Emperor's Bane

Chapter 962 The Emperor's Experiment

A new batch of research results has been released.
What do you think?
Can it be put into use?
While the elite armies of the human empire waged an apocalyptic war against the most brutal and depraved race in the entire galaxy on the land known as Comoros, their sworn lord hid at the very rear of the battle line, waging a war in which he alone participated.

Although on the surface the Emperor appears to be sheltered under the heavy protection of his army, in reality he has always been isolated and helpless: his only weapon is his inner will and wisdom, and his only ally is an ancient machine devoid of humanity.

Compared to what he could rely on, his dream was so unshakable: at this moment, the future of all mankind was confined to the brief time that the imperial army standing in Comoros had bought for the emperor, and every turn of the hourglass of the Lord of Mankind meant that tens of thousands of loyal warriors died in foreign lands.

Among them were Astartes, the Imperial Guard, and loyal Mechanicus followers who remained dedicated to their duties in the Web of the Abyss even after hearing the devastating news from Mars. The captains of the Titan machines and the heads of the knightly families roared their battle cries as they charged toward their deaths, louder than anyone else's, and even the Emperor could not ignore them.

Every second these loyalists earned with bombs, courage, and lives was unhesitatingly devoted by the Lord of Mankind to the process of harvesting and experimentation: the most sophisticated instruments in the entire Imperium were operating in an orderly manner. Some of them were so noble that they required the resources of the entire sector, while others were so ancient that they had witnessed the rise of the Primarchs or the birth of the Astartes warriors.

Bringing these refined weapons to the online world is no easy task.

But they are definitely worth more than their price.

Fifty years later, the Emperor once again manipulated his most proficient method of equivalent exchange: whenever the battlefield between the Empire and the Dark Eldar was covered with a new layer of corpses, the Lord of Man would precisely eliminate an impossibility, narrowing their pursuit to a more precise range, accumulating bit by bit the chips that led to ultimate success.

Back then, the birth of Astartes followed this almost truthful principle of equivalent exchange: before the first Imperial Angel successfully emerged from the petri dish, the mountains of corpses and seas of blood piled up outside the laboratory were already as high as hills, all of them victims of process errors or wrong directions.

It was by following this principle that the Lord of Mankind obtained the legions that helped him sweep across the galaxy.

Fortunately, his experience and methods have not diminished at all compared to two hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, this time, the enemy he will face is the one he least wants to face.

They were watching him intently from the depths of the Comoros.

We await the moment he reveals his weakness: just like the storm that struck two hundred years ago.

but……

"This time, we cannot repeat the same mistakes."

With the sound of a withered body slicing through the viscous air, the Lord of Mankind's only ally arrived as promised: directly above the Imperial Legion, the massive, planet-like Net-Tunneling Tunneling Machine was extending countless gray-gold metal tentacles in all directions, as if searching for something important.

Amidst the tangled web of tentacles, no one noticed one that was deliberately thin, landing at an almost vertical angle beside the Human Emperor. Its end was connected to the shriveled, withered corpse of a psionicist: through its skeletal limbs and lifeless white eyes, the tunnel boring machine had established a stable connection with the Human Emperor.

The corpse of this psionicist is also quite remarkable: it was one of the most powerful enemies the entire human empire had ever encountered during the Great Crusade, a psionic tyrant who had enslaved dozens of star sectors and billions of servants. The Spider Queen had to personally eliminate it, and the battle itself was rightfully erased from existence.

This is a common occurrence that happens to the Lord of Avalon.

Since the Second and Third Battles of Randan, Morgan has, to some extent, assumed a similar role to Johnson.

However, unlike the Lion, the Spider Queen's identity is more like the Emperor's personal executioner: if the objects to be erased and forgotten are not hostile civilizations or certain forces within the Empire, but merely a powerful individual or a small group of elites, then the Emperor is more willing to play the Morgan card.

The reason is simple: the collective actions of the Dark Angels were ultimately too ostentatious, and the Spider Queen's strength was far beyond that of the First Legion. Those top wizards who required Johnson himself to personally oversee the operation and sacrifice hundreds or thousands of inner-ring veterans to exchange for their services were merely a pastime before afternoon tea in front of Morgan.

Anyone would know how to make the choice, even Morgan himself knew: to some extent, this was something the Spider Queen had requested voluntarily. She didn't want to see too many of the Dark Angels' inner circle veterans lose in this secret operation; they had a more important role to play.

The decision of the Lord of Avalon, revealed by the Emperor whether intentionally or unintentionally, was also known to some of the high-ranking members of the Dark Angels Legion: the Lion's offspring's respect for Morgan was not solely due to the War of Randan.

As for the cost of doing so: with so many achievements being completely erased, not only was the reputation of the Dawnbreaker Legion affected, but Morgan's own strength was also gradually shrouded in mystery. Even the Emperor could not be sure how much his precious daughter could accomplish if she used all her trump cards.

But one thing is certain.

