The moment Tax Bro shouted those words, barely suppressed laughter spread through the surrounding seats.
The veteran players exchanged knowing glances, their expressions filled with the same excitement.
Paul looked at the group of troublemakers below him and helplessly shook his head.
Yet there was affection in his smile, the kind of indulgent amusement an older brother might show toward his younger siblings.
Because nearly a year earlier, after extensive discussions among all of Crimson Dawn's core members, they had reached a momentous decision.
They would give the opportunity to become Crimson Dawn's first Primarch to Helovia Elnor.
Twenty-eight years earlier, during a freezing night in the Redblaze Wasteland, Paul had found an eleven-year-old girl among a group of miners and taken her under his protection.
A young girl gifted with Alpha-level psychic potential.
A girl who, over the next twenty years, had gradually grown into the de facto ruler of Aurelian IV.
There was a simple reason they'd chosen her.
Not a single player was better suited to the role.
Helovia possessed Alpha-level psychic fire abilities, a talent exceptionally compatible with the genetic modifications required to become the Crimson Drake Starflame Primarch.
Combining the two would allow her to unleash power far beyond what either ability could achieve alone.
She also possessed exceptional strategic intelligence and command ability, qualities she'd already demonstrated during the Battle of Planet Dal.
More importantly, she possessed remarkable rationality and self-control.
Those qualities would help her resist the inherent flaw of the Crimson Drake Starflame genetic modifications.
Dragonfire Fury.
A dangerous battle instinct that drove its bearer into increasingly savage aggression the longer they fought.
The fiercer the battle, the more intense their fury. And the greater their fury, the more desperately they wanted to fight.
But Helovia had the discipline to keep that instinct under control.
She trusted Crimson Dawn completely and believed wholeheartedly in everything the faction stood for.
To countless Crimson Dawn players, she was like a beloved younger sister.
And when it came to Paul's orders, her loyalty was unwavering.
There was another important consideration.
If they chose a player to become a Primarch, the cost of resurrecting that player after death would be astronomical.
They wouldn't be able to resurrect repeatedly without limitation like Vulkan, the Primarch of the Salamanders.
After weighing all these factors, Paul and the other core members had ultimately decided to give Helovia the right to undergo the Primarch transformation.
This would allow Crimson Dawn to maximize its combat power during the coming Horus Heresy and make its future operations considerably easier.
Unlike a player, Helovia would never suddenly log out.
She wouldn't disappear at a critical moment.
She wouldn't miss an important battle because of some emergency in the real world.
She possessed both tremendous intelligence and formidable combat potential.
Her psychic abilities could enhance her power even further, while her disciplined mind could balance the increasingly savage combat instincts of the Crimson Drake Starflame.
She was practically the perfect candidate.
Paul turned toward the conference hall entrance.
"Helovia."
His voice was calm.
"Come on in."
The moment those words left his mouth, the enormous doors slowly opened.
Brilliant crimson-gold light poured into the chamber.
It was dazzling yet strangely warm, like the first rays of a rising sun.
[I'm Not the Regent I'm Just Passing By Guilliman] and Tax Bro instinctively leaned forward, their eyes locked onto the doorway.
Within the crimson-gold radiance, a figure slowly emerged.
She stood 3.7 meters tall.
A magnificent suit of crimson-gold power armor fitted her body perfectly.
Each individual armor plate was shaped like a dragon scale, overlapping with the next. As she moved, the metal shimmered with flowing crimson-gold light.
And atop her head...
Two hornlike bony protrusions, each approximately two inches long, extended upward.
Intricate magma-like patterns covered their surfaces, with faint crimson-gold energy pulsing beneath the markings.
Her face...
It was a face every veteran player recognized.
Helovia's features hadn't been distorted by her Primarch genetic transformation.
She was just as beautiful as they remembered.
But her eyes had changed.
The dark-green pupils she'd once possessed were now the color of molten gold.
Within those eyes burned flames fierce enough to consume everything, yet behind that fire remained an almost icy rationality.
Her once-silver hair had transformed into brilliant crimson.
Tiny sparks flickered at the ends of her flowing locks, making her hair resemble living fire.
And behind her...
A crimson-gold dragon tail swayed gently from side to side.
Fine dragon scales covered its surface, while the tip ended in a sharp, bladelike point.
Each movement left a faint trail of heat distortion in the air.
At her waist hung a massive polearm measuring 4.5 meters in length.
