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

The unanimous singing sent chills down Coz's spine.

Meow (six o'clock).

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 129 Ten Thousand Years

Should I continue?

It should continue.

Objectively speaking, these rebellious Astartes who were his descendants had committed countless crimes in the past. In this case, as a judge, he should not be lenient due to any subjective factors. Since he believed that this trial was necessary in his original conception, it should be continued now.

The monster that devoured more than ten thousand offspring whimpered softly and tried painfully to correct his mistakes.

Thirty-three thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.

This should have been a mechanical task that didn't require much effort for him. He just had to leave everything to his instincts. He had never thought that he would want to resist his instincts so much at a certain moment. He was trying hard, but with little success.

He made his body in the real universe stay on the flagship of probably the entire fleet, sat on the overly spacious throne in the bridge, and let his recovered descendants arrange the rest for him.

Currently, there were five hundred and fifty-two Night Lords busy integrating the entire fleet for the Primarch.

Thanks to the Empire's extravagant style of making all ceremonial utensils huge and gorgeous, if one ignores the actual function of the throne and does not try to gain control of the entire ship with this action, and simply "sits down", this seat, which looks luxurious but is far from comfortable, can still accommodate a Primarch.

Like any other ship of the Night Lords, the bridge of this ship was "decorated" with corpses, improperly treated leather, and various skeletons. The air was filled with the stench of corruption and the dull smell of running machinery, and the lighting only provided the bare minimum. The overly similar scene in front of him should have made Curze feel at home, but he didn't.

This scene was the same as the Night Lords ten thousand years ago, and was nothing more than a poor imitation of the intimidation and warning that Curze expected. The descendants ten thousand years ago often only saw him torturing criminals, hanging corpses, and peeling off their skins to decorate armor, but did not think about the deeper meaning. In fact, many times the people they "chosen" were not because they had really committed any crimes, but because they were unlucky enough not to be liked by the Night Lords.

What these descendants did ten thousand years later was pretty much the same - the difference was that, over the course of ten thousand years, they had apparently given up even the slightest disguise in any sense, and were not at all picky about who they chose as decorations.

This was obviously the most insignificant of the sins they committed. This scene reminded him again of the necessity and legitimacy of Curze's trial. However, after realizing that these heirs who had committed numerous crimes still had an unreasonable "love" for him even though they were fully aware that they would be subjected to an inhumane trial, he could not help but begin to question it all.

For a moment, Coze wondered if Fujimaru Ritsuka had ever faced such a painful decision, and then he realized that she must have. The girl once proudly mentioned to him that she was a "judge who was very prone to partiality and perverting the law." He sneered at this in his heart, but now he began to understand why she used that tone when mentioning this by no means glorious thing.

She must have discovered some discretionary methods that could properly balance judgment and forgiveness, and it seemed that she could get a glimpse of it from her "punishment" of him on the Claw of Destruction - but the situation at that time was too special, and he was very sure that the method that could both convince the public and make him learn a lesson and start to reflect and correct himself could not be replicated in the current scenario.

Besides, the word "forgiveness" does not exist in his dictionary. Nostramo's cruel social environment has subtly taught him to root out the weeds, so he will often go all the way to the end in similar matters.

These thoughts passed through his mind without leaving any trace. After he sat down and looked at the scene in the bridge of the ship, only a moment passed in the warp and reality. At this time, he noticed a Night Lord who was originally in the bridge. He obviously had not passed his judgment, but he was able to bear all the pain imposed on him and crawled towards him little by little.

The mortal crew members who were trembling around him and working to keep the ship running quietly bypassed him or made way for him to move forward. In the past, Curze might have found this scene interesting, but now, he only felt annoyed.

He accurately caught the one that connected this person from among the thousands of connections brought by the base contract and asked it, "What do you want to do?"

At this moment, he confirmed that he had never seen this offspring before. The connection of the contract made it easy for him to know everything. Under the absolute suppression of the master-servant relationship, this person's life was like an open book to Coze, which could be read at will.

He therefore knew that this person was called "Number Ten", a name that was not like a Space Marine, but more like a slave. He was indeed born from the union of two servants serving the Legion: his parents, "Number Seven" and "Number Eight", also did not have a proper name, but he was currently respected to a limited extent as a prophet in the warband because of his outstanding talent, and even played a pivotal role as the leader of the Night Lords in the 13th Dark Crusade.

