Gaia raised her head and met the meaningful gaze in the Forge Lord's half-human face.
She was a forbidden female Astartes, an illegally altered Space Marine.
For an existence like hers, even the one upon the Golden Throne might find her impossible to accept, let alone the rigid and unhinged High Lords on Terra.
The oil-stinkers on Mars might not kill her, but they would absolutely lock her up and dissect her from the inside out for study.
And those Chapters that strictly followed the Codex Astartes would unquestionably hunt her down at any cost.
Unless she could accomplish deeds great enough to change how those loyalist forces viewed her, neither the Imperium nor its traitorous enemies would ever tolerate her existence.
There was no question about Gaia's potential for growth, but if she were fully exposed to the eyes of so many factions before she became strong enough, then she would never have the time to keep growing.
In a certain sense, her existence itself was a blasphemy.
To the orthodox Mechanicus and the hardline conservatives, she was something that could never be accepted.
But judging from the Forge Lord's words, he seemed to be the sort of conservative whose bottom line had a little flexibility.
Of course, that might also be because he still held resentment over being driven from Mars along with his mentor, and because Gaia's words had given him a new lead and a breakthrough in his hunt for Ulizar.
Looking into those pale green eyes, vast as an ocean, Gaia knew she had no other choice.
She had to answer the Forge Lord's question, and she had no way to lie to him.
Three servo-skulls were circling around her at this very moment. Even a Space Marine with a heart hardened like iron after superhuman modification could not completely avoid the slight physiological fluctuations that came with telling a lie.
Gaia took a deep breath and nodded.
The Forge Lord was not surprised by her choice, so he immediately asked a question that made her heart jolt.
"You said earlier that you do not know how you were altered."
"But now you do know this much. The one who gave you your superhuman body and your extraordinary strength was Ulizar."
"So tell me. What is your attitude toward him?"
From everything he had already said, it was obvious that this Forge Lord hated Magos Ulizar to the core.
So it was equally obvious that Gaia's attitude toward Ulizar would determine his attitude toward her.
The question threw Gaia into deep thought.
Only now did she truly begin to examine what it meant for her to have become a Space Marine.
Yes.
The one who had performed the surgery on her had been Ulizar.
She had originally thought her path toward becoming one of the Emperor's Angels of Death would be cut off because of one small missing component, but that brilliant traitor of the Mechanicus had somehow completed an almost impossible female Astartes surgery.
She had no idea how he had done it, but in a certain sense, he really had bestowed a benefit on her.
So what, exactly, was her attitude toward that traitor of the Mechanicus?
Gaia closed her eyes.
After what felt like an extremely long period of thought, she found her answer.
She inhaled deeply, then opened her eyes again, revealing a resolute gaze.
The Forge Lord's eyes met those of this female Astartes, who might be one of a kind across all history.
In her eyes, he felt a flame.
It was like the sacred fire of the eternal forge itself, and it stirred something in the heart he thought had long since been replaced by machinery.
He understood that whatever she said next would be the truest words of her heart.
"I am grateful to Ulizar for the strength he gave me."
That first sentence nearly made Solomon, who had been quietly watching from the side, choke on his own spit.
He still had no idea what Gaia's secret actually was, or why Mars and Terra were somehow involved.
But he knew perfectly well that an answer like that should have enraged the Forge Lord.
Yet to his surprise, the Forge Lord showed not the slightest trace of anger. He simply looked at Gaia thoughtfully.
Then she calmly spoke her next sentence.
"But that does not conflict with my desire to kill the traitor with my own hands."
After speaking those two lines, Gaia said nothing more.
That was her true answer.
Whatever Ulizar's purpose had been when he altered her, objectively speaking, he had done her a favor.
But if he truly was a traitor guilty of unforgivable crimes, then the moment she met him, Gaia would cut him down without the slightest mercy.
Because that was her promise to her father.
The light in the Forge Lord's bionic eye dimmed somewhat, as though he had sunk into thought.
For a time, the room fell into an eerie silence. Only the ceaseless hum of gears turning within his metal body continued to sound.
It seemed like a long time passed.
Or perhaps only milliseconds.
Then the bionic eye glowed green once more, and the Forge Lord spoke again.
"Your answer was genuine."
"But you may never get the chance to kill that man yourself. In the name of the Omnissiah, I swear that I will personally cleanse this stain from my mentor's legacy."
His cold mechanical voice carried emotions so intense they nearly overflowed.
"You may go."
Hearing that, Gaia could not help but ask,
"Then what is your decision?"
The towering metal giant straightened up from the posture he had lowered himself into for the sake of conversation, then answered,
"The truth is, I never intended to tell those people from the start."
"May the Omnissiah forgive me, but those creatures wallowing in factional struggle and power games make me sick. I have no desire whatsoever to deal with them again."
Just as the Forge Lord was about to open the door to the interrogation chamber and begin preparing for the pursuit voyage ahead, Solomon's slightly smiling voice rang out.
"Oh, honored Forge Lord, as a matter of fact, we originally came here to replenish our servitors and purchase supplies."
"And as a matter of fact, my ship is also carrying a large quantity of rare minerals we bought from a mining world in the Veiled Region."
The Forge Lord glanced at him.
He had a deep impression of Solomon, after all. Few mortals could stand before him without showing any sign of shrinking back.
"Of course you may continue your trade."
"As compensation for wasting your time, I will have the people of this forge sell to you at internal rates."
The moment he heard that, Solomon immediately broke into the grin of a complete fool.
Meanwhile, Gaia's eyes shifted slightly.
A dangerous and bold idea suddenly appeared in her mind.
Could she ask this Forge Lord to forge a suit of power armor for her, and perhaps even complete the armor-donning rite along the way?
Just as Gaia was wondering how to bring it up, and Solomon was secretly calculating how much money he could save, the moment the Forge Lord twisted open the chamber door, the situation changed without warning.
The internal vox system of the forge suddenly erupted in piercing static.
And while the harsh noise made all of their heads throb, violent tremors began to rise from beneath their feet.
Crack.
With a sharp sound, the floor of the chamber began to split apart.
At the same time, the static in the vox transmission gradually faded, until only a single voice remained, repeating the same words over and over.
"Below... below..."
Then, before any of them could react to the violent shaking, a massive fissure tore open across the chamber floor and swallowed all three of them in an instant.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]