Chapter 68: Everyone Wants to Cheat
After withdrawing from the warp rift, the Knights of Iron, Ultramarines, Covenant of Fire, and other mortal forces entered the ruined city gates of the Grand Manufactorum. The first thing they saw was a "red catfish," hung up and writhing, crying and begging for mercy. But the eight-armed monster showed no pity. Each arm held a handcrafted Macragge-pattern whip, swinging so fast that it gave the Space Marines the illusion of not eight, but a dozen mechanical arms.
The Ultramarines gathered around, greeting the Archmagos. "Well, Archmagos, keeping busy?"
"Hmph."
"Judging by the quality, this whip is quite old."
"Indeed. This one, in particular, was a gift from Lord Guilliman," the Archmagos said, stopping one of his arms and handing the whip to Ventris.
"Oh! After you're done, Archmagos, might I borrow it for a closer look?"
"Of course. Listen to how sweet it whistles," the Archmagos said, and with a vicious crack, the whip landed on the "red catfish's" backside.
"Ah! It was the art of language! A metaphorical description of the Regent's great achievements!" Omega pleaded.
"Language, is it?!"
"Ah!"
"Art, is it?!"
"Ah!"
"Great, is it?!"
"Ah!"
"Achievements, is it?!"
"Ah!"
"Archmagos, your strength is as it was in your youth. But this is rough work. Allow me," Ventris said, taking the whip. He examined it, gave it a few test swings, and said, "Oh, a fine material for a beating indeed. I must not miss such a fine opportunity."
"Daddy, no! He'll really kill me! Ah! Ah!" ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ OMG...
The human forces on Teyedan had finally rendezvoused. Although the process had been dramatic, everyone present was an elite of humanity. They had enough experience and foresight to understand that this was the best outcome they could achieve. But the nightmare was not over. They still needed to make thorough preparations for the final battle.
This time, the meeting was presided over by Inquisitor Griffin. As the one who knew the most about daemons, he was the most suitable.
"According to the intelligence from my agent, the daemons are indeed heading towards the warp rift," Griffin began.
"It seems the daemon is keeping its word, for now."
"It has to. But I don't think a daemon will be so honest," Chapter Master Isaac said, his brows furrowed.
"There are several psychic anomalies near the Grand Manufactorum. I have observed them with my own powers and have found Chaos Sorcerers there. They are building portals. With these portals, the daemons can appear around us at any time."
"They're just afraid we'll run away. Hah!"
"We should now consider how to make the daemon pay a higher price when it breaks the agreement."
"Why should we consider the daemon? I never planned on keeping it."
"You don't... how did you sneak in here, you little brat?" Ventris, realizing Omega was in the meeting, asked.
"That's going too far, sir! I've been here the whole time!" Omega complained, having been "invisible" due to his size.
"Your recovery ability is truly extraordinary. A normal person would have been in bed for days."
"Thank you, sir, for your mercy," Omega said sarcastically.
"Hmph. What did you mean by what you just said?"
"Keeping faith with a daemon?" Omega scanned the room. "Didn't you all gather here to discuss how to renege and run away?"
"..." The crowd. They just realized that the planner of this duel had intended to cheat from the very beginning. This little scoundrel had fooled them all.
"Omega, what is your plan?"
"Run, of course. Blow up the Grand Manufactorum. The fleet has so many ships; can't they fit us all?"
"But the Grand Manufactorum?"
"What about it? It was built by people. We're not daemons. If we lose this one, we can build another. As long as we can blow this place up before we run, the daemon won't get this planet. And if they stay, even better. Trading one Forge World for a chief Greater Daemon is a great deal!"
"..."
The Space Marines were accustomed to thinking in terms of combat, so their thoughts had always been on how to defeat the daemon. The Tech-Priests succeeded through calculation, and failed through calculation. They quantified all factors, including "life." To a Tech-Priest, the Grand Manufactorum was worth many, many lives. The Inquisitor was thinking about how to banish the Greater Daemon, to learn more about its weaknesses, even its true name. And their purpose in coming to Teyedan was to save it.
Only Omega had been thinking about survival from the very beginning. He had painted a pie for the daemon, a pie where the winner takes all. But all he had wanted was to take the brush that painted the pie, and then burn the pie before he left. He just hadn't expected that the pie would look so tempting to both daemons and men. He was the only one thinking about running. Everyone else was thinking about how to win.
Omega's thought: Emperor, why couldn't you have passed down a little of the experience you used to trick the red, green, blue, and purple ones? With these stubborn parasites, how can I make the Imperium great again?!
