"My lord, it's me, Lana, and I'm reporting to you on the bridge of the Queen of Glory."

[Lana? What's wrong? 】

"Yes, my lord, something very serious: our expatriate from the First Legion has just sent back an urgent notice with two ...... Ah, an important piece of news. ”

[Say.] 】

On the other side of the communicator, the Praetorian Guard's chief was the first to breathe deeply.

"To put it simply: the Dark Angel and the Space Wolf are defeated."

——————

"Johnson? Defeat? ”

"With all due respect, I can't tie the two words together: not to mention whether or not anyone in this galaxy can defeat Johnson on the battlefield, but just one thing: if our knight brother had suffered a humiliating defeat, I don't think he would have come back alive."

[Not necessarily. 】

The fragmented argument was thrown back and forth between the two genetic protos, weaving into an intermittent debate competition, and Morgan and Alfaris did not stay long in the deepest steel hall, because even their existence was afraid of the influence of the great body: they only lingered in the doorway for two or three minutes, and their pupils were already filled with indelible hatred when they looked at each other.

But hatred is not the most terrible: for a moment, both genetic agents are thinking from the bottom of their hearts how to completely enslave each other's existence under their own hands, and make each other a puppet at their disposal and toying: this desire is so strong that they almost let real plans take shape in their minds and reality.

And even these terrible plans were only a flash of inspiration in their minds: as the fragments of the great bodies gathered around them, a new voice began to emerge in the deepest recesses of their minds, and soon resounded in the air.

It was a crazy plan, an irresistible temptation, a future that could be imagined by the human imagination.

The voice was agitating them, inviting them, longing for them to be its companions, its comrades-in-arms, and at once thrown into such great plans: the pain of strife and the possibility of depravity would cease to exist, and the whispers of the four gods would no longer echo in the ears of every mortal, and they would revolve around the side of the holiest thrones, bathed in the brightest golden light, and embark on an endless expedition under the leadership of the greatest that could never fail.

There will be no pain, no sacrifice, no disputes born of selfishness, everyone will be truly united, everyone will let go of everything personally, and everyone will listen to the only right will.

Until there is only one monarch, one command, one destiny, one voice left in the whole galaxy, knowing that they are one and will never be separated, until they will forever stand proudly at the top of the real universe, defying the authority of the terrible gods and laughing at the weakness of fate, until they can regain the greatness of the ancient empire: this time, this empire will never fall, it will not fall, it will not fall, it will not perish.

The voice spoke of all this, promised all this, and it sketched the brightest picture of the future with the imagination of their minds: for a moment, both Morgan and Alfaris believed the arrogant words from the bottom of their hearts, and they both longed for the moment when the fantasy came true, and when the voice crept into their minds, they seemed to be unable to resist it any longer.

If they were mortals, even Astarte, they would indeed be unable to resist it any longer: this voice, this will, this invasion, so domineering and mad, so swift and successful, that few people could resist the supreme power of its mastermind: except for another genogen who was on par with it.

It is not known who got out of this predicament first between Morgan and Alfaris, but after getting rid of the invasion that happened in their minds, the two imperial heirs just glanced at each other, and then turned away without hesitation, or ran away.

Following the path they had taken, the two of them fled as fast as they could, the strange steel hall behind them, the great body that exuded unknown powers, and did not even care that the crumbs of those souls were smashed by them, turning into innumerable and incomprehensible residues, clinging to their souls: it seemed to be some kind of stubborn disease that could not be removed, but now it was irrelevant.

The primordials ran through more than a dozen identical halls in a row, and only then did they stop when they ran out of the most core control area, watching each other's hearts palpitate from each other's pupils.

Morgen wanted to continue to return to the surface and clean up the world with an extinction order, but Alpharis had some additional ideas.

"We should stop for a while and study the stuff here: look at these monsters around us, I bet we'll have to deal with these guys in the future, it's important to have an idea of them in advance."

But Morgan doesn't think so.