Its blade was forged from an unknown metal that shimmered with starlight, while the shaft bore the same magma-like markings found on her horns.
The Starflame Dragonbreath Power Halberd.
The personal weapon of the Crimson Drake Starflame Primarch.
Following Helovia into the conference hall came thirty crimson-armored figures.
Every one of them wore heavy crimson Terminator armor.
Their exposed skin shared the same warm copper complexion as Helovia's, with dragon-scale markings covering their shoulders, necks, arms, and jaws.
Layers of thick, dragon-scale-shaped armor plates protected their bodies, and small hornlike protrusions rose from their heads.
Every warrior possessed the same molten-gold eyes.
Deep within their pupils burned identical flames.
These were the identifying features of the Crimson Drake Starflame Astartes.
The longer their horns, the greater their seniority and combat strength.
They were the Crimson Drake Guard.
Helovia's personal honor guard.
The thirty enormous warriors marched behind her in perfect formation, their footsteps synchronized.
When they reached the area below the podium, they stopped.
Helovia stood at the front.
Her molten-gold eyes calmly surveyed the entire conference hall, passing over familiar face after familiar face.
These were the people who had endured the difficult years in the Redblaze Wasteland alongside her.
People who had watched her grow from a frightened little girl into the woman she was today.
Then she withdrew her gaze and stood quietly before them, allowing every member of Crimson Dawn to witness what she had become.
The entire hall fell silent.
[I'm Not the Regent I'm Just Passing By Guilliman] sat with his mouth hanging open.
His eyes were wide as saucers.
For several seconds, he seemed completely incapable of moving.
Tax Bro was equally stunned.
His usually boisterous face now displayed only one emotion.
Awe.
[Execute Old Man the War Criminal] opened his mouth, apparently intending to say something, but not a single word came out.
Beside him, [Papa Nurgle Loves All Mankind] began muttering to himself.
"Praise Grandfather..."
"Praise... praise your old man!"
"To hell with that. Praise the Crimson Drake Starflame!"
[Have You Been Loyal Today?] leaned back in his seat, silently watching the crimson-gold figure.
And farther away, the players who were usually the loudest and most ridiculous members of the faction had all fallen speechless.
But the regional chat channel was another matter entirely.
Messages were flooding across it at an insane rate.
[Selling Flatbread Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "HOLY FUCK! HOLY FUCK!!!"
"THAT'S OUR PRIMARCH?!"
[Selling Cola Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "I'M FUCKING KNEELING!"
"THAT PRESENCE! THAT ARMOR! THAT DRAGON TAIL!"
"THAT'S THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!!"
[Dragon Bro Never Backs Down]: "I'M ANNOUNCING IT RIGHT NOW!"
"FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, I'M HELOVIA'S NUMBER-ONE FAN!"
[Lemon-Eating Shin-chan]: "Didn't you always call yourself Dragon Bro? How come you've switched sides so quickly?"
[Dragon Bro Never Backs Down]: "NO SHIT! I'M DRAGON BRO! SHE'S THE BIG BOSS OF ALL DRAGONS!"
"GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!"
[Lemon-Eating Shin-chan]: "...You know what? That's actually a pretty convincing argument."
[Execute Old Man the War Criminal]: "SHE LOOKS FUCKING INCREDIBLE!"
"I DON'T EVEN WANT TO BE AN IMPERIAL FIST ANYMORE!"
[Selling Flatbread Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "SCREW IT!"
"I'M SWITCHING TO CRIMSON DRAKE STARFLAME!"
"IRON HANDS! IMPERIAL FISTS! ALL OF YOU CAN GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
[Selling Cola Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "Calm down, idiot. Switching like that costs millions of Imperial Coins."
[Selling Flatbread Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "SO WHAT?!"
"I'VE GOT A FEW MILLION SAVED UP!"
"IT'S TOO DAMN COOL! I WANT IT!"
[Selling Cola Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "And what about your wife and kids?"
"You literally just used the Avatar Reconstruction Service to become a regular human so you could spend time with them."
"Now you want to turn back into an Astartes?"
[Selling Flatbread Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "..."
"CAN YOU STOP BRINGING UP THE ONE THING I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT?!"
"I WAS PLANNING TO PUT MY IRON HANDS ARMOR BACK ON ANYWAY!"
"WORST COMES TO WORST, I'LL JUST BUY NEW EQUIPMENT!"
[Selling Cola Outside the Imperial Palace on Terra]: "Hehehe."
--
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