If the Watchers had heard Sanguinius' words, they would have been enraged by his arrogance. To drag out the Most High God and slaughter him like a wild dog.
What arrogance, what insolence!
Such words, even dogs could tolerate, but not the Watchers. They had controlled this universe for countless ages.
A group of humans, whose history was but a fraction of their existence, had arrived.
And they intended to eliminate their master, the Most High God, as if he were a wild dog. They disdained an omniscient and omnipotent supreme being, and they also disdained them, the pawns who served the Most High God.
Unfortunately, not a single Watcher was here; they were all dead. The Primaris Marines had killed every xenos, smashing their heads and bodies to pieces, making them another pile of corpses on the Imperial path of conquest.
Everything within the fortress was taken away, even the special crystals were cut out and removed.
Human technology and the path of the Watchers were not the same.
Yet, the resources they left behind could still be utilized by the Imperium. Those crystals imbued with special power, and the psyker materials extracted from the Warp using machines, were extremely precious. The Watchers had their own methods.
When the echoes of sorrow and despair from living beings appeared in the Warp, they would be collected by them using special methods. Those echoes could create daemons.
Now, all of them had been collected by the Watchers using special means.
Sanguinius ordered everything to be taken away, hoping that through research, humanity could also master the same methods.
In that case, humanity would have another means of survival against daemons.
After dismantling the enemy's abandoned structures, the Imperial engineering corps would construct human buildings on the original sites. The Watchers' fortress was located at an important spatiotemporal node. This node allowed users to travel to different cosmic regions more quickly.
It could also regulate the flow of aetheric currents, ensuring the harvest of parallel universes.
If the Imperium could construct the Webway in this universe and establish fortress-bastions to interfere with Warp storms,
It could effectively prevent the Most High God's invasion of the Imperium's controlled territories. The more powerful a Warp entity, the greater the cost it had to pay to operate in the material universe.
While the Most High God was powerful, its means of dealing with the Imperium were actually extremely limited.
Either it sent its proxies to wage war against the Imperium,
Or it personally intervened, stirring up Warp storms to cause trouble for humanity.
Regardless of the method, it could not operate without the Warp. The Imperium only needed to control the nodes to weaken the Most High God's offensive against it. The Warp was complex and ever-changing.
Some safe navigation routes and spatiotemporal nodes were particularly crucial.
Establishing fortresses there would yield twice the results with half the effort.
With minimal forces, vast stretches of star systems could be defended.
Sanguinius didn't need to worry about these matters. The remaining work would be handed over to professionals. They would assess the gains from this victory and make adjustments.
At the same time, they would allocate resources and construct a colossal Imperial fortress.
Once the fortress was truly completed, this star system would completely belong to humanity. To reclaim it, the Most High God would only be able to send proxies to wage war and repel the Imperium. The fall of the Watchers' fortress granted Sanguinius a brief period of rest.
He was able to return to his exclusive quarters for recuperation.
Due to Sanguinius' noble status, the Captain of the *Expedition* had specially constructed a living area solely for the Primarch.
Sanguinius always disliked such privileges; he insisted on only having a garden, a study, and a rest area.
His blood-stained armor was removed and handed over to specialized maintenance servitors.
Returning to his resting area, Sanguinius wore only a loose white robe, concealing his strong, powerful, sculpted muscles and perfect physique.
He always preferred to stay in his study, making the most of his limited time to enrich himself.
As a Primarch, his study was vast.
It contained better collections than most libraries. There were human books, and also those belonging to other races.
Under the high vaulted ceiling of the study, bookshelves lined the walls, extending seventy meters upwards from the floor.
Servo-skulls hovered among them, maintaining the books and delivering needed ones to Sanguinius as he requested, or returning read books to their original places.
At a table surrounded by high walls of bookshelves, Sanguinius indulged in his rare free time.
Beside him lay an exquisitely crafted harp and an unfinished, delicate tapestry. The tapestry's materials were meticulously chosen, and it was embroidered with loyal Primarchs and the Emperor. They gathered around, encircling their father and their most outstanding brother.