(The Emperor: ...That was an investment. How can you call it a trick? Didn't they receive the goods?)
"It's over! It's over!" Omega, who had been kicked out of the meeting room, wandered aimlessly, muttering to himself. The reason for this was a fundamental conflict of purpose between him and the others. Omega just wanted to live. The others wanted to win. Their purpose in coming here was to ensure that Teyedan could continue to serve the Imperium.
When Omega had asked them what they would do if they lost the duel, they had said they would fight to the last moment, hold on until new reinforcements arrived, even if it meant fighting to the last man. Veyl had told him, "Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the Imperium."
That line might work on the locals, but Omega was an outsider. He wouldn't just resign himself to a tragic fate because of a heroic-sounding phrase. He had argued that with his plan, the planet would still be in the hands of the Imperium in the end. The Greater Daemon couldn't stay here forever. They could wait until it left and then return.
But Inquisitor Griffin had said that if it was willing to pay the price, the Greater Daemon could use other methods to drag the world into the warp. They were now taking advantage of the fact that the Rainfather was not yet willing to abandon his sunk costs. And as Omega himself had said, this was the Rainfather's first achievement since becoming the chief Greater Daemon. He would not allow himself to fail.
The duel was only agreed to because the Rainfather wanted a beautiful victory. He, like Omega, had never intended to abide by the agreement.
"Then what's the point of you all discussing how to make the daemon keep its promise? He's not even planning to!"
"To make him pay a higher price, to damage his power, to create an opportunity for us to banish him! That's enough!"
"With all of our lives and souls?"
"With all of our lives and souls!"
"Is it worth it?"
"There is no sacrifice too great, no betrayal too small!"
"You respectable madmen!"
After saying this, Omega had been kicked out. No punishment, no reprimand, no cries of "heretek." Everyone had just looked at him silently. These were the gazes of Space Marines, of high-ranking officers, of Tech-Magi, of an Inquisitor.
The child had done nothing wrong. On the contrary, he had always performed exceptionally well, far beyond the norm. His goal from the beginning had been to let more people live. How could they blame him for that? They were different from him. They understood their duty, they knew their obligations, they were aware of the honor on their shoulders, and they knew how much innocent blood was on their hands. They could sacrifice others, and they could sacrifice themselves.
"I hate this world! I don't want to be sacrificed! I don't want to sacrifice others!" Omega kicked the corner of a wall, venting his frustration. He realized that he truly could not fit into this world, that he did not want to fit into this world.
"What's wrong, Omega?"
Rhea's voice came from behind him. Omega turned to see Rhea, Jacob, Aedus, Louis, and Paul. And behind them, he saw Magos Laust.
In Omega's room, the long-separated group sat together, sharing their recent experiences.
"So, your plan for us to survive was rejected by Lord Ventris and the others?"
"Yeah." Omega, his physical development stunted and his control over his tear ducts and sphincter diminished, didn't want to talk. He wanted to find a deserted place to hide, to hide until the end of the world, until the galaxy burned...
"It's not your fault it was rejected."
"Yeah," Omega, the echo, replied.
"We heard from the people in the Grand Manufactorum that you've mastered a lot of lost technology?"
"Yeah."
"And we also heard that you were possessed by three daemons, but you just waved your hand and they were dispelled?"
"Yeah."
"The people in the Grand Manufactorum are all calling you the Son of the Omnissiah in private?"
"Yeah... huh?" Hearing this, Omega shot up. "Don't listen to their nonsense! The technology and the daemons are true, but the Son of the Omnissiah is just something they made up!"
"But we heard that the traitor just knelt and repented upon seeing you, and is now in the dungeon, praying day and night for death."
"..." Omega's thought: Is my augmetic eye having hallucinations? You cog-heads were standing right there. How did the story get so exaggerated?
"Don't listen to their nonsense. Let's not talk about me. Let's think about what to do next," Omega said, changing the subject and giving Paul a secret look.
Paul, as always, understood his boss's look. "The boss is right!"
"The problem is that neither we nor the daemons have any intention of keeping the agreement after we lose," Jacob said, tapping his metal forehead.
Aedus followed up, "That's equivalent to not getting the prize even if you win."
"So what's the difference between this and the previous stalemate?" Louis said, rubbing his face.
Omega threw up his hands. "Ventris and the others haven't told anyone their real plan. Or rather, it's too dark to be spoken of in the open. They're actually using my plan as an excuse, for both sides to take a step back, to break the original stalemate and find a new breaking point."
