Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

[Horus...won? 】

[What do you mean by this, Johnson? 】

"It's not interesting, Morgan. This is a statement. The entire inner meaning of it is the words I said: Horus won, at least this time, in the competition about the Warmaster, we The Wolf Shepherd is the foreseeable final winner, and the Emperor will place the crown on the head of the Moon Wolf."

"They won: that's it."

【that's all? 】

[You said it quite easily. 】

With her lips raised and her brows raised, the Spider Queen could accurately hear the laughter leaking from between her teeth in a pair of blue pupils: as cold as January ice, wrapped in words. Yu's rage was enough to transform the most reckless Astartes warrior into a polite schoolboy.

She put her hands behind her back, and the palm of her right hand clenched the wrist of her left hand. Her ten fingers were mingled together, biting each other like ferocious beasts, but tiny blue blood vessels appeared on the white stone. The quivering waves of psychic energy symbolized the sudden surge of rage, quietly slipping away from the extremely oppressive prison of reason, and each wave caused a flinch in the personal guards ten paces behind the two primarchs.

The Paladins and Round Table Guards, the Lion King and the Spider Queen's respective confidants, a total of fourteen fearless warriors, are like a large group of penguins taking shelter from the cold, unknowingly clustering together, relying on each other's perseverance. Looking for security in the armor: Such a move is of course somewhat inappropriate, especially when the leaders of the two guards, namely Arachos and Lana, looked at each other inadvertently.

The air felt awkward for a moment, causing these two veterans who had been fighting for two to three hundred years to lower their voices.

"What are you doing?"

Rana was the first to attack.

"Same as you."

Arachos answered unhappily. He didn't even turn his head, but focused all his worries and attention on the two Primarchs in front of him: the worry belonged to Jonson, while the Tremorr's attention belonged to The almost visible low-pressure air surrounding Morgan made Arachos break into a cold sweat.

Memories of the dead began to attack him.

"Mr. Morgan seems to be in a bad mood."

"You have such nice eyes."

Lana snorted.

"I don't know what your original body is saying to my mother. I have never..."

"You have never seen Mr. Morgan so angry, right? Although her praiseworthy rational thinking prevented her from making any impulsive actions, we can all feel the chaotic psychic wave. Flow, she rarely does this even when fighting."

"How do you know what I'm going to say?"

This time, it was Arachos's turn to give Lana a contemptuous glance.

The Dark Angel patted his shoulder.

"On this issue, the First Corps has more relevant experience than you."

"Don't be jealous, it's not a good thing."

Then, perhaps out of instinct, Arachos kneaded his five fingers together. Although there was nothing between his palms, Rana on the side felt that the Paladin's current movements seemed to be kneading an invisible mass. Dough: And this craft is much better than the boy scouts he saw on the Dawn Goddess.

The First Legion is indeed omnipotent...

"What do you think they were talking about?"

After a moment of silence, Lana decided to get to the bottom of this issue. While slowing down his pace to leave enough room for the two Primarchs to talk, he gestured to the two battle brothers behind him to signal them to go. Clear the flanks of possible interrupters.

Two Dark Angels went with him.

"To be honest, I'm not very good at thinking about words."

Arachos sighed.

"But even I can roughly guess that it's nothing more than..."

[War Commander. 】

After spending a few minutes to calm down the turmoil in her heart, Morgan finally regained her previous calmness, but the chill in her eyes had not dissipated: the Spider Queen believed that she had the right to be angry, because this anger originated from Completely unjustifiable failure.

This is like a cooperation plan. As Party B, Morgan has clearly made a complete plan, attracted enough investment, and found reliable business partners. It even finally followed Party A's wishes and drew a scene with great difficulty. [Colorful Black]: But just the night before the project was about to start, Party A, who originally only needed to sign, suddenly broke the contract.

