"Why are you so insistent on the Primarch Project?"
"On the way here, I saw what your new ally had done, and what you just did. Perfect Thunder Warriors could perhaps replace the Astartes lady's new generation of super-soldier project."
Erda asked.
"The Warp essence of the Primarchs is already mine," the Emperor said. "If I do not use them, should I leave them to the gods? Even as we speak, some brilliant biologist may be seduced by the gods, preparing to shape them into puppets wholly belonging to the gods after the gods take them from me."
A brilliant biologist, seduced by the gods...
Erda felt that biologist was standing right before her.
"The Primarch Project will forge powerful tools and weapons for humanity," the Emperor added.
"If you intend to make those things in the Warp into living beings in the Real Universe, then you should not treat them as tools and weapons. You should treat them as living people," Erda retorted.
"It means the same thing," the Emperor said. "For humanity to climb out of its decline, many people must become tools. I myself am one of those tools."
Erda wanted to argue further, but she suppressed the impulse in her heart, because she had guessed how the Emperor would end this debate.
"Two choices."
"You do not help me, and I do not bind what I have acquired into tool-vessels forged for humanity. Then, one day, the gods take them from me, and some scientist on some world swallowed by darkness somewhere in the galaxy shapes them into the gods' extension in the Real Universe."
"You help me, and then we make the Primarch Project succeed, making those powerful entities in the Warp into useful tools for humanity's future."
The Emperor raised two fingers and waited