The First of the Primaris

Cawl's tone brimmed with technical pride:

"First, the Sinew Coils: implanted into the major muscle groups.

They greatly enhance the explosive power and sustained endurance of muscle fibers, allowing a warrior's strength and speed to far surpass those of traditional Astartes."

"Second, the Belisarian Furnace: located deep within the chest cavity.

It is an emergency organ akin to a biological reactor. When a warrior is critically wounded and near death, it can instantly release vast amounts of hormones and energy, providing one final burst of combat power or sustaining him through a vital mission."

"Third, the Magnificat: replaces the original gene-detection nerves.

It greatly enhances a warrior's sensory abilities, neural response speed, and multi-threaded information processing capacity. It can also strengthen synchronization with the machine spirit of his armor, making it especially beneficial to Librarian units."

Cawl concluded, "A fully modified Primaris Space Marine surpasses active-duty warriors across the board in baseline capabilities, battlefield survival, and adaptability.

Theoretical models indicate that one Primaris can contend with three to four experienced traditional brothers."

Approval showed in Guilliman's eyes. "It sounds like a solid evolution. I would very much like to see one for myself."

A pleased hum came from Cawl's mechanical chest cavity:

"In fact, my lord Primarch, I have already successfully created the first—and most special—Primaris.

I call him the First of the Primaris, Alpha Primus."

"Oh? The First of the Primaris—what makes him so strong?"

Guilliman's interest was piqued.

The name Primaris Space Marines had been quite well known, but in his previous life, he had not truly been a Warhammer player.

He genuinely had never heard of this First of the Primaris.

"He is here, my lord."

"He has always accompanied me, and he is now on Macragge."

"To my shame... he is a partially successful product of an experiment in which I attempted to replicate the sacred process by which the Emperor created the Primarchs."

Cawl's voice carried complex emotions. "Naturally, the experiment was a fundamental failure. We remain far from touching upon the realm of creating true Primarchs.

Yet it was precisely that attempt that accumulated the crucial data and established a stable Primaris enhancement process.

And Alpha Primus was the only individual from that experiment to 'survive' and stabilize, becoming the blueprint and prototype for all Primaris warriors."

"Cawl, Cawl."

Guilliman shook his head and laughed.

"You managed to conduct such an experiment, so why not conduct it a few more times?

If you did, would the limits of the Space Marines not be raised ever higher?"

"That cannot be done, my lord Primarch."

Cawl shook his head firmly. "Merely completing that experiment and obtaining Alpha Primus felt as though it had exhausted the Emperor's possible 'tolerance.'

The mysteries behind the birth of the Primarchs were fully mastered by the Emperor alone.

Even if we mobilized the resources of the entire Adeptus Mechanicus, we could only produce... a castrated version of a castrated version. Alpha Primus himself is already the limit."

"No need to be so modest, Cawl. Developing this enhancement system alone has proven your talent."

Guilliman waved a hand. "Then may I have this 'First of the Primaris' come out and let me see him?"

"Of course, Lord Guilliman. In truth, he has always served as one of my personal guards."

Cawl paused briefly. "Ordinary Primaris warriors are already powerful enough. But Alpha Primus... is especially unique.

Because I happened to possess the Sangprimus Portum granted by the Emperor, which contains the foundational genetic information of all twenty Primarchs.

This was also what you entrusted to me ten thousand years ago, my lord. I used it to develop the new generation of Primaris Space Marines, ensuring that each of them possesses the purest and holiest gene-seed."

Guilliman's gaze shifted slightly.

The original owner of this body had indeed arranged everything ten thousand years ago. Put bluntly, the Sangprimus Portum was a genetic storage device.

It was roughly equivalent to an oversized, preservation-enabled, neatly categorized advanced condom.

But this Sangprimus Portum contained the purest genetic information of twenty-one Primarchs.

It was a product developed ten thousand years ago by Lady Astartes, one of the creators of the Primarchs.

This lady possessed the Imperium of Man's most advanced genetic engineering technology at the time; even the Emperor held her in considerable respect.

"Using the pure genetic information of all the Primarchs."

"I carried out my boldest attempt at genetic editing."

Cawl's voice carried a scientist's fervor:

"From the genetic information of those twenty-one Primarchs, I took the most stable and universally compatible fragments, subjecting them to extraordinarily complex disassembly, selection, and recombination.

In the end... I successfully integrated and encoded them into the foundational framework of Alpha Primus's gene-seed."

He looked at Guilliman. "Thus, in theory, he carries extremely faint, highly harmonized genetic traits from all twenty-one Primarchs.

Although he inherited only an insignificant trace of each trait, when those twenty-one 'glimmers' gathered within one body, they still created an existence far beyond ordinary Primaris warriors.

The fusion of this genetic information also made his body taller and stronger than that of a normal Primaris, with far broader adaptability."

Cawl seemed to realize he had said too much and added, "Of course, I have no intention of making comparisons. I merely hope that you will know what to expect when you meet him."

"Are you subtly advising me to be a little 'careful,' Cawl? Hahahaha!"

"I never imagined you had a bit of tsundere in you."

Guilliman laughed loudly. "Relax, my Archmagos. You should be able to see that I am no longer the same as I was ten thousand years ago."

Upon hearing Guilliman say this, Cawl tilted his mechanical head slightly and rapidly compared his memory data with his present observations.

Though he did not understand the meaning of the word tsundere, he knew that the Primarch was teasing him.

It was likely an Old Terra expression.

*Indeed... the present Lord Guilliman differed markedly from the Thirteenth Primarch recorded in history, renowned for rationality and strategy, whether in his manner of action, his bearing, or the unfathomable power he displayed.

It seemed that ten thousand years of slumber had changed this one's temperament considerably as well.*

Cawl could fully understand Guilliman's changes, because he himself had undergone many transformations. Over ten thousand years, he had lost much of his memory, and his personality had been reshaped time and again.

Although his primary personality could still maintain the greatest degree of control over his body, he had nevertheless changed.

Lord Guilliman had slumbered in darkness for ten thousand years; some changes in his temperament were only natural.

And compared to the changes in his strength, these changes in personality meant nothing.

To say nothing else, that terrifying sight of him halting a Thunderhawk Gunship with his bare hands lay far beyond the conventional abilities of any known Primarch.

At that thought, Cawl's final trace of misgiving vanished.

"I was overthinking it, my lord Primarch. I will summon Alpha Primus at once."

Cawl turned around and issued a series of encrypted binary summoning commands.

Meanwhile, Guilliman wore an expectant smile touched with amusement.

He waited for the arrival of this "special offspring," who carried a glimmer from "all his brothers."