Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [185]

After Horus was persuaded by Rhodes, he settled down on Rhodes' ship, slowly recovering his soul power with the help of the Dark Giant's strength.

The reason Primarchs are Primarchs is primarily due to their immensely powerful souls—souls on the level of sub-gods in the Warp.

If you compared the soul strength of a Primarch to a Warp sub-god, even Rhodes, as he is now, is slightly inferior; he might need to undergo another monster-level strengthening to bring his soul to that level.

The main reason why cloned Primarchs aren't the real thing is that they lack the souls of sub-gods.

Half of Horus' soul was destroyed by the Emperor—that half was already a thoroughly corrupted, evil soul. But the current Horus is one of light, having been bathed in the Emperor's light for ten thousand years.

Originally, Horus' soul should have had no chance of recovery. Even with all the Emperor had done, restoring a sub-god's soul is impossible.

But the Dark Giant race is a seriously bugged and mysterious species. Even if the host is on the verge of death, or their soul gravely damaged, as long as the Giant possesses the body and they merge, both the Giant and the host can slowly recover after fusing—even becoming more perfect in the process.

Rhodes has always had a theory: to develop a true Light and Darkness form for these Dark Giants. The first Ultraman to master such a form was our great Tetsu General.

Tetsu General could merge his darkness and light into a powerful form. There's no reason why other Dark Giants can't do this—after all, they're fundamentally the same.

The ultimate fusion of light and darkness is the true future evolution of the Dark Giants.

Horus, who now possesses a portion of the Emperor's light, is just one experiment.

Rhodes originally wanted to use Sanguinius' soul, since his soul is absolutely the best in terms of the light attribute, but the initial fusion might not succeed.

Daram is a pure Dark Giant, without a shred of light or justice in his heart, so he can't merge with the Archangel at all. The only suitable candidate is the reformed Warmaster of the Imperium, Horus.

Don't disappoint me, Horus! I'm looking forward to the moment you transform into light.

Of course, as for that certain Archangel, Rhodes hasn't given up entirely. In the future, he can still summon other giants who yearn for the light.

For example, Evil Tiga—like Tiga, he is also a Giant of Light who protected Earth.

It's just that someone transformed with a heart of error and became a Dark Giant. If it were his original statue, infusing it with Sanguinius' soul would be perfect.

Besides him, Camearra is also a good candidate. This Dark Giantess also longs for the light. Her hatred for Tiga isn't because Tiga abandoned darkness for the light, but because Tiga didn't take her along when embracing the light.

The only problem is a mismatch of gender. Camearra probably wouldn't want Sanguinius as her host, and Sanguinius probably wouldn't want to become a giantess.

If only he could draw a Dark Giant statue with weaker or completely neutral attributes, that would be best.

At this moment, Sanguinius, whose soul exists in the Warp, suddenly felt a chill—perhaps some Chaos God was targeting him again?

After a month of travel, Rhodes' space fortress and Belisarius Cawl's Mechanicus Ark left the Webway and arrived at their target: Elliade VI.

During this month, Belisarius Cawl upgraded all the Primaris Space Marines on his ship, also installing Cawl Furnaces on three Zettons, greatly improving their endurance and giving them respectable regeneration.

"This is the place, Lord Rod!

I'll go down for a quick survey. At most, it'll take a few days. Once I'm done, we'll head straight to Macragge," Cawl said.

He had a reason he couldn't ignore—this planet had some mysterious blackstone material.

During the Fourth Black Crusade thousands of years ago, Abaddon attacked Elliade VI, a world the Imperium deemed worthless, for unknown reasons.

When Chaos attacked, the Imperium quickly abandoned the planet. An Imperial survey ship, which accidentally arrived here to evade a warp storm, discovered the planet's secret.

They found fragments of unknown black material on the northern continent of Elliade VI, suspecting there were more blackstone secrets buried beneath the heavily bombarded surface.

The Mechanicus had previously collected some blackstone, knowing only it was an artifact of some ancient Xenos civilization—some speculated it was related to the Necrons.

Research showed that blackstone seemed to affect the Warp.

"So you think Abaddon came here to seize the blackstone?" Rhodes asked.

There were only remnants on this planet; the greatest blackstone fortress had been taken by Abaddon. What remained were mere fragments.

"Yes, Lord Rhodes. If you're interested, you can come down with me to have a look, or just stay on the ship," Cawl nodded.

"You go ahead with the survey, keep hidden, and take your bodyguard. We're about to receive some uninvited guests. While you're busy, I'll deal with them," Rhodes said.

"Uninvited guests? Lord Rhodes, did you discover something?" Cawl asked.

"Yeah! I just scanned the system with the ship's radar and found a huge Ork fleet," Rhodes replied.

"Orks? Why would they come here? This should be an uninhabited planet," Cawl frowned.

Orks love drifting through space, attacking any human worlds they find, and launching their massive waaagh campaigns.

They even warp-jump without any real target—just going wherever looking for the toughest enemies.

Ork ships are full of weird things, often including local natives or even Warp daemons picked up during travel.

In the eyes of Orks, these are gifts from Gork and Mork to keep the boys entertained during the journey.

"These damned greenskins can show up anywhere—I'll handle them.

You just focus on your survey," Rhodes said.

"Alright, Lord Rhodes, I'll finish my work as quickly as possible," Cawl nodded.

"Take your time! There are no Imperial ships nearby, so nothing will be leaked.

So our new Primaris Marines can fight openly.

Don't you think this is a great training opportunity?

I'll land the fortress, send a signal to lure the Orks to land, and we'll train here.

After all, you've only run simulations for these new recruits, but they've never seen real combat. Orks are the best live opponents," Rhodes explained.

For Astartes, the best beginner enemies are these undisciplined, unorganized Orks.

"You make a good point, Lord Rhodes. I'll leave this to you," Cawl nodded, agreeing with Rhodes' plan.

Training the new Primaris Marines is a good idea.

So, Cawl's Mechanicus Ark stayed in orbit, attracting the Ork fleet's attention, while Rhodes' massive fortress landed on the planet.

All of Rhodes' Astartes, armed and ready, deployed to the surface, setting up defenses and preparing for the Ork fleet and hordes to arrive.

To draw the Orks in, Rhodes didn't hide his Primaris Marines at all, letting them appear on the Orks' crude radar.

After deploying all his troops, Rhodes' fortress took off and hid in orbit, silently waiting for the Orks to arrive.

The Ork fleet didn't disappoint—seeing Imperial ships and so much human activity, they immediately changed course for the planet.

Besides wanting to fight Rhodes, they also had their eyes on Cawl's Ark, hoping to capture and convert it.

Fighting the humans would also yield lots of loot for the Orks, and they could use the gear to arm their boys.

As for losses—heh!

The planet would soon have a big Ork explosion, spawning many more greenskins.

The Ork Warboss commanding the fleet bellowed to begin the attack.