"Lucius, that damned good-for-nothing, what is he doing!?"
Erebus, on the bridge of the Conqueror, asked the void with a ferocious expression.
Before him, a star chart lay open. According to messages from the small ships that once belonged to Kossolax's "Oathbreakers" warband, the Blood Angels' forces in the Imperium's dark side had begun to gather and were encircling the star system where the Conqueror was located.
He had anticipated an attack, or rather, he had been waiting for Alexander to launch an attack.
But this was not the way he had envisioned it, and it came too quickly.
According to Erebus' prediction, Saint Doraemon's attack should have been swift, sudden, and immediate, arriving around the Conqueror as quickly as possible, leaving Erebus no time.
But now, they chose to relatively slowly let the Blood Angels' ships form an encirclement, as if deliberately leaving a time window, urging Erebus to abandon the Conqueror and flee.
Erebus' expression was a little grim.
If he abandoned the Conqueror, he would only have his Abyss-class Battleship, the Blessed Lady, left. This would not buy enough time for Luther.
This clearly gave Erebus two options:
Either hold on with the Conqueror, which he had not yet fully tamed, or hand over the Conqueror for nothing.
Erebus stared at the movements of the Blood Angels fleet on the star chart, clearly seeing three words: Guilliman.
He felt as if he could see Guilliman's cunning, treacherous, and ambitious face beneath his golden hair, mocking Erebus.
Erebus immediately felt a surge of anger.
It was all Lucius' fault. He had hoped Lucius could delay for a while, but Lucius had clearly achieved nothing.
"Useless, now I don't even know what he's doing!" Erebus spat out.
"Perhaps, maybe, Lucius is already dead?" Kossolax, standing beside Erebus, hesitated before speaking.
"Nonsense, of course he's dead. Why else would I send him if not to die?" Erebus glanced at Kossolax with anger in his eyes.
A cold, dark feeling immediately rose in Kossolax's heart, filling him with fear and making him tremble.
"Go mobilize your warband, prepare for battle." Erebus' tone was soft and calm, yet carried an undeniable authority.
Kossolax nodded stiffly, the Butcher's Nails on his head buzzing, but he struggled to suppress it, not allowing himself to be controlled by anger and make a suicidal move.
He hurried to the command console, but seeing the console covered in flesh and twisted chunks of meat, he fell into hesitation.
How was he supposed to use this thing? No one had ever taught him!
Erebus clearly noticed this and let out a grunt.
Then, the Mistress on the command throne let out a low wail, and a translucent ghost separated from her body, floating to Kossolax's side.
"Deputy Officer Kossolax." The Mistress weakly nodded at Kossolax. Kossolax noticed a blood-red chain wrapped around her body, making her look like a slave.
She was enslaved by Erebus' dark arts, but this enslavement was not complete. Although the Mistress had no choice but to obey Erebus' commands, she still tenaciously retained her own will.
Kossolax made way for her, watching this lady skillfully operate the Conqueror's command console.
He began to observe this strange ghost. She had a ponytail, with a few strands of gray-white hair mixed in, her face was gaunt, her cheeks sunken, and her dim uniform was stained with traces of blood, looking very tired.
"Who exactly are you?"
Facing Kossolax's question, the Mistress' movements paused.
"I am... I am the Conqueror. I am the collective consciousness of the mortal crew and the ship's many machines, perhaps a machine spirit," she said softly.
"No, I mean—" Kossolax observed the Mistress' petite figure: "This is a human form. You are, or at least once were, a human, right?"
This question made the Mistress stiffen, looking at Kossolax with a confused and bewildered expression, as if it were strange that Kossolax didn't recognize her.
"I am a pathetic slave, who once served two other slaves and a group of slaves," she said, seemingly a little displeased.
Kossolax opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But just then, the Mistress finished adjusting the console, connecting communications to the entire ship and other vessels.
The Mistress gestured for Kossolax to begin the mobilization.
Kossolax pondered for half a second, leaned closer to the console, nodded at the Mistress, and then spoke into the microphone on the console:
"Slaves, butchers, World Eaters, are you angry today? Do you want to kill? Do you want to cut off skulls to offer to the Blood God?"
"Today, I ask you this from the throne built by the World Eaters with blood, skulls, and fury, which is our mothership, the Conqueror."
"Angry? That's good, I need your anger, I need your chainaxes to roar, your hearts filled with rage against the False Emperor and his dogs."
"Because the Blood Angels—I spit on that name eight times—those pretentious dogs of the False Emperor, those idiots who whitewash slaughter as art, those outsiders who don't understand the way of blood, are trying to surround us."
"They are trying to force us to flee, but what is the World Eaters' response? Anger! Anger! Anger!"
"Listen up, World Eaters, I am Kossolax the Oathbreaker, and I swear to you, to the Blood God, that I will forever renounce my past oath of loyalty to the False Emperor, and I swear to cut off eighty-eight skulls of the False Emperor's dogs."
