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

"My prophecy has been changed!" Koz shouted, his expression complex but natural with almost equal amounts of fear and joy, "The scenes I saw in my unconsciousness did not come true! None of them! Do you understand what this means?!"

Corax wanted to say he didn't understand, but he didn't get to say it, because Conrad Curze, caught up in his excitement, had turned into a black storm, and literally flew away under the light of the broken lumen that could only be described as lingering.

Corvos Corax flapped his wings in anger and chased after him.

-

The three people squeezed in the cockpit of prototype No. 1 climbed out stumblingly and finally got space to fully stretch their limbs.

They were in the real number domain, which was very good; the subspace energy reading was very low, which basically confirmed that they had landed in the real universe, which was very good; based on the feelings of the three people present, the temperature was suitable for human survival, which was quite right; the radar in the cockpit showed that this was a large enough room, and there was no life activity around except for them, which was certain.

...Is it really stable?

The three people who got out of the car looked around blankly, not knowing why they were here.

"Let me confirm." Dorn's voice was as calm and authoritative as ever. "Is there such a facility on the Storm's Edge?"

"If we just talk about cold storage, there must be one." Akurdona tried his best to liven up the atmosphere. But even he quickly realized that in this situation, any attempt to "live up the atmosphere" was not worth promoting. Therefore, he decided to swallow the second half of his unspoken sentence back into his stomach forever.

"If I were more pessimistic, I would definitely say 'we are done'." The clone's tone sounded very calm, "But I have not decided to sit and wait for death yet, so, Captain Santo, do you have any insights into the defense measures that are generally set up in such facilities that we can use now?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the flashing red alarm buzzer sounded deafeningly:

In the Ultramar sector of the Ultima Star Region, a forge satellite belonging to the Mechanicum that orbits Macragge Prime has reported a silent and serious invasion to the central control through the auspicious instrument installed in its internal gene seed library.

This gene seed bank contains more than 14,000 gene seeds that were collected from the rebel legion Night Lords.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 316 Some programs stop responding, and some programs start running

When the news came, the Imperial Regent was slacking off - meaning that while he was dealing with one hundred and thirty-four other policy governance, logistics construction or war front tasks, he had also set aside a thread to read the battle report sent back by Calga.

Although the battle report itself is just a battle report and should be taken seriously, in terms of content, this may be one of the few leisure readings that will not raise Guilliman's blood pressure while he is working. At least, the result of the battle report is an undoubted victory. The Empire's control over the Nachmond Corridor has been successfully stabilized, and he does not need to worry too much about how to deal with it later when reading this battle report - Ferrus is in charge there. The tenth primarch may be a bit rough in administrative management under normal circumstances, but when facing a military fortress at a strategic point like this, it is another matter.

Therefore, a small amount of resources can be allocated in this thread to dig out some redundant information that the author unconsciously brought in the boring data and straightforward records. Marius Calgar has indeed tried his best to make his writing rational and objective. There is nothing to be faulted in the grammar, official document format and standard High Gothic vocabulary of the writing. However, Guilliman can still see two things from his emphasis on factual narration and the questions he raised in the review and summary:

Ionide Hill was giving him a lot of headaches, couldn't he really ask Varro Diglis to take care of it?

Before Guilliman's awakening, Calgar had been the head of the Ultramarines Chapter for many years. This respected Chapter Master certainly had seen some disobedient thorns in his service, but Hill's style was somewhat unique among the "disobedient thorns".

In terms of the degree of being unbearable, Cato Sicarius was still better in the past, but Hill always made the ultra-conservative Ultramarines of today furious from another angle (for example, openly expanding the interpretation of the content of the Holy Codex, or simply abandoning the Holy Codex in the middle of an action). In the end, something that could not be solved by killing enemies on the battlefield or in the duel cage still had to be resolved by Calgar.

Calgar even recorded in detail a farcical conflict between Hill and the support company from Archon Orpheus. This conflict did not have any practical impact on the entire campaign, but if you must say it, it does have a certain degree of warning significance in dealing with the relationship between the chapters. This kind of content that seems a bit ambiguous on the issue of "whether it should appear in the narrative" eventually appeared in the battle report. This fact can well show how much its author really dislikes these "troublesome things".