[Believe me, you're not a biological scientist, and you're going to be unable to study that guy's crazy creations for a while: instead of that, we might as well hurry back to the battleship, and then go to the aid of Johnson and Riemanrus, and use the Extinction Order to completely raze this damn world to the ground before leaving.] 】

"It only takes fifteen minutes: I've always been efficient at gathering intelligence."

Hydra replied, or rather just noticed, and then he stepped aside, turning all his attention to the huge petri dishes.

[Then you'd better hurry up, if you run out of time, I will use the extermination order to let you fly to the sky with this world.] 】

"Don't even think about it."

The Hydra Lord, with his back to Morgan, just let out a taunt.

"From now on, until ten millennia, it is impossible for any world of great value to fall under an extermination order: this thing sounds bluffing, and like the Grand Fleet of the Navy, it is in a sense just a pitiful bunch of supporting characters."

【……】

Morgan's voice paused, and a voice in her head told her that Alpharis was right, and she couldn't refute it: it caused the Spider Queen to mumble a few expletives, but even so, Morgan didn't leave her blood brothers, but stared at the deep passages they had fled to, and had a headache with the strange debris clinging to her.

For a short time, these things seemed to be indelible: just as Morgan was distressed by this, the voice of the Praetorian Guard resounded in her ears, bringing the great news to her.

From the front lines, no one wants to see the result: the Dark Angel and the Space Wolf are defeated, they don't complete their mission as planned, and the war begins to fall into an even worse ending.

But Hydra didn't worry much about it, and he returned to Morgan's side 15 minutes later, carrying in his arms a large pile of files and experimental files that he had found out of nowhere, and which emitted a pungent smell that made people frown, the smell of corpses, scalpels, and laboratories.

Then Alfaris heard the news of the defeat.

"You mean, they lost?"

[Defeat as defeat: Johnson and Riemanruth's armies captured one of the most important fortress worlds from that man, and achieved a tactical victory in the continuous invasion of flesh and blood, and they were convinced that they were not far from that man's final base, perhaps only one galaxy. 】

[But just as they were victorious and began to retreat, according to them: the whole world came to life, and the unknown poison gas and the offensive in the subspace caused many people to start killing each other, and they killed more warriors than they died in the war, and many more were eaten by the world itself, either falling into those flesh-like cracks that suddenly appeared and suddenly closed, or directly turned into a cloud of blood and mud in the gas emitted by the planet itself. 】

[They have lost about 15,000 men, less than 5,000 of whom died in the war: and these warriors, whether dark angels or space wolves, are almost all terra veterans of their respective legions.] 】

“……”

"I'm curious to see how many Terrans in their legion will be left after such repeated consumption: I hope I'll see a few familiar faces next time."

[Johnson's words, maybe there is not much left, and Riemanlus ......]

"Then don't think about it."

Alfaris answered the question, and left on his own: there was nothing left in this place to be attached to, or rather, the danger of staying here far outweighed its potential value.

[Aren't you worried about the situation on the front line? Even for the Legion, the loss of 15,000 people is unbearable, after all, not everyone is an Ultra Warrior or an Iron Warrior. 】

"Of course I'm worried, but I also know that my worries are useless: now that this has happened, all we can do is pray that Johnson and Riemann Ruth will not advance for a moment, but will suspend this damned war, wait for us to join them, and wait for the new reinforcements we bring in."

[Do you mean my Dawnbreaker: Then I have to disappoint you, Alfaris, you should know that my legion does not have enough troops that we can use as support, but not as a supporter. 】

"Of course I know that, I know your plight better than anyone else, Morgan, so I never had the luxury of making you one of the main expendables of this war: we will have a much larger reinforcement, in fact, they will be ready at any moment."

【…… Anytime? 】

"Of course."

Nearly as he reached the exit of these great halls, the Hydra Lord smiled sarcastically at his blood relatives.

"You don't think I'm really going to this war alone, do you?"

"Indeed, it is only Alfaris who will come to your aid: but even the Emperor has not stipulated that there can be only one Alpharis in this empire."

