How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 409: The Importance of Special Attack

For the vast majority of people in Hera Fortress, their understanding of the "main gun battle between the Grand Temple of Glory and Storm's Edge" is all about "light".

As a creature based on matter, human beings' sense organs are generally limited to matter itself. For the vast majority of people who do not have the mysterious gift of psychic power, they can only perceive the blazing light that collided and bit together in an instant, devouring and pushing each other. In that short period of time, everything above the Macragge sky was unimportant. People could not recognize the filthy scars cracked in the distant orbit, and the scene of the blazing wreckage falling down became insignificant. In all the windows of the Hera Fortress that could directly see the sky, people could only see the blue, white and gold that seemed to fill the entire world. These grand and terrifying brilliances almost swallowed up everything people knew.

They may be lucky, or unlucky. Just like many things that happen in this universe, a seemingly obvious scene often hides more unknown undercurrents. Just for this matter, anyone with a little psychic talent will be forced to feel this horror from the subspace energy rushing from behind the curtain and converging at one point before the "light spears" of both sides are truly activated - they will realize that the part of these two huge energies that are transformed into the form of "light" during the confrontation and can be recognized by ordinary human senses is just the tip of the iceberg.

"As if assisted by God" is no longer an exaggerated adjective in the current scene, and even the "as if" in the vocabulary should be removed. Under the high-level magic, behind the Glorious Grand Temple that broke through a corner of reality, there is obviously an almost infinite supply of magic power. Storm Edge has the Emperor's backing, and although this is also true in theory, the commander in the control room is very clear about a cruel fact: there is a gap between infinity and infinity.

In terms of output power, the single output of the Holy Sword Armament cannot be compared with the Lantern of Dendera. The main reason why the bow main gun of the Storm Edge was able to serve as a decisive weapon in previous battles was due to its special attack against "threats to humans". This allowed it to easily melt the creations of demons and penetrate the veil of the warp, but when facing the Grand Temple of Glory, it was difficult to cause enough damage to the barrier around it.

But Fujimaru Ritsuka was not so irrational as to put most of Chaldea's resources on a losing battle. Therefore, at this moment, for those legal psychics with more profound abilities and richer wisdom, they realized more:
Macragge himself sighed at that moment.

This feels very strange. For these psykers, perhaps when working on Imperial ships, being watched in the void by some planets animated by the filth of the warp is not a very strange thing, and it is not worth making a fuss. But if the world itself is watching them when they are in this world, the feeling is completely different: the long distance in the endless void will give people an illusion that they and the planets are just a tiny drop in the ocean of the vast universe, and there is no difference. But when the distance disappears, humans will eventually realize once again how small they are.

The planet is not hostile to the humans who live on it, but as long as it unconsciously reveals its existence, its huge size is enough to suffocate humans. Macragge's planetary suppression force is not active, and even Digris, the director of the Ultramarines think tank, does not know why it chooses to wake up suddenly at this moment. However, when it realizes that it is facing a threat, it will naturally take measures against the "threat" - at this time, it can be said that the Storm Edge, which had planned it in advance, took advantage of this in time.

The sigh from the depths of the earth and the brilliant golden light that erupted from the bow echoed with each other, and at the same time, a gentle touch that was imperceptible to the physical senses fell on all the soldiers fighting to defend Macragge. A gentle force surged into their limbs, calming their panicked minds, relieving their physical pain, and injecting new vitality into their exhausted spirits.

The political commissars who were able to react promptly called it a gift from the throne, and the mortal soldiers who were unaware of the situation therefore shouted the name of the God-Emperor to stabilize their morale; the Astartes who did not possess psychic powers were skeptical about such bizarre claims, but the current situation was not a bad thing after all; the Storm's Edge, with the gaze of the planet, barely pushed forward with the energy emitted by the Dendera Lantern; and in orbit, the Scarlet King was watching all these futile resistances with mockery in his one eye.

Fortunately or unfortunately, due to Magnus's own incurable arrogance, the Demon Primarch did not react more than a sneer.
-
Tolamino doesn't like his current job, but he has no other choice. Although for the Iron Warriors, they always don't have many choices, and always have to choose the lesser of two evils between one annoying decision and another annoying decision.

