Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Guilliman's expression darkened further.

"But Father is still suffering on the Golden Throne! Only Lawson can truly free Father from that cold torment."

Guilliman stepped forward and patted the Lion King's broad shoulder armor forcefully.

"Ryan, you stay."

"The Dark Side of the Empire needs a Primarch."

“The people around Lawson are loyal enough, but not many would advise him to consider the Imperial Holy Face. At least you can remind him that we are still waiting for him to return to Terra.”

The Lion King looked at the hand resting on his shoulder armor.

"But I'm not good at this."

Guilliman also realized that there seemed to be something wrong with this arrangement; the Primarch who was probably the least persuasive person in the entire Empire was Ryan Eljonsson.

Guilliman quickly revised his requirements.

"Just remind him that his father is still on the throne when he is ready to completely abandon Terra."

"That's possible."

The Lion King agreed very readily.

"how about you?"

"Back to Terra."

Guilliman said, "After my father was severely damaged on the Vengeance, the golden armor that accompanied him on the Great Crusade was dismantled. The remaining fragments were made into the Terminator Cross as a symbol of imperial sacrifice and the highest honor of Astartes."

The Lion King glanced instinctively at his left shoulder.

Indeed, some ancient Terminator Crosses preserved by the Dark Angels contain genuine fragments of the Imperial Armor.

Guilliman continued, "After the Golden Throne was established, Mars secretly launched a 'Second Emperor Project.' They spent ten thousand years creating a completely new combat hull for Him."

"The Cult of Mechanics originally hoped that one day when Father left the Golden Throne, he could once again don his armor and walk across the galaxy."

"But ten thousand years have passed, and that suit of armor remains sealed in the deepest part of Mars."

Guilliman looked at the Lion King.

"Now that we have the opportunity to help Father stand up again, we should take that armor out of the temple."

"The Mechanicus hates Lawson's 'heretical technology' to the core. Would they really hand over the armor?" Lion King expressed his doubt.

Guilliman smiled slightly, regaining his composure as the Lord of Alteramar.

"I won't mention Lawson's name yet. If I requisition it in the name of the Imperial Regent, they won't refuse. Once the goods are in my hands, I can decide who gets them in the end."

The Lion King nodded knowingly: "You really do have a way."

"Go ahead, I'll take care of things here."

Guilliman looked at the high-ranking combat troops who had been standing in the distance.

"Brother, could you please open a passage for me and send me back to Terra?"

The high-level combat sequence silently received the instructions conveyed by the swarm's consciousness.

A second later, he raised his arm.

With a spatial distortion, a static warp field emitting a blue halo unfolded in front of Guilliman.

Guilliman stepped inside, his tall figure instantly disappearing from the spot, leaving only the morning breeze blowing on the armored platform.

…………

When Lawson emerged from the Crystal Palace, the sun on Obolus III had already risen fully.

The morning light pierced through the transparent dome of the top-floor hive and fell on the newly grown garden outside the palace.

The vines climbed up the white stone pillar, glistening dewdrops condensing on the leaves, and a faint, fresh fragrance of life lingered in the air.

Rasmus, unusually, did not immediately check the battle report.

His pace was slower than usual, his dark gold robe swaying gently in the wind, and his eyes held a satisfaction that had not appeared even after the great battle.

Last night's conversation with Isha was perfect.

Lawson's physique has long transcended the realm of ordinary humans; such a physique is a source of strength on the battlefield.

In other situations, however, it inevitably becomes a problem.

Whether it was Ilancia or the battle nun who had once been close to him, Lawson had to restrain himself when faced with power that far exceeded the limits of mortals.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, but there was always a layer of restraint between us.

Isa, however, was completely different.

Last night, for the first time, Lawson didn't have to worry about his power harming his opponent.

With her seemingly delicate and supple divine body, Isa unreservedly absorbed Lawson's power, and even when they were on the verge of their limits, she used her life force to pull them back to their most perfect state.

