"Lieutenant Vigan, lead your squad to support Sergeant Arlo and intercept the dragons that have broken through," Dio deployed. "Lieutenant Ebo, bring the felynes with me. We'll go check on Amidel's condition."
"Don't forget me!" the dreadnought, now just a sarcophagus, bellowed. "I don't have legs right now!"
Following the tradition of respecting elders, Lieutenant Ebo could only drag the sarcophagus with the felynes, moving with difficulty. Dio, finding them too slow, rushed ahead to Amidel's side. He bent down to examine Amidel's condition, finding Amidel's face mostly intact, but from the neck down, it was a gruesome sight.
The shoulder plate on Amidel's front-right side, which had resisted the flames, was melted away. Dio looked down from the shoulder plate and found that his flesh was not merely scalded, but vaporized by the high temperature like ice cream. However, the vaporized parts were trapped within this steel cage by the molten iron from his power armor.
Twisted flesh and molten iron intertwined, dripping onto the black carapace implanted under the skin during the space marines' modification surgery, and then solidified. The patterns of blood vessels even merged into the solidified iron, appearing both astonishing and nauseating.
Looking further down, although the condition of his legs was better than his upper body, Dio found that when he cut open the armor plate, this half of his leg had also carbonized. There wasn't a single piece of viable flesh left in the entire leg.
If the legs, which weren't directly scorched by the flames, were in such a state, could the upper body's flesh vaporization be that simple?
Such a situation made Dio's heart sink. He decisively cut open Amidel's black carapace. As he expected, although the internal organs under the protection of the black carapace still looked intact in shape, a closer look revealed that the right half of his internal organs were not functioning at all.
The power armor's already collapsed cooling system had failed to dissipate the heat, instead turning the entire power armor into an oven, directly stewing the internal organs.
One heart and two lungs of Amidel's two hearts and three lungs had turned a gray color, like cooked pig liver. His omophagea were also ruined. The remaining one heart and one lung were only beating slowly, appearing as if they could fail at any moment.
His suspensor membrane was not working, but even three suspensor membranes wouldn't be able to sustain his life in this condition.
Based on Dio's experience as a Bio-Sage, Amidel's current state was equivalent to a capital 'hopeless.' Only an immediate surgery to inter him in a dreadnought sarcophagus offered a slim chance of preserving his last shred of life.
He stood up and walked towards the group who had arrived, dragging the sarcophagus. Lieutenant Ebo immediately asked about Amidel's condition, and all Dio could do was shake his head.
"Too severely injured—or rather, likely dead. Before he's completely gone, we could prepare for his interment in a dreadnought, but where would we get a sarcophagus?"
The dreadnought, currently in the only sarcophagus, spoke up: "He's not necessarily beyond saving. Move aside, let me see."
Everyone tacitly made way for the dragged dreadnought, allowing him to carefully observe Amidel's current condition.
The dreadnought veteran was silent for a long time. Just as everyone thought he was about to pronounce Amidel's death sentence, the dreadnought unexpectedly burst out cursing:
"Stand me up! You dragged me all this way just to dump me on the ground and ignore me? My observation window is just a slit in this immobile sarcophagus! What are you showing me, birds?!"
Dio rubbed his nose. He felt he somewhat understood why veterans who entered dreadnoughts generally had bad tempers.
Everyone, with many hands, propped up the dreadnought. The dreadnought carefully scrutinized Amidel with his observation window, then declared, "His stomach and glands are not destroyed. There's still hope."
"How can we save him?" Dio was astonished.
"Brother Ebo, hold his remaining heart and help it beat. Dio, go cut out the Silver Rathalos's heart. I also need a few pieces of genetically rich and nutritious meat. Hurry!"
Under the dreadnought's urging, everyone sprang into action to save Amidel. Soon, Dio and the felynes, who had opened up the Silver Rathalos's body, returned with the heart and meat.
Dio asked the dreadnought how to use these items to save the almost-dead Amidel, and the answer he received from the veteran was bloody and bizarre.
"Cut open his stomach and put these meats in for him to digest," the veteran said. "As for the heart, I only need a part of the heart muscle. Cut off a part of the Silver Rathalos's heart muscle, then implant mechanical ventricles and atria into it, making it a semi-mechanical artificial heart. Use it to replace the heart that is no longer working. Dio, you can do that, right?"
"I don't think a heart as big as a human's can save him."
"Just do it!"
Dio wanted to use his professional biological knowledge to question whether this would be effective, but then he thought that at least it wasn't using these flesh and blood materials for some bizarre resurrection ritual.
Adding turbines and power pumps to a piece of muscle was not difficult. With a 'desperate times, desperate measures' mindset, he followed the veteran's instructions. But when he cut out the already cooked heart and stitched in this dragon heart, the heart showed no activity, clearly unable to adapt to a human body.
"I don't think this is working," Dio pointed out tactfully.
"Don't rush," the veteran wasn't annoyed. "Look at the stomach."
Dio looked at the cut-open stomach and found that the Silver Rathalos meat chunks he had put in earlier had already been digested at some point. Before he could feel surprised that a body so severely injured still retained digestive ability, an even more astonishing event occurred.
The dragon heart, forcibly stitched into his chest, was now slowly beginning to beat!
Dio stared in astonishment at the heart, then at the stomach. He connected these two events, then suddenly looked up, staring intently at the dreadnought.
"He digested the Silver Rathalos's gene and is now driving the Silver Rathalos's organ within his own body!"
Dio, having analyzed the truth, spoke word by word: "Is this the power of your Legion?!"
Dio had, of course, heard about the flesh mutation of the Second Legion. This matter was mentioned by the dreadnought himself on the day he awoke.
Flesh mutation itself was not uncommon; the Fifteenth Legion, the Thousand Sons, had once suffered greatly from it. The Fifteenth Legion's gene Primarch, Rainbow Pony, once exchanged one of his eyes with Tzeentch for knowledge to cure their Legion's flesh mutation.
—Although at that time, Pony did not yet know that Tzeentch was one of the warp Gods. And this transaction, which only helped at the very beginning, ultimately led to the entire Thousand Sons Legion falling and becoming Tzeentch's pawns.
When Dio heard the dreadnought recount his Legion's flesh mutation, and even point out that their Legion's gene Primarch had also made a deal with Tzeentch, his conventional thought process naturally led him to believe that the Second Legion, skilled in gene extraction, had the same type of flesh mutation as the Thousand Sons Legion.
But now, having personally witnessed Amidel being saved by the Silver Rathalos's heart, he suddenly realized with a shock that the Second Legion's flesh mutation was not at all the same as the Thousand Sons Legion's.
The Thousand Sons Legion was like being unable to control their own bodily growth, with rapidly proliferating human flesh and limbs eventually engulfing them, turning them into unconscious blobs of flesh; whereas the Second Legion's mutation was a conscious absorption and modification of their own genes.
In other words, not only their Primarch, but every single one of them could actively transform themselves into xenos!
Dio stared at the dreadnought. He was very sure that the dreadnought had deliberately concealed some details when recounting his Legion's story.
Extracting information from others' genes was a basic ability bestowed upon every space marines by the nineteen modification surgeries. At that time, the dreadnought had merely glossed over it by saying their Legion had additional glands to complement their gene-detection nerves, and Dio naturally didn't think much of it.
But who would have thought that the 'targeted evolution' he spoke of was this kind of thing? Eating a piece of meat could allow them to use a Silver Rathalos's heart, which is vastly different from a human's?!
"At least he survived," the dreadnought said, facing Dio's gaze. "We cannot lose Amidel."
"We cannot lose him, but your abilities... are a bit too dangerous."
Unstable abilities often mean danger, but overly stable abilities are also equally so. Dio knew how much humans could indulge in self-destructive enthusiasm for something that could be targeted and repeatedly practiced.
Without even mentioning anything else, any Forge World within the Adeptus Mechanicus would see Tech-Priests blown up or maimed in the triple digits due to 'improvements' to 'mature' melta or plasma technologies.
Dio found it hard to imagine what kind of monstrous creatures a Legion that could integrate a monster's genome into its own DNA simply by eating could eventually stack up.
If it truly reached that extent, the term 'flesh mutation' might even be an understatement... Dio suddenly understood why the Emperor had so thoroughly expunged the Second Legion back then, but the dreadnought reassured Dio.
