Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [257]

"Lucius! Lucius the Eternal?" The Slaaneshi assassin, or rather Rhodes, who was far away in the Baal System, asked in surprise.

This individual's power is truly bizarre. Anyone who kills him and feels even the slightest pleasure or satisfaction will have their soul usurped by Lucius, who then takes over their body.

This possession ability is utterly terrifying. It's bad enough that he can possess living beings with flesh and blood, but he can even possess the living metal bodies of Necrons, the powers of the Chaos Gods, and can even twist metallic life into flesh.

Rhodes seriously wondered: if the four Ruinous Powers of Chaos wanted, could they just turn all the Necrons back into flesh-and-blood life? (Official lore says Necrons still have remnants of their souls, otherwise Lucius couldn't possess their metallic bodies.)

These four are essentially pranksters in the Warhammer universe; they never take things too seriously, and even manipulating the Golden Throne and the Emperor is just a game to them.

Rhodes hadn't expected Slaanesh to send Lucius, along with his Ace Killer, to Abaddon's territory.

After all, Lucius seldom takes missions from Slaanesh. He usually wanders across the galaxy, acting like a cosmic street punk, challenging various duel champions everywhere.

If he wins, he gets satisfaction; if he loses, he just possesses the winner.

"That's right, Lord Sidonis, it is indeed the famous Lucius the Eternal. He is the chosen of our master, blessed with undying power—no mortal can kill him," the Daemonette replied with a nod.

Lucius the Eternal's prowess is indeed formidable, rivaling some daemon princes and far surpassing most Chaos Champions.

"Oh! Let's go. I've heard he's a master swordsman," Sidonis nodded.

"Please follow me, my lord! I will use my magic to teleport you onto his ship," the Daemonette said, leading Sidonis out of the Palace of Pleasure.

She then used her power to contact a Chaos Sorcerer aboard Lucius's ship, which was traveling through the warp. Their powers resonated and opened a portal.

Sidonis nodded, his form rapidly shrinking and morphing into a burly two-meter man, then stepped through the portal onto Lucius's warship in the warp.

This was a twisted Chaos warship, with many Dark Mechanicum adepts at work, alongside Chaos sorcerers and mortal cultists.

Lucius the Eternal looked at the purple-clad figure with curiosity. The power radiating from him was immense, and Lucius had just heard some interesting news.

His own Primarch, Fulgrim, had been defeated—beaten soundly and thoroughly humiliated by the very person before him, losing much of his power. The story was being talked about by many daemons.

Lucius was delighted by this—his genetic father had been thrashed and humiliated.

Although he was nominally Fulgrim's son, the truth was that after countless reincarnations, his gene-seed had long been replaced.

Moreover, his current power didn't come from the gene-seed or Astartes enhancements. Though still a Chaos Space Marine, he had long transcended the category.

More importantly, back at Isstvan V, he had already betrayed Fulgrim—though he later changed sides again. Truthfully, he had never gotten along with his Primarch and refused to follow his orders.

"Welcome to my ship, the great child of Slaanesh, Lord Sidonis! I shall now take you to Abaddon's domain. I look forward to working with you," said Lucius.

Facing other beings, Lucius might have been brash and challenged them, especially since the sword on Sidonis's back was a powerful artifact.

But this being had defeated his own Primarch and was personally chosen by Slaanesh; Lucius knew not to cross such a figure.

"Very well! Let's head to Abaddon the Despoiler's domain," Sidonis replied.

"Please follow me. Your quarters have already been prepared," Lucius said, gesturing politely.

Together, they entered a room.

"You're Lucius, right?" Sidonis asked.

"Yes, Lord Sidonis."

"I've heard you are a master swordsman—some say that, in terms of skill alone, even your Primarch can't match you."

"Haha, my lord, you flatter me. My swordsmanship still has a long way to go!

