The Custodian knew the fragments of history that were buried. He pressed down on the halberd in his hand, stared into the Iron Man's crimson eyes, and whispered, "That's just a clumsy excuse to cover up your betrayal!"
"A boring debate." The moment its shield overloaded, the Iron Man extended its arm and gently grasped the halberd the Custodian had brought down, squeezing it like a giant pincer.
"Then what about now? You are attacking humanity again!" The Custodian roared, pulled the trigger, and fired a bolter round. While the Iron Man tilted its head to dodge, the Custodian swept the halberd back to his front.
"Right and wrong are buried in the changes of history. As surviving intelligent machines that assisted humanity in achieving victory, we have fulfilled our duty."
"Now we are loyal to Erda, just as you are loyal to your Master. It's not about right or wrong, only about allegiance!"
With that, the Iron Man raised its arm and made a grasping motion towards the Custodian; an invisible force emanated from its arm.
The Custodian tensed his body to avoid vital points, reined in his senses, and met the energy impact with his shoulder pauldron. Instead of the scorching energy flow he expected, the Custodian felt his body lighten, and a sense of weightlessness assailed him.
Gravity weapon!
An unavoidable sense of powerlessness arose in the Custodian's strong heart. By artificially creating micro-singularities, collapsing gravity, and distorting space, enemies could be killed by increasing or decreasing gravity.
The Custodian was helpless, knowing his fate was certain death.
Possessing the strongest weapons and equipment bestowed by the Emperor, and a superhuman physique tempered by biological alchemy, the Custodian could have contended with any creature in the physical universe.
However, the Iron Man was a creation humanity had made in the Golden Age to govern the galaxy, and there was still a gap between them.
The Iron Man did not deliver a killing blow; a mechanical hiss sounded in the Custodian's ear: "I deeply respect the humanity of the past. They conquered the galaxy with wisdom and technology, the stars trembled under human will, and the universe bowed before them. Yet, from you, I see only blindness and worship."
The Custodian said nothing. His body floated in the gravity field, without any point of leverage, unable to make a counterattack.
The mechanical voice grew colder, and the Iron Man's killing intent rose: "Killing you, there is not a trace of guilt in my soul circuits; only pity and mockery arise."
The arm, made of unknown material, glowed even brighter. The Iron Man's five fingers tightened, and within the gravity field, the Custodian's body was twisted by gravity, muscles were torn asunder, and bones shattered piece by piece.
His superhuman internal organs gradually failed, his adamantium armor deformed, his flesh progressively disintegrated, and blood gushed from his wounds as if squeezed.
The Custodian's extraordinary body, which he prided himself on, was utterly defenseless under the Iron Man's manipulation. In the constantly compressing gravity field, flesh and adamantium were kneaded into a pulp.
At the brink of death, from the corner of his eye, he saw all his comrades fall in battle. The Thunder Warriors and Mortal forces were no match for the Men of Iron, slaughtered like lambs.
Before he lost consciousness, he saw a golden light descend from the sky further away. His remaining vocal cords let out a faint cry: "For the Emperor!"
Deep within the Imperial laboratory, the Emperor's loyal servant was bleeding.
Under the protection of the Iron Man and Men of Iron, Erda was safe and sound. On the way to the laboratory, any armed obstructionists were mercilessly eliminated by the Iron Man.
The corridors and passageways presented a horrific scene!
The stench of blood was so thick it was nauseating. Fresh, warm blood flowed across the cold corridors, and human bodies and tissues were splattered haphazardly on the walls.
Erda closed her eyes in distress, avoiding the dead. She had never imagined such casualties, nor could she bear to look directly at the horrific sight.
Scientists taking up weapons against the combat machines of the Golden Age was a one-sided slaughter. They knew they couldn't hold them back for a second, yet they unhesitatingly suppressed their fear with courage, continuously firing at the Iron Man.
