A blasphemous and incomprehensible joke was presented before Mephiston.
Confusion immediately welled up in Mephiston's mind.
Usually, he was the one who used prophecies laced with riddles to make others feel lost and bewildered.
This time, it was his turn to solve the riddle.
As Mephiston pondered, the four-armed genestealer boss served Alexander a fragrant, salt-baked fire scorpion and hot tea brewed from bloodgrass roots.
The salt-baked fire scorpion was baked whole in rock salt, shell and all. Some herbs growing in the Baal desert were mixed into the salt as spices.
Alexander wiped away the coarse salt, broke open the scorpion shell, and used his utensils to extract the snow-white, tender scorpion meat, putting it into his mouth.
The salt-baking method perfectly preserved the ingredient's original flavor. The sweet scorpion meat had a subtle salty taste. Originally, this kind of rock salt contained many impurities, and the salty taste should have been accompanied by bitterness.
However, the owner of this restaurant used a spice Alexander didn't recognize, suppressing the bitterness and instead unleashing a peppery, pungent aroma that stimulated and tantalized Alexander's tongue, making his lips and teeth tingle as if electrically charged.
A hint of approval appeared on Alexander's face. The GSC boss of this restaurant truly had excellent culinary skills.
He picked up the hot tea brewed from bloodgrass roots beside him.
It was a pile of reddish-brown, snake-like roots, washed clean and steeped in hot water. The substances within were released, dyeing the entire cup of water red.
Alexander took a tentative sip, and the sweet taste quickly dispelled his prejudice against its appearance.
A faint herbal aroma, a subtle sweetness and bitterness, combined with a caffeine-like scent, invigorated Alexander.
Across from him, Mephiston organized the information from Alexander's words, quickly extracting the two most important and effective pieces of information:
Guilliman was about to be resurrected, and Sanguinius was also about to be resurrected.
Mephiston had already learned these two points from Khan, but since Alexander mentioned them again, it meant...
"Is it you?" Mephiston tried his best to suppress the surprise in his voice, but still couldn't help but ask.
Yes, it must be so.
On Baal today,
The most likely person to resurrect a Primarch and bring him back to the mortal world was the Saint Doraemon before him.
He was a candidate for three positions in the Warp, and was worshipped as the Lord of Death by the refugees of the underworld.
"It's me." Alexander wiped his mouth and said rather casually, "Brother, you finally recognized me!"
"I've missed you so much! Have you forgotten? Your father and I are good men! I even held you when you were little!"
Listening to Alexander's words, Mephiston's cheek twitched slightly, then he savored the deeper meaning of the words.
This person before him had a connection with his gene-father... This made Mephiston's face twitch slightly.
Because he knew that his gene-father Sanguinius also had a deep connection with the Necron Silent King.
Now, another Saint Doraemon appeared... a candidate for a Warp position.
Xenos and the Warp were basically the two biggest types of enemies of humanity.
His gene-father having deep connections with Xenos and the Warp... If it weren't for the facts before him, Mephiston would have angrily denounced it as slander.
Mephiston's heart was in turmoil.
Father, why aren't your friends very proper? This doesn't match your image in the Chapter records.
Shouldn't you hate Xenos and the Warp as if they were your sworn enemies?
"Call me uncle," Alexander said with a brilliant smile.
Mephiston's expression stiffened. The word 'uncle' was truly too foreign for an Astartes.
Most Astartes' uncles were employed by the Chaos Gods.
"..Uncle, it's rare to see you. Shall we go somewhere else to reminisce?" Mephiston hesitated before saying.
There were too many genestealer here, and many things were inconvenient to say directly.
However, Alexander shook his head: "Nephew, wait for your uncle to have another round."
Before Mephiston could react, Alexander waved to the boss behind him.
"One serving of braised desert rats, one serving of fried dry roots, and two more cups of redgrass root tea."
The GSC on Baal had a social structure similar to the bloodson tribes deep in the local desert, adhering to the principles of collective hunting and food sharing. Therefore, food in Sheath Wing Fortress was generally free of charge.
However, Alexander felt that he wasn't eating for free. Didn't he give the GSC a fire scorpion he found by the roadside?
Mephiston watched in a daze as Alexander, like a whirlwind, single-handedly devoured three servings of food.
The two angel statues hung in mid-air.
They were both forged from the black metal that constructed this Xenos city.
One was the bare, original color of the metal, while the other was gilded with gold.
The Dark Angel spread its wings, as if to embrace the Golden Angel. Its face was ferocious like a beast, sharp teeth protruding from its upper lip, resting on its lower lip, and crimson bloodstones were embedded in its eye sockets, like drops of blood about to fall.
The Golden Angel's wings hung behind it, as if it had just descended from the sky. Its face was as holy as the purest infant, its lips tightly closed, revealing a melancholic beauty of compassion for all living beings. Its eye sockets were also inlaid with bloodstones, but they were as pure as filtered grape wine, Summer Red.
The Dark Angel held a longsword, almost ready to cleave the Golden Angel's neck.
The Golden Angel, with one hand, gripped a long spear, its tip pointing directly at the Dark Angel's chest.
