"Ugh, this is exhausting!"
"Why have so many people been challenging me to duels lately?"
Dante had originally left his quarters smiling, thanks to the Primarch's reward.
But after running into more than 20 duel challenges on a single stretch of road, he wasn't smiling anymore.
Even his own company commanders had apparently lost their minds, constantly asking to "spar" with him.
The first few fights he could still steamroll through on sheer ability — but after a while, he was genuinely struggling.
This was why his face was swollen when he showed up to today's meeting. These bastards had completely stopped respecting him as a Chapter Master.
When he asked around for the reason, it turned out to be because he had received the Primarch's good-morning kiss.
"Fine, whatever — let's get to the meeting. Now that the Primarch is by my side, I need to serve her properly."
Many of the battle barges arriving at Baal had expected a fierce fight.
But when they reached orbit, they found no sign of heretic invasion whatsoever.
The fierce winds in Baal's upper atmosphere still howled as violently as ever, but on the surface below, there were no alien life signs of any kind.
"Is everything... actually fine here?"
The vast majority of the Blood Angels warriors had rushed back in an emergency — many with unfinished missions still on their hands. Diverting forces at such a critical moment had been an enormous gamble.
More than a few warriors had arrived prepared to die.
And yet Baal was perfectly calm. Aside from the severed communication signals, there wasn't an enemy in sight.
What these Angels didn't know was that Caleb had already been buying them time.
The vanguard fleet he had deployed had long since engaged the Tyranids.
To stall for time, a full 10,000 deployment points had been spent on that vanguard fleet alone — enough to place two Mandragore-class fortresses, or alternatively, four Emperor's Dream-class ships.
Unfortunately, most special units could only be deployed once each. Otherwise, that deployment alone could have steamrolled everything.
On Caleb's game board, the battle countdown had only a few minutes remaining.
To Sanguinius, however, that might translate to several days.
"Lord Dante!"
"Didn't you say Baal was in danger?"
"Half our brothers are still locked in a life-or-death struggle against the Orks! You said Baal was on the verge of falling — so where is the enemy? Who are we even fighting?!"
Faced with the questions pouring in from multiple Chapters, Dante remained calm and didn't answer right away.
Because truthfully, Dante himself didn't know who the enemy would be.
Just as the crowd prepared to press him further, an extremely unexpected figure appeared on the comm channel.
It was a mature, strikingly beautiful woman — a face of near-perfect features, framed by broad, sweeping angelic wings. You could almost mistake her for a living saint descended from the heavens.
"Don't give Dante such a hard time — I'm the one who called you here."
"I could feel it. What comes next will bring countless enemies to this place."
"Tyranids, Chaos, Eldar — nearly every threat you can name is on the list."
"They may strike at the most inconvenient moment possible. If I hadn't crawled out of my coffin this time, I imagine someone would have made off with my body entirely. Isn't that right, Dante-chan?"
The familiarity in her tone was strange — these battle-hardened warriors should not have reacted to such casual warmth.
And yet, inexplicably, every son of the Blood Angels felt an indescribable sense of closeness.
Simply hearing her voice gave each of them a feeling like... coming home to their mother.
"Yes — that is correct!" Dante answered, his tone formal and serious.
"Lord Sanguinius is absolutely right!"
"If not for your personal intervention at this critical hour, those damned beansprouts might truly have done something unspeakable with your body."
"Wait — what did you just say, Dante?!" The Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers nearly cried out in shock.
"Sanguinius — hold on, how could our Primarch possibly look like this?!"
"You look like a living saint. You're telling us you're Sanguinius? That's impossible!"
"Ahahahaha—"
Sanguinius laughed with genuine delight, her next words carrying a playful, teasing edge.
"I have no idea either — that's just what the Emperor did!"
"Besides, I had been chopped into mincemeat — the fact that Father went to the trouble of giving me a new body to come back in is already more than enough!"
[Cunning Value +1]
Every son of Sanguinius present fell silent.
But inside, they were absolutely losing their minds with joy.
Good heavens, what a magnificent Angel — having a Primarch like this as our mother is simply too wonderful for words!
Of course, none of them dared say it out loud.
Because the moment those words left someone's lips, they wouldn't need the Emperor to deal with them — the Primarch standing right there would do it herself.
[Caleb : She is absolutely devious.]
Watching Sanguinius pull off that whole scheming performance, Caleb finally understood why everyone adored her.
Sanguinius's love was like a perfect elder sister who made affection feel... mandatory.
Even if a stubborn little boy's heart muttered a quiet protest and resisted.
That meek little boy would find himself gradually, helplessly, and happily accepting it all the same.
