"Fulgrim has begun his moves."
Roboute Guilliman's voice was deep and powerful, yet if one listened closely, they would detect a complex mixture of emotions within it.
Anger, sadness, pain, disgust, and even a sigh were all intertwined.
Guilliman was suspected of being ambitious by many of his brothers, but the Lord of Ultramarines truly regarded his fellow Primarchs as brothers, even if their relationships varied.
Deep down, the Lord of Ultramarines still felt sorrow over Fulgrim's fall.
How could the Fulgrim who was once full of honor and pride, who constantly displayed perfection, the Primarch of the Emperor's Children, the purple phoenix, a symbol of the Imperium, have become like this?
Especially upon learning that Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children, even after ten thousand years, were still using the name of the Emperor's Children, the Imperium's double-headed eagle, and mockingly using "For the Emperor" as their slogan, Roboute Guilliman felt even more pain.
Fulgrim seemed to have become a symbol of the Imperium's past glory having fallen, representing the entire Imperium's unstoppable slide into the abyss.
And now, after ten thousand years of dormancy and decline, Fulgrim had once again extended his fangs towards the Imperium.
Based on the information provided by Alexander, Guilliman was clearly convinced that the governor of Magna Macragge, the capital and largest city of Macragge, had been corrupted by Fulgrim and become a minion of Slaanesh.
He proposed holding a grand victory parade to display the victory to the entire galaxy, to boost the morale of all Ultramar, to bind all Ultramar together, and also to let more people in the galaxy know about the Primarch's return, bringing them hope.
Although this parade was grand and slightly exaggerated, the Lord of Ultramarines had to admit that it did have its value.
"This can let the Primarch's light shine throughout the galaxy, establish a new example for humanity, awaken their faith in the Emperor, and also awaken their faith in the Primarchs."
The governor of Magna Macragge declared this to Guilliman.
However, the true purpose of this parade was for the corrupted governor to place a Slaanesh artifact called the Crown of Glory on Guilliman during the parade, to corrupt and completely infest him.
But Alexander and Guilliman would naturally not let Fulgrim have his way; they had long ago planned a little trick to entrap Fulgrim.
Theoretically, this trick would cause Fulgrim to be infested by Alexander instead.
Of course, Fulgrim, already corrupted by Slaanesh, would not so easily become Alexander's daemon Prince, but it would be enough to prevent him from reacting to reality for a long period.
"I have agreed to this victory parade as planned."
The Lord of Ultramarines said with a somewhat tired expression.
The highly efficient pills Alexander provided did increase his work efficiency, but they did not reduce the fatigue caused by doing these things.
Moreover, the more Guilliman dealt with the political and military affairs from the recovered and unrecovered worlds of Ultramar, the more his mood darkened.
Inefficiency, buck-passing, and meaningless waste permeated the Imperium of Man.
Even though everyone bore unimaginable heavy labor and everyone contributed their best to the Imperium, efficiency was low, departments were full of buck-passing, and meaningless waste continued to increase.
Guilliman smiled bitterly; he understood why Sanguinius and Alexander said this Imperium needed him.
"This kind of public, faith-inspiring work should be done by Sanguinius," Guilliman sighed.
If it weren't for the actual value of the victory parade, and if it weren't to thwart Fulgrim's scheme, Guilliman truly did not want to hold any parade.
"Fulgrim was corrupted by Slaanesh, not hit by the Butcher's Nails," Alexander said, shaking his head. "If he saw Sanguinius, he'd run faster than anyone."
Sanguinius was incredibly strong now; Alexander had fought him over a dozen times with Greater Daemon and deeply understood this.
Unless Fulgrim was suicidal, he would not attempt to corrupt Sanguinius.
"I understand, everything can proceed as planned," Guilliman nodded gently.
Although in Alexander's plan, he no longer needed to face Fulgrim's corruption,
Once the news of the victory parade spread, he would inevitably be drawn into a deeper vortex of bureaucracy, and various forces from all over the Imperium would flock to Macragge from all directions.
At the thought of the increased work this would bring, Guilliman's face was filled with gloom.
