Chapter 432 Black and Red, the Scheme in the Shadows (Seventeen) The Monarch in the Shadows

In the void far away from the gravitational field of the celestial body in the northern part of the Jan Moro sector, a huge crack torn by the energy of the subspace is slowly healing.

In front of the crack, a trident is floating alone. It is a space battleship more than 20 kilometers long.

Three huge space buildings are standing on it; in the bronze and blood rust paint, hundreds of weapon arrays are patrolling around vigilantly.

The Triumvirate, the masterpiece of the fallen Martian forging general Keb Har in the era of the Great Heresy, is the third sister ship of the Abyss-class battleship.

It is also the last ship left after the sinking of the first ship, the Fury of the Abyss, and the second ship, the Blessed Lady.

It is the fourth flagship of the Word Bearers Legion and the flagship of their legion master, the fallen primarch who has now ascended to the devil, Lorgar Aurelion.

In order to summon it from the Supreme Heaven, the Dark Apostle spent unimaginable manpower and material resources. Even the sacrificial ceremony that had been prepared for decades and swept across the entire star region, most of the power accumulated in the end was used here.

And it is indeed worth this effort, because the military force and symbolic significance it represents are a great encouragement to the forces of chaos.

The battleship began its work as soon as it returned to reality.

Hundreds of Word Bearers led ten times more demons than them, riding large and small vehicles from the deck of the Triumvirate, flying like a school of fish towards the polluted and corrupted planets around.

And the Imperial Navy warships captured by the rebellion in these galaxies also began to gather here after receiving its call.

The battleship-level flagship is the support that these traitors need most at present. The fleet they have for the defense of the galaxy's homeland does not have this behemoth.

The Triumvirate's defense and attack are even better than the Queen of Glory, which is undoubtedly a great encouragement for these scattered soldiers.

Dong... Dong... Dong... Dong... Dong...

In the Temple of Despair on top of the central building complex of the warship, heavy footsteps came from far away in the darkness.

Two heavily armored Word Bearers knelt down upon hearing the sound, and in the depths of the dark palace, a shadow slowly approached.

"Where is my chief priest?" The shadow did not continue to approach, but stopped at the boundary between light and darkness.

His voice did not change, and it still made the two veterans stationed there feel familiar, but the tone and wording in his words made people feel unfamiliar.

After hearing it, the two ten-thousand-year veterans raised their heads and looked at each other, and then lowered their heads again in the next second.

This kind of pure title is not common in the mouth of the Primarch. In the past, he preferred to use "my best friend" as a synonym for the chief priest.

Do you want to answer? How to answer?

What does he want to know? Or how could he not know where Erebus is going?

And if he knows, then what does he want to ask at this moment?

The sudden question flew through the minds of the two Word Bearers, and they finally chose to remain silent after careful consideration.

This is not to say that they are too smart, but in the past ten thousand years of intrigue and internal struggle, the Word Bearers without this brain would have been eliminated long ago and would never have survived to this day.

In fact, the guards did not need to answer, because the answer would never be beyond his expectations.

"Are you still diligently convening the Dark Apostle Conference and tirelessly assigning tasks to the shepherds? It's really touching..."

The monarch's voice continued to sound, but the meaning in his words made the guards lower their heads. His voice was still as infectious as ten thousand years ago, but the attitude he expressed made the Word Bearers silent.

Everything seemed different from the past. The Lord of the Legion who once regarded the Chief Priest as a close friend and obeyed his words was dead.

And now in front of them was the Dark Monarch who had reshaped himself in the darkness after ten thousand years of meditation and reflection after experiencing setbacks and failures.

After the Primarch reappeared, he had adjusted the personnel of the Legion. He did not touch the original power of the Dark Council, but gathered some marginal forces within the Legion under his command.

These veterans of the Legion who were expelled from the core of power may not be smart enough, but they have the bravery and desire for status and power that those dark apostles who are obsessed with power struggles do not have.

And what the Primarch needs most at this time is precisely this desire, as well as the false loyalty covered by this desire.

More than three chapters of the Word Bearers were gathered under the Primarch's command, and this force became more and more transcendent and indispensable in the increasingly obvious power struggle between the two factions of Erebus and Ko Farron in the Dark Council.

They may not be enough to replace the existence of the Dark Council, but neither the Chief Priest nor the Dark Bishop could accept that this force was leaning towards the other side under the endorsement of the Primarch.

"My Lord!" The Chief Priest came when he learned that the Primarch had awakened.

Although he was in a hurry and in power, he still expressed his respect and worship to the Primarch with the most sincere etiquette as in the past.

But unlike before, this time after he knelt down, he did not immediately hear the other party's reproach and the kindness behind the reproach;

This time, the false respect was only exchanged for a long and suffocating scrutiny, and the equally false response under this scrutiny:

"Get up, my dear friend."

The same words were spoken by the same person, but with different tones, which made the head of the Word Bearers, who was known as the "Son of Chaos", feel great pressure at this moment.

It's really unfair, what an enviable talent...

This is the number of times Erebus has lamented the power of the Primarch, and the number of times he has expressed jealousy and contempt for the Primarch in his heart.

This thought flashed through his mind and was immediately concealed in countless jumping information. This was a fear of the power held by the Primarch, because the Primarch no longer resisted the use of psychic power.

And if there was no protection from the mind protection spell, this idea would definitely be captured by the Primarch in an instant.

"Do you want me to ask you?" Lorgar's voice sounded again, waking Erebus from his thoughts.

He tried his best to control his body, and while standing up, he suppressed the instinctive movement of raising his head. The muscles in his neck creaked in the confrontation with the spine, and his eyes locked on the Primarch's feet did not move.

