Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

From the very beginning of this chess game, Morgan was very clear that the core issue that really needed her to pay attention to was not the bloody battle between the galaxies, but an invisible, intangible, and very simple trade-off issue.

This trade-off problem is: if she wants to win this game, she must rely on the power of subspace, but when and to what step should she rely, what reward should she promise to the Chaos Gods, and should she fulfill her promise? They all require her to think carefully.

The Spider Queen knew from the bottom of her heart that it was absolutely impossible to defeat the Loyalists by conventional means with the power of the Warmaster alone: ​​no matter how many Primarchs and legions she had attracted or bewitched, no matter how many important galaxies and systems she occupied, Resources, as long as the Lord of Mankind still stands high on Holy Terra, this game cannot end with Morgan's victory.

Even if she commanded eighteen Primarchs, millions of Death Angels, and a fleet so vast that it could blot out the sun, she could not survive much longer under the Emperor's sword: the Lord of Mankind might shed blood and fall into He will fight hard and lose the cause and ambition he fought for, but he will definitely be able to kill all the rebels and end this war with endless deaths.

Others may have doubted whether the Emperor could do this, but Morgan never doubted the power of her genetic father: the golden sword still remained in her mind, fighting against the As for the two gods on the Supreme Throne, they are powers that the Spider Queen has been unable to pry into until now.

Therefore, when she slowly drew her first card and started this father-daughter game, the Lord of Avalon knew very well: she must rely on the power of chaos, because only the power of chaos comes from the highest heaven. Only with endless power can she resist or even suppress the flames of the Lord of Humanity, and can she help her play with the information gap and time gap, and severely damage the main force of the loyalists at the very beginning of the rebellion.

This is the most helpless and realistic choice. Even if Morgan is very aware of the consequences of turning to subspace, she has to do it in order to win: this is also the reason why she pulled Magnus into her camp. The King of Prospero may not be able to accomplish anything, but if you want to have contact with the subspace forces without harming yourself, this guy is the inevitable choice.

What's more: even if Magnus is squeezed out of his last bit of value, Morgan can sacrifice him to the Lord of Change to maximize the value of the Thousand Sons Legion's Primarch. Anyway, she can't think of a way to save Pro. The Spero people's approach was to make mistakes in exchange for the power to fight against the Emperor.

In addition to Magnus, she still needs to pick out at least three more rewards: Fulgrim and Lorgar have already become the answers, and the last reward has not yet been determined. If possible, Morgan does not intend to let it. result.

Yes, she intended to default on her debt: if she could.

Although relying on the power of Chaos, the Spider Queen was able to perfectly execute the grand strategy at the beginning of the war, destroying most of the power in the hands of the Emperor in one fell swoop, and cutting off half of the galaxy, she always kept in mind the nature of Chaos and was wary of the four enemies. The temptation of the gods, and careful to avoid contamination from the warp, spread among her ranks and allies.

Let Luo Jia go to the Eye of Terror because he is the best choice: who else is more suitable to worship than the [God's Chosen One]? The gods will be generous to him because of his piety.

After Luojia obtained the [Great Vision] card that represented the power of subspace, the Spider Queen used this power wantonly, but carefully controlled Luojia's actions: The Thousand Sons, who had long-term contact with the Word Bearers Legion, The Legion and the Death Guard Legion are either abandoned by Morgan from the beginning, or they are guys she has no confidence in controlling. The Colchis can both mediate their conflicts and cannot spread Chaos pollution to more people. people.

After the Baal Massacre, Morgan placed the Word Bearers in the Five Hundred Worlds for the same reason: she believed in Guilliman's reason and thinking, and was convinced that the Colchisians could not corrupt him immediately.

Up to this point, the Queen of Avalon's plan had been smooth sailing: except for Fulgrim's own fall into corruption, which caused unnecessary waves, Morgan successfully used the power of Chaos and protected it from the hands of the Warp. She has several real core legions.

