Blood. Skulls. Khorne's eternal pursuits.
But Khorne's domain is not limited to these. He also represents the aspects of war: glory, justice, strategy, and more. For now, Khorne was forcibly suppressing his bloodlust. Everything was for the sake of victory.
Thus, his apostles had gone into hiding, one by one. They had no other choice.
Zhou Ye's people reacted far too quickly. Although he possessed only thirty-something worlds, his influence radiated across hundreds of Imperial planets. The xenos and heretics on those worlds had suffered terribly. The moment they reared their heads, they were steamrolled by a horde of furious Astartes and Astra Militarum, given no time to grow their forces. The few who managed to successfully complete a ritual to summon a daemonic host were even unluckier.
Over a hundred of Zhou Ye's custom Grey Knights would be dropped right on their faces. It was said that the daemons they slew seemed to have died a permanent death.
Only Zhou Ye's forces possessed such a rapid reaction and deployment speed. Because of this, the forces of Chaos had slowly pinpointed his general location.
At first, Nurgle and Slaanesh had tried to corrupt the people on Zhou Ye's planets, but every time they exerted their influence, their targets would simply mutate into Chaos Spawn and be swiftly put down.
As for Tzeentch, who the hell knew what Tzeentch was doing. After Zhou Ye unintentionally thwarted his strange plans several times, he had gone quiet. It was even more obvious that those operations had not been orchestrated by Tzeentch himself. They were likely schemes concocted by his followers, who had used their usual anti-Imperium playbook: plant the seeds of a plot, release some information, and then slowly prepare. Everyone knew that the Imperium's bloated bureaucracy and abysmal efficiency would often cause Tzeentch's conspiracies to expire before they could come to fruition.
Zhou Ye, however, was the complete opposite of the Imperium. A piece of intel released today would result in troops arriving within one or two hours. This massive shift in operational tempo turned Tzeentch's intricate schemes into a complete joke.
Zhou Ye himself was initially unaware of it. He would simply receive a report, dispatch a Terminator squad to check things out, and they would go over and slaughter everyone. He hadn't even been the one to issue the order to dispatch the Terminators; he only realized what had happened when he was looking through the spoils of war and found items belonging to Tzeentch.
So, Khorne too suppressed his rage and his thirst for skulls and slaughter. He chose to have all his followers lie low and develop their strength in secret. Then, to hasten the opening of the Great Rift, he provided Abaddon with a bit of funding.
Now, the opportunity had finally arrived.
Across the eighty-eight worlds surrounding Zhou Ye's home sector, bloodthirsty war cries echoed as countless sacrifices were made. These were worlds that Zhou Ye's influence had not yet reached. In the Empyrean, the souls of innumerable victims wailed.
Within the Warp, eight hundred and eighty-eight Khornate daemon legions, led by eighty-eight Greater Daemons of Khorne, slowly began to converge.
---o---
On the planet Trailblaze, as the ships slowly landed, Zhou Ye gave a few brief instructions before hurrying away.
Only now did he realize how chaotic the situation was. The hundreds of planets under his influence were all undergoing different upheavals. Aside from Quintus Hive, which he had essentially blacklisted for direct intervention, the other hundred-plus planets had descended into varying degrees of turmoil, with some even on the brink of collapse.
The screen before Zhou Ye was covered in red dots, much like the one Roboute Guilliman would one day watch as his sons fought. These were all Zhou Ye's health packs. As the master of a domain with interstellar real-time communication and a super-transit network, his power was a context-crushing advantage against these Imperial worlds. He had seized control of the lifelines of hundreds of planets with almost no difficulty. Without him, many of these worlds would have issues paying their tithes. Zhou Ye could transport all sorts of manufacturing equipment to balance production across different planets.
Truth be told, the Imperium was not without wealth, nor was it incapable of supporting its chaotic wars. The problem was that everything was bogged down by the damned Warp. Now, hundreds of Imperial worlds had become a part of Zhou Ye's domain. Their Planetary Governors owed him massive debts and, under his planning, had become members of his growing empire, though he had not yet revealed his existence publicly. Their worlds were now under the powerful computational and planning oversight of Prometheus, gradually returning to normal and contributing their strength to Zhou Ye's cause.
These were all vital assets to him. Zhou Ye had to assess the situations and decide where to prioritize sending his forces.
"According to previous benchmarks, most of these worlds can hold their own. I've wiped out Khorne's entire vanguard, not a single one left. So, as long as no major sacrifices occur, we theoretically don't need to intervene immediately. As for the rest, we'll start deploying half of our forces."
Staring at the numerous high-priority alerts, Zhou Ye's mind calculated at incredible speed. As the Herrscher of Finality, his brain could become a supercomputer whenever he wished. It was, however, genuinely exhausting. For now, he planned to clean up the areas around him, with the exception of Quintus Hive, before considering anything else.
Meanwhile, as ship after ship landed, a group of survivors from Cadia set foot on the planet. Cawl's Zar-Quaesitor and his Skitarii were temporarily ordered by Zhou Ye to remain in orbit. Who knew why those things radiated so much. The people of 40k were truly resilient. Radiation levels that would have caused mutation and required amputation back in his previous life were nothing more than a light drizzle to them. Even so, Zhou Ye wasn't about to let them wander around freely.
Cawl disembarked with a small retinue. They were all stunned by Zhou Ye's world.
It was a paradise world of green mountains and clear waters, with an extreme abundance of resources. They could even see small stalls selling fruit on the streets. This was after Zhou Ye's ruthless exploitation; otherwise, the world would be even more prosperous. But by the standards of this universe, Zhou Ye's "exploitation" was nothing, so some small-scale commerce existed.
