A little while later, the screen connected to the Videophone refreshed with a new image.
And the instant it did, Bruce's breathing stopped.
Wait—what?!
Meiling? What are you doing?! I told you to get Blue Fatty over here—so why did you bring over the blue-haired... young lady instead?!
Yes, they were both blue, but that did not mean you could mix them up like this!
"So," Curze said, sipping her tea as she stared at Bruce, "you look pretty surprised to see me."
Looks like you've been living quite comfortably lately, boy.
"Primarch!" Warfarin and Alfred dropped to their knees at once, lowering their heads.
"F-Father... why are you the one answering?" Bruce asked carefully.
"Oh, nothing much. I just heard that you'd gone to the trouble of calling back home, only not to look for me—but for that round blue raccoon."
Meiling! You traitor! You set me up!
"I-I'm just dealing with work over here..." Bruce said awkwardly. "Work is work, life is life. I was planning to call you personally once I was done."
And to be fair, he meant it.
"Is that so..." Curze set down her teacup and slowly looked Bruce up and down—then looked at the elder brother practically draped over him.
I knew it. The moment I wasn't around, this one started taking liberties with my recruit.
Ugh. What lion? She's obviously just a lovestruck alley cat in heat.
"Lady Lion, please behave yourself," Bruce said hurriedly, trying to push Lion away from him.
"?!"
Lion finally seemed to realize what she was doing. She looked up—and saw Curze staring straight at her.
"Ahem." Lion cleared her throat and, in an impeccably serious tone, said, "It has been a long time, my brother Curze."
"And how is Horus?" Curze asked, more concerned with the outcome than anything else.
She could settle the matter of Lion sneaking bites from Bruce later. Once this partnership ended, the two of them were not going to be spending time together like this anymore.
"You could say it's mostly a success," Bruce said with a shrug.
"Mostly?"
"Because the treatment's gotten stuck at the most crucial step. I need some outside help, so I thought of Doraemon."
"I see..."
Curze nodded once, then turned to the side and snapped her fingers.
"Sevatar. Bring the blue raccoon over."
"Yes, Milady."
Sevatar entered the frame, replaced the tea with a fresh cup, and left again.
Not long after that, the one Bruce had truly been hoping to see finally appeared.
Only Doraemon looked... troubled. Completely preoccupied, in fact, with some electronic device in his hands.
"Doraemon! Save me!" Bruce cried the instant he saw his brother.
"Hah... now what?" Doraemon scratched his head miserably.
Ever since Bruce had left, Doraemon had been left to deal with everything on Nostramo alone—resource extraction, civilian infrastructure, tech development, even charting out interstellar trade routes. He had also been helping manage Wayne Enterprises on top of all that.
The pressure was suffocating. And the worst part was, he couldn't even slack off.
It felt disturbingly similar to being an administrator back in Endfield.
Except this was supposed to be the Warhammer universe.
"I've run into a small problem over here," Bruce said, lowering both his voice and his posture. "I need your help."
After all, he was asking a favor. The least he could do was keep the right attitude.
"Talk."
Doraemon closed the device in his hands and sighed again.
Why is all the pressure on me? Is that supposed to be fair? I'm just a robot cat!
"I used the gadgets you gave me to save Horus. I also cleared the Chaos corruption out of him."
"That's a good thing, isn't it? So where's the problem?"
"The man's saved, but he's not fully saved. That's the problem..."
Doraemon's whole face seemed to droop.
"Don't tell me... you only restored the body?"
"Bullseye. You really are amazing."
Bruce gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
"Did you try the Panacea?"
"But I've only got one of those..."
That thing, by definition, could cure anything. As long as you still had one breath left in you, taking it would put you right back on your feet.
But because it was that absurdly effective, Bruce had been reluctant to use it.
What if the Emperor died on the toilet one day? That pill could literally change the fate of the Imperium. How could he just spend it on Horus?
Besides, a half-dead Warmaster solved quite a few future problems too, in a manner of speaking.
"Use it first. Don't get hung up on stockpiles," Doraemon said, shaking his head. "I'm the one handling logistics. People on the front lines just fight. Leave the rest to me."
"Then I won't hold back!"
Bruce pulled out the Panacea and handed it to Lion.
Immediately understanding what he meant, Lion took the pill, pried Horus's mouth open without hesitation, stuffed it in, and then used the power of the Wind King's barrier to force it down his throat.
A few seconds later, the readings on the medical monitors shot upward. Horus's physical condition instantly returned to peak status.
And yet...
He still didn't wake up.
"Looks like even the Panacea isn't enough..." Bruce muttered, then turned back to Doraemon for help.
"If even the Panacea doesn't work, then this is bad..." Doraemon analyzed the situation, then asked, "Has he lost part of his soul? Or is it damaged?"
"Yes. The Chaos corruption is worse than I imagined. His soul is broken."
"What about putting it back together?"
"You can't. I mean that literally. It's broken."
"That's... troublesome."
Doraemon repeated the word with a pained expression.
He had plenty of miraculous tools—some of them could even restore the dead.
But Horus's problem was soul damage. That was not something easy to solve.
After thinking it over, two possible tools came to mind.