Alexander looked at the gloom on Guilliman's face and for a moment even felt a little pity for him; this was mainly because Alexander had recently been traveling between different planets, recovering corrupted items and helping various companies in their assaults, and he had come to understand the arduous work Guilliman's brain was undergoing.
Every company, every Ultramar Auxiliary Army unit, and even every Astartes and mortal, was like a tentacle extending from Guilliman's superhuman brain, acting according to his thoughts, carrying out surgical-precision raids, attacks, and flanking maneuvers on hundreds of battlefields.
This difficulty was no less than a surgeon performing thousands of operations simultaneously.
But before Alexander could offer any words of comfort, the Chapter Serfs, with the swift movements Guilliman had trained them for, delivered more documents to Guilliman's desk.
Evidently, Guilliman's scheduled time for conversing with Alexander had passed, and the Chapter Serfs, following the rules he had set, urged—one might even say whipped—him to begin new work.
Guilliman exhaled a heavy, turbid breath and quickly plunged into the sea of documents.
He was practically arranging himself as a highly intelligent Contemplative Serf into the command system he had devised, working himself to death.
Alexander sighed with pity; he said no more, for to a Guilliman immersed in work, not distracting him further was better comfort.
He knew this, and Guilliman knew that he knew this, so Guilliman did not offer any time-wasting formalities to him.
Alexander turned directly and left the command room through his anywhere door, leaving Guilliman to become a humanoid command machine amidst the constantly moving Chapter Serfs.
"Stand still!!!"
As soon as Alexander returned to his quarters in Hera Fortress, he heard Reyna's thunderous voice.
He had seen Reyna use this move before; it was Seducer's Whisper, using Psyker power to wrap her will and invade others' brains, achieving the effect of controlling their actions.
Reyna often used it in hive city before.
Reyna's voice was mixed with powerful Psyker energy, directly sweeping towards a Macragge wild rabbit caught from the mountains—
Bang!!!
The poor rabbit exploded into splattered blood in the training cage in Alexander's quarters.
Clap clap clap!!
Applause sounded from the ceiling; Sylandri Shadowseer, the Harlequin hanging upside down from the ceiling, clapped for it.
"At least it really stood still. Well, it'll never move again," she said with a grin.
"What are you two doing in my house?" Alexander stood by the anywhere door, looking speechlessly at Reyna and Sylandri Shadowseer.
The 184th Regiment was currently recuperating on Macragge, only responsible for guarding several important Macragge cities, so Reyna was temporarily stationed on Macragge.
As for Sylandri Shadowseer... Guilliman had not arranged separate quarters for her, but had directly allocated a separate embassy district for the Eldar.
However, this Harlequin was mistrusted by the Death Guard, and most of the time she secretly snuck into Alexander's quarters to live... After all, Alexander was mostly traveling between different planets, often living in the wallpaper house, and rarely returned here.
Sylandri Shadowseer giggled, leaped down from the ceiling, and did a somersault to land in front of Alexander.
"Big Sister Reyna failed the Inquisition's certified psyker exam. She failed in theory, practical Psyker techniques, military Psyker techniques, and anti-corruption."
"If Inquisitor Greyfax hadn't signed her permit, she would have been shot directly by now."
"She wanted to visit you to ask if you had any tools that could control Psyker power, and I thought, hey, we Eldar are good at Psyker power!"
Listening to Sylandri Shadowseer's words, Alexander looked at Reyna with a slightly strange expression and couldn't help but ask, "You failed anti-corruption? Why?"
"Uh."
Reyna's gaze drifted slightly.
"Tsk, you can't blame Big Sister Reyna for that," Sylandri Shadowseer giggled and explained. "The Macragge Inquisition used a bit of simulation to test Big Sister Reyna, and then Big Sister Reyna had a stress reaction, blasting out an alpharius-level Psyker cannon that nearly blew off half of the Macragge Inquisition."
Reyna awkwardly turned her head away.
"Then how is your training?" Alexander asked, twitching his eye as he looked at the blood and corpse on the floor of the training cage in his home.
"Not so good," Sylandri Shadowseer said with a chuckle, not waiting for Reyna to speak. "Her Psyker power is quite good even among the Eldar, but she's not proficient in various Psyker techniques, and she knows nothing about Psyker theory."
