Chapter 71: To Guide Victory with One's Soul
Not seeing him, not being annoyed by him. Omega turned his head and pretended not to see, going to find his familiar cog-heads to brush up on his presence. He had to go to his wild dad to sell some cuteness; his information was the most up-to-date.
But when he saw the Tech-Priests, he found that their atmosphere was also wrong. His heart skipped a beat. Damn it, he thought. The daemon must have given them a big problem!
He asked around, but they all prevaricated, avoiding the question and hinting that Omega should go and ask the Archmagos himself.
Omega's thought: Ask and ask. Is he going to hit me again? I'll ask more tactfully in a bit.
When he arrived at Veyl's office, he found that Laust and the other Magi were also there. Omega lowered his head and squeezed in. He had to participate in this important event, otherwise he wouldn't understand the development of the situation.
"They have no news at all?"
"None."
"No message either?"
"None."
"What's going on? What happened?" Omega asked. "Father, what happened?"
"It's nothing, Omega. You leave here."
Hmm! Old man, what do you mean? Are you trying to get rid of me? Have I fallen out of favor? Did you find a new son somewhere else? Omega thought.
"Father?"
"You leave. From now on, do not participate in any discussions!" Veyl commanded.
"Why?"
"No why. Leave now."
"Ah? I just... hey, hey, Magos Laust, let me go! Let me go! If you don't let me go, I'll get angry! I really will..."
Slam!
The moment Veyl finished speaking, his "lapdog" Laust had grabbed Omega by the scruff of his neck and, ignoring his protests and struggles, had thrown him out.
Outside Veyl's office, Omega pounded on the door and sang, "Archmagos! Archmagos! The ancient saying goes, establish the eldest, not the youngest! The Archmagos must be cautious! It concerns the fate of the Forge World! You must not be foolish..."
But no one paid any attention to the misbehaving Omega. Seeing that he couldn't "cute his way through," he kicked the doorframe and turned to leave. "Hmph! How can the old man just turn on me like that, without any warning? That's not right. From the looks of the others, the old man must have given them a gag order, not to tell me anything. Magos Laust is a fool, too. Whose side are you on? Strictly speaking, you're not even a relative..."
"There must be a villain at work. Don't let me catch you!"
Omega grumbled all the way back. He was going to modify his "Brother Bai." When Rhea and the others woke up, he would have them go out and gather information. The "villains" in his mind were Ventris and Griffin. After failing to stop Omega, and fearing he would do something on his own again, they had decisively gone to Veyl to complain about him.
Coincidentally, Laust was also there at the time. After hearing what Ventris and the others had to say, he had said to the Archmagos, who was struggling with how to discipline Omega, "You can't give that little brat any power. As long as he has a force he can use, he will always give people surprises and scares."
Veyl had thought about it and realized it was true. With the influence of the "Son of the Omnissiah," he had dared to challenge his old man for the position of negotiator. With the Worker-Soldiers, he had dared to stand up to the commander-in-chief of the allied forces and an Inquisitor. If this continued, who knew what Omega would do? And so, the prohibition against Omega was issued: No one is to reveal any information to Omega. Omega is forbidden from participating in all discussions and meetings.
(Omega: Magos Laust, you treacherous courtier!)
Because of the list provided by the "traitor" Laust, Rhea and the others had not been able to gather any information. But that didn't stop Omega. With his skills, "eavesdropping" was something he could do with his eyes closed. But the best defense against a cog-head is another cog-head. Every action leaves a trace. Omega didn't dare to directly hack into their private comms network; if he were exposed, he would have made a mortal enemy. So he only got some fragmented information: a group of Tech-Priests had disappeared and defected.
Omega: The peak produces false supporters, the twilight witnesses the true believers. Although I diss the Omnissiah every day, I am loyal! You damn traitors!
