Warhammer: In the Name of the Emperor

"Long time no see, Vito."

The psychic voice sounded directly in Vito's mind, and the vibrating sound was like a sandstorm blowing from his mind. Vito looked at the person sitting on the golden throne. He just sat there, his mouth could no longer open, and he was forced to use his powerful psychic power to communicate.

Yes, the Emperor can still speak. It's not that he can't speak or he doesn't want to, but because of the way he speaks now, he probably has to shock the whole world of high lords to death once he speaks. Not to mention mortals, it is estimated that the Space Marines and the Guards will not be able to live to hear the Emperor finish his words.

But there are also people who can do it, such as the powerful Primarchs, and the ancient immortals who are now standing in front of the throne. In addition to the Emperor, the most powerful psychic in the galaxy now, Vito Constantine.

Vito looked at the Emperor on the throne. He had seen many portraits and sculptures of the Emperor, but when he really stood in front of his old friend again after ten thousand years, he knew why the traitors called him the Corpse Emperor.

There was not much left of the Emperor's body. The remaining flesh and blood had long been shriveled, and the wrinkled skin had become a rag stuck to the skeleton. The Emperor's face had completely turned into a skeleton, and a covering mechanical eye was fixed and implanted on the right eye, and the flashing red light kept flashing on the mechanical eyeball.

Vito was not sure whether he would use that eye to observe the world, because he looked like a corpse in the literal sense. The eyes, nostrils, and everything in the mouth had disappeared, leaving only a pale skull on the head covered with wrinkled skin.

There was still some flesh and blood on his chest, and the huge wound was still left in the middle of the skin that was completely stuck to the ribs. The huge crack from the center of the chest to the waist was sutured as much as possible. It was the scar left by Horus, and it was that wound that allowed him to sit on the eternal golden throne.

Perhaps it was due to the power of the Four Gods. The wound seemed to never heal, and there would be some blood and flesh left to tear the crack. Even if the emperor's whole body was already withered, the wound on his chest still had fresh flesh and blood. It was a wound that was always flowing with blood.

Vito looked at the wound. A hose was inserted there, sucking the unnatural blood into the pipe, and then passing through the blood pressure pump connected to the side of the golden throne, and then entering the body of the emperor through the blood injection blood vessel inserted between the emperor's ribs.

Vito didn't know what the meaning of circulating blood was. The emperor's body had turned into a mummy after millions of years of spiritual energy burning. The countless energy pipes inserted behind the golden throne had been extracting the emperor's spiritual energy from his body day and night for thousands of years, and then transporting it to the Star Torch through the huge pipes winding around the throne and a large number of transfer equipment, which had kept the lighthouse burning.

Vito looked at his old friend, the one he hated the most but also cherished the most. He was the only friend who could truly be said to have accompanied him throughout his life. He had known him since he was still called by the name he had long forgotten. From the ancient days of civilization to the dark galaxy today, they were the only ones left who had truly become friends with each other.

So when Vito saw him, the zombie sitting on the throne, his heart couldn't help but ache. Slaanesh had told him that the throne was an eternal torture. Vito didn't know what that meant at first, but now he knew.

Vito looked at the Emperor's shriveled body and the exposed bones in it and sighed, "Hello, old bastard, you're so ugly."

The Emperor's laughter echoed in his mind in a low and hoarse voice. At the same time, the golden door behind Vito closed, and the magnificent giant door closed again, leaving only him and the Emperor in the throne room. The two people, the last guardians of human civilization, stayed in front of the golden throne.

"We haven't seen each other for a long time, old friend. We haven't had such a direct conversation for a long time. I'm glad you're finally here."

"I don't want to come here. You look like this now. You can scare children to tears. Every time I see your statues and portraits, I feel that the current imperial aesthetic standards are really despairing. Since you think your appearance is a kind of "beauty"."

Vito pointed at the emperor's upper and lower body and laughed. He didn't have any awe that normally came to the Golden Throne. He looked more like a neighbor who came to visit. He came to an old friend's house to eat and drink, and by the way, he had a quarrel with him.