However, for Tolamino, this time there was no problem with the responsibilities he needed to undertake and the tasks he needed to accomplish. The problem was the person who issued the order to him - how did he fall to the point where he had to listen to the orders of that lowly bastard Hong Suo?

This gap in status made Tolamino feel dissatisfied and anxious. Even after ten thousand years, he was able to go on an expedition with the Father of Genes again, but his dissatisfaction and anxiety could not be calmed for a moment - but it was not because Perturabo did not think of him or summon him. Although Tolamino felt resentful about this, deep down in his heart, he knew very well that even if the Lord of Iron summoned him to his side, he would not be happy about it.

He could not allow himself to face the Primarch in his current state.

There is no doubt that he is now in a state of decline, and has fallen much more than before after the battle of Kalan Gor. The finely crafted power armor he once owned, which was handcrafted in Olympia, has been damaged to the point where it is worthless to repair, forcing him to wear a set of rags that were pieced together from various places. Although he tried his best to take care of it and wanted to make these things look neat and majestic, the objective gap was inevitable. The subordinates who were willing to follow him had either been slaughtered by the demons or recruited by Hongsuo. He was left alone and lost all his power and status. Among the Iron Warriors, no one was willing to approach him except for the servitors who had been deprived of their ability to think and would therefore obey everyone unconditionally. In fact, no one cared about him, and no one would whisper about his experience behind his back. This was the most intolerable thing.

Tolamino wanted to attribute all these unfortunate experiences to his current appearance, even though he knew that this was only the most superficial reason. In the last battle he remembered, he lost not only his finely crafted power armor, but also his long and elegant white hair and his solemn and noble face. Now, he rarely takes off his helmet, because even if he accidentally glimpses his ugly face on any metal surface, he can't accept it.

It's not that Tolamino couldn't accept the disfigurement caused by the injuries in the war. This is common for any Space Marine. Although the scars left by failure also symbolize shame, they can at least be washed away by another victory, but this?
Now, his face under the helmet was covered with rough stitches, and on both sides of these reptilian, twisted lines, skin of different colors and textures taken from "consumables" was forced to piece together on his body, extending from his face all the way down to his entire body. These Black Mechanicus branches called Savage Morticians were quite careless in maintaining the appearance of their commissioned works, and Tolamino's current distorted face no longer showed any of the noble appearance from Olympia.

——As a lord commander, warsmith, and veteran of the Great Crusade and the Eternal War, Tolamino had died after the Battle of Kalan Gor. Even if he still had a breath left at that time, he would have been digested by the demon womb soon after. The current "Tolamino" is just a flawed replica with the memories of his predecessors "cloned" by that damn device, and is essentially no different from the other skinless ones washed into the sewers of Medlengard. He does have, or thinks he has, the original Tolamino's memories that lasted for ten thousand years, and inherited the honors that the person had won in countless battles, but to others, "Tolamino" is dead. He is just a consumable that Hongso ordered to be produced out of the simple need for "a deputy with basic command ability."

He was no longer even qualified to call himself the son of Perturabo, because the blood of the Primarch should not give birth to a monster like him in such an ugly way. But if he was such a monster that should not exist, why did he exist here at this time?
The conflict between the ancient and noble memory and the body born in filth made Tolamino feel very uncomfortable. He had to complain endlessly about everything around him, and use it to justify his existence and maintain his self-esteem that was about to collapse. He would not admit it himself, but in fact, when he left the main force of the Iron Warriors to complete the task at hand, he was much calmer than before. "The attack of the Lantern of Dendera did not succeed in causing damage." He reported to the throne on the high platform in the hall based on the monitoring results of the three-pointed Hermes. "The Hera Fortress did lower the void shield, but the lackeys of the empire installed the general cannon on a small mobile ship. They used this to offset the power of our main guns, and somehow tore through the outer defenses and made an emergency landing inside the temple."

There was no response from the throne.

This made Tolamino anxious and unhappy. He didn't want to obey Honsou's orders and come to this useless temple to be a communications officer for the coalition forces. But above Honsou there was Perturabo, and this temple was brought by Magnus. Tolamino might be able to go all out to refute that bastard, but he didn't have the guts to anger both primarchs at the same time.

Therefore, he had to make further suggestions to the throne: "Lord Ozymandias, if you don't mind, I can order some of my warriors to go and solve this problem."

