Entering battle in the Emperor's form was Bruce's greatest trump card.
At the same time, it was also his greatest weakness.
Transforming into the Emperor made him extremely powerful, yes, but the duration was painfully worrying. And battles against Primarchs were always decided in split seconds.
Perhaps at first, he could suppress a Primarch. But once enough time passed, and the Primarch figured out his time limit, he would absolutely die.
Because of that, most of the time, Bruce preferred transforming into Curze—a form that possessed both endurance and combat strength.
But those problems were already a thing of the past.
After Bruce took a trip through Khorne's divine realm, he discovered that the duration of his Emperor transformation had somehow been strengthened.
Not only that, as he developed his psychic talent and learned how to draw energy from the Warp, Bruce discovered that in his current Emperor form, he could not only extend the transformation's duration, but also bring out more of the Emperor's authority.
And that was why Bruce dared to go all-out against Fulgrim directly!
Because he could now fight longer in the Emperor's form, and his improved power armor could hold at least forty bottles of transformation drink at once.
Even if one bottle lasted only three to five minutes, that was still enough for Bruce to hold out for half an hour.
If Ferrus still failed to arrive after half an hour, then Bruce really would have to angrily roast that common Primarch flaw of always arriving at the very last moment.
"No... impossible! This is impossible!"
Fulgrim looked at Bruce after he transformed into the Emperor, clutched his head, and let out a collapsing scream.
Even though he knew how ugly his current state was—
Being looked at by Father with eyes that regarded him as "trash" was something Fulgrim, who had always been so proud, simply could not accept.
Compared to being misunderstood or even cursed by Ferrus, the Emperor's contempt was a critical hit.
It did not merely destroy Fulgrim's dignity.
It struck his soul.
"Now... it's your turn to find a way to stall for time, Fulgrim."
Bruce swung the Emperor's Sword in his hand and pointed it at Fulgrim.
You were the one who said just now that you were going to kill me, right?
Then let's see which happens first: Ferrus arrives, or I cut you down!
"Why would you profane my father like this?!"
Fulgrim denied Bruce's current form and questioned him loudly.
"Profane?"
Bruce gave a cold laugh.
"This is called righteous punishment, Fulgrim."
As he spoke, Bruce mobilized the psychic energy circling around him, compressed it into his body, then released it outward together with his voice.
"My Emperor's Children! My proud warriors!"
"Now! In the Emperor's name, I command you: cease this meaningless battle at once. You need not continue fighting for your Primarch Fulgrim."
"He has been bewitched by a xenos artifact!"
"Every order you execute now tramples upon his own will! At the same time, it is defiance against me!"
"Lay down your weapons! Surrender to the nearest allied Legion!"
"The war will soon be over."
"Whether you or Fulgrim, all of you will receive the fairest judgment..."
Before Bruce could finish his declaration, Fulgrim, completely panicked, had already charged at him with the Laer Silver Blade in hand.
But this time, Bruce would not be so passive.
Whether through reaction or advance prediction, he had more than enough time to swing his sword and block, then knock Fulgrim far away as though swatting a flying baseball.
"Cease fighting!!!!"
Bruce released all of his psychic energy in one burst.
At this moment, the entire planet fell silent.
Whether rebels or loyalists, all of them briefly stopped fighting under Bruce's roar and entered a tense standoff.
The Emperor's arrival was the final straw for the rebel forces, whose morale had already collapsed.
Even the Emperor had personally come.
Then what were they still fighting for?
The two people with the greatest prestige and strength in the entire Imperium, the Emperor and the Warmaster, had joined hands to purge the rebels. Did the outcome still need to be explained?
Very soon, nearly ninety percent of the Emperor's Children voluntarily let their weapons fall from their hands, then knelt on one knee in Bruce's direction.
No matter what treatment awaited them next, they would accept it calmly.
"What have you done?! What have you done!!!!"
Fulgrim, utterly broken, charged at Bruce again.
Having settled everything, Bruce finally had the opportunity to grip the sword in his hand and trade blows with Fulgrim.
Both of them were fast.
But clearly, Bruce had the upper hand. And each time the Emperor's Sword collided with the Laer Silver Blade, Fulgrim's expression became a little more pained.
The Emperor's sword could erase daemons.
Naturally, the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon dwelling inside that blade could not avoid its effect.
After all, it had only temporarily occupied Fulgrim's body. It was still far from completely replacing him. A Primarch's Warp essence was not something a mere Greater Daemon could casually compare itself to.
One had to remember that, in the original history, after Fulgrim ascended to daemonhood, he instead devoured this Slaaneshi Greater Daemon and turned it into part of his body and combat power.
"Getting desperate?"
Bruce cheerfully pressed Fulgrim down and beat him like a grandson.
For one moment, he even suspected that Ferrus might not need to come over at all. Bruce alone might be able to deal with this guy.
