"This is the castle's Imperial Guard tactical preparation room. The armor polishing tools, mecha-servants, ammunition, Power Armor life-support nutrient fluid, combat drugs, armored personnel carriers, and jet hover bikes you need are all here." Hammurabi enthusiastically introduced everything a newly arrived colleague would need to protect the Emperor at close range. He knew this Imperial Guard had spent nearly two hundred years sleeping and reacting in artificial amniotic fluid. If not for receiving the Time Stone's aid, as he had, to accelerate time and complete the modifications, Hammurabi thought he might never have lived to meet this colleague. Gene Alchemy continued operating at the conceptual level to alter his core genome, elevate his body and soul, and allow this Imperial Guard to begin work immediately.
"This is the blessed and purified library. Some books have been scanned and uploaded into your Power Armor database for you to read at any time, but some more dangerous books may only be read here and are not permitted to leave the castle. After all, we are not in the Obsidian Tower of the City of Immortals. This place is full of the Emperor's servants, and they are all human."
Hammurabi led the new Imperial Guard into a winding, lightless corridor.
The first half of this passage beneath the castle was covered in sensors and harmonic tripwire detection systems. These invisible security measures were the most basic sort—webs that could be avoided with low-light vision—but for ordinary people, they were insurmountable invisible barriers. Farther ahead stood sealed alloy doors radiating cold air, genetic code locks, pre-programmed armed mecha-servants fitted with various weapons and sacred-hymn purification implants, as well as psychic marks. Only authorized Imperial Guards could pass safely; even the Sisterhood was barred from entry.
"Protecting the Emperor differs from other duties. You must