Chapter 505 - Plan

The Staff of Torment, this Chaos artifact once belonged to the daemon Prince and Marquis of Mutilation, Sa'Rakkkk.

Fabius Bile defeated him, destroyed him, and the daemon Prince's body and power were integrated into this staff.

The profane evil power of an entire daemon Prince slammed into the Primaris Head's back. The Primaris Head let out a muffled groan, a crack was torn in his power armor, exposing his flesh to the spikes at the tip of the Staff of Torment.

This Warp-infused evil power drove the pain amplifier within this vicious staff, injecting an irresistible, scorching pain into the Primaris Head's body.

Fabius Bile did not want to kill the Primaris Head; he was a valuable experiment and an important hostage. Fabius hoped to exchange him with Cawl for source code of the blood. Even if Belisarius Cawl was unwilling to exchange, the Primaris Head itself contained extraordinary intelligence.

So Fabius chose to subdue the Primaris Head with pain. The pain amplifier in the Staff of Torment was not only driven by Warp evil power but also incorporated technology Fabius acquired from the Dark Eldar Haemonculus. No one in this galaxy understood how to inflict pain better than the Haemonculus.

Fabius Bile's Staff of Torment had never failed.

He took a slight step forward, intending to collect his spoils.

The Primaris Head struggled to get up from the ground, the Staff of Torment falling to the ground with a thud, leaving only a small wound in his flesh.

"…" Fabius Bile took a slight step back.

There was no sign of the Primaris Head being affected by pain, which completely exceeded Fabius Bile's expectations.

Bile hurriedly drew the needle pistol from his waist, which contained anesthetic drugs Fabius discovered in the ruins of Nuceria. He aimed at the wound torn in the Primaris Head's power armor by the Staff of Torment ——————

But at this moment, the Primaris Head turned his head, and boundless terror emanated from the emerald eye lenses of his helmet. In an instant, the Primaris Head seemed to transform into a beast waiting to hunt in the dark, rainy night, rushing towards Fabius Bile with a wind of fear.

Konrad Curze's gene sequence. This thought flashed through Fabius' mind, but his body was unable to move at this moment.

Fear, a fear from the soul, swept through Fabius Bile's entire body, rendering him immobile.

The Primaris Head was also terrified. Belisarius Cawl's training allowed him to instantly identify the pain amplifier in the Staff of Torment.

He was just a hair's breadth away; the effect of the umbilical gas in his body had less than a minute left. If Fabius Bile had acted any later, the Primaris Head might have truly collapsed.

The Primaris Head silently thanked Saint Doraemon for his blessing.

Then, his figure transformed into a crimson storm, a deadly Psyker surge swirling around his power sword, thrusting towards Fabius Bile's neck.

He intended to kill with one blow.

The silver meadows danced under her weaving, incense, dust, smoke, blood, pleasure, musical notes — everything revolved with her steps, everything like the dancing stars in the celestial wilderness, everything like washing silk and burying flowers in a dream.

Obscene instruments played bizarre rhythms, like birds burning with fire screeching sharply, and falling petals scattered from the silver trees, landing on the spiraling horns extending from her jade-white forehead.

Twisted demonic phantoms emerged from the forest, drooling, coveting her blood and flesh, spirit and beauty.

But she was strong enough; her withered father had bestowed extraordinary power upon her, the Phoenix Lord had plucked her from the tides of the Warp, and the Prince of Pleasure had elevated her with gold, silver, pleasure, and beauty.

The daemons dared not act rashly, touching her alluring body, only daring to follow behind her, prostrating themselves on the ground, sucking up the dew on the silver grass that had just touched her toes.

Suddenly, her footsteps stopped, abruptly, like an electric shock interrupting pleasure before climax.

The daemons wailed at the cessation of her steps, but she showed concern.

A gentle inspiration suddenly arose in her mind, silently urging her to pay attention to her withered father.

She followed the link between soul, blood, creator, and created, casting her gaze towards the real universe.

She saw twenty gene sequences sprouting like seeds, intertwining to form a constantly burning fruit. That fruit extended burning arms, stabbing towards her withered father.

She let out a horrified sigh, her golden fingers like sharp claws tearing open the barrier between reality and the Warp. It was all so smooth, like a hot knife cutting through butter, as if divinely aided.

"Fabius." She lightly called her father's name, her figure appearing instantly on Murder Star, blocking the Primaris Head's path.

The figure was so beautiful, like a human but utterly different, her body, enveloped in translucent gauze, was slender and captivating, her toes delicate as pearls yet revealing a hint of bestiality, her ankles so slender they seemed to snap with a touch, her legs, encircled by carapaces and scales with a mithril-like sheen, intertwined. The torso above her pelvis possessed both feminine curves and masculine slenderness.

Hair like white bird feathers cascaded over her jade-like shoulders and back, and nestled within the thick, straight hair was a delicate skull meticulously designed by Fabius. Her skin was translucent white, her nose small and exquisite, her eyes crimson like blood mirrors. Upon closer inspection, one could discern traces of Fabius Bile's handsome youthful face.

And between her strands of hair, a pair of smooth black horns, covered in crimson runes, spiraled, curling around the sides of her skull, adding an air of demonic allure.

Golden claws shot out, directly striking the Primaris Head's face —

She let out a muffled, bitter groan. The Primaris Head's sharp blade pierced her shoulder, and Psyker fire fiercely burned, scorching her painfully.

And her claws touched the Primaris Head. Just as she appeared, a feeling, an inspiration, urged her to swing her claws, and then the claws perfectly sliced through the Primaris Head's helmet.

The helmet disintegrated, revealing the face beneath. That face was so ordinary, so plain, it was hard to imagine it was the product of twenty Primarch gene sequences. But if someone who had seen Cawl's youthful face in the past were here, they would surely be surprised to find that the Primaris Head's face bore some resemblance to the Cawl of old.

Just as the demonic woman standing before the Primaris Head bore some resemblance to Fabius.

"Melusine." Fabius softly spoke the name of the woman before him.

She was Fabius Bile's first true creation, Fabius' firstborn. She was born from a nutrient vat, not naturally grown and then modified by Fabius. Fabius watched her grow from a fertilized egg to an embryo, then to an infant, and finally a young girl.

She was also Fabius' most perfect work, a true Abhuman, with the potential to replace Old Men.

But unfortunately, the Warp snatched her from Fabius' hands. At this time, Melusine was already a daemon Prince. Fabius rarely saw her, and each time he did, Fabius suffered at how deeply his child had fallen, how much more of her was demon, and how much less was human.

Yet, even so, when Fabius was in danger, Melusine often intervened to protect Fabius. Just like now.

Fabius Bile raised the needle pistol in his hand, the anesthetic from the ruins of Nuceria ready to fire. He aimed at the exposed neck of the Primaris Head.

His actions were almost without thought; an inspiration that erupted in his mind drove him to act this way, urging his needle pistol to aim at the Primaris Head's neck.

Everything happened naturally.

The Primaris Head saw Fabius aiming the needle pistol at him, but the effect of the umbilical gas receded at this moment, and the pain caused by the genetic defects struck, causing the Primaris Head's movements to falter.

The needle pierced between flesh and blood, and the anesthetic was pumped into the Primaris Head's body.

The Primaris Head's body fused the gene sequences of twenty-one Primarchs, including that of Mortarion, Lord of the Death Guard. He should have possessed extraordinary drug resistance; even orally ingesting complex poisons would only produce a reaction similar to slight intoxication.

But under the effect of that anesthetic, the Primaris Head actually experienced intense dizziness. He retreated a few steps, then with a thud, he was knocked out and fell to the ground.

"..?" Fulgrim, holding the forge breaker, having just smashed Horus' head, looked at the fallen Primaris Head with a bit of confusion.

Others might not know the Primaris Head's identity, but how could Fulgrim not know?

The Primaris Head contained the gene sequences of twenty legions, directly from the Primarch gene sequences in source code of the blood.

Then, he was knocked out by a single anesthetic shot.

What kind of anesthetic is so potent?

When did Bile create such a heaven-defying drug?

If he rushed over, would he also be knocked out by a single shot?

Although worried, Fulgrim still took a step, transforming into a purple hurricane and rushing towards the fallen Primaris Head.

"DON! ! ! ! Horus is dead, but step-dad is still here! ! !"

Abaddon's massive body, like a towering black wall, directly blocked Fulgrim's path. A lethal light flashed on drach'nyen in his hand, colliding with the forge breaker in Fulgrim's hand, and a wave of air rolled out.

drach'nyen itself was momentarily stunned. It had suddenly felt an impulse, an inspiration, telling it that exerting more force at that moment would lead to a good outcome.

But... why would it suddenly have such a thought?

As a demon born from humanity's first murder, drach'nyen's intelligence, power, and understanding of the Warp were among the most supreme on this battlefield.

It detected a slight sense of incongruity and suspected that it was being manipulated.

And drach'nyen knew that in this universe, when you suspect you are being manipulated, you most likely are.