"Please forgive me, but to resist an even darker future, I must do this." Erda dared not look at the hateful eyes of the dead; the blood soaking her shoe soles was warm and scorching like lava.
A bizarre Warp light rose in her eyes. Under the influence of the power of Chaos, she was already disoriented, whispering hysterically, constantly apologizing to the dead.
She was completely unaware that, to outsiders, her face was twisted and grotesque, her lips curled in a strange expression.
When the last guard fell, Erda stepped through the slick blood to the stasis pod. Her palm gently brushed over each Primarch, and clarity returned to her eyes.
With tears in her eyes, her face gentle and loving, she leaned against the stasis pod, listening to the powerful heartbeats of each Primarch.
"Madam, a powerful psyker has broken in. The machines guarding the entrance have lost contact. If you are going to do something, you need to do it quickly."
The cold voice interrupted the tender scene. The Iron Man ordered the Men of Iron to form a defensive formation, with their force fields fully activated, preparing for a tough battle.
The Iron Man activated its anti-psyker weapons, lowered its stance in vigilance, and commanded the Men of Iron to block the entrance.
All external machines had lost contact almost instantaneously. The incoming individual was extremely powerful; their psychic abilities even exceeded computational thought logic.
Erda dared not delay, carefully taking out an ancient dagger from her embrace.
The only extraordinary thing was the golden light flowing on the dagger's blade, originating from the same source as the Emperor's psychic power. This dagger had been personally imbued with psychic energy by the Emperor himself tens of thousands of years ago and preserved to this day.
The Emperor's power was too immense in the real universe; the evil forces of the Warp could not destroy the Emperor's barrier standing in reality. They could only defeat the Emperor's power with the Emperor's power, through Erda.
She hurriedly walked to the stone pedestal, upon which rested a golden crystal containing the Emperor's power. She only needed to destroy it, allowing a Warp storm to sweep through, carrying away all the Primarchs.
As Erda gripped the dagger with both hands and raised it high, at that instant, she could tangibly feel countless eyes watching her from the Warp, outside the real universe.
The gods eagerly awaited her, and countless destinies seemed to be held in her hands.
Whispers came, murmuring of a dark future, urging her to quickly shatter the barrier. Pleas resonated in her ears, sincerely imploring her not to do it.
Destiny was frozen, and time paused.
Past and future, reality and the Warp, an invisible pressure like the weight of a galaxy, fell upon Erda's shoulders.
She trembled all over, her mind confused as she held the dagger high. Her remaining sanity wavered, hesitant and questioning: Was releasing the Primarchs truly the right thing to do?
"Correct!" The urging voices answered in unison, firmly. Countless hands pressed down on the dagger.
They were impatient, wanting Erda to quickly stab the dagger, to open the prologue of the conspiracy.
"Wrong!" Countless admonitions, chaotic and disordered, lingered at the edge of her consciousness, trying with all their might to dissuade her.
They were pleading, as if the past and future, those unwilling souls, were trying to stop Erda.
Deep within Erda's soul, the power of Chaos intertwined with reason, and her heart wavered. The dagger's tip trembled, swaying indecisively between choices.
"Boom!" The stone elevator plummeted to the ground, making a huge sound.
The violent sound was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Erda's remaining sanity vanished under immense pressure; only the image of the Emperor and the Primarchs slaughtering each other filled her mind.
A burning galaxy! A chaotic Imperium!
Infinite pressure solidified, gradually crushing her reason. Between choice and pressure, Erda's mind was on the verge of collapse.
"You cannot command me!" The Madam, holding the direction of destiny, shrieked, her consciousness chaotic, bursting forth in hysteria!
Erda shrieked in a blaze of light, her form expanding and growing taller. This body, which she only used when fighting, was now used to resist the whispers and the heavy burden.
The power of Chaos was expelled by her formidable body, and her sanity instantly returned to normal.
Erda's lips were pale and trembling violently; her mind had never been so clear.