"Speaking of which, can you hear me talking? You know, you may be missing something called ears on your head." Vito fiddled with his ears with his fingers, then pointed at the emperor's bald head and said with a smile. That head was really bald in the literal sense. After all, it was a skull, and it was very smooth.

"Yes, I can use psychic power to capture your voice, and then what are you doing?"

The Emperor stopped talking halfway, because Vito was gently fiddling with the red silk covering the Emperor's lower body with his fingers. The gorgeous silk floated up under the pull of psychic power, exposing the Emperor's lower body to the light.

"Wow, your thing is really small." Vito held his chin with his palm, and with his other hand, he used two fingers to measure the size of the Emperor's thing from a distance, and then he looked gloating without disguising his face, "You are so big, but your thing is so bad, did you do that?"

"I am now a mummy in biological terms, Vito."

"But your things are really small and wrinkled. I really regret that I didn't bring a camera. Otherwise, I would have taken pictures and sold them to the Sisters of Battle. I would have sent them."

Vito continued to raise the silk with a look of gloating on his face, but soon the Emperor used spiritual power to interrupt it, and the silk fell back to where it should have been, covering the silk that made Vito look at it haha s things.

"Seriously, can you still feel the itch? I heard that Nurgle had some kind of phantom itch virus, and he planned to throw it at you to make you itch all over, but he couldn't scratch it to torture you."

Vito smiled and wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes. He walked around the throne room with his hands behind his back. He looked at all the glittering gold around him with a disgusted expression, "Hey, it's local gold again, you are like this Tasteless old bacon.”

"Old Bacon?"

"Look at you, your smooth flesh sticks to your bones, aren't you a bacon? I remember it was Tzeentch who first called you that. They didn't want to call you by your name, so they used all kinds of fun names for you. pronoun, I have to say that those four guys are no different from children sometimes."

"We are all the same, old friend, what is the difference between the so-called gods and humans? They are born from our emotions and thoughts, and what is the difference between them and us? I believe you are more knowledgeable about this than me. Clear, how are you and Lilith?"

"You're not going to criticize my love life, are you? I'm here to save the world, not to listen to you." Vito walked to a long row of instruments under the high wall on one side. He looked at the equipment in front of him. The complex instrument terminals displayed one after another in front of them, the screens overlapped one by one, and their ends were connected to the densely packed pipelines surrounding the throne.

"I did tell you not to hang out with the sisters of Slaanesh, but I also know that you won't listen. You haven't changed over the years. You are arrogant and have no scruples in doing things. You are an idiot who will not consider the consequences. ”

"Glad you realize that, old coot."

Sure enough, as long as Vito and the Emperor stayed together, they would exchange words within five sentences, but neither of them would feel unhappy about it. In fact, the Emperor actually laughed, and the psychic laughter shook Vito's mind. It was as if he was caught in a desert sandstorm.

"You're laughing your ass off, you old man. Talking to you feels like a sandstorm blowing in my head. When you laugh, it turns into a Category 10 typhoon." Vito rubbed his ears with one hand, and started to move his hands in front of him with the other hand. The meter clicked.

"They all say that you are called the Corpse Emperor. The Human Empire worships a mute corpse. The Adeptus Mechanicus uses the dark age technology of the Golden Throne to barely maintain you in the moment of immortality. There are also rumors that the Golden Throne It has been damaged over thousands of years and is about to become paralyzed.”

As Vito spoke, he clicked on the screen in front of him. A series of garbled codes appeared on the flickering screen. The computing array that appeared and collapsed rapidly appeared alternately on the screen, just like the nerves of a man who fell into madness. General.

"And it seems that the rumor is not groundless, so you are almost dead, right?"

Vito smiled and clicked on the screen in front of him. As his fingers clicked, the chaotic garbled codes collapsed quickly, and soon turned into a completely fragmented information flow.

