"The power of the Master of Mankind is growing rapidly."
The Overlord's helpless words fell like a heavy hammer into the meeting room, shaking the very core of the Rangdan Primarchs.
They heard not only helplessness, but absolute impotence.
Once upon a time, the Rangdan species believed the Overlord possessed infinite might, and that no enemy was a match for it.
During their rise across the sea of stars, it had descended upon every battlefield, using supreme power to defeat countless formidable foes.
As the Rangdan Empire's power grew, the Overlord rarely intervened personally, but its might and legend were never questioned.
Now, the Overlord's powerless words revealed a grim reality—in its duel against the Human Emperor, it was being suppressed, and its disadvantage was continuously widening.
"How could this be?"
The Silent Warmaster murmured as it stepped back, unable to believe that the revered entity would expose such vulnerability before them.
"As the Master of Mankind grows stronger, I will continue to fall into a disadvantage."
The Overlord's gaze swept across the room, landing on the black silhouette. "I deeply regret it now. I should not have blindly trusted the temptations of the Warp entities to launch this assault on the Imperium of Man."
"But at this moment, the Rangdan Empire cannot retreat, nor does it dare to!"
It firmly told Solas, "If we take this step back, humanity will only grow more powerful once they gain the upper hand."
Solas shook his head silently, not believing a single word from the Overlord.
Temptations of the Warp entities? That might work to deceive the Rangdan fanatics.
The reality was that out of temporary greed, they had handed the destiny of their species over to Chaos Daemons, only to be betrayed. And because the fires of war were now impossible to extinguish, there was simply no opportunity to back out.
"The most critical point," the Overlord waved its dark green tentacles, pointing at the Rangdan Primarchs in the meeting room, "is that if we sever the limb to save the body now, you will all be picked off one by one."
"The Defiant Primarch has been captured, and the Creator's whereabouts are unknown."
"With such precedents before you, and facing the aggressive onslaught of the human grand army, how will you defeat the Human Legions if you retreat and overextend the front lines?"
Hearing the Overlord's inquiry, the Rangdan Primarchs lowered their heads in shame, unsure of how to respond.
Seeing his subordinate generals remain silent, anger flared within the Overlord's breast—a bunch of useless trash!
Nearly a century ago, it had looked back into the Warp and discovered the secret of the Gods.
A powerful entity had collaborated with the Four Gods, reaching some sort of agreement to steal the essence of demigods from the Warp.
The moment the Overlord first laid eyes on Moribas Solas, it recognized that beneath that human skin lay an unawakened demigod essence.
From that moment on, it knew that the powerful entity originated from humanity. This was later confirmed: the Master of Mankind was the very person who had bartered with the Four Gods.
As for launching the war to attack the Imperium of Man, there was an even deeper secret.
Tzeentch had covertly revealed that beneath the Emperor's dazzling radiance hid an endless darkness—he, too, was siphoning the power of humanity in a bid to ascend to godhood!
Ascend to godhood?
Leaving the Warp to enter the materium, the Overlord had created the Rangdan species with its own hands and gone through meticulous schemes precisely to achieve godhood.
But the souls of the galaxy were finite; there was no room for two candidates to ascend.
Forced by the situation, it could only abandon its original plan and cooperate with the daemons to launch an attack on the Imperium of Man.
Unfortunately, they fell short at the final stretch. The failure of the daemonic legions left the Rangdan Empire in an unprecedentedly passive position.
Furthermore, when facing the demigods known as the "Primarchs," the own Primarchs it had raised at immense cost using Warp energy appeared somewhat weak and inadequate.
Without true Warp essence, even if they stood above many normal biological lifeforms, they always lacked a higher tier of authority, making further achievements difficult.
With all these reasons compounding, the Overlord also wished to withdraw its troops, but the opportunity was gone.
The Emperor was growing stronger by the minute. If they gave up now, there would be no future opportunity to develop; the Imperium of Man had already realized the threat of the Rangdan.
The Overlord said with absolute finality, "We cannot retreat. Unite all our forces and fight the Imperium of Man to the bitter end!
"Fight, and there is still a sliver of a chance for victory; retreat, and behind us lies an endless abyss."
As its voice faded, the Rangdan Primarchs knelt one after another, shouting toward the throne: "Obey the Overlord! Everything for the Rangdan Empire!"
Their obedience was rooted in their genetics; from the day of their birth, the Overlord had inscribed obedience into the Rangdan DNA.
Even if the order was completely irrational, the Rangdan race would accept it entirely.
"Everything shall be led by you!" Solas' silhouette bowed, following the Rangdan Primarchs in accepting the command.
Solas' hollow, dark figure stared at the floor, but inside he shook his head helplessly, leaking an emotion of pity.
Pitiful! Solas cried out internally.
The Rangdan race enslaved other species, and their Primarchs stood high above. But from beginning to end, they too were merely a part of the chain of enslavement.
