"You court death!"
Fulgrim glanced at the reckless whelp from the Star of Trailblaze. He had originally intended to swat him dead with his tail, but the motion froze mid-air. He instinctively slowed the attack. The blow that should have bisected the insolent Emperor's Children Astartes merely sent him flying.
He then turned his head and saw that the entire contingent of Emperor's Children was charging toward him.
It was then that he finally realized something was wrong. Every single one of them carried the gene-seed of Akurduana.
"GUILLIMAN!!!"
Fulgrim's rage intensified. That bastard had secretly used such foul means to cultivate so many from Akurduana's gene-seed. This was blasphemy! Absolute blasphemy against the Emperor's Children and against Akurduana himself!
"Guilliman, you ambitious, scheming Guilliman! What blasphemy is this?! BLASPHEMY!"
The enraged Fulgrim raised his head, casually batting aside their attacks. His eyes then instinctively fell upon a few Smurfs. Hmm, Guilliman's whelps.
I can't cut down Guilliman right now, but I can sure as hell cut you down!
It could only be said that the current Fulgrim was acting purely on his whims, having completely forgotten where he was.
"Fulgrim!"
In that moment of distraction, Rylanor, whom he had knocked to the ground, thrust his sword forward.
Squelch!
The next moment, the master-crafted Dreadnought power sword, painstakingly forged by Zhou Ye, carved a deep gash across Fulgrim's twisted, ancient face.
"!!!"
Feeling the stinging pain, Fulgrim fell into a brief silence. It was followed by a surge of pure fury. He clenched a fist, and the piercing sword in his hand stabbed viciously toward the Dreadnought's shoulder, tearing one of its arms clean off.
Fulgrim no longer wanted to kill Rylanor. He would wait until the war was over, then rip Rylanor's soul from his sarcophagus. He would torture it slowly, until he was thoroughly and utterly fallen.
"ANCIENT!!!"
A series of agonized cries rang out as the Emperor's Children charged forward with suicidal abandon. Fulgrim saw his chance and swept them all down with a single lash of his tail. He, again, did not deliver a killing blow.
Such beautiful, dazzling newborn phoenixes... they must, they must all return to the embrace of the Prince of Pleasure.
"Hahaha!"
Just then, a hearty laugh echoed out. Rylanor, knocked to the ground, was laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Fulgrim asked, bewildered, unsure what the old relic was doing.
"Have you forgotten where you are?" Rylanor laughed, but this simple sentence sent a cold sweat down Fulgrim's spine.
"For the Emperor!"
"Praise the Omnissiah!"
Simultaneously, a massive cheer erupted from the Imperial lines. Fulgrim whipped his head around and saw a sight that filled him with terror.
The Titan legion that had been paralyzed by Vashtorr's power was now standing up. Their Volcano Cannons roared to life, blasting into the Slaaneshi legions. In an instant, a huge section of the vast daemonic tide was vaporized. Their previous advantage had vanished.
And at that very moment, a four-meter-tall can had landed behind him.
---o---
Winding time back a little, the moment Zhou Ye landed, he assessed the problem.
The Slaaneshi army was too numerous, numbering in the millions. Seeing Fulgrim acting on his whims, Zhou Ye didn't bother to intercept him. Instead, he chose to tighten some screws... no, to repair the Titans.
As long as the Titans could be reactivated, everything would be fine. He kept an eye on the battle, of course. If anything went wrong, he would intervene immediately. He was prepared to fight Fulgrim with one hand and repair the Titans with the other.
As it turned out, Fulgrim, in that brief window of opportunity where Zhou Ye couldn't intervene, had managed to accomplish absolutely nothing.
As expected of anything related to Slaanesh, they always found a way to drop the ball.
And now...
"Awaken..."
As Zhou Ye's calm voice echoed, the bodies of the Titan legion flickered.
"Heed my command. Unleash your fury upon Chaos."
"VMMMM..."
