Chapter 200: Despair of the Thousand Children

There is no Nest City that towers into the clouds.

There are no poisonous black clouds that block the sky and sun.

Endless grasslands cover the entire world, and flying servitors glide swiftly, meticulously tending the boundless green shade.

The sky is clear and bright, white clouds drift across the heavens, bringing a brief coolness to the countless radiant pyramids standing amid the green shade.

These pyramids are not anyone's tombs, but the endless libraries that the Thousand Children have gathered from across the galaxy.

Such book‑laden pyramids, like the statues in the Perfect City of the Word‑Keeper, can be seen everywhere across Prospere.

On the homeworld of the Thousand Children, this place is not only a literal "sea of knowledge" but also the home of psychics.

Here, the outstanding psychics brought back by the Thousand Children from across the galaxy, hungry as they are to learn the galaxy's knowledge, openly undergo psychic training.

Even during this process, these young psychics can receive instruction from the Thousand Children, and even from Magnus himself.

When they reach maturity, these young psychics will receive the Gene Seed of the Thousand Children and, as scholars and powerful psychics, transform into Thousand Children Astartes!

That does not mean every Thousand Child is a powerful psychic; it only means that psychics among the Thousand Children are the most numerous of any Astartes legion, with more than half being psychics.

However, this recruitment method also makes the Thousand Children the smallest legion, their numbers forever hovering around tens of thousands.

Yet their scarce numbers allow them to enjoy a far more luxurious pace of life and freedom than Astartes of other legions.

But this luxury became a thing of the past when the Wolf Brigade, whose entire corps were "wine‑bags and food‑bags", arrived.

"Wine‑bag and food‑bag" is not an insult, at least not within the Wolf Brigade.

Because the command tier of the Wolf Brigade may not be the strongest in combat, but they certainly drink the most and eat the most.

This habit of binge drinking and meat‑eating earned the Wolf Brigade, notorious for their extreme obstinacy and enmity with all legions, the nickname "Wine‑bag and Food‑bag".

And the Wolf Brigade's Original Body, Limanlus, is mockingly called the "Empire's First Wine‑bag and Food‑bag"!

Of course, jokes are taken lightly in everyday banter, but if one truly meets the Wolf Brigade on the battlefield, even Helusu can't help but temporarily avoid the clash.

That is why he accepted Eribas's suggestion to have the Wolf Brigade clash head‑on with the Thousand Children.

Although later generations have no concrete proof, you could say that after all these years of repeatedly observing Subspace, Magnus never saw anything else—except at the moment Helusu was corrupted.

Moreover, an "Ancient Secret Technique" capable of contacting Terra through Subspace appeared before Magnus, and, coincidentally, at the precise critical moment for the Emperor, this "call" was placed without a second to spare.

If you claim none of this involved the Five‑Eyed Blue Bird, who would believe you?!

As the saying goes, whenever coincidences or fated events arise, silently curse the Five‑Eyed Blue Bird for five minutes and you'll be right.

Of course, that assumes you aren't afraid of becoming a Chaos egg.

Now, with all coincidences and fate aligned, the Subspace storm that no one could traverse was crossed by the Wolf Brigade—not only did they cross it, they did so with an entire legion.

At this moment the Wolf Brigade's fleet, far larger than the Thousand Children's, blankets the Orbit, the shadows of warships replacing white clouds and plunging the entire surface into darkness.

The great doors burst open with a "bang", revealing a massive palace of silence, where Magnus sits dazed on his throne, head bowed numb and speechless.

"Father, the Wolf Brigade has arrived!"

The head of the First Society of the Thousand Children, the Holy Beetle Society, his face frantic, strides in; he brandishes a psychic staff and wears red Refined Power Armor from before the fall into Chaos.

The First Society is roughly equivalent to the first company of other Astartes legions, and the differences in organization show that the Thousand Children legion is not a typical Astartes legion, but more like a scholars' consortium.

The precious Refined Power Armor of other legions is, for the Thousand Children, issued one per person.

Magnus, faced with his own company commander's reminder, remains completely unresponsive.

Since making the call to the Emperor and realizing what he had done, Magnus has maintained this posture for an unknown length of time.

Thus, even knowing the Wolf Brigade is about to arrive with the Emperor's wrath, Magnus makes no defensive preparations.

The entire Prospere has fallen into a completely undefended state.

Of course, Magnus is not entirely abandoning his legion.

With the Wolf Brigade's arrival imminent, fearing his offspring might act against the Empire for survival—or simply be deceived again by Chaos—

Magnus, before the great battle erupts, relocated the Thousand Children's fleet far away to prevent the Emperor‑punishing Wolf Brigade from causing excessive casualties.

Even now, Magnus's silence is not solely the despair of a man struck down.

It is also a deliberately displayed attitude toward his offspring.

He hopes this will cause his offspring, when facing the Wolf Brigade's next moves, to adopt a non‑resistant, endure‑the‑beating attitude.

The Thousand Children are all learned individuals; how could they not know the thoughts of the Father of Genes, and after understanding what truly happened, many of them are indeed prepared to accept punishment.

Because from the perspective of the Thousand Children and Magnus, they indeed committed a grave error, yet they still remain loyal to the Empire, and though their good intentions turned awry, even the Emperor's punishment will not reach the core.

In fact, this is indeed the case; the Emperor's initial directive was simply to have Limanlus bring Magnus back.

But after Helusu relayed the message, it turned into an order to kill Magnus!

As mentioned earlier, the Wolf Brigade is single‑minded; they obey every command of the Emperor unconditionally, and unless the Emperor changes his mind or the Wolf Brigade is annihilated, no one else can make it work.

Since the Emperor has now issued the order through Helusu, the Wolf Brigade—already bearing some grudges against the Thousand Children—proceeds to Prospere without any mental burden.

As for the fleet that was moved from the Orbit, and the surface's completely undefended, confessional stance.

Limanlus receives no goodwill here; he merely watches the Prospere beneath his feet with cold indifference, silently awaiting Magnus to personally offer an apology.

Yet under the close watch of the Four Gods, Limanlus gives Magnus a final chance to communicate, and naturally never steps onto the surface at any point.

As time ticks minute by minute, the second hand clicks softly with a "click", passing the final deadline.

Light Spear, Macro Cannon, Whirlwind Torpedo.

When the planet's tremor from outside the palace reaches them, Magnus, silent and numb for days yet never receiving the Emperor's contact, suddenly looks up, gazes outward, his face filled with sorrow and disbelief:

"Father..."

"Do you want me to die?!"