But reason told Bruce never to think things were that simple.
"You damned impostor! How dare you imitate my father! I'll kill you! Kill you!!!"
It was unclear whether this was Fulgrim's true feeling, the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon panicking, or both.
In any case, Bruce could clearly sense that the fellow in front of him had truly gone mad. Whether in his attacks or his manner of speaking, every part of him carried a deranged flavor.
Gradually, as the surrounding sounds of battle ceased, the Astartes of the Emperor's Children and the Iron Hands all focused their attention on Bruce and Fulgrim.
First, they marveled that the great Master of Mankind had truly descended here.
Then they quietly watched the battle between Emperor and Primarch.
At this moment, they neither wanted to think nor knew what to do.
They only wanted to watch, then wait for the Emperor to speak again.
"I noticed..."
Fulgrim realized that Bruce's offense and aura weakened in stages, especially when he heard the sound of liquid flowing. He suddenly understood that this strange state was connected to that sound.
He could confirm it.
This fellow really was a fake!
And his ability to transform into the Emperor was definitely linked to that sound of flowing liquid.
"You cannot keep imitating my father forever, can you?"
Fulgrim began slowing his attacks, shifting from risking everything in direct assault to a war of attrition.
He was betting.
Betting that Bruce's state would soon end.
Then he would seize the chance to take him down in one stroke!
"You guessed right. Unfortunately, there is no reward."
Bruce released a psychic shockwave and blasted Fulgrim away while he was unguarded.
Immediately afterward, he stepped forward and charged, slashing sideways at Fulgrim before his posture could stabilize.
The blade of the Laer Silver Blade chipped from the force of the block. Fulgrim, bearing the tremendous impact, flew several meters away, fell to the ground, and rolled several times.
"..."
Lying on the ground, Fulgrim widened his eyes. He looked at the sky, now entirely a sea of fire, and for a brief moment did not know what to do.
The consciousness and soul belonging to Fulgrim briefly seized back control of the body.
Before he could recover, a killing chill swept over him. He instinctively rolled several more times. Bruce's Emperor's claw struck down and left a crater five or six meters wide.
"You can beg for mercy now, Fulgrim."
Bruce slowly rose and stopped feeding transformation drink into his body.
This sudden halt in supplying the transformation drink was not Bruce celebrating victory early.
It was because the strongest reinforcement he had been waiting for had arrived.
Ferrus!
Almost like a relay handoff, Ferrus, transformed into a silver blur, swept past Bruce. Holding his massive hammer, he raised it high and smashed it down at Fulgrim, who had just gotten back up.
Poor Fulgrim once again experienced the feeling of being hit out of the park.
And Ferrus struck even harder, with even less martial courtesy. The instant he sent Fulgrim flying, he chased after him, planted one foot on his chest, raised a silver fist, and began hammering the fallen Fulgrim wildly.
"You betrayed Father!"
"I am disappointed in you!"
"Our friendship is over!"
"Fulgrim, accept judgment!!!"
"You are the greatest shame of my life!"
Fists and words struck together, forcibly pounding the beautiful Fulgrim into a bruised and swollen ugly man.
Even so, Ferrus's fury and fists showed no sign of stopping.
Because he had yet to hear Fulgrim beg for mercy.
Besides, a Primarch would not be beaten to death by a combo like this.
"That's about enough. If you really want to kill him, you might as well return that hammer of yours to its original owner."
After watching Fulgrim faint, get beaten awake, and repeat this cycle several times, Bruce finally could not help speaking.
Because he was certain that the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon had already been driven back into the Laer Silver Blade.
The one Ferrus was now beating savagely was Fulgrim himself.
Sigh.
That Slaaneshi Greater Daemon really was clever enough. It came out personally for the most enjoyable plot, but once the defeat scene arrived, it immediately switched people.
Utter scum.
"What are you, then?"
Ferrus grabbed the half-dead Fulgrim, turned toward Bruce, and asked:
"Father never told me about your existence."
"Why can you turn into our father?"
"Answer me, Bruce Wayne."
Faced with Ferrus's questioning, Bruce did not say much. He merely thought silently for a moment, then smiled and activated the device again.
Immediately afterward, a powerful psychic suppression force instantly restrained the emotionally unstable Ferrus.
"Is that the tone you usually use when speaking to your father, Ferrus?"
"You..."
"I do not wish to argue with you. What needs explaining will be explained later, when I find the time. Right now, you only need to understand one thing: it is precisely because I became your father that things went this smoothly."
Bruce stated the facts.
"If I had not come to help in time, the battle between you and Fulgrim would have evolved into a hot war with no end in sight."
"Perhaps the entire Emperor's Children Legion would have been annihilated, but your Iron Hands would certainly not have ended well either."
"And then there is the duel between you and Fulgrim. One of you would inevitably have died. Whether it was you or him, that is not the result I or Warmaster Horus wanted."
