Local Universe, Terra.
When the first rays of morning sunlight scattered across the former Himalayas through the biting cold wind,
countless metal walls, so thick that even large-caliber Laser Cannons or massive artillery bombardments could scarcely breach them, shimmered with an intensely dazzling metallic sheen.
The Himalayas had now been completely transformed into a superpalace hollowed out from within, yet still built against the mountainside.
Although the master of this superpalace had not returned here in a long time,
everything within it seemed to be continuing along its predetermined plans and course.
At the summit of the metal palace, standing at an elevation of 8,848 meters,
aside from endless snow and jagged boulders,
the massive golden emblems of the Scourge Legion and the Imperium of Man gleamed beneath the cold sunlight.
Buzz buzz buzz—
At that moment, the faint, deep roar of engines came from the azure sky.
A Thunderhawk Gunship belonging to the Astartes sped toward the landing platform of the Himalayan palace.
Once the Thunderhawk Gunship had landed with a thunderous crash and come to a complete stop,
the figure who descended through the opened hatch was a burly man clad in Mortal Power Armor.
He looked like a stern middle-aged Inquisitor.
Two carefully groomed black mustaches rested above his lightly pursed lips.
Yet the fine wrinkles faintly visible between his brows and the clusters of white hair at his temples suggested that his true age far exceeded imagination.
At that moment, the middle-aged Inquisitor instinctively swept his gaze across the familiar surroundings.
He casually waved a hand toward the tall Weepers Terminator emerging from inside the Thunderhawk Gunship.
Then, without another word, he walked into the Himalayan palace.
After slowly driving his Mortal Power Armor through several intelligent inspection barriers and unexpectedly encountering more than a dozen