If a mortal were present, they would surely be astonished.
How could a Primarch, born for war, possess such things?!
Few knew that Sanguinius, skilled in warfare, was equally adept in the arts.
He could play most Imperial musical pieces and could embroider works of art worthy of being passed down through the ages, just like the Imperium's most skilled needlewomen. That tapestry was his masterpiece.
He had taken time from his busy schedule to embroider it.
He planned to present it to his brothers at the opportune moment.
He would not show favoritism; each brother would receive a tapestry embroidered by his own hands. The entire process would never be entrusted to others.
Currently, Sanguinius was reading a work by a philosopher, *To the Imperial Dream*. The language was not without extremism, and the author made no secret of his reverence for the Primarchs and his worship of the Emperor.
Sanguinius felt a slight impatience with the clumsy views and fanaticism in the book.
Yet, he patiently continued to read.
Humans possessed their flaws, but also their virtues. The Primarchs' task was to deeply understand their thoughts and provide appropriate guidance, ensuring they did not stray from the correct path.
Reading books was the best way to understand those mortals; mouths could lie, but words could not. The data crystal on the desk flickered, emitting holographic projections. There were military officers introducing the battle situation, and also speakers encouraging the wounded.
Sanguinius possessed extraordinary wisdom; he could simultaneously receive this information and form his own judgments.
After finishing the book in his hand, Sanguinius stood up and stretched his body.
He opened the information crystal pillar on his desk, activating the military main interface.
He quickly browsed through the messages sent to him by officials and commanders.
After confirming there was nothing important, Sanguinius decided to rest for a moment.
Walking out of the study, he entered an observation deck where he could gaze into the void. The wreckage of the battlefield still remained there. The eerie rifts were filled with terrifying aura, and twisted tentacles and hateful eyeballs floated in the aetheric ocean. The citizens of the Imperium had all received education about the Warp, teaching them that those forbidden things must not be touched.
Such knowledge was once forbidden, because of the peculiar nature of Warp entities: the more they were believed to exist, the stronger they became.
Ignoring them was, ironically, the most advantageous choice.
For the past 10,000 years, the Inquisition had done its utmost to prevent such knowledge from reaching ordinary people.
Many innocent individuals paid the price with their lives for inadvertently learning the truth.
Such actions were savage and brutal.
But the Inquisition had no choice; merely understanding those terrifying truths was enough to poison people's souls.
All of this was only declassified after the Emperor established the firewall.
People, relying on their faith in the Emperor and their loyalty to the Imperium, were able to enjoy the protection of the firewall, and much knowledge of the Warp was declassified, allowing ordinary people to understand what a terrifying world they lived in.
A colossal mechanical ark was docked at a meticulously calculated position.
Countless rescue vessels came and went, sailing out from the ark's port.
Using their mechanical arms, they recovered the debris and bodies, and rescued those who had not yet been killed by the void and the leaked aether.
Swarms of automated maintenance machines worked like insects under the control of the Cogitator.
A gigantic Imperial Aquila structure was being constructed under the guidance of the tech-priests.
It was a device specifically designed to repair spatiotemporal rifts.
Several completely black colossal warships patrolled back and forth, deterring Warp entities and guarding against potential corruption events. These black ships were operated by the Soulless, and they carried an astonishing number of null-weapons.
Squads of Sisters of Silence hunted down daemons that dared to enter the material universe, letting them experience what absolute death felt like.
Sanguinius gazed at these scenes, fearlessly staring at the terrifying cracks. Those terrifying things emitted piercing sounds.
Attempting to bewitch and corrupt Sanguinius' mind.
Sanguinius didn't care; he had fought in the Warp for so long that he had long since seen through the true nature of those unspeakable beings.
What he saw in those unspeakable beings was tragedy.
A tragedy that had continued for an unknown number of billions of years.
Everything humanity did was insignificant.
Compared to the duration of this war, it wasn't even a blink of an eye.
A faint melancholy and sorrow appeared on his face.
At this moment, he didn't resemble the terrifying god of war on the battlefield, but rather an old man filled with compassion for the world.
