Everyone and everything was putting on a show, while only the Imperium was taking a beating.
Just when Caleb thought the Ork reinforcements he had summoned were formidable enough, the Imperium managed to drop a massive ball on its own end.
The vanguard of the Black Crusade broke through layer upon layer of obstacles, plunging directly into the heart of the Cadian defense line. Meanwhile, the Imperial defense fleet stationed there shattered like fragile glass the very instant the Chaos armada made its appearance.
That's right—the Chaos Gods had flexed their muscles. Their board-game skill set was no joke, capable of obliterating an entire fleet in a split second.
Within the shadowed warp, Nurgle needed only a gentle tap of his finger to activate his ability. An entire defense fleet, struck by mystical warp power, instantly rotted with plague and dissolved into scrap.
Khorne simply drew a circle, selecting a batch of warships. Those vessels mysteriously transformed into gladiator arenas, where oppressed slaves, workers, and clan members suddenly rose up in a frenzy against the Imperial Guard aboard. The endless slaughter handed Khorne his opportunity, and the ships promptly fell to his worship.
Slaanesh and Tzeentch were putting in work as well, though their corruption targeted the towering bastion-fortresses of the Imperial defense line. The opulent nobles surrendered to Slaaneshi cults; overwhelmed by intense sensory stimulation, they forgot to issue combat orders entirely. Meanwhile, Tzeentch's subtle schemes provoked bitter political infighting among the military aristocracy.
In short, the moment the Four Gods of Chaos moved, the Imperium was rotten to the core. The primary reason these ships were so easily corrupted by Chaos was that they simply didn't pray enough—they lacked sufficient faith in the Emperor.
"Sigh!"
Caleb finally understood why Imperial ships were designed as flying cathedrals. When the Chaos Gods played dirty like this, building floating churches was practically a hard requirement. The few vessels that survived were precisely the ones with massive, towering cathedrals built upon their hulls. Angelic statues of Sanguinius were mounted on their prows, radiating a subtle glow that maxed out their warp resistance.
[Nurgle: God of War, I leave those surviving ships to you!]
[My children are only good at proselytizing; they know nothing of actual combat!]
The God of War did not refuse Nurgle's invitation. Khorne, the Lord of Blood, naturally relished warfare. Seeing the Imperial ships locked in heavy, point-blank naval broadsides provided him with endless amusement.
[Khorne: Yes! That's the way! Don't steal my kills!]
[Yeah, get right up in their faces and smash them! Close the distance!]
[I love seeing this! I'm going to heavily bless these ships and have them crash straight into the line to go on a killing spree!]
Previously, Abaddon's Black Crusade had been a proving ground for the Four Gods to compete against one another. This time, however, the Ruinous Powers engaged in a limited pact. Much like when they collectively empowered Horus to march on the Emperor millennia ago, they were now indirectly fueling Abaddon's push. History was repeating itself in a twisted loop.
Poor Abaddon genuinely believed he was a master at playing the Four Gods off one another, completely unaware that their cooperation had nothing to do with his balancing act—they simply chose to collaborate.
"Strange... why haven't any of those three arrived yet?"
"Logically, Sanguinius should have arrived first!"
"And in Sanguinius's current state, joining the battle would definitely swing the tide!"
Caleb shifted his view of the game board, and the figures of his three daughters quickly came into focus. Except... two of them were currently being forced into absurd outfits by Sanguinius.
Sanguinius beamed as she dressed the two, while donning a pristine, angelic white robe herself.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
"It turns out Father was right—you two look so fitting in these outfits!"
"Once my faith energy is fully restored, we can hold a universe-wide Imperium Secundus concert!"
"You two better give it your all when the time comes. Don't slack off, or we'll lose fans!"
"Huh?!" A flustered Guilliman and Lion stared at Sanguinius in sheer shock.
Their beloved, universally adored Great Angel was ruthless! Not only was she exposing their secret history, but she was also planning to make them lose face in front of all humanity! How were they supposed to handle that? If videos of this leaked out, wouldn't Space Marines end up losing their minds over their own Primarchs' promotional footage?
The tsundere Lion hastily rejected the idea, his tone urgent and border-line pleading: "No, no way! Absolutely impossible!"
"Sanguinius, this is going too far! I know I owed you during the Great Heresy, but you can't retaliate against me like this!"
