The broken walls of Angel Keep cast long shadows under the hazy starlight, enveloping Corbulo.
He directed Blood Priests, new recruits, and mortals to deal with the Genestealer corpses on the ground.
Corbulo had received permission from the Archangel to study the mutations occurring in these corpses.
He, Lord Alexander, and the group of mortals had all heard the last words spoken by the genestealer before they died:
The Wolf Shepherd has returned!
These words sent a shiver down Corbulo's spine, especially when Lord Alexander and the Archangel who descended from the sky looked at each other. Corbulo was terrified.
Yet, in both soul and bloodline, Corbulo resonated with the Archangel.
There was no doubt, that was the Archangel.
Corbulo was troubled but still made sure to use his psychic powers to shield the mortals' memories of the words 'Wolf Shepherd'.
He could not let what happened here be known to others.
Corbulo instinctively looked up at the two figures, one large and one small, on the city wall.
The Archangel, whose height was more than twice that of two mortals combined, walked with Lord Alexander along the city wall, his wings drooping. The setting sun also stretched their shadows long, long.
Corbulo was surprised to find that the two shadows seemed to writhe, presenting completely different scenes.
In the shadow extending from Lord Alexander, a hazy, blurry blue raccoon stood tall.
And in the shadow extending from the Archangel, Corbulo saw the Vengeful Spirit, he saw Horus, he saw the Archangel's drooping corpse, he saw death.
Finally, the two shadows slowly merged, as if Alexander's shadow was gradually pulling Sanguinius' shadow into its own body.
Corbulo shivered, as if everything he had just seen was merely an ethereal illusion.
Alexander and Sanguinius simply walked calmly on the city wall, conversing in low voices.
Sanguinius walked in front of Alexander, the warm sun shining on his golden hair, making the silver ornaments in his hair gleam. The wings behind him shimmered, as if they were also made of silver.
Pluck----
[Item Name: Sanguinius' Feather]
[Origin: Baal - Sanguinius' Chicken Wing]
[Description: A feather from Sanguinius, about the length of a Space Marine's arm. It is stained with some Warp energy, capable of burning daemons, repelling the evil forces of the Empyrean, and bringing a little luck.]
[Production Time: 999. M41]
[Condition: Freshly picked]
[Value: 26,000]
Twenty-six thousand? Alexander couldn't help but reach out and pluck another one.
".." Sanguinius turned his head and stared intently at Alexander.
Alexander's expression remained unchanged, and he plucked another feather under Sanguinius' gaze.
Sanguinius sighed, then abruptly turned his body and hid his wings behind him.
"Little Horus, don't be so petty."
Alexander calmly tucked the Sanguinius' Feather he had just plucked into his four-dimensional pocket:
"Uncle Doraemon just plucked some of your feathers, didn't he? Uncle hasn't even urged you to pay back the nearly 1.5 billion he paid for you."
"..I am not Horus." Sanguinius sighed softly, his eyes a little complex.
"It's okay, Little Horus, uncle doesn't mind."
"Just be honest with uncle."
"Uncle is waiting for you, uncle forgives you!"
Hearing this, Sanguinius fell into a deathly silence. He clenched his fists, his eyes twitching as he looked at Alexander.
His face was filled with the urge to punch Alexander.
"You can use the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine to judge." Sanguinius sighed softly: "I'll pay for the item."
Alexander had planned to do so even without Sanguinius saying it.
But since someone was willing to pay, he naturally wouldn't refuse.
"Nine hundred thousand." Alexander said with an unnegotiable expression.
"Didn't you have some remaining uses from your last rental?"
Sanguinius' expression twisted slightly, but he still sighed and said:
"You can take whatever you want from the Chapter's collection in the secret dungeon."
"That's generous, Little Horus! I knew you Luna Wolves were more generous than the Blood Angels." Alexander said with a smile.
Sanguinius' face twitched slightly again.
Alexander reached into his four-dimensional pocket and took out the remaining uses from the last divination.
"The being standing beside me, this existence that I resurrected, is Sanguinius, the Primarch of the former Ninth Legion."
Alexander placed the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine on the city wall, and after pondering his words for a moment, he spoke to the blue cross and red circle in front of him.
The moment Alexander's words fell, the red circle bounced up.
"You see." Sanguinius put on a somewhat innocent look and pointed at the red circle in mid-air.
The red circle indicated that what Alexander had just said was correct; the one standing beside Alexander was indeed Sanguinius.
But Alexander couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly.
Sanguinius was not Sanguinius, but the one Alexander resurrected was Sanguinius.
"Shouldn't you explain this to me clearly?" Alexander said, fiddling with the link between himself and Sanguinius deep within his consciousness.
".." Sanguinius' expression twitched slightly, his face full of discomfort: "It shouldn't be like this..."