"How much more do we have to pay to get what we want?" Sanguinius thought, "We are suffering for things that have long been abandoned."
A mechanical voice interrupted Sanguinius' contemplation. Titus and Aureus, two Chapter Masters, requested to see him.
Sanguinius had no reason to refuse to see them.
Under his command, the Honor Guard brought the two in from outside. They performed the Aquila salute to Sanguinius but did not kneel. This gesture was out of respect for Sanguinius. Their positions were not too different. The Chapters founded by Primaris Marines pledged loyalty to the Emperor, and then to their Chapter Master.
Sanguinius was the supreme commander of this expeditionary force, but he was not the only one.
He merely had more influence, along with his prestige.
He understood Guilliman's concerns.
If the Horus Heresy were to happen again, it wouldn't be just the galaxy burning.
Humanity's future would truly be without hope. Titus and Aureus were clad in armor, still carrying a faint scent of blood.
Like their predecessors from ten millennia ago, they yearned for glory and victory. They viewed wearing armor as an honor and a symbol.
Sanguinius did not comment much on this; he merely smiled, greeted the two commanders, and gestured for them to sit at the table in his study.
"We have gained control of 1365 parallel universes," Titus weighed his words carefully, "The problem is that even combined, they are just a slightly larger than a stellar system."
"Those enemies exist to guard the output of these parallel universes. They must offer enough harvest to their masters. This means we are not facing the enemy's regular army, but merely a group of farmers with self-preservation capabilities."
"That analogy is very apt." Sanguinius nodded; their victory was not so glorious or worth boasting about.
"Our expedition is too slow, Lord Sanguinius," Titus pointed out bluntly, "We cannot be happy with gaining this small patch of land."
Such words made Sanguinius sigh slightly.
Even with the Emperor leading nineteen Primarchs, he couldn't obtain a complete galaxy.
Now, two Chapter Masters were telling him that a stellar system was merely a "small patch of land."
What an exaggerated description!
If Zephon, Amit, and Raldoron had lived to this day, they would surely be shocked by the tone of these descendants. Thinking of his former sons, Sanguinius' melancholy deepened.
After he awoke, he specifically sought to understand the fates of those sons.
Zephon was ultimately plagued by the Black Rage and entered the Death Company.
Amit became the first Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers.
Raldoron became the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels after his own demise.
Suppressing the sorrow in his heart, Sanguinius listened to the words of Titus and Aureus. They sought Sanguinius because they wanted to break the Primaris Marines into smaller units to attack the Watchers' lairs, doing their utmost to cripple and kill them.
Sanguinius fell silent.
But he ultimately allowed the two to execute such a risky plan.
It was indeed a bit wasteful to have Primaris Marines deal with those ignorant natives. The current approach of the expeditionary force was still to proceed steadily, striving to allow the Imperium to take root and establish a foothold in Universe 02. To prevent the enemy from making a comeback and shaking the Imperium's rule. The Imperium carried out Imperialization reforms in every parallel universe.
Such an approach naturally minimized rebellions.
But it also slowed down the Imperium's expeditionary pace. Their main enemies were the pawns of the Living Tribunal, not those deluded superheroes; they should not waste too much time on those fools. The Imperium could break the Living Tribunal's control over Universe 02 by hunting the Watchers.
Such beings were overly dependent on the feeding of biological emotions.
Just as Khorne needed war and Slaanesh needed pleasure.
Destroying the Watchers' fortresses was akin to cutting off the enemy's supplies.
When they had fewer sentient beings to harvest, they would inevitably increase the harvesting in their controlled areas. They might even abandon such gentle methods of domestication and, like the Four Chaos Gods, exhaust their resources without regard for the future.
Such actions would inevitably provoke resistance from those so-called heroes, and by then, there might even be unexpected results.
"Then do as you envision," Sanguinius said to Titus and Aureus, "Your plan is excellent. I will stay here and hold the line, preventing enemy counterattacks and providing you with necessary logistical support."
Aureus and Titus' guerrilla plan had to be based on having a base of operations.
