Are You Questioning the Emperor?

"Hiss, hiss, hiss~ Sun Mushroom??!"

Francis kept rubbing his chin, staring at the large blue-green mushroom in the cultivation chamber as he fell into thought.

He hadn't expected the result of the synthesis to be not only non-humanoid, but to have crossed over into the fungal kingdom.

The mushroom could breathe rhythmically and constantly absorb light. What's more, as long as it was chopped up, each of its fragments could grow into a complete mushroom.

Clearly,

the new organism based on Orks had been a failure.

What Francis wanted most was the Orks' "Waaagh" ability. It was obvious that the new individual would lose this ability during the genetic fusion.

But that didn't matter. He had also designed a biological weapon.

Unlike the mushroom, this weapon looked more like a lump of dead flesh.

Hiss~

The chamber door opened, and Francis took out the lump of flesh.

He suddenly felt a prickling sensation at the back of his head. When he turned around, he saw that Constantin had called over several Adeptus Custodes, who looked ready to rush in at any moment.

"Uh~ Relax. I'm familiar with this stuff."

Francis decisively slapped the flesh onto his arm. The flesh began to breathe and frantically absorb energy from the light, swelling until it covered his entire arm.

His arm turned blackish green, covered in pale stripes. As it breathed, two shapes resembling gun barrels grew from his forearm, and then the flesh on his palm churned and transformed into bony claws.

Francis gave a light swipe, and the table, made of hard Ceramite, was sliced clean in half.

Then he controlled the gun barrels on his forearm again. They squirmed, then suddenly contracted and shot out a large quantity of green slime, which began corroding the table.

"Ha! It worked! I'm naming this piece of equipment the Two-Barreled Claw-Creature Armguard!"

"How about it?"

Francis proudly announced his latest creation, but instead of praise and gasps of amazement, he was met with a terrifying silence.

When he turned to look again, he saw even more Sisters of Silence outside. Everyone was on high alert.

"...It's not that serious, is it?" Francis was about to say more when he heard Constantin's icy voice. "Lord Number Eleven, we have no choice. You really are dangerous."

While Francis was still stunned, with a clang, the Sister of Silence in dark gold armor drew her executioner's greatsword.

Francis: "..."

"Uh, I never said I was going to kill you. Don't get worked up!"

As he spoke, he removed the armguard and pulled out a mass of strange, transparent slime.

He couldn't stand being in this damn place for even one more day. Playing nice was exhausting...

Once the armguard had been placed in a black box and sent out, it gradually reverted to a lump of flesh without any light shining on it.

"What is this?" Everyone gathered around, looking confused.

Francis rubbed his nose and said sheepishly, "Hehe, this armguard needs light to work. In places without light, it turns back into its original form."

Everyone: "..."

Seeing the looks of distaste on their faces, Francis immediately insisted, "My armguard doesn't need fuel. It runs on natural light! And it can repair itself if it gets damaged, okay!"

Everyone: "..."

All right.

Francis had to admit that this weapon had one tiny flaw.

Suddenly,

Francis seemed to think of something. He hurriedly processed the mushroom in the cultivation chamber a second time, putting it through a series of steps: grinding, diluting, targeting, and extracting.

A bottle of green potion appeared in Francis's hand. He looked at Constantin with a grin. "Hehe. Constantin, want to try my newly brewed hard liquor?"

Clearly,

they didn't dare gamble on whether drinking it would kill them.

"Marshal, if there's nothing else, we'll be on our way."

"That's right. We still need to get back to our original duties."

The Adeptus Custodes wore serious expressions. Now that Francis's experiment was over, they had good reason to return to their former posts.

"Mm, go ahead."

After receiving Constantin's response, the Sisters of Silence nodded as well, then left with the other Adeptus Custodes.

"Uh, don't worry. This bottle isn't poisoned."

Francis scratched his head, accidentally tossing his flowing blue hair a few times.

Constantin: "..."

That did it. Constantin turned and walked away with a black expression, leaving Francis standing awkwardly with the potion bottle in his hand.

Time always flew when one was lost in thought.

Clang!

Half an hour passed before he knew it. At the sound, Francis looked up toward the door.

Constantin was getting ready to leave the dungeon.

But he soon bumped into someone, and the potion nearly fell to the ground.

Just as Constantin was about to blow up, he felt a chill. With each breath, he could feel a coolness in both lungs.

"Constantin, why are you in such a hurry? Father sent me here to look for the Eleventh Primarch. Do you know where he is?"

Looking up at the other man, Constantin took a deep breath and calmly replied, "At the end of the dungeon."

Then he left the man with a handsome golden silhouette.

The other man: ???

Tap, tap, tap~

The man's footsteps were clearly heavier than Constantin's, and the sound echoed through the dungeon.

Countless doors lined the stone walls on both sides. The symbols on many of them had been scratched out, as though what lay inside were Pandora's boxes.

They beckoned to visitors to open them, but once opened, they might bring destruction.

Gradually, he reached the end of the dungeon.

There he saw a handsome man. If he had to describe him, he would say—pure and innocent!

Although Francis was picking his nose at that moment, even that gesture seemed full of artistic charm to him.

Zzt~

It seemed something had struck the psychic barrier. Francis turned to look.

A tall, powerfully built man stood outside the door. He had a thick mane of golden hair and wore silver-white Power Armour with golden stripes, decorated with wolf-head and fang ornaments.

In Francis's mind, the figure standing there wasn't a man, but a fierce giant wolf.

Under the bright moonlight, he was the Wolf King standing atop a pack of wolves!

"Leman Russ!" Francis murmured.

"You seem to have recovered quite well." Leman Russ nodded.

"Sixth Brother, what brings you here! Holy shit, you're not here to—?" Francis had been pretty excited to see the Wolf King himself.

But then,

he remembered that the Wolf King had taken part in the purge of his Legion.

Maybe he was the one who had beaten him so badly and put him in a sarcophagus!

And now he was here again!

"Sixth Brother?"

Leman Russ looked puzzled. He felt that Francis seemed different from before.

But he also felt much closer to him. He had been somewhat afraid to face Francis because of what had happened before.

"No. Father sent me to find you."

Hearing him say that, Francis thought it over and seemed to understand what this was about.

"Is it about Magnus? What did you do?"

Leman Russ was astonished. So Father had been telling the truth when he said Francis had gained the ability to see the future!

"That's right! Magnus disobeyed the order to return to Terra. This is what happened..."