Morgana's Arrival

Raven listened to the Emperor lay out the next phase while eating fries.

He knew that Big Guy had laid a trap for those Mechanicus Cultists on Mars years ago.

Before discussing that trap, one first had to understand the C'tan.

The C'tan were an ancient race whose history could be traced back to the primordial era before the galaxy had even taken shape.

They were beings of pure matter, completely cut off from the Warp, with all their power drawn from the real universe.

They could be called the most powerful non-psychic entities in the cosmos, gods of the material realm in the truest sense.

The C'tan fed on stars. They remained neutral in the conflicts between the various races of the universe—or rather, they simply did not care about the conflicts of the real universe.

Until the Fearful Ones, predecessors of the Voidlings, challenged the Ancient Sages out of envy for their long lives, igniting the War of Heaven.

The Fearful Ones were beaten black and blue by the Ancient Sages, lost all the territory they had expanded into, and retreated back to their homeworld.

By chance, they discovered the C'tan, who fed on stars.

In order to defeat the Ancient Sages, they chose to cooperate with them.

As gods of the material realm, the C'tan possessed knowledge and power beyond the imagination of other races.

But they had no physical bodies, existing only as clouds of energy.

The Fearful Ones helped the C'tan create bodies, and also made them realize that souls and flesh were tastier than the energy released by stars—and more useful to them as well.

With the C'tan's help, the Ancient Sages could no longer suppress the Fearful Ones, and the second War of Heaven erupted.

This time, the Ancient Sages suffered defeat after defeat, their forces collapsing as they became snacks for the C'tan.

Yet the Fearful Ones' short lifespans remained the greatest obstacle preventing them from expanding and claiming victory.

To overcome this weakness, the Fearful Ones abandoned their fleshly bodies and souls under the C'tan's temptation.

They uploaded their consciousness into metal bodies, becoming Voidlings with terrifying combat power and the ability to resurrect endlessly.

Unable to withstand the terrifying Voidlings and C'tan, and with the Warp birthing all manner of hungry fiends due to the War of Heaven, the Ancient Sages were ultimately defeated.

After defeating the Ancient Sages, the Voidlings seized the opportunity presented by the C'tan slaughtering one another and rebelled.

They used superweapons to blast all the C'tan into fragments.

They trapped those fragments inside tesseract labyrinths and used them as energy cells.

A fragment of the Void Dragon, capable of controlling all machinery, somehow ended up on Earth.

During the eleventh to twelfth centuries, a fragment of the Void Dragon somehow fell near Cyrene in Libya on Earth.

At the time, the Emperor, who was working as a knight, fought a great battle against the Void Dragon.

That was how humanity came to have the legend of George Slaying the Dragon.

In truth, the Emperor had not killed the Void Dragon.

Instead, he imprisoned it within a dimensional labyrinth beneath Mars, where immortal Guardians watched over it.

The Void Dragon's influence enabled humanity to grasp the secrets of manufacturing machines, accelerating the progress of civilization.

When the Eternal Night Crisis erupted and human civilization entered a period of decline, the Emperor assumed the identity of Moravec and made another trip to Mars.

There, he studied how to use the power of the Warp to strengthen machinery, as well as technologies unconstrained by the laws of reality, soul-targeted coding, and other forbidden knowledge.

He also established the predecessor of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Singularity Brotherhood, and left behind Moravec's Cellar, which contained much sealed black technology.

When he departed, he left behind a prophecy that the Machine God would one day descend upon Mars.

Thanks to those arrangements, taking Mars would be even easier for the Emperor than taking Luna.

"Big Corn Cob, this ketchup is pretty good."

He lowered his voice as he spoke to Waldo.

Raven's voice was not loud, but all three possessed keen senses and naturally heard him clearly.

All three of them looked helpless.

At such an important meeting, this guy only cared about his ketchup.

"Thanks."

Waldo looked helpless. "You need to mind the occasion. We are discussing how to take Mars and lay the foundation for the Great Crusade."

"For the esteemed Omnissiah Big Guy, something like that is just a trivial little matter."

Raven flapped his wings and landed on the Emperor's shoulder.

"Mars has now developed a faith centered on worshipping technology. Since those Mechanicus Cultists want a god, then we can simply give them one."

The Emperor revealed a surprised expression.

Raven had actually voiced the plan he had been working on for years.

He had been thinking all along about how to advance the matter.

"Give those machine-tinkering people a god?" Malcador fell into thought. "That is indeed a good proposal."

Raven said, "Show those Mechanicus Cultists a miracle. I heard Mars has not had rain for a long time. We can transport the Moon's weather control device over there."

"Once Big Guy makes his entrance, we'll control the weather device and combine it with your psychic powers, old man. Let Mars have rain for three days and three nights. Those oil cans will bow their heads and submit."

Malcador rolled his eyes at Raven calling him old man.

