Man in Warhammer, starting Primarch.

Chapter 269: 76, Phoenix of the Empire
Dukel walked into the room where Magnus was.

Anna, the female reporter from the Imperial Newspaper, followed closely behind him. When she actually stepped into the room, she subconsciously covered her mouth with obvious fear on her face. In her short life experience, she had never seen anything more terrifying than this room. If she had not been following the Warmaster, she would have almost fled immediately.

She raised her head and looked around, her eyes able to see the details in the room clearly.

The entire room was closed, with only the door they came in through. On both sides of the wall were densely lined with runes that she couldn't understand, and the residual psychic flames on them had not yet been extinguished.

Above these runes is a whole row of transparent glass cabinets, with human heads soaked in pale yellow nutrient solution.

The neck of each head was wrapped in metal sheets, with small, neat bundles of cables and pipes extending from the bottom.

As they entered, these heads suddenly came to life, their eyes emitting light of light blue, and the crystals inserted into the back of their heads also emitted a faint fluorescence.

Looking at those pairs of malicious eyes, Anna couldn't help but feel a little scared.

She had never seen such a creation before, and didn't know its specific function, but under the gaze of dozens of eyes, she instinctively felt that she had no secrets at all.

The rest of the room is almost filled with bookshelves.

Countless thick books were piled together haphazardly, like huge and towering mountains of books.

There is no need to flip through these books. Each book is like a demon, with its opening and closing pages revealing its terrifying fangs. Each book is reciting the knowledge recorded in it loudly in a sharp voice.

Millions of books mixed together, forming an extremely noisy noise. Anna tried to understand the specific meaning of the noise, but in less than a second, she felt a splitting headache.

It was like fragmented knowledge covering hundreds of fields was poured into her brain in an extremely chaotic manner, leaving her no time to digest it.

It was as if a storm of knowledge swept through my mind, even the wrinkles of my brain were smoothed out, leaving only a blank consciousness.

Deep in the room, a cylindrical glass cabinet was placed on top of an anti-gravity aircraft, and the surface of the glass cabinet was glowing with force field light.

The head of the Cyclops that frightened her was placed in a glass cabinet.

The giant was listening attentively to the ensemble of millions of books, but he was not as painful as Anna. Instead, he enjoyed it.

It was not until Duker walked forward that he reluctantly came out of his state of enjoyment and looked at the other person with his only remaining eye.

"Fulgrim? Isn't he imprisoned on Macragge?"

Dukel frowned slightly, not understanding the meaning of Magnus' words for a moment.

"Did he escape from prison?"

"No, it's another one." Magnus continued, "This one is different from the purple-skinned man. Look, this is our proud little phoenix."

As Magnus spoke, the spices on the table spontaneously combusted without fire, and the swirling ashes and smoke reflected light and shadow that transcended time and space.

Looking at Fulgrim in the picture.

Duker was silent.

Although he didn't know exactly what was going on, he could guess that this was most likely a clone of Fulgrim, and most likely the one cloned by the old Chinese doctor to make a deal with the Infinite One Trazyn.

And according to the old Chinese medicine doctor Fabius, this cloned Fulgrim also cannot escape the fate of betraying the empire.

Character determines destiny. The cloned Fulgrim inherited all the memories and personality of the original body, and naturally could not escape its tragic fate.

He is also a person who pursues perfection excessively.

As long as this does not change, he will not be able to change anything and the tragedy will only happen again.

In the past, Fabius had cloned a total of three Primarchs, Ferrus the Iron Hand, Horus the Wolf God, and Fulgrim the Emperor's Son.

In addition, Fabius even tried to clone the Emperor, but his experiment was destroyed by a group of Blood Angels before it could succeed.

Each clone is absolutely loyal to the Empire and full of compassion for humanity.

To be honest, Dukel didn't know what to think of these clones.

If two people have the same appearance, the same personality, the same memories, and even the same ideals.

Should we regard him as an independent individual, the continuation of another life, or a solitary figure that walked out from ten thousand years ago?
"How about it, Duke, do you want to meet him?" Magnus laughed at the side, "Our clone brother is eager to meet you."