"It is precisely because we knew our abilities were too dangerous that we warriors, who adhere to the principle of cautious use of our abilities, left the Legion. In fact, even during my many years of slumber, I believe my brothers upheld this principle. The fact that they have lived on a planet full of monsters for so many years without any mutations is the best proof."
"I believe you, but I believe what I see with my own eyes more."
Dio looked at Amidel. As the Silver Rathalos's heart beat within his chest, his breathing gradually stabilized, and his internal organs rapidly began to self-repair.
This vigorous vitality surprised Dio, and he couldn't help but recall the emergency surgery he performed on the severely wounded space marines at the felynes camp. The tenacious self-healing ability of the space marines now seemed to be far from an isolated case.
He hesitated for a moment, then injected Amidel with a nutrient solution.
The other party's self-healing ability was so high that he no longer needed to intervene; simply providing nutrition was enough for him to recover completely—if he didn't end up with some Silver Rathalos parts.
So, what was this? Was it the birth of a dragon with warhammer characteristics?
"We can selectively absorb gene-seed, but Amidel is so severely wounded that his body's survival instinct is making him absorb everything he can use."
Lieutenant Ebo explained in a low voice, "He was originally the most principled among us. The current situation cannot be blamed on him."
Dio shook his head, "I know, but this is never a personal matter. If we are to consider long-term cooperation, then I must inspect your gene-seed."
"When Amidel wakes up, I will ask for his opinion," said the Hunter dreadnought, who had already handed over command.
Dio nodded, agreeing with the dreadnought's statement. He stitched up Amidel's body. No one spoke during this time, and the atmosphere was somewhat somber.
It wasn't until Sergeant Arlo, who was responsible for the outer defense, returned with Lieutenant Vigan, who had gone to provide support, that this silent atmosphere eased slightly.
"There was no need for support at all!" Lieutenant Vigan exclaimed, "After the Silver Rathalos died, that group of intruding dragon inexplicably ran off on their own!"
"Including the deviljho?" Dio confirmed.
"Including the deviljho."
Sergeant Arlo took over, "If we consider the world soul mentioned earlier, assuming that when we first started hunting the Silver Rathalos, it was the world soul that sent these dragon to harass us. Now that the Silver Rathalos has fallen, those dragon have left, abandoning the opportunity to pursue our weary forces. Does this indicate that the world soul is showing us goodwill?"
"Who knows? I never speculate about the thoughts of non-human entities," Dio replied, "At least we are safe, for now."
This battle was fierce. Although, thanks to the timely rescue by the felynes, no one was sacrificed, there were quite a few wounded with missing limbs.
If three or more monsters had continued to press them, Dio and his group would have had to find a way to get more materials from the Space Hulk and then hastily evacuate. But now that the dragon had retreated, their time became quite ample.
Dio first treated some of the critically wounded, then organized the felynes to help him retrieve usable materials from the Silver Rathalos, and finally, with the assistance of Lieutenant Ebo, organized the remaining able-bodied warriors to form a defensive line along the periphery of the Space Hulk.
When all this was finished, he personally came before the Space Hulk and cut an entrance into its armor plating.
Others could do everything else, but shouldn't he personally open the blind box?
"It's time to reap the greatest reward from this battle."
Putting aside all previous problems, Dio, whose treasure-hunting addiction was starting to kick in, rubbed his hands excitedly: "Let me see what secrets are hidden inside!"
Unfortunately, not all Space Hulks hold surprises.
Dio panned the whole Space Hulk and came up empty—turns out, even ancient tricks from Old Terra can't strike gold where there's none to be found, no matter how sharp your eye or deep your lore.
Space Hulk is a general term for ships and the like that get lost in the warp. What happens in the warp to cause all crew members to die is not uncommon. Such unmanned ghost ships often drift in the warp for centuries until they are boarded in the warp or return to real space.
Space Hulks often contain valuable things, such as lost technology or sacred relics, but sometimes they can also become nests for heretics, Chaos Daemons, Orks, or Genestealers.
Of course, since it is now M32, the Tyranid Swarm is probably still crawling towards the galaxy hungry, and the Genestealers, as the vanguard of the Tyranid Swarm, naturally haven't appeared in the galaxy yet.
So, usually, only the first three appear on Space Hulks, but due to the chaotic nature of warp time, it's not surprising if unusual situations sometimes occur.
Among the many unusual situations,Dio, who had previously discussed the situation of Space Hulk with the astartes, had already prepared to see Tyranid Swarm specimens on this Space Hulk.
But facts proved that this psychological preparation was not enough in front of this Space Hulk.
Looking at the insect specimen he had dissected, and feeling the shining Tyranid Swarm bio-weapon blueprints in his mind, Dio let out a long sigh.
Although there was no lost technology that Dio had hoped for, acquiring some knowledge that could unlock blueprints was a gain in itself. It was also within his expectations that the Tyranid Swarm, with settings similar to other sci-fi works, would allow him to draw inferences and acquire some Zerg technology from starcraft and Thorian technology from Stellaris.
But when this "some" became too complete, it was Dio who should be uneasy.
It wasn't that the unlock methods for those technologies in his mind were an extra favor to him; the fundamental need to reproduce cross-universe technology in a warhammer way remained unchanged. There was only one reason why so many progress bars could be unlocked at once: it was too damn similar!
Before he transmigrated, Dio had cut down countless Gaunts in games. Their flesh-evolved, weapon-like Fleshborers left a very deep impression on Dio.
But the attacking organ of the Tyranid specimen under his scalpel now didn't use a Fleshborer at all, but corrosive acid rapidly sprayed from its mouthparts!
Dio was very sure that the structure of this insect conformed to our unique warhammer biology; this was undoubtedly the Tyranid Swarm from Warhammer.
But wasn't this attack method the Zerg Hydralisk from Starcraft!
Why would something he hadn't even unlocked in his mind appear here?
"Cogitator array, report the current time," he commanded the Cogitator array on the Space Hulk.
The Cogitator array emitted incomprehensible noise, as if disturbed by something. But eventually, it displayed the time it had recorded on the screen in front of Dio.
"750, M41," it displayed, even marking the "current" location: "Ultramar."
That was the time and location in real space it recorded when it entered the warp; it came from nine thousand years later.
Anyone familiar with the chaotic nature of warp time should understand the situation at hand, but Dio, who knew certain "futures," could discern even more from it. For example, the first large-scale war with the Tyranid Swarm occurred in M41, year 745, in Ultramar.
Dio had been investigating the Space Hulk for three days. He had figured out that this Space Hulk, sent by Tzeentch to the astartes of the White Wind Grand Company, was a Forge Ship belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Such ships often contained factories capable of producing enough ammunition and corpse starch for half a world. Of course, the special thing about this particular Forge Ship was that some areas on it had been converted into Tyranid Swarm research labs, with many insect specimens placed in stasis fields for study.
The strange thing was that Dio and the others had swept through this Forge Ship several times but had not found any other biological corpses besides insect specimens.
The crew maintaining the ship, the Tech-Priests responsible for production, or the Adeptus Mechanicus Bio-Sages responsible for research—none of them were on this ship, which was so clean it was as if they had never existed.
Yet, Dio found quite a few illegible experimental notes on the ship, and even the Cogitator contained some research records on the Tyranid Swarm left by others.
Dio continued to scroll down the screen, following the time displayed by the Cogitator. The experimental logs recorded on the Cogitator were below.
"January x, xth standard Terra time."
"Experiment record… insect… Macragge… Second… Soul…"
These were the only remaining keywords in the Cogitator. Such incomplete records are very common in ships lost in the warp for a long time without anyone maintaining the machine spirit, but these remnants made Dio smell a conspiracy.
Considering that the daemon specifically chose this ship for the decisive battle with the remnants of the Second Legion and their Hunter dreadnought, this ship must lead to a dark future related to them. But these few words, which showed no connection to the situation on the ship, really perplexed Dio.
Macragge could be said to be the location of the first Tyranid War, but what was "Second" that followed? Could it be the Second Empire?
Hiss, don't even mention it, it's possible that such a clean ship could have been silenced by the Ultramarines who had little secrets... But what was the final "Soul"?
