Bona looked at the unconscious Commissar with a conflicted expression. In the end, he had spared his life.
He did not understand why this Commissar insisted on such meaningless resistance. With no chance of victory, he would only throw his life away.
Burning of this intensity would have reduced the Drukhari from before to ashes long ago.
Such an indomitable soul...
Bona looked at the furious soldiers of the Astra Militarum. Though they still could not control their bodies, he knew perfectly well that they would never give up resisting.
Not even with guns pressed to their foreheads.
His expression remained conflicted, before his gaze settled on the grim-faced colonel.
"Colonel, let's negotiate."
"Give me three months, and I'll make you understand everything I'm doing."
"If I fail, I'll withdraw from this world myself."
Three months...
Sakot silently weighed his options.
Three months would be enough for the newly established Forge World in the Asdenak System to notice something was wrong here.
The enemy was too powerful. They needed to wait for support from the Adeptus Mechanicus before they could defeat this Chaos army.
"Agreed. I can temporarily withdraw our troops from the Hive City."
"But I want to monitor everything you do."
Bona nodded.
"Agreed."
In the blink of an eye, he released his psychic control, and the Astra Militarum regiments returned to normal.
Sakot looked at the Commissar lying on the ground.
"Medic, take the Commissar away to rest."
After watching the Astra Militarum regiments leave the Hive City, Bona headed for the Upper Hive.
Meanwhile, in the Upper Hive...
Horus strutted smugly through the luxurious palace. The once-magnificent hall was packed with nobles in all manner of lavish clothing.
"Ah, you're back."
Horus stepped aside.
"As you asked, I rounded up everyone I could catch."
Bona looked at the nobles.
The nobles stared at Bona in astonishment. The giant they had been fawning over was not the commander after all. Instead, this unremarkable-looking man in white robes held the highest authority.
His eyes were like knives. Whenever the nobles looked at him, they felt as though he were staring into their souls.
Bona said:
"I intend to become the supreme authority on this planet."
The nobles expressed their agreement. They did not mind the planet getting a new ruler. Even the former Planetary Governor praised Bona without hesitation.
"What I intend to do is very unusual, and it may well bring the Imperium down on us."
Some nobles fell silent, unsure what to say, while others simply ignored Colonel Sakot's furious glare from beside them.
"I intend to raze this ugly Hive City."
The nobles voiced some objections, though they too felt that the Hive City was utterly rotten.
"I intend to strip you of your power and wealth, so that the people of the Mid Hive, the Underhive, even its lowest depths, and those living in this planet's wastelands..."
"Can receive what they deserve."
The nobles all fell silent.
They could not understand where this man's sudden whim had come from.
One noble cautiously said:
"My... lord, those foolish, ignorant people cannot be entrusted with anything important."
Bona said:
"I know."
"I know how weak, barbaric, and ignorant they are. I also know how selfish, lazy, and foolish they are."
"But the countless millions of them are humanity, the foundation of human civilization."
The nobles were dumbfounded. They had no idea what this man was thinking. Perhaps he had read so many books that they had addled his brain.
They wanted to say something, but remained silent.
After all, only when he had battered himself bloody against reality would he understand their importance.
And so Bona's rule over his little planet began.
Contrary to what others had expected, there were no mass sacrifices by the Chaos Cult, nor any sweeping recruitment drives.
Everything continued as usual.
The enforcers of the Adeptus Arbites continued their patrols. Ordinary laborers kept toiling like ants, and dozens of Underhive scum still died every day fighting over a few scraps of food.
Occasionally, Astartes appeared and beat to death those who dared resist.
Meanwhile, Bona, the de facto ruler of the entire sector, stayed somewhere no one had expected.
The Underhive.
He was not wearing his outrageously conspicuous white robes. Instead, he wore filthy clothes, with a layer of dust and machine oil smeared across his face and half an energy bar in his hand, looking just like an ordinary Underhiver.
When Horus arrived, he did not recognize him at first. Only when he saw those alert eyes, so unlike an Underhiver's, did he confirm that this was Bona.
He walked over and sat beside Bona.
"Oh, I really don't understand why you came here. Are you looking for hardship when you don't have to?"
Bona handed the energy bar to Horus, who accepted it in confusion.
"What is this?"
"A day's wages for the people at the bottom of the Underhive. They earn three energy bars a day. They have to work an entire day in a factory for these things that barely keep them fed."
Horus took a bite. It felt...
As though he were chewing on a candle. The thing barely even had a taste.
"The people here live very hard lives. Even their drinking water has to be paid for through the Water Purification Guild. They're burdened with debt from birth, and some even sign contracts with the Corpse Guild. Even their bodies won't belong to them after they die."
"All it takes is a minor illness or a small disaster-even something as simple as accidentally twisting an ankle-to deal a devastating blow to a fragile family."
"From the scum of the Underhive to the nobles of the Upper Hive, everyone is constantly being squeezed by the Imperium's Imperial Tithe."
"This precarious system of taxation can easily destroy an Imperial World, starving hundreds of millions of people to death or turning them into the tithe itself."
Bona stood.
"To eliminate a single Chaos Cultist, the Imperium drives ten people into the embrace of Chaos, a hundred to raise the cry of rebellion, a thousand into famine, and ten thousand from their homes."
"That's why I want to change all this."
Horus watched him with interest.
He saw something in this man that set him apart from this era: that sense of naive hope that had filled the days of the Great Crusade.
Perhaps that's also why I'm willing to talk to him?
"Have you finished surveying the sector?"
Horus was jolted out of his thoughts.
"The Tarankd Sector is terribly barren. There's nothing here, and this is already the most desolate part."
Bona nodded.
"We need to take action. Getting help from the Adeptus Mechanicus, for instance..."
"Claude, are you there?"
A girl's voice rang out, and everyone's gaze immediately turned toward it.
An equally filthy girl appeared on the other side, holding a reasonably clean-looking box. She stared at them in astonishment.
After seeing the enormous Horus and the Thunder Warriors, she looked at Bona again, seemingly realizing something.
The girl bowed in terror.
"Angels of the Emperor, forgive my intrusion. I'll leave at once."
The girl hurriedly scrambled up and left, but Horus could clearly sense her disappointment.
Seems someone has quite the charm.
Horus smiled, then whistled. Bona shot him a vicious glare before chasing after her.
"Saha, please wait."
Before you continue