But who did it? Tzeentch?

Was it caught in the Lord of Change's grand plan?

Or perhaps... the Emperor?

Or perhaps drach'nyen calmed down, no longer thinking deeply.

Regardless of whose great hand was manipulating things, since that entity wished drach'nyen to exert force, drach'nyen resolved to comply.

Let them scheme, for he, drach'nyen, was merely a sword.

Just as Fulgrim was blocked by Abaddon and drach'nyen, Fabius Bile hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed the Primaris Head from the ground.

Melusine also let out a muffled groan, taking the opportunity to pull the power sword from her shoulder. The wound on her shoulder healed in the blink of an eye.

"Daughter, help me." Fabius Bile pleaded.

Without Fabius needing to speak, Melusine directly grabbed Fabius and pulled him into the surging Warp.

By the time the scene before Fabius' eyes became clear, he was already standing in his abandoned laboratory on Murder Star.

Belisarius Cawl's massive body lay across the laboratory, countless Mini-Dora suspended around him, helping him dissect the corpses before him.

As his inspiration burst forth, Mini-Dora continued to generate and sprout around him.

Belisarius Cawl heard the sound of Warp teleportation. He slightly turned his head and saw Fabius Bile, and also the Primaris Head beside Fabius.

Belisarius Cawl's sole remaining fleshy eye trembled for a moment, but he quickly shifted his gaze away from the Primaris Head, seemingly unconcerned.

His gaze was instead drawn to Melusine. He scanned Melusine, then glanced at Fabius: "What is she?"

"My most perfect work, my daughter, my firstborn, a true Abhuman capable of replacing Old Men." Fabius Bile smiled slightly, wrinkles subtly shifting on his pale face.

"Oh, I only see a fallen daemon Prince." Belisarius Cawl said with disdain.

"Is that so? Don't you think these horns are cute?" Fabius Bile asked with a smile.

Melusine, standing beside Bile, instinctively reached out and touched her horns. Fabius' praise seemed to make her happy.

"Oh, if you're trying to show off your work, then I have nothing more to say. You've already seen it." Cawl said, glancing at the Primaris Head.

"Indeed!" Fabius' tone rose slightly: "I don't often praise others like this, but I must say: Cawl, you are a genius!"

"I have great respect for you. You have created a wondrous being, extraordinary. Truly, extraordinary. The Primaris Head, a false name—he is not Primaris, but another, greater creation."

"You have fused the gene sequences of twenty-one Primarchs within him; these gene sequences have never before been fused together. If it is truly as the legends say, that each Primarch's gene is a part of the Emperor and the Primarch Mother's extraordinary sequence, then your act of integrating twenty-one Primarch gene sequences is roughly equivalent to..."

Fabius smiled slightly, not directly stating what Cawl intended to do:

"A act of madness, an act of genius, and more importantly, you actually accomplished it! But unfortunately, fusing the gene sequences of various Primarchs must have consumed most of your intellect. You were unable to repair those gene sequences, and some minor problems were retained. Coincidentally, I am equally knowledgeable about Primarch gene sequences."

"Cawl, you may not know, but the gene sequence of Angron, number twelve, has a slight defect: he lacks resistance to specific anesthetic components."

"Your Primaris Head also inherited this trait, and was knocked out by the anesthetic I used, which came from Nuceria."

Fabius rattled on for a while until Melusine gently nudged him with her elbow, reminding him that it was not the time for rambling. Only then did he stop.

Fabius took a deep breath, suppressing his excited tone:

"Sorry, I get too excited when I see excellent work."

"Now, let's discuss terms!"

"Cawl, my dear friend, I want your true vessel."

"I want your source code of the blood," Fabius Bile said, staring at Cawl.

"Oh?" Cawl seemed quite unconcerned: "What do you offer in exchange, Pater Mutatis?"

Cawl uttered the word in high gothic that deified Fabius.

The creatures Fabius created believed in him, revered him so deeply. It was said that this faith, mixed with the blight residing within Fabius, constantly grew, already forming some kind of secondary existence in the Warp.

The Abhuman created by Fabius called him Pater Mutatis, the God of Abhuman, symbolizing the physical and mental deformation and distortion, representing the twisted new branches sprouting from old corpses.

But Fabius Bile refused to be called that, refused to be worshipped as a god.

"I am not a god," Fabius Bile said with a smile.

Cawl's mouth twitched slightly a few times, looking at Fabius with a peculiar gaze.

Melusine, standing beside him, also shook her head slightly, seemingly a little helpless.

"As for what to exchange?" Fabius pointed to the Primaris Head beside him: "Of course, I'll exchange it for your most perfect creation."

Belisarius Cawl glanced at the Primaris Head indifferently: "He is actually a failure."

"You can destroy or dissect him at will, I don't care. I can create even more perfect works."

"..Yes, none of us are people who will stop moving forward. We all long to create more perfect works, and believe we can do it," Fabius Bile agreed, but he quickly changed the subject: "But you must admit, Cawl, some works have extraordinary significance to us, just as Horus Lupercal was to the Emperor."

"You love him, Cawl, I can see it," Fabius stared at Belisarius Cawl. The backpack behind him, known as the Surgeon, unfolded, and a poisoned scalpel was pressed against the Primaris Head's temple.

"This thing comes from the Haemonculus of the Dark Eldar. As long as it is inserted into his body, this scalpel will grow on its own, turning into iron thorns that penetrate every inch of his flesh. It will be a very painful death."

"Then, his soul will be sacrificed to the so-called Lord of Hunger, so that he cannot even be resurrected by you in other ways. I am sorry to do this, my time is not abundant."

Fabius Bile glanced at the laboratory door. Outside this abandoned laboratory, Fulgrim was trying to break through Abaddon's defenses.

Cawl could still negotiate, but Fabius knew that Fulgrim would not hesitate.

To protect source code of the blood, Fulgrim would not mind sacrificing the Primaris Head.

"I don't care, you can do that, but I will kill you the next moment," Cawl's voice rose slightly. The Mini-Doras under his robe surged out, surrounding Cawl.

Fabius merely smiled, then moved the scalpel closer to the Primaris Head's temple.

Cawl's gaze darkened slightly. He could kill him, fast enough. The Mini-Doras gave him extraordinary power; he could kill Fabius before Fabius killed the Primaris Head.

"Don't do that, it won't benefit either of us," Fabius seemed to see through Cawl's thoughts: "Believe me, even if you kill me, the Surgeon has enough autonomy to kill your creation."

Melusine, standing beside Fabius, also gently squatted down and placed her finger on the Primaris Head's face.

"Even if he isn't killed, I will send him into Slaanesh's court."

Cawl fell silent.

Fabius indeed had an excellent grasp of his psychology. Cawl might indeed be able to take Fabius' life before Fabius killed the Primaris Head, and he might also be able to save the Primaris Head before the Primaris Head was killed by the Surgeon. He even thought he had a chance to save the Primaris Head before Melusine sent him into Slaanesh's court.

It's just that Cawl had to take this risk, abandoning the safety of the Primaris Head to protect source code of the blood.

Cawl originally thought he would make that decision without hesitation.

The value of the Primaris Head was undoubtedly not as great as source code of the blood. The Primaris Head was his private property, while source code of the blood belonged to the Omnissiah Emperor. Cawl had no right to hand over source code of the blood, and even if he didn't hand over source code of the blood...

But Cawl still hesitated, feeling an urge to use source code of the blood to ensure the safety of the Primaris Head.

He felt a strong sense of shame for this, and at the same time, his fingers couldn't help but tremble slightly. In his long years, this was the first time he felt powerless.

Cawl lowered his head slightly, intending to refuse.

+ Agree to his request +

A voice from the Empyrean directly reached Cawl's mind. In front of Cawl's eyes, the round blue figure flashed by.

Agree.

Belisarius Cawl's robe wiggled slightly. A mechanical arm took out source code of the blood from under his robe and silently placed it on the table beside him.

"A wise choice," Fabius smiled and nodded, also letting out a sigh of relief in his heart. He actually couldn't guarantee that Cawl would agree; he was just gambling.

Melusine vigilantly moved her hand away from the Primaris Head. Belisarius Cawl slowly approached the Primaris Head.

Both moved incredibly fast. They brushed past each other. In the blink of an eye, Cawl had already embraced the Primaris Head with his mechanical arm, and Fabius Bile had picked up source code of the blood with his withered fingers.

Fabius Bile gently shook source code of the blood in his hand, his violet eyes appreciating the blood within, as red as a gemstone.

"So beautiful, the Emperor's wisdom is within it, the Primarch's mystery is within it," Fabius exclaimed involuntarily.

Melusine gestured for Fabius to retreat, but Fabius held up his hand and shook it, signaling Melusine to wait a moment longer.

"Cawl, Belisarius Cawl, I see extraordinary potential in your Primaris Head, but I don't understand what you want him to grow into, what exactly are you trying to create?"

Fabius Bile asked softly:

"Tell me, what is he to you? Satisfy my curiosity, Cawl."

