"You're telling me you genuinely can't take back this forest, and these damned Chaos heretics have been planting trees here — is that right?"
Sanguinius studied the situation report Dante had brought him, his mature and gentle face filled with disbelief.
Every place previously invaded by Chaos had been reduced to scorched earth and devastation for miles around, hadn't it?
So why was this Chaos invasion site lush and green, with vegetation flourishing everywhere?
Was Chaos here to invade, or to build itself a scenic nature reserve?
It was worth noting that on Baal today, any greenery could only be found inside the ecology gardens within noble hive cities.
"Primarch — every word is true!"
"Our scout team even ventured inside!"
"An entire mobile motorcycle squad rode in, and only one man crawled back out!"
"That survivor has since been interred in a Dreadnought — he brought us invaluable intelligence!"
"Apparently there's a blue creature in the forest claiming to be on a training exchange from Macragge!"
"By all appearances he's a Great Unclean One, but the moment our brothers call him a daemon, he flies into a rage and tries to beat them to death!"
"...What???"
Without the steadying power of faith, Sanguinius might genuinely have suspected that Dante had been corrupted by Chaos.
A Chaos daemon claiming to be an Ultramarines Space Marine on exchange from Ultramar — who on Terra would believe that?
"You're saying that the moment you call him a daemon, he immediately tries to beat you to death — correct?"
"Then let me ask you something. If we sent another squad in, one that acknowledged him as a Space Marine — could they get him out?"
"...Uh..." Dante had come to consult Mother Sanguinius precisely because the situation was so bizarre.
After all, Mother Sanguinius these days seemed to know a great deal, and the sons often found it wise to ask first before acting.
[Caleb: Oh, it's Kurveth!]
[I'd almost forgotten about that guy!]
[If there's a chance, I really should get Guilliman to acknowledge him as a Space Marine!]
[Though Lionel has already reluctantly done so — you can relax.]
"...WHAT???"
Sanguinius felt as though he were hearing a bedtime story — and hadn't quite woken up.
Had he really just heard that? Was he still adrift in the Warp, lost in some hallucination?
Seeing the Primarch's bewildered expression, Dante inwardly understood completely.
Yes — it was far too absurd. A Great Unclean One insisting he was a Space Marine. Who would ever believe such a thing?
"Primarch, shall we simply send more forces?"
"The Tyranid hive fleet is almost upon us. If we don't deal with these Chaos traitors quickly, we could be in serious trouble!"
"Haah." Sanguinius sighed. "You've all worked so hard, my children. Fighting under two negative debuffs and holding on this long is already remarkable."
I truly never imagined you'd still have over 40,000 men. It seems this matter is beyond what the Blood Angels alone can handle.
Sanguinius wondered — should he reach out to those two for a little assistance?
If both sisters came in person, things would certainly improve. Though if both of them showed up here, the atmosphere would get a bit... strange. Could he just go ahead and announce the Second Imperium right then and there?
No, no — more accurately, he'd be hoisted onto the throne by his two sisters whether he liked it or not.
His father wasn't entirely dead yet. How could he go around founding a Second Imperium?
[The Emperor: Long live the Second Imperium!]
When those words came reverberating out of the Warp, Sanguinius's expression turned absolutely sour.
This father of his really had a talent for poking at exactly the wrong thing. The passive-aggression was truly unbearable.
"Alright, if we genuinely can't take the forest, we'll deal with it then!"
"I'll ask Guilliman what's going on when I get the chance!"
"It'll probably let Malcador know, but that should be fine... probably."
"Haah."
Dante also sighed. Not being able to fully reclaim his own homeworld was honestly a little disheartening.
Though apparently, once the power of the Great Devourer arrived, the Warp's influence would weaken considerably — and dealing with the forest at that point was probably the smart play.
He could only hope there'd be troops to spare by then.
"Dante, I know — our manpower is stretched thin."
"And the detached companies outside are working hard too, still carrying out their own missions."
"Never mind. I'll go borrow some troops from my father."
"Once that's sorted, our crisis will resolve itself."
Both Caleb and Dante stared in stunned silence. My god — how does Sanguinius say something so shameless with a straight face?
