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

Fulgrim himself was looking forward to doing so, but his perfectionist side made him think that it was worth taking a second or two to re-examine the situation. He wanted to do this perfectly, whether it was capturing Ferrus Manus alive or using the Primarch to corrupt all the Gorgon Sons, all of which should be done in a stable, proper, and sufficiently dramatic process.

After getting through the "difficulties" just now, Fulgrim, who had recovered from his shock, recalled this experience, or rather, recalled the fear and despair that had arisen from it not long ago, and actually found it quite interesting: although it was a bit obviously abrupt and stiff, if compared to a drama, it was a piece of rubbish that a 18th-rate playwright inserted into the middle of writing without any foreshadowing or logic, and the audience could not understand the content. But as a means of adding twists and turns and tension, it still played the desired effect.

But just because he thought this "plot" was quite interesting didn't mean he would happily accept the uncertainty that this unexpected event brought to the drama he was preparing.

The Daemon Primarch spent a second or two to check the current situation of his own troops, and compared the remaining Chaos Astartes and Slaanesh forces, which were only about one-third of the number at the beginning after the rampage of life outside the domain, with the remaining Iron Hands, which were only a similar number but clearly ready for battle, and spent a few more microseconds to think. In the end, he decided to go all out and simply deploy his reserve troops, which he had originally used to be on the safe side, in order to ensure victory.

- Although the frustration caused by the failure of a carefully planned plan is bound to be an extreme emotion, which can please the Lord of Pleasure very well, at least for now, Fulgrim still wants Ferrus Manus himself to return to the Silver Palace with him, no matter in what form. His current number of troops, organization and fighting spirit are obviously not comparable to the Iron Hands, which are fighting a desperate battle in a certain sense, and there is no possibility of improving this in the short term, so at least he can use the number to bully the minority, so as to ensure victory on the battlefield as much as possible.

Then he could take care of his old friend. He would keep a few of the Gorgon Sons and give them the same audience as his favorites - that would be interesting.

So, under the command of the Daemon Primarch, the Slaanesh sorcerers chanted spells loudly, and ripples of pink and purple light appeared in the void again. When the Chaos Astartes who were charging ahead and making strange noises successfully engaged the Iron Hands, another group of Emperor's Children warband members who were originally in reserve at Fulgrim's instruction also stepped into the battlefield.

The advantage in numbers gave Fulgrim a slight sense of satisfaction, as if he had already seen that he had won. But as he leisurely swam his slender snake body and watched with interest the meaningless resistance of the angry sons of Gorgon, he suddenly realized that something was wrong:

The ground beneath their feet was shaking.

Although the veil of this battlefield has been broken, and it has merged with the warp in the wave of Tzeentch and Slaanesh from the Eye of Terror, for various reasons, this battle still took place on the surface of Jerik. This planet once had a complete ecological environment. Even though its ecological circle was completely razed by Ferrus Manus and the Iron Hands ten thousand years ago, this planet has survived after all.

——Jerrick’s “soul” was responding to Enkidu’s call very reluctantly.

This is actually a very strange thing that should not be true: this is not the universe where Enkidu originally came from, nor is this the Earth where he was conceived by the gods. The native race on Jerik is not human, and this planet has nothing to do with the so-called "human principles" from beginning to end - but for some unknown reason, when Enkidu tentatively called the earth, the earth responded to him intermittently.

No one could explain the reasoning, not even Enkidu himself. But under the pressure of the battlefield, he didn't really need to understand: he just needed to know that the land here was indeed supporting him.

The divine weapon stepped on the ground, and the ether exhaled by the planet was pumped into his spiritual base from bottom to top, and then returned to the earth with a certain concept from the spiritual base. The cold and loose sand floating on the surface of the earth's crust was trembling, and then large pieces of it rose from their original positions. Under the condensation and command of the ether, it was shaped into some shapes that no one present could say they were unfamiliar with according to certain rules:

Land Raiders, Predator tanks, Gladiator anti-gravity tanks... It can almost be said that one after another established tank formations are being "shaped" from the surging ether of the earth.