When reading this part of the battle report, Guilliman felt somewhat guilty, because he believed that Hill was willing to continue to use such incidents to provoke the nerves of the extreme conservatives in the Chapter who still held on to the Codex, and that this was partly due to the instructions of the Primarch himself. Guilliman himself also hoped that these stubborn descendants of his would not learn from Dorn and would be able to change their minds flexibly and flexibly. Unfortunately, he had not received Hill's report on this matter so far. Due to the instability of the warp communication near the Nachmond Corridor, he could only confirm from Calgar's battle report that this Ultramarines who somehow managed to sneak out of the team that was automatically repatriated after the fourteen-day probation period of the Bound Legion expired was still alive and kicking.

All in all, this war report did bring him a little good mood after working overtime day and night, but this good mood did not last long. When he had just finished reading the entire war report, the chief astropath serving on the Macragge's Glory, surrounded by two think tanks, ignored the ban and broke into the office area of ​​the Imperial Regent in an almost rude manner.

Before the quarrel and commotion escalated into a murder case, Guilliman had to sigh and temporarily put aside the hundreds of light screens projected in the air on his desk. He stood up from his seat, opened the door surrounded by the Ever-Victorious Army, and calmed down the angry Coken with a look and a short sentence, then asked: "What's going on?"

"My Lord." The Chief Astropath prostrated himself on the ground in reverence. "There is news coming from the Astropathic Relay Station on Macragge. I believe its content is so important that I must report it directly to you."

Guilliman was a little fed up with the attitude of these fanatics who refused to change despite repeated admonitions, but how others treated the "last" loyal heir of the Emperor would not affect their execution of the orders of the Imperial Regent. Therefore, over the past hundred years, Guilliman had forced himself to get used to this as much as possible, and control himself from investing too much energy in such "small matters". Amid the awkward movements of the two think tanks, he calmly ordered the astropath crawling on the ground to raise his head and answer. The latter respectfully straightened his back again, but still knelt in the same place and lowered his head respectfully:

"There's news from the Macragge astropathic relay station," she repeated what she had already said. "The Imperial Saint Fujimaru Ritsuka has successfully arrived in the Baal system and is safe. This astropathic message across the Great Rift contains only this information, so brief. As you once instructed, I brought it to you as soon as I received it."

Guilliman frowned. He had said something similar, but he didn't think the order should be carried out to such an extreme. He was not sure for a moment whether this was another arbitrary act of a fanatic out of excessive faith or if this astropathic message really contained something unexpected. When he turned his inquiring eyes to the think tanks who came with the astropath, one of them whispered:

"My Lord Primarch, please forgive us for being rude. But when Lord Digris sent us this astropathic message, he also mixed in some recent scenes in Macragge. We all agreed that these scenes are more important than the meaning of a simple astropathic message sent across the Great Rift. You must make a personal decision immediately, so we have to resort to this last resort."

Guilliman nodded, realizing that the situation was somewhat serious, but not yet realizing how serious it was. "What did my Librarian say in astropathic language?"

The think tanks paused suspiciously, and then said hesitantly: "This matter is too pale to be described in words. Please allow us to show you the scene transmitted by the director of the Digris think tank directly through psychic power."

Koken obviously had something to say here, but unfortunately the stubborn guards were defeated again after a few words from the Imperial Regent. After more than ten minutes of chaotic inspection, Guilliman's security team finally confirmed that the two think tanks and an astropath in front of them had no signs of control or chaos corruption. This brief telepathic ceremony was arranged in a small, heavily defended room in the ship's think tank sanctuary - by the way, during this waiting time, Guilliman took the time to approve more than 60 applications submitted by various departments of the Empire.

Theoretically, there are still about 570 tasks to be processed today. Guilliman was still thinking about these questions when he sat down on the chair in the small room. If the people in the Logistics Court were smarter and knew how to write several matters that could obviously be combined in the same report, the number would be less. Otherwise, it might even reach 600. Then, the temperature in the air dropped, and the two Librarians and an Astropath had already started to use their psychic powers. Guilliman had to relax his mind and control his mind and not resist these foreign memories and scenes for the time being.

Then, among the fragments of scenery that quickly flashed by, he accurately captured Dorn's extremely old face, and Fulgrim, who looked almost the same as he did in the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago.

