Warhammer: Don't Call Me the God of All Machines

Chapter 794 The Essence of Guilliman
"This is a great victory, without a doubt."

"But what we feared has happened. Our Limit Master seems to think he's invincible again, and he's started leading the charge once more."

"And this time, his opponent is not only the infiltrator warlord Schwarzenegger, but also the orc warlord Bloodhowl Zak who has been lured out."

After receiving the communication from Grod, Losi read its contents with considerable trepidation.

When he first saw the great victory, he was extremely excited, but after he carefully read what Guilliman had done, that initial excitement was quickly replaced by fear.

He was genuinely afraid that Guilliman might lose his temper and cause an accident.

A giant orc over ten meters tall—what does that even mean? Even during the Ulanor Expedition, only the orc emperor Urak Uger surpassed that size.

Loshi didn't have much faith in Guilliman's chances of winning a life-or-death battle against such a powerful orc.

Although he was Guilliman's best friend, and their relationship was stronger than adamantite, this did not prevent Rosie from doubting Guilliman's combat abilities and finding him unreliable in many situations.

At least in his memory, the Lord of Macragge rarely escaped defeat in one-on-one duels with powerful enemies.

Examples that Loshi could immediately recall included, but were not limited to: being cornered and severely injured by ten Alpha agents in Macurag's office; being severely injured by Kolfarn's psychic magic in Kos; and being severely injured by Roga and Angron in Nukelia...

Guilliman's fighting ability is indeed not weak.

He is the Primarch, one of the twenty-one extraordinary beings created by the Emperor.

However, the enemies that he is required to confront are often other Primarchs, or even some more powerful beings.

“I think you should trust him. Guilliman has sufficient thinking and judgment.”

"I'm sure of that he's not a child who loses control easily."

Beside Roche, Vulcan also finished reading the intelligence.

He winked at Rosie and continued:
"Even if you don't believe him, you should at least believe in his Ever Victorious Guard. I think they are the most professional and skilled in rescuing Primarchs among all the Primarch Guards."

"With them here, Guilliman will definitely be rescued."

After hearing Vulcan's answer, Rose coughed twice, his breathing became slightly rapid, and his face flushed slightly.

The Lord of Fire Dragons wasn't defending Guilliman at all; he was using the undefeated army's professionalism to mock Guilliman's unreliability.

"Anyone who says Vulcan doesn't joke doesn't know you well enough."

"You're quite the smooth talker too."

Upon hearing Lothie's response, the Primarch, whose skin was as dark as charcoal, burst into laughter, his voice booming like thunder.

"Just trying to lighten the mood, don't take offense, Rosie."

Amidst laughter and conversation, the Overlord Gunship, carrying the two individuals and a large group of Mechanicus technicians, sliced ​​through the thin atmosphere of Shattered Skull and landed in the target area after being guided.

The organized Ork resistance on this planet had been completely wiped out, so Loshi wasn't too worried and went directly into the underground world through the passage cleared by the assault team.

Under Roche's orders, the accompanying mechanical priests did not recycle or reshape the natural environment suitable for the growth and development of the greenskins.

The planet Skullshatterer is home to a large number of orcs, and a complete ecosystem has been built around them. These are the research environments that sages studying the green-skinned orcs dream of.

To defeat the enemy, the most important thing is to understand the enemy, a sentiment deeply shared by Rossi.

The accompanying Space Marines fired a few shots here and there, killing the Orks hiding in nooks and crannies or among piles of corpses.

Loshi could already sense that as the orcs on this planet were defeated and retreated, the waaagh energy shield that had been maintained beneath the earth's crust was also dissipating.

Planets without energy shields are nothing more than easy prey for human naval fleets.

If Loxi so desired, he could completely transform this wasteland planet into a shape suitable for human habitation, right in front of his victims, the green-skinned orcs.

As the group passed through the area where war had once taken place, they could still see countless orc corpses piled up together, rising up like hills.

