Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

When Morgan's message came, Sanguinius was soaring in the sky, breathing the thin air with the smell of blood and stench, the breath of war lingering in it, dripping down along the sweat oozing from the forehead of the Primarch, and falling into the raging fire of Ullanor.

Burning, rising, no longer existing.

The angel endured everything silently, and the overflowing fatigue occupied his perfect face, but did not destroy his majesty: the pale golden moth was frowned high, like a broken catalpa bow, the porcelain white cheek was scratched by scars, and the squeeze of muscles made it spit out sweet and fishy blood.

The scars of Ullanor were left on Sanguinius's cheeks and wings.

Ten million people are willing to die to smooth out these imperfect marks.

But the angel himself didn't care. What really worried him were other things, including but not limited to the chaos of the battle, the increasing casualties of the legion, the fact that each primarch brother fought on his own and could not contact anyone, and most importantly: for many reasons such as boosting morale and facilitating the command of the battle, he had to fly in this damn sky.

To be honest, even angels prefer the feeling of being down to earth. After all, for his identity and weight, the pair of wings behind him are too thin, and the feeling of flying is not always pleasant: being able to get rid of the shackles of gravity is a gift from fate to Sanguinius, but this gift is not what Sanguinius himself wants.

He just makes good use of it.

There was no need to observe the air currents or consider the wind direction. When the angel soared high in the sky, he was not supported by any laws of physics. The Primarch was suspended in the air layer that even fighter planes could not reach at will. The most intense battlefield in Ullanor was captured by his eyes: thousands of soldiers were running or fighting on the iron-gray land, and the wreckage of steel and flesh could be seen everywhere. The stench of corpses and the smell of burning were so overbearing even at a height of several thousand meters, staining Sanguinius's white wings with scorch marks. The velvety white feathers were like a dead baby, curled up in the dark, corroding the chains and icons used to decorate the archangel.

But the angel ignored these. His eyes were focused on the entire legion. He flew high enough, high enough to gather every Blood Angel warrior under his wings, high enough to promptly discover any Blood Angel company in crisis, and then swoop down to repel the god of death for his bloodline.

Since he set foot on the scorched land of Ullanor, the Archangel has been repeating these things: take off, soar, observe, attack, and then return to the iron-gray sky amid the cheers of his descendants.

He doesn't care about the situation on the front line, because he knows that Ullanor's victory is a foregone conclusion. He doesn't care about the most boastful goals, because he never cares about the competition between brothers.

In the Archangel's view, the greatest honor in this war is that his descendants can leave the least blood and return to the Blood and Tears: he is sure that not many of his brothers agree with this idea, but he is also glad that he is holding this honor in his hands.

The Ninth Legion did not participate in the fighting disputes on the front line of Ullanor, which made people like Amit a little disappointed, but Sanguinius was very satisfied with it. He had more time to soar in the sky. In addition to taking care of his own legion, he could also spare the energy to observe other troops on the battlefield.

Such opportunities are rare.

You know, the battlefield of Ullanor now gathers almost all the high-level combat units of the human empire. Although some legions only send two or three companies to deal with the matter, if you observe their performance on the battlefield carefully, you can get a glimpse of the whole picture.

Sanguinius first skipped the legions he was familiar with, such as the Luna Wolves or the Imperial Fists, and then, with these legions as the center, he roughly swept his eyes over the Astartes who were fighting wantonly: he was very tactful and did not look at the imperial guards.

The first thing the archangel noticed was the Word Bearers Legion, because these warriors seemed to enjoy this slaughter the most among all the legions, which was somewhat inconsistent with their previous image: they reminded Sanguinius of the former Night Lords and Ghouls.

The archangel knew that since the Perfect City, the former Believer Legion has become the current Great Crusade Crusaders: Lorgar's descendants have made qualified and even excellent contributions to the empire, but some new, disturbing and bloody rumors have begun to gather around the Seventeenth Legion.

At first, it was just some insignificant battlefield rumors. Although it sounded bloody and terrifying, there was no problem except that the impact was not good. But then, a series of words about [purity], [faith] and [purified land] began to spread to the ears of outsiders, and followed by some but it made people's scalps numb...

The number of missing people...

The Word Bearers Legion had no explanation for this, because their fanatical attitude and brilliant achievements were enough to cover up the Holy Terra's concerns that some remote worlds were too silent.

They are unclean heretics.

Lorgar's envoy explained so, and no more questions were asked.

The Archangel also shook his head. He didn't care about these rumors. His eyes moved to those smaller teams: the silent Alpha Legion did not attract any attention from the Archangel at all, and the Thousand Sons and Iron Warriors were treated the same way.

