Chapter 526: No Other Choice

Angron perceived the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's emotions with such clarity,

The Hua Hua Hua Di Huang could save his brothers and sisters,

But he did not,

He only wanted to destroy Angron,

Because this was the most efficient method; in His view, this was also the most beneficial course of action for humanity as a whole,

Angron was the bait used to fish for the Blood God, meant to draw the Blood God's vast majority of attention,

Thus the other Primarchs would be relatively safe, the possibility of their fall would diminish; Angron could protect those more precious Primarchs from corruption, such as Horus, Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Rogal Dorn.

Including the entire Death Guard, they were all sacrifices; the Great Crusade also happened to need a group of mad executioners,

Since the Ghouls had already vanished, the Death Guard could step up to take their place.

"Such as Horus?"

Angron laughed coldly at the bitterness and irony of fate, then demanded:

"Why?"

The dried corpse upon the Wang Zuo looked down upon Angron, as if questioning why Angron asked what he already knew, since he had clearly explained it before,

This was a necessary sacrifice, this was foresight, this was a decision made for the benefit of the entire human race,

This was also the purpose for which He designed the Primarchs and the Astartes—tools to serve humanity as a whole,

In this regard, Lion was His most excellent son, because the Lion clearly understood this point,

The sole reason the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang granted power to the Primarchs and the Astartes was that mortals were weak; the Astartes and Primarchs must lend their strength to the weak among humanity, protecting humanity as a whole, until human civilization grew to no longer need them, at which time their mission could end,

Indeed, it was not only the Primarchs and the Astartes,

The Adeptus Custades may have thought themselves not tools, but in essence they were too,

The Xie Sect may have been smug about their unique status, but from beginning to end they were tools cultivated by the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang,

Even the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang himself was a tool.

"No." Angron could perceive the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's emotions, perceive the coldness and machinery within the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's heart,

But he could also detect that behind the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's coldness, humanity was not entirely absent,

He possessed the capacity to love individual humans, and also the capacity to hate individual humans,

He had the instinct to love his own sons, and indeed had loved at least some of his sons,

He loved his first son Horus; at that time the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang had not yet learned how to interact with the Primarchs, instinctively pouring too much emotion into him,

He even loved Leman a little, even though he had placed Leman in the cruel position of an executioner,

He had originally felt some wariness and suspicion toward Sanguinius, but as time passed he still fell in love with this perfect son of his,

But none of this could supersede the fact that the Primarchs were essentially tools, and that the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang himself was also a tool,

Emotion was not necessary for a tool; pouring too much emotion into a tool would only cause hesitation when the time came to discard it,

So gradually, the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang began to learn how to control his instinctive paternal love, and the emotion he poured into the Primarchs grew less and less.

"No." Angron shook his head, his voice becoming hoarse: "I am not asking you these things."

"I want to ask you, why have you become such a thing?"

"I can see your emotions, your soul; this is the ability you bestowed upon me."

"You shaped me to heal the souls of my brothers, and also to heal your own soul."

The Momotaro dumpling suppressed the Butcher's Nails; those instincts hidden within Angron's gene sequence began to function again.

His instincts began to touch the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's emotions, beginning to attempt to heal the soul before him, a soul so riddled with holes it was terrifying,

"I can see it: the boy by the River of Bronze, that child who said he would become a good person."

"How did you become like this, become the Dark King, the Destroyer of Worlds?" The ten million overlapping voices of the dried corpse upon the Wang Zuo fell silent,

Countless human souls wove within the body of the dried corpse; these souls were stimulated by Angron's words, and some ancient racial memories awoke from their consciousness,

They saw the first primitive man gazing at the stars, saw the starry sky reflected in the eyes of the primitive man, saw the unparalleled vitality and curiosity within it,

They saw the earliest vibrant civilizations, saw them dredging mud from the riverbed to bake into clay tablets inscribed with epics, saw them carving golden inscriptions on bronze vessels to praise history, monarchs, and the High Heavens,

They even saw the son of a farmer flying among the stars, looking back at Earth: "I have checked the sky from end to end and found no God and no angels."

How did that civilization, once full of vitality, hope, and reason, become like this?

"Because there was no other choice." Deep within the deepest layers of the overlapping souls, a weary middle-aged man with dark brown skin stared at Angron and answered.

This answer left Angron silent,

His ability allowed him to perceive that what the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang said was true.

"The myriad beings of the Empire worship me; they have worshipped me for ten thousand years."

"I have warned them countless times that I am not a god."

"I am not even the best human; in the past four ten-thousand years, there have been far too many humans who were better rulers than I."

"It is merely that I happened to be a powerful immortal, and happened to accumulate some knowledge over a long time."

"It is merely that on the day the Old Night came, I looked around and, in terror, discovered that no one remained except me."

"Perhaps those who were once better than me could have devised a better solution, one that could save human civilization without being so ruthless and cold."

"But I had no other choice."

"At that time, human civilization had no other choice but me."

Angron stared fixedly at the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang; he knew that what the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang said was entirely true.

If there had been a choice, the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang would also have wished to live a nearly ordinary life with his sons,

If the lie he wove, named the Imperial Truth, had been true, he would certainly have tried to save Angron,

But he had no other choice,

He could not act like Angron and his brothers and sisters, relying entirely on impulse, rage, and the longing for freedom.

That can only destroy a civilization, yet cannot protect or build one.

If this were the Anglorn of before, upon perceiving the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's evaluation of him and his brothers, he would have been enraged,

but the Momotaro dumpling suppressed the anger, leaving only complexity and coldness deep within Anglorn's heart.

"Although I abandoned you back then, it was because you were damaged at that time."

"Since Zhou Yun has healed you, and you have been repaired anew, you have become useful once more."

"Anglorn, my dear son, pledge loyalty to me again, serve humanity, and become my warrior."

The words of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's ten million overlapping voices rang in Anglorn's ears,

and Anglorn heard them, his whole body stiffening.

He realized he had almost just thought the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang still possessed some humanity.

(The next chapter will be a bit later)

(End of this chapter)