Alarius Terminator

"What exactly is your background?"

The three exchanged glances. In the end, Black Robe Custodes Leonardo was the first to speak.

Rowan thought for a moment, recalling his own origins. He wanted to find a version of the story that people in this universe would find easy to accept.

"Before I answer that, do you know how the Emperor created the twenty-one Primarchs?"

"...Weren't there nine Primarchs? How could there have been as many as twenty-one?"

Living Saint Lucia looked confused.

"What... weren't there eighteen Primarchs in total?"

Inquisitor Sibyl fell into thought, excitement gradually glimmering in her eyes.

As an Inquisitor of the Order of the Hammer, she had a vague feeling that this concealed an enormous secret.

"Weren't there twenty Primarchs? Who's the other one?"

Custodes Leonardo gave his answer.

Well, this was the Imperium for you. Secrets everywhere.

Secrets of every size were hidden in every corner. Everyone had their own little schemes and calculations.

The end result was that everyone guarded a pile of secrets, and no one could explain the whole picture.

It was like a group of cats who should have been huddling together for warmth, but instead had all arched their backs like dragons, hissing and swiping at one another.

Rowan felt a little helpless.

He looked first at Lucia and explained succinctly, "The Primarchs created by the Emperor weren't limited to the nine the Ecclesiarchy claims. The other nine rebel Astartes Legions had Primarchs of their own. But because they betrayed humanity, the Imperium's upper echelons erased them from history."

Lucia: "Huh?"

The next moment, Rowan turned to Inquisitor Sibyl.

"There were originally twenty Legions. But two more Primarchs, along with their Legions, were struck from the Emperor's records during the Great Crusade for reasons unknown."

Sibyl: "Huh?"

Then he looked at Leonardo and put it even more simply. "The Twentieth Legion, the Alpha Legion, had two Primarchs: Alpharius and Omegon."

Leonardo's pupils contracted.

After hearing these secrets, the three exchanged glances, stunned and reeling from the thunderbolt of revelations.

Finally, they turned their puzzled gazes back to Rowan. Though they said nothing, the question in their eyes was clear:

How did you know all that?

Rowan shrugged and continued.

"Let's return to the original question. As for how the Emperor created the Primarchs—at some unknown point in time, He entered the depths of the Warp, into a place even the Chaos Gods refused to tread. There, by unknown means, He extracted twenty Warp essences, then used His advanced genetic technology to turn them into Primarchs."

"Th-this is really something we're allowed to hear?"

After a brief silence, Lucia couldn't help speaking. "Honestly, if someone had told me this before, I probably... no, I definitely would've sent them to the pyre."

"Over a slow fire, too," Sibyl added dryly.

"...After ten thousand years had passed, the Emperor decided to conduct another dangerous experiment. I don't know how He did it this time, either, but He succeeded.

"This time, He used a different place. He no longer went through the Warp... In any case, the experiment's result was that He successfully brought me into this universe."

Rowan pointed at himself.

"You're a Primarch?"

Custodes Leonardo was the first to challenge him.

A claim like "I am the son of God" carried far too much weight in the Imperium's religious climate.

"But historical records say the Primarchs were incredibly powerful. I don't sense any great threat from you."

"Don't lump me in with the Primarchs. We're two entirely different things..."

Rowan smiled. "Never mind. I'll just demonstrate what a Reality Warper can do. That might make it clearer."

He thought for a moment, then nodded to the Custodes. "Sorry. I'm about to offend you."

Leonardo let out a muffled groan. It felt as though an opening had been torn in his mind, and a gaze was slowly sweeping through his memories and consciousness.

The Custodes forced down the urge to draw his sword and stood still, even giving up on resisting altogether.

Fortunately, the gaze only passed over him quickly and didn't delve into his consciousness.

"Sorry. I only wanted to get a [memory] from your mind. I'm not interested in your other secrets."

As he spoke, Rowan reached out.

Before their eyes, the extremely hard Ceramite alloy floor of the ship transformed from solid matter into a malleable liquid. It surged upward at Rowan's will, finally forming a towering column that resembled a cocoon, slowly swelling and contracting.

Rowan thrust his hand deep into the cocoon-like mass. As he repeatedly recalled the information he had just obtained from Leonardo, he activated his Reality Warping Ability.

Understanding the structure, transforming the material, and reconstructing it.

After a while, Rowan drew a deep breath, pulled his hand back, and relaxed his tense mind.

At the level of a Level 2 Reality Warper, using Reality Warping on this scale clearly took a toll on him.

The liquid-like Ceramite receded, sinking back down and merging with the floor.

What appeared before them was an enormous suit of power armor, gleaming all over with a golden sheen. Its plates were covered in intricate honors crafted by master artisans, and a tall red plume stood atop its helmet.

"What is that?"

Lucia furrowed her brow and turned to the other two. The Inquisitor and the Custodes both looked utterly stunned.

Leonardo in particular looked as though his handsome face had contorted from sheer shock, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

"An Alarius Terminator?!"

At last, Leonardo could no longer hold back and cried out.

"Go ahead and try it. This isn't a model."

Rowan gestured invitingly.

At his words, the power armor disassembled itself into individual parts. They floated in the air, then surged toward Leonardo.

The Custodes began putting on the armor, still half in doubt. The instant the mechanical joints locked into place, the Machine Spirit stirred, and the Terminator Armor fitted itself tightly to his body. A surging tide of power swept through him, confirming that it was all real.

Completely real—the Alarius Terminator Armor!

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Sibyl could no longer keep her composure. "That's a Terminator suit reserved for the Adeptus Custodes' Ten Thousand! It's made entirely of incredibly rare Wraithbone, said to be worth a planet, and tough enough to withstand the aftershocks of an orbital bombardment! And you just..."

Her gaze dropped to the floor. She looked at it, then stamped hard. "Made it by hand out of Ceramite? How is that even possible?"

"That's the ability of a Reality Warper."

Rowan spread his hands. "To me, all matter is fundamentally part of objective reality. As long as its Reality Strength—that is, its Hume level—allows me to alter it... then, in my eyes, there's no real difference between one material and another."