Belisarius Cawl had never felt this way before.
A magnificent, vast, and powerful will suddenly surged into his body.
What kind of will was that? His own soul and every mechanical component on his body expressed submission to that will.
Power, appearing out of nowhere, poured into his machine body. His mind had never been so clear. Some damaged, forgotten memories suddenly resurfaced from storage, and lost knowledge reappeared in Belisarius Cawl's mind.
In a trance, Belisarius Cawl felt the gaze cast down from the Empyrean.
That blue figure stood in the Empyrean, with a deep pocket on his stomach, filled with a sense of desolation.
Belisarius Cawl seemed to feel a gaze coming from that pocket.
He involuntarily looked into that pocket, feeling his soul also falling into it.
He saw. He saw an era full of glory, he saw an era where mechanical creations were extremely developed, he saw…
The great power of the Omnissiah supported that era. Countless technological creations beyond human comprehension were born in that era. The evil forces of the Warp did not exist in that era; only rationality, technology, and development shone.
That was a sacred era not in the same space-time as this galaxy, nor in the Warp.
Cawl couldn't help but want to fall into that white pocket, to go to that era.
"It's not time yet, Cawl."
"The sacred time of the 22nd century has not yet closed its loop."
A voice of refusal came from the pocket, and Belisarius Cawl recognized who the owner of that voice was—
Then, the illusion before Belisarius Cawl's eyes suddenly vanished.
But the will that had descended upon Cawl still remained.
"Cawl, can you hear my voice?"
Alexander's voice echoed in Belisarius Cawl's mind.
He had just tried to call Cawl several times, but for some reason, Cawl remained motionless.
Belisarius Cawl nodded slightly, lowered his head, and said in his heart: "I can hear you, Lord Alexander."
Seeing Cawl finally react, Alexander nodded gently.
He could feel that his will was connected to Cawl's consciousness, and even Cawl's accumulated knowledge over ten thousand years was opened to him.
But Alexander was not in the mood to study these for now.
He quickly told Belisarius Cawl what he wanted to do.
Yvraine told Belisarius Cawl that only her old crone sword, conveying Ynnead's power of death, could reverse life and death.
This was, of course, incorrect.
According to Sanguinius' previous statement, Alexander could also do it, and Alexander could also use this to corrupt Robert Guilliman to a certain extent.
This was very difficult for Ynnead to do; he was not yet powerful enough to corrupt a Primarch, at most leaving a few tricks on Guilliman's body.
But the power related to death on Alexander's body was coincidentally forced upon him by the Emperor, making it much easier to corrupt Robert Guilliman.
Therefore, Yvraine was not needed at all; Alexander's hand could also do similar things.
Belisarius Cawl listened to Alexander's plan, a faint glimmer of light flickering in his eyes.
The entire Macragge roared in the flames of war.
Warlord Titans stood among the mountains, monsters corrupted by the forces of Chaos, transformed into half-flesh, half-machine forms, wantonly unleashing their firepower.
Apocalypse-class missiles imbued with daemons tore through the sky, causing a tremor on the Hera Fortress' Void Shield, shaking the seven mountain ranges where the fortress was located.
Smaller Nemesis-class Warbringer Titans moved their giant feet, their bodies covered in hideous iron spikes constantly emitting hot industrial toxic gas. The Reaver-class Volcano Cannons let out an ear-splitting shriek, as if billions of souls were wailing within them.
Many war machines belonging to the Ultramarines outside the fortress exploded in this outpouring of firepower, turning into molten slag and collapsing.
Warhound-class Titans, inscribed with Iron Warriors runes, were more agile and nimble. They sprinted at full speed, like wild dogs enlarged hundreds or thousands of times, galloping across the battlefield, rapidly approaching the Ultramarines' positions from the flanks.
And the Knight Households who came to support the Ultramarines quickly formed ranks.
But even Dominus-class Knights were no match for the enemy's Titan formations.
Calgar's roar echoed on the front line of the city walls, countless blue, white, black, and yellow energy orbs exploding on the Void Shield in front of him.
Raptors of the Night Lords descended from mid-air, with shrieks and roars.
But as soon as they landed on the city wall, they were brutally torn in half by Calgar's Power Fist.
The Black Legion's invasion was becoming more and more fierce. Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers... more and more traitors appeared on the battlefield.
But what truly troubled Calgar were not these traitor Astartes.
But the Titans standing in the distant mountains.
According to Tigurius' prophecy, before launching the 13th Black Crusade, Great Despoiler Abaddon received help from one person.
The Primarch of the traitor Legion Iron Warriors, Iron Lord Perturabo.
Although this Primarch did not directly participate in Abaddon's actions, he provided Abaddon with a large number of war machines and daemon engines.
The Titans standing on the ground of Macragge were part of them.
