Chapter 304: Mind-Control, Who is Controlling Whom?

In the Osiris system, the Eleventh Legion launched an orbital bombardment on the nine inhabited planets within the system.

Ninglu led the Honor Guard to initiate a drop on the main planet.

As the Drop Pod descended rapidly, the Primarch's consciousness spread and expanded in all directions.

The situation in the drop zone was quickly brought under his control: defense facilities vaporized by orbital strikes, the mangled corpses of War Children, and human corpses numbering countless times more than the Astartes...

The Primarch's intent continued to spread outward, covering a five-kilometer radius centered on him, and continued to expand into the surroundings.

Suddenly, his intent collided with an inhuman psychic shock.

The Primarch felt thirteen icy threads strike at the gates of his mind.

His thoughts felt as if they were frozen, and an icy voice echoed in his mind: "Submit to me! Submit to me!..."

A bright flame erupted from Ninglu's spine, and he ascended to the Thelemic First Layer.

His mind surged with flames, akin to the core of the earth.

The icy chill dissipated instantly.

The Primarch's consciousness followed the consciousness that had launched the psychic attack, and he immediately saw a bizarre creature.

It was humanoid in its entirety, with a head shaped like a heart, crystal clear like ice, flashing with dazzling psychic light.

Threads of icy cold spread from the heart; thirteen of these threads had been spreading toward his own mind before being incinerated by his psychic flames.

There were countless other threads on the crystal heart, spreading to and controlling countless other creatures.

【Mind-control, who is controlling whom?】

As this thought emerged in the Primarch's mind, his psychic flames destroyed the psychic defensive gate of the Osiris Mind-Control Seed.

At the same moment, across the planet, countless Mind-Control Seeds felt a searing, intense pain, and they one after another severed their psychic links with the kin who had suffered the psychic attack.

"I command you, come out!"

The Drop Pod slammed into the surface of the Osiris main planet.

The moment the hatch opened, Ninglu said to Arsena Dunn:

"I have mind-controlled an Osiris Mind-Control Seed. After landing, capture its 3D holographic image and upload it to the Legion's tactical network."

"As you command, my Lord." The Primarch Attendant's narrow blue eyes were filled with shock as he looked ahead, where a Xenos creature was rising.

The Xenos creature was filled with a psychic field, allowing it to break free from the shackles of gravity and float in the air.

The Xenos creature's heart-shaped head had over a dozen icy blue threads, which gripped a Blue Psychic Staff like hands.

He also saw countless icy blue threads retracting around its heart.

At the same time, those humans holding weapons stopped in their tracks, looks of confusion on their faces, as if they had just woken from a dream.

The Primarch Attendant recorded the image of the Osiris Mind-Control Seed, thinking to himself.

The Thirteenth Legion had suffered over ten thousand casualties without even discovering that the mastermind was a Xenos.

Yet the Black Emperor had found the Xenos controlling the humans and inciting the rebellion the very moment the drop landed.

The Mind-Control Seed tumbled and floated before Ninglu; it felt as if it had fallen into a blazing furnace, its threads hissing and swaying.

The Primarch's gaze was profound; his consciousness shuttled through the mind of the Mind-Control Seed, excavating the secrets in their minds.

He knew that the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds were a psychic race, and as their name suggested, they were skilled in the mind-control abilities of the psychic realm.

Ninglu also knew why the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds could control minds on such a large scale.

Beyond their innate talent, it was also because of the Blue Psychic Staff in their hands.

It was somewhat different from the psychic staves of the future Imperium in his memory.

The Imperium's psychic staves were black staves originally from the hands of Xenos, driven by psychic batteries.

Psykers could store their psychic energy in the psychic staff; in battle, the psychic staff would be an additional energy source.

In melee combat, the psychic staff was both used as a power weapon and allowed the user to enhance the power of their attacks by drawing on the energy stored in the psychic battery.

The Osiris Mind-Control Seeds' psychic staves could not only actively recharge but also absorb and store energy from the minds of the creatures they controlled.

It was precisely by relying on the power of the psychic staff that they were able to control humans on a large scale.

【Obtaining energy from controlled minds, then using that energy to control—the control method of the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds is truly self-circulating.】

The Primarch recorded the techniques of the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds into his mind; compared to the comprehensive but less spiritual psychic techniques of the Fulao, they were more profound in the realm of the mind, especially in mind-control.

He immediately achieved a breakthrough in his techniques regarding mind-control, and he formed the intelligence on the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds into a Mind Pulse, sending it to the Primarch Attendant.

"Upload it to the Legion's tactical network, and at the same time, send a separate order to the Librarians—I want the Mind-Control Seeds."

Ninglu did not order the entire Legion to capture the Mind-Control Seeds, as this would put them in danger.

But after grasping the situation of the Mind-Control Seeds, he anticipated that the Librarians would have the ability to complete the capture.