Belisarius Cawl, holding the Primaris Head with his mechanical arm, slowly raised his head, glanced at Fabius, then lowered his head to look at the Primaris Head.

What is he?

He is the Primaris Head, but this is a lie, a lie Cawl fabricated to conceal its true existence.

A Primarch? No, he's far from it. A true Primarch is far more complex than this.

A great experiment? But that experiment ultimately failed.

Or, is he the embodiment of Cawl's hubris? The crystallization of Cawl's intellect? Cawl's most blasphemous act in his life, or...

"My son, he is my son," Belisarius Cawl said softly and frankly.

All his will, nerves, simulated thoughts, and complex emotions, designed, superimposed, and attached to his essence, were cast aside.

At least at this moment, he was not the loyalty of the Omnissiah Emperor, not the Archmagos of Mars, not the saint of Saint Doraemon. At this moment, he was just Belisarius Cawl, the father of the Primaris Head.

"I understand," Fabius Bile nodded slightly: "I feel the same about my creations—"

"You don't understand!" Cawl's voice suddenly became agitated: "He is not some deformed child you haphazardly pieced together. His... his gene sequence is incomparably complex and complete. He is directly derived from twenty Primarchs... He... a part of me is in his genes."

"He... he is the continuation of my life. I created him from myself, not just from the Primarch's gene sequence. He is my true son, and I love him."

"Melusine, a part of me is also in her gene sequence. I watched her grow, I nurtured her. She is my daughter."

Fabius looked at Cawl and said:

"And not some deformed child haphazardly pieced together."

"Oh," Belisarius Cawl lowered his head.

Then, he slowly raised his head and looked at Fabius: "Give me the Clone Primarch technology."

...?" Fabius hesitated for a moment, looking at Cawl with a hint of strangeness: "Is it necessary? The corpse I left you contains most of the knowledge you need, and besides, I left you a cloned Horus corpse outside. Is it difficult for you to unlock the secret of the Clone Primarch?"

After saying this, Fabius glanced at the Primaris Head in Cawl's arms, seemingly understanding something.

Fabius took an iron canister from the Surgeon on his back. A lump of flesh floated inside the iron canister.

"This contains the complete Clone Primarch technology."

"You could be more frank with your son," Fabius Bile said, looking at Belisarius Cawl.

"What about me!" A pleasant voice suddenly rang out. At the laboratory door, a handsome man in purple-gold armor with pale hair stood, staring at Fabius with violet eyes.

"Fulgrim," Fabius said softly, then, "I cannot be both your son and your father."

The moment the words fell, Fabius' figure, along with Melusine, vanished from the real dimension, disappearing without a trace.

Belisarius Cawl paid little attention to Fulgrim and the departing Fabius, only looking at the Primaris Head held between his mechanical arms.

Various compound drugs were injected into the Primaris Head's body by Cawl, stimulating the Primaris Head's immune system to rapidly break down the anesthetic.

A moment later, the Primaris Head awoke. His superhuman mind rapidly processed the surrounding information.

He noticed Fulgrim's somber face, detected the recently dissipated Warp fluctuations in the air, and immediately understood what had happened.

"You exchanged me for source code of the blood?" he asked with a complex tone.

However, Belisarius Cawl merely sneered: "Exchanged you for source code of the blood? No!"

The Archmagos dropped the Primaris Head and stood up, grabbing the iron canister Fabius had left on the table with a mechanical hand.

"I exchanged source code of the blood for the complete Clone Primarch technology!"

"I have already unlocked most of the secrets within source code of the blood! This is a very worthwhile trade!"

"Fabius! You scoundrel!"

Eidolon's roar came through the comms. He bore some scattered wounds.

And beside him was Hellbrute Abaddon, half of his body twisted by a heavy hammer.

When Fabius Bile left Murder Star, he hadn't informed Eidolon and Abaddon at all. He had simply teleported and fled.

Fabius understood Eidolon's character.

If Fabius didn't run away quickly, Eidolon would definitely try every means to imprison Fabius and use Fabius' intellect to treat his own problems.

So Fabius abandoned them, following a sudden inspiration, and slipped away first to this remote fringe of the galaxy.

"Didn't you also not suffer very serious injuries?" Fabius said airily: "As for Abaddon, the Warp has given him extraordinary resilience. Even if Rogal Dorn were alive and hit him in the head with a power fist, he might not be able to kill him."

"Don't worry, once I complete my analysis of source code of the blood, I will naturally help you heal your problems," Fabius smiled slightly and cut off communication with Eidolon.

"Melusine, thanks to you I was able to seize source code of the blood," Fabius said, looking at Melusine beside him, speaking earnestly to his child.

Fabius disliked convoluted personalities. He always preferred to express his thoughts sincerely, especially to his children.

Fabius couldn't quite understand why Cawl was so convoluted. Had he not learned his lesson from the Emperor?

Melusine was slightly embarrassed by Fabius' praise. Countless daemons in the Warp praised her beauty, pursued her, and longed to possess her, but only her father's approval could touch her increasingly twisted mind.

She gently reached out and touched the horn on her head, looking out at the boundless void through the viewport.

This star system was desolate and empty, with only a few sparse, uninhabited planets revolving around an aging star.

"Is it safe here?" Melusine asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

Here, apart from Fabius' ship itself, there were no protective measures.

"source code of the blood is coveted. My original strongholds are no longer safe."

"It's better this way, in a star system on the edge of the galaxy, just picking one randomly by feeling, it's harder to be tracked."

As he spoke, Fabius Bile looked at source code of the blood surrounded by mechanical arms.

The outer shell, storing the Primarch's gene sequence, was slowly dismantled under the control of the mechanical arms.

The scent molecules of fresh blood slowly diffused and wafted in the air.

Fabius' lips slowly curved into a smile.

However, at the same time, in this barren star system, beneath the surface of a desolate planet,

A chrysalis, wrapped in chitin, slowly wiggled a few times. Claws tore through the chrysalis, and a slender lictor slowly emerged from the ground.

It stood upon the thin atmosphere, its sensory system detecting that wisp of blood scent transmitted from the distant starry sky.

Hungry. Hungry. Hungry.

Fabius Bile chose this star system to hide in, guided by an instant feeling, intuition, and inspiration.

This star system was empty, had never left any trace in the galaxy, possessed almost no resources, and didn't even have a name on the Imperium of Man's star charts.

No one cared, no one paid it any mind.

But what Fabius didn't know was that a small xenos race had once been born in this star system.

Through a serendipitous burst of inspiration, this race discovered the mysteries within fossil fuels, creating roaring internal combustion engines with their meager resources, and gradually developed a worship of the howling power within engines, believing in the ethereal V8 Power God. Their civilization had developed to a level close to Earth's 20th century.

However, due to a lack of critical resources and technology, this xenos race was never able to leave their homeworld and venture among the stars, at most barely reaching nearby moons.

But decades ago, this unfortunate race met its end.

The Leviathan hive Fleet, which had been repelled by the Blood Angels at Baal, had a very small number of tendrils that survived, escaping the Scarlet Scar region and fleeing towards the galactic rim. They happened to pass through this star system at just the right time.

The ravenous Tyranids swarmed the planet where this race resided. Even a small remnant tendril was insurmountable for this weak race.

The Tyranids devoured the planet. That race prayed to their V8 Power God, but received no answer. Eventually, the entire planet was consumed by the remnants of the Leviathan hive Fleet's tendrils.

However, this planet was too barren, and the engines this race created were extremely inefficient. They had consumed and wasted a large amount of resources in vain. The resources the Tyranids extracted were just enough for this tendril to survive, but not enough for them to continue hunting among the stars.

So, this tendril chose to hide beneath the surface of the planet they had devoured, encasing itself in an egg sac and entering hibernation, awaiting an opportunity to revive or merge with other tendrils.

But this star system was truly too barren, and without passing through the Warp, traveling here required traversing the even more barren and dangerous Scarlet Scar region, where the Blood Angels' homeworld, Baal, was located.

After the Battle of Baal and the Battle of Hades decades ago, the Tyranids hive mind had been utterly shattered. It had personally intervened in that battle and suffered a massive loss, and now it absolutely refused to go near the Scarlet Scar region.

This hive Fleet tendril was thus trapped here, remaining in long-term slumber underground.

Originally, everything should have remained that way.

But when Fabius Bile arrived in this desolate star system and activated the source code of the blood within it, everything changed.

The aura of the divine gene sequence awakened the Tyranids sleeping beneath the surface.

A lictor broke out of its chrysalis. Its body emerged from the earth, its sharp head looking towards the stars, its sensory system capturing the scent wafting through the air from both realspace and the Warp.

It smelled lightning, like an alley in a deep city at midnight, a flash of lightning tearing through the sky, only ghostly shadows in the puddles, raising a fearful night wind.

It smelled red sand, like the sweat of slaves dragging iron chains across a desolate land, slaves raising blades, breaking shackles, destroying cities and burning lands, yet ultimately reduced to ashes.