On this battlefield, you can find Ork people of all clans.

Their corpses, in various shapes and sizes, are sorted and categorized by humans before being directly recycled into biomass recycling machines.

Generally speaking, the best and most common way to clean up battlefields where green-skinned orcs were once active is to thoroughly disinfect and sterilize them using a promethium flamethrower.

However, there were simply too many orcs on Skullcrusher, and the battlefield was located underground.

If the fire were to completely burn everything away, the toxic gases and smoke produced would greatly hinder human research in the underground world.

In comparison, while recycling biomass is slightly slower, it is at least clean and pollution-free, and can provide food supplies for human armies.

The hope is that when those mortal Star Guardians and Space Marines eat the Skullcrusher's special energy starch bars, they won't taste the peculiar flavor of mushrooms or fungi.

While Loshi was still trying to figure out what the green-skinned energy bars tasted like, they had already arrived at the underground battlefield where Guilliman and the green-skinned orcs were fighting.

The air was still filled with an extremely complex battlefield atmosphere, mixed with the stench of burning corpses and denatured proteins, as well as the smoke from the ionization of various mechanical equipment malfunctions.

Although the air circulation system is under construction, it will not be ready for use in the short term.

As the Lord of Fire Dragons strolled across this scorched earth, he could even see some green-skinned lads on the battlefield, helping humans carry the corpses of dead orcs.

There were even some kids with the Death Skull Totem on their bodies who were diligently helping humans rummage through ruins and garbage dumps to find some beast-made artifacts that had research value.

Those green-skinned technicians and big techies were in such a hurry to run away that they didn't have time to take their treasures with them, nor did they have time to destroy these things.

After all, in the orcs' minds, humans wouldn't be interested in their stuff anyway, and without the aid of Waaagh energy, using the greenskins' weapons and equipment was just a pipe dream.

If they ever manage to return to Skullcrusher Planet, they can naturally retrieve all their belongings.

But what they never expected was that the green-skinned orcs who were left behind to wait for their deaths turned against them and surrendered to the big blue guy.

These surrendered green-skinned boys, fearing that the big blue guy would massacre them, worked even harder than they had under the slave owner's whip.

Vulcan struggled to suppress his instinctive loathing for the Orks; he couldn't let it interfere with the Guilliman brothers' plans and schemes.

"You've finally arrived. I've been waiting for you for so long."

Guilliman's voice came from behind a bunker. Loshi looked up and saw the Makulag man, who was charred black and looked extremely disheveled.

He looked as if he had fallen into a factory reactor and been severely burned by electric arcs and radioactive fuel, completely losing his former elegance and composure.

"Well, I've successfully removed this nail stuck in the flesh for the empire."

"Skullcrusher Star has been successfully recaptured, and we have also seized a Waaagh Gate in a remarkably intact state."

"With these Ork prisoners and a large number of Ork artifacts available for research, our understanding of the Greenskins and our ability to counter them will surely advance by leaps and bounds."

Guilliman’s tone was full of pride, seemingly completely oblivious to the growing gloom in Rosie’s eyes.

"Yes, great Guilliman, I read about your three brilliant duels with the green-skinned orcs in the battle reports that Grod gave me."

"And when that green beast stood up for his kid, you charged straight in and wrestled hand-to-hand with a ten-meter-tall Titan."

"Since you're so good at fighting, next time we encounter an enemy Titan-class unit, I'll let you take the hits. You're pretty good anyway—right?" Losi said sarcastically.

Guilliman also sensed the dissatisfaction and anger in Rosie's tone, and immediately gave an awkward smile, secretly glaring at his ever-victorious army leader.

He had clearly instructed Grod to appropriately "cut out" some unimportant content to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings and worries.

Meanwhile, Grod set aside his helmet and pretended to be busy taking care of his power armor.

Well, his power armor was contaminated by gunpowder smoke during the battle. Perhaps it will need a full polishing and waxing treatment after the war.