What did he mean, go borrow troops from his father and the crisis would resolve itself — what kind of father is this man's father?
[Caleb: Sanguinius, where is your shame?]
Sanguinius pinched his own cheek.
[Right here!]
Caleb couldn't be bothered to argue. The situation genuinely did call for more troops.
He had originally planned to wait for the Tyranids to arrive and then strike decisively in one blow.
But given the current state of things, reinforcements were clearly needed.
Caleb looked over and noticed there were still some of his blue figurines on the table.
Come to think of it, why not throw in the Game Division pieces? They'd make a complete set — and after the battle, he could still play games with Alice!
Truly killing two birds with one stone. It would also help fill out the number of lesser daemons in the Warp.
But just then, Caleb's eye caught something — Horus.
Now that he thought about it, he'd just tossed that one aside when he unpacked it last time.
He'd nearly forgotten he'd bought a Horus figurine at all.
"Hmm... if I deployed Horus as Sanguinius's reinforcement, would Sanguinius completely lose it?"
Caleb smiled to himself. It felt like a rather large prank.
He imagined that gentle, amiable Sanguinius, upon seeing Horus, would immediately have some kind of trauma response.
And then he'd probably slap another negative debuff on his own little brat in the chaos of it all.
Just as Caleb was contemplating this grand jest —
Our dear high-IQ-low-EQ Emperor finally dispatched his own reinforcements!
A great host of warriors appeared, their bodies wrapped in dark runes, burning at every moment, shrouded in the flames of undying vengeance.
The Hexed Legion had arrived.
[The Emperor: Here are your reinforcements!]
[Hold the line. Don't embarrass me.]
"Oh for—"
Even Caleb was speechless. He couldn't even be bothered to berate the Emperor's catastrophically low emotional intelligence.
Sanguinius hadn't even reached a critical moment yet and the man was already sending reinforcements — meanwhile, the other two daughters never saw him deploy a single soldier during their crises. What was that supposed to mean?
Caleb smacked his forehead and suddenly remembered — Sanguinius had actually stated his need out loud!
Ah. So that was what the Emperor's "wish granting" actually meant. If you didn't say it, he might just not do it.
"Haha, thank you, Father!" Sanguinius laughed and handed the new forces over to Dante for deployment.
Dante was thoroughly stunned. He had never imagined his Primarch's face could be quite this thick.
"Hey, what's that?"
"A bunch of shadowy black figures are coming!"
"Are they guests? Isha-auntie, should we go and greet them?"
Isha merely glanced over, gnawing on a pristine spirit-fruit, not particularly alarmed.
She had assumed it was just another wave of those unblinking human soldiers charging in.
But looking more carefully from a distance — oh. The Hexed Legion.
The goddess Isha immediately went into full panic mode.
She frantically gathered her things and prepared to run.
"Isha-auntie, there's no need to be so scared — maybe they're guests, maybe they won't do anything!"
Isha shot the big idiot an exasperated look. These are the Undying King's tools!
If they hacked you to death, you'd be actually dead!
"Child, stop making trouble — come with me, quickly!"
"If these bastards cut you down, you'll be really gone!"
"You're the only one who'll talk to me in this garden. Auntie has been so bored."
"I'll find a way to take you home — back to Ultramar, where you belong."
Kurveth scratched his head, a little puzzled. But when he saw the Hexed Legion warriors begin mass-felling his forest, a surge of righteous fury rose within him.
"AAARGH, you bastards — HOW DARE YOU?! You can't just chop down my forest!"
Kurveth's enormous blue belly wobbled as his massive frame lumbered toward the intruders.
Isha saw the big lug making a beeline for them and panicked. If this child died here for no good reason, she'd be going back to her miserable lonely vigil all over again.
No choice — she had to follow the great oaf to the forest's edge.
By now, the Blood Angels and the Hexed Legion had both spotted the enormous Great Unclean One with the U-shaped marking.
"WHO ARE YOU? Why are you trespassing in my garden?!"
"Don't you know that green mountains and clear waters are worth more than mountains of gold? Have you no concept of environmental protection?!"
"...Huh???"
Sanguinius, hovering overhead, was completely baffled. Those words — he could have sworn Guilliman had said something similar once.