The Age of Babylon is so unreasonable. And Enkidu doesn't like to linger in the hangars of the Iron Hands for no reason.

Meow (peaceful)

Once again, it proves that I can’t write about war…

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 208 Let's take it one step at a time

"Are you sure you want to add me to your defense?"

Going back a little bit in time, Enkidu asked this question to Lindrick who came to communicate with him.

In theory, the Iron Hands would have at least been "disapproving" of working with a Warp creature like him - even though Enkidu had in many cases been communicative and predictable, and no different from someone who was slightly confusing in less important details.

From the perspective of the Chapter's ethos, apart from the modifications attached to themselves and the mechanical equipment that has been confirmed to be reliable, the Iron Hands do not believe in the power of external objects, let alone the power that cannot be explained by reason and logic. However, since there is the "Angel Relic" summoned by Debit, a completely incomprehensible terminal of another dimension, it seems that trying to cooperate with a communicable subspace entity is not too unbearable.

"We have no choice." Lindrick said, "We must be wary of the enemy's reserves that have not yet been deployed to the battlefield. For us, this is a battle that cannot be lost. I know very well that your strength should be used later, when our Gene-Father can fight the Demon Primarch again, but if we lose here, there will be no 'later' to speak of."

After a brief thought, Enkidu replied: "...It is also a reasonable judgment. I have no reason to refuse. If he... forget it, he may not be able to express any opinions now."

The two of them turned their gazes towards the "tower" at the center of the defense circle. There were too many structures and components with too profound working principles in the essence of Ferrus Manus, which made it impossible for others present to see how far the analysis project had progressed.

Enkidu seemed to want to say something, but then he paused briefly. The God-made Weapon looked behind him, outside the line of battle set up by the Iron Hands. Lindrick followed his gaze and moved the observation lens to find that Debbie had returned to the protective range of the position. He ignored the various weapons aimed at him, and just took off the void suit that hindered his movement, revealing the clothes he usually wore underneath, which he was more accustomed to and more convenient to move in.

"Debbit also asked me to support the next defensive battle through telepathy." Enkidu simply threw an explanation to Lindrick, and quickly approached the location of his current master:

"Are you okay like this?" His tone was more confused than worried. "Maybe it's okay now. The intersection of the subspace and reality allows you to survive 'ideally' without relying on life support equipment, but what will you do after all this is over? There is almost no atmosphere on Jerick."

Debito looked up at Enkidu and said very honestly and unexpectedly, "I haven't thought about that."

In fact, this matter was somewhat outrageous in Lindrick's eyes: How did Debbie squeeze himself and the coat he usually wore into the void suit?

On the one hand, he felt that he should study this problem, but on the other hand, he felt that it was meaningless to discuss this with a "person" who could summon "that kind of thing". After all, in comparison, "the sweater or something is fine, but how did Debbie get that long coat into the void suit" was essentially not a big deal.

"This is not something we have to consider right now." Debit's calm voice continued. While checking and debugging the various "weapons" hidden in his coat, he continued to explain, "The 'Angel Relic' cannot stay in this universe for too long, otherwise it will attract unnecessary attention. The sixteen minutes we agreed on are about to end. From now on, we can only rely on ourselves to defend this place before Ferrus completes the entire 'Spiritual Fusion' project."

Everyone present knew that Lindrick, as the chief think tank of the chapter, had participated in the construction and argumentation of the relevant rituals. No matter what, in the final stage of the ritual, Ferrus Manus had to expose the core of his essence in reality so that he could insert the "needed parts". That would be the stage when he was weakest in every sense and most vulnerable to irreversible damage. That was why, when Gorgon said that he would perform the ritual directly on the battlefield so close to the enemy, Lindrick almost objected in a trance.

Unfortunately, the opposition was ineffective. All they could do was to stay in front of their Gene Father before everything else - even if they had to face a fallen Primarch.

