The heaven and earth changed drastically. The structure of real space could not bear the burden and made a dull sound. The light of ether spread across the sky, like cracks.
The Word Bearers' ritual has been completed, and the Blackstone Demon Crown reverses the anti-warp force field of the Vigilant Star, turning it into an amplifier.
The violent force of the Aether poured out from the void of the Warp, tearing apart the fabric of time and space.
The huge waves of the subspace swept in with a terrifying trend that the world could not imagine.
The psykers were all wailing.
The force of oppression is too strong for humans to bear.
Only by closing your mind can you get rid of those endless illusions.
The most intuitive change that everyone can see is that the curse scar that was originally confined to the edge of the galaxy is beginning to move inward.
The mad waves of the Great Rift are gradually approaching, and are about to swallow up the Alert Star.
On the surface of the planet Sentinel, as the Black Stone Crest established by the Word Bearers began to operate, phenomena of reality collapse began to appear in large numbers around the world.
It serves as a key channel connecting the dark side of the empire in the north and the holy territory of the empire in the south.
The real space inside the Nakmond Corridor has always been a coveted area by Chaos demons.
However, the existence of an anti-subspace force field prevents them from entering this realspace.
At best, they can only appear briefly through various blood sacrifice rituals.
Now, they have found a breakthrough.
The dam that maintained reality finally collapsed, and the minions of the gods poured into the real universe like an uncontrolled flood.
An unprecedented disaster broke out on the planet Alert.
And in the eastern mountains, at the final ritual platform, Abaddon and Calgar are about to decide the outcome.
"Are you sure?" Calgar looked at the torn sky.
In the end, he failed the Imperial Regent.
The Vigilance was reversed, and the Empire was literally split in two.
All areas have been invaded by Chaos.
The only way to make up for the mistake now is.
Calgar looked towards Abaddon.
Killing this great enemy of Chaos might make the Primarch forgive his incompetence.
"Go to hell!" Abaddon roared, and the magic sword in his hand released an extremely strong evil light.
The aura emanating from him became increasingly terrifying.
Abaddon thrust his sword with all his might.
This sword pierces from the lost past.
This sword is thrust out from a future that has never been determined.
This sword pierces out from the trajectory of destiny.
Abaddon mobilized the blessings of the gods and the power accumulated over ten thousand years.
What he wants is to kill someone with one sword.
One sword will decide the outcome.
This is a big gamble.
As long as we win, the battle is won.
However, there is no good ending for gamblers.
Calgar had already completed the second Primaris upgrade, and his physical fitness and strength had been greatly enhanced, surpassing the limits of mortals.
Space Marines are called supermen by mortals. They are so strong that ordinary people don't have the courage to resist.
But Space Marines still belong to the human level.
Even though they are at the pinnacle of human body modification, Space Marines are still just mortals.
Calgar is different, he is already a demigod.
A true demigod.
The Emperor's Angels battle engines have been fully activated and equipped with terrifying capabilities.
When Abaddon attacked for the first time, Calgar used his ability to teleport.
With this elusive ability, he easily defeated Abaddon.
Let them know that the empire is no longer what it used to be.
And now, Calgar directly overloaded the combat engine to comprehensively enhance his strength.
The power fist mounted on his hand made a crackling sound.
After charging, Calgar punched out.
The speed was so fast that Abaddon only felt his vision blurry for a moment, and then he could feel nothing.
With just one punch, Abaddon flew out again.
He was wearing a set of Terminator power armor from ten thousand years ago. It was extremely heavy and was blessed by the gods. Many powerful wizards had infused their power into the armor.
But Karga blew up the power armor's built-in shield and the chest armor's shield with just one punch, and sent Abaddon flying more than ten meters.
You can imagine how powerful Calgar’s punch is now.
The Terminator armor containing infinite power was shattered by a single punch.
Abaddon wanted to stand up, but after several attempts, he fell down again weakly.
"Waste." Karga repeated again.
Abaddon, who had just clamored to kill Calgar and let Guilliman taste the pain of losing his offspring, suddenly vomited blood.
With just one punch, he fell to the ground and couldn't get up.
Abaddon became even angrier, and his reason was almost overwhelmed by anger.
But he just couldn't stand up. Calga's punch was so terrifying that he couldn't move at all.
