Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

"Where were you, Mortarion?"

"You don't need to know: your part is over, Ruth."

"Now: just be patient."

From the moment he pushed open the bronze door of the Hall of Nicaea, Mortarion took exactly seven hundred steps, no more, no less, before finally reaching his seat: the number seven, this magical mark is as entangled as ever. In every aspect of the life of the Lord of Death.

In many cases, Mortarion did not even consciously maintain it, because he believed that this unique number had become an integral part of his life: out of the inherent arrogance of the Barbarus people, the Primarch once tried Deliberately getting rid of the influence of [seven] and placing yourself in the realm of other numbers, but the final result is always nothing.

Either some sudden accident brought him back to the track of seven again, or after comparing the two, he found that the new number could not bring him the benefits of [seven]: in the most extreme case, simply That is, if the original body does not abide by the rules of [Seven], then his interests and life will be affected.

The most extreme example occurred in a strangulation battle against aliens: Based on past combat experience, the Lord of Death deduced that he would need to deploy at least seven teams on a crucial high ground to ensure complete tactical victory.

However, in order to test the influence of the number seven on him, Mortarion stubbornly invested six teams at that time: even though Typhon and Garro objected to this arrangement, they did not change the original body's decision.

In fact, in the final analysis, there is no need for Mortarion to take such a risk, using the direction of a war and hundreds of lives to test an illusory lucky number: but the character of the Lord of Death is inherently like this, he does not Willing to surrender to any [tyrant] who may even be controlling his will, even if this tyrant seems to be just a number.

For Mortarion, resistance itself is the most sacred act, and even the slightest manipulation is worth a resistance: as for the price of resistance, that is something that needs to be considered after the dust has settled, and the price of resistance The fruit is fruitful, but it must be priceless.

This fruitful achievement is completely worth exchanging for the result of a fortified battle.

The result is that among the alien troops guarding the highlands, there is a kind of genetically enhanced warrior that has not been mentioned at all in the intelligence: In fact, judging from the technological level of the alien race displayed in the war, it is impossible for them to have such superb weapons. Biological modification skills, but this is no longer important, because the vigorous vitality displayed by these twisted creations during the battle is enough to make the Astartes despair.

Half an hour later, Mortarion received a report that the attacking team had suffered heavy losses, and that the death rate was as high as 70%: This coincidental number angered the Lord of Death, and the angry Primarch personally led six new troops. The team launched a second offensive, but fell into a bitter battle with the aliens who had been prepared for it.

When the situation was at its most critical, a flood of alien modified creatures even severed the connection between the original body and the death shrouds. Their claws, sharper than metal, left a total of thirty-five scars on the original body's armor: until Typhon led two specially strengthened heavy fire support teams into the melee one after another, ensuring that this high ground, which should have been a sure thing, was firmly in the hands of the Death Guard.

After receiving this round of lessons, even Mortarion, who had always been fearless, could not help but feel a sense of awe for the number [seven] in his heart: he finally used a full fourteen teams to complete it. The goal has been achieved, and this is related to a multiple of [seven], a number that makes people think deeply.

It seems that only when this condition is met, victory will come to him: the unyielding original body conducted various controlled experiments in the following years. When time came to Nikaea, Mortari An has vaguely figured out a pattern.

That is, compared to control, the number seven seems to be another kind of help for him: If it is really the control of a tyrant, then why has the number seven only brought benefits to himself for such a long time, but never to him? Did he ask for any payment?

This is not the work of a tyrant: Mortarion has seen real tyrants, whether they are naked or pretentious, whether they enslave or coax him, but their ultimate goal is to gain benefits from him, Let him work as a cow or horse for them, taking on slave-like work in the name of nobility.

But [Seven] did not. It only paid unilaterally for the original body, but never asked for anything in return: and no matter how Mortarion tried, he did not realize that there was anyone controlling behind [Seven].

This is another piece of ironclad evidence: the Lord of Death was confident in his observation ability. At the first glance after meeting the Emperor, he confirmed the tyrant’s evil intentions. Even on Barbarus, there was no Without any relevant experience, he only needed to slightly compare humans and his alien adoptive father to easily see through the latter's lies.