In contrast to Lindrick, Enkidu obviously lacked the tragic tension that the Son of Gorgon could feel. After observing Debit's movements, the God-made Weapon raised a question that was related to the current situation but obviously unimportant: "Why do you hide the weapon belt inside the coat? Isn't there a place to mount it on the void suit provided by the Iron Hands?"

Debbie looked up at him, his tone still calm: "I said, 'I haven't thought about this question.'"

——On Medusa, Debit was able to kill local beasts with just a single-molecule dagger, and he could freely investigate in that cold, barren and dangerous land without bodyguards. At this moment, the fact that he was a complete amateur was finally exposed:

Even though he was able to successfully blow up the Earth after a year of preparation (although he was stopped by Fujimaru Ritsuka at the last step), he still had no experience in actual combat in outer space.

-

While preparing for the ritual, Ferrus was actually aware of what was happening around him.

A huge amount of data flowed into his perception from the various detection devices in his essence. While quickly analyzing the ancient relic generator of unknown origin, he also tacitly accepted all the actions of his offspring around him. War is an art of gathering people, and the art of gathering people should obviously not be completely dependent on a commander. Even if he is temporarily unable to directly command for other reasons, he should believe that his offspring can achieve the predetermined strategic goals.

His mission was to put an end to what was happening to him as quickly as possible so that he could return to the battlefield to provide support - and to put an end to this matter, to Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus, to everything between the Emperor's Children and the Iron Hands.

Forever.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. In mysticism, this is not just a religious motto. During the ten thousand years of the Webway War, Ferrus was already very familiar with this, and he therefore understood that his current situation was very unfavorable:

Even if he could deal with the mystical influence of the "Legend of Jericho" in this battle, and understand the "Legend of Medusa" as a "breakthrough" in that "Tzeentch is also the power and symbol of hope, so He will not leave anyone a pure dead end in His plan," as Fujimaru Ritsuka said, the most important obstacle before him is still the "Legend of Istvan V."

The fact that Fulgrim had indeed slain Ferrus Manus reverberated throughout the Warp. Even if he could have successfully completed the ritual and recovered as quickly as possible, the course of fate would have undoubtedly brought the matter to the same conclusion that had occurred.

Ferrus slowly withdrew his thoughts: Now he should concentrate on thinking about how to reasonably and appropriately embed this strange "generator" into his core.

If this thing doesn't succeed, there's no need to think about anything else.

Meow (six o'clock)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 209 Thoracotomy

——Various vehicles made of mud advanced in an orderly manner towards the Emperor's Children and the Slaanesh Demon Army.

This enemy, which had no consciousness or soul and would not respond to any damage, was a great disappointment to the attackers who believed in the Lord of Joy. However, the Iron Hands Astartes mixed in with the coordinated infantry and tank formations made the Emperor's Children very interested.

Of course, the most important "main course" on the battlefield was still Ferrus Manus, who was gathered in the center. Not only Fulgrim thought so, but all the other members under his command who participated in the feast also thought so. Even though what was happening was so "disappointing", they were still willing to accompany Fulgrim who was swimming forward with his long snake body with crazy laughter, and advance towards the direction of the defense circle together.

The Daemon Prince held scimitars in his four nimble arms. In the warp, his unnaturally large size dwarfed even the tanks of the Astartes. Although the earth vehicles manifested by Enkidu's treasure successfully blocked the approaching Chaos army, they could not truly stop a Primarch who had fallen into the High Heavens.

Fulgrim's long, serpentine tail swept, and the Predator tank, which was born from the wisdom of the people and should have been almost the same as the original in terms of attack and defense, was flattened. The Daemon Primarch showed an effortless and calm attitude towards this matter, just like an ordinary person crushing an empty can of soda.

Then, he swung the four swords in his hands left and right, and the blades flashed with ambiguous light and aether flowed on them. Fulgrim twisted his waist and spun on the spot, and with an almost dance-like movement, he threw the aether on the blades accurately like flowing water into the Iron Hands' position. The four arcs of aether light turned into sharp blades in mid-air, and when they fell, they effortlessly cut into everything that blocked their paths - any vehicles, any protective force fields, and any members of the Iron Hands who were caught off guard and unable to dodge.