"Your consciousness entering my body shouldn't encounter resistance. I am now equivalent to your daemon Primarch, and my essence should have already merged with your existence."
"But you have not yet clearly realized your Warp essence; you are resisting yourself, and by extension, you are resisting my essence as well."
"I'm not a god." Hearing Sanguinius say that he was his daemon Primarch, Alexander couldn't help but frown.
"You see, you see." Sanguinius had an expression that said 'I told you so'.
"Don't talk about my problem yet, let's talk about yours first."
Alexander noticed that Sanguinius was changing the subject:
"What exactly is the situation with those genestealers?"
"Why weren't you Sanguinius before you were resurrected, and then you became Sanguinius after you were resurrected?"
"What's Horus' situation now? Did Dorn not clean up your corpse properly when he scooped it up with his little shovel back then?"
"It's complicated to explain." Sanguinius shook his head slightly: "After I returned to the material universe and was resurrected, my self-awareness grew, and I also fully awakened my Warp essence, allowing me to understand many things."
"I am Sanguinius, and Sanguinius you once saw was also me... That is a part of my Warp essence, the me that was never born in the material universe, and the Warp entity born from me."
"The reason it's related to Horus is because the birth of my essence is closely tied to Horus."
"Can you understand? That is, first there was the essence, then Sanguinius, and also first there was Sanguinius, then the Warp essence was born."
Alexander's frown deepened as he listened to Sanguinius' circular reasoning.
Noticing Alexander's furrowed brow, Sanguinius sighed softly: "I cannot truly explain all of this to you."
"You already initially corrupted me in the Shield of Hades, and you resurrected me on Baal, which has caused my Warp essence to be half-submerged in your Warp essence."
"The link between our essences is too deep now."
"If I forcefully explain or instill this knowledge in you, it might deepen your resistance to my essence, which could cause problems for me, or it could even lead to an over-awakening of your Warp essence, causing you to go berserk like the Emperor did when he realized he was the Dark King..."
Alexander raised his eyebrows; he vaguely felt that he seemed to have grasped a clue in Sanguinius' words, yet he also seemed to have grasped nothing.
"..Perhaps you should solve this problem yourself. Coincidentally, I also need your help..." Sanguinius slowly began to speak.
"..You want me to work overtime?" Alexander's face immediately became wary, and he abruptly distanced himself from Sanguinius.
Dante's figure instantly appeared in Alexander's mind.
Dante was the consequence of Sanguinius forcing him to work overtime.
If he complied, Alexander might end up living Dante's life in the future, which would be too miserable.
"I can only entrust this matter to you."
Sanguinius sighed softly:
"As you can see, those genestealers can induce the Black Rage in my sons."
"Throughout Angel Keep, only you and Mephiston, who has overcome the Black Rage, are capable of going to their dwelling place."
"Don't worry, those genestealers pose no threat to you and Mephiston."
"Of course, don't resist yet... I'm contemplating something that will bring you great benefits, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet... I'll tell you when you return."
Alexander's vigilance did not diminish; wasn't this just pure promise-making?
"I'll give you a hint: it will be related to Guilliman." Sanguinius' lips curved into a smile, as if he had thought of something happy.
"Related to Gorrilaman?"
Alexander cast a somewhat strange look at Sanguinius:
"At least tell me what the problem is with these genestealers? What exactly is in Sheath Wing Fortress that Mephiston and I need to deal with?"
Sanguinius nodded slightly at the words. He glanced at the vast desert in the distance, his gaze seemingly falling on Sheath Wing Fortress deep in the desert.
"..The hive mind tried to obtain my gene sequence, but units created solely from gene sequences are, at most, biological weapons stronger than a Norn Emissary. It's not worth the hive mind expending such a vast amount of biomass to attack Baal."
"Sheath Wing Fortress, occupied by the genestealer, was actually the capital of Baal's former xenos race, the earliest race to worship my Warp essence."
"They used the xenos relics within Sheath Wing Fortress, combined with their faith, and through a series of deliberate imitations and rituals, created an individual in the Warp named Sanguinius of the Scythe Wings. This is not a standalone entity, but rather one that is dependent on both faith in me and the hive mind's..."
"The hive mind's original intention was to use this so-called Sanguinius of the Scythe Wings to devour my essence and then put it into the new units it cultivated with gene sequences. In fact, Sanguinius of the Scythe Wings did indeed occupy a small part of my essence."
At this point, Sanguinius' voice paused slightly, becoming somewhat deep:
"After the hive mind's control was weakened, that so-called Sanguinius of the Scythe Wings, under the madness of the genestealer, the Warp echoes generated by my resurrection, and tens of thousands of years of worship of the Dark Angel, became an even more independent and insane entity."
"He is the part of my essence that is closer to erosion and destruction, the lingering shadow of the Dark Angel from Baal's ancient legends, the echo of the moment of death..."
"..He is my Black Rage, the reflection of Horus within my essence."