【……】

The Spider Queen felt that she had not done any impulsive behavior that could be written into the Empire's criminal law just now. She was simply open-minded: it seems that her temper has indeed improved a lot over the years, so much so that even the guy Zhuangson He even dared to come and play with her in person but changed his mind at the last minute.

The Caliban lion had only dared to let Coswayin speak for him before.

never mind……

At least this is better than his father.

The original body took another deep breath, suppressed the anger in her soul, and pushed out the prince of pleasure who took the opportunity to come up again and licked the [undulating waves] in her mind: After doing this After everything, the original body began to look at Zhuang Sen's face carefully.

This is her usual tactic.

In front of Morgan, Jonson rarely had secrets to tell. Just by looking at the stubby eyebrows and the beard on his lips, the Spider Queen could follow the clues and deduce that the Calibans had been there a few hours ago, or even The entire mental journey in the past few days: She was not worried that she would know something she shouldn't know. After all, Zhuang Sen would never write down the really fatal secrets in his emotions.

He will hide them in a four-dimensional palace that he himself cannot open. Only the instinct of a lion can open this palace and then unleash monstrous destruction.

Morgan flipped through the pages carefully, and Zhuang Sen cooperated with her with ease. After checking every inch of rough skin, the Spider Queen finally frowned, and the last trace of impulse and anger in her heart disappeared: because she discovered that Zhuang Sen Sen was different from what she predicted.

[Can you say that sentence again? 】

"Horus, win."

The Lion followed the good deeds, and the Spider Queen finally discovered something was wrong: Jonson was too calm. When he acknowledged Horus' victory, there was no frustration of defeat or gnashing of teeth on his face. There is no such invincible sigh for the Wolf Shepherd: the lion is like a machine, explaining a person and a thing that has nothing to do with him.

How is this possible?

Morgan frowned.

Let’s not talk about the Warmaster: Jonson must be a bit competitive when it comes to Horus.

The primarch felt a little confused: she had obviously just been doing chores behind the battle lines for a few hours. Why did Jonson, who had always vowed to take the position of Warmaster, suddenly become like this? He was obviously quite normal before the war started...

Hey...wait...

Morgan blinked, and she suddenly remembered a small detail: Jonson was really not completely normal before the war. When he was on the Dawn Goddess, the Calibans were talking in front of Morgan. He personally assured that he was not interested in the position of war commander at all (Chapter 594).

【……】

Depend on!

He was serious then!

Morgan looked at Zhuangson blankly, and Zhuangson looked back with an innocent face.

[Tell me, Jonson. 】

It took the Spider Queen almost ten seconds to find her voice.

[What did you experience on the battlefield? 】

"nothing."

The lion doesn't care.

"I have explained everything to you in the past ten minutes: If you are curious about what I just said, my sister Morgan, I just figured it out after hearing about the emperor. Certain principles, through the methods you taught me.”

【What did I teach you? 】

“That’s right: put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

Jonson laughed, his gaze returning to the heyday of the Great Crusade.

"Remember? That was seventy or eighty years ago. At that time, you had just received your own Dawnbreaker Legion. Before we attacked Ran Dan's home planet, a conflict broke out between me and Luther. Finally, This was the method you proposed when persuading me before I sent him back to serve as governor of Caliban."

“Put yourself in Luther’s shoes and think about what I said.”

"Forgive me, Morgan, I finally learned this simple method today."

【Really...】

The Spider Queen was a little distracted.

[How did you learn it? 】

"Ashamed to say that."

The lion turned away, coughed twice and thumped his shoulders.

"Actually, there is no need to learn this at all. I will use it naturally when I want to use it. But before that, I instinctively resisted it, because in my eyes, neither Luther nor other guys are worth putting in their shoes. : Why should I stand at a lower level than myself and think about what I say? After all, what I can see from a lower level is useless.”

[Then how did you learn it this time? 】

"Because this time, the person I am thinking about is...ahem..."

【Emperor? 】

"I swear it was only a few minutes."