For about fifty to sixty years after Angron's return, the Lord of Man delegated all private beheading missions to Morgan.

In other words, when powerful enemies appeared during the Great Crusade that posed a threat to the Primarch and required the Emperor's personal intervention to ensure a complete victory, such enemies often required the Emperor's personal intervention before Morgan's return.

In the later stages of the Great Crusade, the Spider Queen had replaced the Lord of Man as the only viable option.

This alone speaks volumes.

This is also a major reason why the Emperor did not hesitate to abandon Magnus on Nicaea.

The Scarlet King's influence has become negligible.

His value as an imperial heir is even less than that of the tunnel boring machine beside the Lord of Mankind.

If possible, the emperor would prefer the tunnel boring machine to be his son; a daughter would also be fine.

"..."

"You seem to be thinking about something else, ally."

A monotone question uttered from the withered lips of the psychic corpse, which the Emperor concealed with his usual cold expression. He cleared his mind of all distractions and refocused all his attention on the experimental results before him.

He remembered what he had just said.

You're right.
Then, the emperor nodded.

We must not repeat the same mistakes.
The passion of the Lord of Mankind gradually cooled down.

He didn't tell anyone that during the third large-scale battle between the Imperial army and the Dark Eldar, the Emperor had once believed that his experiment had made a breakthrough. The result of his hasty push was that all the progress he had made before was instantly wiped out, which meant that hundreds of Astartes had bled to death in vain.

Such a loss is something that even the ruler of mankind cannot simply laugh off.

This time, we need to be careful.
Looking at the precious experimental results before him, the Lord of Humanity recalled his previous failures.

……

The emperor's purpose in coming to Comoros was actually quite simple.

With the help of the network tunnel boring machine, the human empire's network project went far more smoothly than expected: if the Emperor's initial plan was simply to use all of humanity's strength for a final gamble, betting the hope of success on a vague sense of luck and "possibility," then the arrival of the network tunnel boring machine truly showed the human ruler how to achieve final victory.

It at least makes one thing clear: something that an emperor could never accomplish on his own.

That is: how exactly should the network be repaired?

What materials are best to choose? Which materials can be replaced by certain resources controlled by mankind? Which locations can be kept as far away from the influence of the subspace as possible? Where should centralized load-bearing areas be set up? Where should a comprehensive transportation hub be built? How should the construction steps be arranged? How should subsequent maintenance be carried out? These seemingly common-sense civil engineering principles are priceless treasures that even an emperor could not obtain by exhausting the entire galaxy.

Over many years, the Netway Tunneling Machine led the Lord of Humanity through a meticulous review of the ancient saints' achievements, recreating the great undertakings from his memory before him. Meanwhile, the Emperor, like a humble student, diligently searched for all the resources in the galaxy while striving to accurately replicate the footsteps of the ancient saints.

This is why, even though the four Chaos Gods foresaw the Emperor's intentions from the beginning, they never succeeded over the years: although humanity's Web Tunneling project encountered many unavoidable setbacks at the start, after learning from the experience, the project progressed quite smoothly in the first few years of the Terra Crisis. And it was at this time that the Emperor and the Web Tunneling Machines finally realized a problem.

Even though the tunnel boring machine could clearly describe all the raw materials used by the ancient saints to build the tunnel, and the emperors did manage to gather most of the raw materials or effective substitutes after exhausting the resources of the entire empire, there was one raw material that they could not find no matter what: it was not something that originally grew in the galaxy, but a new element that the ancient saints created in their laboratory.

The emperor once attempted to replicate it.

Then, he was surprised to find that, judging from the current progress of human scientific research, by the time they imitated the Old Ones' methods to create this new element, the four Chaos Gods of the Warp should have been old and dead by then.

Just when he was at his wit's end, the memories of his dead body suddenly began to attack the emperor's mind.

He vaguely recalled an experience from his early years.

At that time, the Eldar Empire had not yet fallen, and human civilization was in the so-called Dark Age of Technology. Neither the Great Collapse nor the Iron Man War had yet occurred.

At that time, the emperor had just broken with another group of his immortal compatriots and was thoroughly fed up with the internal affairs and intrigues of human society. He decided to go somewhere else to see something different: so he entered Comoros as a tourist, and after several transfers, he went from being a tourist to a student working and studying.

Specifically: The dazzling world of Comoros once blinded the Emperor, and at the same time, it quickly drained the Emperor's then relatively abundant wallet. In order to earn some extra money and satisfy his curiosity, the Lord of Man entered the ever-bustling arena.

Overall, things went relatively smoothly. After some friendly exchanges with his opponents in the arena, the Emperor came into the sights of both groups.

One group consisted of the Komorro socialites who were always burning with desire: for the Dark Eldar at that time, it was quite an interesting thing to have some novel exchanges with a living [Giant Ape] involving blood and knives.

As for the possibility of being stabbed to death?
Wouldn't that be better?

In any case, after the first victim appeared, more victims followed.