Guilliman stood up suddenly from the shock, and reflexively raised his hand to touch the wound on his neck unconsciously. It must be said that although the method of Asclepius' treatment was questionable, the effect was definitely beyond reproach: just as the God of Medicine himself had predicted, about a week after the disastrous "consultation" ended in the standard Terran calendar, the wound that had been unable to heal for a long time no longer hurt. To this day, the wound on Guilliman's neck, which had been blocked by the toxin of Slaanesh and seemed to be always likely to open again and drip blood, has become like the hundreds of other insignificant wounds he has suffered. After healing, it only left a slightly harmless hyperplasia of tissue, and thus an ugly white line slightly raised from the skin.

Asclepius even left him some cosmetic products before leaving. If he wanted, he could have removed the scar as well. However, the imperial regent himself chose not to do so because he had a title with a slightly religious meaning, "Resurrectionist", placed in front of his name.

The scar no longer hurt, but the slightly uneven feel still reminded Guilliman of its existence. The Imperial Regent's brain calculated countless theoretical possibilities at that moment, but quickly realized that due to the lack of tenable facts to prove them, these conjectures could only remain at the level of "theoretical possibilities" after all.

No matter how much he trusted his think tank director and believed that "Digris would definitely be able to handle all problems on Macragge in an orderly manner", the current situation obviously exceeded the scope of "all problems on Macragge" - no matter what, what he should do now was very obvious.

It was hard to say whether it was for public or private reasons. At that moment, Guilliman threw all the 570 or so tasks he needed to deal with that day out of his mind. The Imperial Regent immediately ordered him to return to the court. The information contained in the astropathic message sent by Digris was too important and unbelievable. He had to go back immediately to personally deal with this very sensitive issue in multiple dimensions.

-

In the Solemnnas Museum, Trazyn carefully pieces together and glues together a Necrontyr-era pottery jar.

Indeed, after discovering that important exhibits in the museum disappeared without reason and that he could not find clear clues here, Trazyn had decided not to think too much about things that he could not figure out, and to launch an attack on Orikan "immediately". But for the Necrons, who had endless time and were extremely idle, the vague time standard of "immediately" was always very flexible in their concept.

It was like after Orricken had shouted to Trazyn, "I'm going to make you suffer 'soon'," Trazyn had waited for more than a decade before the time sorcerer carefully planned a destructive meteor shower targeting the entire planet of Solemnas; it was also like this pottery jar was broken in the chaos when Orricken sneaked into the museum last time and Trazyn was determined at the time that the treasure of the dynasty civilization should be repaired, and he would "immediately" count the losses after he successfully drove Orricken away - but it was delayed until now, more than 20 years later.

It was only when Trazyn was excitedly planning a "big gift" for Orrikan that he accidentally passed by a stasis field filled with many miscellaneous cultural relic fragments that he suddenly remembered it.

In theory, he could have just woken up a few low-level technicians for these so-called "odd jobs", or simply thrown them to the ghost beetles. But as the director of a museum, Trazyn had a special obsession with cultural relics: he believed that the restoration of cultural relics should be an art, and the traces of time washed away on these instruments should also be preserved. The ghost beetles and low-level technicians who did not understand the beauty of art only knew how to restore these broken works of art to a brand new appearance, as if they had never experienced so much time - this was not acceptable. Trazyn could not tolerate this kind of "restoration" that was almost blasphemous. Therefore, on this issue alone, he would decide on a whim every time that he had to do it himself.

The broken pottery jar was skillfully pieced together by the extremely patient Trazyn. If you don't look at the seams that are particularly prominent due to the abrupt color of the adhesive, it seems to be exactly the same as it was 66 million years ago. Trazyn deliberately kept the eye-catching seams in this process. With the technology of the Necrons, he could easily mix an adhesive with the same color as the object itself. He had already thought about it. He would make a virtual projection next to the display stand of this pottery jar to show what the pottery jar looked like when it was intact, and then explain the reasons and consequences of the pottery jar being broken and then repaired on the nearby explanatory display board, and severely accuse Orrikan of disdaining and contempt for the history and culture of the Necron.

Just as he was feeling proud of his restored work, the annoying alarm in the tomb rang again - not the kind of alarm that indicated an accident in the museum, but the kind of alarm that triggered a condition that Trazyn had specially set in the past, similar to the kind of alarm that sounded like a memo reminder.