The lion quickly added.

"Coswayne said, I just stood there stunned for a few minutes."

【I can understand. 】

Morgan had never cared much about these transgressions: as a Primarch who would [occasionally] imagine the Emperor's bronze head as the soft cushions under his feet when he took off his shoes to go to bed every night, this was not a good idea. Small problems are nothing to worry about.

[So, after thinking about it from his perspective, you decided to admit defeat to Horus? 】

This is what the Lord of Avalon is puzzled about: if it was because of an unintentional word she made decades ago that actually caused Zhuangson to undergo such a drastic and such a bad change, then she had better do it as soon as possible. Go back to the far eastern frontier and choose a southeastern branch for yourself in a geomantic treasure land.

I believe that her loyal Reza friends can help her fulfill this wish, but first they have to dig out these guys from the green-skinned trash heap: Thinking of this, Morgan glanced casually and saw two people in the distance. A figure sticking out her butt.

Very familiar.

One bright red and one ocher color are exactly the conspicuous symbols of Mars and Reza, the two giants of the Mechanicus: but the owners of these two colors are leaning together at this time, worrying about several intact green-skinned relics. , with the constant flashing of electronic tones, they also attracted more and more mechanical priests.

But a few minutes later, the mechanical priests from ten different forge worlds gathered together like a group of sparrows, squeezing each other's heads, and there was a special harmonious atmosphere between them: if everyone had not put at least one hand behind their backs and held a wrench or laser gun in their palms, Morgan would even want to find someone to draw this scene.

But before she could sigh, the voice of Zhuang Sen next to her broke in again.

It was a voice full of doubt.

"Give up?"

The Spider Queen could see her Caliban brother frowned.

"Who told you that I gave up?"

[Ah? ]

Morgan's eyes widened.

[But what you said just now...]

"That was a statement: Didn't I tell you at the beginning?"

The lion frowned unhappily and waved his hand to interrupt Morgan's words. Obviously, the conclusion of the Spider Queen just now made him very unhappy.

"Please, think about it, how could I possibly admit defeat to that guy Horus?"

"Like I said just now, I am just stating a fact: in this competition about the Warmaster, Horus is the foreseeable winner, that's all, but this does not mean that I will admit defeat to him. I just found out the fact that Horus will be the winner in those few minutes of thinking."

"Who told you I'm going to admit defeat?"

[……]

Morgan opened her mouth, she was very tactful and did not answer Zhuangsen's question, because she found that no matter what she said, she would be humiliating herself: But then again, this kind of Zhuangsen is the lion in her impression, no matter how his character has changed, the Caliban people will never take the initiative to admit defeat.

This is normal.

The Primarch breathed a sigh of relief, and then she noticed something.

It's not right...

[How did you think of the fact that Horus is about to become the Warmaster? ]

Isn't this Conrad's patent?

A question fell, but Zhuangsen fell into silence. He seemed to be prepared for Morgan's question, but he was reluctant to speak: Although the lion could still maintain the surface of knowing the general situation in front of Horus just now, he couldn't do it in front of Morgan.

Screw the overall situation.

Now standing in front of him is Morgan, the Lord of Avalon, the de facto [Deputy Primarch] of the First Legion, and a unique existence in the entire human empire. Even Fulgrim and Ferrus can't do this: this is his most trusted and closest blood relative. What overall situation should he consider in front of Morgan?

He can be narrow-minded as a matter of course, Morgan will understand and tolerate him anyway.

Let Horus go to hell!

Zhuangsen frowned, and shadows rolled out of his pupils.

His voice became hoarse, with a rare hint of sarcasm.

"How can I not see it?"

At this point, the lion suddenly turned around without any warning and headed towards a remote corner. Morgan, who had reacted, followed closely behind him and waved to the Primarch Guards further behind, signaling them to stay further away: the following words are not suitable for anyone to hear.