"I recommend cremation, and then give your ashes a romantic empty burial. I will fly the Skyhawk to scatter you in the sky of Terra and let the ashes fly in the wind. This way you don't have to buy a cemetery. Terra's land price is yours." I don’t know how expensive it is, but I can’t afford a pit as big as yours.”

"Hahaha, don't worry, my old friend, you know when I die I will come back to life."

"Yes, I know you will be resurrected like Vulkan. There are many ways to kill you idiot, but there is a question. Will you still be you after resurrection? You know, I like to tell riddles. And the dumb Middle Eastern shaman who doesn’t speak human words.”

The Supreme Marshal smiled and raised his finger and pointed at the Emperor behind him with his thumb. The series of actions he just performed would probably have caused others to be blasted to pieces by the Imperial Army's bolters dozens of times, but Vito obviously didn't Yes, he was having a "normal" chat with the emperor.

"Some people say that after your death, you will become the fifth evil god and destroy all mankind, so will you do it? If so, I suggest you start from the Storm Galaxy. I was cheated on where I was playing cards last time, and I am worried about finding out. Where is that idiot? If you don't mind, help me kill all the people there. Anyway, the guys there are very cunning. "

"Well, in your past, in ancient Terra, there was a word called Hell Joke?"

"Remember, what happened?"

"You're telling hell jokes now, old idiot."

Both of them laughed. Vito chuckled and rubbed his temples with his palms. The emperor's laughter made his brain hurt. "So, what will you become, you idiot? God?"

"The question is, what is a god? Do you have unparalleled power? Are you a god?"

"I don't know. Anyway, the children of the Inquisition, the Assassin's Court, and the Astra Militarum regard me as a god. It's embarrassing. Now I know why you hated being treated as a god. And, don't tell me riddles. I But I’m warning you, you can’t move now, I can do whatever I want with you.”

Vito snapped his fingers as he spoke, and golden lightning instantly rose into the sky, lighting up the throne room and the shadows within the Emperor's exposed white frame.

"Well, the answer is, I don't know. I don't know what I will become after I die. I don't know whether I am a god or a human being. But there is only one thing that is certain."

"What?"

"When I die and resurrect, the final moment will come. I will return with more power than ever before. Although I don't want to admit it, the prayers of the believers of the National Religion for thousands of years are in the subspace. It stirred up huge waves, and the power of faith made me stronger than ever.”

"When I return from resurrection, I can use that power to destroy Chaos, end all chaos in this dark galaxy, bring peace and prosperity back to mankind, and allow our people to re-enter a great era, an era that is long overdue. The time has come.”

"Then why haven't you done that all this time? Old bastard, you've been sitting in this damn place for ten thousand years, and you have to burn a thousand psykers every day to give your shitty chair the function, and then you go and put that Super Galaxy on your head The flashlight is on, why are you sitting here?"

Vito continued to click on the screen in front of him as he spoke, as if he was just chatting. The two of them were like this. While scolding and teasing each other, they said things that would definitely be considered big things by normal people. No, they might not even be able to summarize them. those things.

"Because I am waiting for an opportunity, that time has not yet come, that fate has been suspended for ten thousand years, and now it is finally moving, because of your actions, old friend."

"My action? You mean I picked up your little angel? By the way, your girl is awesome." Vito turned around and gave a thumbs up to the Emperor, who was struck by his usual abnormality and I was amused by the wrangling.

"No, it's not your behavior of picking up girls. Although I don't want to admit it, you kept picking up girls. Now that you picked up Guilliman, the child finally woke up. When he woke up from his eternal sleep, the destiny The clock is turning, and my plan and the moment are coming."

"What you said sounds like a prisoner who has been locked up for ten thousand years and suddenly found a file." Vito said unceremoniously as he looked at the old bacon with his arms folded.

"The stalemate of ten thousand years has finally been broken. With the return of Guilliman, the empire will resume operation after ten thousand years of stagnation. Belisarius Caul will reinject technology and progress into the engine of the empire. Then The chess game that had been suspended for a long time is finally alive again, and our plan can continue. "

"Our plan? How come I didn't know we had a plan?" Vito shrugged, not hiding his dissatisfaction with the Emperor at all. This guy is still this virtuous after ten thousand years. Everyone and everything is up to him. There were only countless opportunities in his eyes, and he didn't even feel any joy as a father about his son's awakening.

