Cawl: What is a Shattered God?

What Rowan had not expected was that the Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagos he had been thinking about was actually much, much closer than he had imagined.

Valos World.

On the other side of the planet's surface stood a Mechanicus camp, bustling with activity.

Large numbers of Adepta Sororitas and servitors moved back and forth, calibrating all manner of equipment. At the center of the camp, an enormous mechanical drill was continuously boring downward, excavating a vast pit.

Beside it, a gigantic mechanical entity, resembling some statue of the Omnissiah and entirely shrouded in red robes, suddenly raised its head.

The mechanical appendages extending from its body like octopus tentacles slowly unfurled as well.

"What is it?"

At Cawl's side, another figure spoke. Wearing yellow-and-black power armor and standing far taller than an ordinary Astartes, he said, "You look as though you sensed something."

"Yes, but this feeling... I do not know how to describe it in language. Something akin to unease."

Amid a low mechanical hum, Belisarius Cawl, Archmagos Dominus of Mars, spoke slowly.

Alpha Primus found this rather strange. "That should not be possible. Your degree of mechanization is so extensive that you no longer even possess a heart in the biological sense. How could you feel unease? Is it an illusion?"

"It is not an illusion."

Cawl slowly shook his head. A trace of confusion showed in the pupils not covered by machinery. "My internal sensors show that, during a period lasting 1.3 seconds, for some unknown reason, every instrument on my body experienced a state of ecstatic Machine Spirit activity, greatly increasing their operational efficiency."

He paused, then continued, "And more than that... I seem to have experienced an auditory hallucination. It was as though... the Machine Spirits had come alive and begun chanting a name."

"That name was—[Shattered God]."

"That sounds rather troubling."

After hearing this, Alpha Primus spoke gravely.

"Could it be the influence of this Xenos ruin?"

"I can only say that it does not seem likely."

Cawl murmured.

Since he could not determine the cause, he had no intention of dwelling further on this unknown anomaly and instead changed the subject.

Belisarius Cawl's enormous body slowly shifted as he turned toward Alpha Primus. "How is that Strike Cruiser belonging to the Chaos Traitors?"

Alpha Primus paused, swiftly glanced over the information displayed in his helmet, and immediately replied, "It remains stationed in low orbit on the far side of this planet. The servo-skull scans indicate that they have made no further moves."

"Is that so..."

Cawl sighed. "What a pity."

The location of this expedition was not some remote backwater far from the light of the Astronomican, but the heart of the Imperium of Man—the Sol Sector.

Thus, in order to avoid drawing the attention of his colleagues on Mars and explore this Xenos ruin as discreetly as possible, Cawl had not chosen to travel aboard his personal vessel, the Ark Mechanicus Steel Soul. Instead, to conceal his movements, he had selected an Endurance-class light cruiser carrying technological relics and equipped with powerful anti-detection stealth capabilities.

Yet while this kept them hidden, it greatly weakened their combat strength. Especially after Cawl discovered that a Chaos Strike Cruiser had also appeared in this system, he could only helplessly remain concealed.

Otherwise, if the Ark Mechanicus Steel Soul had been here, he was fully confident that in a void battle, he could grant this vessel—which had forsaken the Omnissiah and been corrupted by the Warp—its final release.

"If we engage this Chaos War Band, our estimated chance of victory is thirty-five percent... the probability of failure is high."

Seemingly seeing Cawl's hesitation, Alpha Primus said, "According to the records, this ship's identification code corresponds to a Strike Cruiser lost in M40.780 by a company of the Sons of Medusa after they were attacked by the Chaos War Band [Blissful Angels]."

"Further intelligence shared between the Sons of Medusa and the Adeptus Mechanicus indicates that the [Blissful Angels] are a force that splintered off from the Traitor Legion, the Sons of the Emperor. Their strength is considerable."

"After acquiring this vessel, the lord of that War Band further corrupted and modified the Strike Cruiser, granting it the capacity to carry far more Astartes than its original design limit of a single company."

"Therefore, given the current disparity in strength, I do not recommend launching an attack rashly—especially while they have yet to discover us."

"...You are right."

Cawl murmured.

He knew very well that his responsibilities were too important—one could even say that he bore the future of the Imperium of Man upon his shoulders.

He should not, and could not, take such a risk.

"But, ah..."

For who knew how many times, Belisarius Cawl found himself longing for the Great Crusade—the era when humanity had surged forward with vigor, when everything had seemed to be improving.

At that moment, elsewhere, After leaving the logistics base of the Armageddon Steel Legion, Rowan and his group walked across the wilderness on foot, searching for suitable open ground to manufacture that equipment.

After all, displaying his abilities in public would have been far too shocking.

For the safety of those Astra Militarum troops—meaning, to prevent them from seeing something they should not and then being silenced by their own comrades—Rowan felt it was better to go a little farther away.

However, as they traveled, they began exchanging information. Rowan naturally laid out his ideas to the other two and asked for their opinions.

Yet what Rowan had not expected was that Lucia, who had never been fond of voicing her opinions, was the first to raise a question.

"Lord Rowan, why are you putting so much effort into this?"

Having heard Rowan's proposal, Lucia seemed puzzled. "Personally, I believe you should focus all your attention on continuing to improve your own abilities."

"Your power has already approached that of the legendary Primarchs. If you continue improving, I believe that one day, you will surely possess boundless power enough to save all of humanity."

"No, I think you may have misunderstood me."

Rowan frowned slightly and immediately replied, "This is part of the improvement plan. Simply put, although I am already very strong, I still cannot meet the requirements for advancing to the next stage. So, I need every source of strength that can assist me."

Upon hearing this, confusion appeared in the eyes of both Lucia and Sibyl.