"Why do you say that?" Rhea asked.
"The two front lines were both at a dead end," Omega explained. "One, the daemons didn't dare to attack the temple, and we couldn't get out. Two, the endless stream of daemons from the warp rift would have worn down the Space Marines. In a situation where he couldn't banish the Greater Daemon, Ventris's line was bound to fail. He had to change the situation. The daemon has a huge sunk cost. He doesn't want to lose either. But the Imperium's reinforcements are on the way and could appear at any time. He also needs to change the situation. So the duel is just an excuse for them to change the situation, and at the same time, to weaken their opponent."
"How does it weaken the opponent?" the foolish cog-girl asked.
"The contract!" Omega explained. "Ventris is betting his own soul for a chance to banish the daemon. If we win and the daemon breaks the contract, its power will surely be damaged, and perhaps it can be banished. If we lose and we break the contract, the only price paid is Ventris himself. The daemon also has his own plot. He is using the contract as bait, to give Ventris a chance, and at the same time, to inject his venom into us."
"Venom?"
"Why do you think the daemon insists on us gathering here? It's because after so long of Chaos corruption, the number of traitors must be not small. The incident with the traitor Zola will surely happen again. You'll see. The daemon will create opportunities for his slaves, maybe a rebellion, maybe an assassination. He wants us to have internal strife. We can't just detonate the nuclear bomb because of a riot, can we? In the chaos, the daemon will take the opportunity to make us lose control of the nuclear bomb. At that point, we will only have two endings: submission or death. Ventris and the others are well aware of the daemon's plan. This is also the bait they are giving the daemon. To the daemon and to Ventris, we are all tools, bait, weapons, and sacrifices."
"The two sides, one protecting humanity and the other harvesting it, have different goals, yet they are doing the same thing. This world is so disgusting! Crap sacrifice, crap cornerstone, crap daemons, crap Chaos!"
"..." Louis, Jacob, and the others were shocked by Omega's analysis. They were shocked by the conspiracy hidden within the conspiracy, and they were also shocked that Omega could see through it all.
"Heh, I'm starting to think that ignorance is a bliss," Louis said with a bitter face.
Jacob also said with a sad face, "I've lived a simple life for decades. I never really understood why the doctrine tells us to pursue knowledge on the one hand, and warns us that knowledge is poison on the other. Now I think I understand. The more you know, the more painful it is. Without a strong mind, you will be driven mad by the torment."
Seeing that his words had made Jacob misinterpret the doctrine, and there were only a few truly useful ones, and he was now misinterpreting one of them, Omega quickly stopped him. "Hey, Jacob, don't get the wrong idea. That's saying that some knowledge has been booby-trapped by the abominations of the warp. Contact with it carries the risk of corruption."
"Huh?" Jacob said, stunned.
"You didn't know?"
"Who knows? The explanations of the various sects are all different. And there are at least two thousand similar warnings in the doctrine."
"...From now on, don't leave my side. In the future, if you have any technology you're not sure about, let me take a look first. If you're doing an experiment or have any ideas, and the numbers 6, 7, 8, or 9, or their multiples of 11 or 111, appear, destroy it immediately. Especially the number 9. Do you understand?" Omega warned his companions with a serious expression. He had just remembered that Jacob and the others were not like him. For them, contact with daemons was a death sentence.
"Omega, what is this?" Aedus asked, confused.
"I don't dare to explain it to you. Some things can be transmitted through information. That's why the cult and the Inquisition have always used prohibitions and blockades to stop these messages from spreading. There must be no shortage of traitors and possessed people here now. Don't leave me. I have a way to deal with them."
"Omega, you can really banish daemons?!" Rhea exclaimed.
Omega's thought: I can suck them dry. Wait, you didn't believe me before...
"Sort of. Don't spread it around. Only you guys know about this."
Jacob and the others looked at each other. If you were looking for the people who knew Omega best, it would be them. They had already seen so many strange things from Omega. This was the first time they had seen this function.
Rhea, with a look of apprehension, called out to Omega, "Omnissiah?"
This made Omega jump to his feet. He couldn't stand this foolish cog-girl anymore. His face flushed, he roared at her, "You didn't even add the 'son of'?! If I were the Omnissiah, I would excommunicate you right now and make you a heretek! I'm not a god! The Emperor is!"
(The Emperor: I'm not a god either! Humans are all like this. What's the point of getting angry? Just burn his house down and teach him a lesson.)