Vulcan watched this scene and smiled without saying a word.

He and Guilliman are brothers, so if he were to directly criticize them, there would be a lot of things to consider.

After all, their every word and action represents the interaction between the two legions, so they cannot be taken lightly.

If their joking conversations were to leak out, it could very likely provoke displeasure from some of the more sensitive Astartes.

But Roshi is different. His primary identity is Guilliman's best friend. Even if he points his finger at the Macraggeans and curses them, the Ultramarines will simply pretend they didn't see anything.

They all knew about the close relationship between their genetic father and Rose, and they also knew about Rose's gentle and reserved personality.

If even someone like Rosie was furious with Guilliman, the Ultramarines were more inclined to believe that their Primarch had done something wrong to anger Rosie.

"I think Ms. Euton would be very interested to know about your rash and reckless behavior."

"I hope that when you face the ruler of the palace, you can still be as brave as you are on the battlefield."

Guilliman, who had been able to play dumb, suddenly panicked. He didn't care about anything else; Ms. Eudon was his biggest weakness.

This time, he was expelled from Terra and, due to the urgency of the military situation, went directly to Nostramamo, without even having time to go back to Macurag to check on the situation.

He had already learned from his children that Ms. Euton was still in relatively good health.

But she was, after all, just a mortal, and even with the most advanced life-extending surgery, she could not escape the inevitable fate of aging.

The courtier who had been urging Guilliman to establish a second empire and assume the responsibility of having an imperial heir was likely nearing the end of his life.

This was undoubtedly a devastating blow to Guilliman, who didn't know how to face a world without Ms. Euton.

It was Connor and Lady Eudon who shaped Guilliman's soul, making him distinct from the other Primarchs.

After arriving on Skullcrusher, he was able to keep himself busy with the war and try his best not to think about Ms. Yodon.

But now that Rosie has brought her up again, Guilliman can no longer stop thinking about it.

"I promise I will never act impulsively again next time."

"My friend, please don't tell Ms. Yoton about this. I'm begging you."

"Please please!"

Before his own children and brothers, Guilliman pleaded with Loshi in a tone so humble it was nothing compared to the fury that had enraged Mrs. Eudon.

"Besides, I'm fine now, aren't I? And it seems I gained something from the battle with the orc warlords."

Guilliman's mind raced as he tried to find other topics to dodge the immediate problem.

He gripped the Crimson Sword and immediately mobilized his will.

The next moment, the silver-white short sword burst forth with dazzling light, becoming an extraordinary-looking lightsaber.

Loxi's eyelids twitched immediately. Although the intelligence mentioned this point, it was not as real as seeing it with her own eyes.

"Is this your psionic power? Have you awakened your warp nature?"

"Strange, strange, it looks like it, but it doesn't quite look like it."

Rosie circled Guilliman twice, clicking her tongue in amazement.

He had seen other Primarchs who had awakened the nature of the Warp: Wolf King, Khan, and Lion King, all of whom truly came to know themselves during the Horus Rebellion.

But Guilliman, as far as Rosie knows, is a pure psionic Muggle.

Even though all his brothers displayed different psychic powers, he still stubbornly believed that he had absolutely no psychic abilities.

“I’m also very confused.” Guilliman controlled the lightsaber in his hand, changing its shape in various ways, “but I still don’t believe this is psionic.”

"Based on the data obtained on the battlefield, I prefer to call it - anti-psym."

Guilliman proudly recounted his discovery and how his "anti-psychic power" countered the green beast's psychic abilities.

After hearing the details of what happened, Rose gradually figured out some of the clues.

"Don't move, let me try."

Lothie then mobilized her authority and unleashed a psychic lightning bolt at Guilliman without holding back.

In an instant, all the psionicists present, including Vulcan, felt as if their souls were being devoured by scorching electric snakes, instinctively feeling pain and fear.

