Warhammer 40: My Fiancée Fulgrim.

Chapter 171 Burning
That was the last time you found him.

He was in a good mood at the moment.

Holy Terra is about to achieve a reunification after a thousand years of waiting. What could possibly make him unhappy?

"You are getting weaker and weaker, my friend."

His eyes revealed concern, and he still held great respect for a prophet who had guided him countless years ago.

Despite their different races.

He's right.

Over the course of time, all living beings have gradually forgotten the silent presence that sits on the throne, never uttering a word.

My own existence is becoming increasingly weak.
Today, no one remembers that there was once a heroic leader who shielded them from vicious forces they had never encountered before.

When everything is settled and all that remains is the endless enjoyment to be experienced, no one will waste time on something so trivial.

Under increasingly intense sensory stimulation, they lost—[faith].

The lives of the Eldar in the future will be richer and more colorful. With endless time and power, they will have endless sensory experiences that are unimaginable to any intelligent being.

But at the same time, having lost their faith, they will only be left with a journey to pursue stronger and more intense sensory stimulation, and will fall into an even stronger and more intense vortex of nothingness, repeating this cycle until they face true death.

When existing stimuli can no longer awaken their senses, they will seek new stimuli in places they had never thought of before—finding pleasure among their own kind, and among intelligent beings like humans.

As more and more slave-hunting fleets expanded outward from all parts of the empire, they needed to find new sacrifices to satisfy their insatiable and perverse desires.

"It was neither the power of chaos nor the annihilation of alien races."

"We lost to ourselves; we were all corrupted by ourselves."

"Without ideals and beliefs, there is only the path to destruction."

That broken soul struggled to tell him about its grief.

And he listened quietly.

He could sense that his old friend was undergoing an unimaginable and terrifying transformation—under the influence and sway of the will of countless fallen beings, he was rapidly rushing toward some unimaginable existence.

The endless nothingness that seeks sensory stimulation is constantly gnawing at and eroding his body.

Deep within the sea of ​​souls, under the suppression he maintained with all his might, something indescribable was churning and surging, seemingly about to break free of its cocoon.

A demon.

Not just one, but four.

Together with the three demons that had once been suppressed beneath the throne of the Burning Pyramid, they were attempting to take this opportunity to break free of their restraints.

They have been trapped for a long time.

Despite their many disagreements, they can unite and cooperate from within when faced with their only enemy, even the most vile and despicable demons.

"My people have lived in peace for so long that they do not consider these evil creatures of the High Heaven to be terrifying and abhorrent."

This kind of restraint on chaotic demons is simply hindering their novelty and excitement in reaching chaos, and it is something that deserves to be erased and destroyed.

"They don't know what the future holds for them either."

"They'll suffer."

He listened in silence for a while before speaking.

Perhaps in the future, more evil beings will appear to challenge him and humanity.

But he was not afraid.

Because he is—the Emperor of Mankind.

He had made up his mind to protect everything humankind, and he was no longer afraid of any obstacles.

"Are you here to warn me to watch out for them?"

The threat of chaos was ever-present, and he understood this from the very beginning.

"Thank you for your help, but I have more pressing things to do right now."

He nodded slightly in respect to the weak and broken soul.

What will you do after you've completed the war of unification?

“Me? I will help my suffering brethren on Holy Terra to stand up again.”

"In this way, we will restore our former glory."

Holy Terra is about to be unified.

This world, ravaged by war and with its oceans evaporated, needs him to spend ten or a hundred years saving, transforming, and restoring it.

The people suffering in this land desperately need his help.

He will spend time healing this land.

The new "Imperial Truth" was used to educate the people, teaching them to rely on their own strength and to view the world through scientific and rational thinking.

Instead of viewing it with ignorance and fear.

The Emperor was never an absolutely ruthless person, as can be seen from his fondness for Vulcan and Corax.

He believed he could build a better world for humanity, where people would no longer be slaves toiling away in harsh living conditions.

Rather, it is to truly become human.

He believed he could avoid repeating the same mistakes and that humanity would move towards a more perfect and better tomorrow.