——————

[Soldier has, that's great, but we still have one more problem, Alpharis: I think you know what that is.] 】

"Of course I know: you're worried that we don't have enough means to kill that man?"

[The genetic prototype is not so easy to kill, not to mention that our brother is already dead in a narrow sense: I'm afraid even the emperor doesn't know what he is now. 】

"You know what?"

[I can only guess: I have witnessed how he abandoned his body and the last bit of humanity, so I can't imagine what kind of state he is in now, maybe he is just an obsession, a bunch of knowledge and a handful of genetic essence mixed together, but this makes it more difficult for him to kill, because realistic means cannot kill a dead person. 】

"You don't need to worry about this, as long as you abandon your beliefs and bottom line, there will never be a shortage of means in the galaxy to realize your wildest dreams, and I am a person who has no bottom line: if the situation requires it, I will use my own methods to end this."

"Don't worry."

"There won't be only one way: when the time comes, you just have to be careful."

——————

When Morgan and Alfare returned, they talked about a lot of things, and with their respective acquiescence, almost all the truth was confessed to each other in some euphemistic way, and some of the things that popped out of the mouth of the Hydra Lord even made Morgan feel genuinely surprised and delighted: but this sentiment only lasted until the moment they left the bunker.

More specifically, when Morgan saw her heir, her attention shifted almost instantaneously, leaving her brother behind, much to Hydra's surprise: it seemed that the emphasis on the Spider Queen's motherly figure was not alarmist.

Even for a genotype, Morgan's image is indeed too rare: it is rare for a genogen to show such obvious favoritism and affection for his offspring, not even Volcan.

This discovery caused a stir in the eyes of the Hydra Lord, and then he stepped forward steadily, standing beside Conrad, listening to the report of the Daybreaker warriors.

Most of the team's reports were heavily homogeneous of the cold test site, with an unsettling aura and mountains of abandoned corpses that took up most of the space in the mountain range beneath their feet, more than half of the test subjects showed obvious signs of cut-off and fusion experiments, and the photographs taken showed a tendency that the genoplasms were worried about: as the experiments progressed, the subjects were becoming more and more like the lumps of flesh that Morgan and Alpharis had seen in the bunker.

Other groups were even more worrisome, with a warrior named Carter Bade and his team getting particularly excited as they descended into one of the most profane laboratories, where the eyes could see the remains of all kinds of humans, even Astarte warriors, every legion, and all of them were fitted with disturbing alien limbs: more and more skillful, more varied, and in the last few rooms, the gray-white flesh balls appeared.

Speaking of which, Carter Bader also showed out the photographs he had taken: several warriors in snow-white armor, a livery of the Second Legion before it was reunited with the genetic primitives, and Morgan's heir swore that he could be sure that every one of them he had examined was a former member of the Second Legion.

How the fallen Primordial acquired these bodies is unknown, but apparently, no one wants these corpses to remain here and be desecrated.

"We want to be able to take them, my lordship, at least our own battle brothers, who should not be left in such a place, they should be put to eternal sleep in a more sacred place, just as their names are engraved in the Hall of Glory."

As the representative of the warriors, Bayar approached the Mother of His Keys and spoke his plea in a deep voice: although each of them was eager to remove the bodies of their battle brothers from this area, the Daybreakers would not act on this matter until they received orders from Morgan.

They knew the seriousness of the operation, so they could only expect.

Conrad and Alfaris fell into silence, knowing that they had no right to dictate the matter: for a moment, silence lingered around the group of more than three hundred people, all waiting for the next word from Morgan's mouth.

And Morgan was just silent.

She never seemed to hesitate for so long: the warriors in snow-white armor in the photograph were not any of the bloodlines she knew now, and the affection between mother and son could not be better expressed by a dead object, but even so, as Morgan stared at the photograph, she still couldn't give that order: the right order.

The silence lasted for a long time, maybe only for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. Until everyone saw the struggle in the Spider Queen's heart, until the Midnight Ghost quietly came to Morgan's back, took off his claws, clenched them into a fist, and gently clasped Morgan's back.