However, just as the Necrons’ understanding of “immediately” is different from that of ordinary intelligent creatures due to their nearly infinite life span, this nearly infinite life span also brought nearly infinite memos to Trazyn. He couldn’t remember what the reminder was for, and was afraid that he would miss something really important, so he had to put down the tools in his hands in frustration, and commanded the underworld beetles to carefully put the unfinished fragments back into the stasis field. He reluctantly stood up to confirm what had dragged him out of his beloved leisure work.

The result was some information automatically sent by the mind-controlling beetle. The Necromancer flipped through the lines of operation records with disdain. If he still had a body and could make expressions, the disdain on Trazyn's face would have overflowed. He reserved an informant in the anti-foreign order in the human imperial court who might be used as a vest in the future - the one named Michaelia Wilczak - who died for some reason. After sending back the last seemingly incomprehensible operation record, the mind-controlling beetle executed the self-destruction procedure.

Trazyn was bored and flipping through these things. He couldn't even muster the energy to translate the incomprehensible records so that he could understand them. This little fact was really not worth interrupting his interesting work - until he suddenly realized that the part he was reading was not the key point that triggered the prompt sound:

The key point is the last line of small print: Another mind-controlling beetle appeared again in the material universe, and dutifully reported its coordinates to its master. From the serial number, Trazyn could clearly recognize this mind-controlling beetle: it was the one he specially made and placed on Fulgrim's clone.

This was worth it. Trazyn was immediately full of energy again: Orrickan was also a Necromancer, he could wait, but Trazyn's exhibits were not. Even if it was a Primarch, the shelf life of an exhibit was just a blink of an eye in the eyes of the Necromancers. If you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again!

The director of the Solomons Museum immediately and enthusiastically began to prepare a team for the task of recovering his exhibits - this time, the "immediately" in his context was obviously no different from the "immediately" in the ordinary human understanding.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 317 Let's go back in time a little

Baal Prime, astropathic relay station.

The astropathic message that crossed the Great Rift and finally arrived at the Macragge Star Language Relay Station has not yet been sent, but the preparations for the ceremony are ready. For Kaelia, this is undoubtedly a staged success worth celebrating: this is the first practical task she has clearly received from Fujimaru Ritsuka after she boarded the Storm's Edge. Even if the task itself is not too difficult, Kaelia only needs to convey the rules and procedures of the relevant ceremony, and then wait as a mascot pendant for the astropaths in the relay station to complete it by themselves - but at least, she finally did something useful, didn't she?

Of course, as an underage new employee who had been forced to work for Chaldea for less than a year, not everyone agreed with Fujimaru Ritsuka's decision to "let Kaelia try to handle this simple task by herself", no matter how simple the task was in essence. At least in the eyes of Inquisitor Hastings, Kaelia's current state was not a "qualified Inquisitor Acolyte", but a preschooler (in terms of the knowledge he needed to master as an Acolyte). He had obviously followed by her with the mentality of supervising Kaelia's every move during this mission, but unfortunately, not long after, Fujimaru Ritsuka found him some other more important jobs on the Shadow Hammer than babysitting.

Not to mention Hastings, who still has to run around in the affairs of the Inquisition today, some unexpected and urgent accidents have obviously happened to Joscelius, the senior think tank representative of the Blood Angels. He originally came to observe and learn this ceremony, which may have great strategic significance, on behalf of the Chapter, and to understand all the details and principles as much as possible in preparation for the Chapter's think tank department to replicate it. In theory, he should have been there throughout the whole process, but in fact, he only showed up on the first day of contact, applied to copy the scroll that Caelia recorded the steps of the ceremony, and then disappeared - until all preparations were completed and the ceremony was about to begin, he reappeared in the crowd.

Kaelia didn't know why these things happened, but she hadn't realized yet that in other situations, "the person who was carrying out the mission together suddenly disappeared" would also be a very important issue, so these things didn't affect her happiness in completing the mission. Fujimaru Ritsuka, who sat in the main seat with the highest standard of welcoming ceremony on this day, was essentially the initiator of the above problems, so she would not emphasize "these things are worth noting" to spoil the mood.