It was just a craftsman who saw his most useful tool being dug out again. He has always been like this, and it has never changed from ten thousand years ago to the present. He may even be confused now because of his divinity of "protecting all mankind" Even more crazy.

"As Guilliman leads the Imperium against Chaos, I want you to retrieve the other Primarchs, bring them all back to the Imperium, return them to their place, encourage and oversee them in their respective duties, When all the Primarchs return, I will be free from the shackles of the throne, and they will fight against the raging wave of destruction after I break free of the throne until I return to put an end to everything."

"They can't stop it. Even if all the Primarchs come back, the Astartes warriors and all humans with them can't stop the unbridled subspace storm after the collapse of the Webway exit. The rift will directly A new Eye of Terror was torn open in the heart of Terra, the Imperium, and the forces of Chaos would invade the physical universe without restraint."

Vito frowned and responded in a low voice. He looked at the emperor in front of him, the emperor who was sitting on the golden throne without any emotion. He responded to Vito with a voice that was almost rational and cold.

"But their deaths will buy me time. The deaths of the Primarchs and the Astartes will buy enough time for my return and final counterattack. This is their meaning."

"Do you want to sacrifice them, as well as the vast majority of humanity, the fellow humans you say you want to fight for the future for, for your resurrection time?"

"The death of an individual is certainly worth mourning, but even if only 10% of humanity survives, human civilization can be rebuilt in the new universe. Our race will definitely continue and develop. This is what we have to do. everything."

Vito frowned and looked at the emperor in front of him, who continued to answer Vito in a cold and emotionless voice, "This is the only way. I have thought about it tens of millions of times in the past ten thousand years." This is the only possibility that can truly end all threats."

"Just imagine, old friend, when I return, we will work together to end the threat of thousands of years. Chaos and alien threats will be completely wiped out. Humanity will truly rule the galaxy. Under our protection, our civilization will surpass gold. Era, reaching an even more unparalleled peak, even the darkness outside the system will succumb to human beings."

"Isn't that what you and I have been pursuing? Everything we have pursued for fifty thousand years has allowed our compatriots to ascend, step onto the ladder of the greatest civilization, and become the most prosperous and immortal existence among thousands of stars."

"But the price is that half or more people will die in the Chaos Tide you mentioned, and your sons, if you really regard them as your sons, old man, they, their descendants will also die in that Tide with countless human compatriots!"

Vito suddenly roared, and lightning instantly leaped from his body. The golden thunder bombarded the ceiling of the palace. Countless lightning instantly exploded from Vito's body, and golden lightning bounced around him. He glared at the emperor in front of him and swung his hand back to shoot a giant lightning.

The lightning hit the emperor, but was almost immediately blocked in front of his mummy. The emperor's psychic power refracted the lightning. Vito looked at the lightning that was blown away and hit the wall, then stomped on the ground, and then hit the second lightning with a palm. The whistling arc instantly bombarded the shield in front of the emperor, and the golden lightning that exploded bombarded everything around the throne.

One after another exploded and disintegrated under the bombardment of golden lightning, and broken glass debris and steel fragments flew everywhere. A large piece of it flew directly towards Vito's head, but Vito raised his hand to control it in mid-air, and then smashed it towards the emperor.

The metal debris hit the shield in front of the emperor, and then it was instantly bounced out and hit the ground at Vito's feet, but Vito didn't pay any attention to the debris that almost hit him, but raised his finger and pointed at the emperor in front of him, and countless lightning burst out of his angry eyes.