It was the World Eaters that Sanguinius looked at carefully for a few seconds. Although Angron did not participate in the Ullanor Crusade, he still sent several companies. These thousands of warriors showed superb quality: they were one of the legions with the least casualties and the most fruitful results. The Archangel only observed the various charging tactics of the War Hounds a few times, and he could not help but admire these warriors in his heart.

He observed several things in these War Hounds that his Blood Angels could learn from. The Archangel had heard that the War Hounds Legion in the past was a group of bloody but noble warriors, and a benchmark in the Great Crusade. He was very happy to see that his brother Angron successfully preserved this ancient honor for the 12th Legion.

They are still [Benchmarks].

Beside these pillars, the Death Guard, which was fully engaged in the battle, was somewhat slow: Mortarion threw all the troops he led into one front. The advantage of this was that no one could stop him, but the disadvantage was that their results were not fruitful, and it seemed that they could not catch up with the first wave of offensive against the Throne of Ullanor.

However, what really slowed down the progress of the 14th Legion was another reason: Sanguinius noticed the mortal auxiliary army surrounding the Death Guard. It was a large and highly mechanized solar army, and some of them had abnormally many armored vehicles. Flying engines and artillery were obviously used to make up for the Death Guard's extremely heavy infantry-oriented combat style.

The Archangel knew that this unit was called the Barbarus Oathguard, and it was a solar auxiliary army exclusively for the Death Guard a hundred years ago, just like the Serfin Ascendants of the Blood Angels: However, these Mortarion's servants had obviously just experienced a round of crazy expansion, although a considerable number of veterans still had excellent combat effectiveness. But the huge number of recruits still slowed down the overall speed of the 14th Legion.

(The name of the Sun Army of the Death Guard is Ambaxtoi. I haven't found a translation for this word, but it is said to be the retainer guards of the ancient Celtic period, so I simply call them the Oath Guards.)

However, the Lord of Death stubbornly refused to throw them away, because both veterans and recruits were fellow countrymen from Barbarus with the Death Guards: Mortarion regarded them as part of his responsibility, and he would never actively abandon his responsibility.

Since the Lord of Mankind promised Mortarion a large piece of territory in the south of the Storm Segmentum with Barbarus as its core as a private fief, although the Primarch apparently disdained the Emperor's reward, his first move after receiving the reward was to return to his hometown of Barbarus, and do his best to expand the ranks of auxiliary troops and bureaucrats in that newly revived land, obviously intending to control the [Barbarus Autonomous Region] promised to him by the Emperor as much as possible.

If possible, Mortarion will definitely do his best to govern this land.

Sanguinius is convinced of this.

Before looking elsewhere, the Archangel made a small discovery: he noticed that Mortarion was not the only arrow in the Death Guard's array, and there was another company at the other end of the battle line, which was engaged in its own battle in a semi-independent manner. Sanguinius soon discovered that the leader should be Mortarion's favorite Typhon.

He and his company fought very hard, and Sanguinius could also sense the flicker of psychic light in Typhon's company, which was very small but very mature. The progress of Typhon's company was almost on par with the main direction that Mortarion was responsible for. The captain of the first company seemed to be secretly competing with his gene father.

The archangel shook his head and smiled, not taking this matter to heart, but looking at a more distant place: he saw the progress of the Eastern Front Legion, and Jonson's progress was still on par with Horus. The two of them were almost catching up with the Emperor. Sanguinius paid attention to the details of the game and quickly withdrew before the Emperor's will noticed him.

His eyes swept over the Emperor's Children again, and the Agitate Palace Guards beside them who were also dressed in noble clothes: the Third Legion might be the proudest unit in the entire Empire, because their Astartes warriors and mortal auxiliary troops were selected from the European nobles on Holy Terra.

Then came the Night Lords. They occupied the largest industrial base in Ullanor, where they fought a brutal city meat-crushing war with the orc army, with the best casualty ratio among all the legions: Although the Eighth Legion was not well-known on weekdays, everyone knew that in the wreckage and ruins, no one could match the ghoul veterans under Conrad.

These guys were amazingly good at fighting.

Conrad even claimed that as long as they were allowed to soak in a city ruin for two or three days in advance, fifty ghoul veterans would have the confidence to delay Dorn's thousand best Imperial Fists, and they could make them [bleed enough] before they died: even the Lord of Inverte himself seemed to have no opinion on this rumor.

As for the Nostramo Inquisition surrounding the Eighth Legion - the name of this Sun Army was really strange - they seemed to be as bloodthirsty and aggressive as their masters, but they maintained amazing efficiency in cruelty. The only ones who could compare with them were the mortal auxiliary troops belonging to the Dawnbreaker Legion next to them.

(This Sun Army was my original creation)

Oh, it's called the Queen's Guards.

The Archangel shook his head.