The main goal today was to send a simple astropathic message across the Great Rift, and the huge choir of more than 500 astropaths present was prepared for this purpose. Such a large number of people occupied an entire large hall under the spire, and the frustrating thing was that the psychic compound phenomenon that could really transmit a astropathic message to the other side of the Great Rift was not stacked up by the number of people - the number of people was only to spread the damage during the ritual and prevent the participants from being burned to ashes by the excessive amount of Emperor's psychic energy.

Although judging from the expressions on the faces of these temporary recruits, they didn't seem to care much about this. However, the Black Ship Alliance could not always come to replenish astropaths for an imperial node that was important politically, economically and militarily, and the busy relay station on Baal had to rely on these diligent gears to continue to operate.

"Come to me, Kaelia." Standing at the leading position of the ceremony, Fujimaru Ritsuka extended his hand to his "apprentice". "Inquisitor Hastings said that your meditation course has been completed. So I think it's time for you to experience the feeling of actively guiding a large spell."

Under his helmet, Joscelius showed a toothache-like expression, but he said nothing. Most of the astropaths who heard this were very respectful, but they couldn't help but have some complaints in their hearts: asking an immature psychic who has just learned how to meditate to try to channel a large spell right away is no different from asking him to commit suicide.

But the affairs between the Imperial Saints were not something that ordinary astropaths could interfere with. The big light bulb with the Emperor's psychic energy inside said to the small light bulb, "Today I want to bring you to shine for the Empire. What does it have to do with them, who have applied some light-absorbing paint and relied on the reflection of the Emperor's psychic energy to barely light up a little firefly in the dark?"

Kaelia then took the lead in the ceremony without anyone stopping her, and at Fujimaru Ritsuka's request, she also held the Sky Eagle Scepter. She was indeed a little nervous, but more out of excitement. Unlike other onlookers, Kaelia actually knew what risks she might face:

For ordinary psykers, the primary risk of trying to call upon large amounts of psychic energy in large-scale rituals comes from the chaos in the Warp. They must first be able to skillfully protect or hide their souls in the Warp that become bright and dazzling due to the stimulation of psychic energy. Only then can they basically ensure that while casting spells, they can prevent Warp creatures from snatching their souls and not blow themselves up into a Warp rift connecting the two sides of the Curtain. For rare psykers like Kaylia who have been brought under the complete control of the Emperor, the only "Warp creature" she needs to worry about in this process is the Emperor - not that this is absolutely safe, the more than 500 astropaths standing below can testify to this issue, but in comparison, compared with other psykers, the risk Kaylia needs to take is very small.

But "very small" does not mean "nothing". Before starting the ceremony, Fujimaru Ritsuka still reminded her repeatedly, not feeling very reassured, that she must maintain a good meditative state, must protect her self-awareness, and must not fall into the complex and terrifying information flow of the subspace. The ceremony itself was guided by Fujimaru Ritsuka and the transcendental astropaths at the relay station. If Kaylia felt that she could not hold on, she could choose to evacuate midway. There was no need for her to risk her life for such a "feeling of the atmosphere".

This statement aroused Caelia's rebellious psychology, and the young person, who was still ignorant of the world, was determined to stand the whole scene. Although she had successfully channeled the Emperor's psychic spells unconsciously during her time in Parmenio, Caelia had not yet realized why she had no memory or impression of these things, whether it was purifying water sources, expelling Nurgle demons or war engines. In the end, it was others who told her that she had done such a thing.

When the ceremony began, and the "song" of the Astropathic Choir and the harmonious resonance of psychic energy vibrated in the air, Caelia took the initiative to unlock the magic seal that separated the psychic resonance between herself and the Emperor according to the method taught to her by Asclepius. Just like when she had just awakened her abilities on Parmenio, another wonderful world slowly unfolded in her perception like a whisper:

A sense beyond the dimensions of form, sound, color, taste, and touch revealed a more magnificent perspective to her. She "saw" how the ripples of energy operated in the air with the singing of the choir, and she "heard" the thoughts of everyone around her except Fujimaru Ritsuka, and "smelled" their excited emotions. The knowledge that did not belong to her guided her behavior like an instinct. When Kaylia had just begun to explore but had not yet realized it, the answer had already been written in her mind and told her what to do at this time.

