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Page 879
It's nothing; the turmoil on other battlefields doesn't affect us here.
The Primarch of the Word Bearers seemed to be in a better mood—ten thousand years ago, the Emperor, then a mortal, had personally proclaimed himself a god before the Word Bearers.
Ten thousand years later, the One Who Holds the Word will declare that the Dark Lord of God is now God, not God.
Fate... it's both coincidental and absurd.
Of course, this was also something that Neos tacitly approved.
Chapter 881 [323] The Battle to Protect Sanity
"Every war eventually comes down to a fight of sticks against sticks—or rather, the essence of war is hitting the other side’s head with sticks of different sizes until the person who raised the problem is physically defeated."
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They clearly couldn't comprehend what was happening in the sky.
The war between gods is always like this; perhaps the earlier struggle between Hades and the outer beings is easier to understand—
Because Pluto is always straightforward and brutal, but now the Dark Lord has descended upon this starry sky. Compared to Pluto, the Dark Lord represents something much more turbid and complex.
In human terms, it would roughly be described as the Dark Lord striking the outermost beings' vitals with a club—this is the most simplistic and foolish description imaginable.
Perhaps to put it another way, in the dimension of time that humans can observe, after a certain period of time—perhaps eternity—there will only be one of the Dark Lord and the Outer One.
The other disappeared? Was it shattered? Destroyed? Humanity cannot comprehend these things.
Mortalian's narrowed eyes reflected the living starry sky, which now resembled a Van Gogh painting—strange, yet even more eerie.
Countless suns rose up, all identical in shape, some large, some small. Each round, golden-orange star had a smiling face on it, a half-smiling face, its half-closed eyes seeming to be staring at the original body.
The dirty lines—or perhaps light—Motalian didn’t understand. Those rough lines, pale yellow, goose yellow, reddish orange, bright white, and golden yellow, extended from the stars like swirling eddies, swelling up in the sky like strong tree roots or the blood-sucking straws of parasites, wriggling and plunging into the starry sky.
In the areas where the tree roots spread, countless tiny, moving, pale beige dots huddled together and wriggled. At first, Mortarion mistook them for some kind of larger, wriggling clumps, but then the Primarch realized that they were chimeras made up of hundreds of millions of even smaller things crowded together.
If the Primarch were to look more closely, he would eventually discover that those little things were the pale golden humanoid phantoms that had just emerged from around him and Guilliman, but unlike those weak phantoms, everything that existed in His divine realm was a solid entity.
Those are all people.
Fortunately, Mortalian looked away in time. Before he realized he needed to stay rational, the Primarch felt a chill run down his spine; perhaps he had already realized something.
Those many little things are kneeling before Him in that pale golden divine realm, facing His direction—at the top of the tree roots or the gathering of blood-sucking tentacles, that being is there, filthy, nauseating, and holy.
At first glance, it looks like a person.
A person whose entire body glows, giving them a pale golden hue.
It resembles a person sitting on a throne, or standing solemnly, holding his sword in his hand.
But upon closer inspection, things have become slightly complicated and tilted a little.
As the only Primarch with independent consciousness who has decided to continue observing the Dark Lord, Mortarion regrets making this decision.
First, he needed to understand that the Dark Lord was not simply the giant humanoid figure at the very center. In fact, those pale golden lights, those roots, and those little figures huddled together were all part of the Dark Lord—it's just that the part he was looking at now was closer to the core, and closer to the original Neos.
It looked... like a bizarrely shaped brain.
Yes, that giant whose strangeness was indescribable—now Mortalian knew what was wrong; He looked sticky and gelatinous, even though He was glowing—then the Primarch saw more clearly that the patterns on His armor, His open eyes and tightly pursed lips, resembled lines formed by the grooves of His brain.
Or perhaps it's a fleshy groove formed by a cancerous tumor. In any case, tumors are generally no different from the brain, just as there's no difference between rulers.
They all require massive amounts of resources and supplies.
It is also a lump of flesh.
After all, people are just flesh and blood!
No matter what, humans are flesh and blood, and those metal beings of the Mechanicus were flesh and blood from the very beginning—so this is a certain definition of humanity.
Therefore, the Lord of Darkness is made of flesh; he is also made of human flesh; or more specifically, he is made of human flesh.
Humans are made of human flesh, and the Lord of Darkness is also made of human flesh, but something seems a little off. There is a difference between human flesh and creations made of human flesh, just like there is a difference between a human and a pile of flesh made of human flesh.
Gazing at the grooves squeezed together by flesh, the dark shadows expanded rapidly in a daze, eventually turning into complete darkness, and everything before turned black, a dirty, mottled black.