This was the first time Vulcan had seen Rosie display her power, and his face was now filled with solemnity and realization.

Such immense spiritual power would probably pale in comparison even to Magnus in his prime.

Meanwhile, think tank curators like Talos and Zoe felt the imminent threat of death firsthand.

If they were the ones to bear this blow, they would surely die, regardless of whether they resisted or not.

Guilliman felt a chill run down his spine. He rapidly expanded his lightsaber to meet the psionic lightning bolt hurtling towards him. He sensed that Rosie was truly holding nothing back, her sole aim being to get him to the emergency room.

So what if the higher-ups fought a battle with the green-skinned warlords? Is it really necessary to vent your anger like this?

However, after the psionic lightning arrived at Guilliman's side, the originally destructive lightning quickly began to become ethereal and weaken.

This feeling was remarkably similar to Rosie's experience in the Transformers universe, where the rules of the Transformers universe suppressed the power of the subspace.

But Guilliman is just a Primarch. Even if he fully awakens his essence, he can't possibly be compared to the rules of a universe, right?
Although weakened, the psionic lightning was much less powerful than before, but Guilliman was still struck from head to toe.

The power armor's spirit wisely reduced its defensive capabilities, making this attack not much different from a Macragian being caught naked by a psionic lightning bolt.

The Primarch's short, golden hair was instantly electrified, curling and smoking, and his entire body reeked of a burnt smell.

Seeing his disheveled appearance, Luo Xi finally felt a release of all her pent-up frustration.

"Ahem, I've reached a general conclusion." Luo Xi coughed twice and made her judgment.

"This is indeed some kind of special psychic energy, but it's a bit too special."

"As is well known, psionicists are generally divided into five categories: those who can foresee the future, manipulate energy, twist the body, control the mind, and wield force fields."

"If we have to categorize them, among the original Thousand Sons, there is a niche group called the Star Falcon School. They are skilled at summoning, enslaving, and controlling warp demons, but they are too heretical to be considered."

Lothie recounted his understanding and research on psionic powers, while the psionic think tanks and the two Primarchs listened attentively.

The opportunity to listen to a lecture by a psychic master is extremely rare.

"But psionic energy is a projection of disordered forces in the warp, so it naturally has some strange and special abilities."

“In a sense, the soulless beings we often talk about, such as the Silent Sisters, are essentially 'negative spiritual energy'.”

“Negative psychic energy and positive psychic energy cancel each other out, which is why Sister Silent is so effective against psychics.”

"And your spiritual power is the ability to negate a concept according to your own thoughts."

"Because you have always been an extremely staunch materialist, and you have always believed in the truth of the Empire, your psionic powers have denied non-materialistic warp psionic powers."

When Rosie expressed her judgment, she was also incredibly amazed by the wonders of the world.

There is actually a kind of psychic energy in this world that can negate other psychic energies.

What's the difference between this and denying yourself, stepping on your own feet to reach for the sky?
When Guilliman heard Rosie determine that he was a psionicist, he found it hard to accept, but the thought that his power would be better able to fight against the psionic magic of his enemies made him optimistic again.

The Makulaq people have always been optimists; if they can't change the status quo, they accept it and make use of it.

"However, this power of [negation] is not perfect. If you could truly negate everything, you would have already negated the four sources of all evil in that subspace."

Loshi then continued.

"Your abilities have limits. If you exceed those limits, the effect will naturally be greatly reduced."

"Just like now, you can't be completely immune to my psionic lightning."

Listening to Rosie's description, Guilliman looked at his own hands in astonishment.

He recalled the boundless rage and impulsive feeling he had when he saw the orc warlords slaughtering the Ever Victorious Army.

"So I've now awakened my true nature?" Guilliman continued to ask.

"When you ask that question, it means you haven't glimpsed your true appearance in the warp."

"Therefore, I judge that you are only partially awakened. If you can achieve full awakening, perhaps this ability can continue to grow."

"Loshi asked in a teasing tone."