Without logistical supplies, they could easily fall into a predicament of material shortages and might even be besieged by the enemy, losing the entrance to this universe. The Primarch and the two Chapter Masters carefully discussed some problems and solutions for the guerrilla plan.
Sanguinius would hold the territory already controlled by the Imperium, while Titus and others would break into smaller units and go behind enemy lines to cause disruption.
For example, destroying the Origin Wall that separated different parallel universes, sending Imperial traversers into different parallel universes to develop religions, inciting local sentient beings to rise in rebellion, or directly defecting to the Imperium.
If conditions allowed, they would directly have them build shield towers to ensure that the Living Tribunal could no longer get a single grain from his farmlands.
After confirming the relevant plan details, the two Chapter Masters went to prepare. This was a preliminary discussion result and could not be implemented immediately.
It was proposed by Titus and Aureus, and Sanguinius helped refine it.
If it were to be implemented, an expeditionary meeting would have to be convened.
Due to Sanguinius' unique identity, convincing him essentially convinced everyone else.
As long as Sanguinius supported it, unless the Emperor or other Primarchs suddenly objected, it would pass.
Now the Emperor was in the home universe, and the other Primarchs were also busy with their own affairs!!
This proposal was bound to pass.
Having just met with the two Chapter Masters, Sanguinius was about to do something else when he received a new report: several captains wanted to see him.
He felt a bit helpless.
However, thinking of Guilliman, as the Emperor of the Imperium, he was probably much busier than him.
Even a moment of peace was a luxury.
"Let them come," Sanguinius said, "If they have any proposals, please have them bring data slates."
Parallel Universe 03512. This was a special parallel universe. The history of this universe deviated somewhat from what Bruce Wayne, who had fled here, knew. This world had Batman, the Justice League, and Superman. The only difference was that the Batman of this world did not inherit the so-called Wayne Enterprises.
In this world, there were no more multinational corporations.
Instead, there were powerful families with strong political influence.
It was the Bruce family that controlled Gotham City. The patriarch of the Bruce family—Batman—controlled everything in Gotham.
He was the uncrowned king of this city. The Joker was also present.
Characters who had appeared in other parallel universes could all be found here.
It was just that their appearances were not quite the same.
Bruce Wayne easily infiltrated this world and Gotham using his abilities.
He had traveled through multiple parallel universes and had already collected many powerful artifacts.
In each parallel universe, he would complete the task Barbatos gave him: to unseal the daemons.
Barbatos and Bruce Wayne had merged into one, indistinguishable from each other.
Releasing Barbatos meant strengthening himself. This was also Bruce Wayne's motivation for doing so.
Barbatos had been defeated and shattered into fragments a long time ago. Those fragments were sealed in different parallel universes to prevent its resurrection.
Bruce Wayne had been traveling through parallel universes and hadn't appeared before the Imperium for a long time. This was precisely to unseal Barbatos and gain its power.
As Barbatos' seal was lifted,
Bruce Wayne's power grew stronger and stronger.
He was completely different from before.
One could tell from his outward appearance alone.
His helmet was adorned with sharp blades as bat ears.
Under Barbatos' influence, his eyes had merged with a circular goggle studded with iron spikes.
His face was as pale as a specter.
His teeth were long and sharp, like a living vampire.
He wore a black tuxedo.
His mouth was torn open like the Joker's.
His blood-red lips were strangely alluring.
On his chest, there was a red bow tie.
When he laughed, his chilling voice sounded as if it came from hell, something no normal person could produce.
If anyone stared into his eyes for too long, they would see a twisted black monster within them.
During this time, Bruce Wayne traveled through different parallel universes.
Diligently carrying out his plan.
He was cautious, avoiding the minions sent by the Imperium.
Constantine was an out-and-out traitor. This guy had also been hunting him, hoping to capture him and exchange him for the Imperium's reward.
At first, Constantine was no match for him, nearly being killed by him several times, but as the number of encounters increased, Constantine's subordinates grew. This guy even recruited a group of Constantines from other parallel universes who were as despicable and shameless as him.
