Not long after, in the meditation hall of the main universe;
"..."
Seated on the Golden Throne, Samuel Young, who had been in a daze for a moment, opened his eyes and refocused his gaze on the hard-light screen floating before him.
Due to Samuel's mastery of psychic energy, the flow of time in hell and heaven could be controlled by his will, independent of the material universe.
This temporal distortion allowed all his actions in the realms of hell and heaven to occur at a pace entirely different from that of the material universe.
Samuel and Fulgrim had engaged in a brief discussion and adjustment in hell. Although this "handover of duties" had taken him over two hours, it was almost instantaneous in the material universe.
Below the throne, Apu, Melissa, and a group of Custodians remained highly vigilant and focused, so they did not notice Samuel's brief absence—his "diversion."
Thus, to Apu, Melissa, and the others, the Emperor had never "left," and the two intelligent AIs continued to focus on handling the aftermath of the New Argos incident.
As Samuel gazed at the various data and reports displayed on the hard-light screen, his eyes fixed on the cold numbers and images, he fell into a brief contemplation.
+Colonial city with a population in the tens of millions+
+The descent and rampage of a Greater Daemon+
+Severe losses suffered by imperial citizens+
The Chaos invasion in New Argos City confirmed the scenes he had [foreseen], revealing a more complex and dangerous underlying reality.
As for the corruption and rebellion of the Na'vi on Pandora and the Nurgle-worshipping xenos in the underground city of Quikangtuo, these were actually distractions orchestrated by the Chaos Gods to divert the empire's attention—or more precisely, to distract Samuel and the primarchs.
These incidents were not mere local conflicts or crises but deliberate acts by the forces of Chaos, giving Slaanesh and the demon Fulgrim ample time to perfect the sacrificial rituals, allowing New Argos to generate a portal linking the Warp to the material universe.
Samuel's brow furrowed slightly as his eyes quickly scanned more reports on the screen.
Based on the current invasion events, it was clear that within the empire's borders, a large number of heretics disguised as ordinary citizens, police officers, and even some low-level officials were still lurking in the shadows.
These hidden forces of Chaos, embedded in the grassroots of society, were stirring, plotting more sacrifices and summoning rituals.
Their presence was like venomous snakes lurking in the shadows, constantly threatening the empire's peace.
Thinking of this, Samuel lightly tapped his fingers, pulling up the latest reports on the Combat Knights and Combat Sisters projects.
The reports clearly showed that Alexia, who was fully responsible for the projects, had led her dedicated team to the Trench Crusade universe and had begun in-depth research there.
From the current progress, the project was advancing rapidly.
After all, before the main universe empire officially intervened, humans in the Trench Crusade universe had already accumulated extensive practical experience in biotechnology. The empire's Biotech Division was essentially "reaping the benefits" of this existing knowledge.
However, the two major challenges facing Alexia's team could not be bypassed with shortcuts.
First, how to use Samuel's cloned flesh to "mass-produce" Combat Knights and Combat Sisters in the shortest possible time, thereby rapidly expanding the empire's combat capabilities.
To achieve this, Alexia and her team needed to further optimize existing technology and find the optimal balance between cloned flesh and enhancement modifications.
Second, how to perform non-damaging reversal surgeries on the knights and sisters who chose to join the empire was also a thorny issue.
Before the empire's intervention in the Trench Crusade universe, the power of these knights and sisters largely came from their faith in "God" and their biologically enhanced bodies.
Although they had once been devout followers of the so-called "God" and had been deceived and exploited by a false deity, they had always dedicated themselves to self-sacrifice and the salvation of humanity. Their faith and will embodied a selfless and noble spirit.
Thus, when the truth was revealed and the true nature of "God" and the heavenly forces was exposed, the vast majority of these knights and sisters chose to abandon their old faith and join the empire.
Therefore, how to preserve their original combat capabilities as much as possible while avoiding irreversible harm during the conversion process became the core challenge for Alexia's team.
These warriors were valuable resources. Their loyalty and will, once tempered, would become an indispensable force for the empire.