"But then again, I'm getting more and more curious about what your essence is in the warp, that gives you such power of [negation]."

"I originally thought you would be a Thinker computer in the subspace, after all, your talent in calculation and thinking is indeed extraordinary."

As he spoke, Roche shook his head, seemingly regretting that he had not grasped the essence of Guilliman.

"Stop teasing me." Guilliman smoothed his frizzy hair with his hand. He had lost a lot of hair during the countless days and nights in Terra, and now he cherished and cared for it even more.

"I don't care what my true nature is, because I am who I am. Now that I have this power, I will use it well."

"This force of negation worked wonders when I faced the orc warlords, exceptionally restraining those who could use my power of thought."

"The next time I see Bloodhowl Zach, I'm going to cut off his head and put it on my office wall as decoration!"

Guilliman was in high spirits. He had always been extremely troubled by the psionic enemies, and was always constrained and frustrated.

But now, if those enemies still intend to use psionic energy against him, that would be very amusing.

Guilliman was eager to see the expressions on the faces of those accustomed to using psionic magic when they discovered their prized abilities had been nullified.

……

Cleaning up the battlefield is a very meticulous, tedious, and repetitive task.

It took nearly three months for humanity to clean up the underground battlefield on Skullshatterer and to categorize and archive the collected green-skinned beast artifacts for research purposes.

This was nothing short of a celebration for the Mechanicus priests and scholars under Roche's command.

While many of the Orcs' technological creations do indeed utilize the power of thought, this does not mean that their creations can completely disregard the rules.

In fact, after careful study, humanity has gradually come to understand a fact: the higher the level of the green-skinned creations, the more they must conform to the rules of the physical universe.

I think the power of thought is like a rule lubricant, capable of blurring the lines when there are flaws in the orcs' technological creations and the rules of reality.

However, lubrication requires a basic framework; without it, no amount of brainstorming will help.

Even after stripping away my power of thought, this captured Waaagh door still contains exceptionally profound spatial dimension technology.

By analyzing it, humanity can greatly broaden its understanding and research of the internet, taking a significant step forward in theory.

After returning to the Warhammer universe from the Celestial universe, Lothie had envisioned establishing a stable teleportation channel between the two universes.

If the situation worsens, he will relocate a portion of humanity out of the Warhammer universe, this cesspool, and to the Celestial universe.

Although the Celestial Universe also has enemies, at least these are enemies that can be dealt with, unlike the Chaos Gods, against whom humanity has no idea how to deal with them.

It's important to understand that even the emperors of that time only planned to relocate humanity to the Infinite Network to shield themselves from the covetousness and machinations of the Chaos Gods.

Even if we were to be a little greedy, at most we could only expel the evil forces of the warp from the real universe, but it seems that no one has ever thought about how to defeat or even kill the Chaos God.

This goal is so grand and unrealistic that just thinking about it makes it seem like an impossible fantasy.

But in Rosie's mind, he didn't think so.

Even against enemies like the Four Chaos Gods, he was searching for possible ways to strike their true forms in the warp, instead of constantly being on the defensive.

Of course, this idea was still in the nascent stage, and Loxi didn't tell anyone. After all, if he said it out loud, those guys in the subspace would notice the clues.

……

"I've come to realize that your decision to accept some of the green-skinned orc prisoners was an incredibly wise one."

"After the green-skinned orcs were defeated, the Waaagh Gate went into hibernation and ceased operation due to the lack of sufficient energy supply and the maintenance and repairs by the Technician Boy."

"We still have at least a group of orcs in our hands. If we can extract Waaagh energy from them, we should be able to reactivate the Waaagh Gate."

During this time, Loxi has remained underground on Skullcrusher, and even established a research base for the Greenskins there.

The Waaagh Gate was so enormous that the orcs had embedded its main framework and energy system directly into the earth's crust when they built it.