Sanguinius ordered portions of the Chapters to disperse across several neighboring star systems for reconnaissance.
As expected, they quickly picked up traces of a Tyranid Hive Fleet.
And based on the intelligence coming in, a massive Warp Shadow was indeed closing in on Baal — on a scale so enormous it stretched across several star systems.
This intelligence gathering took only a matter of days. The Librarians noticed something extraordinary: Warp travel through the star systems where Sanguinius was present had become dramatically more stable.
If the Warp before had been a raging, stormy ocean, then the waters surrounding Sanguinius were a perfectly still, glassy sea. There wasn't the slightest turbulence in the region — calm as stagnant water. Even the rare ripple that appeared was no more than a gentle breeze.
Ships could even continue sailing for a time after their Gellar Fields failed.
Surveys placed Sanguinius's sphere of influence at roughly 1,000 light-years in diameter.
Beyond that boundary, the savage currents of the Warp resumed their fury.
Within it, Warp travel was essentially completely safe.
This dramatically boosted Imperial logistics, allowing massive waves of reinforcements and Imperial Navy ships to reach Baal.
It seemed as though everything was trending in the right direction.
And then the still waters suddenly erupted into a tidal wave.
"They're here."
Sanguinius's gaze sharpened. She could feel the noise — cacophonous and overwhelming — flooding into her from all sides.
The psychic screaming of the Chaos Four Powers pressed against her ceaselessly.
The shattered nature of her Warp essence couldn't completely shut out daemonic influence.
The once-calm sea was now tainted by the stain of heresy — but at the same time, those wretched daemon-souls were being weakened by Sanguinius's domain as they entered it.
More than a few daemons charging forward began inexplicably screaming things like "For Sanguinius!"
Anyone familiar with the Warp would know immediately: those daemons had been corrupted by some extraordinary force.
[Emperor: Oh my, a golden Bloodletter? How delightful!]
[I had no idea Sanguinius-chan had grown this powerful!]
[My own Warp essence merely destroys daemons outright — but my daughter's power can turn them into her servants!]
There weren't many of these golden low-tier pieces — but they were certainly a novel sight.
In the past, every "investment" the Emperor had put out had never come back. Now things were different.
His daughter had the makings of a god.
It seemed all those years of building temples to Sanguinius had been the right call after all.
[Sanguinius: What on earth is happening?!]
Staring at the daemons who had just appeared and were insisting they were her children, even Sanguinius was starting to feel lost.
Her instincts told her these daemons were genuinely hers.
But she was finding it very difficult to accept such strange things.
[Caleb : Don't fight it — Guilliman has a big blue Great Unclean One on his side!]
[You're actually behind the times. Guilliman's child has already been stealing Nurgle's wife.]
"That's a bombshell — delicious!"
Even the notoriously sharp-tongued Sanguinius found this absolutely fascinating.
Her capacity for adapting to novelty was far greater than the other two Primarchs.
If Father said it was so, then it was so. If Father said it was fine, then it was fine.
If Father wanted her to become a god-emperor of a different kind, then she would do it.
Sometimes it was better not to say too much — saying too much might ruin whatever brilliant plan Father had in motion.
Inside the gilded hall, the various Chapter Masters were making their way to what was nominally a meeting.
In truth, they all just wanted a chance to lay eyes on Sanguinius in person.
"Come in, all of you."
"Lord Sanguinius is waiting."
"I once dreamed of dying in Sanguinius's embrace — but I never imagined the Angel would return while I was still alive."
Gabriel, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers, turned to look at him. "Dante, do you want to die that badly?"
"The Primarch has returned — is that not cause for celebration?"
"Rather than wishing for death, think instead of how to remain at the Primarch's side and fight for her!"
[Dante: I don't want to fight — I want to clock out!]
Dante stood at the entrance to the great hall, motionless as a wooden post, making no move to go inside.
The other Chapter Masters weren't going in either, because many of them had their own dirty little secrets.
"Hey Dante — does the Primarch know about... that thing?"
"Our Flesh Tearers Chapter does have a lot of... complicated business."
"You have my word: if you keep this quiet for us — not only will we take the vanguard in the coming battle, but we'll dismiss all the blood thralls afterward too!"
Dante stared at these unworthy Angels, utterly speechless.
What had Lord Sanguinius said when he was still a boy?
He had said to control your desires. To restrain your instincts. And yet here they were — every last one of them unleashing their instincts, drinking blood like it was going out of style.
The good news was that this actually reduced the likelihood of the Black Rage significantly, keeping the Death Company numbers low and avoiding a great deal of trouble.
But at the same time, it meant the Inquisition might catch wind of certain secrets — which would be a stain on the Blood Angels' name and a disgrace to their legacy.