The Chaos Astartes and Slaanesh Daemons surrounding him cheered for his exquisite swordsmanship, and Fulgrim grinned and prepared to follow suit and literally cut through all the defenses on the periphery. The Iron Hands reacted very quickly, and in the instant that a flaw appeared in the line, they began to reorganize their formation and try to plug the weak points in the defense - but whether it was people or vehicles, their movement was bound to take time.

Their reactions were quick, but Fulgrim was even quicker. With the remaining resources of the Iron Hands Chapter, there was no way they could successfully resist the attack of the Emperor's Children. The Daemon Primarch calmly reset the four blades in his hands, preparing to continue to expand the victory with another move. But in the short half second he adjusted his posture -

——Four chains flew towards his face with astonishing speed, and the sharp arrow-shaped blades at the ends flashed a faint golden light.

This attack was somewhat unexpected in form, but it was not the first time that it had occurred on this battlefield, which surprised Fulgrim a little. The four chains flying at him from different angles forced him to change his tactics quickly, giving up the pursuit and wielding four swords to block the opponent's attack at almost the same time. The four sounds of metal clashing overlapped, as if only one sounded.

He looked in the direction where the chain came from, and this time he finally saw it clearly: a green-haired young man in a white robe, whose gender was indistinguishable and whose face was as delicate as a doll, was floating in the air. A gentle breeze caused by the flow of ether surrounded him, and he held a faint golden amulet in his hand. He looked at the demon primarch with interest and without fear.

This is very interesting, Fulgrim thought. He wondered if his opponent shared the same amusement, but at least his attention was briefly diverted from Ferrus.

Golden ripples also appeared in the void around Enkidu. Amid the subtle sound of metal friction, chains of "Heavenly Chains" of all lengths and ends rushed out from it almost endlessly.

Fulgrim raised his four swords in joy.

-

The basic analysis has been completed. The history of this "generator" can be traced back to before the Dark Age of Technology, and it contains a lot of technology that even Ferrus Manus cannot quickly understand the principles of.

If he had more room, he should have been more cautious. Even the Iron Hands, who were familiar with mechanical modification, would only transplant it to their brothers in the chapter after ensuring that the machine itself had no unknown structure and any possible situation could be predicted. Not to mention the "major surgery" that Ferrus was currently facing, which was to integrate foreign mechanical parts into his core.

But he didn't have time. He also knew that if the fusion problem of the spiritual foundation really went wrong, the consequences would definitely be much more serious than the rejection reaction between ordinary machines and the human body - but right now, he really didn't have time.

His descendants were bleeding, and were being slaughtered in a cruel and dishonorable way. Even though they were struggling and resisting with the help of outsiders, and killing the enemy as much as they could with eternal and blazing anger, they still could not change the fact that this stretched force was about to inevitably fall into decline.

And he could only watch helplessly under the protection of everyone, which was something that Ferrus Manus could never tolerate.

The anxious Primarch of the Iron Hands therefore gave up the more reliable plan and decided to enter the last step of the ritual directly after roughly understanding the basic operation mode and output efficiency of the "generator". He simply threw all the safety regulations behind his mind, and after only confirming the relevant data once, he immediately readjusted the essential part that was currently exposed, exposing the so-called "core" in the center of the regiment's defense.

This should be quite astonishing in many ways. Even though the essence of Ferrus contained too many mechanical structures that even the most elite believers of Ohm Messiah could not see the function of, anyone with a little common sense could easily understand when seeing this scene at this moment: this is the most important core of the whole machine.

This is not a conclusion that can be drawn through rational judgment and intellectual analysis, but rather an emotional, memetic influence. Just as even after a Servant is elevated from a human to a Heroic Spirit through legend, the "heart" and "brain" of the Servant are still their weak points - in fact, they do not really need these organs to provide practical functions, but they still have a strong symbolic meaning as "weak points", and therefore are directly connected to the Servant's spiritual core in a mystical sense.

