Turing is just one of the backup players prepared by Emperor.
Malcador was walking in a long corridor below Throne Room. The destination was not within the main structure of the Palace, but deeper.
The walls of the corridor are made of dark gray stone, with no tiles, no murals, and no inscriptions indicating directions.
Every few steps, a recessed light emitted a steady cold light overhead, but that light could only illuminate a small area in the center of the corridor.
Tall Metal Door is embedded in the walls on both sides of the corridor. Each door is equipped with an independent blocking system. The numbers and marks on the door have long been scraped off, leaving only light scratches.
This is Emperor's Collection Vault.
The layers of secret chambers store the material remains collected by Emperor over tens of thousands of years.
Malcador has managed this collection for a long time, and he is familiar with the origin and value of most Collection.
But there were some things that even he had never seen, or even heard of.
At the end of the corridor appeared an armored door that was thicker than the other doors.
The door is made of metal with no decoration on the surface. There is a layer of oxidation and rust on the edge. It seems that the door has rarely been opened since it was installed.
Malcador stands in front of the door, lifts Staff, and aligns the pattern on the top of Staff with the groove on the side of the door.
There was a low running sound, and the locks of the gate were unlocked one after another, sliding inward slowly, revealing a gap big enough for one person to pass through.
After passing through the heavy door, Malcador came to a space fixed by Stasis Field.
This space is not large, only tens of square meters.
The air in the space is almost solid, with no movement of dust and no fluctuations in temperature.
Stasis Field envelopes the entire space, freezing the internal physical state at a certain moment. In the center of the space stands a black stone platform with waist height, and a black box is placed on the stone platform.
The box was plain in appearance, without any coat of arms or inscriptions on its surface.
It is made of a black material that barely reflects light. It looks like some kind of dark metal, but is heavier than metal.
Malcador steadily crossed the boundary of Stasis Field and came to the front of Black Box.
He stood in silence for a few seconds, stretched out his hand, and slowly opened the cover of Black Box.
The box was opened in Malcador's hands, and a smell of dust that had accumulated for countless years flowed out from the gap, but what caught his attention more was the scene inside the box.
What caught his eye was something Malcador could never have imagined.
That was a broken femur.
To be precise, it is a femur that has been broken and then restored.
The two ends of the bone have healed, and there is an obvious layer of new callus at the healing area. The reconnected part is slightly thicker than the original structure, but the overall shape of the human femur is still maintained.
The surface of this bone has been completely fossilized, showing a dark brown texture, like a specimen brought from a rock formation that is older than history.
Malcador has seen countless holy objects.
Imperium Palace stores the flags used by Emperor in Unification Wars, as well as countless flags used in Dark Age of Technology, and even earlier Collection.
Under the femur, there were embers covering the bottom of the box.
It was a layer of black powder with uneven thickness, with a small amount of off-white fragments in it, like burned branches or grass stems.
Malcador did not touch those embers, but he could see that these remnants belonged to an extremely long-lasting flame.
The fire wasn't intense enough to completely burn all the materials to dust, but it was enough to leave these marks.
At this moment, Malcador was in trouble.
He doesn't know what these are.
His experience, his wisdom, and the knowledge he accumulated over a long period of time could not provide an answer when faced with this black box.
He could not judge from the material, shape and state of preservation who this femur belonged to, which era it came from, and how it came to be collected here.
But he could feel the terrifying power contained in these two items.
Malcador Close the lid and carefully pick up the black box.
He turned around and walked out of Stasis Field.
The heavy door closed again behind him, and the locks were fastened one after another.
He led Black Box through the corridor, passed through unnumbered doors, and walked in the direction of Throne Room.
Back to Throne Room, Turing hasn't arrived yet.
The light in Throne Room is still dim.
Emperor is still sitting on top of Golden Throne, and his posture has not changed from when Malcador left.
The surface of his armor reflected the faint light cast from a high place, and his emotionless eyes looked at the darkness in front of the Hall.
There is no one else in the empty Throne Room, not even the attendant and Servitor. It seems that only Emperor is left here.
Malcador stepped onto the high platform, and the sound of boot soles colliding with the steps echoed in the open space.
He walked step by step in front of Emperor, stopped when he was close enough, and brought the black box to a position where Emperor could see it.
"My lord." Malcador spoke, his voice was not loud, but in this Silence's Throne Room it was as clear as a pin falling to the ground.
"What is this?" Malcador picked up the box and placed it in front of Emperor.
Malcador asked him the question he had been thinking about along the way, and expected Emperor to give an explanation that could fill the gaps in his knowledge.
Emperor's gaze retracted from a distance and fell on the black box.
Emperor looked at the box for a long time, recalling a memory that was older than himself.
"This is Human Civilization's first femur that heals itself." Emperor spoke slowly.
Hearing this, Malcador was obviously taken aback.
At this moment, Malcador understood that the meaning it carried obviously far exceeded its physical form.
In the dark prehistoric times, the first fractured and then re-healed femur meant that someone straightened the broken bone of a companion, fixed it with soil and bandages, and waited for it to grow back.
This means that for the first time, humans have given up abandoning the injured, for the first time they have chosen to take care of another person's body, and for the first time they have realized that there is a relationship between themselves and their own kind that goes beyond hunting.
For humans, this is not strength, but it is the starting point of civilization.
"The ashes below are the first flames raised by mankind." Emperor continued.
The black powder covering the bottom of the box is the remnants of a certain bonfire, and its meaning is also the starting point of civilization.
Fire separates humans from beasts, allowing humans to use light to dispel darkness, making the night no longer a dead zone where no one can survive.
As Emperor's voice fell, a look of shock appeared on Malcador's face.
His fingers holding the box tightened slightly, then relaxed.
He always thought that he had seen enough holy objects and understood enough history.
But these two objects, which are the remains of the most primitive human memory, were beyond the scope of his knowledge and beyond his expectations.
Malcador lowered his head and looked at the black box, with a deeper sense of tranquility in his eyes.
"Prepare these things and give them to Lorgar when he comes back." Emperor said.
There was no pause in the voice, as if the arrangement had been prepared long ago.
Malcador did not answer immediately.
He looked at Emperor, wanting to read more information from that face, but Emperor's eyes had moved into the distance again, towards the darkness Stars outside Throne Room.
Malcador finally nodded and held the black box firmly to his chest. "I understand, my lord."
After saying that, he turned around, walked down the platform, and walked out of Throne Room.