The only thing he could do was to look fiercely in the direction of Calgar.
Karga walked up to him, intending to execute him directly.
But the next second, a strange blood-red flame appeared out of nowhere and quickly covered Abaddon's entire body.
Following a bright blood-red light, the elite soldiers and the warmaster of the Black Legion on the battlefield disappeared.
Seeing that the Warmaster was no match for Calgar, the wizards used dark magic to take him away.
If Abaddon dies here, the Black Legion will surely fall apart.
For this, Abaddon must be alive.
Whether it is for the gods' benefit or their own.
Abaddon must live.
Calgar roared angrily, calling Abaddon a coward.
But there was no sound responding to him.
Abaddon, who had just been arrogant and clamoring for Calgar to die, fled the battlefield in a panic.
The wizards of the Black Legion wasted no time as they teleported Abaddon directly back to the Vengeful Spirit.
Right now, things aren't going very well for the Spirit of Vengeance.
The Imperial Fleet's attack was too fierce.
A large number of Chaos ships have been destroyed, leaving only burning wreckage in the void.
The Chaos fleet suffered heavy casualties and was completely defeated by the Empire.
The Glorious Queen-class ship, the Vengeful Spirit, had been invincible, using extremely accurate artillery fire and temporary void shield reinforcements to block every shell, light and torpedo from the Empire.
From the perspective of the Imperial Navy, this Chaos vessel was literally invulnerable.
In fact, the Vengeful Spirit is no longer the Vengeful Spirit of the past.
It has been blessed by the gods and transformed and upgraded by countless wizards and followers of the Dark Mechanicus.
Abaddon also secretly formed a team of Chaos wizards proficient in prophetic spells within the Spirit of Vengeance and connected them to the warships.
This prophetic team performs prophetic rituals continuously while also communicating directly with the Fire of Vengeance's defensive fire control system.
This way, the Vengeful Spirit can predict enemy attacks and remain invincible.
However, the firepower of the imperial fleet brought by Calgar was too terrifying.
The massive Imperial fleet combined their overwhelming firepower to overwhelm the fire control systems of all Chaos ships, including the Vengeful Spirit.
The Chaos wizards used for prophecy were driven mad by the fragmented future caused by the huge number of Imperial ships, and they let out an extremely piercing scream.
After the severely injured Abaddon returned to the Vengeful Spirit, he ordered a retreat.
Soon, the flagship jumped into the warp and disappeared without a trace.
The Chaos Warmaster will return one day in the future to continue his eternal war against the Imperium.
At this moment, he has failed.
But Abaddon was not discouraged.
He has failed many times and has been defeated many times.
But now, he is still here, and those people have long gone.
Perseverance is a virtue, and so is dormancy.
Anger is necessary, but meaningless anger is not worth promoting.
Abaddon admitted that this time Calgar had defeated him.
If Karga thought he had won, he was sadly mistaken.
This is a long war, for everyone.
A temporary victory or defeat is meaningless.
Who can achieve final victory is the most important thing.
The duel failed.
But Abaddon's goal had been achieved.
The ritual of the Blackstone Crown has been completed.
The anti-warp force field has also been reversed into a warp amplification field.
The Nakmund Corridor will be closed within a few months.
Without the corridor that runs through the Great Rift, Guilliman has no way to support the Dark Side of the Empire.
Only half of the empire remained.
After all, it was Abaddon, the warmaster chosen by the four gods, who won.
It’s just the difference between winning more and winning less.
With the departure of the Spirit of Vengeance, the Chaos Fleet also completely lost its last courage to resist.
They also evacuated.
However, the departure of the Spirit of Vengeance also had some terrible consequences.
One of the most basic principles of subspace navigation is to use powerful energy to tear reality apart.
For a giant ship like the Queen of Glory class, the space-time rift it requires would be extremely large.
In this universe where the Great Rift is approaching, reality has long been on the verge of collapse.
The rift in reality created by the Spirit of Vengeance when it teleported away did not heal as it had before.
The corrective forces in the universe can no longer close the subspace rifts, and can only allow the slit lamps to exist.
The huge gap created by the Spirit of Vengeance resonated with the cursed scar and merged with the catastrophe brought about by the previous Blackstone Demon Crown ritual, forming an even larger chaotic vortex that spanned the entire galaxy and flashed with blue-green light.