Curze didn't care about these trivial matters, but this prophetic gift was familiar to him. The Primarch demanded to know more, and the gene seed that originated from him was unreserved. He knew more details that perhaps even Number 10 himself had forgotten or never heard of: his life before the operation, his wandering childhood, the appearance of his parents, and his appearance when he was born at the beginning of his life - he didn't know why the gene seed implanted later would record these things - and then he found the records before that.

"Talos," he pointed out, and then smiled, "I never thought that one day I would be able to speak to the dead through a living person."

"Father." Number 10's throat was filled with his own blood, and the miserable groan was unclear. No one could tell whether it was he who was speaking, or a wandering soul that was revived at this moment and lived in his body - after all, did this wandering soul really exist? Can a dead person really float to the surface under the right circumstances of the subspace with only the connection of gene seeds, and try to complete a conversation that spanned ten thousand years? No one knew.

Even Conrad Curze, who held the contract, and Number 10 himself, whose mind was confused by pain, could not answer this question.

"Did I do well enough?" Number 10's vague pronunciation sounded like a dream, and his performance was as if he was in a dream.

This is a broad question, whether it is No. 10 or Soul Hunter asking this question, it is reasonable. But his Primarch just sneered and answered:

"Am I qualified to judge? When you did all this, I was still in the arms of death. It is always the living who make the final judgment on the dead, so how can the dead judge the merits and demerits of the living?"

Compared to that broad question, this is also an answer that applies to both Ten and Talos. But Coze's statement is not to blur the focus of the matter - perhaps he would try to avoid it in the past, but now he realizes that he must face this problem.

Just like he has to face his offspring's "love" for him.

He let his eyes turn to Number 10, he was not sure if he was looking at the son in front of him, born ten thousand years later, whom he had never met, or looking through him at the soul hunter he had prophesied ten thousand years ago, actively or passively created. But he suddenly felt that it didn't matter: even if they were separated by ten thousand years, they were all his descendants.

"How many sins you have committed, my judgment will judge this." He said, "but as for how good you have done, only you can judge. I am a very bad primarch, a very bad father. I will always think that you have committed too many sins, so you will never be good enough. Maybe you should not seek people like me to agree with you."

"But...how is this possible?" Ten, or Talos, murmured, "You are our genetic father."

"..."

Conrad Kurtz sighed slowly.

"Then let me ask you, have you accomplished what you wanted to achieve?" He changed the question and asked, "Do you think all the crimes you committed for your goal were worth it? Even now that I am punishing you for it, do you still think so?"

His voice was low but clear and echoed in the bridge, but there was no response to the question. Number 10, who was lying on the blood-stained and dirty floor, still had his eyes half open, but he could no longer make any answer.

After a brief silence, Curze roared in anger and smashed the armrest of the ship's throne. The alarm sounded in the bridge because of the sudden destruction, and the red light that followed stimulated the eyes of everyone present -

Eighteen thousand six hundred and ten.

He wanted to end it all.

Miu (no more)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 130: Explosive Tail Kill

One hour and twenty minutes later, Galatan Star Fort arrived at the tactical position at the appropriate time originally scheduled.

The Nova Marines, Grey Knights and other combatants stationed on the Star Fortress were eagerly awaiting another battle against heretics and traitors, but when they arrived, they were told that everything had been settled - and now only the chores of cleaning up the battlefield required their help.

This was of course something to be thankful for but also something to be angry about. However, when they saw that facing the massive fleet of the Night Lords, there was only a single light cruiser with the Dark Angels emblem painted on it, this feeling turned into doubt and vigilance.

Then, they received a communication from the Glory of Macragge. The Imperial Regent spoke to them personally, asking about the current situation and telling them that this was a wrong order, coming from an irrefutable security loophole in the system. They needed to carefully evaluate and judge the current situation, and the dark angels with black armor on the ship a little further away were trustworthy.

During this process, Robert Guilliman's voice was as calm and confident as ever, but anyone who was not blind could see that he was obviously suppressing his anger. However, the adverse effects of the regent's seal being forged were indeed very serious, and no one thought deeply about this anger. The entrusted regiment only began to complete the reassigned tasks step by step after a short period of confusion.