It smelled arrows, like centaurs trampling the stars, bending bows and nocking arrows, an endless Expedition ravaging countless worlds, burning star rivers far and wide, moon wolves howling, arrows shot, without regret or resentment.

It smelled scrolls, like countless documents piled into dense mountains, toiling tirelessly, working endless overtime, order flowing from these documents, outlining a nation.

The lictor took a deep breath, savoring twenty scents swirling in its sensory system. This scent, following its link with the hive mind, was transmitted to the shadow-like hive mind.

The shadow writhed, hunger flowing. It coveted that extraordinary gene sequence.

Its will spanned the stars, reaching this desolate planet.

Beneath the earth, the Tyranids in their egg sacs began to awaken.

But these creatures did not immediately burst forth from the ground. Instead, they flew towards the hive Fleet's bio-ship slumbering deep within the earth. The first lictor that had emerged also burrowed back down.

Countless Tyranids dissolved in the hive Fleet's biopool, pumped through capillaries into the Norn Queen deep within the hive Fleet's bio-ship, awakening this mother of fate who wove the Tyranids gene sequences.

The Norn Queen wriggled her tendrils, spreading her body. Biomass began to be consumed rapidly. Coffin crawlers emerged from sphincter ducts, pumping genetic material into the Norn Queen's head.

Millions of different genotypes began to flow within the Norn Queen's body. The Norn Queen began to cut and twist these genotypes, creating suitable species.

The Norn Queen desired to create a Norn Emissary, to have the Norn Emissary seize that extraordinary gene sequence.

But the biomass required to weave a Norn Emissary was astronomical. All the biomass in this small tendril was insufficient to shape a single Norn Emissary.

She could only settle for less, shaping a lictor, and doing her best to fulfill the demands of the hive mind.

+ It must be able to traverse the vacuum, silently reaching that voidship +

Good, good. To cross the vacuum, it can generate a void-resistant pod to encase its body. The pod can burn biomass to form high-pressure gas, expelled through sphincter ducts to achieve movement in a vacuum.

A large amount of biomass was consumed, stored to supply that lictor for its void traverse.

+ Its body must be both large and small, yet also light, making no sound when walking on metal floors, able to silently pass through gaps between pipes and machinery. +

Good, good. Both large and small, yet light, able to pass through gaps between pipes and machinery. It will have complex, foldable joints, and hollow bones to reduce its weight. To ensure silent movement, soft pads will be added to its feet, and its outer skin will be modified into a three-dimensional reticulated foam structure that can deform with nearby structures, allowing it to squeeze into gaps between pipes and machinery.

+ It must possess extremely strong stealth capabilities, not just optical stealth, but also stealth in terms of scent, sound, and psychological aspects. +

Good, good. Optical stealth is a lictor's specialty and must be retained. For scent, the odors it emits will be stored in its three-dimensional foam skin, ensuring no scent leaks out. Sound will also be absorbed by the foam structure. Psychological stealth...

A large amount of biomass was rapidly consumed. After hundreds of thousands of attempts, the Norn Queen wove a colorless, odorless pheromone that would not trigger any type of sensor. This pheromone would affect the brains of creatures, causing them to psychologically ignore this lictor.

+ And Psyker power, powerful Psyker power. While possessing extraordinary Psyker power, you must also ensure that you are not detected when using it. +

Huh?

The Norn Queen's thoughts froze for a moment. She was just the Norn Queen of a small tendril, merely responsible for a small sub-fleet within the Leviathan hive Fleet. Her capabilities were far inferior to her sisters who commanded entire grand fleets.

The hive mind's demands even caused her thoughts to stall for over ten minutes.

A large amount of biomass burned. Millions of gene modules began to be repeatedly cut, reshaped, and integrated. Through countless attempts, the Norn Queen finally managed to create a Psyker organ that met the hive mind's demands and could be fitted into that specially made lictor.

+ Strengthen the link with the hive mind. No need to inject intelligence. The hive mind will personally control this body. +

?

The Norn Queen's movements stalled for a moment. She was somewhat at a loss.

Her experience told her that with such a long-distance link, there would be a certain delay between the hive mind and the lictor's body. Although extremely short, it still existed and could easily become a flaw and a weakness.

But the Norn Queen ultimately did not possess true will. She submitted to the hive mind's wisdom and wove the lictor's gene sequence.

A large amount of biomass rapidly burned. The Norn Queen's body visibly withered. Large areas within the hive Fleet's bio-ship also began to be shut down, dismantled, melted into biomass, and injected into the pool to cultivate this truly terrifying lictor.

The orange-yellow embryonic sac shattered, and claws slowly emerged from the pool.

This lictor was born: capable of generating a pod to traverse the vacuum by expelling gas through sphincter ducts, with a foldable skeleton that was both large and small, a hollow skeleton for a light body, padded feet to reduce movement noise, three-dimensional reticulated foam skin that could squeeze into gaps and pipes while also eliminating scent and sound, pheromones to achieve psychological stealth, a massive Psyker organ that would not cause obvious Warp reactions when releasing Psyker power, and remotely controlled by the hive mind.

Puff puff puff, Damn Damn, snap!

The hive mind controlled this lictor as it burst from the ground. A pod formed on its body, burning biomass to create high-pressure gas. With a whoosh, it flew out of the atmosphere, silently approaching Fabius Bile's ship, and adhered to its surface.

The pod shattered, and the lictor hooked its claws onto the ship's exterior.

With its Psyker power, its body slightly blurred, allowing it to instantly phase into the ship's interior.

Upon entering the ship, it quickly folded its body, squeezing into the ship's pipes. The padded feet and three-dimensional reticulated foam skin eliminated almost all sound, allowing it to move silently through the ship, searching for that extraordinary and alluring gene sequence.

Soon, the lictor found that extraordinary gene sequence.

It saw Fabius Bile.

The shell doctor on Fabius' back unfolded, and various experimental instruments were detecting and researching the mass of blood suspended in zero gravity before him.

His violet eyes were filled with joy and pleasure. Boundless wisdom was revealing itself to Fabius Bile within this gene sequence.

The Abhuman, servants, and daemons nearby looked at Fabius Bile with trepidation, either kneeling on the ground, huddled in corners, or trembling with fear.

Only Melusine, standing in a corner of the room, dared to fix her goat-like eyes on Fabius.

On Fabius' back, within the Empyrean, as Fabius' experiments progressed, a twisted, massive cocoon writhed. Within the cocoon, a grotesque, deformed figure could vaguely be seen trying to break free. The figure was withered, twisted, and malformed, like a spider yet also like a butterfly. Around this figure, countless strange and deformed beings could be faintly seen.

"The mutated father (the progenitor)," Melusine softly murmured the figure's name.

In the Warp, in Slaanesh's court, many daemons had once chanted this name: Father of Abominations, God of Distortion and Mutation, Lord of Evolution, symbolizing the twisted new birth that breaks free from the old cocoon.

Even the arrogant Slaanesh daemons, when chanting Fabius' name, were filled with reverence and fear, as if they were discussing not a human, but a god awaiting birth.

According to Melusine, among all the Astartes, only Ahriman and Fabius enjoyed this treatment. Of course, Slaanesh daemons didn't often discuss Ahriman, because Ahriman truly knew who was talking about him.

If the content of the discussion displeased him, it was best never to leave the core area of Slaanesh's palace, otherwise, uncle Ahriman would truly fly over in a disc, snatch the daemon away, and throw it into Saint Doraemon's pocket as a performance bonus.

He is about to be born. the mutated father (the progenitor) is about to be born.

Melusine stared at the Warp projection behind Fabius, her fingers trembling slightly.

As long as Fabius unlocked the mystery of the Primarch, he would ascend to become the mutated father (the progenitor).

Those Abhuman clearly felt it too.

"The mutated father (the progenitor) above us," the Abhuman in the laboratory spontaneously began to pray.

Bang ——————

Fabius put down his scalpel, his wrinkled face faintly showing anger.

"I am not a god."

"What are you kneeling for?"

"I created you to replace the old humans, not to repeat their mistakes."

"How many times have I told you, abandon superstition! There is nothing in this galaxy that reason cannot answer!"

Fabius roared, feeling quite agitated.

As soon as this group of Abhuman prayed, his inspiration seemed to jam, unable to progress at all.

"Get out! All of you, get out!" Fabius yelled.

The Abhuman, servants, and restrained daemons dared not resist, lowering their heads and timidly retreating outside.

Melusine sighed. She knew Fabius was currently in a very agitated state and needed a quiet environment. Melusine felt she shouldn't stay in the room either, so she nodded slightly to Fabius and also retreated outside the door.

The hive mind, controlling the lictor, felt joy. This was a heaven-sent opportunity.

It's done!!!

The invisible lictor swiftly pounced on Fabius Bile, who was analyzing the source code of the blood.

