the upper and lower zones separated by galaxy-wide distances, and the most important structures are rooted in other dimensions and do not exist in the Web at all.

The Spider Queen intended to investigate further.

Then, the silent nun beside her, who had just opened her eyes, lay peacefully on the ground once more.

Unfortunately, the Spider Queen had no choice but to spend more of her time studying the Emperor's Comoros map.

But she soon discovered new problems.

This is not a military map.

The Queen of Avalon murmured to herself: She was quite certain that her genetic father could hear her.

【Father.】

If I'm not mistaken.

[Is this the tourist map you picked up when you traveled to Comoros back in the day?]

Don't put it so harshly.
The Emperor's voice came from a distant direction. He seemed to be amidst the crackling sound of burning fire: Morgan guessed it might be the sound of the tunnel boring machine starting up.

I paid for it back then.
【……money?】

After the Eldar massacre, Comoros attempted to repackage itself as a tourist city.
+As you know: This place has a rich and unique intangible cultural heritage.
I came here because of its reputation and spent a considerable amount of time in this city.
Ah, I can guess that.

Morgan nodded.

After all, this map marks thousands of hotels and 24-hour convenience stores.

But please forgive my bluntness, Father: how will this help our military operations?

I think this map is detailed enough.
Based on the fluctuations in the sound, the Spider Queen conjured up an image of a scientist dressed in white in her mind.

Is her father conducting an experiment?

Morgan blinked.

She thought of the unease in her heart.

She no longer concealed her unease: because both the strange behavior of the Mechanicus and the Emperor's actions since the start of the war were gradually turning Morgan's initial malicious speculation into a terrifying reality.

【Father.】

After surveying the battlefield before her, and confirming that the Dark Eldar's offensive had been hampered by her previous focused attack, the Spider Queen slowly turned her head to look behind her. She couldn't see the Emperor with her naked eye, but the tunnel boring machine's star-like size and brilliance were so dazzling that she could still lock onto the Emperor from afar.

The Lord of Humanity also sensed the gaze directed at him from thousands of kilometers away by his daughter.

He put down his work because he realized that Morgan's suspicion and anger were growing.

What's wrong?
Even so, the Empress's words remained firm, as if she truly had no secrets.

【Father.】

The Primarch's brow twitched.

I just wanted to confirm that you still remember the purpose of our military operation, right?

Of course.
The emperor's voice was uttered without hesitation.

Morgan was simply talking to himself.

You assured me that you and the Netway tunnel boring machine were fully prepared for the Comoros campaign.

[We don't need to go through any trouble: we just need to hold off the Dark Eldar's counterattack and wait for you and the Mechanicus to mine enough raw materials. It won't take more than ten months. We will return before the war in the real universe completely spirals out of control. This is the only way to ensure that the situation doesn't get out of control.]

+That's right: So what? +
【nothing. 】

I just wanted to make sure you remembered these things.

The Spider Queen's pupils gleamed.

After all, the Seals' entire military objective is to sustain them until your army returns, and you promised them no more than a year. If, due to deception or some other reason, Terra's army fails to await your return within the expected timeframe, the impact on the war will be devastating.

[For Macado, Dorne, and Lemanrus: they could not afford this price.]

This is exactly what Morgan was worried about.

She was terrified; she feared that the Emperor had told a colossal lie to everyone in the Netway Legion.

He even lied to Macardo and Dorn.

This is something he's capable of doing.

Moreover, Morgan didn't quite believe that the Emperor had mobilized such a massive force just to mine some raw materials.

He couldn't possibly be that restrained.

There must be something even more greedy going on in his heart.

This is the internet, after all.

This is Comoros, after all.

The former has always been the emperor's goal.

What lies before them now is their only chance to get close to success.

Would an emperor choose restraint at this time?

Morgan, in any case, didn't really believe it.

She preferred to believe her own speculation: the Emperor's stated military intentions were not his original purpose at all.

He'll definitely want more.

+……+
The Lord of Humanity seemed to hesitate for a moment.

But the pause was so brief that Morgan wondered if he was hallucinating.

I know.
In the spiritual realm, the Lord of Mankind unusually opened the door to his heart, which he had kept tightly closed, allowing Morgan to directly glimpse his inner thoughts: every word he spoke truly came from the heart, without deception or the concealment that the Spider Queen feared most.

He was telling the truth.

+I can assure you, Morgan, my sole purpose in coming to the Comoros is to mine enough raw materials.
This won't take longer than expected.
【…】

Morgan was silent.

She had to admit: it was indeed the truth from the bottom of her heart.

Even with her prejudice and understanding of emperors, she couldn't see anything suspicious about it.

Perhaps... she was overthinking it?

Surely the Lord of Humanity wouldn't make any more mistakes on such a crucial matter?

but……

Has she forgotten something?
hiss……

What did you forget?

Morgan frowned at this.

After much hesitation, she finally decided to turn her attention back to the battlefield before her: the Dark Eldar had launched another large-scale counterattack.

The Spider Queen muttered to herself, while silently praying that she was overthinking things.

but no matter.

Even if the emperor was hiding something from them.

All she can do now is to fight this war with all her might.

(End of this chapter)