Yuki's Bio-Cruiser merged into the Aether Fleet's Titan Hive Ship. He felt that something was strange.
Most of the enemy fleets surrounding the Aether Fleet had already diverted to reinforce Macragge. They would likely make it in time, though it didn't matter if they didn't. The forces Yuki had taken with him were never meant to actually occupy Macragge. By all rights, his plan had been so successful that he should have returned with a sense of pride.
However, from the moment Yuki entered the main fleet's Hive Network, he felt no such joy. Yuno remained as she always was—languid, showing no particular emotional surge at his return.
This isn't right, is it?
Logically, shouldn't she have rushed over to embrace him, perhaps transforming her lower body into a mass of serpentine tentacles to coil around him tightly, drooling as she used mimicked mouthparts to gently nibble his flesh, or even attempting a "session" right then and there?
Her being this normal and quiet actually made Yuki feel a sense of unease.
"Yuno? Since the siege is broken, we should move to the next sector. The Gorgon Fleet near the Tau Empire—"
Before he could finish, a bone-chilling cold suddenly seized his consciousness. This wasn't a change in temperature, but something more fundamental trembling within him.
"Yuno?"
She appeared before him without warning, manifesting like sudden signal interference. The scene reminded him of ancient Terran horror footage—a vengeful spirit crawling out of a television screen. Her silhouette flickered violently between reality and illusion, like a holographic projection on the verge of dissipating.
"Yuno?"
In the flickering light and shadow, her face shifted at a staggering speed: a teardrop had barely fallen before it froze into a manic laugh; anger had not yet faded before it turned into a stagnant, deathly calm. Countless versions of Yuno appeared and overlapped within a single second—a weeping Yuno, a leering Yuno, a glaring Yuno, a hollow Yuno—like a catalog of masks being flipped through frantically.
Yuki realized he had to act immediately. He had always respected her mental boundaries and rarely used his psychic powers to probe deep into her thoughts. Moreover, given his strength, he had no way to fully peer into Yuno's entire being. At this moment, a sharp instinct warned him. He slowly raised his hand, psychic energy condensing at his fingertips.
"Yuno!"
The moment Yuki's mental tendrils touched Yuno's consciousness field, he fell into a labyrinth woven from countless threads of light. If his mind was a straight steel cable moving forward, Yuno's consciousness was an eerie flower blooming in layers. Every petal was wound from billions of vibrating emotional fibers, frantically dragging him toward the center of the stamen.
Countless mental avatars of Yuno emerged from the fog of thought, their pale fingers clutching his conscious form—perhaps what humans called a soul. They tore at his boundaries. Just moments before his consciousness was shredded, Yuki was forcibly disconnected and snapped back to reality.
"Yuki, what's wrong?"
He opened his eyes, his breathing still erratic, but the sight before him left him stunned. Two Yunos stood side by side on the biological floor. They had identical faces, identical physiological signals, and even their psychic signatures within the Hive Mind network were perfectly consistent.
Yet, within a ten-thousandth of a second, Yuki confirmed that the one on the left was his Yuno. It wasn't because of any quantifiable trait, but because the one on the right, from the moment he looked at her, had crouched down shivering, her hands tightly hugging her knees and her face buried deep in her arms. This cowardly posture formed a lethal contrast to the partner he knew, who always held her head high.
"What is going on here?" Yuki's voice turned cold as he prepared for combat.
The crouching Yuno looked up slightly, her eyes brimming with tears as she gazed at Yuki with a look so fragile it seemed it would break at a touch. Yuki suddenly felt a wave of nausea. The weaker this anomaly appeared, the stronger his ominous premonition grew.
Yuno did not answer Yuki's question. She grabbed the other self by the neck and snapped it without mercy. Instantly, countless tentacles and maws erupted from her body, devouring the other version of herself within seconds. In the Hive Network, the number of Yunos dropped back to one.
"That was my... clone."
"What do you mean?"
"Yuki, strictly speaking, the original 'me' had no so-called self-awareness. I was a collective. But once I developed a 'self' and became what I am now, many things changed. My constant shifts in emotion can birth new consciousness nodes in the Hive Network at any moment. When my emotions are intense, I might create individuals second only to me, who look exactly like I do."
Yuki only half-understood.
"Just think of it as... occasionally, defective products like me will appear. I'll eat them in time; after all, they do divide my power."
Yuki suddenly noticed something very important. "Um, Yuno, if this happens because of massive shifts in your emotions, then why did your emotions—"
Yuki's voice trailed off as he saw the wicked smile on Yuno's face.
"Hehehe, I've missed you terribly these past few days!"
"Don't start! Let's jump out of the encirclement first!"
"Hehe, just leave that kind of thing to instinct. Our next target is the Tau Empire anyway. For now, let's have some fun!"
Yuki tried to resist, but his resistance was futile.
Marneus Calgar was exceptionally enraged. He had not expected the Tyranids to arrive so suddenly and strike Macragge directly with such cunning. Although Macragge had not suffered extensive physical damage, the fact that such vital locations were attacked was a supreme disgrace. Especially the Temple of Hera, where Honor Guard warriors were slaughtered right before Guilliman.
On the Imperial side, this raid prompted the Ultramarines to recall all their forces and numerous successor chapters. Without a proper justification, the honor of the Chapter and even the Primarch would be tarnished. Most importantly, they had not completely annihilated the Astraeus Fleet; the force that raided Macragge was only a small fraction. Those beasts had used the simplest of stratagems to allow their main fleet to escape.
"The Astraeus Fleet is the most unique fleet we have encountered to date. Brothers, we cannot allow them to continue moving under the God-Emperor's light."
Before Calgar stood all the company captains, lieutenants, and Librarians of the Ultramarines.
"Tigurius, which way did the Astraeus Fleet go?"
"Toward the Damocles Gulf. They are heading toward another loathsome xenos race."
"Then we shall go there as well."