"Anything can fail. No matter how perfect a plan is, there will always be oversights."
Datch interrupted the Emperor. "Let's refrain from definitive statements."
"No. My plan is perfect. There is absolutely no possibility of failure."
The Emperor's tone was resolute and full of confidence.
Even though he had just been defeated, it had no effect whatsoever on his mental state.
Ferrus barely managed to suppress the impulse to interrupt his aged father's words.
Anyone who had never experienced the Horus Heresy would likely be persuaded by the other party's firm tone.
It is no wonder he ended up sitting on the Golden Throne.
If you're that stubborn, who else is going to sit here but you?
Datch found arguing with the Emperor troublesome. If people cannot teach each other, experience will teach them. One lesson is enough.
He immediately took out the Infinity Gauntlet and chose to use the power of the Time Stone.
He needed to show the Emperor what the original storyline would look like without player intervention.
Let the other party know what the result of their efforts will be.
I hope the poor little Emperor doesn't get so sad that he cries when he learns the ending.
After all that effort and preparation, the result was sitting on the Golden Throne, while humanity suffered terribly.
It perfectly proves the proverb "the harder you try, the worse the situation becomes."
"What are you trying to do?" The Emperor immediately noticed the Nameless One's movements and was shocked, thinking the other party might attack again.
"Since you're so confident in your plan, I'll show you the bitter fruit that stubbornness brings."
Green light was released from the Time Stone and enveloped Datch and the Emperor.
The Emperor sensed the change in the time dimension, showed surprise, and thought to himself that this Nameless One's methods were truly diverse.
It is no wonder that those rebellious sons — Horus, Leman Russ, and Mortarion — never forgot him.
The most important thing is that this man is truly strong and skilled at solving problems.
He is even trying to curry favor with the powerful and force the mastermind to acknowledge him.
Nameless Big Brother, please help restore the glory of humanity.
The surrounding environment changed moment by moment. Suddenly the sound of flowing water could be heard.
The Emperor realized he was standing on the bank of a sparkling river that emitted dazzling light.
Waves surged, raised sprays of water, and produced countless glittering droplets that reflected countless breathtaking scenes.
The Emperor looked around, but all he could see was a river that seemed to stretch on endlessly, rushing toward an unknown destination.
"Where is this place?" he asked while staring into the void.
The next moment Datch appeared beside him.
"This is the flow of time. Everything related to the fate and future of the universe will be revealed here."
Datch bent down and scooped up a handful of water with both palms.
The Emperor turned and showed a surprised expression.
The water in the nameless one's hands reflected numerous scenes from the era when he unified Terra, conquered the Moon, permitted the Gene-Cult to use the Primarchs' gene-seed to mass-produce Astartes, and began the Great Crusade.
Datch let the water that symbolized time flow from his fingertips and, using only the Infinity Gauntlet, caught a single drop.
It contained fragmentary records of the Emperor and Malcador's arrival on Mars.
"The religion that originally guided the Martians onto the path of machine worship has now become the mainstream religion on Mars."
"If I can prove that I dominate the machines, I can easily subdue them, seize the resources they have accumulated over long years, and use them for the Great Crusade."
On the bridge of the Imperial Dream, the Emperor and Malcador were discussing how to conquer Mars.
They devised a surprising magical opening that seemed as if it had been inspired by religious inspiration.
First they used psychic energy to influence part of the Mechanicum's star charts and guided a pilgrimage to Olympus Mons, the highest mountain on Mars.
Next they planned to use a weather-control device prepared in advance to create artificial rain and bring rain to the long-dry Mars.
Then the Emperor appeared.
He immediately spoke to a damaged Knight-class mech and said, "Machine, repair thyself."
Golden light filled the surroundings. In an instant the mech returned to its original form, and countless believers knelt and declared that the great Omnissiah had descended.
The Emperor and Malcador were like magicians, using various methods to maintain their noble status as the masters of humanity.
It must have been truly hard for the two of them.