There is no doubt about his observation ability. He did not see the dark shadow behind the number seven, which means that it is really harmless: otherwise, could there be a will more powerful than the Emperor, which spent hundreds of years and energy , just to set a trap for him?

Of course this is impossible: so, the answer is already obvious.

[Seven] is his: this is the lucky number given to Mortarion by fate.

Before arriving in Nikaea, this idea was already deeply rooted: so Mortarion naturally designed a full seven layers of siege for his wizard brother to ensure that Magnus's failure would be a foregone conclusion, and the Thousand Sons Legion would be dead without a burial place.

Typhon's first attack would make Magnus leave an extremely bad first impression on everyone present, and at the same time cut off the connection between Prospero's wizards and his most powerful think tank allies as much as possible: the various [Witch Hunters] after this formed the second step, further strengthening Typhon's victory.

Leman Russ and his alien visitors' performance outside the field was just an unexpected gain that was somewhat beyond the Lord of Death's expectations; and he personally went into battle and fought Guilliman in the ring, just to try whether the results could be affected by the think tank system itself, but the Macragge people were really sharp-tongued, and the deep-rooted Psychic Group also made the Lord of Death's idea of ​​​​achieving success in one battle completely bankrupt.

At this time, even Leman Russ did not stand on his side: his Fenris brother was an abominable appeaser who was happy to see Magnus collapse, but did not dare to challenge the power headed by Morgan. His defection at the last minute did not surprise Mortarion.

Instead, Ahriman's firmness and loyalty in the debate made the Lord of Death take a second look at him: Mortarion was even proud of this, because he knew that the reason why Ahriman was so different from those fools in the Thousand Sons Legion was because of the time he spent in the Far Eastern Frontier, because he had always been bathed in the light of Morgan, not the red Magnus.

Such a sharp contrast just proved Mortarion's judgment of the two: Morgan was a villain with evil intentions but excellent ability. She was the kind of demon king who would appear in the heroic epic and run through the whole text. She had an upright and despicable character and a powerful force that could turn the tide. The final duel between the protagonist warrior and her would make the spectators in the audience so nervous that they forgot to breathe.

Magnus, on the other hand, was a fool who thought he was smart but accomplished nothing. He would only appear as an insignificant minor character in the first or second act of the drama: if the writer dared to give him more than seven lines or even a highlight, he would risk being booed by the audience.

Look, decades ago, the Lord of Death had such a farsighted view of these two people: who else in the entire galaxy could do this?

A trace of pride passed through the corners of the Lord of Death's mouth covered in poisonous fog.

His tyrant father was really unlucky in this matter: if the Emperor had visited Barbarus as the first world after leaving Holy Terra, he would have only gotten a candidate for the Imperial Warmaster who was far better than Horus, and things like Nikaea would never have happened.

Although Mortarion has never had any ambition for the position of Warmaster, he believes that only he can do the best: only he can lead all mankind to a future that represents science and truth, only he can ensure the complete elimination of all aliens, and the long-term stability of the human empire.

Similarly, only he can suppress people like Morgan and Guilliman, so that their ambitions have nowhere to hide: if Mortarion is the Warmaster of the Empire, Guilliman can only lock himself in his kingdom and dare not step out of line.

As for Morgan: if the primarch responsible for educating the Spider Queen after her return to the Empire would be the Lord of Death, Morgan could avoid the current wrong path. She could have become Mortarion's best assistant. With the help of the Spider Girl's ability, Mortarion believes that he will do better than the Emperor.

He even deserves the throne: Morgan can be his Sigillite, but she must first learn the humility of the old man. Just as the Sigillite respects the Emperor, Morgan also needs to learn to respect her brother Barbarus and learn to obey his will with her own flesh and blood.

What a fascinating future...

Even Mortarion will never deny Morgan's ability, and the same goes for others: although the Primarchs' evaluation of their only sister is not all positive, in the minds of different Primarchs, the Queen of Avalon has different flaws and shortcomings.