A deep hum resonated through the air. The Emperor Titan, the Warlord Titan, the Warhound Titans, the Reaver Titans, and all the Imperial Knights rose to their feet. A dazzling light shone from their crimson optics. They were angry. In such a sacred war, they had been forced to sit idle. Now, the Machine Spirits (AIs) of the Titans also demanded glory.
"Praise the Omnissiah!"
"The Emperor is supreme!"
With the Titans rising once more, a massive cheer erupted across the entire battlefield. The God-Machines walked upon the land again, bringing with them glory, endless glory. Heretics and abominations would all be turned to ash beneath their cannons.
At the same time, Zhou Ye completely unleashed himself. He slowly descended from the sky and landed before Fulgrim. With a wave of his hand, a massive shield appeared. Shield in one hand, sword in the other, he stood before his foe.
As for Rylanor, it was no big deal. He had only lost an arm. Zhou Ye could easily reattach it later.
"..."
Fulgrim finally realized what was happening. Son of a bitch, there's another Primarch here. And through all his rampaging, this one hadn't even made a move. He had almost forgotten he existed. Now, he could no longer afford to bother with Rylanor.
At this moment, Fulgrim finally got serious. This was the person the Prince of Pleasure had specifically requested. Fulgrim was prepared to give it his all, but his face quickly twisted in disgust.
Because Zhou Ye had brought out a shield. A massive shield.
The sight of it brought back a very unpleasant memory of a certain stone.
"My brother, are you perhaps Rogal Dorn?"
"..."
At his words, the tide of Black Beast-men who had been rampaging like a beast horde paused for a moment. The Inquisitor, the Ultramarines, and the Flesh Tearers had the same reaction. They were genuinely curious as to who this mysterious and overwhelmingly powerful Primarch was.
"..."
Zhou Ye, however, couldn't be bothered with him and didn't answer.
At that moment, several Emperor's Children quietly circled behind Fulgrim. They didn't launch a sneak attack, but instead hoisted Rylanor up and ran. The remaining Emperor's Children immediately formed up on the spot, falling in behind Zhou Ye to serve as his honor guard. They were all prepared to sacrifice themselves. If anything happened to Zhou Ye, they would plug the gap with their own lives.
"You!"
Before Zhou Ye could say anything, Fulgrim nearly died from sheer anger. If this were a comedy, his face would have twisted into that of a clown, while Zhou Ye's would have become that of a handsome, yellow-haired protagonist. The Emperor's Children behind him would all have been beautiful maidens of various colors.
In that moment, Fulgrim was a little broken. The newborn Sons of the Phoenix he had coveted were now all gathered around another Primarch. He had only one thing to say: this world was a niu, a giant niu.
He, Fulgrim, Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, had been cucked.
Clang!
Zhou Ye was a little touched by the Sons of the Phoenix who were ready to throw their lives away, but he had no intention of letting them do so. Frankly, with the Authorities of Creation and Wither, he could trade blows with Mortarion. And in Nurgle's daemonic domain, those two Authorities of his weren't suppressed; they were actually stronger.
His reason for using the large shield was simple: to use his authority to slowly whittle Fulgrim down. This guy wasn't some nameless Greater Daemon that he could just toss into the converter. He couldn't guarantee he could beat him down like he had the Bloodthirster, especially since this body wasn't even his true form. Thus, by using the devouring property of the sword in his hand, he could slowly chip away at Fulgrim and extract the maximum possible benefit.
The strategy for fighting Fulgrim had already been demonstrated, in both positive and negative examples, by Rogal Dorn and Roboute Guilliman.
So, Zhou Ye shoved his large shield in Fulgrim's face and charged.
And then...
Clang, clang, clang...
CRACK!
As Fulgrim attacked with all four of his arms, Zhou Ye seized an opening and parried, deflecting the blows. With a backhand slash, he carved a large gash in Fulgrim's body.