Some of the Chaos ships that tried to escape were torn apart in this accident, directly torn apart by the distorted warp and real space.
The Black Legion withdrew, but unfortunately the threat of Chaos was not completely eliminated.
The minions of the gods can now ignore the limitations of the real universe and freely enter and exit the Alert Star. They are even amplified by the Alert Star, an oversized subspace power amplifier, and gain even stronger power.
Today, Alert Planet is a world on the verge of destruction.
Calgar still has to save the world and find a way to prevent the closing of the Nakmond Corridor. Otherwise, he really doesn't know how to face his genetic father and how to explain that he threw away the other half of the empire.
The dying Jace was taken back to Great North City for treatment.
Many imperial troops who fought bravely were commended by Calgar.
However, the situation is not very good.
Calgar convened an emergency meeting to prepare to conquer the Alert Star.
The Empire's ships were anchored in the planet's low-Earth orbit, and a large number of drones and gunships were continuously dispatched to attack the ground while collecting information from all over the planet.
Many hives are no longer under the control of the human empire, but are controlled by alien and chaos forces.
Like other worlds of the Imperium, the wealth of Vigilance is held by a group of noble families and ruling elites.
Most of these people have followed Lucian XII to join Chaos.
This means that they are targets that must be eliminated.
In addition to the nobility, there are also mobs and alien churches.
The mobs have lost faith in imperial rule.
When disaster struck, the nobles abandoned their duties.
They gathered all the wealth and supplies accumulated over thousands of years beneath their own high walls, storing enough water and food to last them a hundred lifetimes.
They then locked the gates tightly, keeping the people and workers out.
Assassins and troops were also hired to suppress malicious gatherings of the people.
They were required to work hard even though they were hungry, with loyalty to the emperor and the dream of the great rejuvenation of the empire. They were not allowed to hold gatherings with malicious intent, to slack off with malicious intent, to say they were hungry with malicious intent, or to demand a pay raise with malicious intent.
These actions severely harmed the civilians of the empire, who had completely given up their illusions about the empire and, at the instigation of various churches, launched a surging resistance movement.
The dragon's nest, which relied on the dragon volcano for energy, was the first to launch a rebellion.
There are very ancient local beliefs here.
People believe that volcanoes bring them hope.
This indigenous belief is called the Fire Cult.
However, people do not know which god this belief points to.
Only the Warp Demons would know that, in addition to the conventional cognition of transformation, magic, and knowledge, the Tzeentch Demon is also the Warp entity that is closest to the image of fire.
This means that the person the Fire Worship Church in Dragon's Nest has always been pointing to is Tzeentch, the God of Change.
Until now, the devil has been unable to fully materialize due to the backlash of the black stone here.
It was not until the Great Rift that they were able to exert influence over mortal believers.
When the Word Bearers' ritual of the Blackstone Crown was completed, the demons were free to roam.
They emerged from the flames and lava, responding to the desperate believers who did not know what was ahead.
Faced with the devil's instigation, the believers quickly began their own holy war.
Countless slaves rose up to fight for their "true God" and for their future.
Led by the Fire Worship Church, which worships the God of Change, Tzeentch, civilians filled with hatred for the Empire destroyed the Dragon Volcano, causing the eruption of the largest active volcano on the planet Sentinel.
The gushing volcanic ash once again polluted the already extremely poor living environment of the Alert Star.
As a result, the entire sky was covered with volcanic ash, as if it were the end of the world.
In other hives, the Genestealers formed the Order of the Poor Princes to pursue slogans such as freedom, democracy, and equality, and quickly grew stronger in the crisis. They controlled the Eastern Mountains and the largest water source on Vigilance.
Those water sources have been mixed with biological poisons, and people who drink them can easily be controlled by the hypnotic psychic power of the Genestealers.
In order to avoid becoming food and slaves of the Zerg, people were forced to abandon those water sources.
As a result, a serious water shortage crisis has occurred.
The minions of the God of Plague did not miss the chaos on the Vigilant Planet.
The people, lacking water, were forced to pray to every god they could think of.
And the "merciful" god of plague responded to their request.
A great demon of Nurgle named Rainfather responded to the mortals' request.