Rotigus, as Omega had expected, was using the "contract" to prevent the Inquisitor from continuing to clean up the traitors. He had sent a Nurgle Scribe to entangle Griffin under the pretext of discussing the "contract." And Griffin had to accept, because he was the one here who knew the most about the ways of daemons. He had to bargain with the daemon, to make it put more on the line, to make the Rainfather suffer more damage when he broke the contract. He had to see through the daemon's plot, to find the hidden traps, to give humanity a greater advantage after this gamble. He would not consider Ventris. This was Ventris's own resolve. Even if his soul could not return to the Golden Throne, even if he had to suffer the torment of daemons, he would find a glimmer of victory for humanity in this war.
Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the Imperium. It is so for mortals, it is so for Space Marines, it is so for the Primarchs, and it is so for the Emperor.
The Daemonhunter Inquisitors are the ones among all humanity who know the most about daemons. They seal away forbidden information, and they also study those forbidden things. In the Imperium, only the Emperor and the libraries of the Ordo Malleus have accurate records of the Horus Heresy. And some special Daemonhunter Inquisitors have even been allowed by the "Laughing God" of the Eldar to enter the Black Library of Chaos, accompanied by Harlequins.
It was precisely because he knew the forbidden knowledge about daemons that Inquisitor Griffin knew how difficult this opponent was. A Nurgle Scribe is a scribe chosen by Nurgle, and one of the seven Plague Inspectors who command the Plaguebearers. He is responsible for cataloging the effects of Nurgle's many diseases, and constantly travels between the daemonic and material realms, searching for new virus strains, new bacterial species, and new symptoms of infectious diseases. He is one of the few daemons of Nurgle who is interested in and extremely skilled at word games.
This negotiation, centered around the "contract," was destined to be filled with calculations, traps, threats, and cunning from beginning to end. The entire human camp in the Grand Manufactorum district, with the unfolding of this negotiation, became a place of undercurrents.
The Space Marines and the Inquisitor's retinue had not stopped their purge of the traitors. Although they had lost the Inquisitor's leadership and were not as efficient as before, they still worked hard, using the keen senses granted to them by the Emperor and the experience they had learned from following the Inquisitor for many years, to find the蛛絲馬跡 left by the traitors. For every traitor eliminated, the scales of victory tipped a little more in humanity's favor.
"Talk. The longer, the better. Right, Old Bai?"
"Beep."
The "Termite," who had been demoted from "Brother Bai" to "Bai-bro," and now to "Old Bai," responded to Omega without knowing it.
"Omega, you haven't rested for 72 hours. Go and get some rest."
"That's right, boss. You haven't been modified. Your body can't take it."
"That's right. You've already drawn up the blueprints. We can continue without you."
Paul, Rhea, and the others urged Omega to rest through the comms. But the ungrateful little brat found them annoying. "I've told you several times, I'm not tired! I can go for another 72 hours! You guys are so annoying!"
The pious believers, worried that they would tire out the suspected "Omnissiah cub," were now beginning to doubt if they had been mistaken. How could the Omnissiah be so ungrateful? The buxom but brainless cog-girl, after her own attempts to persuade him had failed and had only drawn his ire, thought that Jacob and the others had failed because they had not hit Omega's sore spot. She said, "Omega, not sleeping for a long time will affect your height, you know."
Omega: "Huh?"
The Male Priests: =°口°
"It's none of your business! If it affects it, it affects it! I'm not growing anyway!" Omega, his sore spot having been poked, said angrily.
"Hmm? What happened? Did you mutate again?" Rhea exclaimed in the comms.
"I have! And I might mutate again in the future! Are you satisfied now?" Omega said and turned off his comms. They were going too far, rubbing salt in his wounds.
The "pious believers" with their renewed faith thought: See, he hasn't even fully developed yet. Isn't this proof?
The negotiation was over. The Captain of the 4th Company had also put his soul on the line. The negotiation had lasted for seven full days and nights. During this time, there had been several riots caused by traitors. The most recent one, an assassin had even appeared on the ceiling above the Archmagos. Fortunately, all these rebellions had been suppressed by the loyalists, who had not feared to sacrifice themselves.