Even for the Empire, this overstaffed mortal army was too famous: their armor was always stained with a little silver, and from a distance it looked like a flowing mercury ocean, following closely behind the Dawnbreaker, sweeping away all the opponents in front of them calmly. The Archangel carefully observed the performance of these mortals, and then turned his head to pay attention to his own Sun Army.

Well... they are no match at all.

Sanguinius was very clear about this.

And just as the Archangel was thinking about where to shift his attention next, and he was quietly muttering in his heart why there was no [emergency] with the Emperor, a sudden psychic fluctuation attracted his attention: even if you look at the entire galaxy, you rarely see such a magnificent psychic power, and it is impossible to ignore it.

The teleportation array that appeared out of thin air was as big as a mountain. Sanguinius doubted whether Magnus could do the same thing. He hesitated for a moment and flew towards the direction of the light. The Ninth Legion behind him followed the Primarch's pace without hesitation, not caring about the so-called battle line and honor.

Anyway, at this time, the human empire's army was only one step away from breaking through the walls of the Ullanor Throne. Although the greenskins' resistance was still surprisingly tenacious, like a wave, they repeatedly attacked the Astartes' positions, but the suspense of the war had long disappeared, as well as the imperial army's tight deployment of troops at the beginning of the landing.

Now everything is in chaos. The original routes of the legions have been torn apart. Almost every company is not in the original position. Some legions have even changed direction. They were originally at the eastern end of the battle line but unknowingly hit the western end. Fortunately, their opponents were not much better. Not only did they not seize this opportunity, but they also messed up their own battle lines like the humans opposite them.

The war was cruel, but also chaotic, so chaotic that even Sanguinius himself had doubts about what would happen after the victory: he had no doubt that the emperor who had already reached the foot of the capital of Ullanor could end the war, but the question he really had to think about was, even if the greenskin emperor was killed in this battle, how to deal with the terrible legacy he left behind?

Not to mention that there were still dozens or hundreds of star regions in the northern part of the galaxy that were firmly controlled by the Ullanor orcs. The death of the orc emperor would certainly cause these star regions to start killing each other, but the threat still existed. The total number of greenskins on the world of Ullanor under their feet far exceeded the total number of troops the Empire had invested in the Ullanor expedition.

The outermost protective shield wrapped in Ullanor has not been broken by the Mechanicus so far. Could it be that they are here to honestly kill all the Ullanor greenskins? And even after fighting to this point, why are these greenskins still so united, even if there is some confusion on the front line, but overall they can still compete with the human empire?

How did they do it?

The Archangel instinctively realized that this did not seem to be the result of physical means, so he flew to Morgan's side, intending to get the answer from the psychic queen: there was obviously more than one person who had the same concerns and ideas as him, because in mid-air, Sanguinius found that Fulgrim was also approaching Morgan.

However, he arrived first, so he heard Morgan's muttering.

[Just as I thought...]

"What's the same?"

Sanguinius glanced at the Dawnbreaker reinforcements rushing to the front line. Eight thousand fresh troops were enough to turn the situation on the battlefield, but they did not rush to the front of the First Legion. Instead, they fought side by side with the Emperor's Children not far away: because the main force of the Dark Angels had rushed too deep with their Primarch, and even the Dawnbreakers could not get there for a while.

[Nothing. ]

Morgan frowned.

[Just a small question. ]

[Sanguinius, how long do you think this battle will last? ]

The angel thought for a while.

"If you're asking one of the three, the Emperor, Jonson, or Horus, how long it will take to chop off the green emperor's head, I think it'll be more than an hour: but what really worries me is what to do after the head is chopped off?"

[That's what I'm talking about. ]

Morgan shook her head, and then she pointed to a building in the distance.

[Do you see that? ]

"I mean, I don't see it."

The archangel muttered.

What came into view was the ugliest building Sanguinius had ever seen in his life: it was a doomsday scene so huge that it was terrifying. Even across a whole battlefield, it could be seen clearly. The twisted steel of the Orks rolled up and extended for dozens of kilometers, as if they had fished out a barbaric tower from the end of an unfathomable abyss.

At the top of the tower, as the human empire's army gradually dispelled the haze around the Ullanor throne, Sanguinius also saw the scene there clearly: countless spherical energy bodies of astonishing size were floating on the top, as if they were trapped in an invisible cage, and the boiling and manic light green made people feel uneasy, especially when the angels realized what kind of waves these energy bodies had set off in the sea of ​​souls.

They spread far away: farther than the archangel's perception range.

"I wonder what these green-skinned creations are beyond the imagination of mortals?"

[That's right. ]

Morgan nodded. She looked at this ugly creation infatuatedly, but she quickly dismissed it with disdain.

[You should know that even among the green-skinned orcs, there are a group of existences similar to psychics, so these beasts also have psychic technology: and the tower we are seeing now is an incredible psychic technology. Able to build, the Emperor of Ullanor used the power within that tower to exert control over his subjects. 】

"That's it."