The result was of course smooth. The Mechanicum of Mars was persuaded, joined the Imperium of Man, and contributed to the Great Crusade.
Thus the Empire's golden eagle flag changed into the golden double-headed eagle flag.
The Emperor watched as these little-known secrets were revealed one after another by the nameless ones.
His pupils twitched slightly, but quickly returned to normal.
Then the war to conquer the solar system and the massive Great Crusade began.
The Emperor's armies raced across the stars, conquering every planet they found, and in the process searched for his sons, the Primarchs.
The Xenos forces existing in the galaxy are all extremely powerful. The Rangdan, the Lacruelle, the Fluud, and others are the most elite Xenos groups occupying numerous planets.
However, Legion-scale Astartes are invincible.
No matter what kind of enemy it is, the final fate is destruction.
The Great Crusade proceeded extremely smoothly in its early stages. Countless planets were conquered, and many human planets chose to join the Imperium of Man, so the expedition continued to expand.
This exploration brought remarkable achievements such as the recovery of important planets and STC templates, making it possible to rebuild the technology tree of human civilization.
Thus humanity regained confidence and came to believe that human civilization's domination of the galaxy and the universe was inevitable.
After numerous harsh wars, the Imperium of Man defeated countless aliens and even destroyed a gigantic Ork empire.
Datch circled around behind the Emperor, shoved him hard, and pushed him into the river.
The Emperor first felt a hair-raising sensation from the river water.
Then he noticed that the surrounding environment had suddenly changed.
When the water level of the river dropped, he arrived at a ruin that was emitting black smoke.
Inside the ruins, countless green-skinned Orks and human corpses were tangled together like a chaotic and violent abstract painting with red and green paint scattered everywhere.
Many of the Ork corpses were enormous, rivaling the Dreadnoughts of Astartes Chapters.
The air was filled with the pungent smell unique to burnt metal, blood, and metal burned at high temperatures.
The distant sky was still burning, and the orange-red flames dyed the entire ruins the color of dusk.
Human auxiliary troops advanced through the ruins, carrying the wounded on stretchers and packing corpses into body bags.
A squad of Astartes warriors ignored the Emperor and passed by him as if he did not exist.
Their power armor was stained with the blood of the green-skinned people, and their chainswords still emitted a low roar even while idling. This clearly indicated that they had been sweeping the battlefield.
"Another war." Datch appeared beside the Emperor. "How do you feel?"
"Where is this place?" the Emperor asked the Nameless One.
"This is the most glorious moment of the Great Crusade — the battlefield of Ullanor." Datch walked over beside the Emperor.
"You led your own army and defeated the strongest Ork empire in the galaxy."
The Emperor looked around and slightly furrowed his brows.
Before the Emperor could open his mouth, Datch waved his hand again and the scene changed once more.
The two of them appeared at a grand victory ceremony.
The parade ground hastily completed by the Mechanicum was packed with people, and countless weapons began to move with a roar.
The double-headed eagle flag of the Imperium fluttered on every flagpole.
The Astartes Legions formed square formations; every row and column was as straight as if measured with a ruler.
The carefully cleaned and maintained power armor shone under the sunlight.
The Titan Legions and Knight Houses' mechs slowly walked along the central pathway of the square.
When the metal legs of the gigantic weapons landed, the ground shook slightly, and irrepressible excitement leaked from the crowd.
The auxiliary troops following immediately behind wore neat uniforms and marched in perfect coordination, like precisely adjusted machines.
Gigantic warships floated in the sky, and countless fighters raced across the sky leaving white vapor trails.
When the Primarchs ascended the grand viewing platform, cheers surged like waves. When the Emperor finally appeared, the atmosphere reached its peak.
Countless men and women looked up at the Master of Mankind without realizing that tears were streaming down their cheeks.
Even under their helmets, tears of emotion flowed down the faces of many Astartes.
The ceremony proceeded as planned. The victory declaration was read, and Horus was formally appointed Warmaster.
"I will return to Terra. The Great Crusade will be entrusted to Horus."
Deafening cheers erupted from the audience.