At one point, dying under King Kong's giant blade became a source of pride for the men and women among the Comorian nobility.

The other group consisted of the Blood Performers, who specialized in finding talented individuals in the arena. On their recommendation, the Emperor became a day student at the Blood Performer Academy, gaining entry into the Eldar Empire's highest institution of learning.

At that time, Comoros was not yet completely corrupt, but it was already quite corrupt. Nevertheless, the Emperor still learned a lot there, such as mastering an exquisite psionic sword technique and acquiring new knowledge about physical modification and biological organs: some of the characteristics of the Primarch originated from this period.

For example: Eldar language.

In addition, he made several friends.

One of them, named Adalard, is now the Supreme Prophet of the Ark of Usvi.
Back when he audited classes at the academy, his deskmate who did group work with him was named Lacas: I heard that he still holds some status among the Blood Actors today.

It was through the introduction of these two that the Emperor visited the Eldar museum, which the Eldar used to flaunt their history. As a typical science student, the Lord of Man was not interested in those self-aggrandizing histories and politics, but he was truly attracted by the Eldar's physics and building materials science, and many things left a deep impression on him.

This includes the "Ancient Sacred Element" mentioned by the tunnel boring machine: its description clearly states that it is the foundation of the Comoros city.

It was this statement that ultimately led the iron hooves of the human empire to set foot on the land of the Net-Path Netherworld.

However, even though war has broken out, there is still one thing that the Lord of Mankind cannot be certain of.

The Dark Eldar say that the ancient element is the foundation upon which the Comoros have been able to establish themselves in the Webpath and continue to expand.
The Emperor bent down, and beside the crater completely pierced by the massive instruments of the Mechanicus, the Lord of Mankind tightly grasped a handful of [soil] from Comoros: From an ordinary person's perspective, these faintly visible nebula-like objects could hardly be called soil, but they were indeed the foundation of the city of Comoros.

The question is: is this the foundation we have in front of us truly the foundation we desire?
The emperor held the soil in his hand and slowly tightened his grip.

+Ancient Sacred Elements. +
It exists as a mixture, widely found in the soils of the Comoros region.
Or is it stored somewhere underground in the heart of the city, serving as the core of the entire urban ecosystem?
We don't know.
The Lord of Humanity shook his head helplessly.

We don't even know if the soil we've excavated contains ancient sacred elements.
We can only experiment one by one: extracting as many elements as possible from these soils, and then sending them back to the network for further testing.
Each time, the cost is enormous.
"terribly sorry."

The tunnel boring machine nodded in apology.

"But even for the ancient saints, this newly forged element was an extremely cutting-edge invention. They did not record this important invention into my knowledge base, so I cannot describe its existence to you: I can only determine whether they belong to that new element from back then based on the fitting state of all the experimental samples and the network."

That's good enough.
The Lord of Humanity shook his head.

He handed over his new achievement to the tunnel boring machine, and now all he had to do was wait a while: the same thing he had been doing ever since he set foot on Comoros soil.

At least we have a direction now, instead of running around aimlessly.
+During this time, your help to me has surpassed that of most of my offspring. +
"You seem quite pessimistic about them?"

It's not pessimism.
The emperor paused for a moment.

+I just...know them too well.
From the moment they were blown away, I had no expectations of them beyond what I anticipated.
"I think this statement is biased."

The tunnel boring machine tilted its head slightly.

"Nothing is omniscient or omnipotent."

"Just like me, although I claim to be one of the newest creations of the ancient saints, I do not know all the secrets and knowledge of the ancient saints."

"the same as you."

“Initially, you insisted that ancient elements were widely present in the soil of the Comoros, which led to our initial experimental progress being wrong.”

Yes, I admit that.
The emperor rubbed his temples with a hint of helplessness.

Although I did have some expectations at the beginning.
However, I must now admit that the probability of the first hypothesis is infinitely close to zero.
+The ancient element is not widely distributed in the Comorian soil: it should be located at the very core. +
Do you know what this means?
"We need to keep moving forward."

The tunnel boring machine nodded.

"If the first hypothesis is true, then we only need to extract enough elements from the outer urban areas."

"But now that we have the second hypothesis, we must attack the very heart of Comoros and destroy the city's very foundation."

This will be a war on two levels.
The emperor turned around, his gaze fixed on the raging flames beyond his sight.

But worst of all, it was the warriors fighting a bloody battle in the city of Comoros.
+Or is it in the real universe, where the legions are protecting Holy Terra and the entire Empire for me?+
They all believed in the first hypothesis, and they all thought the war would end soon.
+Because that's exactly what I declared to them. +
But that's not the case...
"indeed."

The tunnel boring machine seemed to understand something.

"They're going to be in big trouble."

I will have one too.
The emperor corrected him.

He looked up and sensed a powerful and familiar aura of psychic energy gradually approaching.

At least, she's my most capable and beloved daughter.
They're probably going to hate me this time.
(End of this chapter)