On the outermost edge of the black and gold, at the edge of the physical divine realm, the pure, shimmering energy came into contact with these fleshy things. Wherever the light from the outer edge touched, the Dark King's divine realm rippled slightly as if it had been scorched. But then the living, writhing gold rushed up again, covering the part of the energy flow.
Countless enormous, bright white orbs of light appeared abruptly above the Dark King's divine realm after a distortion of space, as unstable as ball lightning.
Some of them successfully exploded, leaving behind chaotic charred remains in the divine realm amidst a dazzling white flash, while others were enveloped by fleshy roots that rose from the ground before disappearing.
Some spaces were visibly changing. Mortarian watched and felt the rules within the divine realm change. The little figures that were worshipping withered and disappeared, only to grow back in the next instant.
Meanwhile, the situation on the outer side was not much better. A golden storm raged, and countless bizarre humanoid figures rose from the bright white river of light, then tore open the barrier between the subspace and the physical world, pouring the power of the outer side into the subspace.
Occasionally, a strange chant would rise from the depths of the starry sky, and the clear edge of light on the outer side of the pure energy-state star god would fluctuate unstablely.
At the same time, an unbearable shriek will resound, tearing apart the golden and black earth, causing those little people to collapse into ionized particles in agony.
That's pretty much it. Some things are there, some aren't. Who cares how they fight? Some people fantasize that a war of gods should be extremely shocking and magnificent, but does no one think that it would be something that lower beings couldn't withstand? Mortarian felt nauseous. He would rather jump into Hades's realm.
Mortarion could no longer bear to watch. Before his hands, which he had involuntarily raised, plunged into his own eyes, the Primarch stopped his self-torture. He finally gave up his rebellious act of looking directly at the Dark Lord, and looked away, his soul trembling.
***.
He couldn't help but curse inwardly, lamenting what kind of monstrosity was now leading humanity forward. It was truly despicable, and judging from this, humanity itself was probably no good either—nothing in this galaxy was any good.
Oh, except for Hades.
He can be an exception to everything, because that's the truth.
Mortalian instinctively wanted to summon Hades to devour this damned, blasphemous Dark Lord whole, leaving nothing but ashes—but he couldn't do that. According to the plan, the Dark Lord was meant to restrain the outsiders.
He was also unwilling to let Hades swallow such a disgusting being. Admittedly, Hades was a lump in the eyes of most beings, but the current Dark Lord was also a lump—and in Mortarion's eyes, the Dark Lord's lump was even more unbearable.
Thus, Mortarion thought, he now hoped that the Outer Ones would defeat the Dark Lord, and then the Primarchs would deal with the severely wounded Outer Ones. In short, the Dark Lord should disappear as quickly as possible.
The Primarch closed his eyes, trying to stabilize his soul amidst the chaotic psionic currents. This was a rare moment of rest. Taking advantage of the lull in the fight between the Dark Lord and the Outer Ones, they needed to consolidate their power as much as possible—waiting to deliver a new blow to the victor of the war.
Guilliman glanced at him with concern, while Mortalian remained silent, simply expanding his psionic field—they needed to awaken more Primarchs and Legion warriors.
....................................
I feel like throwing up.
These were Mortarion's first words as he stumbled out of the psionic portal. He almost immediately collapsed onto the land of Caliban, letting himself have intimate contact with nature.
The wild, overgrown weeds of Caliban poked his face, but the Primarch didn't bother to brush them away; he just kept gagging.
They finally left the area of Hades' influence temporarily. For some reason, after the warship entered a certain star system, [Motalian] could feel that Hades' influence had suddenly diminished, but he had no time to worry about anything else.
Behind him, Luo Jia, who was holding a Slaanesh demon in each hand, also stepped out of the temporary portal formed by psionic energy, threw the two unconscious Slaanesh followers to the ground, and then added a Blackstone Spear to [Angron].
[Angron], who had already fainted from staring at Hades, groaned and became even closer to death.
But they will not let [Angron] die completely—and then return to another destiny.
Luo Jia looked up, and his damned, even stitched-up, ambiguous expression annoyed [Motalian]. The dappled light and shadows cast down from the giant tree of Caliban were not sunlight, but some kind of light that was even more indescribable.
Caliban...
Luo Jia's calm voice rang out.
[The location of the Ouroboros, also the fiefdom of his most trusted eldest son, is a place where no one can be corrupted, where knights who will never fall are destined to be chosen—perhaps just as he chose me as his follower.]
That's too kind.