Guilliman nodded in firm agreement: "Exactly—this is way too embarrassing. If videos like that get leaked, we won't be able to command our Legions ever again!"
"Mm-hmm?" Sanguinius covered her lips, letting out a soft, amused chuckle.
Others might not know what the future held, but Sanguinius could glimpse a fragment of that grand spectacle. Once this content was broadcast into the Warp, the Imperium would receive an endless stream of recruits. Who could resist fighting alongside super-ultra-pretty magical warrior sisters? Besides, watching them smash Daemons to pieces with cute little fists was a sight worth dying for!
"Heheh!" Sanguinius crossed her arms playfully over her chest and smiled. "Trust me. Do as I say, and even you, Lion, will have a recruitment pool in the millions!"
"What's more, if you follow my plan, your sons will inherit a portion of your Warp nature."
"While they won't be able to teleport across the universe like you, I guarantee that from then on, your children will never hold you back again!"
"I never claimed they were holding me back in the first place!" Lion retorted, maintaining his proud, tsundere demeanor. Though he did occasionally feel his sons couldn't keep up with his pace, he had never voiced it out loud. Lion even began to suspect that Sanguinius could read minds—how else could she know exactly what he was thinking?
"What about me then?" Although forced into a school swimsuit, Guilliman was pragmatic and skipped the fussing. Instead, he recognized that Sanguinius's proposal was tied to her Warp essence. The Great Angel's gift of prophecy was common knowledge among the Primarchs.
"You?" Sanguinius's eyes darted playfully as she glimpsed Guilliman's future trajectory. "In the future, your sons will be able to handle a lot of work for you—at least you won't have to pull overtime every single day!"
"Among the million worlds, many remain in backward, ignorant states. Your children's future will be deeply connected to that!"
Sanguinius revealed only a small fragment of the future without spilling the rest. Even having seen the grand outcome, she couldn't speak it aloud; revealing too much would cause that future to vanish. Sanguinius had no desire to ruin that bright timeline with a slip of the tongue. It was a reality her mother had fought to create, and she wasn't about to pulls a Magnus and wreck the plan.
[Caleb: Are you three done playing around?]
[The front lines are in critical condition! If you don't move now, I won't be able to hold out!]
Hearing their Father's voice, Sanguinius and Lion experienced a sudden shift in expression—leaving Guilliman utterly bewildered, unsure of why his two elder sisters had suddenly turned serious.
[Caleb: Screw this!]
Caleb reached out and gave Guilliman's cheek a hard, forceful pinch. The texture felt remarkably like a chubby baby's cheek. Outside of combat mode, Caleb was entirely capable of pinching Guilliman's face. Perhaps in the future, he could even use a pen to write messages directly onto him.
In active battle mode, Guilliman would disconnect from these interactions. Fortunately, he was moving alongside his sisters, so it wasn't a major issue.
"Ow, ow, ow! Dad, don't pinch me!" After being pinched so hard, Guilliman realized something major must have happened. He rushed forward to catch up with Sanguinius.
"Wait, Sister Sanguinius! You left half the story unsaid! Wait for me!"
Guilliman tried to catch up, but it was impossible. In the blink of an eye, Sanguinius flew back into her flagship, issuing orders for the Red Tear to proceed at full speed toward Cadia.
"Ah, what a pity!"
"Even though Sanguinius can soothe the surrounding tides of the Warp, we're too close to the Eye of Terror. Even her power can't outright clash with the Eye!"
"It looks like even if Sanguinius charges onto the battlefield, she'll essentially be fighting vanilla without warp buffs."
"Still, a Primarch is a Primarch—a T0-tier powerhouse that would make even Khorne drool with envy."
Caleb knew full well that in terms of raw combat strength, Sanguinius sat comfortably in the top tier. Even Horus without the Four Gods' power boosts couldn't compare to her, let alone the other Primarchs.
Of course, Primarchs couldn't be judged solely on direct combat power. For instance, the immortal Vulkan and the spell-slinging Magnus were wildcards outside standard metrics. Vulkan was inherently undefeated because he simply couldn't die, while Magnus depended on luck—he might summon a cosmic force to vaporize his foes, or cast a spell that backfired into trash and wrecked his own side.
As Sanguinius and Guilliman pressed forward at full speed, Caleb made a bizarre discovery inside a Cadian bastion.
Among the Imperial Guard reinforcements heading to the front, a very strange individual had blended into the ranks.
