Alliance with the Eldar

Meeting Guilliman’s eager gaze, Lox slowly began to speak.

"The main objective of this journey, locating Blackstone, has been successfully completed. On a primitive planet called Pandora, we found enormous Blackstone mineral veins."

"The savage Eldar living on Pandora have been politely sent away. This jewel on the galactic frontier will provide us with Blackstone materials for a long time to come, and this habitable planet is also a precious asset. It can serve as our anchor point there, complementing Sotha."

Grod, the leader of the Victorious Army, thoughtfully brought over a glass of Macragge’s specialty wine so Lox could drink while he spoke.

Lox took a sip, moistening his throat. He truly had missed this taste.

"Those Blackstones have already been transported to the Mustafar Forge World. The Adeptus Mechanicus will process them, and our plan can move forward."

"You have worked hard, my friend," Guilliman said with heartfelt gratitude.

He had already read the fleet’s voyage logs. With his abilities, using quantum fluctuations to speed-read everything that had happened during this period, along with every detail, was no difficult task.

Yet he could still taste the hardship of the journey between the lines.

They had braved Warp storms all the way east, explored several planets where alien life had emerged, and encountered both savage Eldar and Craftworld Eldar on Pandora. Lox’s fleet had clashed with the Eldar and successfully defeated the enemy.

Guilliman deeply appreciated Lox’s efforts. This Perpetual from the past had originally been nothing more than a passerby; his arrival on Macragge had only been an accident.

It was Guilliman who had continually deepened their connection and bond, repeatedly asking Lox to resolve his troubles.

If a friend could do this much for someone, what more could he possibly ask for?

Guilliman was immensely fortunate to have met this selfless friend during the Battle of Calth. Without Lox, his current circumstances would likely have been far worse and more passive.

"It was simply what I should do as a human," Lox said, waving a hand. He did not care much about such things.

After experiencing so much, he had also realized that his escapism was extremely limited. The universe was vast, but where could he truly run?

When the nest was overturned, how could any egg remain whole?

The Warp was eroding the material universe. Even beyond the galaxy might not be safe.

Only by standing together and fighting for survival could they retain a glimmer of hope.

"Of course, I also encountered some xenos called the Tau. There may be certain entities supporting them as well, but compared to those major matters, such a trivial issue can wait until later."

Lox briefly mentioned the Tau xenos, but he did not pay them much attention. Compared with the great events unfolding now, could the Tau really turn the world upside down?

Could the Tau possibly carve out their own territory someday in the future and covet humanity’s lands?

Impossible. That was simply too Tau-larious.

"Besides Blackstone, I gained something else as well. That is—"

Lox turned both hands over and pointed at the Eldar seer standing silently to one side.

"We have gained an Eldar ally: Eldrad Ulthran, Farseer of the Ulthwé Craftworld. He wishes to form an alliance with us humans and resist the malicious entities within the Warp together."

Ulthran bowed slightly, greeting the two primarchs with human etiquette.

There was not the slightest flaw in his bearing. It was elegant and concise, without the slightest hint of affectation. Even many human masters of ceremony might not have been as proper as he was.

"Greetings, honored sons of the Emperor. I represent the Ulthwé Craftworld in meeting with you all."

Ulthran showed his true face. He looked directly into the eyes of the two primarchs without avoiding their gazes in the slightest.

In truth, it would have been a lie to say Ulthran was not nervous here. Before him stood two powerful primarchs: Roboute Guilliman and the Great Angel, Sanguinius.

He understood better than humans—and even better than primarchs themselves—just how powerful their essence was. Primarchs were demigods crafted from essence stolen by the Lord of Humanity from the Warp and shaped through his unimaginable biotechnology. Every one of them was an unparalleled extraordinary being in the galaxy.

Even setting Guilliman aside, the lord of the Five Hundred Worlds was excessively stubborn. He rejected his own essence and stubbornly believed that he possessed no psychic power.

Under that self-perception, Guilliman truly understood nothing about psychic power.

Yet Ulthran could sense the immense potential contained within Guilliman. If one day Guilliman could untie the knot in his heart and truly face himself, then he would command incomparably terrifying power.

As for Sanguinius, Ulthran was certain that if he wished to kill him, he would absolutely not survive three seconds.

Yes, even the most powerful Psyker in the Ulthwé Craftworld, the revered Farseer, would have no confidence of surviving three seconds in the Angel’s hands at such nearly face-to-face range, even if he used all his psychic strength and remained fully vigilant.

Sanguinius was far more powerful than Guilliman. Or rather, he was far more powerful than most of the other primarchs. He seemed to have already understood what his essence truly was, Ulthran thought.

Did the primarchs truly understand what they were? Not necessarily. But a primarch who truly comprehended himself would unleash all of his power.

Guilliman and Sanguinius instinctively felt repulsed by Ulthran. This was a genetic instinct the Emperor had implanted within them.

The only reason they could sit here and speak civilly at present was because their own rationality had restrained that instinct—and because they were giving Lox face by allowing Ulthran to come this far.

"Sons of the Emperor, the Warp is the great enemy of all life in the material realm. And now, the dark gods of The Empyrean have corrupted some of your brothers. They have raised the banner of rebellion and plunged the entire galaxy into war."

"With every living being that dies in war, the power of The Empyrean rises by another measure. They draw strength from the intense emotional fluctuations and deaths of living creatures in the material universe."

Ulthran spread his arms and used his psychic power to display countless scenes.

Some were even scenes from the Solar System where Terra lay.

Among them was the scene of Horus being ambushed and stabbed on Davin, the wound inflicted by Eugen Temba’s anathame blade leaving the Warmaster gravely wounded and unconscious, followed by his corruption and fall within the temple.

Among them was the scene of Magnus the Red discovering Horus’s fall and anxiously attempting to use psychic communication to inform the Emperor, only to accidentally shatter the Webway beneath the Imperial Palace.

Among them was the scene of the enraged Emperor sending Leman Russ, the Wolf King, to Prospero to capture Magnus and bring him back to Terra for atonement, only for the Warmaster to alter the order and cause the Burning of Prospero.

Isstvan, Calth, Amattra, Nuceria, Phall…

Scenes of humanity fighting, bleeding, and sacrificing flashed past. Everyone present had reddened eyes, their fingers digging into their flesh until blood flowed freely.

The images crossed the unprecedented Titan battle at Beta-Garmon, where countless Titans fired upon one another, slaughtered one another, then fell and became blazing explosions. Finally, the scenes reached Terra, where countless traitors were besieging humanity’s homeworld, and everything seemed to hang by a thread.

All of this was what Ulthran had witnessed firsthand or seen through his psychic prophecies.

He laid everything bare and displayed it before them.

At that moment, no one cared whether he was xenos or not, because that simply did not fucking matter.

Chaos! Chaos! It was the enemy of all things. Before the Warp, even xenos seemed especially kind and lovable.

Guilliman abruptly rose to his feet, with Sanguinius following immediately after.

"Terra still stands?"

"The Emperor endures?!"

Ulthran nodded. That was the truth.

"We should unite, everyone. It is time to set aside our prejudices and fight for the future of the material universe," Lox said, looking at them.

Ulthran had already shown them the facts. Now Lox would give things another push, binding humanity and the Eldar more tightly together.