Chapter 60: I Was Conquered by You
Olympia
Blood splattered everywhere across the interrogation room walls.
Francis had one hand clenched into a fist and the other gripping Perturabo's neck, roaring with a bruised and swollen face. "Do you submit?"
"No! Never! Kill me, and I still won't submit!" Perturabo shouted back.
Perturabo's face was swollen like a pig's head, his eyes half-closed, but he still refused to yield.
Initially, Francis had been at ease using his techniques against him, but he hadn't expected Perturabo to be quick-witted. Once he realized his fighting style and habits had been seen through, the boy immediately resorted to wild, clumsy punches, devoid of any fancy techniques—a method of fighting that would injure an enemy a thousand times while harming himself ten thousand times.
"Bring out whatever other moves you have," Perturabo said, still looking at him with an arrogant expression, as if to say, Is that all you've got? "If you could even utter a single cry from me, I'll serve you forever!"
"Sigh, why do you force me? Really, why can't anyone just do as I say!" Francis said, looking at him helplessly. Perturabo's expression clearly showed his defiance.
"You know, I wanted to save these two moves for Horus, but now it seems I must use them on you! Have you ever seen the Thousand Years of Death technique?"
Francis's incredibly serious expression made the initially dismissive Perturabo begin to tense up.
Before he could react, Francis had already unleashed the Thousand Years of Death and Lion's Rip, with outstanding results.
"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!" A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the room.
Even Ferrus, who was watching from outside, felt his face scrunch in disgust, but he still considered whether to replicate the technique by creating a steel posterior.
At this moment, he once again realized the meaning of 'The Flesh is Weak, the Machine is Strong'.
Looking at Perturabo, who was panting and sprawled on the ground, Francis lightly blew on his index finger, clearly indicating how effective it was.
Indeed, only dirty tricks can defeat powerful enemies.
Francis quietly leaned close to Perturabo's ear and whispered, "I know you constantly feel like you can see the Eye of Terror, and you always hear whispers."
Perturabo, who had still wanted to be stubborn, instantly widened his eyes and stammered, "You... how... how do you know! Who exactly are you!"
He had never shared this secret with anyone! Besides himself, no one else should know! Then there was only one possibility, the other person was in the same situation.
"Are you also...?" Perturabo asked tentatively.
Francis affectionately patted his bald head. "Don't be silly, child, only you are like this."
Perturabo, who had initially held some hope, utterly collapsed at that moment.
"Please! Don't say it, okay? I submit, isn't that enough?" Perturabo pleaded, feeling completely exposed before Francis, a chill running down his spine.
"Oh, what's the big deal? This condition can be cured. What are you afraid of?" Francis replied.
Upon hearing this, Perturabo's heart soared, and he went through a rollercoaster of feelings, much better. "Really? Don't lie to me!" he said eagerly.
"Don't worry! A Primarch doesn't lie to a Primarch. We are brothers!" Francis said confidently.
Hearing Francis's confident reply, Perturabo looked at him with deep affection, but unfortunately, Francis neither looked at him nor spoke.
A quarter of an hour later, Perturabo circled Francis, anxious like a monkey without peaches. "Well, tell me! Why aren't you saying anything? How do you cure it!" he demanded.
"Cough, cough, the only condition is that you join us," Francis said, feigning a cough.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible, I'd rather suffer forever than rejoin the Imperium!" Perturabo declared. "Let whoever wants to go, go! I'm certainly not going!"
Upon hearing this, Perturabo lay down on the ground, giving up completely.
"I didn't say I wanted you to do these things in the Imperium. I said join me here," Francis clarified. "I'm still short a builder here. As for war, we fight if we want to, and we don't if we don't want to. That's pretty much it."
When Francis said that, Perturabo became interested. "You're planning to go independent! Alright, brother! How many people do you have now?"
"Counting you, there are three: me, you, and Angron," Francis replied.
Hearing that Angron was involved, Perturabo became even more interested and eagerly asked, "Is he in charge of war?"
Francis thought about Angron's current state, paused, and then said, "He should be in charge of slacking off right now."