She even felt proud of it.

Until the Chaos Gods gave her a huge surprise when she held ten legions in her hands, annexed the entire Far Eastern Star Territory, and was ambitiously looking at Terra from a distance.

The Chosen One, which symbolizes Lorgar, lost control. As the chess piece became sharper due to Chaos pollution, it began to rampage across the land of Ultramar. For the first time, Morgan encountered unplanned factors. .

She could no longer control the [God's Chosen One], and her orders were temporarily ineffective. Obviously, there was a more divine and powerful will commanding the Seventeenth Legion at this moment.

The gods have come to demand payment.

Morgan frowned, realizing this: There is no doubt that the pace of the gods is faster than she imagined. They seem to lack patience and long-term planning, and just want to see the blood flow in the real universe as soon as possible. into a river.

A bunch of guys who have a lot of trouble.

The Spider Queen gritted her teeth. Without any more hesitation and hesitation, she directly grabbed the restless [Uncrowned King], the Lord of Five Hundred Worlds, and directly hit the [Divine Chosen One] symbolizing Luo Jia. who] forcibly terminated his [Holy Sacrifice] in Ultramar.

At the same time, a brand new card appeared in front of her.

【Big Storm】

+Obviously, this is the compensation and gift given to you by Luo Jia. +

On the other side of the table, the words of the Lord of Mankind sounded so ironic.

Morgan responded coldly.

[Don’t throw away the responsibility for the matter here, father: Why can you use a card that represents the past to affect the current battle situation of the galaxy, and also make the Chosen One behave so irrationally? 】

[Can you give me a more reasonable explanation besides cheating? 】

+The past determines the present, Morgan. +

+ Most of your brothers are not as open-minded as you think: an incident that happened decades ago, or even a hundred years ago, is enough for them to remember it to this day, either with pride or shame. and influence their actions. +

+ What's more: even if the Chosen One doesn't want to do this, he is not the master of his own consciousness, is he? As long as a whisper comes from the highest heaven, he will naturally point the butcher knife at Guilliman's kingdom. +

[Why do the gods do this? 】

+It's very simple. +

The Lord of Humanity looked at his daughter, his voice was more like an instruction.

+ If you are watching a wonderful performance, would you like it to end slower or faster? +

【……】

+They think so too. +

[Then...why Guilliman? 】

Morgan frowned: This confused her the most, because the badness of the gods and Lorgar's piety did not exceed her expectations, but what does Guilliman have to do with all this? Why does Luo Jia have a grudge against him?

The Emperor smiled.

+ Who do you think I will let get rid of Perfect City? +

【……】

The original body blinked. She understood the whole story in an instant, but a new doubt was also born in her mind, and it was even bigger.

[Guilliman? 】

Morgan fell into a daze, and the recent rumors about the Word Bearers Legion were brought out from the depths of her memory.

[If I remember correctly, the Word Bearers recently chose the area around the planet Kur to build their perfect city: that place is at the western end of the Pacific Star Territory, and the Pacific Star Territory is at the western end of the entire galaxy. Why were the Ultramarines of Macragge, located in the southeasternmost part of the galaxy, sent to destroy the Perfect City? 】

[Which one is not closer than the Luna Wolves, the Imperial Fists, or the Space Wolves? Which one is not more suitable? 】

+Who knows? +

+ Maybe by that time, the Ultramarines will happen to be the legion closest to the Word Bearers' perfect city, maybe? +

The Lord of Humanity sighed softly.

【……】

【you do this delibrately? 】

Morgan's voice was a little cold, and she didn't even add the false honorific.

The Emperor was silent for a moment.

+ Let’s play chess. +

He just said so.

Morgan snorted softly, and glanced at the current chess game: it was still her turn, because the Emperor had no chess pieces at all and could only simply accumulate the cards in his hand, while the Spider Queen contained [The Chosen One] ] went berserk and ordered the [Uncrowned King] to expel him from the Five Hundred Worlds. He felt that behind the southern front line, there were not many urgent situations.