With a lot of questions in mind, they contacted the Lion's Mane and confirmed that all the ships of the Night Lords had disabled their weapons and lowered their void shields. They slowly approached the Star Fortress with a posture of waiting for death. They sent a small-scale force to tentatively land on several random ships of the Night Lords. Later, in the process of carrying out this mission, they discovered more inexplicable facts:

Everything had indeed settled down - they had encountered no serious resistance, the mortal crews had tremblingly expressed their willingness to surrender and obey the Astartes' orders completely, and most of their rebellious cousins ​​had become... scattered.

To the Astartes, the scattered bodies were nothing to be afraid of, but the way they were created was disturbing to everyone. There were no marks of bullets or swords, no lingering smell of burning promethium, no traces of damage caused by energy beams or any other conceivable weapons. These dead Night Lords had struggled in the same place, but there was no trace left to prove what caused them pain and left such damage.

During the fifteen-hour cleanup, the Imperials cleared 48,209 bodies from the Chaos ships that were probably Night Lords Astartes. The reason they had to use this ambiguous description in the report was that most of these bodies had been turned into a pile of minced meat in the power armor - simple environmental surveys and autopsies showed that they had been alive for a long time while being "chopped up" in this way.

Of the more than 48,000 corpses, there were still about 12,000 that barely retained their human form. Although they had obviously also suffered similar inhumane torture, with their flesh peeled off their bones inch by inch, but, to be more cruel, based on the injuries alone, this might affect their movements, or even make them dying, but it should not really kill a transformed Astartes warrior.

They did not understand what had happened to these Night Lords, but Konrad Curze himself knew it very well. The Primarch of the Eighth Legion once again succumbed to his own cowardice and did not carry out the judgment he had originally set. In this process, only about 1,500 of the Sons truly "passed" the path of judgment. At that time, there were still 15,437 people who were still experiencing the torment of his essence, but he still chose to stop everything.

He released the connection of the contract, withdrew his own essence, and watched what happened next with only the most basic sensory ability - then, he discovered in despair that after he stopped what was originally happening in the subspace and made everything return to the rules of reality and physics, many of his descendants who had struggled to survive his judgment, specifically 11,502 people, died quickly in the next ten minutes.

The physical damage caused by the Judgment should not kill them. What really killed them was the sudden relaxation after a long period of extremely tense nerves. The fact that Astartes with strong physiques and two hearts died of heart failure may be shortlisted as the most ridiculous joke in the galaxy - if there is such a thing.

However, such a ridiculous joke happened 11,502 times in that day, on this fleet, beyond anyone's expectations.

-

"I don't want to talk to you." The image of the Night Lords Primarch flickered under the projection of the Imperial standard communication equipment, like a weak ghost.

"The fleet you were worried about has surrendered. Apart from the 5,433 surviving Night Lords, there are only the corpses of my descendants and about 140,000 mortals who have already been frightened and broken-backed by them. I have resolved this crisis of being attacked from both sides for you. All you need to do is to clean up the remaining mess a little bit - isn't this what you are best at? So don't bother me now, and leave me alone for a while."

"Do you think I took the trouble to contact you just to hear you brag like this?!"

Robert Guilliman's forehead was bulging with veins, and he yelled at the equipment with a flushed face. He was indeed furious because the other party had forged his seal and issued orders privately, and he was almost losing his mind, but the sensitivity of a Primarch-level politician also made him notice at the same time that Konrad Curze was now acting completely different from the one he had remembered earlier.

Curze in the communication image was stained with a little blood and dirt. He looked pale, melancholy, cynical and neurotic. He was completely different from the clean, contented, and rebellious Primarch who Guilliman saw in the council chamber of the Lion's Mane just over a day ago and spoke without scruples in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka.

Conrad Coates now behaves more like he did ten thousand years ago.

These thoughts lingered in his mind for only a microsecond, and did not affect the Imperial Regent's next angry rebuke: "Don't you know what you did before this?! Your actions have caused a devastating blow to the entire fleet and even the entire empire's chain of command! Have you considered the possible consequences of all this?!"

"I helped you find a loophole that has existed in the system for ten thousand years. You're welcome." Koz in the video said listlessly, "As for why I did this, it's because I was bored. When you decided to lock me up, didn't my little warden remind you that you'd better find something interesting for me to do?"