You know what's right.

Conrad didn't speak, but her voice could go straight to the depths of another genotype's heart.

【……】

Morgan looked up.

Her teal-blue pupils were unusually obscured in her long, somewhat disheveled hair, making it impossible for the Dawnbreakers to see the color in her eyes, but they could hear Morgan's voice: it was a faint sigh that was almost nothing.

[Sorry, Bayar, but as you know: everything on this planet is unknown to us, and there is a danger that it may explode in the future, and everything we take from here will put the empire and even the human race at extra risk of being out of control. 】

[Therefore, I must refuse your request: after returning to the battleship, I will order the complete incineration of everything in this world with the extermination order, and all blasphemy and grief will be wiped out in the face of the flames. 】

[This will be my first extermination order, and I will not hesitate to issue it.] 】

[I can't let you take them, but I swear that I will give them a real end, a real death. 】

Morgan's words were sad, but also cold to be refuted, and the Dawnbreakers bowed their heads before her words, neither resentful nor unwilling: everyone knew that it was indeed the right choice, and they had all seen what was in those labs that could never be passed on.

But even so, they need to grieve for their brothers who will never return, for the shortest and necessary moments of grief, while their genetic mother will mourn with them, and their shadows will intertwine under the gray sky, turning into an inseparable aggregate on the ground, obscuring those blood relatives who cannot return to the Legion.

Only the other two genetics could witness this with their own eyes, and they also had different feelings: Alfaris felt that the scene in front of him was a little too strange, and he slowly approached Conrad next to him, whispering in his ear.

"So, is this a shortcoming of our blood relatives: as a genetic protogen, isn't this a little too obvious and could be exploited by those who have a heart?"

Conrad grinned.

"Well, my brother, I don't deny that this is a shortcoming of Morgan, but I would like to kindly remind you: if you want to find a breakthrough in her, don't choose this one."

“…… Why? ”

Hydra felt a hint of confusion, and the Midnight Ghost just stared at him, revealing a silent mockery.

"If you really want to know an answer, then all I can tell you is that she is indeed a somewhat overly soft-hearted person, as rumored to be. But she is not as weak as you think, and the usual softness and shelter is only for the cold and ruthless when necessary. ”

"Just like now, look at her: no matter how hesitant and hesitant she is on the surface, but deep down in her heart, she has already thought of the answer, the only correct answer that cannot be changed, but she is just struggling to say it."

"This is what she really is, and you can trap her with similar tricks to make her a choice, but if you want to confuse the truth in her heart, it's impossible."

"She's just a little weak, and she's not a fool."

"How do you know she's not a fool?"

"Because I'm a fool, and there's a fool standing in front of me, so I know very well that she's definitely not a fool: that's not what fools are."

“……”

Alpharis was silent, and although Conrad's taunt was already written on his face, he didn't know how to reply for a while, so he could only use silence to continue the conversation between the two until Midnight Ghost patted him on the shoulder and opened the next topic.

"You guys came out a little earlier than I thought, and there's something bad inside?"

"Don't worry too much about that, Conrad."

"Oh, I know, that's not what I'm supposed to care about: more than that. Just now Bayar received a message from the ship that something very bad seems to have happened on the front line. ”

"Yes, the fleets of the Dark Angels and Space Wolves have suffered a serious setback."

"Ah, not surprising: is there anything else?"

"And ......"

Alpharis lowered his voice.

"It is said that Johnson and Luthor had a big fight on the Indomitable Truth, but no one knows exactly what they copied: the entire First Legion is now depressed like a pool of stagnant water, from veterans to recruits, and the Indomitable Truth is already a battleship sitting on a caldera."

“……”

“……”

"Ah......h

"It was a bit of a surprise to me."

"So, I think we're going to get over quickly?"

"Or else?"

"How do you think Johnson would solve these problems if he were to leave it to him?"

"Isn't there still Riemanrus? He's also a choice. ”

"Yes, and Ruth, even if it's Ruth, but ......"

"He's just Ruth, too."

(End of chapter)