He couldn't look up, because if he saw the sarcastic expression on that face, there would be no room for any warmth between the two of them.

Where did the change occur? And when did it start?

Was it when he returned to the Sicarus world after the Great Heresy that started off well but ended badly and ended hastily after Horus died in battle?

Or was it when he became the Undivided Demon Prince who truly inherited the Chaos throne, unlike Perturabo, but was hit head-on by the man who understood the essence of the Warp entirely by his own talent, and had to fall into meditation for ten thousand years on the Sicarus world?

Or was it earlier, when he first realized Horus's true attitude towards Chaos and felt that the rebellion was doomed to fail, so he decided to take over Horus' mission, but was defeated by the sick Horus?

But no matter what, the change has already happened.

And what he has to do now is to re-understand the thoughts of this "lucky man" who is ambitious but incompetent, and then calm him down again, that's all.

This child of Chaos, who had led and overturned the greatest era of the human empire, was only now aware of the huge changes around him.

But before he could clear his mind, the footsteps behind him made him lower his head again.

Kor Farron, another leader of the Dark Council, was the guide, foster father and legal master of the monarch in the mortal era before he took over the Legion.

This ally who dedicated the Primarch to the Chaos Gods with him and the political enemy who fought for power with him in the Dark Council, had also received the news of the Primarch's awakening and arrived at his bedroom as soon as possible.

"My Lord!" The Dark Bishop stopped at Erebus's side, and after a slight delay, he also greeted Lorgar.

Erebus took advantage of the situation to raise his head, but the figure of the Primarch was still invisible in the darkness.

Of course it was impossible to see clearly, it was the psychic energy that resisted his sight.

"Is the arrangement complete?" Lorgar asked the two.

The two leaders of the Dark Council looked at each other obscurely. They did not want the Primarch to establish a real connection with the Legion. In this regard, they were allies.

"It has been arranged. The deployment of troops in the three star systems has been arranged. The sacrificial rituals in the rear are also being prepared."

The two answered in unison, not knowing that Lorgar was different from the past at this moment. He saw all the details of the two people's actions.

"Heh..." The monarch in the dark laughed meaninglessly, but before the two people could react, he turned the topic to the war in front of them.

"This opportunity is rare, you should know it."

"Yes." The two responded. Erebas looked at Ko Farron and took a step forward to explain his plan to their Primarch:

"Our plan..."

"I don't want to know. I just ask one question, are you sure?" The monarch in the dark interrupted Erebas and questioned the former directly.

"I will personally lead his fall!" Erebas bowed his head and assured Lorgar, who only chuckled and asked:

"How much power do you want?"

"Five complete warbands, and their affiliated demon legions."

"I'll give you ten." Lorgar said, raising his hand to stop Ko Fallon's protest. He looked at Erebas kneeling on the ground and said with interest:

"I'm waiting for your news."

Then he turned and left, disappearing again in the darkness of the Temple of Despair.

"Yes!" Erebas maintained his posture until Lorgar left for a long time before getting up from the ground.

And Ko Fallon beside him finally noticed something strange from the conversation between the two. He no longer entangled in the Primarch's statement that led to the weakening of his power, but looked at Erebas, who was still kneeling on the ground, with a rare sympathetic look.

"Will? How arrogant... You're so easily making a promise about a being that is most likely to be the Primarch?"

"What else? Fail like you? You should know that I've done this once, and you're just a loser."

After making sure that Lorgar had left, Erebus slowly raised his head. The undisguised contempt in his eyes provoked the Dark Bishop's emotions from gloating to extreme anger.

However, what he said made Kor Fallon unable to refute, because in the corruption of another Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, Kor Fallon had failed, and there was no room for excuse.

"Then you, take care of yourself..." The tone of the Dark Bishop became calm after reaching the peak of anger. He re-examined the Chief Priest, then threw off the cloak behind him and walked out of the palace.

The apostles attached to the Dark Bishop followed Kor Fallon's footsteps and left. The two guards also closed the palace gate after the monarch disappeared.

The Chief Priest was still kneeling in front of the door, maintaining his posture of talking to Lorgar. The dark apostles under him came forward, but no one dared to persuade him to stand up.

Will it succeed this time? Erebus still has enough confidence in himself.

But what he was worried about was not this matter, but the Lord of the Legion who had been together for a full ten thousand years.

Kor Fallon's words were still in his ears, and the conditions given to him by Lorgar were in front of him. The extra generosity was not out of goodwill, and the coldness hidden behind the generosity had already cut off his retreat.

You want five warbands? I'll give you double support.

Not enough? There's more.

But if this fails, what will be the result waiting for him?

I'm afraid there is no need for anyone to question it, failure itself is enough to threaten his position. The Dark Council has never lacked ambitious people, and these seemingly submissive people around him are just waiting for an opportunity.

Erebus felt that he needed to re-examine his monarch. This idealist who once obeyed him, after ten thousand years of reflection, obviously had his own way of controlling power.

But these are all things for the future, and the most urgent task is now. He needs to consolidate his position with a hearty victory, and he needs to please the Chaos Gods with the fall of a high lord.

And if all this can be achieved, he will naturally have a position corresponding to his rights in the new royal court established by the king of the Word Bearers.

You can only win, not fail.

Erebus's thoughts penetrated the territory of Jan Morro, looking at the forge world in the center of the galaxy, and then crossed the place where he planned to fight the decisive battle and looked behind the forge world, the once prosperous but now silent planet - Morro.

This planet, which had been visited by two people who influenced the fate of the empire, was also the most ideal altar prepared by him and the gods.

Update. Finally finished moving, so tired.