Even with Barbatos' blessing, Batman was outnumbered.
He had been hunted by Constantine several times.
Bruce Wayne couldn't understand why someone like Constantine would choose to associate with the Imperium!
That scoundrel seemed heartless; he had previously been invited to join the Justice League but disdained it.
Now, he was like a sycophant, running around, helping the Imperium hunt down rebels.
Of course, Bruce Wayne never forgot his original intention of fighting the Imperium. The Imperium took everything from him, and he would take everything from the Imperium.
He would make those guys taste the pain he once felt.
While unsealing Barbatos, Bruce Wayne also sought out superheroes willing to fight alongside him.
His gains were not small.
Some twisted heroes joined his ranks. They formed a dark version of the Multiversal Justice League.
In addition, he established a Dark Knight Order, consisting of seven Batmen, including himself. The supreme mission of this order was to destroy all beings who dared to stand in Batman's way.
Batman would surely win the final victory. This was a law.
Anyone who violated this law would be swiftly eliminated by the Dark Knight Order.
During this time, with Barbatos' help, Bruce Wayne traveled through multiple dark parallel universes, learning many truths about the universe.
Several isolated Monitors were tortured to death by him, and from their mouths, he obtained much information about the Monitor race, also realizing that this universe was the Supreme God's ranch.
Even knowing the truth, Bruce Wayne didn't believe the Imperium's actions were right. To him, the Imperium, like the Supreme God, was an obstacle to Batman, the culprit who took everything from him. They took his Gotham, tore down and destroyed his statues and symbols, and killed Catwoman, Robin Hood, and others. They spread propaganda to everyone, saying that the existence of Wayne Enterprises and the Justice League was the reason for the suffering of the lower class. The Imperium thus denied all of Batman's achievements, treating him as another Joker.
Whenever he thought of these things, Bruce Wayne's heart was filled with hatred.
One day, he would tear apart the Imperium's creator.
He would hang that damn Emperor's head on his statue.
He would tell all Imperials that this was the consequence of provoking Batman.
Even gods would pay the price for provoking Batman.
Before that, he would endure and continue to accumulate power.
When the time was right, he would choose an opportune moment to retaliate, letting the entire empire burn in despair and flames, and hanging the Emperor's head on his palace.
Bruce Wayne infiltrated Gotham City in Parallel Universe 03512.
Gotham City here was vastly different from the Gotham City in his memory, one could even say completely unlike it.
After all, the Gotham City where he grew up didn't have red and black banners hanging from every household, nor did it have so many statues of the Führer.
Fortunately, Barbatos' fragments were still sealed there. This poor dark god was shattered by the world creator and used as fertilizer.
Its evil would seep into the cracks of living beings' minds, using words and illusions to lure them into the abyss.
Barbatos' existence was like fertilizer.
Creating more chaos, more bloodshed and pain. The more fragments of Barbatos Bruce Wayne absorbed, the more he hated the so-called Supreme God.
He secretly vowed to exact the cruelest revenge on him. The same went for the Imperium. Those guys wouldn't have a good end. They had provoked Batman. This would be the most regrettable thing in their lives.
Barbatos granted Bruce Wayne the ability to alter reality, and he used this ability to change his identity and enter Gotham City.
He avoided conflicts with those hopelessly stupid heroes.
His mission was to infiltrate Gotham, retrieve Barbatos' fragments, and then move on to the next parallel universe.
If there were suitable individuals, he would consider inviting them to join his Dark Justice League. This organization continued to grow. They were all trying to find ways to travel through different parallel universes and recruit reliable people.
Bruce Wayne used Superman Prime to seize the emotional spectrum and lantern technology of the Oans, the creators of the Green Lantern Corps, who styled themselves as the Guardians of the Universe. The Imperium's slaughter of those superheroes caused fluctuations in the Anti-Matter Universe. The power of the emotional spectrum and the lanterns became stronger than ever before.
With the help of Superman Prime, they plundered the emotional spectrums, life equations, and other artifacts from those parallel universes.
