Two diametrically opposed guesses tugged at his mind, like two saws cutting back and forth through his cognition.
If Kerry Von himself is a creation of the Tyranids, a highly mimicking humanoid vessel of the Hive Mind...
How did he manage to deceive the Ecclesiarchy's faith verification? And how did he manage to evade the Psychic Power perception of the Sisters of Silence around him?
No matter how sophisticated the Tyranids's mimicry technology is, it cannot fool the Blanks ' inspection.
Cassandra and Elaine had several close encounters with Lynn, but never detected any Psychic Power fluctuations from the Xenos.
What's even more puzzling is the motive.
If he is the vanguard of the Zerg, then everything he does is too abnormal.
Repel the Orks, wipe out the Chaos, stabilize the order of the Hive City, and pay the Tithe on time.
Everything he did reinforced the Imperium of Man's dominance over this galaxy.
It's impossible that the Tyranids were taking pity on humanity and helping them manage their territory, just so they could be fatter when they devoured them later?
So, is it essentially a form of "food protection"?
This is ridiculous.
He shook his head, lamenting that his thoughts were utterly rebellious.
But what if he were purely human?
That makes no sense at all.
What are the Tyranids? They are the most powerful and ruthless predators in the galaxy, a world-destroying race that knows only how to devour and destroy.
The Imperium has fought them for so many years, and there has never been a single instance of effective communication.
They have no individual will, no concept of negotiation; they are like a cold and ruthless program of destruction, leaving only desolation in their wake.
No one has ever been able to "control" the Tyranids.
Even the Inquisition's Xenos research department, after thousands of years of research, has not found any possibility of communication or control.
How could a young, impoverished nobleman accomplish what even the Imperium couldn't?
The more Dominic thought about it, the more confused he became.
The ice field outside the window gradually receded into the distance, and the landscape below changed from snow-covered Hive City to a gray-brown wasteland. In the distance, the lights of the starport were faintly visible beneath the clouds.
He gripped the sampling tube tightly in his palm.
All the questions, all the mysteries, ultimately point to one person.
Kerry von.
Only by confronting him directly can you get the real answer.
Deeper into the Arctic ice sheet lies a magnificent palace hidden beneath the glacier.
This place is more secluded, colder, and quieter than the temple in the City of Teeth.
Ice-blue energy patterns flowed slowly along the dome and walls, like frozen blood vessels, maintaining the operation of the entire underground space.
In the center of the hall stood a huge ice coffin, within which the outline of a dragon could be vaguely seen, surrounded by a pale blue, chilling aura that rose and fell like breaths.
The divine messenger, Yi, stood before the ice coffin.
He was taller and thinner than the deceased Si, and his long, gray-blue robe clung to his slender figure. He also had four arms, but he had a more scholarly air about him than Si.
His pupils were an extremely light ice blue, like the surface of a lake covered with a thin layer of ice, calm yet concealing a bottomless chill.
As the supreme commander of the Brevis Ice Plain region, he was the leader of the ten divine messengers first cultivated by Rena, and his authority was second only to the Mother herself.
He shares a deep sensory link with Rena's main consciousness, possesses extremely high autonomy in decision-making, and can even briefly mobilize all Dragon of Frost units except for Rena herself when necessary.
Just now, Si's life signal was completely extinguished within the Zerg swarm network.
Also transmitted were footage of the temple's final moments.
The intruder, the golden dagger, the Blanks, and the global alarm sounded by Si before his death.
The divine messenger stood quietly, his icy blue eyes showing little emotion.
The deaths of his own kind did not anger him; instead, they made him analyze the situation more quickly and deduce the optimal solution.
He closed his eyes, his consciousness connecting to the secondary swarm network.
All the lurking Frost Soldier units on the ice plains, the spies distributed among various tribes, and the hatching nodes hidden in the glacial crevasses.
A deluge of information flooded into his consciousness like a tidal wave.
The information also came from the Priest in the Lower City.
The only caravan that recently made contact with the Ice Fang Clan points to the Tithe Fleet anchored at the starport.
The caravan leader's identity was a forgery, and his entourage included veterans of the Imperium intelligence service.
The caravan had barely arrived in the City of Teeth when the temple was stormed.
The timing was perfect.
Divine Messenger Yi slowly opened his eyes, a cold glint flashing in his icy blue pupils.
It was that tax collector again.
Major General Dominic.
From the beginning of the Plague Cleansing Cult, this person has been secretly probing, digging up the surface soil step by step, trying to dig out the roots underneath.
Last time it was the Plague Cleansing Cult in the Lower City; this time, they've directly reached the core of the Ice Plains.
He did not immediately mobilize troops to pursue them.
The airship had already flown far away; the ice field was too vast to stop the Imperium's aircraft.
Chasing after the past now will only expose more information, which is counterproductive.
More importantly, he sensed a deeper conspiracy in this matter.
The fact that the mistress's consciousness was trapped in the underground of Saint Garus Castle was itself unusual.
The Nine-Sided Spirit-Sealing Barrier isolates the Hive Mind, which sounds like a deadly move, but the flow of time within the barrier is deliberately slowed down.
According to Lynn's perception, the pace of the battle inside was extremely slow. The nine Chaos Knight surrounded them without killing them, which seemed more like restraint than execution.
If Luna truly wanted to kill the Mother, accelerating the flow of time and launching a concentrated attack would have been the logical course of action.
Slowing down time gives those outside ample time to conduct a rescue operation.
That doesn't make sense.
Furthermore, Dominic happened to choose this moment to venture deep into the ice plains and uncover the Dragon of Frost's true strength...
When two things happen together, it's no coincidence.
Divine Messenger Yi rapidly deduced the entire situation in his mind.
Luna set up a barrier to trap the Matriarch's consciousness, but deliberately slowed down time, not to kill her quickly, but to lure her away from the mountain.
Lynn was impatient by nature, and upon learning that his mistress was trapped, he would surely lead his troops to rescue her personally.
Once he left, a gap appeared in the apparent defense.
Meanwhile, someone secretly guided Dominic to uncover the secrets of the Icefield, revealing the connection between the Dragon of Frost and the Genestealer to the Imperium Major General.
While the mistress was trapped, Lynn was distracted and had to rescue her.
On one hand, the Imperium Major General has uncovered the truth, inevitably causing their relationship to deteriorate rapidly, and they may even come to blows.
Internal divisions and mutual distrust.
This is the approach of an evil god who governs intrigue and change.
Never confronting the enemy head-on, always manipulating the pieces from the shadows, trying to make the enemy collapse from within.
What they wanted was never to kill the mistress, nor simply to bring down Lynn.
What she wanted was for the entire Brevis to be thrown into complete chaos.
Once Lynn and Dominic are both badly injured, she will emerge from the shadows to clean up the mess and reap the benefits.
It might even take the opportunity to fully unleash the power of Chaos, dragging the entire planet into the abyss of Warp.
"Well thought out."
The divine messenger uttered four words in a low voice, his tone icy.
He knew very well that with the Matriarch now out of contact and Lynn having plunged headlong into the battlefield of Saint Garus Castle, both of his core forces were effectively tied down.
The entire Tyranids system in Brevis has essentially lost its supreme commander for the time being.
The Lower City is supported by Priest, which allows it to maintain basic operations, but that's about it.
The Priest excels at infiltration and manipulation, but is not adept at strategic maneuvering.
To them, if Rena was the mistress, then Lynn was the father.
The mistress cared deeply about everything concerning the master's father.
Therefore, at this time, someone must step forward to stabilize the situation that the Lord Father has been working hard to build.
And that person could only be him.