Those exceptionally complex wiring and pipes would be a huge problem to restore if they were dismantled, since the Green Skins' creations are inherently haphazard, and even they themselves might not be able to restore them exactly as they were.

The best approach to dealing with such a technological black box is to leave it alone, to avoid causing unexpected changes.

"Yes, this is an unexpected surprise."

A hint of smugness flashed in Guilliman's eyes.

"I originally just intended to try to divide the Greenskin Orcs and create internal conflicts among them."

"For example, it would be excellent to support a pro-human regime among the green-skinned orcs, even if they could only slightly restrain the orc empire at certain times."

"While the idea is wonderful, there are still many problems to overcome in order to actually implement it."

Rosie's tone suddenly became flippant, and she spoke with a hidden meaning.

"Are you trying to send a warning to the orcish empire of the Ghoul Cluster as a 'Second Empire'?"

"Even among so many Primarchs, you'd probably be the only one who could come up with this idea. Someone like Zhuang Sen would probably be thinking about how to use an extermination order to burn all the planets these green-skinned orcs have inhabited to glass."

"No, my friend, don't mention those four words."

Guilliman gave a pained, tooth-ache-like expression.

Even in the grand scheme of his life, the "Second Empire" was one of the top three things he regretted.

Without a doubt, this was a complete mistake, leaving a deep stain on his life that cannot be washed away.

Upon hearing those four words, Guilliman felt as uncomfortable as a hamster that had caught the scent of a big cat.

"I originally thought I could completely cover this up, but the truth is the truth. Under the instigation and conspiracy of those chaotic forces, it was eventually exposed to the public."

"The only emperor who can prove my innocence is still sitting on the golden throne, unable to express his will. I am like a mute eating bitter melon, unable to speak out!"

Guilliman seemed to have been turned on, and immediately began to pour out his grievances.

Loshi had not expected that Guilliman, whose switch had been flipped by the Second Reich, would react so violently.

"If I could travel back in time, I would definitely stop my past self from doing such an absurd thing."

"There were clearly three people who founded the Second Empire, but one of them is not in this universe, and another has disappeared into the Web Path. Only I am left to bear this bitter fruit."

Listening to Guilliman's inner monologue, Rosie also felt a strange sensation.

"Don't you feel like all of this is too much of a coincidence?"

"From the green-skinned orcs spreading negative news about you, to your angry departure from Terra, and then the State Church launching a coup to sideline the Highlords, it all went too smoothly."

"Don't you sense there's a conspiracy at play here?"

Guilliman also frowned as he listened to what Rose said and began to examine the cause and effect relationship.

"You mean, there's still a warp conspiracy involved?"

"Do you think that green-skinned orcs, with their level of intelligence, could come up with such a sinister and deadly plot?"

Guilliman fell silent.

"I've also considered this possibility. The fact that the green-skinned orcs know this secret of the Second Empire is likely related to those traitors."

But what I don't understand is, can the warp control the state religion?

"Alfreda, that madwoman, put everything else aside, is indeed a complete and utter believer in the Emperor, and no one can deny her devotion to the Emperor's faith."

"Moreover, Terra is where my father is, and the Star Torch illuminates the entire galaxy from here. Theoretically, the evil forces of the Warp cannot possibly have any effect here."

Rosie understood that Guilliman was right; trying to cause trouble under the Emperor's nose was simply too difficult.

Unless one of the Chaos Gods is willing to go to great lengths, it is impossible to interfere with Terra.

"But if the state religion has indeed changed, the most likely suspect in such a thing would be that ever-changing ruler."

However, practically speaking, even Tzeentch is unlikely to have distorted and corrupted the state religion that worships him right under the Emperor's nose.

If Tzeentch has this ability, then we shouldn't resist anymore, we should just surrender.

If it wasn't Him, then who was it?
Could it be that the root of all this lies not in the warp, but in Terra?

Roche and Guilliman looked at each other, a chill suddenly running down their spines.

(End of this chapter)