He called the ruler of the Empire Big Guy, the commander of the Adeptus Custodes Big Corn Cob, and himself old man, while Raven himself was a raven.

Good grief, the Empire's four great figures could not make up one normal person, could they?

"What if those Mechanicus Cultists—no, those Martian natives—still refuse to submit?"

"Isn't that simple? Make it rain for three months and drown them. Every one of those Mechanicus Cultists has mechanical prosthetics implanted in them. They're heavy as hell, so they definitely can't swim. They'll definitely croak."

"You've said enough. Now stop talking."

Waldo reached out, patted Raven's head, then shoved him aside.

"How dare you treat me like that, Big Corn Cob? Big Guy, hurry up and make this guy guard the water."

Before Raven could finish speaking, Waldo took a bag of fries and a new flavor of ketchup from beside him.

"The Adeptus Custodes' loyalty to the Empire is witnessed by Terra and Luna. Big Guy, once I am strong enough, we absolutely have to take Big Corn Cob out to see the world."

The three looked helplessly at Raven, who had buried his head in his fries, shook their heads, and continued discussing matters related to conquering Mars.

The meeting quickly finalized the action plan for Mars and decided to establish the War Committee.

The committee's responsibility was to consolidate the Empire's current resources, rebuild orbital stations and spaceports, construct various ships, and prepare for the conquest of Mars.

"Oh, right. Start a tomato cultivation project while you're at it. Plant as many varieties as possible."

The Emperor added that remark at the end of the meeting.

"Damn, Big Guy, you're amazing. That is absolutely the most correct decision you made in this entire meeting."

Raven excitedly flapped his wings.

After handling the Empire's affairs, the Emperor proposed that Raven take him to the Super God Universe to continue studying Gene Engine technology.

Raven said, "Because of our previous crossing, the Super God Universe and this universe have already formed an initial connection. This time, when we travel to the Super God Universe, we may not be able to anchor the time difference to one day."

"If one day passes over there, how long will pass here?" the Emperor asked.

"The time ratio may reach five to one. If five days pass over there, about one day will pass here. As the number of crossings increases and the two universes remain in contact longer, their flow of time will gradually synchronize."

"What about traveling to other universes?"

"If we travel to a new universe, things will be different again. Since the two universes have never made contact, we can still anchor it to one day."

After hearing Raven's explanation, the Emperor turned to Malcador and Waldo. "I will leave the Empire to you two. Proceed according to the established plan. I will strive to return when the army is ready."

The Emperor placed a hand on Malcador's shoulder. "Take care of Number Twenty. Do not let anyone else know of his existence."

Malcador nodded.

"I understand."

After making his arrangements, the Emperor said to Raven, "Let's go, Mr. Raven."

Raven transformed into light, forming a vortex.

This time, the Emperor did not wait for the vortex to swallow him. He stepped into it on his own initiative.

The familiar sensation of distortion emerged once more.

When everything returned to normal, he was back in the Super God Universe.

The gods wandering through the Void Realm, constantly feeding on the universe, sensed something.

But they still did not see the Emperor and Raven crossing over.

When the Emperor returned to Super Academy, Ge Xiaolun spotted him immediately.

"Boss, where did you go? We didn't see you at all yesterday. The teachers were looking for you."

"Was my great sword yesterday badass or what?"

Ge Xiaolun, clad in black armor, excitedly greeted the Emperor.

"Very good."

"Boss, can't you make your praise sound a little more sincere? Fine, I'm used to you being like this anyway. Teacher Ryze said that if I saw you, I should tell you to go find him."

Ge Xiaolun rubbed his forehead.

"I understand."

The Emperor nodded. After learning about some of yesterday's events from Ge Xiaolun, he went to find Teacher Ryze.

Ryze did not actually have anything important to discuss.

The Emperor had simply performed exceptionally well in the battle the day before, so Ryze called him over to praise him.

The Emperor did not waste the opportunity. Using rhetoric and psychic powers, he guided Ryze into voluntarily giving him a substantial reward.

"This is data and knowledge related to the Divine River Civilization. I really don't understand why you like researching this stuff so much!"

"Most people would be doing well just to understand the Gene Engine implanted in their bodies, but you want to reverse-engineer the God-Making Project."

Ryze handed all the knowledge related to the Divine River Civilization and the God-Making Project to the Emperor.

A rare, sincere smile appeared on the Emperor's face.

This reward was far too precious.

It would become the key to humanity's revival and rise.

One day, he would lead humanity to conquer the heavens and rule over all worlds.

Over the next several days, the Emperor immersed himself in study as he had before.

Meanwhile, many things happened in the outside world.

Of these, the two most significant were, first, Carl, who called herself the God of Death, publicly appearing and enticing humanity across the world to join the Dark World; second, Morgana, who called herself the King of Demons, descending upon Earth.

Brothers, scroll to the end of the chapter, make an investment, and keep reading. Thank you, everyone.