"You seem to be gloating?" Duke glanced at him.

"Of course." Magnus smiled even more strangely. "Ten thousand years ago, Fulgrim, the proud phoenix, the annoying conspicuous bag, when he knew that he had killed his most affectionate brother with his own hands, this is very interesting, isn't it?"

"I guess he will kneel before you and beg for forgiveness."

Magnus looked like he was just having fun.

Fulgrim may not be the most powerful of the Primarchs, but he is definitely the one with the best record.

On Istvaan V, he killed Iron Lord Finus, with whom he had the best relationship.

After ascending to demon status, he pierced Guilliman with another sword. The Imperial Regent was on the verge of death on the spot, and only retained the last bit of life by relying on the stasis field. He was only recently rescued by the Eldar Death Army and the Mechanical Archmagus Cawl and others.

In theory, Fulgrim had already killed Guilliman by then.

Killed both Primarchs single-handedly.

"Do you consider them as one person?" Duke asked Magnus.

"Why not? They have the same thoughts. From my observation, his thoughts are no different from Fulgrim's ten thousand years ago."

Duker said nothing.

After thinking for a moment, he looked at Shivara beside him.

As one of the people who was most familiar with Dukel, along with Efilar, Shivara immediately understood what the Primarch meant and turned to leave the room.

Shivara led a small team to leave the Inner Fire in a flying vehicle, and soon they returned again.

When Shivara returned, she had one more person in her team.

Although the man's entire body was covered by a hooded robe, his specific appearance could not be seen.

But along the way, the opponent's giant-like size still made the mortals on the deck of the Soul Fire look at him sideways.

Soon, Dukel and Magnus saw him.

When he took off the hood of his robe and revealed his face, a burst of light seemed to illuminate the entire room in an instant, dazzling everyone.

He was handsome and full of vigor, just as the two primarchs remembered.

"You go out first." Dukel turned his head and looked at the Sisters of Mind and the Slayers of Destruction.

"But, my lord, this man is not trustworthy. He is very dangerous." Shivara said with some concern.

The same was true for the spiritual sisters who served as the Primarch's guards, who were unwilling to leave.

Dukel waved his hands, "He can't hurt me."

His words carried an irrefutable meaning.

The nuns and the Slayers knew that the Warmaster had made up his mind, so they had to temporarily leave the room under his orders.

They stayed at the door, keeping a high level of alert, and would rush in immediately if there was any abnormality inside.

With the sound of the door locking, the metal door closed completely.

In the huge room, there were only three Primarchs left.

The atmosphere was somewhat heavy. The identities of the three Primarchs were subtle, and their relationship was not friendly ten thousand years ago. Now it was even more difficult to distinguish between friend and foe.

Ten thousand years ago, Fulgrim was dissatisfied with Dukel's attitude and called him a hypocritical guy behind his back.

Dukel also felt from the bottom of his heart that Fulgrim was vain and narrow-minded.

"I think you should know who you are?" After a brief eye contact, Dukel calmly looked at the so-called original brother in front of him.

A clone, a clone with all of Fulgrim's memories.

"I was created by a son who longed for my guidance, but was abandoned by him." There was still a hint of hatred in Fulgrim's words.

Even though he had killed one of Fabius' clones not long ago, he was still filled with anger.

Dukel walked towards him. He was about five meters tall, which was rare among the Primarchs. His bright eyes shone in the slightly dim room.

"Fulgrim, I do not know what to make of you, but this name has caused great trauma to the Empire, and the scars of betrayal have not yet healed."

"We once shared the same ideals and were willing to sacrifice our lives for them, but you and others strangled them in the bud before hope could come. Today, how can I trust you and allow you to be redeemed, my brother."

Hearing Dukel's words, a trace of anxiety flashed across Fulgrim's face.

He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but hesitated because he lacked the courage.

But he finally spoke up, "Duke, I am just a copy of that man. The mistakes he made don't mean I will repeat them."