Could it mean that Tyranids have souls?
Nonsense!
Frowning, Dio was utterly perplexed. He didn't have many ideas, the only thing he could be sure of was that Tzeentch definitely had a deep connection to this matter. However, it was precisely this deep connection with that bird-headed figure that reminded Dio not to delve deeper.
As the saying goes, when humans think, Tzeentch laughs. Even this ship was thrown over by Tzeentch; how many traps it contained, probably only Tzeentch, that bird-person, knew. Following the clues on it would only lead him into Tzeentch's trap.
The advantage of the null lay in the unknown nature of their minds not being spied upon by the warp's malevolence. But if they were too rigid, that unknown would also become a predictable known.
Perhaps the daemon that Dio crushed in the dreadnought at the beginning knew something… but that was a daemon. Dio felt no regret for not learning anything from its mouth.
"In the end, it can only be left for later…"
Dio put down his dissection knife, intending to pause his investigation into the Tyranid Swarm from nine millennia later.
His exploration of the Forge Ship and the Tyranid Swarm had already taken him three days, and he didn't intend to spend any more time on it. He had more urgent matters to attend to.
Just then, the laboratory's hatch opened, and a person walked in from outside.
Dio had borrowed the laboratory on the Forge Ship and had instructed others not to disturb him unless necessary. But clearly, the current arrival itself constituted a necessity.
"You're here." Dio turned around and saw Amidel.
"I'm here." Amidel nodded. He and the felynes at his feet were carrying a cryo-preservation device. "Just as we agreed."
Upon seeing Dio, the felynes that had entered with Amidel immediately became excited. He affectionately ran to Dio and rubbed against him, and Dio, in turn, picked him up.
This felynes, resembling a British Shorthair, was the one who had previously helped Dio attach the energy shield to Amidel. His intelligence and courage were an indispensable part of that desperate counterattack.
Dio greatly appreciated this felynes's cleverness, so he named him Tom and kept him by his side as a lab assistant.
"I still don't understand why you named him Tom…" Watching Dio holding the cat, Amidel shook his head helplessly.
"Come on, it's good enough that he's not called Cat One or Cat Two. This name is an unrevealed secret from Old Terra." Dio said indifferently, "Seriously, did you bring the gene-seed?"
"They are all in this cryo-device, from the brothers who died on the Space Hulk back then to the gene-seed recovered recently."
Amidel took two steps forward and placed the cryo-device in front of Dio. Dio nodded. He cleared the insect tissue from the experimental bench and then took out several cryo-tubes containing gene-seed from the device.
This was the matter that the Hunter dreadnought had agreed with Dio in advance: to have the gene-seed inspected by Dio.
Although they had to wait for Amidel to wake up to make a decision, this request was more a formality, as they, who sought Dio to reorganize the company, actually had no other choice.
Amidel's only request was that he be present when Dio studied the gene-seed, which was why he was here.
The palm-sized gene-seed storage gland still had a few fleshy tendrils. It looked no different from other gene-seed, but the key always lay within. Fortunately, this unmanned Space Hulk had complete equipment, allowing Dio to observe what secrets lay inside these gene-seed.
Equipment adjustment still needed some time. Dio dispatched Tom to do these chores for him, then chatted idly with Amidel.
"Your recovery speed far exceeded my expectations, Amidel. It's only the third day, and you're already indistinguishable from a normal person."
Amidel shook his head: "Is it really indistinguishable?"
Dio scrutinized Amidel, reconfirming the state he had observed many times since Amidel's recovery: no dragon claws had grown, no pointed ears, and certainly no dragon scales. The only change was that his newly grown skin had a silvery-white sheen like a Silver Rathalos, and his skin's resistance to impact had also improved.
"I think there's no difference." This level of mutation was considered minor among space marines; at least, the dragon-man Dio had envisioned was not present.
But Amidel was still not satisfied with this.
"The abilities the Emperor bestowed upon us naturally have their value. I always understood there would be a time when their value had to be realized, but when I actually use them, it always reminds me of my gene-father who colluded with daemons." He sighed, "This makes me very uncomfortable."
"The same abilities do not mean you are the same person. Amidel, you must remember, there is a boundary between usage and complicity. You're not the bolter Amidel."
Although he still didn't know if the abilities granted by their gene-seed were reliable, Dio didn't mind comforting this warrior who had turned the tide.
As the indicator light on the equipment lit up, signaling it was ready for use, Dio picked up a cryo-tube containing gene-seed taken from a warrior who had fallen fighting Tzeentch daemons a millennium ago, and placed it under the microscope: "What's more, we might uncover the truth of your abilities today."
Amidel was noncommittal: "I only hope my brother's second sacrifice will be worthwhile."
"If something could be studied from the outside, it wouldn't necessarily be essential to dissect the gene-seed for inspection." Dio frowned: "But this…"
As the cryo-tube thawed, the previously dormant gene-seed became active. The tentacles on the spherical growth now wriggled and stretched outwards like living things, like an octopus craving food.
Dio examined the gene-seed, uncertainly asking Amidel, "Are your gene-seed always this active?"
"The previous batch was like this," Amidel replied.
Dio fell silent.
The tithe was the foundation of the Imperium, and this levy was no exception for Space Marine Chapters. Every Space Marine Chapter had to surrender their gene-seed as a tithe, and these gene-seed would then be transported ship by ship to Mars for storage.
As an Mechanicus not from Mars, Dio naturally didn't have many opportunities to deal with gene-seed of various bloodlines.
But he had once had the "privilege" of "observing" several gene-seed from the Ultramarines lineage on an Adeptus Mechanicus transport ship carrying gene-seed.
Although the appearance of everyone's gene-seed storage glands was indeed similar, he could be certain that the Ultramarines' gene-seed were definitely not as active as the one before him now.
Facing this gene-seed that fully displayed its desires, Dio pondered for a moment. He chose not to dissect it but tentatively took out a small piece of leftover dragon flesh and placed it next to the gene-seed.
The active tendrils of the gene-seed, upon sensing the piece of flesh, immediately coiled around it and swiftly stuffed it onto its main body. In no time, the piece of flesh integrated into the gene-seed storage gland.
Afterward, the gene-seed that had "devoured" the piece of flesh began to tremble slowly. To Dio and Amidel's astonished eyes, a small structure resembling a dragon leg and claw actually emerged from the bottom of the gene-seed.
This gene-seed with a leg first stumbled around. After adapting to this organ, he actually jumped off the experimental bench by himself and scurried towards a corner where he could hide!
Dio's pupils dilated.
For a moment, he began to wonder if the coordinates of this planet were the Eye of Terror.
Where the hell did this bring me?! Is this still a loyalist gene-seed?!
He turned to look at Amidel, only to find Amidel also looking back at him with a bewildered expression.
"The Gene-seed has always been the Apothecary's responsibility; I haven't learned about these."
Seeing the gene-seed so 'independent,' Amidel's voice was clearly a bit weak: "Our Apothecary died on the Space Hulk. Before he died, he instructed us that our gene-seed must be strictly cryo-preserved and not contaminated by any external substances. Our brothers, temporarily in charge of gene-seed recovery, have always followed his instructions without any slack, and so they never discovered any problems in this regard…"
While Amidel was explaining, the gene-seed with legs had already run quite a distance. Fortunately, Tom easily caught the gene-seed trying to escape and carried him back to the experimental bench.
Dio patted Tom's head and took the gene-seed that had grown its own legs. Having learned his lesson, he didn't hesitate, directly cutting the gene-seed in half with a swift motion, then placing the still-twitching gene-seed under an electron microscope for observation.
The research equipment also automatically extracted some original fluid from the gene-seed and began determining the entire DNA sequence.
However, he didn't even need DNA sequencing. Just by observing the dissected gene-seed under a microscope, Dio could sense the level of chaos within it.
Outside the not-so-stable double helix main body, countless broken gene chains drifted within the gene-seed. Although the entire gene-seed was cut open and gradually losing activity, these gene chains were still ferociously devouring each other. Every collision between two gene chains gave birth to a new variation, and the entire gene-seed displayed countless possibilities in this ever-changing process.
Ultimately, however, these gene chains, through mutual devouring, solidified into a larger gene chain and connected to the double helix main body.