This act of putting the blame on someone else with a clear conscience made Guilliman angry for a moment. He was stunned for a moment, so he couldn't stop Curze from saying the next sentence: "Where is Fujimaru Ritsuka? I need to talk to her about something."

"She is recuperating," Guilliman responded instinctively, then remembered his original purpose: "But you are not going anywhere. Stay in the Lion's Mane! I will send someone else who is trustworthy-"

"--and then send their lives in vain? No matter who or what you're going to send?" Curz interrupted his long speech unceremoniously, "The obvious fact is that you can't lock me up, Robert. I think what just happened is enough for you to realize this."

After this sentence fell, they all fell silent for a short time. Guilliman did not speak for a while because he realized that what Curze said was right. He needed some time to find a way to properly imprison him. It was not so easy to exclude the system related to genetic testing in the whole process. Even the Primarch needed to calm down and think for a while. Curze, at the same time, surprisingly, was also thinking about something.

"Forget it." After a brief silence, the Primarch of the Night Lords spoke first with an annoyed expression, "Call your people over. Whatever you want, as long as they don't disturb me and leave me alone. I've killed enough...things today, and I'm tired of it. Whoever or whatever you sent should be thankful for that."

After saying this, he unilaterally cut off the communication without even looking at Guilliman's reaction. While the latter felt an almost uncontrollable rage, he calmly and rationally realized that Curze must have encountered something during this period of time.

Meow (six o'clock)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 131 Ending? Japanese Tea Ceremony!

The war has not really ended yet, but everyone knows that it is only a matter of time.

Judging from the results of the subsequent review, during the entire process of this war, many details deviated from the original plan - at least, in the plan originally submitted by Fujimaru Ritsuka, her mission was to take advantage of the stalemate in the battlefield of Parmenio and use virtual submarines to take the opportunity to directly attack the Temple of Nurgle on Yax, and perform some kind of ritual to change the source of the warp energy that permeated the entire area from the God of Plague to the Emperor, thereby directly killing most of the plague fleets at the source.

This is obviously not how it works in practice: the Temple of Ax was destroyed, not replaced by the Temple of the Emperor. But the waves that the Plague God had stirred up in the Vast Ocean had begun to dissipate, and the rules of reality gradually returned to the Ultramarine. At the same time, not only the area around Parmenio, but also the Siege of Macragge, and any plague fleets in the entire sector, were equally weakened and panicked.

Although the plan was changed due to various impromptu situations, the originally planned spectacular and once-and-for-all scene of "the Emperor's psychic power would naturally burn Nurgle's entire fleet" did not happen in reality. However, Guilliman read the battle report from the Emperor's Vision with a frown, and confirmed these seemingly fantastic contents with doubt, pointing to the result that "the God of Plague will conservatively not have the energy to interfere with the real universe within three thousand years". He still reluctantly agreed to the development that deviated slightly from the plan and began to clean up the mess with a pinch of nose.

The situation is set. It is clear that the Chaos Forces can no longer cause any major waves in the Extreme Star Domain. However, this does not mean that all enemies will be eliminated from the Empire in an instant. It will still be a time-consuming and laborious task to wipe out these insignificant remnants.

- The good news is that as the intensity of the war is obviously not going to increase any further, Guilliman, as the Regent of the Empire, can reasonably assign these simpler tasks to various chapters; the bad news is that this does not mean that he can get away from here and go to the next battlefield where he is more needed.

Ionid Hill, since appearing on the battlefield, has been sticking to him relentlessly, keeping a close eye on any attempt he makes to reach the front line of the battlefield.

This somewhat vexing problem first appeared after the battlefield in northern Tyros had calmed down. At that time, the unconscious Fujimaru Ritsuka had been taken to the Tyros Cathedral in the rear by "the Chaldeans" (including Arjuna, dozens of dark angels, and somehow, Sigismund and Akuldona as well), where he and the forty-eight descendants who were supposed to have died and appeared under the influence of the warp got to know each other.

It was a bit embarrassing. He had been absent for too long. There were many heroes among the Ultramarines in the past ten thousand years, but he only recognized five of them. He couldn't fully accept this reality for a while, and almost mechanically gave a short speech to express his gratitude. Then, he forced himself to think back to work, preparing to leave the troops responsible for the mopping-up, and then rush to the front line of the Hekaton Airport that had not yet been captured.