"What about you? Do you crave vengeance against the False Emperor? Do you hate the False Emperor? Do you remember how the False Emperor enslaved us? Do your anger and hatred still burn in your chests?"
"I hear it, I hear the answer in your souls: You and I, in the name of the Conqueror and Angron, will cut off the skulls of the False Emperor's dogs."
"Be angry! World Eaters! Hail the Blood God! Hail Anger! Death to the False Emperor!"
Inside the Conqueror and through the communication channels, fervent, angry war cries erupted. Many World Eaters swore to Kossolax, to the Conqueror, to Angron, that they would cut off eighty-eight heads of the False Emperor's dogs, just like Kossolax.
"..Impressive. That ranks among the best World Eaters speeches." The Mistress praised him without reservation.
Kossolax stared blankly at the Mistress. He hadn't expected the Mistress to praise him or show him kindness.
"Lady, I thought you loathed and hated me," Kossolax said, bowing slightly.
The Mistress showed confusion, seemingly not understanding what Kossolax was saying.
"You didn't allow me on the bridge, and you summoned Angron, almost killing me," Kossolax said.
"When did a World Eater allow a Deputy Officer on the bridge? That's a rule and an order!"
"I also told you, if you have an objection to an order, you can report it to Khârn!"
"If you weren't willing to report to Khârn, I warned you that if you persisted, I would summon Angron to arbitrate."
"Isn't that the normal procedure? If you're unwilling to obey my orders, you naturally report to the higher-ranking Khârn. If you're unwilling to report to Khârn, then you can only go to the Legion Master."
Kossolax's mouth hung open, speechless for a moment.
"Did I ever express my dislike for you?" The Mistress looked at Kossolax in confusion: "I even approved of you commanding the Conqueror as Deputy Officer, after all, according to the Legion's rules, you are indeed the highest-ranking officer among the World Eaters you gathered who remained clear-headed and rational."
"But you disobeyed my orders several times!" Kossolax retorted: "After the battle of Shania, why didn't you Warp to the Sugalo system as I instructed?"
"Because our Geller Field generator was damaged! Did you want to get the Conqueror lost in the Warp with that kind of Warp travel distance?"
"Then, then why did you stop bombing halfway when we were engaging the Iron Warriors warband?"
"Because we ran out of ammunition! Before that, we had just engaged a group of Deathwatch, and our ammunition hadn't been replenished in time!"
"Before that, I wanted to raid a hive city world, why did you take me to an agricultural world?"
"Because you, your warriors, and the crew all need to eat. Our food reserves were running low at the time."
The Mistress looked at Kossolax with surprise:
"I wrote all these things into reports and sent them to your room's terminal. You mean you never read them?"
"Didn't I appear in your room and remind you several times?"
Kossolax had simply taken that as a haunting.
"Before you tried to break into the bridge, I had always allowed you to manage the Conqueror, after all, there are too few Legion-era World Eaters who can remain clear-headed after ten thousand years." The Mistress shook her head slightly.
"..I'm sorry." Kossolax had a lot he wanted to say, but the atmosphere was too awkward. It was a long time before he finally managed to squeeze out that one sentence.
"To hear 'I'm sorry' from a World Eater is truly rare," the Mistress said with a hint of emotion, then asked: "Now, tell me, why did you insist on entering the bridge and coveting the command throne?"
"Do you think I can stand up and give you my seat?" The Mistress asked, pointing to her physical body, which was completely integrated with the command throne.
Kossolax was at a loss for how to defend himself for a moment and could only tell the truth: "I want to become the true master of the Conqueror, the master of the World Eaters Legion, and gain the honor I've never had."
"..You, do you know what you're saying?"
The Mistress laughed wryly:
"Kossolax, becoming the master of the Conqueror and the World Eaters cannot bring you any honor."
"Do you think Angron has honor? As the Lord of the World Eaters, has he ever enjoyed an ounce of honor? His only honor was won as a gladiator and rebel on Nuceria, but that honor was long ago destroyed by the False Emperor."
"If you want honor, Kossolax, you should have stood with Ehrlen, Kolarng, and the others back then, and swung your axe at Angron."
"The honor of the World Eaters only exists when rebelling against slave masters. Other than that, our anger can only bring us degradation."
Kossolax was speechless, not knowing how to respond.
"Also." The Mistress' tone shifted: "During the Great Crusade and the Great Heresy, if you truly yearned for promotion, I ask you to at least remember what your superiors looked like. You truly deserve to be just a Deputy Officer!"
"Now, Deputy Officer, open your eyes and see who I am. I am your, your Captain."
Captain? The Captain of the World Eaters... that would only be...
Kossolax's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly realized who the Mistress before him was.
He took a sharp breath, realizing what a mistake he had made.
"Lady, I truly am—" Kossolax's voice became respectful—
"Sir! Regent! Attack! We are under attack!!!" Kossolax's words were cut off by noisy communications.
"Is it the Blood Angels? Have they launched an attack? So soon?" Kossolax asked urgently.
"No—the forest—"
"Beasts—mist—no—"
"Lion—Lion—Sleeping Lion—"