In the Warp, in Saint Doraemon's domain, the Moon-Viewing Platform, in Xiao Fu's house,

Watching the lictor pounce on Fabius Bile on the screen, Omnissiah. Xiao Fu couldn't help but punch the air with joy.

"It wasn't easy!! It finally happened!!" He shouted excitedly.

But next to him, Alexander's expression was slightly peculiar.

Under the control of the hive mind, the cloaked lictor instantly pounced behind Fabius Bile.

This Tyranids assassin didn't even stir a ripple in the air.

Blades cut through the air, and a scythe-like claw hooked around Fabius Bile's neck.

The head of the Emperor's Children's chief apothecary, the creator of the Abhuman, flew into the sky, then hit the ceiling, bounced back, and landed with a thud on the ground.

Fabius' body seemed not to have reacted yet, swaying, taking a step back, then collapsing to the ground, the blood flowing from his neck staining the floor red.

It was effortless.

The lictor's figure materialized in the laboratory, allowing Fabius' still-conscious head to see it.

This Tyranids creature raised its two massive scythe-claws high, a gesture that, to any creature, clearly signified celebrating victory.

Yes, this was certainly worth celebrating.

The blood that made the hive mind drool.

He once pursued one of the twenty genetic sequences in this blood, and He paid a huge price for it but failed to obtain it.

Now, by merely using a lictor, He easily obtained twenty equally powerful genetic sequences.

How could He not celebrate this victory?

He wanted to modify and dissolve these twenty powerful genetic sequences, using them to create a brand new node creature.

This creature would transcend all Tyranids, incorporating the very existence of the hive mind, radiating and linking all Tyranids beyond distant stars, becoming the node of nodes, the lighthouse of the hive.

He was filled with joy, controlling the lictor, about to absorb the crimson blood suspended in mid-air—

CRACK!!!

Fabius Bile's headless corpse, lying on the ground, suddenly moved.

To be precise, it was the mechanical backpack surgeon on Fabius Bile's back that moved.

One of the surgeon's mechanical arms instantly unfurled, and a needle jabbed violently towards the lictor.

Such an attack, relying on the lictor's neural reaction speed, should have been avoidable.

But this lictor had no will of its own; it was controlled by the hive mind across the Warp.

That slight delay became a fatal flaw.

The needle pierced into the lictor's skin; its specially designed three-dimensional mesh foam structure skin was indeed light, soft, sound-absorbing, and odor-absorbing, but it was inferior to the skin of normal Tyranids in terms of defensive performance.

An anesthetic from Nuceria was injected into its body, rapidly spreading through the three-dimensional mesh foam skin like a sponge soaking up water.

This anesthetic even almost unimpededly permeated the lictor's hollow bone structure; this lightweight construction, replicated from the Tau's genetic sequence, instead helped the anesthetic flow into every corner of this body.

But the powerful immune system inherent in Tyranids was still at work; its glands began secreting various hormones, attempting to counteract the effects of the anesthetic.

However, the composition of this anesthetic was unheard of and unseen by the Tyranids; there was no record of it in the Tyranids's memory banks.

For a time, the various glands within the lictor's body were unable to secrete corresponding hormones.

In fact, even Fabius Bile himself couldn't quite figure out the specific ingredients of this Nuceria anesthetic, only vaguely perceiving that it contained some Warp technology, seemingly used in the Golden Age to capture giant semi-Warp, semi-real universe creatures like Void Whales.

And this anesthetic was theoretically highly effective against Primarchs, possibly because Primarchs themselves were equivalent to a mixture of the Warp and reality, though most Primarchs possessed a natural immunity to drugs and weren't so easily sedated.

And this lictor, in essence, was also a hybrid of a real-universe Tyranids beast body and the hive mind in the Warp.

This anesthetic also erupted with targeted effects, making the hive mind feel as if thin membranes had formed between itself and this lictor, making control over this Tyranids beast much more difficult.

The lictor stumbled back a step, then with a crunch, its body went numb, and it fell to the ground.

But the lictor had not yet been completely knocked out; its immune system was rapidly breaking down the anesthetic, and the hive mind was swiftly regaining control of this Tyranids.

It was indeed numb, but only a little, and only for a short while.

But a short while was enough to be fatal.

The laboratory door was torn open by golden claws, and Melusine let out a banshee-like shriek, swirling in silver gauze, rushing like a hurricane to the lictor's front.

Claws pierced into the lictor's brain, Melusine's fingers exerted force, crushing the lictor's head into fragments.

This Tyranids beast, meticulously designed by the hive mind and the Norn Queen, fell to the ground, dead.

"Why so violent?" Fabius Bile smiled as he walked out from behind the door.

He glanced at his corpse on the ground, motioning for the slaves behind him to carry it out.

"I'm not really dead," he said.

Fabius, similar to Belisarius Cawl, had long abandoned the limitations of individuality, becoming an almost gestalt-like existence.

When one body died, Fabius Bile's will would be projected through a psychocrystal prism into another body, thus achieving resurrection.

The lictor had only killed one of his many bodies.

In the Warp, on the Moon-Viewing Platform, in the Kotsukawa residence.

Omnissiah Xiao Fu stared blankly at the lictor's body lying on the ground.

Just a little bit, just a little bit more.

Numerous secret calculations, cultivating a civilization across time to preserve a Tyranids tendril, subtly guiding the inspiration of the pieces on the board, allowing Fabius to obtain the source code of the blood, and then coincidentally encountering this Tyranids tendril, all to allow the hive mind to obtain the source code of the blood without arousing suspicion.

However, all calculations failed at the last moment, simply because...

"What hive mind! Are you f*cking playing or not?! Why are you popping champagne halfway through?!"

"The source code of the blood was practically fed to your mouth!!! And you f*cking messed it up!!!"

Omnissiah Xiao Fu couldn't help but roar, kicking over the screen in front of him, his face contorted in rage.

Alexander, sitting nearby, also helplessly reached up to rub his head.

"You play Tyranids like the hive mind," Alexander said, shaking his head. "You'd be better off on auto-play."

All life within the Tyranids species essentially lacked true will; they were more like some kind of insectoid AI, devoid of emotion, absolutely rational, and unaffected by sentiment, but the hive mind itself was an exception.

Even though He was the collective of the entire Tyranids, perhaps the largest organism in this universe, He was ultimately a living being.

He was ravenous, would rejoice in eating, would be angered by failure, would get carried away, would celebrate, would be influenced by emotion, and as a Warp entity, His emotions were even more extreme and impulsive than those of normal creatures.

This led to many instances where battles personally micromanaged by the hive mind were fought worse than when He put the Tyranids on auto-pilot, allowing the Tyranids to command themselves.

In the original timeline, during the Battle of Baal, the hive mind personally controlled a Tyranids Lord to duel Dante, almost killing him, but then celebrated prematurely and was counter-killed by Dante.

In Alexander's more than twenty thousand dreams, the hive mind also showed extreme uncontrollability.

In the dreams, sometimes the hive mind would successfully devour the source code of the blood, and sometimes it would fail in various strange and bizarre ways, proving to be utterly incompetent.

Even this time, the way the hive mind messed up was something Alexander had never seen in his more than twenty thousand dreams.

Yet, in the dreams, using the same method, the hive mind had successfully acquired the genetic sequence from the source code of the blood.

"Brother Zhou?" Omnissiah Xiao Fu turned his head, casting an inquiring glance.

Should they continue to act?

Xiao Fu's main body was the "Omnissiah" or the Dragon of Mars, but his inner being also fused remnants of the Soul Forge and Vashtorr.

He understood the Warp and a small part of Alexander's plan.

Alexander wanted to seize the great position of greed dissolution; in this process, it was a necessary step for the Tyranids to obtain the source code of the blood and create their own Primarchs.

But at the same time, Alexander could not expose his plan, expose his desire to obtain the great position of greed dissolution, otherwise the gods and the vast majority of the Warp would furiously try to stop him.

Because once the great position of greed dissolution was born, the Dark King would bear the potential energy of three divine positions, and almost no one believed the Emperor could withstand it.

Alexander had to subtly push all of this from behind without exposing his intentions.

Now that the hive mind had failed, if Alexander were to forcefully intervene again to make Fabius Bile fall into the hands of the hive mind, it would likely be noticed.

Alexander exhaled slightly; fortunately, he had a backup plan.

Alexander looked at Omnissiah Xiao Fu, reached into his pocket with a round hand, fumbled for a few moments, then extended it towards Omnissiah Xiao Fu.

In Alexander's hand was a cage, and within the cage was imprisoned a Slaanesh daemon Prince, similar in appearance to a human, with horns and pale hair, and hermaphroditic.

The daemon Prince cowered, looking at Alexander and Omnissiah Xiao Fu with fear.

"Melusine?" Omnissiah Xiao Fu looked at the Slaanesh daemon Prince in Alexander's hand with a little surprise.

The Abhuman created by Fabius Bile, the Slaanesh daemon Prince Melusine.

"We injected her with inspiration, making her aware that Fabius Bile was in danger, and sending her across the Warp to rescue Fabius."