Soon, however, they lost interest in the scenery, especially the Black Templars.
"Hurry! We want the Primaris surgery!!!"
These warriors were truly shattered. Aside from their Emperor's Champion, none of them could keep up. They had been relegated to a logistics role. If word of this got out, their entire Black Templars contingent would be laughed to death. Faced with such a massive power gap, the group had to admit: the Primaris upgrade was indeed tempting.
"Follow me. Without the protection of our Chapter's holy relics, less than half of you would survive the procedure, perhaps even fewer."
A calm voice rang out. A short Magos, accompanied by his thirteen Kastelan Robots, walked over. He looked like a dwarf standing before Cawl's colossal frame.
Magos 010 Omega, Zhou Ye's original disguise. Unlike Apothecary Beta, who was a new persona he had whipped up, Zhou Ye had always maintained this Magos identity. Now that the initial chaos had subsided, he had, with Prometheus's aid, formulated a rough support plan. The subsequent work was handed over to Klee and her thirteen identical counterparts. Zhou Ye decided to don a different disguise and come out to see things for himself, especially to entertain this "Dora-Cawl" fellow. And while he was at it, see if there was any business to be done…
"What are they doing? Why is everyone requesting anti-gravity support packs?"
He noticed, with some exasperation, that his entire honor guard was requesting anti-gravity packs, with priority on enhanced thruster functions to allow for extremely rapid movement and support. This stuff was a huge pain to make. Zhou Ye whipped up an STC template and tossed it to them, letting them handle it themselves.
"Are you the chief Magos here?" Cawl asked.
"That's right," Zhou Ye replied coolly, looking up at Cawl's massive form. He no longer needed to be so secretive, aside from changing his face to that of a middle-aged man. He didn't even have a single mechanical implant. If he took off his red robes, he would be indistinguishable in a crowd.
He was currently more interested in something else: seeing if he could squeeze some goodies out of this guy. After all, a Mechanicus Magos who had lived for ten thousand years was bound to have a lot of nice things. He could also personally handle the Primaris conversion for these Black Templars and see how it compared to the state of affairs in Space Marine 2. Not much time had passed since Titus was critically wounded and reborn across the Rubicon Primaris.
Click-clack...
In an instant, a torrent of binary data slammed into Zhou Ye's mind. He rolled his eyes.
"Should I call you Belisarius Cawl, or should I call you Ezekiel Sedayne? Are you even the original Belisarius Cawl anymore?"
"!!!"
Cawl was shocked. What was the origin of this Magos? How could he possibly know his greatest secret? His mind raced, searching for any information on this individual, but unfortunately, he had lost too many memories to find anything.
"Dorn's little cubs, come with me. We don't have much time. If you want the Primaris surgery, you must hurry. That little fellow Sedayne once told me that the first time he met the Emperor, the latter called him Belisarius Cawl."
"..."
Cawl fell into a stunned silence. This was his deepest secret. The ancient and frail Ezekiel Sedayne had tried to possess him, only to be consumed in a reverse takeover. Yet, in this Magos's mouth, that entity was merely a "little fellow"...
"You've really met the Emperor!!!"
The Black Templars were even more excited than Cawl.
"I have and I haven't. You only need to know that the Primaris technology came from the Emperor. It was just that by the time the technology was completed, it was too late. The Great Betrayal had already begun," Zhou Ye said flatly. It was a half-truth, but it was more than enough to fool them.
"Such a holy moment!!!"
The Black Templars grew ecstatic and eagerly rushed forward, practically leaping onto Zhou Ye's surgical tables. Cawl was unceremoniously shooed out.
Then…
"For what reason did you all become Space Marines?"
Cawl then saw Konrad Curze walking over with a group of his little bats. The new Night Lords all had their heads hung low, looking utterly dejected.
"I heard that if I enlisted, it came with guaranteed job placement after graduation. I could stay on Trailblaze and become a High Judge, so I agreed…"
Now that Zhou Ye controlled thirty-one planets and influenced a hundred more, his need for personnel was immense. This particular batch of recruits was caught in an awkward position. The home planet, Trailblaze, was nearly at population capacity. So, upon graduation, these recruits would be assigned to other worlds to serve as judges and administrators. It was another of Zhou Ye's Legion traditions that every Astartes should find a mortal profession. Some of the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists became teachers at the civil engineering academy, and many more had already become famous designers. So the promise of staying on Trailblaze was just that. Even as a Night Lord, they could still become a judge.
As expected, upon hearing this, Konrad Curze couldn't help but press a hand to his forehead. He was on the verge of losing his mind. These fledgling bats were all so naive. It was their misfortune to be the descendants of the first wave of immigrants who followed Zhou Ye, or to have been too young on their original worlds. Their entire memory was of life under Zhou Ye.
So these individuals were like modern university students, with no real comprehension of the Imperium's cruelty. This drove Konrad Curze mad, and also filled him with a deep… envy.
What fine Night Lords they were. Living in a society without much filth or darkness. Even after becoming Space Marines, they pursued justice and fairness instead of becoming devils who reveled in slaughter and spreading fear. Their company's special insignia was even a simple black bat.
"Konrad Curze?" Cawl's brow furrowed. He planned to resurrect Guilliman, and this Primarch's relationship with Guilliman was far from amicable. He didn't know how Curze would react.
"You must be the Archmagos from the Mechanicus who plans to resurrect my brother, yes?" Konrad Curze looked at Cawl, a dangerous smile spreading across his face.