"Horus! Horus! Horus!"
The Warmaster's name echoed above the square, symbolizing the highest glory.
Glory to the Imperium, glory to the Emperor, honor to the Warmaster.
Horus stood beside the Emperor and accepted this unparalleled moment of glory.
The Mournival led by Abaddon was filled with excitement, their expressions elevated.
As the ceremony drew to a close, the Emperor spoke again.
"My people, I must withdraw from the Great Crusade. Please forgive my absence. The Imperium is about to enter a new phase, and I must return to Terra."
"But please believe me. Even while on Terra, I will continue to fight for the Imperium and for humanity…"
The Emperor stood among the crowd, watching his own avatar speak, then turned his eyes toward the Nameless One.
"I see nothing strange. Everything looks normal."
"This is merely a turning point," Datch said. "Remember this moment. This is the most glorious and the final moment of honor."
The surrounding environment was submerged by the river, and Datch and the Emperor were carried to another place.
The place they arrived at was a rotten planet full of swamps — a world overflowing with the power of Nurgle.
"This is the satellite base of Davin. From here your Imperium will collapse," Datch said calmly.
The Warmaster Horus experienced repeated setbacks and, further influenced by Erebus, his resolve weakened.
Up until the Battle of Davin, he had been wounded by his former subordinate Eugan Temba with the Anathame stolen by Erebus. The wound was so severe that there was no hope of healing, and he was finally sent to the Temple of Davin, where he was corrupted by the dark gods.
Datch showed the Emperor everything.
It all began with Erebus's provocation and ended with Horus being sent to the Temple of Davin.
The interior of the temple was dark and cold. The walls were densely covered with twisted, chaotic script.
Horus, stripped of his power armor, lay on a stone pedestal deep inside the temple. Blood still sprayed from the wound on his throat — a truly tragic sight.
Erebus stood beside the stone altar and watched as the priests performed the ritual.
Afterwards he was killed by a priestess and sent into the spiritual realm of the god Horus.
Horus was transformed by Erebus into a vision of Cthonia, and an extremely dark future and the truth of the Primarchs' birth were revealed.
During this time his other son Magnus came to stop him, but was powerless and could only watch as Horus fell into Chaos.
And thus the story of the Horus Heresy begins.
In the Emperor's eyes, countless images floated up one after another as if fast-forwarded.
In the Choral City of Isstvan III, the virus bombs dropped by Horus destroyed every human.
The remaining loyalists and traitors fought fiercely in muddy trenches. The roar of boltguns, the growl of chainswords, and the screams of the dying intertwined, playing the prelude to betrayal.
Magnus's psychic telephone was also transmitted at this moment. Using the power of the Chaos Gods, he broke through the webway barrier the Emperor had painstakingly built and created the gap known as "Magnus's Folly."
Countless daemons overflowed from that rift and charged toward humanity. Thus the brutal Webway War began.
From the battlefield of Isstvan V came the news that the loyalists had been massacred and suffered enormous damage. One of his sons had also lost his life on the battlefield.
Multiple loyal Legions suffered devastating blows and could no longer deploy large-scale operations.
The meticulously planned attacks of the gods were launched one after another. He became exhausted and could no longer cope.
Even with the joint operations of the Thousand Sons and other forces, they could not stop the daemonic invasion, suffered enormous damage, and were forced to retreat to the underground palace.
The final scene Datch showed the Emperor was the Siege of Terra.
Dorn, as the overall commander, was responsible for the defense of the palace.
Perturabo followed Horus's orders, led the traitor armies to attack the palace, and was determined to break through Dorn's defense lines and kill the Emperor.
The Primarchs turned against one another and turned humanity's homeworld into a hopeless hell.
The sky was completely covered in dust. The ground was scattered with corpses piled up like mountains — a scene like a picture of hell.
In the end the entire solar system was dragged into the Warp.
The Emperor realized that his fate was to sit on the Golden Throne and be eternally imprisoned, and fell silent.
"To be honest," Datch interjected at this moment, "your Astartes project is even less reliable than the Men of Iron project."