【The Osiris Mind-Control uses psychic links to form a vast web covering the planet, through which they achieve real-time information sharing.

This is their advantage, but also where their weakness lies.】

The Primarch then spread his consciousness again.

Hmm?

The Primarch's gaze flashed; he knew from the mind of the controlled Mind-Control Seed that because their innate abilities differed, the psychic power of the Mind-Control Seeds varied, and the distances between them also differed.

The one closest to this Mind-Control Seed was over a hundred kilometers away, already within the reach of his consciousness.

Concealment?

Light and shadow flickered in the Primarch's eyes as he mobilized the power of the Warp.

He found four Osiris Mind-Control Seeds; they were all lurking in the dark underground.

The Primarch controlled his own mind to synchronize with the psychic fluctuations of the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds, and his consciousness infiltrated the psychic network.

He perceived the entire planet—densely packed with tens of thousands of individual minds.

The Primarch donned the "Howling Mask," opened his mouth abruptly, and let out a psychic scream.

The psychic scream vibrated, rapidly spreading and diffusing throughout the psychic network.

Centered on where Ninglu stood, a terrifying scream rang out within the minds of each Mind-Control Seed, and they fell to the ground, powerless.

A squad of Thirteenth Legion soldiers was facing a tidal wave of countless attackers.

Their ammunition had long since been exhausted, so they swung their melee weapons to launch attacks.

Only four War Children remained in the squad; their power armor had long been stained red with blood, and flesh and viscera hung all over their armor.

Their supplies had long been cut off, and their communication links had also long lost the rune signatures of friendly forces.

The enemies were endless, and they launched attacks without a moment's rest.

The recruit Bo'en swung his Chainsword, hacking at the fanatical enemies.

The motor roared, and severed limbs and arms splattered everywhere.

The rebels witnessed the hellish scene on earth, yet their footsteps did not slow in the slightest; as before, they charged madly toward the War Children.

Bullets struck Bo'en's power armor and were immediately deflected.

"Careful," Captain Eddie warned.

He knew that the purpose of these people's attacks was merely to exhaust their stamina.

Once they discovered a gap in the battle line, they would immediately conduct a heavy firepower strike.

Eddie could not understand how the enemy was monitoring the battlefield status in real-time.

Of course, this was only a minor confusion among the events he could not understand; what was even more incomprehensible was why the rebels' morale was so high.

He had never before encountered an enemy force with such tenacious fighting will, especially considering that the Company Captain had led half the company to destroy the local command system, high-ranking rebel officials, and important strategic points in the first wave of attacks.

The rebels should have long since suffered a decline in morale, or at the very least, fallen into chaos.

As Eddie pondered, his eyepiece identified that at the three o'clock position, a threat rune was flashing wildly.

"Three o'clock position, artillery fire point, charge!"

Even though he believed annihilation was inevitable, Eddie was still looking for a chance to win; he had to remove the enemy's newly exposed firepower threat point.

The remaining four War Children immediately took Eddie as the arrowhead and charged toward the artillery position.

Artillery fire covered the place where they had stood before; if they had not left, the shells would have already slammed into them.

The threat rune flashed once more, and the shells launched a firepower strike toward them.

Bo'en lagged at the back, his back toward Eddie's direction, swinging his Chainsword to fend off the attacks launched from behind.

Suddenly, directly in front of Bo'en, a threat rune flashed wildly.

"Enemy attack!"

He only had time to spit out the words before artillery fire instantly covered a four-kilometer radius around the squad, bringing all the rebel humans into the strike range.

Boom, boom, boom!

A dense barrage of fire covered the four War Children.

Several shells slammed into Bo'en's eyepiece.

Accompanied by the sound of an explosion, Bo'en's corpse slammed onto the ground.

Eddie discovered that Bo'en's rune had disappeared, and he immediately realized that the enemy had deliberately exposed the artillery position, only launching attacks from the surroundings afterward.

This was an open conspiracy, but they were unwilling to die a slow death.

Even in death, the War Children would inflict as much damage as possible on the rebels before falling in battle.

The three continued forward, advancing toward the marked artillery position.

Suddenly, the eyepiece lit up with a screen full of threat rune light points, and the rebels launched artillery strikes from all directions.

【The rebels are mobilizing more artillery.】

Just as Eddie realized this, another subordinate fell to the ground.

【We can only hold on until now.】

As this thought flashed through Eddie's mind, the artillery fire suddenly ceased.

The rebels in the distance who were charging toward them also stopped their footsteps.

Relying on the mental scream of the "Howling Mask," Ninglu killed the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds and immediately ordered the Order Shadow to gather them together.

He moved all the Osiris Mind-Control Seeds killed by the mental scream to the "Kingdom of Disorder."

At the same time, the Osiris psionic staves were also gathered together and sent to the Librarian.

The Honor Guard discovered fifty-two surviving War Children on the surface and, following Ninglu's orders, placed them on the Judgment.

(End of this chapter)