The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Sergeant Luc, you've been with the White Templars for ten years, haven't you?"

In a dimly lit secret chamber of the Avesta, Sotharion examined a stack of reports in his hand. In the shadows before him stood a figure, clad in power armor and a cowl emblazoned with a burning black sun—the Legion's symbol, now used only by a secret society known as the 'Undying'.

Initially, this society was merely a tool for Sotharion to propagate Legion ideology within the Chapter before the Legion's secrets were revealed. However, with the addition of the Soul Drinkers, the society gradually transformed into a secret organization within the Legion. Many company commanders had once been members, but after Sotharion publicly disclosed the Legion's secrets, the society officially disbanded.

Yet, it didn't truly vanish, merely shrinking to a single member before expanding again to nineteen.

The first member of the reorganized Undying was Luc, followed by former Soul Drinkers under his leadership, and later, selected members from the Astral Knights and White Templars. The total number reached thirty-four, a list known only to Sotharion and Luc.

However, Sotharion now suspected that the serpent lurking within the Legion might also be aware.

Fortunately, Luc's loyalty was assured. Occam vouched for his trustworthiness, citing his background as making him an unlikely sleeper agent, and his long-standing marginalized position as raising the risk of 'developing' him. Any rash attempt to contact him would likely expose the contactor, and indirect approaches were nearly impossible.

Safe and capable—that was Occam's assessment of Luc.

The assessment seemed somewhat exaggerated, as he hadn't appeared to have done anything particularly significant. Yet, Sotharion owed his detailed understanding of the Chapter's various companies' daily affairs to them. Moreover, the Undying served as Sotharion's invisible hand over the White Templars. During the previous Maelstrom campaign, Arash's several flawed decisions were corrected by Sotharion based on Luc's feedback, potentially saving many soldiers' lives.

But now, the true goal of the Undying was to unravel the White Templars' obscured past—

Why was this so?

Because Sotharion had attempted to thoroughly investigate the White Templars' history. However, due to the poor quality of their grey marrow, no warrior in the White Templars, including Dreadnoughts, was older than three hundred years. And because the White Templars, like the Astral Knights, lacked a Librarius or a Scriptorum to help revise and organize historical records, their archives were extremely disorganized. Sotharion was certain that the White Templars' history between M32 and M36 had significant gaps, especially concerning the White Templars' first Chapter Master and the part about Malcador, as well as highly incomplete or vague descriptions of subsequent Chapter Masters.

Additionally, regarding the Webway entrance, Doran had secretly sent people to investigate and discovered that it wasn't a true Webway portal, as it didn't connect to the Eldar's familiar ancient Webway!

One thing was clear: the Webway as understood by the Eldar was entirely made of wraithbone. Why would they use blackstone?

Although blackstone could have its polarity reversed to become a form of psychic superconductor, the Eldar had more effective wraithbone and wouldn't need to do so. Then why did the Emperor construct this Webway entrance incorporating blackstone?

Since it wasn't a familiar wraithbone Webway, Eldar couldn't probe what was on the other side. However, Doran speculated that it might be a directional tunnel, using a Webway-like structure to guide to a fixed location, but how to activate it was the question.

This obviously conflicted with the White Templars' ancient past and the history described by Randle. But Sotharion believed Randle was telling the truth, which meant the White Templars' knowledge of the Webway entrance they guarded had been misguided from the start.

Then who was the original misleader?

The White Templars were sent to Sanctuary by Malcador, but Malcador didn't directly lead them. Therefore, the real misleader could only be the first Chapter Master, the vanished Sede.

Sotharion recalled another thing—

The name Sede 'coincidentally' matched the nickname 'Sede' that Erda gave to Dorn.

So, the history of the White Templars seemed more complex. Therefore, he hoped to obtain useful information from Luc. However, since Luc had always been with the White Templars, he couldn't summon him directly and could only seize such opportunities to meet privately.

"Chapter Master, it's been eleven years."

"Eleven years, hmm, a long time, Luc. You must desire an identity in the sunlight, fighting alongside your brothers on the battlefield. I feel sorry that you've been doing this work all along."

Hearing Sotharion's words, Luc stepped forward, revealing his calm face, his gray eyes slightly lowered.

"Chapter Master, please don't say that. We are immensely grateful that you are willing to give us a chance to atone for our past sins. Being accepted by the Legion is already the greatest encouragement. And I know the importance of my task. The Legion's current situation is complex, not only in terms of personnel but also in the thoughts and views of the warriors. This is an extremely important responsibility for the Legion, and we are proud of it."

Sotharion nodded, looking at the data organized by Luc as he spoke:

"Actually, I know your talents are being underutilized in this matter. You are already one of Arash's command advisors. Although you are not a company commander, you are fully qualified to be one. I've spoken with Mark, and he doesn't want to be the Chapter Master of the rebuilt Soul Drinkers. He doesn't want to leave his position as Captain of the Guard, and I respect that. So, the most suitable person to take up this banner now is you."

Upon hearing this, Luc asked softly:

"Chapter Master, are you going to rebuild the Soul Drinkers? Doesn't that contradict your direction of streamlining and reorganizing the Legion's structure? Wouldn't that lead to a more fragmented structure?"

Sotharion, with his head lowered, waved his hand.

"Actually, you misunderstood. What I want to rebuild isn't the Soul Drinkers, but Saborn. The most important part of this reorganization of the Legion's structure is the rebuilding of the four forces: Simorgh, Manticore, Kalakdan, and Saborn. The Astral Knights are Simorgh, the White Templars are Manticore, and Kalakdan and Saborn are the forces to be established in the future. But we can't have the Legion's thousands, or even nearly ten thousand, marching out in the open like that. If we encounter a large-scale battle, we will inevitably have to explain ourselves to various Imperial forces."

Hearing this, Luc understood and nodded.

"The Soul Drinkers are just Saborn's cloak."

"That's right. And the Chapter itself is a very reasonable subordinate organization of the Legion. Legion-Chapter-Company-Tactical Squad. Simple, clear, and flexible. It can handle large-scale wars and adapt to small-scale conflicts. The only thing to do is to break down the barriers between Chapters and Companies. For example, to deal with special situations, concentrate all the veteran Terminators from all the Chapters into a temporary grand company, or to strengthen the offensive power in a certain direction, assign two extra companies to a Chapter organization. But these are digressions. What do you think?"