With one simple command from the Overlord, the entire Rangdan race offered unconditional obedience, yielding to it on a soulful level.
"You may all dismiss." Having received his response, the Overlord waved its tentacles in satisfaction, signaling for everyone to leave. "Solas, go down and assist with the strategy. Once the war of attrition is over, I will consider granting you command authority."
Solas nodded silently, bowed, and exited the council chamber.
One by one, the leaders of the empire beneath the throne departed. The heavy doors of the meeting room slowly closed, plunging the room into darkness.
The Overlord hovered in the dark, its crimson eyes flashing with malice.
In the heart of this would-be god, another terrifying plan was brewing—to expand the scale of the war and take everything from the Rangdan.
It had already foreseen the defeat in this war and was prepared to harvest the Rangdan, taking another step forward on its path to godhood.
When the time came, even if it could not defeat the Emperor, it could retreat safely, slip into the Warp to hibernate, and await its next revenge.
Leaving with the resolve to face death, the Primarchs who were about to fight the humans to the bitter end had absolutely no idea that the Overlord had already betrayed them, planning to harvest the very crops it had planted.
The Rangdan Primarchs could never have dreamed that the Overlord was never their pillar of support.
The demigod hovered in the air, closing its eyes to concentrate, quietly waiting for the next battle.
Sure enough, when it opened its eyes, the Master of Mankind had returned, issuing a challenge within the etheric realm.
Closing its eyes once more, its consciousness transformed into a twisted darkness, crashing into the golden sun within the immaterium, continuing the unfinished battle.
Meanwhile, Solas walked with a light pace, arriving at his chamber under the escort of the Shroud Reaper Deathguards.
He activated his personal command console to review the shifting dynamics of the front line.
From the outbreak of fighting on Planet Five to the recent clashes on Planet Seven, the war they had actively instigated was not progressing toward victory; instead, the situation was deteriorating by the day.
If he still possessed a physical body, his brow would undoubtedly be furrowed tightly.
The war had met with setbacks at every turn right from the beginning.
On the outermost perimeter of the wide front, their probing attacks had been blocked by Dorn. The Imperial Fists' defense was flawless—defensive warfare was the specialty of the Sons of Dorn.
On the innermost flank, a massive fleet's breakthrough attempt into the territory of the Imperium of Man had ultimately ended in failure.
Guilliman, in coordination with Li Tang, had used two massive fleets to destroy a large number of Battle Moons, stalling for enough time to allow the defensive lines in the rear to be established.
To amass forces for another sudden raid now was completely impossible.
Standing behind Guilliman was Ultramar, possessing immense war potential, and Guilliman himself was exceptionally skilled at logistical operations. As time progressed, the defensive line became virtually unbreakable.
Seeing this, Solas sighed helplessly in his heart.
Among his many brothers, the one he feared most was Nowick, and the other was Roboute Guilliman.
The former held a stellar empire with war potential comparable to the Imperium itself, and his personal strength was immense, with an upper limit yet unknown.
The latter possessed astounding internal governance capabilities and an extraordinary talent for management.
Given a certain amount of time, the achievements Ultramar could attain under Guilliman would absolutely strike terror into the hearts of all his brothers.
With Guilliman and Dorn sealing off the flanks of the battlefield, there was no longer any possibility for the Rangdan army to launch a surprise breakthrough into the Imperium's territory.
Sighing and shaking his head while inwardly cursing the stupidity of the Rangdan Primarchs, Solas shifted his gaze to the flank of the Rangdan Empire.
The battlefield between the two sides was located at the border zone between the Eastern Fringe and the Tempest Segmentum. The flank of the Rangdan Empire bordered the Eastern Fringe, situated southeast of Ultramar.
Tapping open the holographic projection, the black silhouette shuddered once more.
He truly had not expected that the stupidity and denseness of the Rangdan Primarchs would exceed his wildest imaginations.
The Rangdan had sent a fleet to probe, intending to execute a flanking maneuver from the side, only to be intercepted by the Fourth Legion.
Relying on the resources provided by Ultramar, they had constructed a vast number of void fortresses, holding the Warp transit routes in a stranglehold.
Behind the Fourth Legion's defensive line, the Luna Wolves Legion was on a crusade not far away. Horus Lupercal was clearly prepared to reinforce the blockade at a moment's notice.
"A bunch of fools!"
Solas growled softly and shut down the holographic projection.
He turned over and leaned half against the bed, his arms spread wide as waves of deathly aura emanated from his body, clearly trapped in a state of profound frustration.
Simulating the scenario millions of times in his mind, Solas could only describe the current situation in four words—a rat in a hole!
Idiots! Incompetents! Trash!
The dark figure on the bed twitched, emitting streams of cold, deathly air as he cursed the Rangdan Primarchs countless times in his heart.
"These arrogant aliens with their heads in the clouds, who have absolutely no concept of what war truly is!"
Even in the opening stages of the conflict, the Rangdan Empire already bore the unmistakable omens of total defeat!