"Listen to me, Morgan."

Jonson walked and spoke, saying everything like pouring beans.

"In fact, a long time ago, when there was news about the Ullanor Crusade, I had several similar thoughts: after all, everyone can see that the Ullanor Campaign was too flattering for Horus and the Luna Wolves, and it was simply tailor-made for them."

"Think about it, in the Great Crusade over a hundred years ago, which expedition or battle would let a Primarch serve as the commander when the Emperor personally participated: I saved half of the galaxy during the Randan War, but when the Emperor rushed to the front, didn't I also hand over all power without reservation?"

"This is the right way to do it: Ullanor will naturally make people suspicious."

"But it's just... suspicion."

The lion sighed.

"However, on the battlefield, after witnessing the Emperor's crisis and talking with Horus, my suspicion became a conclusion: I realized one thing, although I don't know when the Emperor made the decision, he was ready to hand over the Warmaster to Horus."

"And I: can understand his thoughts."

[How to understand? 】

Morgan asked at the right time, with a bright light flashing in his pupils: the current Zhuangsen is different from any time before. The thinking he showed on this issue, such a long and continuous thinking, made the Spider Queen feel bright. This is a scene she has been dreaming of for a long time.

"First..."

The lion suddenly stopped, turned his head and looked at Morgan.

Concentrated.

"Tell me, Morgan."

"Do you think that Emperor Ullanor really has the ability to threaten the Emperor?"

"Tell me the truth, we are all people who have experienced the Randan War."

Jongsen's eyes were like torches, staring at Morgan's face. No mortal could have any thoughts or sophistry under the gaze of the Primarch: but Morgan is not a mortal. No matter how complex the language system of the Spider Queen is in her heart, her face will only be the same as usual.

[That's the green skin, Zhuangsen. 】

The Primarch just smiled.

[Do you expect to come to a conclusion on the green skin issue? 】

"Too."

The lion just nodded, he didn't dwell on the problem.

"Okay, then let's assume that the Emperor really encountered a crisis, and Horus and I adopted two completely opposite attitudes: No matter what we thought in our hearts, Horus finally chose the absolute Loyalty, and I put victory in the war above all else.”

【Loyalty and Victory. 】

Morgan pouted.

[An ancient topic. 】

[Are you saying that Horus’s loyalty is more in line with the Emperor’s expectations for a Warmaster? 】

"I hate to admit it: but it is."

Zhuang Sen took a deep breath, and every letter he spat out was so difficult.

"You know, this conclusion once made me furious in my heart, and it reminded me of the method you taught me, which is the empathy we just talked about: on the battlefield of Ullanor's artillery fire, I spent about a minute thinking about this issue again from the emperor's perspective."

【How did you do it. 】

"Thanks to Luther."

The Lion King's smile was a little bitter.

"He helped me at this point. After all, he is the [Warmaster] I chose."

"And I thought carefully about the reasons why I chose him."

"Morgan, do you think Luther is the kind of person who would choose loyalty or victory?"

The Spider Queen blinked, the answer to this question was obvious.

【loyalty. 】

"How to say?"

[If Luther determines that you, Jonson, are in a fatal threat, and you ask him to go to another battlefield to win: then Luther will definitely give up the victory you ask for if only one condition can be met. , and turns to doing whatever it takes to protect your safety, even if it means he disobeys your orders. 】

[But no matter how many times, he will save you without hesitation. 】

"yes."

"Like Horus did to the Emperor."

The lion's voice was very soft. He might have remembered what happened when he was a child, or the time he spent in Caliban.

"He will disobey me. He will make the same choice as Horus."

"But the funny thing is, this is exactly the reason why I entrusted all of Caliban, and a small half of the Dark Angels Legion to Luther: since I chose Luther because he put his loyalty to me over true victory. If he is my [Warmaster], then, if I think about it now, wouldn’t it be natural that the Emperor would choose Horus?”