Then, when the time is right, and everyone has enough energy and will, they will extend a helping hand to the human homeland beyond the Milky Way, to their fellow human beings who are suffering.

Step by step, we will restore the glory of the human empire from its golden age!
Although the progress may be slightly slower, time is the least valuable thing when it comes to ensuring people's safety and well-being.

Otherwise, how would he, with his militaristic and warlike ways, be any different from those technologically barbaric warlords?
Just as he had waged unification wars for hundreds of years, he had plenty of time to consolidate his gains and develop steadily.

As an immortal being, the Emperor has always been an extremely cautious individual.

"But friends"

"You can't do it. Neither can I."

"Your warriors, how do those modified superhumans view ordinary people?"

"My friend, you know this far better than I do."

The emperor remained silent.

He knew that what the other person said was correct.

The Thunder Warriors sacrificed everything for unification, but what happened after unification?
Reports from across Terra suggest they are indulging in a sense of superiority, viewing others as inferior servants.
There are not many people who are truly willing to give everything for a greater dream.

In this world, most people are just ordinary people.

They enjoy pleasure and abhor fighting and hardship.

Everyone is like that.

If they stagnate on Holy Terra, they will quickly decay and degenerate, abandoning their kin beyond the galaxy.

Like the technological warlords who once ruled Holy Terra, they once again embarked on a path of oppressing mortals.

Do not!
This will not happen!

"As long as I'm still here"

"It's still there."

Looking at you now, he swallowed the rest of his words.

Repeating past mistakes is never just an empty threat.

It serves as a cautionary tale for countless predecessors and a source of sorrow for countless successors.

As an immortal being who had witnessed countless rises and falls of human emperors, he had long known this.

What can destroy us is never a powerful enemy.

It is ourselves.

It has always been ourselves.

Don't repeat my mistakes. Keep moving forward into the distance.

You don't have much time. You must hurry.

At this final moment, you revealed a secret to him.

"What!?"

On that very day, he received extremely terrible news.

This foreshadowing was enough to jolt him from his dream of unification and plunge him into an endless nightmare.

Soon, the Eldar Empire will implode.

The center where they are located will become a conduit connecting the real world with the highest heavens.

That connection channel that he had once sealed away with his own hands.

In the legends of the Eldar, it was Asuyan who severed the connection between the High Heavens and the Eldar in order to stop Kane from massacring them.

Only he himself knew the true identity of the legendary guy named Kane.

They are about to break through the ground.

In the future, without suppression, countless demons will invade the world through this channel, just as the web connecting the real world and the warp has been shattered.
An endless stream of demonic creatures will use this as a pretext to wreak havoc in the real world.

The future holds only darkness.

What should I do?

"You didn't come here just to tell me the cause of my future death, did you?"

"of course not."

The weak voice continued.

"You need to continue."

That is the golden throne located on the highest peak of Holy Terra.

"They will fall into a state of weakness for a long time in order to get rid of me."

During this most crucial and critical period, he must take over the Phoenix King's mission.

Ignite the golden throne, ignite himself.

"[Burning] Burn everything you have to suppress them. Suppress their final counterattack forever; this is the last chance."

The Great Expedition must be carried out as soon as possible.
Right now.

Sweep away all chaotic beliefs in the Milky Way, cut off all channels that can transport faith power to them, and let these things perish naturally because they cannot obtain sustenance.

This is the only, and last, chance to resolve their issue.

You must seize this opportunity.

"And this is the last gift I'll give you."

As the last words fell, the tattered soul vanished without a trace.

In these final moments.

You heard a cry.

Back to the present.

Tianlongxing District.

The Vengeful Spirit.

Horus' flagship, originally intended to explore the Ulanno sector, discovers during a warp jump that the Draco sector is under threat from powerful orc aliens.

This sector is ravaged by the Orcish Empire: they invade various worlds in the sector by sending artillery and Orcish lads into the air via an asteroid called "Goron," which is located outside the star systems.