However, these flaws are mostly concentrated on her questionable loyalty and her weak character that is not so reassuring. No one will deny Morgan's own ability, just as no one will deny Guilliman's ability: it's just that the Primarchs don't like to get involved with Guilliman, but in their hearts, they always hope that they can have an excellent assistant like Morgan.

Everyone is not blind: who can't see the comfortable life of Jonson? A man who had no chance of becoming Warmaster was now, on the surface, the only one who could compete with Horus. Everyone knew who had done this.

However, even such excellent behind-the-scenes manipulation could not reverse Mortarion's victory on Nikaea: the thought of this result alone was enough to make the Lord of Death feel more addictive than a hundred slaughters.

Oh, victory: how sweet.

The reluctance in those blue eyes only made this sweetness more mellow.

Damn: he would get addicted to it.

Mortarion shook his head, his thoughts returned to Ahriman: Ahriman was the fifth step of his plan, and the first blow of his victory horn, and the outstanding performance of the Thousand Sons himself expanded Mortarion's advantage. With the cooperation of Leman Russ, Ahriman's declaration was used in reverse.

Magnus was completely isolated.

Then, things became simple: no matter what time, Magnus was not an opponent that could give Mortarion a headache. After he eliminated the threat of Morgan and others, he didn't even care about the [betrayal] of the Wolf King.

The Fenris people are useless: Mortarion will attack again personally.

This is the sixth step: in the last moments of the rest time, when Malcador and the Custodians were focused on dispersing the crowd, and the other Primarchs were busy with their own affairs, on the way back to the Temple of Nikea, Mortarion stopped his brother, and the Death Shrouds blocked the anger of the Thousand Sons, allowing the two Primarchs to communicate face to face in the shadows.

The process was very dull, not even worth writing about: it was nothing more than the old-fashioned mutual sarcasm and irony, Mortarion pouring out his plan while admiring Magnus's increasingly broken face, and Magnus' almost roaring rebuttal after the Lord of Death triumphantly announced to the Prosperos that he was isolated and helpless and could only wait for the Emperor's judgment.

"Just wait! Mortarion!"

"I will surprise all of you, all the despicable people!"

...

This is what he was waiting for.

Mortarion heard his own laughter.

It was much easier to anger Magnus than he had imagined at first.

Once Magnus gets angry and loses his only bit of calmness, even the gods can't save him: Mortarion knows his brother too well, and he can guess that Magnus's so-called trump card is nothing more than some psychic [discoveries] or [skills] that are enough to shock everyone in his mind.

Magnus always likes to use methods such as tightrope walking to prove that humans can fly.

Moreover, he dares to bet: Magnus must have prepared more than one set of plans, and the most radical ones must far exceed Magnus's own ability to master them. Even if the Primarch of the Thousand Sons goes all out, he can only ensure a very low success rate, and failure is a more normal world line development.

This is what he wants: an angry Magnus will definitely choose the most [shocking] of all the options, which will definitely be the most difficult, the most difficult, and the most challenging to Magnus's skills.

The one that is most likely to make him capsize.

And Magnus, who had messed up his extremely terrifying psychic skills in front of everyone, including the Emperor, might even cause some harm, making the Sigillite and the Imperial Guards feel threatened, making Magnus's behavior look like an assassination, or at least a deliberate terrorist attack.

Is there anything else that can make everyone, including the Emperor, completely disappointed in Magnus than this kind of failure?

And this is his seventh step.

The last step is also a decisive kill.

He doesn't need to do anything: everything is ready.

He just needs to watch quietly: watch how Magnus kills himself, how to kill psychic energy with psychic energy, how to end his arrogance and stupidity with his arrogance and stupidity, and maybe he can also witness the spectacle of the Emperor, the tyrant, breaking his hateful dead face after being affected by psychic energy.

That's also an unexpected gain.

Mortarion smiled.

He knew that he had won.

After all...

Self-destruction: This is the inevitable final outcome for every psychic.