It seemed that in the next moment, both would be destroyed together.
The statue was originally intended to depict the Golden Angel descending from the sky and overpowering the Dark Angel.
But now, with the entire city inverted, it instead appeared as if the Dark Angel was overpowering the Golden Angel.
Mephiston and Alexander stood beside the two angel statues, on a small plaza made of metal plates suspended in mid-air.
The Blood Angels Chief Librarian glanced at Alexander. He dared not use his psychic powers to peer into the Warp projection of the person before him.
His psychic premonition warned him that it was dangerous... But his appearance was fake, and through the sight of the material world, Mephiston couldn't discern anything.
Even if he used his true face, it might only be the material shell of a Warp entity, which wouldn't explain anything.
What Mephiston truly wanted to know was how much of this powerful Warp entity before him had entered the real universe, and how much could this material body contain? If this material body were destroyed, would he be banished back to the Warp?
Mephiston carefully chose his words for a moment, then spoke:
"Well met, Lord of Death." "Well met, Lord of Death."
Alexander and Mephiston spoke almost simultaneously.
The two stared at each other, and Mephiston's face was the first to show embarrassment.
Alexander's eye twitched slightly.
This phrase was spoken by Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars to Mortarion in the past.
And Mephiston's title happened to be the same as Mortarion's: Lord of Death.
Alexander simply wanted to utter this famous line; Mephiston didn't know what he was thinking.
Mephiston's expression also twitched slightly.
Opposite him was someone called the Chosen of Death, and in Khan's words, one of the most powerful contenders for the title of "Lord of Death."
Mephiston was truly embarrassed to call himself the Lord of Death in front of him.
"No, no, no, you are the true Lord of Death," Mephiston quickly said.
Alexander's mouth twitched slightly. Mephiston's tone gave Alexander the feeling that he was about to stand up and toast him with a big drink.
A silence fell between the two again, as many words could not be spoken directly.
"How will you proceed?" This was clearly asking Alexander how he intended to resurrect Sanguinius.
"I have an agreement with the Lord of Baal." Alexander carefully chose his words: "I will not reveal the contents of this agreement until I meet him."
Alexander's tone was well-controlled, conveying just the right amount of sincerity, with a hint of subtle urgency beneath the sincerity, as if earnestly hoping to quickly resurrect his friend Sanguinius.
Sanguinius seemed to detect the trace of acting, and its wings twitched slightly.
Lord of Baal? Dante? Mephiston was stunned for a moment, then instantly understood that Alexander was referring to the true Lord of Baal—
The remains of Sanguinius, slumbering in the underground crypt, within the golden sarcophagus.
Indeed, he was truly the key to Sanguinius' resurrection, coming according to Sanguinius' agreement with him.
Mephiston's rationality told him to be cautious, but his psychic premonition and observations made Mephiston believe that everything the person before him said was true.
But from either perspective, Mephiston could not make a promise.
"This is not something I can promise. I am merely a Chief Librarian."
"I am willing to trust you, and I am willing to cooperate with you with all my efforts."
Mephiston sighed and then spoke:
"But my image among my Chapter brothers is not good. If I were to force my way and take you there, they would treat me as Erebus."
"Please also believe in the determination of the more than 20,000 bloodsons now gathered on Baal to protect the remains of their gene-father..."
"Only Dante can make this decision. Only if he agrees can I take you there."
Alexander nodded slightly, understanding that Mephiston already trusted him. He subtly reined in the acting abilities brought by the clapperboard & robot director.
The acting ability, combined with the truth he presented, had clearly even affected Mephiston, who possessed extremely strong psychic powers.
As for what Mephiston said, it didn't surprise him.
To be honest, if Mephiston hadn't happened to appear before him, Alexander wouldn't even have wanted to get involved with Mephiston first.
Because the combination of the two was simply too easy to provoke wild imaginings.
Mephiston's image within the Blood Angels had never been good; he was the type that could stop new recruits from crying at night.
Many Astartes had always felt that Mephiston was a sorcerous vampire, already close to falling to Chaos, and that his head should be chopped off with a power axe to comfort Sanguinius' soul in the heavens.
Even Chapter Master Dante harbored much apprehension, suspicion, and fear towards Mephiston.
And Alexander himself... Alexander himself was the object of worship of a new cult on Baal, and he might also be heavily involved with the Warp.
A suspected Warp entity, and a suspected Chaos sorcerer who dabbled in witchcraft... This pairing, no matter how one looked at it, reminded people of the Chaos Gods and Erebus duo.
Alexander was a Chaos God, and Mephiston was Erebus.
"My dear Erebus... oh, no." Alexander quickly corrected himself: "My dear nephew, do you have a map of Baal? Could you get me one?"
Mephiston hesitated for a moment, then used his psychic powers to wrap some information and transmit it to Alexander.
Then he quickly severed his connection with that information, preventing his will from accidentally entering Alexander's will...
Looking at Mephiston, who resembled a cat that had almost been electrocuted, Alexander raised an eyebrow slightly, then looked at the information that appeared in his mind.