"But I secretly injected her with an additional inspiration, causing her teleportation direction to shift slightly, landing her in my pocket."

"..So who arrived by Fabius' side at that time?" Omnissiah Xiao Fu's tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

The only one who could replace Melusine without anyone knowing was...

"How interesting." Fabius squatted down, looking at the lictor's corpse with keen interest. "I seemed to see joy of victory in this lictor's eyes at the time. Do these bugs actually have emotions?"

"..It's the hive mind." Melusine's voice was slightly lowered, revealing a hint of fear.

Fabius paused for a moment when he heard that phrase.

"So it was the hive mind. I thought it would be an entity that only knew hunger, as cold and emotionless as the rest of the Tyranids," Fabius nodded, his expression becoming a little cautious.

"The hive mind has its eyes on you, on the source code of the blood," Melusine said with some agitation. "The Tyranids don't act alone. When we find one, it means this star system has already been occupied by the Tyranids."

"I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if we're being manipulated, but this star system is clearly unsafe now."

"You're right, Melusine." Fabius reached out, signaling Melusine not to be nervous. "I know of a star system with an abandoned Webway, which I discovered a long time ago when I was studying in Commorragh."

"We can enter the Aeldari Webway through that abandoned section and hide within the Webway."

Honestly, this plan wasn't entirely safe, as there were just as many unsavory characters in the Webway as in the Galaxy.

But at least this could shake off the hive mind's gaze and temporarily ensure safety.

"I'm almost there. Give me a little more time, and I'll unlock the mysteries within the source code of the blood," Fabius said with a hint of urgency.

"Father, please focus on your research. I'll arrange the Warp jump." Melusine gently placed her golden fingers on Fabius' back, nodding slightly to him.

"You are truly reliable, Melusine." Fabius smiled; he was never stingy with praise for his children.

Melusine's cheeks flushed slightly, seemingly shy from her father's praise.

"Check the Geller Field generator and the Warp Engine, and confirm the coordinates of the star chart," Fabius warned. "I have a vague feeling now that something is pushing all of this from behind."

"I understand, Father." Melusine nodded and exited Fabius' laboratory.

She walked quickly towards the ship's Warp Engine.

If someone was indeed behind all of this, then quietly corrupting the Warp Engine was one of the best methods.

Melusine stopped before the massive Warp Engine. She gently extended her hand, placing her slender golden fingers on the Warp Engine, attempting to use her power to check for any signs of corruption or influence within the Warp Engine.

None. Melusine completed her inspection. The Warp Engine was perfectly normal, absolutely fine.

But Melusine did not remove her hand. She stared at the Warp Engine before her, her eyes gradually brightening, and a playful smile began to appear on her lips.

"Heh!"

"I never thought I was actually Malcador's heir, the Imperial Regent changeling!"

The wisdom revealed from the source code of the blood sent shivers down Fabius Bile's spine.

His fingers trembled slightly as he stared in disbelief at the power seeping from those sacred gene series.

At this moment, Fabius Bile finally unraveled the mystery in his heart.

Why his cloned Primarchs, identical to the true Primarchs in genes and even memories, could never truly rival them.

The physical body was not everything to a Primarch. Fabius looked at the power emanating from the source code of the blood.

The source code of the blood not only stored the sequences of the twenty-one Primarchs but also samples of twenty different powers from the Warp.

Fabius extracted a trace of one.

Like fire, like ice, like howling wolf packs, like blizzards of the northern lands, like the Kraken in the deep sea, like molten giants from the earth's core, like the King of the Dead leading the Wild Hunt in late autumn.

It was a primitive and wild current of thought, a microcosm of a world of ice, fire, and colossal beasts, a fascinating experiment from the Golden Age to reconstruct ancient myths.

Fabius vaguely saw some ancient memories, seeing psyker and researchers from the Golden Age standing on a barren, snow-covered planet.

On this planet, they completed the reconstruction of ancient myths, awakening the primitive worship of ice and fire, storms and mountains, beasts and thunder among all living beings, drawing that power from the Warp.

Then...

Fabius watched humans emit savage screams, watched manes grow on their bodies, claws sprout from their hands and feet, transforming them into wolves of the snowy plains.

He saw gods born in the celestial realm, raising their goblets and letting out wild laughter, saw colossal beasts born in the sea, specters emerging from the earth, and the cold wind freezing the world-sea, sweeping towards the sea of stars and the sea of souls.

But a traveler, cloaked in a grey-brown robe, standing in the cold, suddenly appeared on the snowfield. Grand Psyker power emanated from him, sealing off the entire planet, confining the cold wind within it, turning it into a cage and a prison.

"This place is the cage of wolves," the traveler declared, then vanished into the cold wind.

No humans witnessed this scene, but the cold wind never forgot, the mountains never forgot, the wolf packs never forgot. The planet was the legend, and the legend recorded everything. That traveler found his place in myth, and his name was often heard in blizzards: "Allfather."

Fabius felt his nerves tingle and his head swell. His mind quickly comprehended what he had just witnessed.

An uncontrolled experiment from the Golden Age, something drawn down from the Warp, that traveler, "Allfather," or rather, the Emperor, confined that out-of-control entity to the land of Fenris.

Fabius gazed at the twenty samples of Warp entities residing within the Primarchs' gene sequences.

The body was merely a vessel; what was truly important was the Warp. Long before the Primarchs were born into the real universe, they already existed in the Warp.

They were chaotic storms, primitive inclinations and desires, never tamed, never truly born, but the Emperor confined them, sent them into fleshly bodies, gave them the mask of humanity, and endowed them with intellect.

Those superstitious mortals called Primarchs demigods. Fabius often mocked them, but now it seemed there was some truth in their superstition.

In fact, in a sense — though Fabius was unwilling to admit it — Primarchs were gods.

The more Fabius studied the source code of the blood, the more astonished he became by the Emperor's boldness, madness, wisdom, and extraordinary creativity. And during his research, Fabius vaguely saw things he had never seen before.

He saw threads, like a spider's web, converging from all parts of this vessel and among the stars, swirling around him.

Each of those threads connected to an Abhuman created by Fabius. Their thoughts, their emotions, their faith all converged upon Fabius.

Fabius slightly turned his head, looking behind him, at his projection in the Empyrean.

He saw that giant cocoon, which had grown from the blight spread by the Selene Gene Cult on the Moon back then, mixed with the ever-growing faith of those Abhumans and Fabius' creations in him.

the mutated father (the progenitor), Fabius' creations called this thing, believing it to be Fabius' essence.

Fabius suddenly understood. He was slowly growing into something akin to a Primarch before its birth, only much weaker than a Primarch.

But he could still use the technology in the source code of the blood to mold himself, allowing himself to be reborn in a form almost like a Primarch. He could become a new Primarch.

A slight tremor was felt, and a sense of falling and weightlessness simultaneously enveloped Fabius Bile. The cocoon suspended above Fabius' body instantly moved closer to him.

Fabius knew that just now, he and this vessel had passed through the veil between reality and the Warp, entering the Warp.

This was a common occurrence; for ten millennia, Fabius Bile had long been accustomed to Warp travel.

But this time, Fabius gently put down the experimental equipment in his hand.

He noticed something was wrong.

Quiet, too quiet. How could the Warp be so quiet?

It was as if he had not entered the turbulent Warp but was immersed in a mass of dark shadow.

Bile's expression became slightly grave. He exited his laboratory and entered the vessel's corridor.

An eerie silence permeated the vessel; almost no sounds were heard. The hum of machinery, the footsteps of Fabius' creations, all had vanished without a trace.

Fabius cautiously approached the vessel's observation window.

Outside the window, the Geller Field bubble was flickering and twisting wildly, as if desperately resisting something from outside.

But beyond the Geller Field, there was nothing.

No surging tides of the Empyrean, no eerie lights, no distorted wills, only darkness, profound darkness, absolute shadow.

Fabius gazed at that shadow. He heard it.

The surroundings were not silent; all sounds were merely drowned out by the shadow's roar.

It was a hungry, greedy, frenzied, and twisted roar. It craved to feed, to devour everything in this world.

It roared, it shrieked, it constantly tore at the Geller Engine with its claws, trying to swallow the blood from the source code of the blood, to seize the gene sequence.

It was the Warp Shadow, it was the hive mind.

Fabius' breathing almost stopped. His vessel had actually sailed directly into the Warp Shadow, colliding head-on with the hive mind.

How could this be? Fabius' will faltered.

His mind stirred, connecting to his vessel. As he expected, the Warp Engine had lost control.

Melusine. Melusine was supposed to check the Warp Engine and Geller Engine. Where was she?

Through the vessel's monitoring facilities, Fabius quickly noticed that Melusine was currently standing before the Geller Field generator.

"Father… I'm sorry… I… hurry and unlock…" A fragmented communication echoed in Fabius' ears. Melusine's voice carried self-reproach, pain, and fear.

She seemed to be in some danger.

Fabius suddenly fell into hesitation and indecision.

