59 Each Harboring Their Own Schemes

Malcador drank tea, calmly watching Hades sit up. The Underking's pupils trembled violently as he stared at Malcador in disbelief.

"Old Mal, old Mal... over these ten thousand years, when... when did you become so humorous?"

Malcador heard The Emperor's mockery from within the Warp, but the former Imperial Regent merely smiled on the surface.

"Ten thousand years, wraith. We have all changed too much."

First came reminiscing, then the setup of how different things were now from before. Malcador had done it deliberately.

The first scene Hades saw was him sitting together with The Emperor. That, too, had been Malcador's intention.

All for the sake of... trust.

Hearing Malcador's words, Hades gave a bitter smile.

"Things truly have changed too much over ten thousand years—but at least we are still..." He glanced at The Emperor, who sat silently upon the Golden Throne. Was it his imagination? Why did the Emperor's complexion seem even worse?

Hades carefully chose his words.

"Intact."

"How is Terra's situation now? I heard there was unrest in the Ministry of the Interior?"

"It was the Lord of Change," Malcador said calmly. "Merely a failed plan... It thought I had no contingency measures. It was wrong."

The azure patterns on Malcador's arm slowly faded. He was not worried Hades would notice, because his Psychic Power itself was already mixed with too many things.

Blaming it on the Lord of Change would create the illusion for Hades that he was still aligned with the Imperium.

Then, using the contingency data to rebuild the Ministry of the Interior, he would completely take control of the Imperium's political affairs in the open. There would be no more Roboute Guilliman, no more Mortarion, no more Judgement who sensed something was wrong and sought the truth, nor any Custodian Guard trying