A duel of honor among the Astra Militarum had quickly come to an end.
The winners were basically either the champions of their companies or veterans already well accustomed to their mechanical augments.
Aside from Arthur, the other three also received their own ritualized gifts through a very ceremonial process.
"By the way, isn't this blessing kind of unlucky? In 999.M41, Cadia's going to get blown up by Brother Abaddon."
Karna joked with a laugh.
Young men's emotions come and go quickly; now he could even make jokes again.
"Then we just won't let it be destroyed."
Arthur clenched his fist.
No matter what, the opening of the Rift itself was already a colossal tragedy. At the very least, they couldn't let its opening lead to such catastrophic consequences.
"That might be difficult. Sure, we're strong, our abilities look impressive, but in the end it's just four of us. At our current pace we're nowhere near a level that can influence the balance."
Romulus let out a quiet sigh.
Destroying Cadia and tearing open the Great Rift was something all four Chaos Gods agreed upon.
Even Abaddon himself hadn't expected that smashing Cadia would trigger such an effect. Before he threw the Blackstone Fortress in rage, his plan had actually been to conquer the fortress world outright.
And the Emperor himself probably tacitly accepted this outcome.
Trying to protect Cadia under the watchful eyes of four, even five gods was no small challenge.
"The future's problem is for the future. We've still got over two hundred years left."
Ramses, on the other hand, thought it was more practical to focus on getting a ship they could actually use to roam the galaxy.
"Speaking of which, do we keep investing in this safehouse? Its cloaking function is solid, but the energy cost is brutal. Shame that no humans out there worship this place, and our relations with the Emperor aren't exactly great. Otherwise, maybe we could have leveraged it."
Ramses' mind was already turning over possibilities.
At present, the humans all worshipped the Emperor. Because the Warp was the realm of spirit, they would ultimately be pulled toward him.
But what if they could control souls directly—or if the Emperor agreed to lend them some Bound Legions?
Could they use something like a Chaos-style summoning ritual to pull those bound souls into the shell-bodies they had materialized with their soul-to-matter conversion?
After all, even daemons could hijack a psyker's body after establishing Warp contact and going through a ritual. Theoretically, this operation should be possible.
The big reason the Emperor couldn't use this method was that while Space Marines were technically mass-produced, without the Primarchs their creation was still extremely difficult. And he couldn't just let the martyrs who had fought for humanity possess the bodies of their descendants.
But these mass-produced husks the team was making shouldn't have that restriction.
They had everything—genetics, physical structure, even Warp components supplied—just no soul.
"Hiss~"
Ramses felt his idea was brilliant, and it drew astonished looks from his companions.
"I've got an idea!"
Seeing that he had their attention, Ramses quickly shared his thoughts.
"Feels very doable. Daemons can be summoned with sacrificed souls and flesh, right? We've got the souls, and we've prepared bodies that are perfectly intact."
Romulus considered it workable. If they could pull it off, he wouldn't need to waste energy remotely piloting all those Space Marines.
To align with Ramses' beloved Warhammer numerology, he currently had 169 Marines, and controlling them was frying his brain.
If the mental energy lost in summoning bound souls was lower than what it cost to edit souls themselves, then it would be pure profit.
"This would literally be forging god-tier weapons."
Arthur nodded, agreeing with the plan.
"So next, we just need to focus on Warp ritual information and developing followers, right?"
"Not followers, at least not yet. First off, we know nothing about religion. Second, our identities wouldn't survive the Inquisition's scrutiny. It's already a blessing that we got the Sisters of the Sacred Rose through Emperor-given miracles. If we play at religion and the Ecclesiarchy calls us heretics, that'd be a joke."
Ramses thought for a while, then added:
"As for Warp intel, I'll handle calling up the Emperor. If he ignores me, I'll just keep pestering him. Who can't treat who like a tool?
He might not act like a person, but he's still the best leg humanity has to stand on. Even split across realities, he should still be able to give some answers. I'm not some psyker dunce like Magnus the Red. If I spend the time, I should be able to extract some useful information."
"You guys meanwhile, keep an eye on Chaos cultist rituals. Warp problems need Warp solutions. Then we'll find a chance to experiment on daemons first."
"Alright."
The group nodded.
For now, it was just a theoretically viable concept. The whole process would need to be tested and refined; no need to rush.
They had only been here a few hours. Their understanding of this universe was broad, but not yet deep. Much cultural knowledge, science, technology, and Chaos ritual lore could not be gleaned from novels alone and would take time to study.
"For now, let's leave it at that. First we need to settle the Astra Militarum."
Casting a sidelong glance at the Guardsmen who had already completed their surgeries and retraining, Romulus cut off the discussion.
After all, they had prepared a mountain of heavy units for these soldiers to use.
There was no way around it—they were only four people. Even if Romulus' brain were split a hundred ways, he couldn't micromanage an armored regiment's firepower by himself.
Of course, they felt lucky to have encountered Cadians in the first place. Being from a fortress world, Cadia's garrison pressure was immense, and relatively few Guardsmen were ever deployed off-world.
If instead this ship had been full of Scintillan Fusiliers or Savlar Chem-Dogs...
Well, then they would have needed to think long and hard about whether giving them equipment was worth it.
"Lord Romulus!"
As the four approached, Kovek finished distributing training orders to the company commanders, then walked up to the Angels.
Besides the necessary reverence, his attitude now carried more familiarity. Clearly, the gift ceremony had gone a long way toward closing the gap between them.
Raising his right hand to stop Kovek, Romulus asked directly:
"Can your men operate Imperial armored vehicles proficiently?"
"?"
Kovek looked confused.
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