The New Twenty

Thirty thousand years ago, more than one billion people were supported here.

Now, there is nothing.

Guilliman was silent.

He has seen many such planets. Worlds that have been devoured by insect swarms are always like this, clean and barren of grass.

But he had never really stood on such a land and felt that kind of emptiness - the kind of emptiness where even the wind carried deathly silence.

Asuryan bent down, stretched out his hand, and gently pressed his five slender fingers on the dry ground.

The movement was very gentle, like caressing an injured child.

The air was quiet for three seconds, and then, a green bud emerged from Asuryan's fingers.

It's not the kind of thing that pops out all at once, but grows slowly, like a baby stretching.

First there are two tiny cotyledons, then a slender stem, then a larger leaf, then another.

It swayed between Asuryan's fingers, as if it was breathing.

The color of the buds was emerald green, dazzling green, as green as gems, so green that Guilliman, who was used to gray and dark green, was in a trance for a moment.

Asuryan didn't stop.

His palms were pressed against the soil, and Psionic Energy was flowing silently.

Those buds spread from one person's fingers to another, and then to farther places.

The grass is growing, flowers are blooming, and the roots of the trees are slowly extending through the cracked soil, like a net darning the earth.

Guilliman squatted down, imitating Asuryan, and pressed his palms on the spreading grass.

He opened his fingers, and blue-gold light poured out from his palms and spread along the grass.

Wherever the light passed, the cracks in the earth began to heal, the rocks weathered into soft soil, and the dry smell of scorched earth in the air was being replaced by the smell of moist grass.

They knelt there side by side, a Eldar king of the gods and a second Emperor of the human race, injecting Psionic Energy into this once-dead but now resurrecting planet, while looking down at the new plants emerging from between their fingers.

This scene is really too quiet, so quiet that Guilliman is not used to it.

The new blades of grass were swaying in the breeze. He ran his fingers over the blades of grass, feeling that the life force pouring out from the soil, from the air, and from everywhere was refilling the land.

After a long time, Asuryan stood up.

He patted the dirt on his hands, and a rare sense of satisfaction appeared in his pale golden eyes.

"Let's go." His voice was very soft, "There are still many places to go."

Guilliman stood up, he did not rush to leave, he just stood there, looking at the growing trees, the gathering streams, and the green spreading on the horizon.

A gust of wind blew from behind him, carrying the smell of grass and earth, and a freshness like new life.

He turned around and walked in the direction of Asuryan.

Behind him, the land was waking up, and the sun was shining through the clouds, illuminating the new lives.

The two walked side by side, neither of them speaking.

The wind continued to blow behind them, carrying the fresh breath of the earth.

The patch of green grass, the small tree, and the stream all continued to exist and grow behind them, silently telling that they had been here before.

The figures of Guilliman and Asuryan were like two shadows floating in the wind, moving slowly, silently and unstoppably towards the last wasteland on the planet.

They stopped there, and the rain just started to fall.

Fine water droplets fell from the sky, splashing into tiny splashes on the green grass.

Asuryan stretched out his hand to catch a few drops of rainwater, which flowed down his palm and fell into the soil.

"The rain stopped." Guilliman said softly.

Asuryan did not answer.

He just turned his head and glanced at Guilliman. His pale golden eyes were a little brighter than usual in the rain curtain.

The bulkhead of the petri dish slowly opened.

The dark green nutrient solution was sucked away from the bottom, making a thin sound like ebbing tide.

Swarm Prince stood up from the liquid, and his blue-white eyes narrowed slightly the moment they came into contact with the air outside the cabin.

Then, he opened his eyes.

Those are a pair of human eyes.

The pupils are amber, and there is a circle of fine golden lines on the edge of the pupils, as if they have been lightly outlined by the tip of some invisible pen.

His face is no longer the faceless helmet made of chitin.

It was the face of an adult male, with clear contours and a clean jawline.

His skin is light gray, with a cold white sheen like marble.

His hair is silver-white, reaching to his shoulders and back, and there is a light golden halo at the ends of his hair - that is the light that penetrates when Smart Atoms flows in his body.

Except for the dark green carapace covering his body like armor, he looks like an ordinary human male.

Of course, that's after excluding the full five-meter height.

His body levitated in the cabin. The movement was not flying, but a more natural movement, as if floating in water.

He opened his arms, and the new carapace glowed with a cold luster under the light. The edges of each carapace were covered with fine golden lines, as if they had been inlaid with Adamantium silk thread by some ancient craftsman.

He opened his palms, and his five slender fingers gently drew a circle in the air.

An invisible force spread from the palm of his hand, and the entire cabin trembled slightly under the influence of that force.

The dust on the metal walls was shaken off, the lighting devices hanging on the top swayed slightly, and the busy insect hive creatures stopped at the same time, raised their heads, and looked at the figure suspended in mid-air.

"What an amazing power."

He spoke softly, his voice no longer low and hoarse as before, but clear and reverberating like a metal bell, "My own biological stance... Every life will be transformed into an asteroid."

This is a power that transcends the times, and it is a power that surpasses my understanding of biology.

He closed his eyes and felt the sound of Smart Atoms flowing through his body.

The sound was very soft and thin, like the sound of ice breaking in spring.

He could feel those tiny golden particles fusing perfectly with every nerve, every muscle, and every piece of his carapace, forming a brand new balance that he had never experienced before.

The corners of his mouth were slightly raised - that was a smile, a human smile.

Behind him, twenty huge hatching tanks lit up at the same time.

The dark green nutrient solution is boiling in the pool, and the new bodies are slowly taking shape.

Their shapes are different from the creations killed by Roge·Dorn before. Each one is taller, more complete, and closer to the outline of "those twenty beings".