Honestly, the Dark Justice League Bruce Wayne established this time should be the strongest superhero organization in history. The artifacts they possessed could easily destroy any superhero.
He had been planning to find an opportunity to attack the dimensional space where the Monitor race resided.
He wanted to seize some special technologies from them. The Monitor race possessed weapons capable of fighting the Imperium. This was crucial.
Bruce himself knew very well that no matter how strong his Dark Justice League was, it was nothing but a paper tiger before the Imperium.
Only by obtaining the power of the Monitor race, or even the creators of the Monitor race, could he hope to defeat the Imperium. The Monitor race were the Supreme God's shepherds. They would not make deals with their lambs.
Robbery was the fastest way.
Gotham City was as chaotic as ever.
Within an hour of entering Gotham City, Bruce Wayne witnessed three robberies, one shooting, and several instances of illegal enforcement and bribery. This city was beyond saving.
Before infiltrating Gotham City, Bruce Wayne had investigated some of the history of this world.
Historical development deviated after World War II.
Superman became the Son of the Red empire. The Batman of this world, due to his family's influence, controlled unimaginable resources. The backgrounds of other heroes also differed to varying degrees.
Parallel Universe 03512 was a parallel universe where capitalism had almost vanished, and power and dictators held sway.
However, this world was not much better for it!
Gotham City was still rampant with corruption, and the unemployment rate among the lower class soared every year.
Every parallel universe was under the control of the Monitors; their purpose was to make people suffer, not to create some beautiful utopia.
Unemployed people were everywhere in Gotham City. They formed the ecosystem of the dark world, establishing gangs and criminal organizations that would be severely cracked down upon if exposed. Those guys had sinister eyes.
When they saw Bruce, a new face, they all grinned, revealing terrifying smiles.
Before the Imperium arrived, Bruce Wayne lived a privileged life, belonging to the upper class.
He would naturally exude the characteristics of a wealthy person.
Even if his clothes were ordinary, people would subconsciously think he was rich.
A rich man in Gotham City at dawn, wasn't that just a walking fat sheep?
When Bruce Wayne walked into a dark alley,
Several gang members looked left and right, confirmed no one was watching them, and followed him in.
But with a few screams, the gang members who went in never came out again.
When a curious person walked into the darkness, they also involuntarily screamed.
What happened in the alley was too terrifying. The gang members had been dismembered.
Like a pig entering a slaughterhouse, they were cleanly cut into dozens of pieces.
Even more horrifying, the fragments were deliberately arranged to form a bat symbol. The incident in the alley caused a sensation.
And the instigator of it all had already left, heading to the sealed location of Barbatos in this parallel universe. The murder quickly attracted the attention of Batman from Parallel Universe 03512. The opponent was so arrogant and brazen, not only dismembering people but also arranging them into a bat symbol.
Such behavior was simply unforgivable.
Batman's parents in Parallel Universe 03512 also died when he was young. They were shot by assassins hired by others.
Batman in Parallel Universe 03512 grew up under the tutelage of his butler.
He was outstanding.
At a young age, he had already gained unimaginable status by utilizing the inheritance left by his parents and avenged them.
In this world, power was paramount.
With power, money was just a string of arbitrarily written numbers.
Laws were meaningless to him.
After maturing, Bruce Wayne in Parallel Universe 03512 realized how to save Gotham, so he transformed into Batman, walking in the night.
"Tell them not to report any negative news about this," Bruce Wayne in Parallel Universe 03512 said to his butler.
"Understood, young master," the butler replied.
A single word from Bruce Wayne in Parallel Universe 03512 caused the news media in Gotham City to collectively ignore the horrific massacre.
Any discussion of this horrific massacre was forbidden.
Anyone who dared to mention related keywords would be immediately warned by relevant agencies and have their accounts blocked.
After solving the problem of people casually discussing and damaging Batman's image with a single sentence,
Bruce Wayne in Parallel Universe 03512 decided to investigate the matter himself.
If he waited for the bloated and inefficient police department to investigate, the culprit would probably have long since fled. To do such a thing, were they treating Gotham's uncrowned king as if he didn't exist?