"You are the most fucked up asshole that has ever been born in the entire human race! You want to sacrifice more than half of the human race for your goal of "great rise". I think even if only one tenth of the people can survive, you will do that, right? You treat everyone as a tool, a group of tools that can be sacrificed and abandoned at any time!" "Each of us has our own place, my old friend, and this is the only way to break the deadlock." "Bullshit! What about you? Only you are not a tool, right? You treat me as a tool, and only you are the player of this "great game", right?! Only you are qualified to live until then, to the end, and then find a fucking garden world to look at the stars and retire?!" Vito roared, his roar was accompanied by countless lightning leaps, golden arcs bombarded the ceiling above his head, countless broken stones and bricks fell one after another with the bombardment of lightning, and the huge fragments hitting the ground raised a huge amount of dust and dust. Vito raised his hands suddenly, and the psychic power instantly grabbed several boulders and smashed them at the emperor, but the emperor immediately smashed the stone with his psychic power, and hit Vito with a psychic blow.

"No! I said, each of us has our own place. If the future of mankind requires me to sacrifice myself, I will do it! I sacrificed others, and I will not fear my own death, if that is necessary."

"You are just an old bastard!" Vito cursed and climbed up from the ground. He supported himself from a pile of rubble, and his hair was covered with broken pieces of dust from the ceiling of the throne hall. Vito raised his dusty head and looked at the psychic zombie on the throne. There was a blazing psychic flame burning around him, and the light distorted the spatial structure around the throne.

His psychic power was stronger than ever before, more than a hundred times stronger than before he sat on the throne. Vito frowned as he looked at the burning psychic flame. From Vito's perspective, the "man" on the throne didn't look like a "man" at all but a true god, a god without even a hint of humanity.

He stood up from the rubble after a moment of silence, cursing, "You old bastard, I really want to kill you if I can."

"Maybe one day you will, old friend, but not now. I have told you my plan and hope that you will go and find all the Primarchs according to everything I told you. The choice is yours, my friend. The future selector of mankind is always in your hands. You may do it, or you may not, but now, you have something you must do."

"You didn't come here to fight me, did you? We have demolished most of the throne room. Now, it's your turn to do what you should do."

Vito looked at the Emperor and was silent for a moment before brushing off the dust on his head. The gray dust fell from his head as he patted it, like a piece of gray snowflakes. "I will dissolve the High Lords Council and take over the defense of Terra. "I will dissolve them, but you established the High Lords Council after all, so I come to ask for your consent." "They were indeed established by me, but I also clearly handed over the power of the Regent of the Empire to you, my friend. When I can't walk in the world, you will exercise all my powers on my behalf. It was so then and it is so now, so do what you think is right." "In addition, connect Helen to Terra's defense system. You will need her help. I will use prophetic perception to order Trajan to obey you. He will take you to the system control room of the palace." "I thought you didn't like Helen and any artificial intelligence, so you banned the Mechanicus from contacting any technology related to artificial intelligence. Now you suddenly think it over?"

"No, not really. I am still against artificial intelligence, but as I just told you, when the future of mankind requires me to compromise and sacrifice, I will do that, and that is the case now, before all plans come to an end. "Humanity needs Terra and needs me to sit on the throne and burn the Star Torch and hold down the webway, then I will do my best to keep Terra."

"So go ahead, plug your girl into Terra's system, and do what you see fit."

"You just told me your crazy plan, and we got into a fight and demolished half of the throne room. I almost wanted to kill you, and then you gave me all of Terra? And you let Helen take it? Enter the system, you know if I order her to seize all authority from Terra and lock you old bacon here forever, no one can stop me from doing that."

"I believe in the choices I made back then, and I still believe in you now, my friend, do whatever you think is right."

The emperor's eyeless eye sockets looked at himself, and the immortal psychic zombie looked at Vito in front of him. The latter also stood in front of the throne and looked up at the giant that looked like a dead tree. After they looked at each other for a while, Vito grew taller. He sighed deeply, then turned to look at the golden door behind him.

"Every time we meet, we have to save all mankind and the world together, and there are quarrels and a high probability of a fight. It seems that it will be the same this time, but it is a little different. This time I am the only one who goes. "

Vito said and walked towards the gate. He stepped over the debris that they had dug up and walked towards the golden gate. But as soon as Vito stepped into the range of the rubble ruins, something sounded in his mind. The Emperor's voice.