Bathed in the light of a bloated red sun, the length of day and night and the magnitude of gravity on Goron are constantly changing, and the planet itself does not have a fixed orbit.

Using this as a base for invasion, just like all orc empires, a powerful orc warlord led countless mindless orc lads to ravage one human world after another.

However, "big and green" doesn't seem to be enough to describe the destruction caused by this orcish empire.

The galaxy is now filled with worlds overrun by orcs. If they are allowed to use spores to take over these worlds and continue to develop, the future threat will only grow larger and more difficult to deal with.

The situation in the Tianlong Star Region is so dire that we have to halt our advance into the Wulano Star Region and address the immediate crisis there first.

Horus consulted the Emperor about whether he should continue the operation or wait for more support from his brother legions.

The Emperor's reply was very concise.

Let them deal with the Orc Empire in the Tianlong Star Region first, so that they can gain some experience in dealing with these troublesome aliens.

He arrived quickly.

The Emperor is coming soon!
Fight alongside Horus!
This made Horus feel extremely honored and overjoyed.

at last!

After waiting for so long, Shadowmoon Wolf has conquered so many stars in the Great Crusade, and finally the moment has come when he can fight alongside the Emperor!

"Ha ha."

Emperor!

Horus was in high spirits. "Reporting to Lord Shepherd, Lord Shepherd, can you hear me?"

But this moment of excitement was quickly interrupted by a call from the communication channel.

"I'm here. What is it?"

"A mysterious Space Marine has boarded our warship!"

"He's defeating our Terminator guards in front of the corridor; we can't stop him."

He said he wanted to see you.

The next moment, the surveillance video recording from the Vengeful Spirit appeared on the device in front of Horus:

It was a warrior clad in cyan-blue power armor, incredibly fast, bald, wielding a spear that resembled an alien weapon, swiftly striking down any Gastrin Terminator veterans who dared to block his way.

The opponent was tall and imposing; judging from his fighting style and armor, he did not appear to be an ordinary Space Marine.

"Understood. Tell both sides to stop fighting. I'll be there soon."

A few minutes later.

"I am Alphareis."

"The Lord of the Twentieth Legion".

As Horus entered the conference room, before he could even ask questions about the man's background and behavior, the man offered to explain.

“I’ve never heard of this name before, but it seems you know us much better than I do about you.”

"Yes."

Alpharis declined to answer many of Horus's questions.

They even remain silent about their origins and the history of their home planet.

Judging from the situation, Alpharis seems to have returned to the Empire without Horus's knowledge, and he has already taken command of his own legions; this is merely his first official appearance.

The Twentieth Legion was extremely mysterious, and Horus often did not even know where it was.

When exactly did he return?
And why did he choose this moment to come to his Vengeance Soul to meet him?
Horus looked at his confident and mysterious Primarch brother, his mind filled with doubts.

He claims to be AlphaReis, but is he truly AlphaReis?
Or is it that what he sees in front of him is not the real person, but some kind of disguise that is extremely similar to him?
I don't understand.

That's how mysterious the 20th Legion is.

Peturabo's "left brain elbowing right brain" is just an abstract metaphor, but the Alpha Group really does use the "left brain elbowing right brain" tactic.

"Since you don't want to reveal your past, I'm even more curious about your purpose in coming here, brother."

"What exactly do you want by coming here just as we are about to face another round of battles with the Orcish Empire?"

"return."

"Ok?"

"What I mean is, to tell the world that Alpharis has returned. The stars that were scattered across the world before the Great Crusade are now fully united."

At this point, all twenty-eight Primarchs created by the Emperor have returned.

"Now that the last Primarch has returned, the final chapter of the Great Crusade will begin for all Primarchs."

"Selection of [War Commander]".

Horus answered in a deep voice.

"Yes."

The Primarch of Alpharis replied, "And that is why I have come here."

Horus, brother.

"For a greater goal, I need you to become the [War Master]."

Emperor's Fantasy.

After the farce that had just unfolded, Peturabo offered no further explanation or anything of the sort.

He ran away with Kelly Fanny on the spot.