But Morgan's brows did not dissipate because of this: in other places in the Far Eastern Star Territory, some small problems were appearing one after another. Although it was only a slight flaw on the white jade, it still made her feel uneasy.

The [Perfect One], which symbolizes Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children, was supposed to be stationed at the forefront of the Maelstrom, but Morgan discovered that this chess piece had become increasingly bleak: not because of war and attrition, but because of The filth of Chaos is corroding the foundations of the Third Legion.

Phoenix, who was supposed to be in charge of the overall situation, has disappeared, and the entire Third Army has also fallen into decadence and division. In the blink of an eye, it has lost most of its combat effectiveness: Morgan had to draw an [Envoy] to forcibly consolidate the emperor. The fighting power of the emperor's son.

And also in the Maelstrom, the Thousand Sons Legion did not let her worry: although Magnus and his warriors did not become a piece of sand, some terrible diseases seemed to be returning to them, and Prospero Taking this as the reason, the king left the front line and began to wander around the Far Eastern Star Territory, searching for various books to find a solution.

Countless loyal worlds that were supposed to fall under the secret arts of the Thousand Sons Legion remained standing because of this. Instead, those worlds that were not of outstanding strategic value but contained hidden books were breached one by one by Magnus. , sweeping a large number of classics back to Prospero: it can be seen that he has wanted to do this for a long time.

Beside the Thousand Sons, the Word Bearers Legion left Ultramar and turned towards various densely populated hive worlds, continuing their [Great Sacrifice] and contributing strange infiltrations to Morgan. Cards, and even got along well with Magnus' Legion.

The three legions just deviated from their strategic positioning: oh no, four, because Guilliman and the Ultramarines were shrinking feverishly in their five hundred worlds, and seemed to have no plans to move in a short time.

【hiss……】

Morgan blinked.

How is this going?

It was clear that less than a minute ago, she had just swept away the emperor's army and compressed the power of the loyalists to the extreme. How come that in the blink of an eye, she only had half of her power left?

Confusion swept through the heart of the Primarch. In the face of this storm, even the annoying smile of the Lord of Mankind was no longer important: Morgan stretched out her fingers, eager to put these chess pieces back into her original plan. , but she soon had to abandon the plan.

This is a waste of time.

Morgan's pupils flashed with helpless anger. With no choice, she could only turn her attention to the legions still under her control: Fortunately, there were six more, and there was no shortage of main troops among them.

However, their situation is not very satisfactory.

Perturabo is leading his Iron Warrior Legion, turning into a wave of war, rushing towards every fortress world that refuses to surrender. His attacks are hard and clumsy, making the chess pieces representing him begin to falter, and more and more The rifts tell the story of the Fourth Legion's decline.

But this guy still refused to replenish his troops in the Far Eastern frontier. He only carried out cruel omens in Olympia. The world itself was already overwhelmed, and people were resentful. They even needed the Dawnbreaker troops to specifically control it: This scene made Petula think again. Beau felt angry and humiliated, and the cracks on his chess pieces increased.

The situation of the First Army and the Eighth Army is not smooth: these two legions, which are fully capable and still obey the command, are tentatively entering the Sun Star Territory, but the resistance they face is desperate. Because the Space Wolves Legion has arrived at the front line, and the scarred White Scars are also trying to stop the rebellious brothers at all costs. Even the three broken legions of Salamanders, Luna Wolves and Iron Hands, He also squeezed out a little bit of troops to form a card, which made the empire's defense a little tougher.

In addition, there is Alpha: this legion is everywhere on the front line, and even once seduced the main force of the Dark Angels, allowing the single-handed Eighth Legion to lose with the combined efforts of many loyalists, and directly led to collapse The first wave of offensive of the Warmaster's army.