"No, I will still walk with you. In another way, we will continue to protect mankind together."

The emperor said, and he used his psychic power to suddenly open the wall on the side of the throne. A weapons rack suddenly opened on the closed wall. Standing firmly in it was a golden armor, a piece of armor for a mortal. Prepared wearable power armor.

Vito looked at the armor, and saw that the right arm of the shining golden power armor had a huge power claw. He knew that power armor, and almost immediately recognized who the power armor once belonged to after just one glance. .

"this is not"

"I ordered the craftsmen of the Golden Tower to recast my power armor and transform it into a model that can be worn by mortals. I will give it to you, my old friend, wear it, and he will let you gain Undisputed supreme power, when you wear it, no one in the entire empire will doubt that you can exercise the power of the Emperor on my behalf."

Vito looked at the armor and several servo skulls flying out from the broken ceiling above. They had mechanical arms and a full set of assembly tools suspended around the armor. They were waiting for Vito, waiting for him. Put on that armor.

"You" Vito said and looked at the emperor, who chuckled softly. The palm that had become like a dead tree was raised under the influence of spiritual energy, and the palm spread out towards the armrest of the throne with difficulty. Pointing at the golden power armor.

"Let it go with you instead of me, my friend."

Vito looked up at the emperor, then turned his head slightly to look at the power armor. After a moment of silence, a helpless smile appeared on his lips, "You old bacon."

——

——

Tula really stood outside the Gate of the End. He stood on the steps overlooking the Forbidden Soldiers below. He raised his head slightly and looked down at all the golden armored warriors standing here. He was full of pride in his heart. Soon they would be able to follow. Following the Supreme Marshal, he stepped into the battlefield of glory like the legendary Forbidden Army predecessors.

He imagined that the man who once stood beside Vito like himself and commanded the imperial army for him was Commander Waldo, and Trajan could not help but feel proud and trembled slightly in his heart.

At the same time, the door behind Trajan slowly reopened. The magnificent golden door slowly opened amidst the sound of heavy mechanical rotation, and the rumbling transmission structure resounded throughout the hall.

"Marshal, we are waiting for you." Trajan turned to look at the person behind him and said, but his words stopped the moment he saw him. Trajan looked at the golden iron door stepping out of the door. Boots, golden armor shining in the light, the Emperor's own eagle symbol shining brightly in the light.

Vito, wearing golden power armor, walked out of the throne room. He stepped onto the edge of the stairs and looked at Trajan beside him. A sun-like halo flashed behind his head, and a soaring eagle sculpture Behind the golden sun spread its wings.

"Emperor?" A soldier behind Trajan said in surprise. He looked at Vito standing in front of the gate from behind the commander, with a dazzling light in his eyes. He now looked almost the same as The Emperor was exactly the same. When he stood in front of the Gate of Ending in that power armor, it was as if the Emperor himself stood up and walked out of the gate.

Vito looked at the shocked Trajan beside him, and then looked at the Forbidden Soldiers below. The attendants standing on the stairs all turned around and looked at Vito at the top of the stairs. The long road to salvation in the entire hall All the Imperial Guards on both sides looked up at Vito, who was wearing a golden armor at the top of the stairs. The sun's rays flashed behind his head as he looked down at the warriors below.

Vito slowly raised his arm, and as Vito's fingers lifted up one by one, the huge power armor shone like a holy sword piercing the sky.

In an instant, all the Imperial Guards knelt down. Trajan led the surrounding attendants to kneel down immediately. All the Imperial Guards who followed the steps down one by one knelt down in front of Vito. From the end of the stairs, , all the Forbidden Army soldiers who stretched all the way to the end of the road to salvation knelt down.

Vito looked at the kneeling Imperial Guards in the entire hall below. He slowly put down his power claw. He looked at the huge power claw glove with sharp claws in his hand and raised his head with a golden halo. .

"let's start."