This kind of detached perspective and sense of control that is almost omnipotent often make people fall into a false desire for power. Many psychics with excellent qualifications often step by step onto a path of no return because of this. But Kaylia is humble enough. Even before she received orthodox education, she can clearly feel that these powers do not belong to her, but another great being with superb skills in the distant void is trying to use her hand to act. In the past, she was not obsessed with this, and today she is only humble. In her heart, she silently thanked the Emperor who worked hard for mankind and gave her these abilities and knowledge that did not belong to her. Then, according to Fujimaru Ritsuka's instructions, she focused her attention on the Sky Eagle Scepter.

Due to the nature of astropathic language, the steps for coding, encryption and protection in this ceremony were very brief. Everyone knew that the focus of this ceremony was not on these steps. Five minutes after the ceremony began, Kaylia began to notice that Fujimaru Ritsuka was increasing the psychic output in the leading position, preparing to lead all the astropaths present to gradually break away from their physical consciousness, collectively pass through the Great Rift, and complete a psychic focus on the Macragge astropathic relay station. This was certainly a stage worth noting, so Kaylia also let her consciousness inhabit it, ready to experience the perspective of the astropaths embracing the void.

For Kaelia, being close to the spiritual energy guided by Fujimaru Ritsuka on the Skyhawk Scepter was like being close to a warm stove in winter, or soaking in the comfortable hot water in a bathtub. But she soon realized that it was not an easy and pleasant experience for everyone. Even though there were only a few transcendent star talkers who led the choir who were also clinging to this gathering spiritual energy besides herself, Kaelia could still easily read the painful and tenacious background from their souls.

Before she realized what this meant, her perspective had been rapidly raised as the ceremony progressed. For a moment, she seemed to be looking down at herself and Fujimaru Ritsuka holding the Skyhawk Scepter together in the hall of the relay station, but in the blink of an eye, Baal's three-star system almost became a small dot in her perspective. Everything happened very quickly, but the miraculous thing was that Kaelia did not lose any information in this "very fast" process that almost exceeded the limit of human reaction: from the patches and cracks on the roof of the Star Language Relay Station caused by repeated repairs, to the many ships that were either docked or traveling in the airport, and even the twinkling of the stars under the fleet and the devout prayers of a loyal priest in front of the shrine, all of these things were noticed by Kaelia in detail.

If things ended there, this might be classified as a "tiring but interesting enough" experience - but it didn't end there. Kaylia's perspective continued to rise as the ritual progressed. Even if she didn't rely solely on her so-called "qualifications" to use psychic powers, this kind of meticulous perspective, once expanded to a size larger than a galaxy, would still be a huge burden on the will of a single human being.

What's more, in this galaxy, the things that one inevitably sees from this perspective are often not very pleasing to the eye.

Kellya "saw" the Imperial merchant ships being looted by Chaos warbands, "saw" the Imperial world struggling to survive under the ravages of the green-skinned aliens, "saw" the Astra Militarum troops using themselves as shields to stop the advance of the Hive Fleet and launching desperate attacks, "saw" the weak civilians who were trapped under the rubble of the war ruins with nowhere to go and could only wait to die. She "saw" countless people, countless disasters, countless deaths in the same moment, and these people who died in the disasters all called out the same name in their hearts:

"Emperor".

Those metaphysical voices seemed to have gathered into a tsunami that towered into the sky, crashing down on Kaylia. They also seemed to have turned into thousands of tiny needles that kept piercing into the depths of her soul, wanting to tear her apart. At this moment, Kaylia remembered the instructions given by Fujimaru Ritsuka before the ceremony began, and she once again gathered and strengthened her cognition of "herself" during meditation to prevent her soul from being torn apart by this uninterrupted wave. She instinctively made her consciousness cling tightly to Fujimaru Ritsuka's side. The joy caused by the extraordinary experience of psychic energy had disappeared, and she only hoped that the ceremony would end quickly.

Under the latter's protection, the cries to the Emperor did seem to have lessened, but this did not seem to be a perfect solution to the current situation. After the painful cries mixed with hatred faded, the vast void itself revealed its true appearance in Kaylia's consciousness. It has always been there, never absent, but it is just too empty and too vast. Anyone who realizes that the vastness of the void exceeds human reason will naturally feel unprecedented insignificance and loneliness - although Kaylia was relatively calm because she knew that at least this time she was not facing it alone, she was indeed waiting for the end of the ceremony in agony.