"The Men of Iron contributed to humanity for a long time, but your Astartes project lasted only a few hundred years from its inception to the rebellion. Prohibiting the Astartes project would be better than prohibiting AI."
The Emperor's lips twitched. For a moment he could find no words of rebuttal.
The events we have just experienced prove that what Datch says is correct.
"Those were all accidents. I chose the wrong person as Warmaster." After a period of silence the Emperor spoke again in a resolute tone. "The results are already known. If I just pay a little attention, it will definitely succeed."
"I will choose Lion and Sanguinius as Warmasters. I am certain this result can be avoided."
"If there are no other options, I will choose Guilliman."
Datch smiled as he looked at the Emperor who still stubbornly refused to admit his mistakes.
Oh my, still stubborn?
They will never give up until they reach the Yellow River, and will never turn back until they hit a dead end.
Datch stretched out his hand, drew various rays of light from the river of time, and projected them in front of the Emperor.
These included the Dorn Rebellion, the Sanguinius Rebellion, the Russ Rebellion, the Guilliman Rebellion, and others. In each future a different Primarch betrays the cause, and those who were originally loyal become traitors.
The former traitors have now become loyalists.
After seeing all of this, the Emperor was completely dumbfounded.
Am I the type of person who is 100 % likely to be betrayed?
Why is there a rebellious son in every future?!
It was intentional. Completely intentional.
"Not even once?" The Emperor refused to give up and stared at Datch.
"Yes," Datch said. "But the probability is so low it can be ignored."
"Admit it. Your plan is complete shit."
"Now, let's discuss the lifting of the AI prohibition measure."
"The Men of Iron can become a problem that hinders the evolution of humanity, but without the help of the Men of Iron, humanity will probably have no hope of evolution."
While Datch was speaking, he extinguished the power of the Time Stone and pulled the Emperor back into the real world.
The Emperor looked dejected and severely lacking in energy.
The plan that he and Malcador had carefully prepared, despite the long time spent refining it, had ultimately ended in complete failure.
Even Malcador had died on the Golden Throne while cleaning up after him.
"Lifting the AI prohibition itself is not difficult. The problem is that human technology is built upon the foundation of the Void Dragon. Even if we ignore the problem of ascension, AI will rebel when it gains freedom within the Void Dragon."
The technology tree in the Warhammer world is extremely unique. There are very few civilizations with purely physical technology; most civilizations have fantasy elements mixed in.
The reason humans took a purely physical approach when creating silicon-based life-forms like the Men of Iron was actually due to the influence of fragments of the Void Dragon.
Otherwise, in most cases they would have followed the same path as the Eldar and other races and adopted a technology tree inclined toward the Warp.
In the Middle Ages the Emperors took up spears, mounted horses, and defeated the remains of the Void Dragon that tried to devour the Earth.
Then they used the hidden network connecting Terra and Earth to send the opponent to Mars and sealed it.
The reason human technology trees differ from those of other civilizations is because they are under the influence of the Void Dragon.
"It's simple. We just need to beat that Void Dragon down and turn it into human form," Datch said excitedly while raising his fist.
"Come on, let's go to Mars and thoroughly beat that Void Dragon."
Datch is also a man of action.
While talking, they used the Space Stone to open a time tunnel to Mars.
First they intended to suppress the Void Dragon and make it and the Overlord Zarhulash into unfortunate brothers.
After all, to complete the task, the faster the better so as not to delay the next task. When the Emperor saw a space-time portal appear before his eyes, his pupils dilated slightly.
No, does that mean you're just doing this on a whim?
Such a large event requires a certain amount of preparation time, right?
The impulse to acknowledge a godfather has become extremely strong again!
However, Ferrus was used to it. The nameless ones always act on a whim.
He took his warhammer and prepared to follow the Nameless One into the time tunnel toward Mars.
Vitan M was completely confused, yet he still followed them inside.
He only wanted to protect Detroit and Vivis — why had he become involved in so many things?!
…