This great demon is not much different in appearance from the other great demons born from the image of the benevolent father Nurgle himself.
The only difference is that he is more generous and more eager to respond to requests from mortals.
As the Great Unclean One moved forward, a massive rainstorm fell on the Warning Star.
People came out of their hiding places in ecstasy to welcome this timely rain.
Civilians, imperial soldiers, and half-breed followers of the civilian prince were all in ecstasy, drinking the rain that fell in this miracle.
However, the gift of chaos comes at a heavy price.
Their death came extremely slowly, and over the next few days, tens of millions of people's bodies swelled and oozing pus.
Gray ichor oozed from every orifice in their bodies.
Many victims even gave birth to Nurglings within their bodies.
Hundreds of millions of Nurgle zombies roam the hive, craving for the flesh and blood of the living, performing real scenes of zombie survival.
When the chaos and bloodshed on Vigilante reached its peak, the hot winds of war summoned another kind of evil.
The people who had everything taken away from them vented their anger without restraint.
The dark disciples who believe in the Blood God use various means to catalyze the anger of the masses.
The demons of Khorne have entered reality in various war zones.
Some demons rise from pools of blood, while others appear ritualistically in acts of violence.
Some were summoned by the anger of the desperate people themselves.
A wave of angry civilians poured into the noble district and tore the nobles apart.
The brutal and bloody atrocities were the last straw that broke the camel's back for a reality that had already reached its limit.
At the same time as the nobles were smashed to death by the crowd with their bare hands, a blood-red slanting light appeared out of nowhere, and then the Brass Legion, eager to kill, tore open the curtain of reality and descended into the hive city.
Soon, the entire hive was completely destroyed by the Khorne demons, and skulls piled up like mountains.
Slaanesh Daemons also appear throughout Vigilance.
They are summoned by the most extreme emotions by the sensualists.
The nobles of each hive abandoned the people they were supposed to protect and joined the great plunderers.
Catalysed by betrayal, the cruelty of the great plunderers, and the fear of death, they quickly corrupted themselves.
They gathered together for a revelry without limits, indulging themselves in the depravity of doomsday.
As the energy of the Black Stone Polishing ritual rips reality apart, these acts of debauchery attract a gaze beyond this world.
Those nobles died at the hands of the devil or became one of them.
In addition to these demons, there are also dark elves and orcs from all over the world.
They have also caused enormous damage and losses to mankind.
The situation on the alert planet was so bad that no one could do anything about it.
"We have to conquer Saint Port City first. Whether from a personal sentiment or a strategic location, Saint Port City is the best target. They have the largest airport and a giant track connecting various hive cities. And from a personal sentiment, the Lucian family is the first to betray. It was their betrayal that caused the complete collapse of the loyalist front, and a large number of soldiers and civilians were killed."
An Imperial officer with a bandaged head spoke first.
When it comes to the Lucian family, his hatred is almost tangible.
If it weren't for this family, the loyalists would never have suffered such heavy casualties.
Calgar reviewed the information given to him by various departments and the army.
The situation in every hive is not optimistic.
The Blackstone Crown Ritual tears apart the barrier between reality and fantasy, causing the Nakmond Corridor to become increasingly fragile, and in the end, it may even disappear.
Before that, he must find a way to stop it all.
"Do you also support conquering Saint Port City first?" Calgar looked at everyone and asked.
"Saint Harbor City can attack or defend, and can quickly transport troops to other hives via tracks. It is an important strategic hive city. If we can take it, it will be of great benefit to us."
Jace, who was barely able to move, also sat in his seat and expressed his opinion.
Others also expressed their agreement.
Calgar thought for a moment and finally decided to deal with the matter of Saint Port City first.
After confirming everything, Karga gave the order to attack.
With the development of the empire's current industry and technology.
Many previous strategic models have been abandoned.
They marched on foot, then built artillery positions, dug trenches, and then sent out assault troops to take down the city.
Now, it is integrated warfare.
First there was a round of artillery fire to suppress the situation.
Then send heavy tanks, knights, and infantry regiments over to attack directly.
As the order to strike was issued, the imperial troops quickly took action.
A huge teleportation platform was quickly built in the square of Jubei City.
As energy was poured in, all the instruments began to hum.
The huge reaction column flickered, then became coherent, forming a pillar of light.