Even with his most brilliant mind, he was completely overloaded at this moment.

“My Lord, Number Four—”

The Imperial Guards were naturally very dissatisfied with this.

It was truly outrageous that he dared to yell at the great human emperor and then slink away like a rat without offering any apology.

"Never mind, let him go."

Needless to say, it's clear that Casca is thinking of some new ideas he shouldn't be thinking of.

In fact, the Emperor did not object to his novel ideas, after all, they did improve the relationships between Primarchs in many cases and helped some Primarchs who were stuck in a rut to get out of it.

That's great, he's a very good talent.

(If an emperor uses a person's talents to the extreme, it means that the emperor truly appreciates those talents.)

For example, he would send Karscar to coordinate with the Primarchs, send Peturabo to deal with the toughest enemies, send Roguedon as the Grand Master of the Terran Defenses (which is not yet in place), and send Abaddon to control Draconion.
And resolutely prevented Magnus from researching psionic powers.

All these events demonstrate the emperor's emphasis on the professionalism of his personnel.

He acknowledged Casca's ability to coordinate Primarchs.

But what's the deal with this "centaur gold ring"?

Even though he lived a secluded life in the Terra Palace, the Emperor still heard many unpleasant rumors.

This is clearly going too far.

He was somewhat dissatisfied.

However, it seems that this kind of thing can really greatly increase Horus's enthusiasm for the expedition. In fact, in order to win the emperor's favor, the entire Shadowmoon Wolves made crazy progress in the Great Expedition, advancing at an extremely fast pace, far surpassing his other brothers and sisters.

Since it's effective.
Although the emperor wanted to say something, once the performance evaluation was presented to him, he couldn't say anything.

Tsk.

So be it.

The Emperor does not object!

Although he didn't get a direct confirmation from the other party, it seemed that the other party didn't say anything about their performance, so Casca felt relieved.

that is!

Horus is the one who's been getting the centaur gold ring all day, so what does it have to do with Kasgar?

The Emperor paused briefly on the Salvation, learning about Corax's past, his uprising, and the Salvation's current state of affairs.

He took a great liking to this Primarch, who was full of humanity and compassion, and told him that his Nineteenth Legion would soon arrive on the Salvation Star and be at his command.

As for now, unfortunately, the war in the western part of the galaxy is urging them to set off immediately for the Dragon Sector to assist Horus's Shadowmoon Wolves in their operations.

The emperor must set off immediately.

Kolacs expressed his understanding of this.

Mortalian had already slipped away.

Peturabo
Although he wasn't happy after being pranked, at least he was made to tell the truth, which is enough to show the value of drama.

As for being unhappy, when has this guy ever been happy?

Since we're going to be unhappy anyway, we might as well make everyone happy; that would make things seem more worthwhile.

And Kasgar and Fugrim.
"I need the Third Legion to accompany me to the Draco Sector to aid Horus."

They were caught red-handed by the emperor.

Tianlong Star District, Ge Rong.

Others may not be familiar with where this place is, but for Casca, it's all too familiar!

This is the famous scene where the Emperor is being choked by an orc warlord.

At that critical moment, before the Emperor's spiritual power could be gathered, Horus, unarmed, fought the Garon orc warlord with his bare hands, failing to crush the Emperor like Peturabo had crushed him.

After that, the orc warlord was forced to release the Emperor by Horus's powerful punches, allowing the enemy's psionic cannons to turn the tables and kill him.

This heroic act of saving the king allowed Horus to establish a decisive advantage on his path to becoming a warlord.

but now.
For some reason, Kasgar's memory brought back the spectacular scene of Horus proudly shouting "Thought Emperor Fist, Thoughts Flow Like a Spring!" in the Dark Night Sector.

Horus seemed very confident about this and really wanted to show off this trick to the emperor.
Moreover, based on Kasgar's understanding of Horus and this abstract world, it seems that the Emperor's Fist is just the beginning.

It's far from over.

He had an ominous premonition.

"Did the Emperor say when we're leaving?"