In a few seconds, her vision crossed the huge rift that hid the tragic scene under the colorful lights - she couldn't see this part clearly, and didn't know whether it was good or bad - and arrived at the other half of the Ultramarine that was separated by the warp crack that spanned the galaxy. She didn't know how it was done, but Macragge, which was floating in the air like a blue-green gem, was like an iron bead attracted by a magnet, and in the blink of an eye, it came to her eyes.

And as she tried to see this sacred world she had never been to but wanted to go to, a feeling she couldn't quite understand came over her. This planet was blessed. She realized it in an instant. But it was also cursed - it would be struck again in the near future, but Macragge would survive, she always would -

A series of violent hallucinations attacked Kaylia's mind at this moment. She could feel that she saw something very detailed, but she failed to remember anything. Those fleeting omens slipped through her fingers like flowing water. When her consciousness returned again, she found herself kneeling on the ground of the Baal Star Language Relay Station, leaning over and barely supporting herself with her hands, retching violently.

"I don't mean to be bad, but you are a little too strong this time." The ceremony seemed to have ended. Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice was a little tired, but still very steady, as if this was not a challenge worth mentioning to her. "I told you before the start, if you feel you can't hold on, just quit immediately. The view of overlooking the Milky Way is a bit beyond your current level."

After the remaining physiological reaction in Kaelia faded away, she barely grasped the hand that Fujimaru Ritsuka extended to her and climbed up from the ground again. The ceremony was over, and the weak but excited hymns echoed in everyone's ears. There were no deaths among the astropaths gathered in the hall, but most of them were in a state of physical depression, not much better than Kaelia. She was not embarrassed in this environment, but she still noticed the clock on the side in a trance: five hours and thirty-seven minutes had passed since the ceremony began.

In Kaelia's opinion, the ritual lasted only a dozen minutes. But she didn't need to think too much about psychic matters. It was common for the ritual itself to disrupt the practitioner's sense of time, so Kaelia didn't dwell on it too much. She just straightened her breathing again, and then asked her theoretical mentor, the hostess of Chaldea, "What did I see during the ritual?"

"I don't know how your senses process these issues. It seems that everyone is different in this regard." Fujimaru Ritsuka has no habit of hiding knowledge. "I can't tell you exactly what you saw during the ceremony. I can only tell you that from the beginning of the step of focusing psychic energy, we are observing the entire empire from the perspective of the Emperor."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 318: Alliances are not exclusive to humans

Amid the high-temperature steam gushing out from the operation of the machinery, the noise made by the friction between the levers, gears and pistons, and the noise of the squirming of tendons, flesh and blood, Vashtor, the "Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces, God of the Machines," let out a thunderous sigh of indignation:

"Bilak, are you serious about what you said?"

No wonder Vashtor asked this question. Bilak, the demon prince who was promoted and abandoned by the four gods, obviously didn't know how to write the four words "propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame" - or in other words, people or demon princes who can make a name for themselves after joining the chaos are all like this. Whether in the waves of the High Heaven or in the real world, it has not been long since the last conflict between Bilak and Vashtor, but the former has once again come forward with a "playful smile" and proposed to form an alliance with Vashtor.

The demon prince known as the Lord of Darkness had just come to mess with the Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces when he was building the Discord Engine—although judging from the final result, he did not succeed. Even though the Discord Engine had been successfully built on Dragon Forest and could indeed function as Vashtor had expected, when the God in the Machine realized the existence of the other party, in the Stone Fortress, the scar that Bilak had left on Vashtor began to hurt again.

Do Warp creatures like Vashtor also experience phantom pain? Probably. Infiltrated by the abundant Warp energy, the damage he suffered in that battle was quickly healed, but the emotions that surged with the damage could not be calmed down quickly. The anger of having his plans disrupted and the pain of being hurt echoed from the past, repeatedly stinging Vashtor's body made of twisted metal and flesh from his memories.

"Of course I am serious." Be'lakor's shameless voice came from the shadows. "Not to mention that I am now under the command of Chaos Warmaster Abaddon. In theory, we should be allies. Vashtor, as the most powerful warlord in the vast Supreme Heaven, you should also understand the principle of 'this time is different, that time is different'."

Vashtor showed a disgusted expression - if anyone could read this from his metal face. He did not like Bilak, and did not trust the "allies" that Bilak mentioned. But he did not sneer or refute the part of Bilak's "should have been allies", nor did he order the surrounding demon engines or flesh cannons to attack the shadow where the Lord of Darkness lived.