It must be said, while Fulgrim had a good track record, his actual combat prowess was not top-tier among the Primarchs. In his fight against Ferrus Manus, Ferrus had many opportunities to kill him, though that was before Fulgrim was in full control. Later, he was completely broken by Rogal Dorn and his large shield. Then he tried to show off in front of Guilliman, not using his psychic powers or daemonic form, and was nearly chopped to pieces.
As for Guilliman, his record might seem poor, but it wasn't that bad. He had initially beaten a non-daemonic Fulgrim into the ground, and later fought Angron and Lorgar two-on-one. If Lorgar hadn't ascended Angron and drawn Khorne's blessing in the process, Guilliman might have actually killed them both.
So, Zhou Ye's approach was simple: learn from Rogal Dorn. Keep a large shield in front and look for opportunities to sneak in a slash at Fulgrim. This would maximize the amount of Warp energy he could drain from him. Zhou Ye gave himself a mental thumbs-up for his wit.
Fulgrim, on the other hand, felt like he was eating shit. This giant black can before him was stinky and hard, and he had been cucked by him.
"Are you Rogal Dorn or not?"
Fulgrim was beginning to have his doubts. This fighting style was even more solid than Dorn's. This guy's shield was truly just a shield. Rogal Dorn was a shield warrior. He didn't just defend; he used the damn thing to bash him. But this can before him... his shield was just a shield. He would only occasionally poke him with that strange golden sword in his hand, then go back to defending.
He was too damn solid. Fulgrim was about to puke. Given his daemonic resilience, even if this wasn't his true body, this was just too much.
However, every word he spoke only drove the Black Templars into a frenzy. If they weren't so far away, they would have charged over to form a wall in front of Zhou Ye, shoving that group of Emperor's Children out of the way. They had already been cucked out of the Emperor's Champion possession; they absolutely could not let this happen again. The Emperor's Children were clearly good at cuckolding people.
"Oh, my mistake. You stink worse than Rogal Dorn. Like a stone that's been rolling in a latrine for ten thousand years."
"!" Zhou Ye's brow twitched. He just wanted to eat. He was already having a good meal, though it wasn't as rich as the time with Mortarion. But the problem was, Mortarion had been fished out by Nurgle afterwards, and the energy expended to absorb Mortarion was not on the same level as what he was spending on Fulgrim. So, Zhou Ye felt that absorbing Fulgrim was more profitable. But this mouth...
"If I remember correctly, those two arms of yours used to be your legs, right? So that big thing underneath... hmm, to be able to move with a man's dignity, truly worthy of you."
"?" Fulgrim paused, confused. In that moment, Zhou Ye slashed him again.
"Slaanesh's dog chain is around your neck, yet you still call yourself a 'Prince'? Maggots would die laughing!"
"..." Fulgrim's blood pressure skyrocketed. The Black Templars also paused their actions. This was definitely not their Primarch. Rogal Dorn was rather clumsy with words. Coupled with his low emotional intelligence, he usually just stated facts. This kind of direct attack was not Dorn's style.
"True artists create the eternal, while you are just graffiti on Slaanesh's toilet!"
"..."
"You were once a phoenix, now you're just a plucked cockatrice! Even the bones of Ferrus have more dignity!"
"The forges of Chemos created the Emperor's Children, while the crucible of Slaanesh only brewed a pot of pus!"
"The eyes of Ferrus are still staring at you from your sword—you don't even dare to look his corpse in the eye!"
"The famine of Chemos forged a phoenix; the gluttony of Slaanesh bred a maggot!"
"Look at yourself, Fulgrim! You were once the Phoenix of Chemos, now you are Slaanesh's latrine; you killed Ferrus, yet became a more pathetic existence than his corpse; you pursued perfection, yet even your 'self' has been twisted into a joke by your master! Everything about you—your screams, your art, your war—is nothing but the noise of a slave shaking a bell!"
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
At that moment, Fulgrim let out a piercing shriek. Behind him, Rylanor stared, completely dumbfounded.
---o---