Dukel shook his head. "Since you inherited his name, you have been closely connected to him and cannot be easily shaken off."

"You inherited his memories and his appearance. You inherited everything from him, including his fate and sins. It's only fair."

Dukel's words made Fulgrim's heart sink a little bit.

He already knew what his other self had done.

He killed Fainus himself, and thrust the poisoned blade through Guilliman's throat himself.

Countless citizens of the empire died because of him, and the empire fell into an age of ignorance and darkness.

"I'm sorry. Maybe the Empire will never accept me again, but please give me redemption, brother."

At this moment, Fulgrim seemed to have lost all his courage and lowered his proud head.

This is an incredible thing for a Primarch.

They would only admit their mistakes when facing the emperor. In the past, there was no such thing as admitting mistakes between brothers. They would rather fight each other than admit their mistakes.

During the Great Crusade, although the Primarchs seemed to be working together, they were actually full of internal conflicts and disliked each other.

But at this moment, Fulgrim was admitting his mistakes to Dukel and the Empire.

When Fulgrim was created, he was still the Phoenician who pursued perfection.

It is the arrogant man who is easily seduced by false promises, who feels that he can avoid the errors of memory and move towards true perfection.

But when he escaped from the Infinite's cage and killed Fabius' clone with his own hands.

Fulgrim saw the despair and pain in the other's eyes.

The other person's eyes made him confused.

Even if his former close relative, Finus, were resurrected a thousand times, he would still insult him and look for an opportunity to kill him.

It seemed that in everyone's eyes, he was no different from the person he used to be.

"Fulgrim, perhaps the evil deeds you committed in the past were all involuntary, but how many criminals since ancient times were born evil? I can choose to forgive and trust you, but what about others, those people and soldiers who were killed by this name?"

Fulgrim looked up at Dukel and sighed.

He knew that what the other party said was true. As long as he carried this name, he would never be able to escape those sins.

But if he chooses to give up, he will give up Fulgrim's appearance, identity, power, and even the memories in his mind.
Then who should he be?

Just when Fulgrim was in a dilemma.

"Clang——" The sound of a sharp sword being drawn from its sheath was heard.

Fulgrim was stunned at first, then he shrank his neck almost instinctively.

At this moment, a sword with a blade as red as fire was handed to him.

"Now, I give you two choices," Duker continued.
"If you want redemption, take up this sword and fight for me, for the Empire, and for yourself. I don't know what the Endless One has in mind when he released you, but no matter what his true intention is, this sword is enough to cut it off."

"And you will become a sinner, walking forever in the darkness of the empire."

"I have received news that Fabius has recently appeared in the Gallagher system. His experiment is nearing completion and twenty cloned Primarchs are about to be born. I want you to temporarily put aside your hatred and keep a close eye on him until the twenty cloned Primarchs are successfully born. You must immediately kill him completely."

"As for the second choice - I will give you a rich planet. You will give up everything that belongs to Fulgrim, including your name, identity, power, etc., and live there for the rest of your life. Your life will be very superior and worry-free. This is all I can do for you. If you choose this option, you will never be able to leave that world again in your life. Remember this. I don't want the sword in my hand to be stained with the blood of my brothers."

Fulgrim fell into deep thought.

He pondered for a long time, and the whole room was shrouded in an eerie silence.

After a long moment, Fulgrim took the sword that was offered to him.

The red sword blade swept across.

But this sword was not aimed at Dukel, but he cut a horrific scar on his own face with his own hands.

The blade fell and blood flowed.

He was lightning fast and without the slightest hesitation. Dukel could have stopped him, but he sensed Fulgrim's determination.

His face was bloody and no longer as perfect as before.

"I choose to atone for his sins, but I am not him."

Fulgrim made his choice, but refused to accept his tragic fate.

Duker said nothing, but just smiled.

He knew that Fulgrim was no longer obsessed with perfection, and this was also the other party's vow not to repeat the same mistakes.

But from the time when Fulgrim destroyed his own face with his own hands, he perhaps began to truly move towards perfection.

Perfection is never superficial.

(End of this chapter)