I'm confident, yes, and I always pursue perfection, but I still have a gap compared to my Primarch—or to the Emperor's Champion, Sigismund, for that matter," Lucius replied.

These days, true swordmasters are rare—not like ten thousand years ago, in the 31st millennium, when talent was everywhere.

"We should spar sometime!"

"If you're interested, Lord Sidonis, nothing would make me happier!" Lucius said, his eyes shining with fanatic excitement.

Someone who could easily defeat his Primarch—how strong was he?

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of you," Sidonis smirked mischievously.

Seeing Sidonis's smile, Lucius grew even more excited—after all, as Slaanesh's chosen, he was quite the masochist! He had three vials of drugs strapped to his back for constant stimulation.

During the journey, Lucius was utterly delighted—every day he was abused, beaten, and then restored by Sidonis's Slaaneshi powers, experiencing waves of supreme pleasure. It was simply wonderful!

Every morning, Lucius would eagerly come looking for more.

Sidonis was a bit speechless—he'd intended to teach Lucius a lesson, but the man seemed to be enjoying it!

…

Once Sidonis's situation was settled, Rhodes' attention turned back to the Battle of Baal.

A full day had passed since the Tyranid swarm's retreat. The main Tyranid hive fleet was now several hundred AU away.

It looked like they were avoiding him, but Rhodes could tell the Leviathan swarm hadn't pulled back, since the warp was still blocked.

Numerous hive ships were monitoring him from dozens of AU away. Despite Rhodes destroying masses of Tyranid vessels in every engagement, he had yet to hit a single hive ship.

The Leviathan fleet was continuously spawning new bio-ships and building up strength.

All the hive ships were madly squeezing out their biomass to produce new Tyranid strains for a second assault.

On Baal's outskirts, Leviathan reinforcements kept arriving—the war was far from over!

After 24 hours of recovery, Rhodes' mechanical Ultra Brothers, space carrier, and other robots had all recharged.

But the hundred lost King Joe robots couldn't be replaced—once those onboard the motherships were lost, only the production line could make new ones.

Rhodes had already moved the production line, with Salome and Zetton to the Forge World—he'd have to wait for the war to end before re-equipping the motherships with King Joe squads.

He still had over 1.6 million system credits; clearing the Tyranid ground forces on Baal had earned him nearly 100,000 more.

A single Ultra Brother costs 100,000 credits, with about a dozen upgrades needed to reach full power—requiring at least 1.5 million credits for a maxed-out set.

He could exchange for another set of Ultra Brothers for the coming battle.

He could also buy 100,000-credit King Joe robots to upgrade the Pedan mothership.

Spending 1.5 million would be just enough to upgrade a top-tier mothership.

Or he could try a lottery with system credits—maybe he'd get a more powerful mechanical unit.

He could at least devastate the Tyranid fleet once more but lacked a decisive edge.

Even with three motherships, he couldn't drive back the overwhelming Tyranid swarm.

The only good news was that the Blood Angels should be able to support him now.

With the Tyranids on Baal wiped out, the planet was recovering and could send a fleet for reinforcements.

Yesterday, several of Baal's moons were retaken. Commander Dante, Elena, and the Custodes arrived on Rhodes' mothership via lander.

They brought the gravely wounded Mephiston. After hearing the situation, Rhodes immediately arranged for a Primaris super-Astartes surgery.

"Thank you so much, Lord Rhodes," said Dante, kneeling before him.

"No need for thanks, Commander Dante. How is your Chief Librarian?" Rhodes asked.

"Thanks to you, Lord Rhodes, Mephiston's surgery was a success. He's recovering in the med-bay and should be up in a few days," Dante replied.

"That's good," Rhodes nodded.

"Lord Rhodes, what's the situation with the Tyranids?" Dante asked.

This Primarch was truly formidable—his Golden Age space fortress had repelled the Tyranid fleet.

They had witnessed the battle from the ground with special equipment—there was no other word for it but astonishing.