In theory, Tolamino could indeed command some people. For this nominal "co-defense", Hongsuo specially allocated 50 Iron Warriors to temporarily station in the Great Temple and built some additional fortifications for the Great Temple. In fact, Tolamino was not sure whether he could command these "brothers", but he had to at least make himself look confident.

"No need." Such a voice came from the throne, echoing in the empty hall. "There is no need to deal with this issue. You can just stay put and let them in."

The figure of Ozymandias, or rather, the figure that was once Ozymandias, emerged from the throne on the high platform. This warp creature that "must rely on the temple to maintain its existence" can only barely see the outline of a human figure, and in fact completely lacks any necessary details that can make it recognized as a "human". It originally existed there and never moved, but for Tolamino now, or anyone who does not have psychic talents, it is difficult to distinguish its outline from the background inside the temple that is obviously infected by the power of the Lord of Change without it moving. It may be a king in ancient times, at least it claims so itself, and several Thousand Sons wizards stationed in the temple before Tolamino whispered so. But the Thousand Sons wizard had left the temple under the order of Magnus, and the filthy and damaged shadow on the throne only had the thread of the architect of destiny that tied the future. Tolamino could not verify this, and could only glimpse the unreliable scales and claws from the remaining behavior and language of the other party.

"The fragments left behind by Chaldea." The real fragments left behind by Chaldea faced the projection on the three-pointed Hermes and said, "It turned out that it fell there."

Ozymandias' tone was obviously nostalgic, but Tolamino was not interested in the story behind it. He just wanted to complete his mission - on the one hand, to serve his father, and on the other hand, he didn't want to be accused of anything. So, based on this mentality, he made a reminder:

"You are the master here, you have the final say." Tolamino borrowed the slick wisdom of his predecessor and carefully controlled his tone so as not to let any mockery or dissatisfaction come out of this sentence. "But as the liaison officer assigned by Lord Perturabo, I must remind you that according to your agreement with the Iron Warriors on this war-"

"——I know exactly what I promised, Man of No Light." The overlapping voices on the throne came down majestically, "You don't need to remind me. I will naturally abide by the contents of the contract written in black and white. But besides that, I have my own plans. A few invaders will not affect the progress of the battle. Leave them to the Beast of Hot Sand to deal with. As for the ship, Storm Edge, no one should touch it. When we return victorious, I will bring it back intact and return it to my master, together with this planet that can barely be called rich. It can be used as a sanatorium."

The word "Master" amused Tolamino, along with the Warp creature's ambitions for Macragge, but he did not show it. It was easier to hide one's emotions when wearing a helmet. The Iron Warrior knew that no matter how the thing on the throne thought things would turn out, even if it succeeded in conquering the Hera Fortress as the Iron Lord demanded, its ultimate fate would be to disintegrate on the battlefield for unknown reasons. This was not the intention of his gene-father, but the Scarlet King - Magnus never said that he wanted to do this, and his wizards kept silent, but they revealed this idea silently in every arrangement they made for the glorious complex temple.

Tolamino nodded his head and stopped trying to persuade him. To him, it didn't matter what the temple became. The Iron Warriors had parked enough transport planes in the temple to evacuate directly when things got bad - Hong Suo had prepared that. The bastard certainly didn't care whether Tolamino or any of the unlucky guys he sent would eventually die in the temple, but if it rose to a group of fifty more or less useful warriors, that was a small force Hong Suo couldn't just give up. As a commander, Hong Suo had to consider a way out for them - besides, Tolamino had prepared some escape plans for himself.

Even so, Tolamino still did not think that it was the right decision to allow such uncertainty to continue to exist in the temple. The Iron Warrior, who lacked a correct understanding of Ozymandias and lacked respect for him, only obeyed the other party's intentions on the surface. In fact, he turned off the loudspeaker system of the power armor and began to issue orders to his nominal subordinates through internal communications.

Yes, he was no longer as respected as before, and he was no longer able to make his subordinates obey orders as before. But even this Tolamino had inherited the original's rich experience, sufficient strategic wisdom, and excellent eloquence. He believed that as long as he wanted so, he would always be able to achieve his goal.

As all the words died down, the warp creature on the throne fell silent again.

(End of this chapter)