"..."
Samuel's gaze remained fixed on the hard-light screen. Without hesitation or pause, he sent an instruction to Alexia's team: "Focus on the cloned flesh project."
Faced with the escalating Chaos incidents, Samuel knew the value of time.
He hoped that the research and mass production of Combat Knights and Combat Sisters could be completed as soon as possible, so that this new force could be integrated into the empire's Inquisition Department, becoming a powerful supplement in the fight against Chaos and heresy.
There was no extra time for Alexia and her team to achieve pure technological breakthroughs. This was a strategic deployment crucial to the empire's future.
Within the empire's borders, countless threats still lurked in the shadows.
A large number of heretics disguised as ordinary citizens, police officers, and even social elites were hidden among the populace. Even with the layered "monitoring" of intelligent and less intelligent AIs, they were constantly "upgrading" their infiltration and concealment methods.
Moreover, they were secretly plotting more dangerous sacrificial and summoning rituals.
The scale and frequency of these events were increasing at a visible rate as the forces of Chaos grew more active.
To address these hidden dangers, a more professional, efficient, and equally capable force that could also serve as "undercover agents" and spies was needed.
This was why the synergy between the Grey Knights and the Combat Knights and Sisters was so crucial.
As the empire's purifying force, the Grey Knights, with their immense combat prowess and psychic abilities, were the empire's shield and sword against Chaos demons.
Their massive size and heavy armor made them ideal for "mopping up" in the final stages of a Chaos invasion.
A standard four-man squad was enough to eliminate demonic creatures in small to medium-scale summoning events and cleanse the surrounding environment of their corruption.
However, the number of Grey Knights was limited, and they could not appear in every corner of the empire simultaneously.
The Combat Knights and Sisters were Samuel's envisioned best supplement.
Not only did they possess combat abilities far surpassing those of ordinary soldiers, but their flexibility and rapid response also allowed them to cooperate with, or even replace, the original Inquisition agents, delving into the empire's dark corners to uncover hidden threats.
Derived from Samuel's cloned flesh, these warriors had unparalleled loyalty and faith, immune to fear or corruption.
Their mission was to detect threats and contain crises, while also possessing the strength to protect themselves in the event of sudden incidents.
When faced with smaller-scale Chaos activities, they could rely on their well-trained combat skills and superior equipment to resolve the situation quickly.
When confronted with larger threats, they could serve as vanguard forces, using their indomitable will and physical prowess far beyond that of ordinary soldiers to buy time for the arrival of the Grey Knights.
Through this efficient division of labor, Samuel believed the empire would have a complete system for detecting and cleansing Chaos forces, effectively curbing the spread of Chaos within the empire's borders.
Next, he sent a command to Magnus's private inbox: "Report to the meditation hall as soon as possible."
Given that the empire was now facing an unprecedented "encirclement" by Chaos forces, especially the threats posed by Slaanesh, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and other Chaos Gods, Samuel knew that more decisive and efficient measures were needed to gain the upper hand in this cross-universe struggle—or rather, the clash between the material universe and the Warp.
Thus, Samuel decided to take immediate action, rapidly deploying the Combat Knights and Sisters into practical applications.
He planned to personally visit the Trench Crusade universe, designated as "13," and use his psychic energy as a conduit to forcibly guide the transformation of these warriors.
In this process, he would directly intervene at the mental, spiritual, and physical levels, using extremely high-intensity psychic energy to "reshape" the knights and sisters.
Although this approach might seem overly "cheating" and could even backfire on him, it was the optimal solution for the empire's overall stability and development.
Moreover, the knights and sisters who chose to join the empire were already prepared for the reversal.
Additionally, their numbers were far fewer than those of the elite races, making the process easier for Samuel compared to when he had used psychic energy to influence the subconscious of the elite races.
This way, Alexia and her team could focus on solving the biggest bottleneck—the "mass production" project—without being overly distracted by the issue of reversal surgeries.