The energy array emits a light that stings the eyes.
A huge, twisted ball of charged light appeared on the platform.
The tentacles, shining with intense light, danced wildly in the air, twisting as if they had life.
The mechanical priests adjusted each parameter, and the light ball gradually stabilized, and the distorted surface became as smooth as a mirror.
The originally three-dimensional light ball formed a light mirror without thickness.
It's like a part of the higher-dimensional universe projected into the three-dimensional universe.
A part of it has extended to the higher-dimensional universe, connecting the space between the two places and forming a teleportation light bridge.
The troops entered in an orderly manner.
Tank formations, Knight Titans, and well-prepared gunboats, etc., flowed into the light hole like a tide.
A brutal fight thus began.
The Black Legion's main commander has already been defeated, so the remaining Chaos forces are naturally not a threat.
Soon, the Imperial Loyalists broke through the defenses of Saint Port and entered the city.
The exorcist team composed of battle sisters and the state church uses new equipment that can draw on the power of the Emperor to drive out demons.
Brilliant golden light would occasionally appear in the hive, followed by the screams of demons.
Lucian XII, who was hung on the city wall, was rescued by other nobles at the last moment and re-elected as leader.
Under Abaddon's orders, the demons tortured him with every cruel means possible, but would not let him die.
Just let him suffer and let those stupid nobles know that warriors are the best people to rule this galaxy.
Many nobles were afraid of getting into trouble, so they distanced themselves from him.
When they learned that Abaddon had been beaten and forced to flee by the Empire and that the Empire had returned, the nobles thought of him again.
Rescue him quickly and use him as the backbone.
Faced with the Empire's powerful army that could crush him in an instant, the dying Lucian XII had no choice but to surrender again, hoping to be forgiven.
"Holy Emperor, please forgive the sins of foolish people. Merciful Lord of Ultramar, Lord of the Limits, please forgive our sins." Lucian XII and many nobles knelt in front of Calgar and made a humbly request.
He completely forgot that not long ago, he was clamoring that the Chapter Master of the Space Marines was not worthy of ruling the Empire.
Only these elites are the backbone of the empire.
Whoever they choose is the winner.
It now seems that the direction of the victory compass will not change because of their choice.
Their so-called popular will is somewhat ironic.
The Imperial loyalists were beaten back by Chaos due to their disorganized command and weak logistics, and were finally stabbed in the back by these idiots, nearly collapsing, with countless casualties.
After these nobles surrendered, Abaddon was beaten and forced to flee in disgrace.
Whoever these idiots surrender to is doomed to failure.
Calgar had already heard about the evil deeds of this group of nobles from other people.
The Vigilance Star is in such a bad state, and they bear the greatest responsibility.
They enjoy power without fulfilling their obligation to protect civilians and instead oppress them excessively, leading to civil unrest.
"Hang them all on the city wall, just like the great looters did in the past. Even though they are enemies, I have to say that he left me a good way to punish you bastards."
Calgar had all the nobles hung up to show the empire's determination to the whole world.
This approach can win over some civilians who have not yet completely fallen into the abyss.
They just hated the rule of the nobles and did not really want to join Chaos.
All Calgar had to do was show that the Empire would change its previous bad situation.
When Lucian XII heard Calgar's verdict on him, he screamed in horror, "You can't do this!
”
"Of course I can. I can do everything I think is right." Calgar said, "This is just the beginning. The Empire is already fed up with you damn rubbish."
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Solar system, planet Terra.
As a ruler, Guilliman's job is never easy.
Even with the assistance of Penny and others, he still had a lot of urgent government affairs to deal with.
The empire is facing crises everywhere, and countless citizens of the empire are desperately turning to the void for help.
Guilliman must respond to them in time, otherwise, in desperation, they will turn to Chaos or other messes.
This is something that cannot be blamed.
Survival comes before all else.
If the empire is unable to protect those worlds, it cannot blame those worlds for leaving the empire.
Guilliman dispatched as many troops as possible to help the trapped worlds and drive out the enemies of humanity. At the same time, he issued orders to expand the military and required all units to expand their forces.
Especially for the Primaris Space Marines, Guilliman relaxed the original rules of the Codex, allowing each chapter to expand to a legion size of 10,000 people.