Something similar happens to warp creatures. Even if the people present are illiterate and unable to understand mechanical structures, they can intuitively and directly understand from the "symbolic meaning" naturally carried by this part of the structure that this part is the core.

Fulgrim and the bastards and monsters under his command understood this, of course. They might not have fully understood what Ferrus Manus was doing, but they were thrilled by the obvious fact that their enemy had exposed his most important weakness in plain sight.

Gorgon had no idea what they were doing. The last thing he felt was a loud shout of ecstasy that almost penetrated everyone's brain and twisted their thoughts into a paste. He ignored the shout and didn't even bother to tell where the sound came from. Driven by anxiety and anger, these things failed to successfully affect him.

Ferrus Manus remained unmoved and focused his consciousness completely on what he was going to do next. Debit had told him not long ago that this task was no less difficult than performing a chest implant surgery on himself with bare hands without protection - but this was the only choice he had.

An iron-black mechanical arm grasped the "generator" that had nothing to do with Ferrus Manus in terms of color and appearance, and moved it to the position planned in the original master's mind. Gorgon took a "deep breath" to calm his emotions. He knew better than anyone that once the final stage of the ceremony began, he would not be able to turn back.

But what does that matter?

What he should do most now is to live up to his offspring's sacrifice and finish all the work quickly.

——The Primarch of the Iron Hands, in a position not far from the center of the battlefield, which was far from safe, and under the watchful eyes of the enemy, he did not hesitate to dismantle his own "spiritual core".

Meow (peaceful)

I was very hesitant when writing this, wondering whether I should go into detail about the 1v1 between Fulgrim and Enkidu.

But then I thought, if I write it, how long will the plot end?

So I didn’t write it (very peacefully).

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 210: All Under Heaven Belongs to the King

it hurts.

Although the Primarchs had keen senses, as weapons designed and manufactured for war, they were naturally very tolerant of pain under the Emperor's intention. Fujimaru Ritsuka did warn Ferrus that the idea of ​​merging his spiritual base with an actual mechanical product was theoretically feasible, but it would definitely be painful in practice - Ferrus did remember this reminder, but he didn't expect it to be so painful.

It was a pain that was like being split in half from the depths of his soul. Considering that he was indeed splitting his "spiritual core" in half, perhaps the "as if" in the previous sentence should be deleted.

It was indeed extremely painful, unbearable, and one might have wished for the eternal end of death to escape this excessive torture - but it was not enough to defeat Ferrus Manus's sanity.

The Iron Hand Primarch relied on his firm and strong will to keep the project going. His mechanical body emitted painful wails and ominous vibrations close to overload during operation. This was enough to attract the attention of everyone present, but not everyone turned around to look in the direction of Gorgon:

The Iron Hands did not look back. Their most important task at the moment was not to care about the situation of their Gene Father, but to not let the enemy get any closer before the entire ritual was completed. When the enemy was distracted by this, it was a good window period for them to advance the progress of this "primary goal".

Of course, they couldn't help but care about what was happening behind them. Even though they had replaced too many of their physical parts during their long service, the call of the blood connecting their heads and hearts still existed. However, in this extreme situation, the emotion control protocol installed in every soldier's brain, which had long become a "chapter tradition" in the Iron Hands, just happened to be of appropriate use.

This prevented them from seeing what a wonderful scene was going on behind them.

The core of Ferrus was split in two by some incomprehensible force, revealing a blue-white hot core under the heavy and hard shell like black iron. The huge mechanical device wailed in pain because of this unnatural behavior, but only the mechanical arm responsible for grasping the "generator" remained surprisingly stable and smooth.

Then, two more robotic arms with tools of unclear functions at the end came up and "disassembled" the "generator" in some way.

