Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 416 The Real Winner

In the fourth Sun Month of 852, on the bottom floor of the Forge, Arsène Dunn, dressed in pure white armor, entered the ancestral shrine.

Nimrod was aware of Arsena's arrival the moment he stepped into the ancestral shrine.

He turned his head and saw that Arsena's armor was covered in runes.

The black runes on the chest and abdomen are the same as those on the Sage Grimnir.

The arms are covered in Eldar fire dragon runes, while the runes on the legs are from other alien races such as the Flao people.

When Nimrod saw Arsena approach him, he asked, "Are you satisfied with the armor forged for you by the Lord of the Forge?"

"My lord, I am very satisfied."

"This armor combines Ran Dan's personal energy shield, the space dwarves' shield-weaving technology, and the gold alloy, providing protection similar to power armor without hindering movement."

"This is because I don't have special needs like Malena."

He hovered his left hand above the black energy stone at his waist. "Through experiments, I found that activating the subspace circuit can increase the power of my psionic spells by twelve percent."

"After activating the Spirit Clan Fire Dragon Runes on both arms, the spells related to fire magic will be increased by another 15%."

Ninglu nodded. The "White Tower" path doesn't have any special requirements before advancing to Sequence 6 "Erudite".

Only after being promoted to "polymath" will special needs arise based on the ability to learn, analyze, and master knowledge.

Artena's current special needs all stem from psionic energy, especially the fire dragon rune.

Ning Lu could see that the fire dragons engraved on Arsena's arms were incredibly lifelike, with powerful energy hidden within their crimson color, clearly indicating that the psionic materials and techniques used were top-notch.

Although there are many psionic artisans in the Legion, only two have this level of skill.

San Diego comes from the Bogkamp family, a lineage of psionic artisans, but he has just assumed the position of Lord of the Fifth Chapter and is busy repairing the Caligum Gate space station, so he obviously won't be here.

That leaves only Miguel, a tech-based psionicist from the Kasayi family, who forges psionic longswords.

"Engraved for you by Miguel Quastá?"

"My lord, you are right, it is indeed him."

"The research on the Yemenga Starry Sky Stele has made some new progress, and Miguel has been ordered to come and report."

“I will see him in person later.” Nimrod looked at the Primarch attendant holding the data tablet. “But the Empire has reached an agreement with the Skot Alliance.”

"After lengthy negotiations, the Imperial representatives and the Skot Alliance reached an agreement," Arsena said with a bright smile.

"The Skot Alliance is willing to join the Empire and pay the Empire for the weapons and equipment it manufactures. It is worth noting that the representative of the Ministry of the Interior has specified that the minimum production capacity is only 1.5 percent."

"Although the Skot Alliance's production capacity of 1.5 percent is comparable to most of the Empire's industrial world, the minimum share in the subsequent agreement we reached was 4 percent."

Ning Lu nodded slightly. The strength of the Skote Alliance had indeed secured them very favorable conditions.

As he pondered, the Primarch's attendant continued to report: "The Skot Alliance has assembled an Iron Oath Legion, with twenty thousand Hearthborn."

"The Skots, who have just experienced a major battle, are recovering very quickly."

“Aside from the warships that need time to be built, their numbers should have recovered to at least half.” Ninglu was not surprised by this at all.

"The dead space dwarves will return to Wotan, and their memories will become data, forging the future Hearthborn."

"Their bodies will become materials, thrown into the furnace, and forged into new furnace descendants by the cloning brocade technique."

“All the space dwarves know they were born from the Forge, they fully accept the process, and consider returning to Wotan an honor,” Nimrod said with a sigh. “For any Forgeborn, the greatest punishment is being banished and losing the right to return to Wotan.”

“I see. No wonder the Skot Alliance was so confident and took a tough stance against the Imperial representatives,” Arsena exclaimed.

"In the negotiations, Mars did not obtain a standard construction template, but it did gain the right to visit and learn from it."

"The Skot Alliance has granted them access to some of the factories; how much they gain depends on the abilities of the tech priests."

The conditions agreed upon by the Empire and Mars were roughly the same as he remembered.

In a normal war, the Empire gains nominal obedience and a small amount of production capacity, while Mars gains some technology.

"Iron Warrior" acquired the technology to manufacture stable plasma guns, and "Thousand Sons" obtained several runes that gathered subspace energy from me, as well as knowledge of the history of space dwarves.

The real winner is me. The Space Dwarves possess conventional technology, most of which I obtained from Wotan. The Skot Alliance, with over twenty star systems, boasts four percent of the production capacity, comparable to most forging worlds. I also have trading priority and preferential treatment, a single star, and at least fifty thousand Iron Oath soldiers.
As Ninglu pondered, the Primal Attendant reminded him:
"My lord, the Legion is about to leave. You previously designated the Ramirez-class Starfortress as the future trading location with the Skot Alliance. Should we arrange for the Shadow of Order to be stationed there?"

After a moment's thought, Ninglu instructed, "Order the First Battle Group to select an adjutant to stay behind."

A moment later, Miguel entered the ancestral shrine and stood before the Primarch.

“Father, we have made initial progress in our research on the second stone chamber. We have analyzed part of its contents, including the method for creating an anti-psychic field.”

"We then discovered a large matrix in the area below the stone chamber, which, when activated, forms a force field covering a wide area."

"We cannot be certain whether activation will lead to uncontrollable consequences, so we have not acted rashly."

"Do not activate the control runes." Ning Lu knew that activating the anti-spiritual energy field within the Yemenga Starry Sky Stone Tablet would not trigger the same consequences as the Exorcism Death Domain.

After the "Great Rift" unfolded, the interstellar travel of the Cybelax subspace storm was not affected.

The anti-psychic field is designed for replicating ships. Once activated, it could trigger a chain reaction, prematurely activating the space necromancy artifact.

While Ninglu was pondering, Miguel continued his report.

"To create an anti-psychic field, a substance called Blackstone is needed."

"Inside the Yemenga Starry Sky Monolith, there is a portion of the stored Black Stone. The first finished product we manufactured has already been transported to the Shadow of Reign."

"Because the technology is not yet mature, this device is the size of a tank, and activation requires at least one Terra. Its range of influence is only one kilometer centered on it."

Although the anti-psychic field generated by the Yemenga Starstone cannot eliminate warp storms, the energy field created by its technology can isolate warp space to a certain extent, and is very effective against psychics and demons.

“I understand,” the “Corrupted Baron” stared at Miguel. “You have mastered the power I bestowed upon you?”

“Father, I think so. After I absorbed a large number of runes from the Necromancers of the cosmos into my mind, I always felt a melting sensation within my body.”

“I think I am now a true ‘generalist’.”

Miguel, who was promoted to Sequence 8 "Archaeologist", left three days later and returned to the Jemenga Starry Sky Monolith to continue his archaeological work on the ancient artifacts of the space undead from tens of millions of years ago.

The fleet of "Shadow of Order" set sail, departing from the Skot Alliance.

Among the black warships, fourteen heavy, iron-gray warships stood out conspicuously.

The smallest of these warships were the same length as Imperial cruisers, but with a much thicker hull.

Twenty thousand elite furnace descendants, fifty thousand iron descendants, and one hundred and thirty thousand miners and craftsmen left the center of the galaxy for the first time.

(End of this chapter)