This vessel had sailed into the Warp Shadow, surrounded by the hive mind. It was highly likely beyond saving.

But the Geller Field could hold for a while longer.

With that time, Fabius was confident he could unravel the mystery of the Primarchs.

Melusine's recent communication was clearly also advising Fabius not to worry about her, but to quickly unravel the mystery of the Primarchs.

If Fabius unraveled the mystery of the Primarchs now, his will could still be transferred into another body, allowing him to leave with that knowledge.

Melusine or the mystery of the Primarchs? Fabius hesitated for a moment.

He glanced at the door to his laboratory; the wisdom he had pursued his entire life awaited him within.

If he went to save Melusine now, he would very likely lose his chance with this wisdom forever.

What was so important about Melusine?

She was just one of Fabius' creations, and she had already been corrupted by the Warp, losing the possibility of replacing humanity.

As long as Fabius could understand the mystery of the Primarchs, he could create beings more perfect than Melusine, more likely to replace old humanity.

But he ultimately did not step through that door; instead, he rushed towards Melusine's location.

Behind Fabius, that cocoon let out a sharp wail. The Abhumans and Fabius' creations connected to the cocoon also seemed to sense Fabius' choice.

The cocoon condemned Fabius' choice. The opportunity to become a god was right before his eyes; why would he abandon it like this? Why waste his talent?

"..When I was young…"

Fabius murmured, as if speaking to himself, and also to the cocoon behind him:

"I believed I was destined for greatness."

"My emotions were deep, my judgment calm and collected; this discernment was essential for my glorious endeavors. I recognized the value of my talent and gained confidence and courage from it."

"I firmly believed that if I wallowed in self-pity instead of making good use of my talent, it would be tantamount to a crime, for my talent would benefit all humanity."

"Just like the Emperor, the man we once called the Emperor, I could achieve a great work alongside him with my talent — creating Abhumans, replacing old humanity, realizing the great work known as the Great Crusade."

"Until that girl, my daughter Melusine, was born from the vat, and I saw her delicate and lovely face, and heard her call me Father."

"I finally realized that I could never compare to the Emperor."

"I am merely a mortal, unable to suppress my love for my daughter, even if she is not perfect, even if she has fallen to the Warp."

"I am not a god; I am a man."

Fabius' steps were hurried, his iron boots clanging on the ground, intermingling with the hungry roars from all around.

The hive mind was growing more and more urgent, more and more ravenous; it craved to feed, to feed endlessly.

Its claws ceaselessly tore at the bubble formed by the Geller Field; its tentacles wrapped around the ship, dragging it deeper into the shadows; its proboscis gnawed at the ethereal reality protecting the ship, attempting to swallow everything whole.

What a malevolent entity! The cocoon in the Warp behind Fabius also trembled slightly, fearing the existence of the hive mind.

It was precisely because of this cocoon, because of the unborn the mutated father (the progenitor), that Fabius could vaguely discern what the entity in the shadows was.

It was an eternal hunger swirling in the Warp, craving to feed, to devour everything in the universe. This craving even extended to itself; if it truly succeeded in devouring everything in the universe, then it would bite its own tail and consume itself.

This was an incomparably powerful entity; even if Fabius became the so-called the mutated father (the progenitor), he would be no match for it, and even a Primarch would struggle to defeat this monster.

But the Geller Field should still hold for a little while longer.

Bang!!!!

The moment Fabius had this thought, the Geller Field burst like a balloon pricked by a needle. From the shadows, thousands of bizarre claws, fangs, proboscises, and tentacles extended, violently piercing into the ship beneath Fabius' feet, effortlessly tearing through the ship's armor and plunging inside.

The Geller Field was breached?

So quickly?

How could this be?

No, that's not right.

The Geller Field was shut down.

Fabius froze for a moment, his expression slightly gloomy.

Melusine… my daughter…

The surgeon on his back suddenly unfurled, its mechanical blades colliding with one of the shadowy tentacles that had pierced the ship, barely deflecting the tentacle and clearing a path for Fabius.

Fabius Bile moved through the tentacles, blades, and fangs, finally rushing into the room where the Geller Field generator was located.

He burst through the door.

However, the room containing the Geller Engine generator was unexpectedly quiet.

There were no signs of a struggle, no Warp energies overflowing, only the deactivated Geller Field generator, and a hand gently placed upon it.

"…Melusine?" Fabius stared at Melusine's back, asking in a low voice.

Melusine slowly turned her head to look at Fabius Bile, a slight smile gracing her lips: "I'm here, Father."

"No, you are not Melusine." Fabius was not so oblivious as to not notice something was wrong even now. His expression was grim: "When did you replace Melusine, and what exactly are you?"

"From the very beginning, the one who arrived at Murder Star was me." Melusine clasped her hands behind her back, a sweet smile on her face, as she approached Fabius step by step.

"You truly are a respectable father. If the Emperor had your parenting skills, and treated his children as sincerely as you do, perhaps everything in the galaxy would be a little different."

"What exactly are you?" Fabius' voice became urgent, his anger clearly visible on his face: "And what happened to my Melusine?"

"…Hee hee!"

Eerie blue flames instantly enveloped Melusine's entire body, and a cunning laugh echoed from within. Birds with mocking expressions flickered in and out of sight, and nine thousand nine hundred and ninety distinct voices simultaneously taunted Fabius Bile:

"Guess, guess what my master is doing with your poor daughter right now."

"Lord of Change." Although he couldn't identify the specific identity of this demon, the aura it exuded already proved which faction of Chaos it belonged to.

Fabius let out a low growl, swinging the scepter of agony in his hand towards the constantly shifting azure flame. However, before Fabius could strike, the flame rapidly flickered several times and vanished from its spot, leaving Fabius alone in the room.

"Tzeentch!!!" Fabius let out a sharp howl, cursing the Warp's god of change with the most venomous words he could imagine, even though in the past, Fabius had never believed in its existence.

In the Warp, Tzeentch's domain, within the Crystal Gym,

Beside the Well of Eternity, the Lord of Change, with sometimes one, sometimes nine, sometimes ninety-nine heads, each wrapped in a sweat towel, exercised its bird legs while observing the constantly fluctuating waters of the Well of Eternity.

The Well of Eternity is the origin and end of time and space, the beginning and end of fate, the closing point of the Wheel of Change; everything begins, everything ends, and all destinies converge here.

People often say that Tzeentch coveted the power within the Well of Eternity, desiring the wisdom to know all past, present, and future. So he cast his Greater daemons into the well, but not one returned. Only Kairos brought back some of its wisdom, transforming into a two-headed monstrous bird that could see the past and future, seeing things even the Lord of Change could not.

But these are merely the foolish words from a mortal perspective, the true facts that mortal minds cannot comprehend, only able to be depicted through allegorical stories.

The Well of Eternity, a core part of Tzeentch's domain, is fundamentally also a part of Tzeentch.

But Tzeentch is the Lord of Change, and change is inherent in contradiction, and contradiction is an inseparable part of Tzeentch. He desires to see all things in the world mutate, change, fail, and then suddenly succeed. He dislikes endings; he only likes the process.

His internal contradictions cause him to constantly divide his own existence. He does not allow himself to possess boundless power, which would eliminate failure. Thus, his schemes compelled the three gods to force him to shatter the scepter that symbolized magic.

He does not allow himself to know everything, which would predetermine the outcome before the story even begins. Thus, he cut off the Well of Eternity, which symbolized the past and future, only expressing a very small portion of its power through Kairos.

In fact, the changeling was also cut off by Tzeentch for similar reasons, though at this moment, Tzeentch had already forgotten the changeling's existence.

Not just Tzeentch, but the gods are all doing similar things. In this idealistic dimension, every Warp god has the potential to become omnipotent, but omnipotence itself implies self-contradiction, implying boundlessness. The existence of things is defined by their boundaries; if a thing has no boundaries, then it has no existence. To this end, they limit and cut off parts of themselves, attributing them to others, thereby maintaining a stable existence.

The Blood God is like this, Nurgle is like this, Slaanesh is like this, and even Alexander, who has just ascended, is no exception.

But now the situation is special. Alexander's power is immense, and Tzeentch is attempting to reclaim some of the power from the Well of Eternity to counter Alexander.

It's just that he ultimately doesn't want to immerse himself in the Well of Eternity.

"Tzeentch!!!!" Just as the Lord of Change was pondering ways to utilize the power of the Well of Eternity, a roar suddenly echoed through the Warp.

A look of confusion crossed Tzeentch's face. He looked somewhat bewilderedly towards the source of the sound, towards Fabius.

"Huh?"

"Me? Was it me?"

"Did I do it?"

Fabius' roar echoed in the Warp, surging and reverberating, attracting the attention of entities lurking within the Warp.

The entire Warp witnessed that terrifying scene.

The shadow manifested by the hive mind for the first time revealed a hint of its form in the Warp, its twisted tentacles tearing apart the ship belonging to Fabius Bile.