"I'm done talking about your filthy business."
"You should count yourself lucky that the Primarch only just returned and doesn't yet know the state of the Blood Angels."
"If she found out — you'd be completely finished."
"Found out about what?"
An utterly unexpected woman's voice drifted down from above.
Soft, yet carrying unmistakable weight.
Every Chapter Master present could hear it clearly — and more than a few nearly jumped out of their skin.
"Lord Sanguinius!"
Several Chapter Masters broke out in a cold sweat. Truth be told, the secret practice of keeping blood thralls wasn't limited to the Flesh Tearers alone.
The Flesh Tearers had earned their particularly notorious reputation mainly because they had absolutely zero restraint — openly draining mortals of their lives right there on the battlefield.
Certain well-informed planetary governors or lords, upon learning that the Flesh Tearers were the ones being sent as reinforcements, immediately fled themselves.
They had no desire to be in proximity to bloodthirsty lunatics who might drain an entire city district dry.
Sanguinius offered a small smile. In truth, just two glances were all she needed to know exactly which ones had been indulging excessively in mortal blood.
While their intentions had been reasonable enough, the methods some of them had sunk to still left her with a deep sense of disgust.
"All of you — you've worked hard."
"I know you crave blood. It is written into your very nature, and it is genuinely difficult to resist."
"Some have chosen to suppress their desires. Others have found more... reasonable ways to release them."
"And then there are some wretched ones who have rather damaged the reputation of the Blood Angels."
"I won't name names here — but I hope you will atone for your transgressions on the battlefield that follows."
Sanguinius said all of this with a smile.
But Caleb could see perfectly well what churned beneath — fury, barely contained.
Especially after learning the full bloody truth of what certain Chapters had been up to. She was half-tempted to cut them down on the spot.
But she couldn't do that right now. At the end of the day, the root cause was the genetic flaw.
On the Sanguinary altar stood eight Grails — filled with Sanguinius's blood. Any who drank would find their affliction resolved.
By drinking Sanguinius's blood, the Black Rage and the Red Thirst would no longer be a problem.
Her own blood could properly treat her children's condition.
But to earn that treatment, they would need to pass certain trials first.
And the first step was to remove their helmets and reveal their faces.
One by one, the Chapter Masters removed their helms. Some had skin that was sunken and withered — others smooth, almost full.
Only those who had endured long periods of suppressed blood-thirst showed that aged, gaunt appearance.
Two glances was all it took. Sanguinius could already identify the eight who had gone the longest resisting the urge.
"Oh, my children — look at yourselves!"
"Come, come — drink Mother's blood."
"Once you do, you'll no longer crave mortal blood."
"Once you do — my blood will flow truly and completely through your veins."
Several of the Chapter Masters who had been drinking mortal blood were already regretting it.
Damn it all — if I'd known, I would never have touched the stuff!
The ones who had restrained themselves were now receiving blood directly from Mother's own hands.
And this was Sanguinius's blood — infinitely more precious than any mortal's.
"My Lord, this — this isn't necessary!"
"A great battle is almost upon us. You shouldn't have to bleed for us—"
"We could substitute with something else, truly — you don't need to harm yourself, you don't need to use your own blood to rein in our hunger!"
"Oh?"
Sanguinius regarded the eight who had suppressed their urges, smiling warmly. They had truly proven themselves worthy of the blood of Sanguinius.
As Sanguinius herself, she owed it to them — they deserved to be the first to receive it.
How else could she face all the suffering these children had endured?
"Drink. Don't worry — I am a Primarch, after all. A little blood won't hurt me."
"Afterward, I will review the warriors under each of you — those who have restrained themselves will all receive their reward from me."
With things put so plainly, everyone present understood exactly what Sanguinius meant.
This was a very pointed lesson for those who couldn't keep their urges in check.
"Worthy of the blood of Sanguinius!"
All eight warriors roared the toast and drained their Grails.
The sacred blood moved through them immediately — coursing through their bodies, utterly extinguishing the craving for blood that had gnawed at them for so long.
It was as though an endlessly flowing spring had taken root within them.
In moments of crisis, it might even save their lives.
"Good."
"Now then — do your best in the battles ahead."
"I will not disappoint those who are loyal to me. Prove your loyalty through your deeds in combat, and I will grant you my blood as well."
Sanguinius stretched languidly — an appearance of ease and relaxation that still inspired not a single Chapter Master to take her lightly.
This mother who seemed so gentle and kind had a temper of her own.
And the matter of drinking mortal blood — that was, it seemed, the one thing most likely to be the new Sanguinius's absolute limit.