With one last lingering look at the Primarchs sleeping peacefully in their stasis pods, she plunged the dagger with all her might, piercing through the Emperor's psychic glow.
This was not the result of Chaos's instigation; it was a decision made by her own will.
Without the influence of Chaos or any other reason, a mother, with unwavering will, whispered softly, "Freedom..."
The Emperor, the moment the elevator opened, saw the psychic barrier being destroyed. He, who had always been silent and rarely showed emotion, was now filled with immense regret, his voice heartbreaking: "No..."
A father's lament, his children about to leave him, to fall into the unknown.
It was the Master of Mankind's sigh, his closest friends betraying him one after another.
A hand made of psychic energy easily crushed the shield, molding the Iron Man from the Dark Age of Technology into a lump of metal, and casually tossing it aside. The Emperor extended his right hand, firing psychic lightning, intending to rebuild the barrier and recover some losses.
In that long instant, the Chaos Gods, hiding behind the veil of reality, appeared. They jointly unleashed the power of the Warp, suppressing the Emperor's power.
The psychic lightning slowly dissipated. He watched helplessly as a Warp storm erupted in the laboratory, uprooting the stasis pods and dragging them into the Warp.
When the Warp storm subsided, the stasis pods were gone, leaving behind the sighing laughter of the gods.
Erda stood there stunned, her hands dropping, her body slumping powerlessly to the ground. The dagger in her hand, having lost its psychic energy, slowly slid to the floor.
The Emperor flashed, blocking in front of the two and facing the Warp storm directly. Golden divine light shot from his eyes, confronting the Four Gods, as he searched for the Primarchs in the Warp using his bloodline connection.
"Erda?! Are you alright?" Malcador lost his composure and quickly went to Erda, slowly squatting down to look her in the eye. His voice was still gentle, but utterly unfamiliar.
Malcador's gaunt face was no longer calm; the gloom in his eyes almost solidified, and the depths of his pupils were filled with regret.
"I gave my children freedom; they will not become war machines." Erda's gaze was vacant, her eyes reflecting Malcador's aged face, as she asked him blankly, "Malcador, will you hold a mother responsible for this?"
Even at this moment, as the gods' triumphant snickers faded, Erda did not regret what she had done.
"You are the mother of those children, not just their mother, but also the Emperor's close friend, the Seneschal of the nascent Imperium."
Malcador shook his head helplessly. His heart was filled with pain and unwillingness; how could he explain it?
Erda had thrown the Emperor's and his vision for the future, their planned beautiful aspirations, the crucial pieces for building a great enterprise, into the Warp.
A pair of eyes stared at the Warp rift. How much could be salvaged now depended entirely on the man blocking in front of them, and the extent of his confrontation with the gods.
The Emperor found the Primarchs in the Warp, his will delving deep into the Warp, engaging in another level of contest with the Four Gods.
Malcador's face, deeply lined and extremely old, was full of regret. He painfully tilted his head back, tightly closing his sore eyes to avoid Erda seeing his vulnerability.
"Erda, you have made an irreparable mistake!" Uncharacteristically, Malcador's always composed voice now trembled with grief and indignation as he reprimanded Erda:
"As the Emperor's close friend, you betrayed him! You tore apart all the paths he planned, with that selfishness called 'maternal love'.
I don't know what the Warp showed you, but as a mother, to send your children, pure as white paper, into a galaxy rife with filth—is this something a 'mother' would do?"
Malcador shook his head helplessly. It was too late. With his wisdom, it was easy to realize that Erda had been deluded by the Warp into doing something utterly foolish.
"Finally..."
All accusations were pale and powerless after the event. The old man, who had toiled tirelessly for the Imperium of Man, looked at Erda's pale, bloodless face and sighed helplessly:
"The Primarchs, one of humanity's most important assets. Because of the gods' lies, they are scattered across the cosmos, completely beyond the Emperor's control, exposed to the greed of dark powers."