"So do you understand why I did this?"
Bruce finally asked.
In the original history, Ferrus had nearly killed his way through the entire rebel line, yet still had that intimate exchange with Fulgrim. In the end, he was caught in an opening and beheaded with one sword strike.
That battle not only pushed Fulgrim into complete corruption and daemonhood, but also cost the loyalist faction a powerful Primarch.
One could say that Ferrus's momentary carelessness triggered a series of chain reactions.
Bruce had personally come down and used the Emperor's image to end this battle precisely because of that consideration.
One had to treat the illness with the proper medicine.
For example, when subduing Angron last time, Bruce definitely could not use the Emperor's power. Doing so would only have made things worse.
But this time, the matter could only be solved by the Emperor!
"Then how do you plan to deal with this fellow? Execute him directly?"
Ferrus threw the half-dead Fulgrim at Bruce's feet like a stray dog.
"I cannot decide whether he lives or dies."
Bruce ignored Fulgrim, who was already lying there like a dead dog. Instead, he picked up the Laer Silver Blade from the ground.
Looking at the Emperor reflected in the silver mirror-like blade, he said:
"But I can make this thing die."
Clang.
After saying that, Bruce gripped the Laer Silver Blade, then used all his strength to bring the Emperor's Sword down onto the damaged gap.
A clear impact rang out across the entire battlefield.
This xenos creation, which had turned Fulgrim into an arrogant devil, was completely destroyed—along with the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon dwelling inside the blade.
This was the Emperor's authority.
So long as you were a daemon and were killed by the Emperor's flame, then you were truly dead.
"Can he still come back?"
Ferrus personally saw the image of a twisted evil soul being burned by fire.
"Who knows? Only the Emperor can answer that question for you."
As Bruce spoke, he turned to face the Astartes behind him. Then he spread his arms and raised the Emperor's Sword high.
The next moment, the Astartes let out battle cries and cheers that shook the stars.
With that, the Emperor's Children Legion had been dealt with.
Now, on Isstvan V, only the Word Bearers and the Alpha Legion remained.
Regarding this, Bruce had only one thought.
Why not just drop Exterminatus?
It would be more efficient and straightforward that way.
One side's Primarch was not here. If they all died, nothing much would happen.
The other side did have a Primarch, but Bruce hated dealing with riddle-men.
So they might as well use the simplest method.
"Warmaster Command, this is Bruce. I have a proposal. Please relay..."
Bzzzt—
Before Bruce could report the situation, his communicator suddenly emitted an ear-piercing shriek.
Not only that, a powerful psychic storm was sweeping across the entire surface of Isstvan V.
"AAAAAAAAAAH—!"
On the planet's surface, Astartes with even a slight psychic talent suddenly let out agonized screams after being affected by the storm. Immediately afterward, blood flowed from their entire bodies, and they dropped to their knees, dead.
The Thousand Sons, who possessed powerful psychic talent, were also affected. Their pupils instantly constricted, and then, as if their strings had been cut, they no longer moved.
Faced with this abnormal phenomenon, Bruce anxiously switched to the emergency communication network—
In other words, the paper-cup communicator.
This thing would not be interfered with no matter how great the distance.
"Bruce!"
Horus's anxious shout came from the other side of the paper cup.
"Evacuate Isstvan V immediately!"
"Our fleet's flank has been attacked!"
"?!"
Bruce raised his head and looked toward the sky.
He saw several warships burning with raging flames as they crashed toward the surface.
Immediately afterward, hundreds of drop pods streaked down like meteors. Along with them came dense macro-cannon and lance strikes.
Their target was the loyalist landing zone.
Join here to read ahead.
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 180)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl 285
"Is this chat group even serious?" 150
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (This matter is completely finished.)
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 255
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 210
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 305
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer (This matter is completely finished.)
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 130
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 155
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 120
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 155
My Harem Is Indescribable 105
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 110
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 110
Still playing traditional Honk 96
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 95
What Should I Do After Switchi 51
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 80
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 105
Checking In in Demon Slayer 95
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 105
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 95
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel (This matter is completely finished.)
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 95
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 90
Why did they assign me to Uma 80
MYGO Beauties 75
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 80
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 100
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 120
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 65
The Uma Musume Who Became 70
I'm Definitely Not the King of 105
After Maxing Out Every Class 110
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 95
I, the Elden Sword Saint 60
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 60
No One Knows Pokémon Better 60
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 69
From Trilobites to Titans 57
Chainsaw Man: Contracted with 75
DanMachi: My Party Members Are 86
An Anime Heroine Darkened 60
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Links 70
Honkai: The Fire Devil 70
Honkai Transformation Cards Volume2/30
Age of Heroes, I'm Just a Back 60
Uma Musume Has No Weird Fan Le 74
At age 8, she co-starred with 45
Honkai: Schicksal Media 53
An Extremist in a Slice-of-Lif 30
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