"Fire!" The Death Guard Commander at the foot of the mountain directed the Death Guard artillery to unleash a barrage of shells upon the Xenos on the mountain.
The powerful airflow generated by the muzzles constantly stirred the highly toxic air on Barbarus.
At this moment, Mortarion had already begun to stride steadily towards his destiny-defying path... "Fleet, set sail! Destination: Barbarus. Prepare to switch to the Gellar Field and close all external observation windows..." The Warship's sonic array system began to continuously remind all fleet crew members of the immense Warship that Warp travel was about to commence.
Thick armor plates on the Warship's side windows isolated the crew's vision from the Warp, preventing corruption from directly gazing into it.
The Custodes fleet and the Raven Guard fleet formed a mixed fleet, interwoven with gold and black, speeding towards Barbarus in the distance. The Warp was currently calm; Warp travel from Salvation Star to Barbarus would take two or three days at the fastest, or a week at the slowest, which was quite close.
"The reason you were so eager to call me is because you're afraid of that fat guy, right?" The Emperor speared a piece of lean meat, put it in his mouth, and chewed it gently.
In contrast, Swain, beside him, was devouring all sorts of delicacies as if he were a starving ghost reincarnated. Compared to the Emperor's elegant and composed demeanor, calling him an uncivilized monkey would be an overstatement.
"Uh... yeah... All other Primarchs are easy to deal with, only Mortarion is a bit troublesome, mainly because it's too close to the fat guy's doorstep, and His power to interfere with reality is much stronger. I'm scared," Swain said shamelessly, struggling to swallow a whole piece of Glock Lean Meat.
Only someone with a problem would not cling to a strong leg, especially when it was helping the Emperor find his son, not his own.
"You're overthinking it. Mortarion's return to the Imperium is inevitable. It's not yet time for them to act. All Chaos Gods are happy to see those lost Primarchs return to lead their Legions," the Emperor said.
"This isn't the first time doing this. If my strength isn't enough, I can only cling to your leg. Besides, have you already decided that Mortarion must belong to Nurgle? Didn't you tell the Four Gods that you wouldn't give them even one?" Swain said, looking at the Emperor with the gaze of a deadbeat.
"So what are you planning to do to Nurgle? Elaborate!" The Emperor completely ignored Swain's strange gaze.
He was tens of thousands of years old; let alone Swain's little glances, enduring insults was a basic skill. Of course, if this person were chopped into mincemeat by the Custodes, that wouldn't be his fault.
What does the Custodes' action have to do with me, the Emperor?
"Actually, there's not much we can do. The Chaos Gods' corruption of the Primarchs is achieved through a long period of time, not just the Primarchs, but also the people within the Legion. We can't keep an eye on all the Primarchs," Swain didn't elaborate.
Since it was impossible to keep an eye on all the Primarchs, they could only monitor some. The question was, who to monitor? For ordinary people, this would be a difficult choice, as all 21 Primarchs were their own biological sons.
It was clear that the Emperor was no ordinary person; for him, no son was unsacrificeable.
"We'll talk about this later. I refuse to believe that the Four Gods can actually invade the Material Universe!" The Emperor fiercely swallowed a sizzling, oily piece of roasted beast meat and said viciously.
Since he had made up his mind not to give them even one, then he genuinely wouldn't!
A true man keeps his word!
"Whatever you like." Swain saw the Emperor's attitude and knew that the other party was going to run wild down the path of being a deadbeat.
When the four bullies came knocking, the Emperor would know what was what.
In the original background, when the Emperor took the four Primarchs to Planet Moloch to meet the Four Chaos Gods for the second time, the Evil Gods all thought that the Emperor was keeping his promise and bringing them their investment returns.
But the result was that the Emperor gave them a glance, then severely tricked the Four Chaos Gods and ran away with the Primarchs.
Then, the Four Chaos Gods became enraged. Since you won't give them, we'll just come and take them ourselves. The bullies have personally come to your door; do you still expect to send them away with the original Rewards? That's unrealistic, isn't it?
Thus, the Great Heresy occurred. Originally, the Four Chaos Gods only wanted four, but in the end, it evolved into half of the Primarchs rebelling.
Besides reclaiming their profits, the Four Chaos Gods also enjoyed a sacrifice brought by a war that swept across the entire galaxy, so it could be said they were feasting with oil dripping from their mouths.
As for that deadbeat who wanted to default on his debt, he was naturally beaten into the ICU to deeply reflect on his mistakes.
The Warp Chaos Gods have many tricks up their sleeves. It's not as if the Emperor stopped building the Webway, and they would have no way to reclaim their principal and investment returns.
"Speaking of which, when do you plan to let Corax know the truth about the Warp? Corax has been looking at me strangely these days. He probably thinks I'm your true son; you spend more time and see me more often than you summon him. All he does is study how to manage the Legion and his fief," Swain guided.
He truly didn't approve of the Emperor concealing the truth of the Warp from the Primarchs. To use an inappropriate analogy, an ugly daughter-in-law must eventually meet her in-laws.
The Imperial Truth, woven by the Emperor for the Imperium's inhabitants, promoted science and truth, even prohibiting Legions from using psychic powers and disbanding the Librarians after the Council of Nikaea. This led to them being completely blind during the subsequent Great Heresy.
When Bolters, capable of penetrating Ceramite Armor and killing Astartes, had little effect on Chaos Daemons, the Astartes were also bewildered.
Only after suffering immense casualties did they discover that melee weapons could cause more severe damage to Chaos Daemons, but a new problem immediately followed: the Chaos Daemons' psychic units entered the fray.
But the Legion's Librarians had already been abolished by the Emperor... In this terrible galaxy, humanity didn't have many good solutions; only the Warp itself could fight the Warp, but due to the potential danger of Warp corruption, the Emperor prohibited the application of psychic powers.
Facts proved that this prohibition did not have much effect; the Primarchs and Legions who were destined to be corrupted were still corrupted, and those destined to betray still betrayed.
"The time is not yet right. I am considering finding a suitable time to reveal some limited information about the Warp to the Primarchs; their main task now is the Great Crusade," the Emperor did not refuse Swain's suggestion.
"As you wish." Swain devoured all the delicacies on the table like a whirlwind and then left the Emperor's exclusive dining area.
Amidst the grateful gazes of all the attendants and imperial chefs in the restaurant, Swain gradually disappeared. Although this was the Emperor's exclusive dining place, it was like a mere decoration, as the Emperor usually never came here.
However, ever since this 'problem child' in the eyes of the Custodes arrived, the attendants here had seen the Emperor more times than in the past few decades combined.
This made the chefs look at Swain with exceptionally warm eyes.