At this moment, Second Captain Hill suddenly stepped forward, took off his helmet, and knelt on one knee, "Primarch, please think twice!"

Guilliman was startled at the time: "Ionid, what are you doing?"

"I beg you not to take the risk yourself!" Hill knelt on the ground, but still raised his head and looked directly at the wound on Guilliman's neck. His blue eyes were filled with sincere and humble pleading. "If you insist on going, please let me accompany you!"

In the next three minutes, he tearfully - the word means literally - recounted his guilt and pain after the Battle of Thessara, and briefly reiterated the story of "why the Second Company of the Ultramarines was defined as the Lord of the Watch". Finally, in an almost pleading tone, he said that as the first "Lord of the Watch", he begged the Primarch to allow him to fulfill his duties, even at the cost of his life and soul.

This was not what Guilliman had imagined Hill to be capable of, but the Ultramarines Primarch's theoretical-practical model also told him that, after suffering a nearly fatal wound on his neck (and, in fact, would have died had it not been for the Emperor's psychic powers and stasis field), it was not inconceivable that Hill would be traumatized by something similar to what had happened at the time.

He instinctively felt that something was wrong about this ("Would a tough Space Marine like Ionides really cry over this?"), but when he realized that one of his favorite children was crying in pain because of the consequences of his recklessness, but was unwilling to even oppose his decision too firmly, his mind was no longer able to work.

Then, Guilliman gave up his original decision and switched to central scheduling. After they settled some matters on the ground and returned to the Glory of Macragge, he gradually began to realize that something seemed wrong.

But then, the unusual movements of the Lion's Mane and Galatan Star Fortress caught his attention again. After figuring out what happened, Guilliman's anger shifted to Konrad Curze. As a result, the best time to resolve the matter was missed and it was left unresolved. And Ionid Hill, who claimed to fulfill his duties as the "Lord of the Watch", and Cato Sicarius, stubbornly became the two little tails behind the Imperial Regent who could not be shaken off.

Unbeknownst to Guilliman, the first and current Second Captains of the Ultramarines had reached some secret consensus and tried to start writing a strange guide book. In this matter, the other 46 Ultramarines of the Bound Legion, including the first Chapter Master Marius Gage, were all accomplices who knew about it but did not report it.

As long as the Primarch can stay safely in the rear, what means can't be used? They collectively believe so. The Codex Astartes also wrote: In order to achieve the final victory, sometimes we need to pay an unimaginable price - so what's wrong with just pretending to be nice to the Gene-Father and losing face?

What Guilliman also didn't know was that this "craft" actually originated somewhere in the Astronomican, far in the past, and the originator was Fujimaru Ritsuka, who first taught Ionid Hill the ancient wisdom of "getting by with cuteness".

The promoter of the Japanese tea ceremony is currently lying peacefully in the Tyros Cathedral, unaware of what is happening.

Miu (no more)

Great! All finished! Daily teatime series! Serialized! (?)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 132 You wake up, you are already a saint of the empire!

Fujimaru Ritsuka opened his eyes peacefully, and the first thing he saw was a gorgeous gilded chandelier and a ceiling painted with intricate religious murals.

Her brain, which was not yet fully awake, was still working slowly, hoping to find the corresponding image from her memory to confirm her current location. But at the same time, a voice that was obviously not in a good mood sounded in her ears:

"woke up?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka turned her slightly stiff neck in a daze and looked towards the source of the sound: Asclepius in white clothes was standing beside the bed, staring at her with a very dissatisfied expression.

It seems that I did something that would make the doctor extremely angry. Fujimaru Ritsuka thought so at the first moment. Then, she suddenly realized that something was wrong - Asclepius? ? ?

The Grand Master, who still had a deep memory of her previous failed struggle for spiritual dominance, sat up from the bed. However, this only caused her to run head-on into the attending physician's reprimand:

"Cosmic rays, never-before-seen pathogens, chaotic energy pollution, damage and deviation caused by the abuse of the Ortnaus spirit-based exoskeleton, and - excessive acceptance of spiritual energy that you should not be able to accept. The sequelae are only nerve and lymphatic system disorders for the time being. You are really lucky! You should be thankful that you can live until I can see you! Rest and recuperate from now on!!"

Ritsuka Fujimaru was stunned: She seemed to have seen this episode before.