Dio didn't know what traits this inserted gene chain would express upon implantation, nor was he interested in knowing. This process of myriad changes eventually converging into one reminded him of the bird-headed individual in the warp who enjoyed toying with the process of fate.
Although the gene chains within the gene-seed didn't show any specific characteristics with warp power during their mutual devouring, he still unhesitatingly took out his Promethium flamer and incinerated the gene-seed on the experimental bench.
The legacy of a battle-brother thus came to an end, but Amidel remained silent. At this moment, the crucial issue was no longer about one or two gene-seeds.
He and Dio exchanged a silent glance, and the atmosphere in the laboratory suddenly grew tense.
A gene-seed that could grow its own legs was enough to be labeled xenos or a blasphemous object. If exposed, this label would plunge every Imperial astartes using that gene-seed into an abyss of eternal damnation.
Dio and Amidel had inadvertently stumbled upon a secret that needed to be strictly guarded by everyone in the Legion, yet among everyone here, only Dio was not from the Second Legion.
But eventually, Amidel handed over a second gene-seed.
"We still haven't looked at the current gene-seed," he said.
Dio nodded, and the atmosphere in the laboratory eased considerably. He placed the gene-seed Amidel handed him onto the bench, cut it open, and re-extracted its gene sequence for observation.
This time, the result was surprisingly much better than the thousand-year-old one. This gene-seed already had a complete and stable double helix structure, and there were no broken gene chains mutually devouring and recombining.
Dio tried inserting a few gene chains into it and found that it didn't replicate the 'Way of Ten Thousand Changes' of mutual struggle seen in the previous gene-seed.
Although this gene-seed still showed good compatibility with foreign genes, with a complete double helix, these gene fragments merely attached rather than altering the original structure, so it couldn't be judged as xenos.
Dio let out a long sigh. He displayed the sequence differences of these two gene-seeds, one old and one new, on the screen for comparison, analyzing their structural disparities.
Seeing Dio relax, Amidel also visibly eased and stepped forward to ask Dio about the situation.
"Your current gene-seeds are very stable. Preliminary assessment shows no major issues, at least nothing that would change your identity as humans. However, I need to compare the differences in more detail to conduct purity tests on your gene-seeds later and filter out those that are still usable."
Dio continued comparing the two gene maps: "Furthermore, I am also quite curious about what kind of experiences could lead to such a significant transformation in your gene-seeds. I know that an astartes's combat experience and ingested substances can affect the gene-seed, which continuously absorbs the astartes's own characteristics, and cause it to change, but... huh?"
"What's wrong?" Amidel asked from behind him.
"No... nothing."
Feeling that the information and knowledge he gained from comparing the gene-seed maps could actually be integrated into the blueprints for creating Tyranids in his mind, Dio's heart was already in turmoil.
Only then did he realize that the process by which the Second Legion's gene-seed changed its traits was somewhat similar to the Tyranid Swarm he had dissected earlier!
But Amidel was still here. He could only suppress his surprise and maintain a normal facade.
Why would the Primarch of the Second Legion collude with Tzeentch? Why was the early gene-seed of the Second Legion so 'ever-changing'? Why did the gene expression of the Second Legion actually have similarities with the Tyranid Swarm? Why... would the Emperor throw him onto this planet?
Too many doubts weighed on Dio's mind, making him feel as if he was deeply mired in a swamp. He tried to sort out some thoughts, but Amidel, standing behind him, began to ask Dio how he felt.
"Very interesting, isn't it?" Amidel said.
There were too many questions to ponder, so much so that Dio paused for a moment before realizing that this question should not, and could not, have come from Amidel.
He suddenly drew his plasma pistol and turned to aim at Amidel.
But Amidel' merely smiled at Dio.
"Very interesting, isn't it?" He repeated again: "These people's gene-seeds."
Dio pulled the trigger, and the plasma pistol began to charge in his hand, but Amidel' merely raised his hand, and a fluctuating psychic energy calmed the charging coils of the pistol.
Tom, sensing something was wrong, pounced towards Amidel, but he was also sent flying by psychic energy with a mere lift of a hand, falling unconscious to the side.
But its heroic action bought Dio time. Realizing that the opponent was a powerful Psyker, Dio simply placed his other hand on the coil, using his null characteristic to block psychic interference.
He re-aimed with the now normal plasma pistol, and Amidel' frowned when he found that he couldn't use psychic energy to prevent the shot.
"Your peculiarity is even beyond my expectations..." he muttered to himself, then raised both hands at Dio, expressing his non-threatening posture: "There's no need to be so serious, after all, I have no ill intentions right now."
"Who exactly are you? And why are you possessing Amidel!" Dio did not lower his guard, still aiming at him.
In his mind, he had already reviewed all the powerful Psykers related to the gene-seed and the Tyranid Swarm mess, trying to determine who was possessing Amidel, but the other party's subsequent answer still caught him a bit off guard.
Amidel retorted, "Do I need a reason to possess my chosen one?"
Dio was stunned for a moment: "Are you the Emperor?"
As soon as he said this, Dio was quite sure he saw a profound sigh on Amidel's face.
"Can you humans only think of that sun in the warp?"
Dio leaned on the coil, continuing to charge: "I wouldn't mind giving the remaining evil entities in the warp a quick end either."
"I have profoundly experienced those words, Dio, especially after you smashed my idol a few days ago."
Amidel shrugged, his words leading his identity in a direction Dio had never considered before.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the Black Dragon Miraboreas, the avenger of the Elder Dragons, and the agent of the First Dragon." He opened his arms wide, making a gesture as if embracing the world: "Of course, you can also call me, as you did before—
World soul."
Dio stared at Miraboreas for a long time. He still held the plasma pistol, but in his heart, he already believed the other party seven or eight tenths.
The world soul's meddling was a suspicion he had held for a long time; he just never imagined that the other party would appear in this form at this moment.
The Black Dragon, a legendary Elder Dragon, an existence at the pinnacle of the dragon, was the ultimate target for protagonists in many Monster Hunter games.
He had concrete records of destroying human civilization, and there were also vague, unsubstantiated theories that the Black Dragon himself had once taken human form to participate in the establishment of the Hunters Guild, but the true nature of the truth remained elusive to everyone.
If this were Monster Hunter, Dio naturally wouldn't believe that the person in front of him was the Black Dragon Miraboreas, solely based on the elusive and unsubstantiated rumor of an Elder Dragon transforming into a human.
But this was Warhammer.
The other party claimed to be the world soul, and his manner of possessing someone was no different from other warp entities.
In the Warhammer Universe, a world where every concept in the real universe corresponds to the warp and produces a corresponding existence, it didn't seem too difficult to understand that the Black Dragon from Monster Hunter had become the world soul.
But Dio felt he still needed to clarify one point, so he continued to aim at the other party and asked, "What exactly is the world soul?"
He, of course, knew what the world soul was, but precisely because he knew, it was easier to judge the other party's reliability through this question. Unexpectedly, Miraboreas merely shrugged.
"Who knows? It's certainly not a planet-sized machine spirit."
Dio was a little embarrassed when Miraboreas, the world soul himself, repeated the words Amidel and the others had used to explain what a world soul was.
Realizing that the other party knew their situation inside and out, and had no intention of communicating nicely under threat, he could only put down the plasma pistol in his hand, and Miraboreas also breathed a sigh of relief.
"It seems your brain hasn't been completely pickled by that rotting corpse," he mercilessly sneered. "I was really worried about what would happen if you shot me."
Dio raised an eyebrow: "You are a world soul, a semi-warp entity composed of psychic energy. Would you be afraid of a small plasma pistol?"
"It seems you haven't fully realized your own uniqueness. What kind of person can stop a world soul's psychic energy by simply covering the plasma pistol's coil with their hand?"
"Isn't that an null' ability?"
"Uh-huh, your Emperor had a whole squad of Silent Sisters with him when he was digging the Webway under Terra, but they couldn't stop that red-skinned ogryn from blowing up the throne with his psychic powers."
Dio pinched his chin, suddenly feeling that Miraboreas had a point.
The Silent Sisters had disappeared after the Heresy, and Dio had traveled the universe for over a hundred years without seeing any other cases of null suppressing warp phenomena. His assumptions about null could only come from his own experience, believing it to be an ability every null should possess.