The plasma weapon in his hands seemed immune to overheating. At the same time, his battle cries consistently inspired nearby soldiers, driving them to charge alongside him. He wasn't a Commissar, just a regular guardsman—or rather, a squad leader among the rank and file.
His war cries stirred genuine grit and courage in his comrades, while somehow drastically boosting the reliability of their weapons, allowing plasma guns to fire in full-auto bursts.
Under the old Inquisition, an anomaly like this would have been dragged off in chains. However, following Guilliman's sweeping purge, the Inquisition was forced to operate under strict new directives, leaving them with no ground to detain an unmutated human.
In some respects, Guilliman's reform was correct; Chaos corruption usually manifested obvious physical mutations. However, that logic failed to account for entities that were Greater Daemons in disguise.
Indeed, this fiercely valiant "human general" was actually a Daemon in disguise. Holding a chainsword in one hand and a boltgun in the other, he strolled casually through hail storms of bullets and artillery fire. Every trigger pull claimed an enemy, and every swing of his chainsword severed a head. He had already earned the title of the "Iron-Blooded General."
Yet politically, he was a traitorous bastard who constantly stabbed his adoptive fathers in the back. His direct superiors notoriously failed to survive past nine years—the unlucky ones died in nine months, while the fortunate ones lasted nine years. The Inquisition had investigated him thoroughly, but found zero flaws; every superior he killed had genuinely betrayed the Imperium to Chaos.
Now a general in the Armageddon Steel Legion, he was just one step away from becoming a Supreme Lord General.
[Kuki: Jarvis, stop whining! Let's wipe out this Chaos warband first so you can have your fun!]
[Later, we'll slip into the bastion and take out the Lord General. Then you can go on a real killing spree!]
[Jarvis: Cut the crap, Kuki, you bastard!]
[We share a mind—don't try to fool me!]
[You're clearly gathering sacrifices for the Lord of Change! If your plan succeeds, what enemies will be left for me to kill?!]
[Kuki: Don't think I don't know, Jarvis! You're collecting all those skulls to reach 888,888 and summon your own reinforcements!]
[You've already got 666,666! If you complete the set, what's left for me to play with?!]
The soldier's eyes reflected dual natures—one side gleamed with crimson slaughter, while the other glinted with blue calculation. Even as the left and right sides of his brain brawled internally, it didn't hinder his stellar record.
His chest was adorned with the Star of Terra, while his pockets bulged with various medals of honor—Double Skulls, Triple Skulls, you name it. With too many medals to fit on his tunic, he stashed most of them away to avoid the clutter.
The reason Kuki-Jarvis masqueraded as a human to fight across battlefields was to execute a grander scheme. In this partnership, Jarvis handled the slaughter while Kuki managed the intricate calculations. They planned to pull off a round-about display of loyalty right on Cadia to prove their worth.
"General Kuki-Jarvis, the enemies are wiped out!"
"You're a general now—why do you keep leading from the front?"
Even his assigned Commissar couldn't understand why a Legion General would take such extreme risks. Shouldn't a general command from the rear? How could this man command a battle and slaughter enemies on the front line simultaneously?
Little did anyone know, these two conflicting tasks were being handled by two distinct souls sharing one body.
With both souls residing in a single frame, it was no wonder his capabilities were off the charts.
"That is none of your concern!"
The voice was controlled by the shared will of Kuki-Jarvis. While the two spirits argued over minor details, they aligned completely when facing a common objective. Their current goal was to ignite a far grander conflict, and with Cadia at the epicenter, Kuki-Jarvis aimed to become the theater commander of the entire planet. Only then could they carry out a grand, war-torn Master Plan.
Caleb peered through the game board, reading their thoughts with total clarity. Although their logic differed, sharing a single body meant they always arrived at a consensus when it mattered.
"Looks like I created something pretty wild."
"Is this guy Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Evil?"
The Kuki-Jarvis piece Caleb had dropped onto the board was a genuine wild card. While Caleb retained influence over him, the Chaos Gods could just as easily use him as a pawn.
A single piece controlled by three players—it was a miracle he had made it this far. Hilariously, this piece had been serving the Imperium through a convoluted path of "loyalty" within the Chaos alignment, killing exclusively Chaos traitors and Imperial scumbags. In a twisted way, Kuki-Jarvis was remarkably loyal.