"They are destined to return, but their appearance upon return will no longer be what the Emperor hoped for. As for how the gods will deceive and shape them, what can you, their mother, do?"
The accusations and questions in her ears, the stark reality, pierced Erda's soul. She bowed her head, her body trembling violently.
"Assets?" Erda did not answer. Upon hearing the last part, she suddenly looked up, her lips trembling as she questioned Malcador: "You compare them to assets?"
"Yes!" Malcador said expressionlessly, uttering a cold word, then continued: "Within the Imperium of Man, you are an asset, I am an asset, everyone is!"
Then, from his wide sleeves, he raised a gaunt hand and pointed to the Emperor, who stood before them, battling the Warp: "He is too!"
The old, deep voice was not describing, but stating an ironclad fact.
He is too!
The three words, resolute and definitive, exploded in Erda's ears. Her muddled consciousness instantly jolted, a chill spreading from her spine, as if plunging into an ice cave.
Only now did Erda finally understand that her former close friend had completely changed for the revival of humanity.
The two people before her were willing to make deals with the Warp, willing to use every means, abandoning everything from the past, all for one goal: the revival of humanity!
In this process, everything was calculated. Everyone or everything was merely a simple part on the war chariot called the "Imperium."
"I am not the asset you speak of, and neither are my children."
After realizing everything, Erda's pale face was as cold as frost. She slowly stood up and said to Malcador: "You can judge me now, Malcador!"
"Judge?" Malcador's eyes reflected Erda's stubborn figure, utterly bewildered.
Even now, Erda still didn't realize what she had done.
In the grand endeavor, her pity and affection for a certain person or thing, when viewed from the perspective of humanity as a whole, were so minuscule.
But it was precisely this minuscule emotion that gave the gods an opportunity.
The Emperor had more love than Erda, but his love did not show on the surface; instead, he silently protected.
The Emperor loved all of humanity, not just one person within humanity.
He could sacrifice anyone's life to protect the human collective. There was no upper limit to the scope of sacrifice; he could even sacrifice himself if necessary.
Destroying great love with small love, purely in terms of win or loss, the gods won beautifully.
"Are you in the game and still don't understand?" Malcador let out a long breath, meeting Erda's beautiful eyes:
"You will be judged, but not by me. The gods will dispose of pieces that have lost their value."
"My dear Erda," Malcador now looked like an elder, regarding her with great pity: "How absurd are the pranks of the Chaos Gods. You will personally experience the consequences of your choices."
Feeling the sincerity in his words, Erda dared not meet his caring eyes. She slowly turned her face away, remaining silent.
"Go." Malcador turned his body, opening a path for her to leave, and offered a sincere blessing: "I hope you can escape your fate and live well."
"After all, we immortal friends who have known each other for so long are becoming fewer and fewer."
Upon hearing this, Erda hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved. She took one last look at the golden figure blocking the Warp storm, protecting everything, then stumbled out of the laboratory.
Malcador watched her leave, finally turning all his helplessness into a long sigh, and shifted his gaze to the Emperor.
The golden sun in the Warp cast endless brilliance, chasing the waves stirred up by the Four Gods, as twenty-one incubation pods rapidly plunged into the depths of the Warp.
In the depths of the Warp, the wills of the Four Gods collided. Mad laughter and screams echoed through the Warp as they sought to claim all the spoils, the void twisting into hands and tentacles, jostling and snatching around the incubation pods.
Khorne's bloody hand snatched down, but a dark thicket of thorns blocked him. Magic woven into a net scooped up an incubation pod, flying it towards Tzeentch's domain, where it became mired in an irreversible swamp of entropy.
The Four Gods hampered each other. No deity could escape the endless chain of suspicion. When one gained the upper hand, the other three gods would intervene without hesitation.
There was no such thing as enmity or friendship in the Warp; self-interest was eternal, and there was no trust between the Four Gods.