It wasn't until he annihilated that daemon within the dreadnought's machine spirit last time that he belatedly speculated whether his own abilities surpassed those of ordinary null. Now, the Black Dragon's words seemed to confirm his suspicions.
"You seem to know a bit too much?" Dio asked Miraboreas.
"That's a rare joy in a long life. I watched the whole thing from the warp."
The Black Dragon replied, "And you know quite a bit yourself, don't you? You seem to be very clear about how we world souls came to be, and you're not at all surprised by the ancient secrets I mentioned."
Dio was always humble in this regard: "I just dug up a few Eldar graves."
"Oh, those hangers-on of the Old Ones."
Miraboreas clearly didn't have a good impression of the Bean Sprouts, which surprised Dio, given his general impression of world souls.
Seeing Dio's slight confusion, Miraboreas explained, "If you've dug up Eldar graves and know about the Old Ones and that unprecedented War in Heaven, you should know that the Aeldari were merely a vassal race created by the Old Ones to handle logistics during the War in Heaven."
"They were fortunate enough to fill the void after the War in Heaven, becoming the overlords of the galaxy, yet they brought about their own destruction through indulgence in pleasure, leading to the birth of a new Chaos God... A pathetic race, what more respect could you ask for?"
"I always thought world souls and the Eldar had a good relationship, after all, only they still held the method to birth new world souls. I heard that when the Eldar fell, the Eldar who fled to Maiden Worlds were also protected by a group of world souls to avoid being devoured by the Chaos Gods."
The Black Dragon sneered, "And then what? Watching them stuff stones containing the souls of their ancestors into the infinity circuits they cobbled together, completing the cuckoo's takeover of an entire planet?"
"What do you mean?"
"It means exactly what it says. A world soul is the self-will of a planet, born from the convergence of the souls of its indigenous species. But what if the souls inserted are not from the planet's creatures? Would what is born still be considered the planet's self-consciousness?"
Dio suddenly understood.
The Infinity Circuit allows for the construction of a self-contained soul cycle within its range, ensuring that souls entering the Infinity Circuit are not devoured by the warp, and ultimately giving birth to a collective consciousness formed from these aggregated souls.
Whether it was the Craftworld where the Craftworld Eldar resided, or the Maiden Worlds where the Savage Eldar lived, the circuits on them were nourished by Eldar Soul Stones. The collective consciousness that emerged naturally leaned towards the Eldar, leading to the stereotype that all world souls were friendly with the Eldar.
But what if there was a world soul who refused to accept the Eldar, and from its birth only received the souls of indigenous species? Then... He looked at Miraboreas, and the other party nodded proudly.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Miraboreas, the Black Dragon, the current world soul of the Caerulea, an ally of the Old Ones during the War in Heaven, and also the ultimate resting place for all dragons on this planet. I have descended here to offer you an invitation to cooperate, to guide us all to a clear path!"
...
Damn it, now the Monster Hunter player has suddenly been upgraded from the Emperor to the Old Ones.
And for this invitation, do you also need to defeat three Arch-Daemons in a row first?
Dio secretly grumbled. He couldn't help but start thinking about why a world soul, who had existed since the War in Heaven, would invite him.
For a world soul, what was his value as a collaborator?
He didn't know the knowledge in his mind, so the only answer left was that special physique of his, which he didn't know what it was, but could suppress a world soul's use of psychic powers... Dio shook his head: "I don't think I have anything good to cooperate with you on. From the tigrex to the Silver Rathalos, I can't see an ounce of sincerity in your offer of cooperation."
"I have to admit I disliked you at first, and I didn't realize your uniqueness."
Miraboreas narrowed his eyes, a dangerous wildness in his gaze, "But you wouldn't think that alone gives you the right to refuse, would you?"
"Oh come on, if you really had a way to deal with me, would you be here chatting with me so politely?"
"Then you can be trapped on this planet for the rest of your life, or directly stumble into the warp storm I've stirred up outside, and pray that your Emperor will pull you out again."
The Black Dragon's attitude was aggressive, but Dio was not buying it: "Conversely, you're not really sure if the Emperor will pull me out again, are you? Are you so confident in threatening me?"
"Of course, I don't just threaten; I can also discuss the ownership of these space marines with you."
The Black Dragon pursed his lips, gesturing for Dio to look at the gene-seed dissected on the experimental bench. Only then did Dio remember that this Black Dragon had suddenly descended here when he was dissecting the gene-seed.
Miraboreas stepped forward, admiring the first chaotic and variable gene sequence displayed on the screen.
"How nostalgic. When they first arrived on my planet, I smelled the Weaver of Fates on them. These space marines escaped the clutches of the Lord of Change, but they couldn't escape the curse the Dark King left in their bloodline."
"I wanted to slowly eliminate them back then, but later, I saw a... potential for change in their genes."
Following his guidance, Dio's gaze shifted to the second, more stable gene-seed sequence, which had been recently extracted.
"I specifically arranged opponents for them, using their gene absorption ability to subtly modify them, and thereby erase the mark left by the Lord of Change on their gene-seed... It proves I was quite successful, doesn't it?"
Dio was not a fool. Although he wasn't necessarily very smart, his null physique, which allowed him to think rationally, already made him far superior to those "smart people" who would attract Tzeentch's attention.
Combining his past understanding of warhammer, he had almost deduced the truth of the Second Legion from Miraboreas's words.
The Emperor made a deal with the warp, in exchange for the knowledge to create twenty-one Primarchs and their warp essence.
As a Legion founded from the Primarchs' genes, although ordinary space marines did not possess the warp essence of a Primarch, their origins and concepts had deeply bound them to the warp.
Among them, the warp essence of the Second Legion's gene-Primarch must have had intricate connections with Tzeentch, and this connection, reflected in ordinary space marines, was their gene-seed, which, despite having no warp aura, was still so variable that it could be linked to Tzeentch.
Why did the Emperor establish this Legion in the first place? Perhaps he thought he could eliminate any warp components in the gene-seed, or perhaps he thought he could avoid the influence of the warp, or perhaps, knowing the instability, he intended to maximize the use of this Legion for the Great Crusade before the warp became too turbulent... Whatever the truth, as the Primarch of the Second Legion easily fell to Tzeentch, all these things lost their meaning.
But just as the Second Legion was purged, a faction that disagreed with the Primarch and was part of the remaining Second Legion arrived on the Caerulea, and their variable gene-seed was also modified by the world soul here, and their gene-seed, which initially bore some resemblance to the swarm...
"Speaking of which, do you recognize the insect specimens on this ship?"
Dio suddenly asked, but only received a shake of the head.
"No, I despise these biological weapons that exist only for combat; their existence is a desecration of nature."
Miraboreas's eyes held undisguised disgust: "However, this Space Hulk is the work of that bird-headed man, so it's not surprising what might be on it. Why, what are you asking this for?"
Indeed, it was almost the entire truth about the gene-seed, but not all of it.
Dio regretfully ended his deduction. He had no intention of revealing that he had discerned a connection between the Second Legion's gene-seed and the swarm through knowledge from another world, so he simply shook his head and brought the conversation back to its original direction.
"Let's continue with what you were saying... You said you erased Tzeentch's mark on their gene-seed, but why? Were they really worth so much effort?"
"I merely discovered in them the evolutionary potential to integrate into this ecosystem. Do you know what the most essential thing for biological evolution is?"
"Energy… and species competition?"
The Black Dragon nodded, acknowledging Dio's statement, "Exactly. The balance of nature lies in these two things. Once, during the War in Heaven, the Caerulea was chosen due to its unique life forms. With the help of the Old Ones, the souls of the dragon on this planet gathered together, awakening the primordial world soul, the Ancestral Dragon."
Dio noticed that he described the Ancestral Dragon, not himself, which might be related to his earlier mention of being the "current" world soul.
This meant that the Caerulea's original world soul was not him, and the Black Dragon's narration continued.
"The greatest strength of the Caerulea's creatures lies in their ability to quickly adapt to the environment and evolve. That era of constant conflict also became a catalyst for the evolution of the dragon, eventually giving birth to a group of Elder Dragons who were not only physically formidable but also wielded natural psychic powers…"
Oh, impressive. It can even be integrated into warhammer like this?