The exhilarating feeling of being released from both body and soul at the same time was truly unprecedented.

However, these were not what truly concerned Lawson.

As he descended the palace steps, the swarm intelligence alerts were already ringing deep within his consciousness.

[Traces of residual life-like divinity were detected.]

No subspace contamination was detected.

[The divine structure is stable; new variables are being recorded.]

The swarm network amplified the changes within his body, making them visible in his consciousness.

A faint wisp of emerald-gold light was swirling around the periphery of his soul data stream.

It did not create new divine offices, nor did it grant Lawson any divine powers such as healing injuries out of thin air or causing plants to grow.

But its essence is extremely high.

Within the swarm mindset, countless consciousness nodes from the darker territories of the empire are resonating with it.

The new humans, distributed across more than seventy worlds, regard Lawson as their creator.

In the past, most of these powers of faith would dissipate.

Lawson's swarm network can receive information, but it lacks a medium to transform faith into a stable spiritual structure.

The remaining divinity of Isa filled this void perfectly.

The beliefs of this new human race resonate positively with their sense of divinity.

[Faith absorption efficiency increased by 300%.]

The physicalization of the soul data stream has been improved.

This wisp of divinity truly strengthens the foundation of the soul.

Lawson glanced back at the tightly closed palace gates.

Several new vines peeked out from both sides of the door crack, blooming with pale golden flowers.

"It seems that, for the sake of the future of the empire's dark side..."

"In the future, we will definitely need to have more in-depth exchanges with the Goddess of Life."

Lawson withdrew his gaze and raised his hand to activate the stasis channel.

One step later, the morning sunlight and the fresh scent of life vanished.

Instead, there was the low rumble of the nutrient solution circulation equipment and an endless array of clones.

This is the Seventh Cloning Base of the Empire's Dark Side.

Fabius Bayer's cloning protocol, accumulated over millennia, has solved the problem of personality, neural pathways, and memory writing.

The Noon Queen's gene bank has transformed biological replication into a standardized industrial process.

The Empire's dark side pieced the two together and used a swarm network to take over consciousness, bringing its cloning technology to the pinnacle of the galaxy.

The incubation chamber before them contained the bodies of a full 100,000 Dark Spirit Race members.

The true difference between these bodies lies not in flesh and blood, but in the soul.

These clones also possess soul fluctuations that can be detected by psionic devices, and even retain the hunger and decay characteristics unique to the Dark Eldar.

However, their core consciousness has long been taken over by swarm intelligence.

They can enjoy torment and betrayal just like true dark Eldar, and can also fake the pain of being constantly devoured by Slaanesh when necessary.

Beneath all the disguises, there exists only one absolutely unified network of consciousness.

Two Dark Eldar were already waiting there.

On the left is High-ranking Governor Salkahn, and on the right is Blood Gate Master Urkasi.

Last night, the real Salkahn and Urkasi were executed.

Before they were killed, the swarm mind brutally drained all their memories, accents, habitual actions, and even Comoros codes from their brains, packaged them completely, and downloaded them into the clones.

The swarm intelligence has already cross-referenced the memories of the two individuals.

Lies were eliminated, and omissions were filled in.

Lawson walked in.

Salkahn and Urkasi both knelt on one knee.

The next moment, 100,000 incubation chambers were activated simultaneously.

White mist spread outwards along the hatch, and one after another, the bodies of the Dark Eldar opened their eyes, stepped out of the incubation chambers, and stood on the metal platforms in front of them.

One hundred thousand people knelt down on one knee in the direction of Lawson, striking their chests heavily with their right hands.

"BOSS!"

The purest Comorian language converged into a thunderous roar in the underground space.

Lawson nodded in satisfaction.

Only the Dark Eldar truly understand the Dark Eldar; a direct assault on Komorro has never been the best option.

Even if the Battle Moon is deployed, it would be difficult to destroy all the nodes in a short period of time.