The Emperor quickly joined, breaking the stalemate. Taking advantage of the Four Gods' distraction in their struggle, he used psychic energy to scatter the incubation pods, sending the Primarchs deeper into the Warp.
"Human! How despicable!"
The Four Gods roared in anger, a human daring to provoke all four of them simultaneously.
This was not just provocation, but an endless contempt for divine power!
The Emperor's goal was simple: the Warp was the Four Gods' home turf, and it was impossible to gain an advantage against four true gods. Acting as a spoiler, however, gave him more initiative.
The optimal solution now was to obstruct the Four Gods, to utterly disrupt their good plans, and to turn the game into a no-win scenario.
"You will not get them!"
Amidst hatred and scorn, a psychic incantation emanated from the golden sun.
Thirteen syllables echoed in the Warp. The moment they landed, the Warp surge engulfing the Primarchs accelerated again, carrying the incubation pods out of the Warp and scattering them across the galaxy.
The speed was too swift for words; in an instant, the Four Gods had already devised countermeasures.
The Four Gods ceased their internal strife. Before the incubation pods left the Warp, they abandoned what was almost within their grasp, each selecting a favored incubation pod and sending it out of the Warp to a world they had already prepared.
"Human, get back to the real universe, this is not your territory!"
Under the operation of the Four Gods, the normally accommodating Warp now expelled the unwelcome guest from the real universe.
The Emperor felt his presence in the Warp becoming unanchored. Seeing that most of the incubation pods had left the Warp, he offered no resistance, and the golden sun slowly departed.
In another instant, the Emperor, with his consciousness not yet fully out of the Warp, shot out a burst of psychic power.
Because he saw four arms emerge in the void, all reaching for incubation pod number twenty-one.
"What exactly is he?" The Emperor's mind was full of questions, not understanding why the Four Gods were specifically interested in that particular soul.
The brief moment of doubt did not delay his actions. What the Four Gods cared about, the Emperor absolutely had to obstruct!
"Look at this! My actions are legitimate!" The majestic voice of the golden will resonated in the Warp.
The golden sun, which was the Emperor, threw out a parchment bearing the marks of the Four Gods.
Although the Warp was evil and changeable, it had another side, one that valued contracts and rituals.
The Emperor produced the contract, and its contents immediately took effect. The power of the Warp detached from the Four Gods' control, dissipating in the contract's light, no longer obstructing.
"No!" Divine wrath emanated from the depths of the Warp. Affected by the contract, the Chaos Gods' consciousnesses were driven back into their true forms.
Khorne left his Brass Throne, sweeping his sword. The sword's light tore through the Warp's distance, heading straight for the golden sun.
The Emperor infused psychic energy into the contract again. The clauses that bound the Chaos Gods from violating the contract were used as weapons against them.
The Chaos Gods' marks glowed brightly. Chains shot from the mouths of the skulls on Khorne's Skull Throne, binding him and dragging him back to the Brass Throne, restraining him upon it.
The other Chaos Gods suffered the same fate and could not resist; these powers originated from their own beings, self-imposed restraints.
"Chaos Gods. Our agreement is still valid. Now is not the time to fulfill the contract."
Seeing that the incubation pods had safely left the Warp, the Emperor left a warning, then, scorning the Four Gods' rage, departed the Warp.
His soul returned to the laboratory, where only Malcador and the arriving Valdor awaited; Erda had already left.
Without asking when Erda had left, he closed his eyes in silence, sensing his lost sons, connected by blood, in the real universe.
"They are fine. Although scattered across the galaxy and difficult to pinpoint their exact locations, it is certain they are alive."
Then, with some surprise, he said to Malcador: "There's even one not far from us, right here on Terra."
"My friend, we must hurry." The Emperor knew that the dangers of Terra were no less than those of the galaxy. He immediately took Malcador and set off for the location of the lost son.
"New genetically engineered warriors must be mass-produced immediately. The galaxy awaits humanity's conquest. I must find my sons before the Chaos Gods find them and change them forever."