Perturabo fell silent.
"It's all about going with the flow, are you coming or not?" Francis said, growing impatient. He retorted directly, "If you don't come, I'll send you back to Terra and let the Emperor review the Decimation with you."
Perturabo remained silent.
Perturabo thought about it. Since he was going to slack off anyway, he could do it anywhere! Moreover, Horus still wanted him to fight on the front lines constantly, and in his opinion, Horus was no different from the False Emperor or his foster father.
"I'll join! Quickly, tell me how to get rid of these damned things!" Perturabo said.
Francis secretly leaned into his ear and whispered, "Warp essence liberation! As long as you can achieve that, these influences will disappear!"
The moment Perturabo heard that phrase, his mind was instantly shocked. He didn't even know what it was.
"Elaborate?" Perturabo asked.
"Later, later. Let's finish things first," Francis said. "Your sons are already trying to blow up planets. If you don't rein them in, we'll all truly return to the Emperor together."
When Perturabo put on his Terminator armor, he instantly regained his confidence and turned to Francis.
"Without my armor, I can't display my full strength," he said. "The current me is in my strongest state. If you can defeat me now, I will truly submit to you!"
Francis "..."
'Oh god, what are you, A kid!!'
Francis said nothing, but gave a thumbs-up instead. The gesture seemed to say: 'Yes, this is who you really are.'
There was no other way. Outside, the two stood a hundred meters apart, and Ferrus, acting as the referee, shouted, "Three... two... one, start!"
Just as Perturabo launched the swirling missiles from his back, he saw a massive beam of chaotic light shooting toward him.
Boom!
It instantly illuminated half of the starry sky.
All the Iron Hands warriors watched in stunned silence, as did Ferrus. He had thought the eyes on Francis's armor were just decorative, a peculiar hobby of his. And why could the armor transform into a tank?
He saw that at the moment of start, the armor on Francis's body instantly slid off and transformed into the shape of a tank, all the eyes connecting to form a cannon barrel.
After transforming back from the tank form to armor, Francis also looked at them, confused. "Why are you so surprised? I didn't fire with full power, or all these eyes would have burned out."
The Iron Hands "..."
Ferrus "..."
"Why are you making a fuss over nothing? This is premium Aeldari technology! What do you know! Maybe It can even turn into an unmanned fighter jet!" Francis declared.
At this moment, Perturabo emerged from the smoke with a pouting mouth, truly defeated. He walked up to Francis and, his lips contorting in so many variations before, after a long pause, managed to utter, "I. Submit!"
...
Soon, Perturabo went back to organize his sons.
At this moment, Ferrus recovered, patted Francis on the shoulder, and said, "They all say you're unreliable, but I don't think so. I think you're very good!"
"What a coincidence! I think so too," Francis replied.
Just as Ferrus was about to complain, a very violent fluctuation suddenly came from the Warp. This was a sign of a Warp storm appearing. The storms collided like waves, multiplying exponentially, as if to engulf the entire universe into chaos.
These storms were not merely releases of energy; they brought destruction and disorder.
Seeing this, Francis frowned and muttered, "Could it be the Word Bearers again? Angron is still with me. Has the Battle of Calth already begun?"
Because the sound was too low, Ferrus only vaguely heard him. He immediately shook Francis, nervously saying, "Now is not the time for a barbecue! We've lost contact with the Imperium!"
"Do you know? We've lost contact with the Imperium! Father originally wanted me to bring you all back!"
Francis fell silent.
It was pretty much as Francis had thought. At this time, the Word Bearers were indeed burning, killing, and looting throughout Ultramar.
The difference was that, being outnumbered, they did not directly confront the Ultramarines but instead massacred ordinary planets to create Warp storms.
Just as they were searching for Angron, attempting to make him serve the Warmaster again, they were surrounded by countless Ultramarines.
"Primarch, we are surrounded by Ultramarines. They are everywhere outside!" Erebus said, feeling his head swelling. He even inwardly blamed Lorgar.
With just one Word Bearers legion, how could they fight an Ultramarines legion!
[End of Chapter]