Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 131 Malcador's Private Collection
"Come with me."

Nimrod picked up the parchment scroll and followed Malcador out of the observatory.

Walking along the marble road in the palace, Malcador, who was in a good mood, asked Nimrod.

"Are you adapting to living in the courtyard?"

"Not bad, they're for us."

Nimrod spoke up and said that there were a total of twenty buildings in the square, their sizes far exceeded those of mortals and even exceeded the size of Astartes.

Malcador's eyes were deep, and memories flashed back.

"The Emperor desired that you might grow here and learn the arts He would require of you before the Great Crusade was officially launched."

“But we never did.”

Nimrod silently added in his mind: [Perhaps Alpharius is an exception.]
"Technically no," Malcador said. "At least not for the original intent."

After a moment of sadness at the destruction of his servant's hard work, the seal holder continued.

"Horus lived in his courtyard for a short time, and now you, and I imagine your brothers will all reside there temporarily from now on."

As they were talking, they came to a building.

This is an ancient building, and the bronze spiral plates glow dimly under the light.

Malcador opened the door and led Nimrod to visit his collection.

"My most treasured possessions are two ancient paintings recovered during the catastrophe of the 'Age of Strife': Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers."

Nimrod's gaze lingered for a moment on these two masterpieces, which he had never seen in his previous life. After noticing that they were still well preserved in the stasis field but without any spiritual light, he looked away.

Although he marveled at the master's art, he was not so extravagant as to choose non-potion materials.

"I don't take away what others love."

Seeing that Nimrod had no interest in the two masterpieces, Malcador breathed a sigh of relief and led Nimrod to continue exploring private collections.

Nimrod noticed that Malcador's collection consisted more of art than of the Emperor's.

This is consistent with the Primarch's impression of Malcador. He supports the Chronicler joining the expedition fleet and recording the great achievements of the "Great Crusade" from an artistic perspective.

Machado also instructed the Ministry of the Interior to take over the "Civilization Preservation Project" founded by Kaspar Hauser.

After viewing twelve objects, Nimrod discovered the first object with spiritual light and stopped in front of an old manuscript.

Just a glance and he could see that the content clearly belonged to two different language families from Gothic.

It was like some unintentionally generated garbled code, but when the Primarch took it into his mind, he felt that it contained some kind of internal logic, written in the form of a code.

Malcador noticed Nimrod's actions and began to introduce him.

"That's the Voynich Manuscript. It was written between the 15th and 16th centuries AD. Its contents and author are unknown. It is named after the bookseller who discovered it in 1912."

"Perhaps only he knows who wrote this and what it says."

Ningluo's eyes flashed. He had just witnessed Malcador's prophetic ability not long ago. He was definitely the best among humans.

The prophecy can obtain information from objects, and the manuscript that Malcador cannot obtain information from, at least not completely, must be a high-sequence potion material.

[Book page, the first thing that comes to mind is the "White Tower" path, but it could also be the "Perfect One" path, or even related to the "Fool"'s Sequence 3 "Ancient Scholar".

At least there's a backup plan. If there's no better option, you can choose it. At least it won't be a waste of the opportunity.]
"Will you choose it?"

Malcador inquired, and Nimrod shook his head slightly.

"If the Master is not in a hurry, I would like to take a look at it once before making a choice."

"I'm not in a hurry. You can take a look and make your choice."

"I will introduce you to each piece of the collection."

Malcador said patiently that although there were still many important matters, since he had already promised Nimrod the selection, he did not rush.

Nimrod walked forward, looking at Malcador's collection. He stopped from time to time, not only in front of the potion ingredients, but also in front of other items.

Each time he stayed for a similar amount of time and showed the same level of interest in the objects.

When Nimrod stopped for the thirty-third time, his eyes were fixed on a trihedron.

It seemed to be made of some kind of purple alloy, and each side of it had eyes of different shapes. One side had a cold, indifferent eye without eyelashes, containing countless bright stars.

The other side is a black mass covered with countless eyes.

The last side is a pair of deep, blank eyes that are obviously out of focus.

Nimrod almost immediately associated it with the "Hidden" path.

The eye on the first side reminded it of the eye in the symbol of the "Hermit" path.

The black mass with countless eyes is the form of the mythical creature of the "Hermit" path.

The last side reminded him of the state of Sequence 3 "Master of Prophecy" when using extraordinary abilities.

[It is almost certain that the Beyonder characteristic contained therein is the "Master of Prophecy" of Sequence 3 of the "Hermit" Pathway.]
For the first time, Ningluo pinpointed a specific sequence for an item among the many collections of Old Man Huang and Makado.

"It comes from a now-extinct intergalactic civilization I call Ariadne. Their warriors wielded blood-red spears."

"I call it the Prophecy Dice. I throw it once every three years. When it stops, its upward tip projects a screen of light, revealing images and written symbols."

"For three years, when you throw it, you won't get any results, just as if it takes three years to recharge."

"Just like most psychics who predict fate, when they peek into fate, they only passively see a corner of it. The projected image is also blurry and passive."

Ning Lu's eyes flashed and he asked.

"Is it uncontrollable?"

"There's no way. I've tried many methods, including but not limited to psychic manipulation, setting up directional psychic arrays, using divination focus, and many other methods, but I can't make it manifest according to my will."

"To me, it's a bit too useless. The random results rely on vague luck and are not even as good as the results I predicted."

Nimrod nodded slightly. As a powerful psychic, Malcador could not use the prophetic dice much.

There is no way to actively control the prophecy.

Is there really no way?
[Assuming the Prophecy Dice contains a Sequence 3 level Extraordinary Item, its predictions will indeed remain undisturbed.

But if there is an absolute suppression of a personality, then it is possible to make it predict according to its will.

As someone who possesses the "Land of Disorder", I happen to have this possibility, and the third level of real space also has the special effect of establishing relationships.

A prophecy die that can determine a specific sequence is a better choice than the other options.]
When Nimrod thought of this, he had already decided that unless he saw something special later, he would choose it.

He walked forward and continued to look at other collections.

Malcador asked after Nimrod had looked over all the collections.

"Have you made a decision?"

"There is."

He came to the three-sided dice again and said, "I want the dice of prophecy."

"it is good."

"How long until it can be used?"

Malcador was silent for a few seconds before answering.

"Eleven months."

Nimrod then picked up the transparent box that looked like glass, which contained the dice of prophecy.

Before parting, Malcador reminded the Primarch of his schedule.

"I have arranged for the best sculptors in the empire to meet with you tomorrow."

“They need to record your face, even if it’s a huge mental challenge for them.”

"They will sculpt your face, even if it's only a partial one. It's necessary, as they did for Horus."

"The statue will then be placed in the Piazza del Comune, becoming the second statue to be erected in that vast open-air plaza."

Ningluo nodded slightly, "I will cooperate with them."

He thought to himself as he made his way back to the courtyard.

[That dark shadow, that mythical creature, Terra still has many valuable things, and we should send people to explore.]
(End of this chapter)