"And due to the increase in her Psyker power, many Psyker spells she used to be able to cast she can no longer, for example, Seducer's Whisper. Her Psyker power to wrap her will is too strong; it directly shatters people before she can control them."
"..Actually, this Inquisition certification doesn't matter. To put it broadly, the Emperor was also an uncertified illegal psyker. If Guilliman or Sanguinius has time in a couple of days, I'll have those two Primarchs sign you a special permit."
Alexander looked at Reyna with a bit of pity.
Previously, Sanguinius, to prevent Reyna from being corrupted by Fulgrim or Slaanesh, meticulously checked her Psyker potential and finally determined that Reyna's learning ability was indeed affected by her Psyker potential.
Most psyker, especially those who reach alpharius level, will experience some mental distortion.
Reyna appeared normal on the surface, but she was actually twisted by her own Psyker power in her ability to acquire new knowledge, especially those requiring logical reasoning and calculation. Most of the time her intelligence was normal, but when encountering the need to acquire new knowledge, her mind, twisted by Psyker potential, would interfere with her.
This was not necessarily a bad thing, because it was precisely for this reason that Reyna was almost immune to the whispers in the Warp, having strong resistance to the corruption of the Four Gods, with the strongest resistance to Tzeentch's corruption, followed by Slaanesh and Khorne, and her resistance to Nurgle's corruption was also significantly stronger than ordinary people.
In other words, she would have extreme difficulty learning new knowledge throughout her life, especially in areas like mathematics, mechanics, and Psyker theory.
"Mainly, I want to learn some more practical Psyker techniques, such as Psyker wound healing, mind control, eliminating physical fatigue, clearing toxins, and so on..."
Reyna said with a slightly embarrassed expression:
"So I wanted to ask... do you have any tools? The kind that can directly impart knowledge?"
Alexander's mouth twitched.
This was testing Doraemon's core job.
"Big G, oh no, Reyna, secret tools are not omnipotent. If you always rely solely on tools, you won't grow."
Alexander said to Reyna with a serious expression.
Reyna let out a soft "ah," seemingly awed by Alexander's serious tone.
Alexander looked at Reyna's expression and chuckled softly.
He was just kidding, of course.
Alexander's approach to cheats was always, "four-dimensional pocket! Add points!" "four-dimensional pocket! Let me see your potential!"
He rummaged through his four-dimensional pocket and directly pulled out a bag of bread, stuffing it into Reyna's hand:
"Ta-da! Memory Bread!"
"Press this bread onto the knowledge you want to remember, then eat it, and you'll remember it."
"By the way, if you have indigestion, you'll forget it."
Reyna thanked Alexander repeatedly upon hearing this, then left Alexander's quarters under the curious gaze of Sylandri Shadowseer.
After Reyna left, Sylandri Shadowseer couldn't help but ask curiously, "Boss, can this bread really cure Big Sister Reyna's brain?"
"I think her brain is so far gone that even if our life goddess Isha escaped from Nurgle's Garden, she couldn't cure it... I even suspect her brain structure is the Emperor's latest scientific achievement."
"..No," Alexander shook his head. "It just makes her remember the knowledge; understanding is another matter. Reyna's memory is fine; her main defect is in her comprehension ability."
"Besides, if Reyna's brain were truly cured, an untrained alpha-level psyker like her would probably be corrupted on the spot. She's perfectly fine as she is now."
Sylandri Shadowseer couldn't help but nod in agreement.
Alexander glanced at her: "Speaking of which, why hasn't Cegorach come to rescue you yet?"
"My four-dimensional pocket has been a bit short on people to enter and gain enlightenment recently. If he really doesn't save you, perhaps he'd like to come in and gain some enlightenment?"
Sylandri Shadowseer's smile froze.
Outside Alexander's quarters, Reyna, who had just left, couldn't help but look up at the scorching sun in the vast sky.
She was still somewhat unaccustomed to Macragge's climate, its wide sky, and its bright sun; all of this often filled her with a sense of dread.
Suddenly, Reyna felt her vision blur slightly.
She couldn't help but lower her head, feeling a faint ache in her tear ducts, and a few sticky tears trickled down her cheeks.