Steel, fire, glass, and keel were instantly ripped to shreds, and a round, crimson drop of blood was exposed in the Warp.

Many daemons held their breath, watching the hot blood with both greed and fear, for they could all feel the extraordinary power contained within it.

The twenty-one Primarchs' forms before their birth in the material universe had samples preserved in that drop of blood, and the genetic sequences of the twenty-one Primarchs after their birth in reality also had samples preserved within it.

From within the shadow, a grotesque, twisted mouth, seemingly a fusion of millions of biological traits, extended to suckle the blood.

The ruby-like blood trembled slightly, cracking, and its genetic sequences and samples of twenty Warp powers were swallowed by the hive mind's shadow.

For a moment, a surging echo arose in the Warp, reverberating through the Warp, reality, and even the Webway.

In the Webway, Jaghatai Khan, who was hunting the Dark Eldar, slowly raised his head. The Dark Eldar let out a sharp shriek, seizing the opportunity to weave a series of malicious Warp spells at Jaghatai Khan, but those Psyker powers inexplicably vanished before they could touch Jaghatai Khan.

He could resist those murderous Psyker powers; the yin and yang around him were always balanced, a capability that even allowed him to protect his descendants.

His eagle-like eyes slowly reflected the scene of the hive mind seizing the source code of the blood.

"Yin and Yang collapsing, imminent."

Above a demon world covered in falling snow, the white-haired Leman Russ wielded the Frost Axe, cleaving open the skull of a demon. The Lord of Winter had forgotten how long he had been on this journey, but he still remembered his mission: to find the Tree of Life, obtain its seeds, and heal his father.

Suddenly, the Lord of Winter stopped his steps, slowly raising his head to look into the boundless blizzard. He saw the scene of the Tyranids seizing the source code of the blood.

"The Wolf Time is near."

On an unknown planet, two figures, wearing dark blue scale armor and similar in stature to regular Astartes, stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the scene of the source code of the blood being consumed by the hive mind.

"Such a dangerous move, how could Tzeentch be so foolish?"

"Contradiction is his inherent nature; nothing he does is surprising."

"Could it be a frame-up, by another blue god?"

"Unlikely, that was indeed a trace of Tzeentch's power, and what reason would that one have to do such a thing?"

The two figures discussed back and forth, their voices identical, their faces identical, as if one person had split himself into two and was talking to himself.

Just then, footsteps sounded from behind them, and a figure similar in height to them appeared behind them.

"Who are you?" the figure asked.

"Me? I am, of course, Alpharius."

"What a coincidence, I am also Alpharius."

"No." The figure shook his head: "You are not Alpharius."

"Because..." The figure slowly revealed himself; he also wore scale armor, and his face was identical to the other two: "I am Alpharius."

Whether in the Warp, reality, or the Webway, all the Primarchs had a subtle premonition, sensing that a tiny bit of their genetic sequence and something more fundamental had been devoured by the hive mind.

At the same time, in the Warp, all Warp entities vaguely perceived a terrifying trend.

After devouring the source code of the blood, the hive mind seemed to have mended a small part of its flaws, and its fate began to slowly close.

All Warp entities, Psyker powers, seers, and even street fortune-tellers in reality, all saw a vision at this moment:

The eternal dragon rose from the Warp, biting its own tail, coiling into a circle.

The Lord of greed dissolution, the eternal dragon, already showed signs of birth.

The Warp was filled with terrified shrieks, rising and falling.

Not only because of the signs of the eternal dragon's birth, but also because at the moment these signs appeared, the Damocles Sword, that dark sun suspended above the Warp, above everyone's heads, trembled a few times, as if it was about to fall into this world.

The birth of the Lord of greed dissolution would exert immeasurable potential energy upon the Emperor.

The Emperor would bear the immense pressure of three domains, and no entity believed the Emperor could withstand it.

Once the Lord of greed dissolution descended, it would press upon the malicious art domain, press upon the erosion and destruction domain, forcibly bringing about the birth of the Dark King.

All things would perish with it.

Just then, a sharp wail rang out.

Fabius Bile's figure appeared in the ship; shadow-formed claws pierced through Fabius Bile's body.

And on Fabius' fleshly body, the cocoon woven from blight and Abhuman faith squirmed and struggled. The unborn god named the mutated father (the progenitor) tried to break out of the cocoon, to be born in an incomplete form, thereby escaping the control of the hive mind.

But the hive mind's claws directly pierced into the cocoon, and viscous pus flowed from it.

In the real universe, countless Abhuman and strange creations, sown by Fabius on different planets, simultaneously let out wails. Their bodies began to uncontrollably mutate, twisting, turning into surging masses of grotesque flesh.

All Abhuman sensed that their creator was about to die.

The claws shredded the cocoon, and from a mass of slime, the mutated father (the progenitor), like a spider and also like a butterfly, was dragged out by the hive mind's tentacles. A ferocious mouth bit his head.

the mutated father (the progenitor) twisted his body, struggling, but it was useless. The hive mind's mouth moved slightly, and the upper half of the mutated father (the progenitor)'s body was torn apart by sharp claws. Viscous pus gushed from his body, and was then swallowed by the hive mind along with the lower half.

Fabius Bile's body was also simultaneously filled with countless tentacles; everything within his body was being devoured bit by bit.

Not only this body, Fabius realized in horror, the hive mind's tentacles were also spreading along his will to his other bodies, and even to the creatures he had created.

He was being consumed, not only his flesh and blood body, his soul, but even his very existence was being devoured, being replaced. Among Fabius' creations, the faith named the mutated father (the progenitor) was rapidly twisted, transformed into a new faith called the Clawed Progenitor, and Fabius' creations also began to show genestealers-like mutations.

And Fabius' other bodies were also gradually mutating and collapsing; the hive mind simply did not give Fabius a chance to switch bodies and escape.

The fear of impending death, the sorrow of everything he had ever done crumbling in an instant, and the resentment of being outmaneuvered, all mixed together at this moment, turning into boundless fury and hatred, spewing from Fabius' mouth:

"Tzeentch!!!!"

A furious roar resounded throughout the Warp.

At this moment, countless beings in the Warp showed expressions of sudden realization.

"So it was the Lord of Change's plan. Poor Fabius."

"How terrible, without a sound, Fabius, who could have become a lesser entity, was butchered, and the source code of the blood belonging to the cursed one and the Omnissiah was also taken and delivered into the mouth of the hive mind."

"Who said the Lord of Change's plans only ever go awry? Where did this plan go wrong? This plan is too strong!"

"Previously, the Lord of Change was tricked by the Omnissiah and the cursed one, and I secretly laughed at the Lord of Change's foolishness. Now it seems, the old ginger is still spicier."

"But the Lord of Change is truly ruthless, to carry out such a desperate plan! What exactly does he want to do?"

"It's obvious! This is forcing the Omnissiah and the hive mind into a fight to the death! To let the hive mind consume the Omnissiah's power."

"Even if the hive mind is eventually dealt with by the Omnissiah, its power will be greatly depleted, and the Lord of Change, the Blood God, and the Lord of Hunger will seize the opportunity."

"An overt scheme, too vicious! And the Omnissiah cannot refuse!"

The entities in the Warp first marveled at the brilliance of Tzeentch's plan, and then cursed the Lord of Change's shamelessness and scoundrel nature in their hearts.

His actions undoubtedly placed the entire universe and the entire Warp in the most dangerous situation.

Just as the Warp was in an uproar, Tzeentch's expression was still a bit bewildered, somewhat confused, not quite understanding what had happened.

"..So... it was me who did it?" Tzeentch muttered, bewildered.

Almost all entities in the Warp believed it was Tzeentch who did it. In this idealistic dimension, strong intentions can transform into reality.

The tides rising in the Warp stirred Tzeentch's thoughts, making him begin to wonder if he really had done it.

Tzeentch vaguely felt that some of his power had indeed been involved in what had just happened, and his instincts also made him feel that he seemed to have really done something.

"It was me who did it? It really seems so!"

"All according to plan?"

"All according to plan!"

Tzeentch's constantly changing heads all nodded in unison, seemingly convinced that what had just happened was indeed his doing.

"Tzeentch! You despicable and shameless bird-man!"

A furious roar suddenly rose in the Warp, and a round hand descended from the void, smashing towards the Crystal Gym. Countless Mini-Dora then surged towards Tzeentch's domain.

"Do you not know the consequences of doing this?!"

"Do you truly intend to bring about the descent of the Lord of greed dissolution, and let the Emperor ascend as the Dark King?!"

Facing Alexander's angry rebuke, Tzeentch cackled. Although he still didn't understand what was happening, seeing things change, mutate, and seeing the current situation exceed everyone's expectations, Tzeentch instinctively felt pleasure, and couldn't help but shout back:

"All according to plan!!!"

As Tzeentch's voice fell, in the Warp, the roar of the Blood God, the explosion of Slaanesh, and the condemnation of Nurgle simultaneously rang out, pressing down on Tzeentch's domain along with Alexander's round hand.