He also secretly injected pure human gene seeds without the Primarch as an anchor into those legions to prevent the Horus Heresy from happening again.
The Heart of Guilliman was strengthened several times, increasing the detection of the user's loyalty and the detection of human identity.
As long as these two are not met, Guilliman's Heart will be closed, or even reversely clamp the user.
Ordinary armies use thought stamps to strengthen control, implanting the idea of absolute loyalty to the Empire, loyalty to humanity, and hatred of Chaos.
In order to avoid any accidents, Guilliman, after careful consideration, did not include any personality cult in the latest thought stamp database.
Some followers of the State Religion proposed to join the absolute loyalty to the Emperor, but Guilliman directly rejected the proposal.
The cult of personality can easily be distorted.
If the Emperor finally succumbs to the faith of mankind and degenerates into an evil god, the army stamped with the stamp of absolute loyalty to the Emperor's ideology will inevitably be implicated.
By then, the consequences will be disastrous.
At the same time, he listed the thought stamping technology as the empire's highest technical secret.
Any organization or individual, regardless of their identity, once discovered to be secretly researching thought stamp technology or using thought stamp technology, will be declared excommunicated and traitorous, and any individual involved will be directly sentenced to death.
Most of the power or senior personnel of the State Religion have been controlled by Guilliman.
However, the struggle between the factions was too complicated for Guilliman to stop.
He couldn't waste time on such things, so he could only ban the outflow of thought stamping technology.
Preventing some radical sects from using this technology to develop their beliefs would be an absolute nightmare for humanity.
To do this, he had to prepare for a rainy day.
Standing on the balcony of the Senate on Imperial Terra, Guilliman, freed from the busy government affairs, overlooked the changes on Terra.
The reconstruction work is basically complete.
A large number of old buildings have been demolished and rebuilt to provide better living environment for civilians and workers.
Terra's natural environment has also recovered well.
The long-lost forests and oceans reappeared in mankind's sacred homeland.
With the emergence of a large number of new technologies, most tasks can be completed through intelligent systems controlled by the Shennao system, and human beings have once again entered a digitized rational society.
Small hover cars and personal projection communication devices are also becoming popular.
The improvement in personal living standards is so great that it feels like a lifetime ago.
The Terra of today and the Terra of the past are completely two different worlds and two different eras.
Guilliman developed a complete system of wealth distribution to ensure that every class could get their fair share of the pie.
Businessmen, workers, scientific researchers, and entertainers all play an important role in human society.
When wealth is overly tilted towards any one class, it will lead to social problems.
Only when everyone can have a share of the cake can we stimulate the motivation of the entire society, form a virtuous feedback, and allow human civilization to continue to develop.
The empire should not be a military empire of warriors, nor an empire of workers and peasants, nor should it be a capitalist empire of businessmen and entertainers.
The Empire should be the Empire of all.
Every position has its meaning.
Advocating that any class or group make sacrifices to satisfy the interests of another group can certainly bring about accelerated development, but it will ultimately distort society and turn it into a situation of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Terra's comprehensive basic education is also being promoted, and Guilliman stipulates that everyone must have certain cognitive and learning abilities.
He must make everyone aware of their rights and obligations in order to inspire their love for the empire and support the existence of the human empire.
Ruling an empire is not a piece of cake.
Guilliman is not the protagonist of a happy story.
It is impossible to defeat all enemies by one's own strength.
Even if we take a step back, what would be the point of Guilliman killing the four gods in an instant
When the four gods fall, countless chaos gods will stand up again, endlessly.
Only by solving the problem from the root can mankind break free from the control of the gods and move towards a true future.
This is also the reason why Guilliman hates the cult of personality and refuses to add the ideological seal of absolute loyalty to the Emperor to the army.
The Great Wall was not built by the First Emperor.
The Roman Empire was not the work of Alexander alone.
The construction of the Egyptian pyramids was not completed by the pharaohs.
When people fall into the cult of personality, they often ignore the ordinary people who make sacrifices behind the scenes.
The Emperor created the Imperium, he created the Astartes.
What has sustained the empire for ten thousand years are the countless sacrifices of soldiers and officers, the men and women who bravely fight for others.
Their blood and ashes filled every gear in the machine of destiny, allowing the empire to survive.