Dio thought for a long time but couldn't find any flaws. He suddenly realized that the somewhat fantastical world view of Monster Hunter, reaching the Elder Dragons stage, seemed perfectly reasonable within the warhammer setting, and Miraboreas's narration continued.
"The Elder Dragons represented the Caerulea's participation in the War in Heaven. Although Elder Dragons constantly perished in the war against the Necron, their deaths also became nourishment, prompting more and more bizarre and powerful Elder Dragons to be born from the Caerulea. That was the most glorious moment for the Caerulea."
"But with the end of the War in Heaven, the lack of struggle led to the decline of species on the Caerulea, and the degeneration of life forms caused the Ancestral Dragon to fall into slumber."
"I was born from the deaths of the Elder Dragons, and as the Ancestral Dragon's successor, I roamed the warp, striving for millions of years to maintain species diversity—but all of this finally ended with the birth of the youngest god."
Dio guessed what happened: "The fall of the Aeldari fueled the power of the Chaos Gods, and this power eventually led to the birth of Slaanesh, preventing you from roaming the warp?"
"And caused the Caerulea to lose its last Elder Dragon."
The Black Dragon's tone was calm when he mentioned this, but Dio could discern a deep hatred for the Aeldari and Slaanesh in his eyes.
This reminded Dio of his initial self-introduction as the Avenger of the Elder Dragons, beyond being the First Dragon's emissary.
The birth of Slaanesh dispersed the warp storms, allowing humanity, whose backbone had been broken by the Men of Iron war, to return to the stars… This might have been a good thing for the real universe, which was riddled with large-scale regression, but the increase in the power of the Chaos Gods was not so for the warp entities opposed to them.
The warp storms would eventually return, and they would be even more terrifying than the four millennia of darkness that had isolated the universe before the Great Crusade. No wonder the Emperor was so eager to launch the Great Crusade.
"After that, I have been dedicated to bringing Elder Dragons back to life on the Caerulea, but the severely degraded ecosystem on the Caerulea alone cannot achieve this."
"I even guided the birth of intelligent races like the felynes, hoping they would bring some change here, but their bodies, focused on intellectual development, were too weak to bear the responsibility of bringing about conflict… Just when I was at a loss, they arrived."
Miraboreas sighed, evidently recalling the scene when he first met these space marines: "After the birth of the youngest god, to protect myself, I stirred up a small warp storm to cut off contact with the outside world, but these warriors were still thrown here."
"This 'coincidence' and the aura of the Lord of Change on them almost made me eliminate them… But I have to admit, that Fire Stealer truly had some skill. He was able to create a group of humanoid biological weapons with the mutable characteristics in evolution, while removing the warp components. Their characteristics made me see the possibility of them enhancing the species struggle on this planet and giving birth to Elder Dragons again."
Dio, of course, knew about the 'catfish effect' of introducing alien species to promote the evolution of native organisms.
Especially after almost being killed by that "reborn Elder Dragon," Dio could vouch that no one on this planet currently understood this aspect more thoroughly than he did.
"After all, it was achieved through technological means. Although their characteristics easily attract the attention of the Lord of Change, they are ultimately not directly His Families."
"I spent some time extracting all the potential from their gene-seed, and then used some psychic methods to finalize their gene-seed, finally eradicating the influence of the Lord of Change."
"Now their gene-seed absorption is only sensitive to the species on the Caerulea. This way, I can safely use them as sacrifices for the birth of Elder Dragons… until you appeared, Dio, until you."
"You keep emphasizing my uniqueness."
Dio was merciless: "But after I landed on this planet, I didn't see you holding back against me at all!"
"That's because I initially did want to get rid of you."
The Black Dragon frankly admitted his thoughts: "Evolution is written by fangs and claws; weak firearms will only stifle the possibility of evolution. I painstakingly forged them into usable sacrifices, but you brought them firearms. If I didn't kill you, how could I continue my plan?"
"So when did you change your mind, hmm? When that Silver Rathalos, which almost evolved into an Elder Dragon, nearly killed us?"
"I wasn't heavily involved in the Silver Rathalos incident; his evolution was completed before your arrival. Besides putting some pressure on you from the outside, I even helped a bit, keeping the body I'm currently using from the gaze of the blood god."
Miraboreas shook his head: "I changed my mind the night you touched my idol. In the warp, I cannot directly observe null like you; I can only communicate with you through others or through a medium that descends into the real universe. So it wasn't until you touched my idol that I realized your uniqueness."
He walked over to Dio and scrutinized him from head to toe.
"The prisoner on that throne insisted on breaking through my warp storm to bestow blessings upon my felynes… How could I not get involved in such a plan?"
Tzeentch, the Swarm, the Emperor, and Miraboreas before him. These individuals were like a vast net, tightly entanglement around Dio. Dio had been in this universe for a century, yet he never imagined he would one day bear such an honor.
He originally thought this kind of treatment would only come after he tinkered with a faster-than-light engine, but he didn't expect that he had only produced some toys and had already been noticed… And what these people cared about wasn't even the knowledge in his mind?
"I'm curious," Dio frowned, "What about me is worth all this trouble for you? Just that null physique that can suppress your psychic powers?"
"It's not just suppression; you'll know if I demonstrate it."
Miraboreas, controlling Amidel's body, walked up to Dio and actively touched him. Dio noticed Amidel's eyes instantly clear up.
"What's going on?" he said blankly, "How did I just lose…"
His groan hadn't finished when control of his body was once again handed over to Miraboreas.
"Well, what did you see?" Miraboreas asked.
Dio thought rapidly, analyzing the variables in the recent test: people with souls all have a certain repulsive reaction to null. Weak null only make people feel fatigued and depressed, while powerful null like the Silent Sisters can make people feel their souls slowly being drained.
warp entities also have their power weakened when facing null, suppressing their existence in the material universe, but suppression is by no means a direct disappearance upon touch… Dio understood something: "Not suppression, but banishment?"
"That's not quite accurate either, but your physique is indeed special. You are not merely psychically untouchable like an null; it's more a negation of the warp itself."
Miraboreas clicked his tongue in wonder: "Your existence reminds me of the Necron and their masters back then. Rather than having no soul and being unaffected by the warp, you are more like a symbol of… the stability of the material universe itself."
"Weren't the Necron enemies of the Old Ones and you?"
"Times have changed. Back then, the warp wasn't such a cesspit, and the material universe wasn't so close to the warp. Now the material universe is riddled with holes; if it could be more stable, it would be a good thing."
Dio was puzzled: "You, as the world soul, are clearly also a warp entity?"
"That's still different. Although we do exist in the warp, our physical forms are all in the material universe."
The word "we" immediately made Dio think of the Emperor trapped on the Golden Throne, while the Black Dragon drew the Wyvern Blade Red, forged by Dio, from Amidel's waist.
He admired the Katana as he continued, "You and your creations all possess this characteristic, no wonder that Fire Stealer is so fond of you. Of course, I also admire your abilities, which is why I even abandoned the Elder Dragon I was about to complete and chose you instead."
"If you had made up your mind earlier, why didn't you just show up sooner? Did you have to wait until after we defeated the Silver Rathalos?"
"I have been planning for too long. The Silver Rathalos and the astartes, one of them is bound to become a sacrifice for the other's sublimation. I initially wanted to guide the birth of a new Elder Dragons, but in the end, I gave up on the Elder Dragons and let you lead the astartes to defeat the Silver Rathalos."
"Now, these astartes will be a gift to show my sincerity. You desperately need their power to expand your sphere of activity in the galaxy, don't you?"
Dio pinched his chin, pondering over what Miraboreas had said.
"Giving up on guiding the birth of Elder Dragons, it sounds like you suffered a great loss."
"Not entirely. Previously, this remnant force of astartes had no future. They couldn't create new warriors, so they were destined to become sacrifices for others."
"But if you bring them back to the stars, they can have new recruits, and then continuously provide this planet with new conflicts—let me think, for now, let's call them Hunters, according to their internal honorifics."
"For me, the changes that the Hunters can bring are far more important than a single Elder Dragons. As long as the balance between these people and the original ecosystem can be maintained, I believe they will bring about some... mutually beneficial changes."