After the negotiation ended, Inquisitor Griffin quickly fell into a coma. It was not the exhaustion of his mind and body that had caused him to collapse; his will was strong enough to overcome these problems. The real reason was that he had been infected with an unknown plague.
Before he fell into a coma, he said to the Archmagos and Ventris, "The Rainfather has hidden a trap in the contract. The person who signs it will form a psychic link with him, so that he can use his power to directly corrupt that person's soul. I have diverted this psychic link to myself, so my soul is doomed. But this link is two-way. I can also sense the other party's situation through it. The Rainfather's power is recovering. He will soon be able to leave the warp rift. We only have one chance. We must banish him! And, Ventris, from now on, you must be vigilant at all times. I cannot guarantee that there are no other traps. Even if there are not, as long as that contract is in his hands, the mark you left on it can still be used. He will strike when you are at your most vulnerable—"
"Griffin! Griffin!" Ventris called out to the unconscious Inquisitor. He knew it was futile, but he still hoped for a miracle.
Veyl said in a heavy voice, "I have already collected a sample of the virus. For now, we will put Inquisitor Griffin in a stasis field to prevent his condition from worsening."
"Good. Thank you, Archmagos."
"It is my duty. Have you chosen your champions?"
"Yes. Two brothers from the Knights of Iron and myself."
According to the contract, tomorrow, humanity and the daemons would hold three duels. Each side would send out one warrior. They would fight to the death with only melee weapons. The living would be the winner, the dead the loser.
The Space Marines are the strongest sword created by the Emperor for humanity. Their powerful bodies, long lifespans, centuries of combat experience, and skills honed day after day, allow them to fight any enemy of humanity. To be chosen from over 1,000 Space Marines was because Ventris and the others had defeated all who had challenged them, not because of their special status.
Ventris's legendary experiences were not due to luck, but to his indomitable will and his own powerful strength. The best proof was the powerful "Blade of Ventanus" in his hand. After Ventris had used the Daemon Prince to destroy Honsou's fortress and the Daemonculaba, the Warsmith Honsou had been enraged by Ventris's actions on Medrengard. He had devised a plan to eliminate the Ultramarines, especially Uriel Ventris. He had set a trap for his enemy on Ventris's home world of Calth. But the Emperor would not bless this great and evil heretic. It was precisely because of Honsou's plot that Ventris had obtained the weapon of his ancestor—the Blade of Ventanus. In the end, Honsou's plot was foiled, and he was left for dead. Ventris, after defeating him, had gone with some surviving comrades to a world of Ultramar, where the Daemon Prince M'kar was hunting the Ultramarines to avenge his imprisonment.
This "Blade of Ventanus," found in the tomb of his ancestor, had terrified the Daemon Prince M'kar with its mere appearance. He had called it the "Anathame Shard," one of the eight blades of woe separated from the original blade of woe. The original blade of woe was the direct cause of the Warmaster Horus's corruption into the "Chaos Warmaster." The Daemon Prince M'kar was ultimately banished by the "Blade of Ventanus." It was precisely because of this "Blade of Ventanus," which had a powerful suppressive effect on daemons, that Ventris had initially wanted to solve the war on Teyedan by banishing the Rainfather. But the power of the chief Greater Daemon was beyond everyone's imagination. They couldn't even get close.
The other two Astartes, from the Knights of Iron Chapter, also possessed extraordinary skills. As "sons" of Dorn, their Chapter held an honor contest every hundred years, the Feast of Blades, between the Imperial Fists and its successor Chapters, to select a champion. After the Horus Heresy and the promulgation of the Codex Astartes, the Imperial Fists Primarch, Rogal Dorn, had, to maintain some connection between his descendants, held a semi-regular gathering between the Imperial Fists and its successors, to deepen the bonds of brotherhood through competition. The battles in this tournament were highly ritualized events, with the champions fighting according to ancient dueling traditions, until one champion, based on the results and the consensus of all, was declared the victor, and the "Feast of Blades" was concluded.