Because He also knows that “different times have different circumstances”, and this is indeed the truth.

"So, you've also heard the rumor." Vashtor said gloomily, "The 'Fifth God' will ascend the throne in Barr."

Time has no meaning in the warp, and a message can spread everywhere before it is even spoken for the first time - especially with the help of some very powerful and interested people.

Of course, Vashtor had heard the news, but he didn't want to pay attention to this groundless rumor. He was the one who had carefully planned and laid out a long-term plan to become the fifth god, so he had a clear understanding of the difficulty of this matter: it was not something that could be done on a whim to bypass the cursed old man who had clearly reached the chair but was reluctant to sit down, and gain a new seat in the realm of the Supreme Heaven.

But Bilak obviously didn't think so:

"That is no longer just a rumor." The Dark Lord said, "The Blood God's domain is boiling with rage, and the Crystal Labyrinth is also in turmoil. Even though the Grandfather God, who has been devastated, and the Lord of Debauchery, who is busy fighting with the Eldar, will not personally participate, they have decided to send their trusted followers to join in the event. Even the Black Legion will go to Baal Prime together after resting."

Bilak thought that what he said was enough to prove something. Vashtor did understand the other party's implication, but he didn't buy it: "It sounds like you already have a lot of troops. Then what does this have to do with me? What benefits can I get?"

"This is not a question of 'what benefits', Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces, didn't you notice?" Bilak's voice became anxious, "I know we have had many disagreements in the past because of the same thing, and I know this is not nice to say - but you and I have been aiming for that position for such a long time, but when have we ever enjoyed such an honor in the chaotic and vast ocean?"

"Weren't you also crowned by the four gods together?" Vashtor took advantage of the opportunity to ridicule the other party's sore spot, and then made his attitude clear. "Even if the dark powers really want to crown the fifth god in Baal, it is obviously not something that will happen in the near future. In any case, the triple-cursed corpse king on the throne of Terra is an insurmountable barrier. Don't tell me that your efforts to compete with the four gods for tens of millions of years have been in vain, so that you can't see how much effort it takes to bypass it."

The Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces was not as confident as he appeared, nor did he really not care about this matter as he said. In fact, he cared about it to death. He chose to say this just because he wanted to try to trick Bilak into giving him some information that he didn't know.

The previous joint election of the four gods did not disappoint Vashtor. Even though Bilak had been rejected by the four gods a long time ago, the dark laughter he made at this time still hinted that he had obtained more information than Vashtor through some channel.

This is actually not worth being happy about, because it means that the Four Gods can still influence Bilak through various means - he is still a puppet under the Four Gods, an unwelcome chess piece, and his status is essentially unchanged. But the Lord of Darkness, who is feeling smug, can't think of this now: "What if the Cursed One also agrees with the selection of this 'Fifth God'?"

The iron wings behind Vashtor suddenly exploded: "This is impossible!"

"This will become the only possibility." Be'lakor vowed, "Why do you think the gods decided to join in such a grand event? Of course, it is to work together to pave this only path in the chaotic waves! Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces, ask yourself: Can you allow this impending event to really happen?"

——It was obviously not a wise thing to go against the Four Gods in the warp, but for Vashtor, knowing that there was a certain existence that had quietly surpassed Him and ascended to the throne of God before Him was even more unbearable. Compared to this story that sounded more and more real in Bilak's narration, Bilak himself seemed more tolerable. Although Vashtor didn't think much of the Dark Lord, a demon prince who was spoiled and rebellious after gaining the favor of the gods, in the current situation, this rebelliousness made the "Four Gods Not Chosen"'s request for an alliance with Him seem more sincere.

If Vashtor couldn't stand this "fifth god" who randomly popped up from the bushes on the roadside, then Bilak certainly couldn't allow this to come true. Although they were both eyeing the same chair and had a life-and-death conflict not long ago, the situation was different. The Lord of Ten Thousand Furnaces realized that there was no more trustworthy ally than this capricious demon prince in the matter of "disrupting the fifth god's coronation" - the same was true for Bilak.

After a period of silence, Vashtor's voice rang out again amid the roar of machinery:

"Tell me your plan, but I reserve the right to withdraw at any time."