On the opposite side of the table, the Lord of Humanity did not even have any more operations: he simply extracted and turned over cards one after another, and on the other side of the maelstrom, he built a thin red line, blocking the When Morgan swung the sword, everything seemed to have been expected.

The Spider Queen even forgot to operate, she just silently witnessed this thin red line: from any angle, no matter how many times it was calculated, this simple defense line could not block the fully armed Dark Angel Legion, unless the Emperor continued again I chose to cheat once.

But when the Primarch looked up at her father, she had to deny this with her own hands: the Emperor had not cheated, his face even looked particularly peaceful, and he was holding his [Invincible Fortress] tightly in his hand. And Holy Terra is also at the feet of this chess piece, constantly evolving towards a desperate military fortress.

…

Time is not on your side.

Until then, Morgan remembered the emperor's words: It was only a few minutes ago, but she felt as if centuries had passed, and she slowly realized the value of these words.

Indeed, time is not on her side: the Spider Queen simply regards this war as a fight in the real universe, and the power of subspace is just a poisonous side dish for decoration, she even Xiao thought that after the war was over, he would deal with those fallen brothers to completely cleanse the influence of the Four Gods in the real universe.

But now it seems that these plans are ridiculous: while she is accumulating her own strength and preparing for a long war of attrition with her genetic father, the whisper of the supreme sky is also dividing and disintegrating her. camp, causing her chess pieces to lose control one after another, invisibly changing the balance of power in this war.

When Morgan officially realized this, she quickly drew inferences and figured out more questions.

【what do you mean……】

Morgan put down the chess piece in her hand. She turned her attention away from the battle and looked at her genetic father with full concentration: the Emperor seemed to have been waiting for her, waiting for her to take the initiative to start this new conversation.

The Lord of Avalon pointed at the out-of-control brothers on the chessboard.

[The Chaos Gods actually don’t expect either side to win this war? Although they helped me in the early stage, when my advantages exceeded their expectations, they would in turn curb my power. 】

[By constantly making my brothers fall and rebel, weakening my military power, making it impossible for me to end the war, and making me have to rely doubly on the power of subspace, which not only deepens the corrosion of the real universe by the gods, but also makes me unable to end the war. Can this war continue for a long time? 】

[Don’t they want their chosen one to win, they just want the war in the galaxy to burn endlessly? 】

+They can't do this. +

The Emperor replied loudly.

+ This war is destined to end. The gods are just trying to gain as much benefit as possible, choosing their servants, satisfying their desires, and gaining strength and joy from more blood and disaster. +

The Lord of Mankind spoke the essence of the gods unhurriedly, and when his eyes turned to the Lord of Avalon, there was a hint of appreciation that could not be concealed in his pupils.

+You woke up quickly: faster than I thought. +

[Will all war masters wake up? 】

+ No. +

The Lord of Humanity shook his head, and his voice sounded a little sad.

+ Some people did not wake up until the end, and some people, when they finally woke up, it was too late. In addition, there are some that are even more sad: although they woke up, they did not Be willing to wake up. +

[It is always difficult to admit mistakes. 】

+ But it is not impossible: even mortals can face their own mistakes, but some of you cannot do this. This in itself is a very sad thing. +

The Lord of Humanity was stroking his chess piece, and his mood didn't look very good.

+ I am a little curious about your next move: now that you have realized the influence of chaos, your character is destined not to continue to make mistakes, but if you do not rely on the power of chaos, what should you use to fight against yourself? What about me in Terra? +

Morgan smiled and looked at her father sarcastically.

[Yes, this is indeed a difficult problem to solve: therefore, without the influence of Chaos, this war will not be possible in the future. After all, everyone knows that the rulers of the empire are invincible. 】

+Do you really think so? +

The Emperor raised a brow.

【Who cares? 】

The Lord of Avalon responded to her father in an exaggerated tone, and she turned her attention back to the chessboard: In any case, she didn't want to lose this war.