"I've got two treatment plans. Want to hear them? If neither works, then I'm out of ideas."
"Stop being mysterious. The patient's families are standing right there."
Bruce just wanted this settled as quickly as possible.
"Plan one: fill in the missing parts of his soul. As for the principle and how it works... well, I think you understand."
As he said that, Doraemon cast a meaningful glance at Lion.
Bruce instantly tensed up.
No. Absolutely not. One Lion is already more than I can handle. Another one? Just kill me instead.
"Isn't that the simplest solution, though?" Doraemon said, bewildered. "If something's broken, you fill the missing parts in. He'd still be the same person, wouldn't he?"
"No, no! Absolutely not! I am not doing that a second time! Besides, once this is all over, I'm still going to ask you to undo the first one!"
So this is the moment you suddenly grow a conscience? Doraemon thought. You seemed to be enjoying yourself enough with Miss Saber.
"Skip to plan two. Just say it."
"This one... might be more dangerous. It's less controllable. But I can guarantee it'll save Horus."
"Can it save him? Then I'll do anything."
Bruce would not let himself fail now. He had already promised the Sons of Horus he'd bring their father back. He could not fall apart at the critical moment.
If he succeeded, he'd be a hero of the Imperium.
If he failed, he'd become public enemy number one.
"Wait a sec..."
Doraemon reached into his four-dimensional pocket and rummaged around for a while before finally pulling out something that looked like a coin.
"This is...?"
"An Extra Life Coin."
"...What?"
Are you kidding me? Since when does Doraemon's world have that?
What next, he wondered, was Doraemon going to pull out a television and make Horus watch a thirty-second ad before reviving?
"Let me be clear," Doraemon said seriously. "This thing doesn't belong to my world. And it doesn't belong to this world either."
"Then where did it come from?"
"Bought it from the Main God system. Kind of a little souvenir from clearing a scenario. I had three at first. I already used one on you, so there's only one left."
"What about the third one?"
Bruce mentally counted again. That still left one unaccounted for.
"Shouldn't the part you're reacting to be the Main God system?"
"I don't have one of those, so why would I care?"
"The last one got lost while I was being chased. But even if I found it now, neither of us would have any use for it."
Doraemon looked down at the coin in his hand.
"This thing works. So... do with it what you will."
"There's really no other way?"
Bruce still felt that using such a precious item on Horus was a waste.
"Then use plan one."
"What's the success rate?"
"Sixty percent? Maybe? Restoring a soul and its memories isn't the same as just planting something new in."
"And you can't expect something broken to perform exactly the same once it's repaired. Sometimes the only thing that really works is making a new one."
"Does it have side effects?"
"No clue. Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows?"
If this single-use life-saving item couldn't save the Warmaster, then there really wasn't much Doraemon could do in the short term. This was obviously story-level nonsense. What else was there to do?
"And if it fails?"
"Then send him to Nostramo and I'll think of something. I'm not a doctor, but I can go look in other worlds. As long as it's your problem, I'll find a way to solve it."
"Doraemon..."
For a moment, Bruce was so moved he couldn't speak.
Having a brother like this really was the best.
"Then the question is—how do we get the coin over here?"
"That part's easy."
Doraemon pulled out another gadget. It looked like a weighing scale, with a very long cable attached.
After connecting it to the Videophone, he placed the Extra Life Coin on the tray and turned the device on.
The next second, the coin passed through the television screen and dropped into Bruce's hand.
Bruce caught it, feeling the reassuring weight of it in his palm.
"It's yours now," Doraemon said. "How you use it is up to you."
"If even this thing can't bring the Warmaster back, then I'm really out of options," he added. "At least for now."
"Got it. Thanks."
Bruce clenched the Extra Life Coin in his hand.
"Then I'm heading back to work. Milady, is there anything else you want to say to him?"
Wordlessly, Curze watched Bruce for a few seconds before finally saying one simple thing.
"Don't overwork yourself. Once it's done, come home as soon as you can."
"Yes."
Bruce committed those words to memory.
The call disconnected.
The screen went black.
Holding the Extra Life Coin, Bruce walked over to Horus and placed it squarely on the Eye of Terra emblem at the center of the Warmaster's armor.
The next second, a voice—one that only Bruce could hear—spoke inside his head.
[Use item? (Target: Horus Lupercal. Status: Critically Injured)]
Yes.
Come back to life, my Warmaster.
The moment Bruce confirmed it in his mind, the coin burst into brilliant light.
It dissolved into a glowing sphere and sank into Horus's body, spreading outward.
In the blink of an eye, Horus became a radiant giant of pure light, growing brighter and brighter until the glow flooded the entire operating room and robbed everyone there of sight.
An unknown power shattered some deeper rule and took effect at once.
At the same time, in some distant star system, a living-metal skeletal collector was toying with a coin in his hand.
It was an unexpectedly interesting find—something one of his little treasure-hunting servants had brought back.
The collector had no idea what the thing did.
But one thing was certain.
It did not belong to this universe.
So what exactly was it for?
How very curious.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 126)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter1165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 150
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 55
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
My Harem Is Indescribable 26
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