[...Interesting point of view...]

Morgan's brows jumped: Zhuangson's theory cannot be said to be without problems, but it is indeed a new idea, and in Morgan's view, the most important thing is that Zhuangson can justify himself and ensure that he will not fall into a whirlpool of thought. As for theory, it doesn't matter.

[Then have you ever thought about it: What if that greenskin cannot threaten the Emperor? 】

The original body raised the corners of her mouth, and she was obviously stunned when she saw Zhuang Sen's movements.

The lion was silent for a long time.

"Doesn't that mean that the emperor has already made a choice in his mind?"

"All I have to do is obey."

【obey? 】

Morgan raised his voice.

【how? Do you think Horus chose loyalty over your choice of victory? 】

"Of course not."

The Lion denied it without hesitation.

"But you have to realize, Morgan, that the election of Warmaster is a multiple-choice question: although I don't think Horus can beat me, I will not deny that his ability is actually worthy of the position of Warmaster. In other words, if the Warmaster requires a player above 90%, then among the primarchs, only Horus and I can reach this threshold.”

"And my score is a few points higher than Horus. If you want to choose the best person, it must be me, but the emperor doesn't seem to want to choose the better one between me and Horus. That one, he just wants to choose the answer that best suits his wishes among the players who can reach 90 points.”

[That is, Horus? 】

"That's right."

"It's like I chose Luther because I had no better choice."

Johnson nodded.

He didn't really mean what he said.

"Although, I don't know how to describe my feelings when I say this: If the Emperor wants to choose Horus as Warmaster, it is a tolerable decision. The Wolf Shepherd is not the best candidate for Warmaster. But he is indeed capable of assuming the role of Warmaster. In this case, we must respect the Emperor's choice."

"Although this is not the best, the Emperor's will is the most important."

[That’s why you told me that Horus has actually won. 】

Morgan finally fully understood, and she felt a lot more relaxed.

【Then what? 】

【Are you going to admit defeat? 】

"I told you: No!"

Zhuang Sen frowned, and his performance made the Spider Queen start thinking again: Although the original plan has been disrupted, as long as Zhuang Sen has not completely given up, then he can still continue with some repairs. , but first she has to make sure...

【What do you think? 】

Morgan lowered his voice.

[You think Horus has won, but you still don’t want to admit defeat to him? 】

"certainly."

Zhuang Sen did not look back, his figure melted into the smoke of Ulan.

"Answer me, Morgan, if you are fighting a war with a huge disparity of power and no hope of victory, would you choose to surrender at the first moment? How many cases in human history have people preferred death to surrender? What reason do I have to do worse than those mortals?"

"Horus won, what does it have to do with whether I admit defeat or not?"

"I will stand in this arena and confront him until the last moment, witness his victory and send his corresponding blessings, but I will not surrender halfway through the fight: even if the rest of this warmaster election is no suspense, but failure and surrender are essentially two concepts."

"They cannot be confused."

"So."

"Horus won."

"But the war will continue."

"Because I haven't failed yet."

"I will never accept a subjective failure, I will stand until the last moment."

[Really? ]

The Spider Queen laughed.

[Very good, Jonson. ]

[Well, forgive me, I have one last question now]

"Go ahead."

[Do you need an ally who is willing to stand with you until the last moment? ]

[We can work together to give Horus a different kind of victory? ]

"A different kind of victory?"

The lion laughed.

"Is there a different kind of victory?"

[Of course there is. ]

The Spider Queen smiled, she was always patient with such questions.

[A hard-earned victory. ]

[A bitter victory. ]

[A false victory. ]

[A victory that is not a victory. ]

"Morgan..."

Jonson frowned.

"You don't need to..."

[Don't worry. ]

The Spider Queen blinked.

[We just want Horus to face the reality: it's good for him. ]

[Believe me, my brother. ]

[The winner of the war, this has never been a beautiful word. ]