"But I don't need your permission to take them away. There are hardly any overlord-level creatures left in the depleted ecosystem of this planet, are there?" Dio sharply pointed out the problem: "I'm already in the galaxy. What can you do if you don't even have an Elder Dragons?"
"That's why it's a collaboration."
The Black Dragon was full of confidence. He looked as if he had Dio completely figured out, placing the Wyvern Blade Red in front of Dio.
"A very peculiar weapon, isn't it? Forging the soul of a beast into iron, even the moves and combat techniques are hidden within the weapon's soul. Not even the Old Ones of that era ever conceived of such a structure."
"I detest the act of forging the lives of dragon into weapons; it desecrates their wild souls. Yet, this weapon has achieved a subtle balance between the two."
"Unfortunately, those Hunters cannot fully utilize the characteristics of this weapon yet. Without psychic powers, they cannot perceive the soul surging within the weapon, but I can guide them through the souls within the weapon that rightfully belong to me, helping them unleash the true characteristics of these weapons."
"Hiss? So that Rising Dragon..."
Dio had previously wondered how that Rising Dragon strike was delivered. He originally thought it was the assistance of the world soul, but he didn't expect it to be an inherent ability of the weapon.
However, considering that the protagonists in Monster Hunter can immediately use all moves upon acquiring a weapon, this built-in instruction manual setting seems quite reasonable upon closer thought.
But it requires psychic power to unleash these moves. No wonder when the Wyvern Blade Red was first forged, it didn't seem particularly special. So, it was hidden here all along?
Dio had already mastered the forging knowledge of Monster Hunter. He was no longer limited to using only materials from the monsters on this planet for forging, but the requirement of psychic power to unleash the weapon's abilities remained a hurdle.
Aside from the Grey Knights, who were still elusive, probably no Chapter could achieve an entire corps of Librarians. If that was the case, then the prerequisite for using such weapons would truly be the voluntary guidance of a world soul... Seeing that Dio was already somewhat swayed, Miraboreas pressed on with his advantage: "Not only that, but after returning to the galaxy, you can also have their suitable candidates and new recruits trained here with me."
"Perhaps you also have methods to purge the traces of Tzeentch left in their gene-seed, but it will certainly not be as convenient and systematic as it is here. You provide me with Hunters for a rich ecosystem, and I will bring you warriors capable of conquering the galaxy. No party will lose out in this collaboration."
"Your only request is for Hunters?" Dio was already convinced, but he wanted to make a final confirmation.
"Increasing the competitiveness of the ecosystem is my top priority. You are winning your future, and so am I. With these Hunters who can wield weapons containing monster souls, there will be a foundation for more Elder Dragons to be born from the crucible of blood and fire. When the species on this planet are rich enough, perhaps the First Dragon will awaken... that is my goal."
"As for other parts, those are not critical. You can temporarily consider them as future investments."
The Black Dragon raised his head. Despite being inside the Space Hulk, his gaze seemed to penetrate the dome, seeing the galaxy above, and The Warp far above the galaxy.
"Your special constitution can expel the evil of The Warp and stabilize the real universe. Perhaps later you will become the defender of the real universe. By then, I will not have to stir up self-preservation warp storms and re-establish communication with the outside world... But who knows? I have some anticipation for this, but no expectation."
"But no matter what, our common interests now are enough to sustain our cooperation, among these Hunters, between you and me."
Humans never trust xenos, but cooperation does not depend on trust, but on common interests as the strongest foundation.
Moreover, this world soul was entirely focused on training his own dragon.
The dragon did not appear to be an intelligent species that would expand outwards and seek galactic hegemony, which meant there should be little potential conflict of interest between the Black Dragon and Dio.
Perhaps when Emperor threw him onto this planet, he had already foreseen this outcome?
Dio didn't know the answer, just as he didn't know whether the being currently sitting on the Golden Throne was still human or god. But from the same pragmatic perspective as that person, he had no reason to refuse this cooperation.
"Then, happy cooperation."
Dio extended his hand to Miraboreas, and the Black Dragon reciprocated.
"Indeed, happy cooperation. I don't think it will be unhappy either."
A world soul born during the War in Heaven, a transmigrator whose physique was similar to a C'tan, and a ragtag group of Monster Hunters... Having unraveled some of the mysteries, Dio suddenly found himself with an alliance that challenged the imagination.
Although more mysteries still entangled him, he believed that now, a century after his arrival in the warhammer world, he had finally taken a solid step forward.
Low earth orbit.
More than half a year had passed since the agreement with the Black Dragon Miraboreas. During this half-year, Dio had been busy with the construction of the spaceship.
When this vessel, approximately 750m long, roughly the size of a sword-class frigate but without any long-range weapons, was sent into orbit by Dio from the ground, Dio, standing on the ship's bridge and having checked the reliability of all devices, finally let out a sigh of relief.
"I managed to build this with my own hands... Well, I'm pretty amazing, aren't I?"
Imperial technology was always known throughout the universe for its simplicity and brutality; even a Hive World could construct a standard Luna-class Cruiser. However, even the simplest technology would instantly turn into hell on a planet with no technological traces.
Dio hadn't thought about asking the Black Dragon for help, but this world soul, who spoke eloquently about The Warp, showed a kind of beauty untouched by knowledge when it came to technology. The only information he could provide Dio was that he was so stupid he couldn't possibly be related to Tzeentch, and nothing else.
Dio could only experience the beauty of scavenging on a planet that wasn't even a wasteland. Even with The Warp engine salvaged from his crashed escape pod as a base, Dio still spent nearly half a year piecing together a ship capable of normal warp travel.
From now on, he had no right to criticize others for just scavenging and not looking for their son, after all, it didn't seem to take them half a year to find their son.
But then again, the ship he built was far more robust than a purely wasteland-style one.
Although this ship was only 750m long, its keel was not a metaphor, but a real dragon bone.
Dio originally wanted to use the keel salvaged from the Space Hulk as the base, but the multi-kilometer-long Forge Ship's keel was not the same type as the small ship Dio was building by hand. This forced Dio, who could only salvage scattered adamantium parts from the Space Hulk, to consider using other materials as a substitute.
After some testing, he found that only the spine of a large dragon met the strength requirements for the ship's keel, and a dragon's spine, pieced together from end to end with molten adamantium, became the only choice for building this ship.
As for the extra dragon skulls, Dio simply placed them at the bow as a ram. As the only thing on the ship that could be called an offensive weapon, Dio even ingeniously painted the ram red.
Regarding the ship's propulsion method in the real universe, Dio did want to reinstall the plasma engine he had salvaged from his escape pod, but the size difference between the two ships was too great, and a single small plasma engine would certainly be insufficient.
Fortunately, Miraboreas wasn't entirely useless. After understanding Dio's needs, he provided Dio with a material that could serve as an engine.
To be precise, it was the wings of an Elder Dragons called Valstrax.
These Valstrax did not rely on flapping their wings to fly. Each of their wings had three large nozzles at the end. They would convert their biological matter into a violent eruptive reaction within the wing nozzles, thereby gaining immense recoil for high-speed flight.
According to Miraboreas, these incredibly fast and powerful Elder Dragons were once the preferred choice for the Old Ones to raid small Necron units during the War in Heaven. However, with ecological degradation, this Elder Dragons had also become extinct on Caerulea.
The Black Dragon had originally kept some Valstrax samples, hoping to evolve them back into the ecosystem in the future, but these samples now became instrumental in Dio's spaceship construction.
Although he still hadn't figured out why the gene-seed of the Second Legion unlocked some of the Tyranid blueprints, thanks to this, Dio had initially mastered some xenobiological technology.
Using this technique, he spliced several activated Valstrax wings onto the spaceship, using them as the ship's conventional engines. He also created a biological interface for these wings, through which imported flesh and blood would be converted into the biological energy needed by the Valstrax wings, powering the Valstrax engines.
And so, a bizarre spaceship with a red dragon head ram, a keel laid with dragon vertebrae, and engines powered by biological functions was born in Dio's hands.
Dio decided to name it the Hunter.
However, after its completion, the Hunter looked strange no matter how Dio viewed it. He stared at it for a long time, feeling that this thing looked more like some Daemon Engine from The Warp than a spaceship.