One Warlord, three Nemesis-class Warbringers, three Reaver-class, six Warhounds...
The Black Legion caught the Ultramarines off guard. A large amount of support had not yet arrived at Macragge.
These thirteen Titans standing before Hera Fortress became an almost insurmountable obstacle for the Ultramarines.
The Adeptus Mechanicus proclaimed that every Titan was an embodiment of the Omnissiah's will, a true God-Machine.
And now Calgar wished he could grab a Tech-Priest's metallic body with his Ultramarine Power Fists and demand why the Omnissiah didn't quickly manifest and destroy all these Titans that defied his will?!
Just as Calgar was cursing,
A Reaver Titan successfully found a weakness in the Ultramarines' barrage. It swiftly moved its iron feet, charging towards Hera Fortress, protected by the Void Shield, with the ground constantly shaking.
It swung its giant claw-like Power Fist, effortlessly tearing apart the bodies of two Questor-class Knights attempting to stop it, grabbing their bodies and throwing them heavily towards Hera Fortress.
The Questor Knight's steel bodies collided with the Void Shield, raising a tsunami-like ripple on the Void Shield.
The two Questor Knights flickered between the Warp and the real universe, eventually being brutally torn into several fragments and scattering.
And the even larger Reaver-class Titan had already charged to the Void Shield of Hera Fortress.
At that moment, Calgar had almost prepared for the first line of defense of Hera Fortress to be breached—
Suddenly, the Void Shield flickered.
It wasn't Hera Fortress' Void Shield; it was the Void Shield on that Reaver Titan that flickered, then abruptly went out.
This astonished Calgar, and what happened next confused Calgar even more.
A scorching and massive defensive laser descended from the sky.
The scorching laser instantly pierced through the Reaver-class Titan's spine, tearing through its steel-forged body.
The Reaver Titan crashed heavily onto the ground, causing an earthquake that echoed across the entire battlefield.
Calgar immediately looked in the direction the laser came from, only to see that there was only an Ultramarines-marked storm raven gunship hovering in the air in that direction.
A storm raven fired a beam powerful enough to destroy a Titan???
Compared to Calgar, the surrounding Iron Warriors were even more bewildered.
The frequency and firing rate of that laser... How did it look like their Primarch Perturabo's design??
Was their father dissatisfied with them again?!
Had he even become so dissatisfied that he was directly performing a 'kill ten' on the Titans??
For a moment, a brief panic spread among the Iron Warriors.
Alexander on the storm raven lightly wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Thirteen Titans that had betrayed to Chaos, hosting a large number of daemons, had undergone extraordinary corruption, and their machine spirit had become terrifyingly powerful.
Although he had previously controlled the machine spirit of the glory blade, that was because the glory blade itself cooperated and had not been corrupted.
To control these thirteen Titans, Alexander had to suppress the daemonic will residing within them as much as possible.
But...
The constantly erupting battles between machines on the battlefield, the roaring machine spirits, loyal or not overly corrupted, and the constantly dying beings and the dead buried on Macragge over tens of thousands of years...
All of these were providing Alexander with power. He felt that the power he gained from the Malicious Art and Corrosive Destruction Warp domains was also continuously strengthening.
A Nemesis-class Warbringer Titan suddenly twisted its body, breaking free from the Ultramarines' firing net, and aimed at the storm raven gunship in mid-air—
"Protect that storm raven!!!" Calgar roared.
However, before his voice even fell, the Nemesis-class Warbringer Titan unleashed its scorching Reaver-class Volcano Cannons.
Almost in an instant, the storm raven, along with its occupants, was engulfed by scorching flames.
However, a terrifying situation occurred that stunned everyone on the battlefield.
The storm raven was only largely melted by the Reaver-class Volcano Cannons, and this large portion actually healed rapidly, returning to its original state in the blink of an eye.
Not only this storm raven, but the same situation also occurred inside the storm raven. The passengers seemed to have suffered no harm and seemed to have had their life and death reversed in an instant.
This was the authority Alexander gained from the Corrosive Destruction domain. As long as people were still dying on the battlefield, he could draw power from death, continuously repair himself, and even extend this power beyond his body, covering those around him.
Furthermore, with the authority of the Malicious Art domain, he could extend this power to nearby machines.
This range was not large, at most covering this gunship.
Most people on the storm raven didn't even realize what had just happened.
Only Belisarius Cawl chanted a binary hymn softly, Celestine let out a gasp, and Yvraine's eyes were full of astonishment.
Alexander, meanwhile, cast his gaze upon the remaining twelve Titans.
The movements of those twelve Titans instantly became sluggish.
Alexander seized this instant, aiming the Mechanizer in his hand at the largest Warlord-class Titan.
"Mechanizer, Warlord-class Titan."
Alexander pressed the button and leaped from the storm raven.