Civilization belongs to all its members, and so do its merits and achievements.
Guilliman withdrew his gaze and after dealing with the final matters, he was about to leave Terra.
An administrative system with Penny as the main body has been formed.
As long as nothing goes wrong, the smooth operation of the empire can be guaranteed.
He couldn't continue to stay in Terra and ignore other places where he was needed.
Guilliman took a deep breath, stretched his fingers and let out a long exhale.
At this time, a soft electronic voice came.
His personal database received a communication request from Sicarius.
Following Guilliman's confirmation order.
The projector in the office started working.
After a few flashes, Sicarius' image appeared before Guilliman.
"I am sorry to interrupt your work. My lord, the person you were going to see has arrived."
“The Custodes?” said Guilliman.
"Yes, he's already outside waiting for you."
"He's early. The time we agreed on should be an hour later."
"He said he was happy to wait, but I thought it would be best to inform you."
"There are many annoying things in this world, but being early is definitely not one of them. Let him in. I just want to relax from the busy work."
"Yes, sir."
The projection flickered a few times and then disappeared.
The office returned to peace.
Guilliman walked to his seat, organized the words he would need later, and thought about what attitude he should use to say these words in order to achieve the effect he wanted.
The mechanical door opened easily under balanced pressure.
A royal guard wearing golden armor appeared before him.
It was Valerian, with whom he had talked several times before.
The dull thump of combat boots on marble echoed through the office.
"Regent of the Empire." Valyrian saluted Guilliman.
"You're welcome, Shield Captain-Valerian. I'm glad you responded to my call." Guilliman said with a smile.
"It is my duty," said Valyrian.
"You can sit in the chair in front of me. You don't have to feel restrained."
"No, I'm more used to standing. It helps me concentrate and think."
"Then it's up to you." Guilliman gave up trying to change the other party's mind. The Imperial Guards would never be changed since the day they were created.
"Why have you summoned me here, my lord?" Valyrian asked.
"You are very resistant to change, so I need to ask, the Empire has a lot of new technologies, maybe you can choose some to enhance yourself. Valanor said he would not accept any changes, but he gave you the power of freedom, you can choose whether to continue to strengthen yourself."
"The Guards are already perfect enough, we don't need any changes." Valyrian said decisively.
"Are you sure?" Guilliman asked meaningfully. "I don't know if it's because you haven't been active in the galaxy for too long, or because you don't trust me. But no matter what, you have to admit that the Custodians are slowly being eliminated, the Empire is changing with each passing day, but you stick to tradition and refuse to change."
"We are strong enough, my lord, you don't have to worry about that." Valerian said unmoved.
"You just think you are powerful. The enemy will not do things according to your ideas." Guilliman shook his head.
"If this is all the regent wants to say, please forgive my intrusion. I have no intention of continuing the conversation."
Valyrian refused to communicate further about the matter, causing Guilliman to shake his head and talk about something else.
"In that case, I won't force you. I just hope you won't regret it when the crisis comes. At this stage, there is a mission that requires the participation of the Custodians. This matter is very important and cannot be refused. The person I choose from the Custodians is you. There will be people from every department involved, including the Sisters of Silence, the Grey Knights, the elite of the Chapter, the Sages of the Mechanicus, and so on."
"May I ask what it is?" Valerian asked.
"You will know once you go to Mordor. The team will gather there. Your mission is to follow them and return to Terra safely. Write down all your experiences and submit them to the relevant departments and me."
"Is the mission so simple?" Valerian frowned, somewhat puzzled.
"I've told you, this is just your perception, the enemy won't think so. This mission is extremely confidential, and Grand Marshal of the Guards Valanor has already agreed. You can go directly there, and someone will tell you the details of the mission when you get there." Guilliman took out a document with the seal of the Grand Marshal of the Guards on it.
Valerian looked at it and saw no problems.
But the confusion in his heart still could not be dispelled, and he asked again without giving up.
"What exactly is this mission?"
"A mission that could change the future of the Empire." Guilliman did not respond directly to him, but just said it indifferently.
"Enough to decide the future fate of the empire?" Valyrian asked repeatedly. He became more and more curious about this mission, but Guilliman obviously didn't want to say anything more to him.
"Go, and you will find your answer in Mordor," said Guilliman.