So, she picked up the [Kingslayer].

+Is this your way to break the situation? +

【Yes. 】

Morgan smiled, showing her white teeth.

[From ancient times to the present, victory has been used to resolve conflicts. The simplest and most effective method is: when the celebration horn sounds, even enemies will embrace each other and cheer for the collective honor. 】

+What Chaos brings is not an ordinary contradiction. +

[How will you know if you don’t try? 】

The Primarch asked rhetorically, and then started a new round of her operations without any hesitation or hesitation.

[Kingslayer] suppressed the increasingly restless [Angel], left the rear, and came to the front line. After powerful command cards, [Perfector] and [Think Tank] reluctantly Returned to her side, and the [God's Chosen One] continued to move towards the south of the galaxy, where the disobedient [King of Nothingness] and [Lord of Clouds] were doing what they wanted to do unscrupulously. Morgan was too lazy to care about them, and just asked them to march north: and this request was quickly fulfilled, but it was only accompanied by massacres, delays, and whispers along the way.

On the other side, the [Uncrowned King] also left Macragge slowly. He did not bring all the troops. Morgan also opened his eyes to this. She no longer wanted to experience any internal disputes.

The broken Iron Warriors Legion is a rare honest man. After finally squeezing his home planet, the chess piece representing Perturabo is still scarred. He joined Morgan's main force, and then waited. The Dark Angels had a few scars: As for the Eighth Legion, which suffered more serious losses, they rushed directly to Avalon to replenish their troops again.

Just like that, the Warmaster once again clenched his fists and began to march: the wavering [Angel] was thrown to the flank by her, and started a sit-down war with the [Twins], while the Dark Angel, Dawnbreaker and Iron Warrior It was condensed into a heavy punch and shattered the empire's defense line in the maelstrom area in one fell swoop.

[As long as the Warmaster's legion takes a small step forward, it will be the Sun Star Territory: considering the size of this star territory, it is not too far away from Holy Terra. 】

At this point, Morgan's eyes were still fixed on the chessboard, but his attention was focused on the conversation with the Emperor.

[If calculated according to time, this war may only have lasted into the third or fourth year: you have no time to recover for most of the legions, and now you only have the complete Imperial Fist left in your hands. 】

[Aren’t you ready to do it yourself? Or use this powerful chess piece? 】

+The situation is not that bad. +

The Lord of Mankind quietly retreated his statuettes one after another: [Soaring Eagle] has been used again, it has not rested at all, and is now only one step away from death, while [Hungry Wolf] and [Iron General] can All they could do was retreat further.

[I could make it a little worse. 】

Morgan muttered under her breath, her eyes scanning over her chess pieces: the Thousand Sons Legion was suffering from a psychic disease that made it difficult for Morgan to even move it, while the Emperor's Children were unbearably lax. Fulgrim also disappeared once again.

This time, Morgan was no longer polite. She took out the [Infighting] card, which directly detonated the internal conflicts of the Third Legion: In the end, those depraved elements were defeated and dispersed, while a few still retained their The number of descendants of the Phoenix with their fighting strength and organization was so small that they could no longer be regarded as a legion.

The Spider Queen had to acquiesce that she had lost two chess pieces: maybe a third piece, such as the already crumbling Iron Warriors Legion.

The Lord of Avalon glanced at the three chess pieces that she was unwilling to send again, then looked at the three guys in the south who were obedient and disobedient, and then glanced at Conrad who was still replenishing his troops, and found that he On hand, there are only three usable legions left.

For a moment, she didn't know who was more pitiful between herself and the emperor.

But she couldn't stop, and she didn't dare to stop: the power of the subspace had spread among most of her chess pieces, even though she withstood the wrath of the [God's Chosen One] and tore into pieces the piece that represented the [Greatness]. Vision] cards, but they are just making up for the situation.