A calm, hoarse voice suddenly rang out from the bushes nearby. [Motalian] was startled and the Primarch, who was half-lying on the ground, looked sharply to the side—he hadn't even noticed anyone nearby at first.
A giant with a disheveled beard, mottled long hair, and green eyes like a wild beast looked at him. He rose from the bushes where the giant had been hiding.
Leon Johnson,
Luo Jia nodded to the lion.
Long time no see, you've changed even more than I imagined.
Leon nodded, then shook his head, and finally just sighed.
It's been a long time, and you've all changed a lot.
Then, he looked at Luo Jia. Even though he looked disheveled, like a weathered old forest ranger, there was still a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Aren't you sure I'm the right one, Olivier?
Luo Jia shrugs.
[I only contacted the one He told me to contact. Only one lion knows of our arrival, and only one lion is in the right time and space—that is, you.]
The lion just stared at Luo Jia, its eyes unblinking—this silence lasted for a long time, until Luo Jia, the charlatan, finally began to lose confidence.
[Motalian] had already stood up and was happy to see this charlatan suffer a setback. His sealed memories returned when he saw Leon. [Motalian] remembered the lions on their side, and what shocked him was that the two lions gave him almost the same feeling.
You're wrong.
The expelled one, [Leon]—the Primarch who had been talking to Luo Jia—said that Luo Jia was now somewhat surprised, as if he had finally realized it.
But I am indeed here to help you.
Leon said,
[The other me—the one you've connected with, the lion in your destiny's line of fate—is calling to Guilliman and Tzeentch at the edge of this forest.]
The plans are consistent.
Leon took a step forward, Luo Jia remained still, while Motarian stared at Leon in astonishment—he was somewhat shocked.
[Both fathers entrusted their final instructions, their final plans, and their most difficult and thankless tasks to Number One; therefore, whichever one of me, I will not fail in my mission.]
Luo Jia remained silent. Then, the Primarch simply grabbed one of the two Slaanesh archdemons with each hand and gestured with his head for Leon to lead the way.
[Wait, I'm a little confused.]
Mortarian said that they had been trekking through the forests of Caliban, where the trees were strangely more eerie, taller, and denser than any trees Mortarian had ever seen in his life.
[So, you escaped, Number One? I was originally—but anyway, I sincerely congratulate you on escaping that bastard [Killiman]'s] clutches.]
The person who was expelled nodded.
[Coz saved me; he's in Caliban now, with another Leon.]
[Is Conrad also there? With Léon in this fateful storyline?]
【Motalian】blinked, surprised to run into several old acquaintances from his hometown in this godforsaken place.
[Yes, but the answer to the second question is both yes and no.]
[? ]
I think it's necessary for you to know the current state of Caliban.
The Primarch, who had been silent all along but possessed immense strength and was dragging two unconscious Slaanesh followers, suddenly spoke up. This made Mortarion turn around and look at the charlatan in surprise. Although the Primarch's mouth and eyes were sewn shut, Mortarion felt as if Luo Jia was smiling.
[California is in chaos right now—not only in terms of fate, but also in terms of time. I think this is the only point of chaos and overlap right now.]
Do you know Schrödinger's cat? The other Mortalian, Caliban, is right now that overlapping box.
[Motalian] confirmed that he saw Luo Jia's smile.
Therefore, because of the choice of the Lord of Mankind, there are now many cats on Caliban.
So the bald Primarch said, and Mortarion heard a cold laugh from the lion in front of them.
Lions are generally also felines.
Chapter 882 [324] The King of Ideas
So now there are two lions.
[Motalian] In the blink of an eye, the group stopped here. They had been walking in the forest, and after eliminating the Slaanesh factor, they were like the characters in a children's book on a grand adventure, fighting giant beasts that occasionally jumped out of the dense forest.
It was clear that the beasts were in a panic—so much so that they were only focused on escaping and didn't even realize that they had encountered a makeshift squad of four Primarchs.
Now, the forest has vanished into thin air, and a sudden crack has split open in the earth, bottomless, with smooth edges and no bumps.
A blue light, arousing the wrath of the Mortarion, flickered at the very bottom of the abyss. The Primarch was certain it was Guilliman's psionic energy, or perhaps Tzeentch's as well.
[Leon] remained silent. The lion leading the way turned around and looked at Luo Jia.
[It's right here, the other one is right below.]
The expelled man paused. As for why it was Leon—it was because he didn't want to face Guilliman, and on the other hand, the fate line he was on might corrupt him. Therefore, the two old lions decided to exchange their missions.
[And he is summoning the master of all changes—[Guilliman] is cooperating with him, but something seems amiss.]