“Now,” Fugrim replied, unaware of what abstract things awaited her in the future.

"Right now, we are about to embark on a journey with the Emperor's Dream to the Dragon Star Sector to confront the Orc Empire."

“I was there.”

Kasgar finally spoke up—he rarely mentioned this past event to anyone: "I was there the day Horus used the Three Wonders of Horus to save the Emperor."

Tianlongxing District.

Finally, the Shadowmoon Wolves, who had been patrolling the Tianlong Star Region for a long time and had cleaned up countless planets that were being ravaged by the Orc Empire, found the wandering planet—Goron.

A fleeting opportunity.

Horus, of course, seized the opportunity—countless ships of Expeditionary Fleet Sixty-Three, laden with firepower and Space Marines, launched a precision strike against the enemy core that was spewing out orcs.

But I've never fought against them.

Horus served in the Great Crusade for a century, and he witnessed the rampage of the orcish aliens, even defeating these silly, savage aliens head-on.

Their warships were like a jumble of rubbish piled up together, and their tactics were simply reckless.

Although Horus caused him some trouble in the early stages of his expedition, he was quickly defeated by Horus's steady and methodical approach.

Orcs are not a particularly troublesome enemy.

As long as the tactics are well-commanded and the basic skills are up to standard, even if the opponent's military strength on paper is higher than your own, it is not difficult to defeat those guys who only know how to endlessly pile up the number of orcs and the broken copper and iron warships.

—But this time the orcs are piled up too many, too ruthlessly.

There are really too many.

Only then did the Shadowmoon Wolves see the true face of the creature they were about to face:

The orc fleet was never the trash they had imagined.

Instead, it's even bigger garbage.

Super trash big enough to change the course of the battle and influence the entire outcome.

Ancient giant.

With their unimaginable sorcery, the orcs dragged back the rusted hulls of ships floating in the starry sky and welded them into enormous ancient junk.

A pile of scrap metal that no one could recycle had miraculously come back to life through the strange patchwork stitching of these filthy orcs.

The super battleship, pieced together from unimaginable scraps, started moving in absurd fashion and unleashed an unimaginable torrent of firepower at Horus's expeditionary fleet.

If it weren't for the presence of the Mechanicus Sage in the fleet at that moment, anyone would probably suspect that Omnisea was on the side of the Greenskins.

As for those ancient, seemingly sinister-looking behemoths guarding a planetary fortress of unprecedented scale and openwork design, that is, the fortress of the planet.

The rugged surface of this asteroid is covered with enormous orbital guns and dense minefields.

Goron has been fully armed by the orcs.

Moreover, when Geron was attacked by Shadowmoon Wolves, countless orc warships scattered throughout the star sector quickly returned to provide support, as if they had received some unique signal.

This is something that no one could have imagined.

The Orcish Empire has never been as powerful as it is now; they never imagined that the Orcs could assemble such a ridiculous and utterly absurd junk ship.

This is completely contrary to scientific and rational thinking!

Alas, the truth of the Empire.

Although the expeditionary fleets had experience fighting the orcs, they viewed them as a persistent spore-like disease rooted in the planet, rather than a powerful enemy that required their full strength to deal with.

And clearly, everyone is now paying the price for underestimating their opponent.

The frenzied firepower from the orc warships relentlessly approached Horus's ship—space was instantly filled with lasers, torpedoes, and explosions leaving behind a trail of devastation.

Meanwhile, as the orc warships approached, countless orc lads could no longer contain their urge to have a good fight. They hastily activated their crudely made jetpacks and boarded the expeditionary fleet's ships to begin their boarding action.

Amidst the fierce fighting, Shadowmoon Wolf unusually showed signs of weakness.

The Green-skinned warships are superior to the Shadowmoon Wolves in both numbers and firepower.

At the same time, although it sounds rather insulting, the truth is that the commander of the orc fleet seems to be slightly better than them.

This makes it even harder to accept.

"what!"

With a bang, in a moment of desperation, Company Commander Abaddon slammed his fist on the brass edge of the round table.

(End of this chapter)