During the Great Crusade, Guilliman had made almost the same circular arguments.
He'd suggested that Sanguinius spend a century improving his planet's environment.
Of course, with the Great Crusade about to launch, there simply hadn't been time for any of that.
"Such audacity from a heretic daemon — daring to make demands here!"
"All Blood Angels — honor the blood of Sanguinius!"
"Today we purge this wretched daemon heretic! ADVANCE!"
Dante surged forward at the head of his Angel warriors.
Behind them, the Hexed Legion followed like a tide of iron — unstoppable, overwhelming.
The trees around them began to fall — the ecological garden built to improve the environment was being destroyed.
In truth, this forest no longer required Warp energy to sustain itself. Theoretically, none of this was heretical in nature — it could have simply stayed and improved the local ecosystem.
"You brutes! You absolute brutes!"
"Do you have ANY idea what protecting the ecological environment means?! That's NOT how you kill enemies!"
"It seems I need to teach you all a lesson!"
"For the great Ultramar! For Macragge! Long live the Second Imperium — long live the Regent Guilliman!"
The enormous blue figure began shaking his bell, and terrible Warp energy poured out like a flood, blasting everything around it flat.
The Hexed Legion weathered it reasonably well — but the Angel lads went flying in all directions from the Warp-storm.
[HAHAHAHA!]
Laughter rang out across the Warp.
The other three Chaos Gods were all mocking the scene, while the Grandfather — the only merciful one — had his face buried in his hands, thoroughly done with everything.
[Slaanesh: Wow, your child has caught a case of Ultramarines — and it seems he's also come down with Second Imperium. There's no cure for this.]
[Tzeentch: How delightful. All according to plan!]
[Oh Plague Father, you must be magnanimous — forgive your child!]
Nurgle naturally ignored the other gods' mockery.
But watching his child fight for his enemies — that was genuinely bizarre.
And the most galling part was that this child was actually quite powerful — quite possibly the most combat-capable of all his children now.
As the bell shook, the life around them seemed to transform.
Not into something twisted or grotesque — rather, as though everything had gained its own soul, actively repelling the invaders.
The lush trees suddenly bore fruit — fruit packed with melta bombs — and began hurling them outward.
The blue Nurglings frolicking in the territory began calling themselves Space Marines and charged in with chainswords.
And then — buried Predator tanks, Rhino APCs, even Dreadnoughts began rising inexplicably from the ground, declaring themselves Space Marines as well.
As if they had been given new life, given intelligence, they fought on.
"The flame of life is not bound by its vessel!"
"I think that's right — even hunks of metal have life!"
The Warp had always been abstract enough. Previously, Chaos daemon engines could only be acquired through Vashtorr's contract brokering.
But now Kurveth needed only to shake his bell, and these terrifying daemon engines responded.
Not even borrowed — these strange daemon engines were growing out of the ground.
"What in the warp IS this?"
"What kind of absurd thing am I fighting?!"
"This won't do — even with Father's borrowed troops, it's not enough!"
"I'll have to take the field myself and finish this quickly!"
"If these bizarre daemon engines break out of this perimeter, Baal is finished!"
Sanguinius had seen enough. He shot forward like a streak of golden light.
His sons behind him ignited their jump packs to follow.
But they quickly discovered — their Primarch's speed left them utterly in the dust.
"Hold this line — wait for the Primarch's return!"
"Do NOT let those strange things break through — if they do, we're done!"
Calmly and steadily, Dante ordered his warriors into a defensive formation.
He didn't panic at his Primarch charging out alone — he trusted the Primarch would be victorious.
And yet even so, a memory surfaced unbidden — the image of Sanguinius being slain by Horus.
Truthfully, he was a little worried. His Primarch charging out alone like that... he wouldn't just throw his life away, would he?
But thinking it through — the fated moment hadn't come yet. It should be fine.
"Hmm?" Kurveth sensed something approaching, and spotted the golden figure streaking toward him.
He suddenly bellowed at the sky:
"GREAT-AUNT?!"
[Sanguinius: ???]
Even mid-charge, Sanguinius's expression finally cracked.
What kind of deranged daemon was this — randomly claiming family relations with strangers?