If she cannot break through the Holy Terra in the hands of the Emperor as soon as possible, then this war seems to end with her defeat: even if she does not lose a single battle, she seems to be getting farther and farther away from victory.

The blood-red color that clearly represents the Warmaster has broken through the Far East Star Territory and taken over half of the Storm Star Territory and the Obscurity Star Territory. But for some reason, when Morgan looked at more and more crimson on the chessboard, She no longer had the joy of swallowing up the Far Eastern Star Territory, but felt an inexplicable emptiness.

As long as she makes one wrong move, these results will be meaningless, and they will not even be able to be buried with her: in such pessimistic moods, the Spider Queen pushes her chessmen forward, opening the door for her and the Emperor. ’s second main showdown.

In other words, annihilation.

The previously defeated loyalists did not flee directly back to Terra. They seemed to want to struggle again before the emperor's capital: a new release line appeared in the Betangamon area, and Morgan could not bypass it. She wasn't going to go around either.

The two legions of Dark Angel and Dawnbreaker launched a strong attack from the front, while the Ultramarines that had just arrived marched from the north. As for the three semi-independent legions that came from the Storm Star Territory, they also slowly completed the encirclement in the south. .

Another cruel encirclement net was pulled up in the Betangamon galaxy. Morgan's six missiles occupied absolute power, patiently and cruelly crushing the defenders' defense lines. This war was long and boring, and the Spider Queen's Her eyes came to her father again.

[Are you still not planning to take action? 】

Morgan raised her eyebrows. She was really confused now: up to now, the Emperor had lost four-fifths of the chess game, and he had very few chess pieces left. Only the cards that had never appeared were displayed. They were placed in the hands of the Lord of Humanity, but he still didn't seem to intend to use them.

+I don't plan to act now. +

The Emperor glanced at her.

+ But I can accommodate you. +

【……】

With that said, under Morgan's somewhat speechless gaze, the Emperor showed a card.

【Return】

The next moment, a chess piece that has theoretically retired: it is the [anvil] that symbolizes Vulcan. It has recovered its health. Although it is still covered with scars, it has greatly strengthened the defense line of the loyalists. Morgan The offensive suddenly fell into decadence.

[Vulcan? 】

The Lord of Avalon's voice became sharp, and she was really surprised: shouldn't her brother be dead?

[Did you cheat again? 】

+You have wronged me. +

There was a hint of disgusting pride in the Lord of Humanity's smile. He showed his daughter the [Return] card in his hand. The card did not dissipate, which meant that it could continue to be used.

+ When I designed you, I gave everyone their own unique power: now, Vulkan is just showing his power, and he will only fight once before this war comes to its end. Standing in front of you again. +

【……】

【It doesn’t matter. 】

Morgan tried her best to make her voice sound cold. Then, she picked up her chess pieces and used a new round of fierce offensive to repel the Emperor's troops and once again surrounded the Salamander Legion.

[A failure will only symbolize another failure. 】

The Primarch looked at the Emperor. She barely concealed her sarcasm. The merciless [Kingslayer] followed the chess player's movements and swept down the [Anvil] again, opening the door to Terra's final path.

【Another victory. 】

Morgan showed off.

[How are you going to save these remnants of the army that I have bitten, or are you going to give up? 】

The Emperor stroked his chin.

+You just had the opportunity to directly annihilate them: But if you really want to see my trump card, then, okay, I will grant my daughter's wish. +

As he spoke, he took out [Hydra].

[It’s this card again, you have used it no less than five times just now! 】

+What makes you think there is only one Hydra card? +

The Emperor picked up the next four and spread them out to his daughter, each displaying the same image of a hydra.

+Then, comes the second step. +

The Lord of Humanity said as he drew a brand new card.

【Nirvana】

The next moment, Horus, fully armed, was back on the chessboard: without a single scratch.

【What is this? 】

Morgan raised a brow.

+ Death is not the end of responsibility. +

The Emperor softly recited the words behind the card, half-smiling.