Sanguinius quickly accepted the incredible sounding answer.

It’s green skin anyway…

"In other words, if we can destroy this tower, will the entire Ullanor Greenskin Empire lose control?"

Fulgrim hurried over, just in time to hear Morgan's conclusion: Phoenix, who was quite war-minded, suddenly thought of the best way to end this war.

"That high tower looks like it's not far from Ullanor's palace. I think the Beheaders should be able to accomplish this easily: you should inform the Emperor or Jonson, as well as Horus Morgan, of the news."

【I have already done this. 】

The primarch twirled her fingers, still concentrating on the tower in the distance.

[Moreover, the situation may be better than we imagined: you should all know that the psychic power of green skins actually has powerful backlash, and the vast majority of green skins, I suspect including the Emperor Ullanor In itself, the control and vigilance of spiritual energy should not be that strong. 】

"you mean……"

Phoenix and Angel narrowed their eyes, having the same thought in their hearts.

【Yes. 】

Morgan laughed.

[Think about it, if tens of trillions of people were completely controlled by a super-alpha level psyker, and now, this psyker was killed: then his psychic scream before death , what kind of impact will it have on these guys controlled by him? 】

[I believe that the two of you here have seen similar tragedies several times. 】

"It's not [a few] times."

Fulgrim's eyebrows twitched.

"The Milky Way is scary, Morgan."

(In Beast Wars, the Empire used a similar method to kill the beasts.)

[So, the situation is very clear. 】

While Morgan sent his new findings to the three guys on the front line at the same time, his eyes flickered around the green-skinned palace and tower.

[Killing the green-skinned emperor can gain the glory of Ullanor, but destroying the tower can completely end this war: considering the mobility of the two primarch brothers on the front line, no one can take care of these two points at the same time. 】

[It depends on how you choose. 】

Sanguinius remained unconvinced.

"I don't think this is an option..."

#roar#

Before he finished speaking, a roar shook the entire battlefield of Ullanor, and almost shattered the eardrums of the three Primarchs: following the sound, he saw that the palace of Ullanor was shaking. That was the result of the army's departure. Hundreds of millions of greenskin armies let out bloodthirsty laughter, and the emperor who followed them threw themselves into the battlefield.

Due to the great distance, the Primarchs couldn't see the specific composition of this army, but just the tip of the iceberg made them sweat: they clearly saw a large group of incredibly strong green-skinned warlords, each of whom All were at least twice as tall as the Emperor, and there were enough of them to form an army.

A true army.

But these behemoths are obviously not the final trump card of the Ullanor Orcs, because surrounded by them is a monster that dazzles everyone: Morgan initially thought it was a Titan, a war dog or a plunderer. or something, but a second later it realizes it was wrong.

The reason is simple: because whether it is a war dog or a predator...

But it's not that big.

"That's their...emperor?"

Phoenix's voice changed a bit, and he was talking to himself as if he was whispering.

"Now, I'm a little worried about Horus and the Emperor..."

[Half and half...]

Morgan licked her dry lips: She was not worried about the old bastard Emperor, but it was unknown whether Horus was really the opponent of this mountain-like green-skinned emperor: Just when Morgan was hesitating, there was a sound in her ears. The sound of Sanguinius's wings.

"I'll go take a look first."

The archangel put away the cynicism of the previous moment and quickly became serious. He nodded to the two blood relatives and then prepared to set off: but before that, Morgan threw a silver accessory to her angel blood relatives.

[Hold it, I can rely on this thing to locate your exact location, and then teleport me and my army there. 】

"I'll go too."

Phoenix narrowed his eyes, and the relaxed expression on his face had disappeared.

"Notify us if something goes wrong: don't hold on like Horus, Sanguinius."

"I will."

The archangel did not refuse, and he quickly flapped his wings and flew in the direction of the green-skinned emperor, leaving only the Blood Angel who had just arrived in front of Morgan and watched their genetic father suddenly fly away with a look of disbelief and confusion on his face.

"What do you think..."

Fulgrim hesitated to speak.

"Is that something worthy of the Emperor...seriously?"

[...Have you participated in the Randan War? 】

Morgan's rhetorical question made the genetic father of the Emperor's Children freeze on the spot. He thought about it seriously and felt a little confused.

"What?"

[No... nothing...]

"Okay: did you tell Jonson about the Green Emperor's change?"

[He's not blind. ]

"Then do you think Jonson will go to rescue our father: like Sanguinius?"

[...]

[He's not stupid. ]

——————

Additional: I was so excited while writing that I didn't notice that the socket was not turned on, which caused my phone to run out of battery, so today's second chapter failed before it was completed. So I'm making up for it now, and I'll probably finish it in the second half of the night. You can read it tomorrow morning.