This was not the usual kind of "disassembly" of "opening the shell, looking at the mechanical structure inside, and modifying it based on understanding the original mechanism", but a different concept of "disassembly" in a more "mystical sense". The two unclear tools did not damage the brightly colored shell of the "generator" in any sense, but like pulling thread from a spinning wheel, they "pulled" wisps of red light from the inside of the generator -

The lights were pulled and floated in the air, quickly drawing shapes in the air according to a certain rule. It was still not an image that ordinary people could easily understand, but anyone with a little knowledge could clearly realize that the light in the air was showing the design of some kind of machine.

Almost no one could understand the knowledge contained in these images in the short time they appeared in the air. What kind of theorem was the concrete manifestation of those tiny and intertwined circuits, what kind of source of power would jump out of the pistons and pumps under such a design, and where was the source of energy needed to drive everything - these contents were too profound and beyond the imagination of current humans. Even Ferrus himself, who had successfully analyzed part of the structure of this "engine" before, could only barely extract the part of the "concept" that he could understand from it.

The steps to link something that actually exists in reality with the spiritual base made of ether are complicated, but in the final analysis, it is just a conceptual connection. After learning the relevant knowledge from Fujimaru Ritsuka, Ferrus considered in detail how to simplify the corresponding complex rituals.

It is true that Fujimaru Ritsuka had designed a similar process based on mature magic theories, and Debit had also optimized it to increase the success rate. In the original plan, they were indeed prepared to proceed step by step according to this "ritual without any 'new' theory, so it could ensure success with the highest probability", looking for a sacred place on Medusa and holding a ceremony at a centralized think tank - but this could not solve the urgent problem under the current circumstances.

Ferrus had been mentally prepared when he first proposed the idea, and now that things had come to this point, it was obvious that there was no turning back.

But he took it for granted and overlooked one point: during the following ceremony, the biggest challenge was not some unexpected situation that might be caused by this unproven technology when it was put into use for the first time, but this "new" technology itself - the battlefield was under the watchful eyes of Tzeentch, and the Lord of Change would never miss this opportunity to interfere.

The Supreme Eagle certainly did not overlook this point. Countless blue feathers fluttered in an attempt to descend upon the Iron Hand Primarch at this moment, but He also took it for granted that He should not use the common sense of this universe to speculate on Debit.

Even though he was no different from an ordinary person in terms of physiology and genes, in essence, Debit Zem Voyd was the same as the "Angel Relics" he summoned. This shell of base sequence was just an illusion to help him integrate into human society. Debit, who was not a human in essence, should not be measured by human standards in terms of "activity limit".

- After summoning a large number of his "kind" to fight Fulgrim's army for sixteen minutes, he was still able to continue his job as a "magician": using magic, as if he had not suffered any damage.

Fujimaru Ritsuka had proved to him that the Empire State Religion could indeed be regarded as a kind of religious magic base, and could exert corresponding effects on magic. Although none of them had any background in the Holy Church, it did not mean that they had not been exposed to relevant knowledge: there had been many saints and even agents among the heroic spirits of Chaldea, and for other historical reasons, the Empire State Religion in this world, in a sense, also had some kind of "reflection" with the religion worshipped by the Holy Church. This allowed the vast majority of the church's "secrets" to be successfully transplanted into the State Religion base.

As the blue feathers slowly fell from the "sky" where the direction could not be determined, Deppet once again approached the essence of Ferrus and recited the passage about protection and purification from the Word of the Emperor in High Gothic, whose pronunciation was not very standard.

Some lights similar to the red lights that appeared from the "generator" extended from the blue-white core of the Primarch. Those blue-white lights also showed some image structures corresponding to the former in mid-air, and they were still changing under the will of Ferrus himself, as if they were looking for a way to better connect with the other party in structure - and when those blue feathers that seemed to be floating in the wind successfully landed between the two, there was already a faint golden light that enveloped the entire "body" of Ferrus that was currently exposed.

From high in the sky, Tzeentch looked down at Deppet on the battlefield, and screams of frustration and joy emanated from countless mouths at the same time.

——But this is obviously not all He can do.

Meow (six o'clock)

(End of this chapter)