Perhaps even ships corrupted by Chaos wouldn't look this exaggerated, but at least it could fly... and that was enough.
—
However, Dio hadn't just been busy with large-scale construction during the past six months. Thanks to the materials and guidance provided by the world soul, Monster Hunter weapons gradually became popular among the space marines.
Since the Black Dragon said it would invest, Dio naturally accepted without hesitation. He still had to haggle with the Black Dragon for high-grade materials, but he took all the materials obtainable through hunting without reservation.
He used some vague promises to fool the Black Dragon, then, within the Black Dragon's tolerance, he maximized his extraction of the unique resources he could take from this planet. Even the few remaining Lord-level creatures on this planet that Dio could defeat were harvested by him.
This almost predatory behavior eventually compelled the Black Dragon to confirm with Dio:
"You will definitely come back, right?"
"Don't worry," Dio promised, "My biggest characteristic is that I never break my word or my contract."
"How exactly do you do that?"
"If the creditor is gone, then of course there's no breach of contract. This is advanced experience I learned on Underworld No. 8."
"?"
"Otherwise, how do you think I climbed to the position of on Underworld No. 8? But don't worry, since I can't kill you, you don't have to worry about the risk of me defaulting."
Perhaps such heartfelt words were unexpectedly convincing, and the Black Dragon tacitly allowed Dio to gather unique materials from all over the planet. The mass production of Monster Hunter weapons was one of the products of this collection.
Although the materials used for these weapons were not as precious as the Wyvern Blade Red, and Dio temporarily lacked the tools to combine these weapons with the existing warhammer technology, they were still enough to keep the warriors, who mostly only used chainswords, endlessly entertained.
It was just that the warriors' aesthetic also became quite bizarre... Dio didn't think much of it for now. Having completed the test flight, he ordered the felynes to pilot the ship back to the astartes camp on the ground. Since it wasn't the first test flight, the space marines on the ground didn't pay attention to the take-off and landing movements and continued their fervent training in the camp's training grounds.
"Charge Blade, discharge!"
An astartes, who had blocked an attack, combined his shield and sword into an axe. He twisted to increase the power of his swing, then fiercely brought the axe blade down. But Sergeant Arlo, his sparring partner, who wielded a one-handed sword and a small round shield, remained fearless.
The disadvantage of his weapon had honed his keen grasp of details. He merely sidestepped to evade the ferocious slash, then, with unimaginable agility, rolled to close the distance and counterattacked with his one-handed sword.
In an instant, dozens of blade lights flashed across the power armor of the astartes using the Charge Blade! And then... then only a few scratches were left.
Seeing this scene, Dio, who had disembarked from the spaceship, was a bit speechless. Fortunately, Amidel, who arrived, didn't let him feel awkward for too long while watching the sparring session.
"How was the test flight? Is the spaceship okay?" Amidel asked as he arrived.
"All airworthiness tests are complete. Have everyone prepare; we can depart today. As for the remaining arrangements on this planet, we'll proceed as we discussed."
Six months ago, the black dragon Miraboreas, using Amidel's body, returned it to Amidel only after establishing a cooperation agreement with Dio.
Amidel, who had no idea what had happened, thought his loss of consciousness after recovering from severe injuries was due to a flaw in his gene-seed, and didn't dare to ask too many questions. Dio also didn't explain to them that he had already reached an agreement with the world soul.
He kept this matter as his little secret, then informed the others that the issues with their gene-seed had been alleviated during the millennia of fighting on this planet, and they could safely return to the galaxy.
Naturally, everyone was excited to hear this news. Only the Hunter dreadnought might have seen something, but he didn't bring it up either.
He probably wanted to maintain a tacit understanding with Dio, where they each had their own little secrets.
However, the minor details of having little secrets didn't affect Dio's overall direction during the past six months. He first expanded the camp into a monastery for training new recruits in the future, then began training the more intelligent felynes to identify navigation operations and augurs.
In addition, Dio, who had acquired a lot of materials from the Black Dragon, also didn't neglect some equipment that only felynes could use, such as dragonbone hammers that could stun monsters and inspiring horns that could buff Hunters. He made and tested all of these.
After testing, Dio found that these equipments could only function through the psychic abilities possessed by the felynes. Although he didn't know when they would come in handy, he still made a batch of such equipment as a secret trump card that only felynes could use.
Everything was ready, along with the spacecraft he had crafted by hand, leading to the present day when all personnel were brought aboard the ship.
The astartes, who received the notification, boarded the spaceship with the felynes, carrying their large and small bags. After organizing their luggage, some of the felynes, led by the Cat Matriarch, withdrew. They would be responsible for the basic maintenance of the camp and the monastery in the coming days, awaiting the return of the first batch of new recruits.
The remaining felynes who boarded the ship consciously took over the maintenance of various equipment on the warship—the machine spirit liked these little guys, and with them, rather than him, an null Tech-Priest, performing maintenance, the probability of equipment malfunction could be minimized.
After settling all the Battle-Brothers, except for the dreadnought who had fallen into slumber, the leadership of the Chapter, along with Dio, came to the bridge. Dio activated the cogitator system on the bridge and began to summarize the current situation:
"Let's discuss our future direction. Currently, the entire company, including the Hunter dreadnought, has one hundred Battle-Brothers. Thanks to the help of the felynes, we suffered no casualties in the Silver Rathalos battle, but half of them have varying degrees of injuries. Some have damaged internal organs, others are missing limbs; these are all problems we need to solve."
Their unique gene-seed generally granted the warriors of the Second Legion resilient bodies on the Caerulea. However, apart from Amidel, who had no other choice, the other warriors were reluctant to overly utilize their "talent" to repair their bodies. This made treating these warriors an immediate priority.
The astartes' superhuman organs are implanted later, which means these damaged organs can actually be repaired quite easily. Typically, Chapters store spare superhuman organs internally, but Dio and his group are not typical, are they?
"Perhaps we can seize others' spare organs?"
Lieutenant Vigan suggested, clearly reluctant to directly contact the Imperial authorities, but his suggestion was quickly rejected by Lieutenant Ebo.
"Missing limbs, while not affecting survival, does impact combat effectiveness. With our current strength, to raid other Chapters and warbands, setting aside whether we can find suitable targets, even if we do and successfully carry out a sneak attack, I don't think we can escape unscathed."
"Lieutenant Ebo's words make sense. Every one of our brothers is precious, and we cannot take unnecessary risks."
Amidel also agreed with Ebo: "Since that's the case, we can only consider safer options, such as finding a slightly larger Forge World. Whether it's superhuman organs or mechanical prosthetics, a larger Forge World will always have one or the other."
"But are larger Forge Worlds really safe? We are currently unregistered without official identities, and this aspect could easily be discovered, right?" Sergeant Arlo fully utilized his insight as a one-handed sword Hunter, acutely pointing out the problem.
"That doesn't matter. The Adeptus Mechanicus now is different from your time. As long as we can provide resources, they don't care who they're doing business with," Dio simply replied to Arlo's concerns. "But the problem is... do we have any resources to exchange right now?"
The answer, naturally, was nothing at all. As soon as the question was posed, the entire discussion atmosphere became solemn.
Dio could pretend his acquired technology was STC and offer it to a Forge World in exchange for certain resources, but he had no intention of doing so. Exchanging unique knowledge for resources was itself a waste, and coupled with the possibility of being double-crossed by the Forge World, such an approach was in no way a worthwhile deal to consider.
Of course, raising this question didn't mean Dio was also at a loss regarding the current situation; he merely used this small tactic to introduce his upcoming proposal.
Seeing that no one could answer the question he had posed, Dio naturally steered the conversation in the direction he desired.
"Just like the agreement I reached with the Hunter dreadnought earlier, since you all follow me, I will naturally find a way for everyone. Not only to obtain superhuman organs for healing, but even gaining official Chapter status will become readily achievable in the upcoming plan, but all of this requires your complete trust and cooperation with me."
After the dreadnought fell into slumber, Dio, who was familiar with the current environment, knew the Second Legion inside out, and had reached an agreement with the dreadnought, had already become the de facto leader of this company.
But it wasn't just about making these warriors follow orders; to achieve seamless cooperation, all their concerns had to be dispelled.