As for summoning Magnus from the Avatar universe to the meditation hall in the main universe, it was so that Magnus could temporarily take Samuel's place on the Golden Throne.
Samuel did not want to hear about another large-scale colonial incident in some universe immediately after resolving the Chaos invasion in New Argos.
After all, the Chaos Gods were now focusing their attention and energy on the human empire of the main universe.
The Golden Throne greatly enhanced Samuel's psychic perception, allowing him to provide protection even across different universes.
More importantly, with the Golden Throne's amplification, Samuel could more accurately lock onto frontline soldiers within the empire's borders who were facing Chaos threats, providing them with immediate "blessings" to reduce casualties and enhance their combat effectiveness.
Not long ago, he had provided crucial assistance to the Sons of Humanity, auxiliary forces, ODSTs, and even a small number of police officers and trauma teams in New Argos.
These "blessings" not only boosted their combat capabilities but also significantly reduced the psychological burden of fear, despair, and confusion in battle, allowing them to stage comebacks in desperate situations and bring hope for the empire's future.
The Astartes, being directly connected to Samuel by blood, could receive "remote assistance" from him even without the Golden Throne, as long as their belief and faith in him were strong enough (removing their helmets was not a critical factor).
However, the bursts of faith from auxiliary soldiers and others were easily drowned out in the emotions of hundreds of billions of humans, making them difficult to distinguish. With the Golden Throne, Samuel could lock onto them more precisely.
But this also meant that Samuel was constantly passively receiving and processing the thoughts and emotions of the entire empire's population.
This all-encompassing mental connection was not limited to the material universe but extended to the realms of hell and heaven as well.
The feelings of the souls, especially the extreme pain and torment endured by the souls in hell, were fed back into his consciousness in some indescribable way.
This continuous mental assault was both an inevitable cost of being the empire's core and part of his duty to the hundreds of billions, even approaching a trillion, citizens of the empire.
The despairing cries of the souls in hell, suffering eternal torment at the spiritual level, endlessly assaulted his consciousness.
Every wail and scream was like a needle piercing his psychic sea.
This was why Samuel felt a rare sense of relief and relaxation when he decided to temporarily transfer the "management authority" of the second layer of hell—Lust—to Fulgrim.
This was not a complete "liberation," but by delegating part of the mental burden to a "redeemer," he could buy himself a moment of respite.
Of course, Fulgrim was only granted management authority as an "agent," with no power to alter the core rules of the second layer of hell or to move souls to the Lust layer or make other large-scale adjustments.
After Samuel traveled to the Trench Crusade universe and completed the "transformation" of the Combat Sisters and Knights, he would also need to visit the Halo universe.
He had already sensed that over 3,000 Sons of the Emperor in New Argos—including hundreds of veteran warriors who had served for ten thousand years—had chosen to "return from the wrong path," seeking to atone and rejoin the empire.
However, they had been severely tainted by Chaos. Although they had ultimately broken free from the Chaos Gods' control, they had also lost the extraordinary blessings granted by Chaos.
This would directly cause their bodies to become unable to adapt to the rules of the material universe, gradually leading to collapse and complete annihilation.
Samuel knew that if these Sons of the Emperor were not promptly and effectively purified and repaired with psychic energy, their desire to return would be in vain, and the empire would lose a potentially powerful fighting force.
However, Samuel did not prioritize the Halo universe mission due to its urgency.
Compared to the transformation project for the Combat Knights and Sisters, the matter of the Sons of the Emperor was fraught with too much uncertainty, even if their intentions to atone seemed sincere.
Moreover, Samuel was also grappling with how to treat these "descendants" and how to quell public resentment.
After all, even though the Sons of the Emperor had turned against Chaos in time, their invasion had still resulted in the deaths of millions of humans.
Thus, Samuel decided to approach the matter with greater caution.
Only after completing the "reversal" in the Trench Crusade universe would he personally go to the Halo universe to resolve this issue.
Beep—!
But just as Samuel was "lost in thought," a real-time communication from Fulgrim appeared on one of the hard-light screens.
------------------
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