It was well known that a Primarch and their Astartes could sense and resonate with one another.
Whether it was a deliberate summons or some unusual change happening to the Primarch, their sons would notice it instantly, no matter how far away they were.
It was a Warp-born ability, something science could not explain.
So when Curze, after so many years of disappearance, tried calling out to her sons for the first time, the entire Night Lords Legion exploded into chaos.
None of the Midnight Clad had expected that their long-lost Primarch would return under circumstances like these.
By now, everyone in the Legion, from the council members down to the rank-and-file line troopers, knew that civil war was inevitable. They had all prepared themselves to seize whatever they could from the coming internal storm that would sweep through the Legion.
But the instant Curze's summons rang out, whether they were ambitious schemers or mere survivalists, all of them found their emotions turning complicated.
A very small number of sons gifted with psychic talent even noticed something else: their Primarch's psychic power seemed stronger than before. Those among the Night Lords with particularly powerful psychic gifts could even hear Curze's whispers clearly, and catch faint, blurry glimpses of her current form.
Wait.
Something was wrong.
Why had their Primarch turned into a little girl?!
When the towering, imposing figure of old was replaced by a tiny little girl, only a very few of the Night Lords thought something was seriously off.
The overwhelming majority, however, had only one reaction:
Damn.
This was amazing.
They were not into little girls, of course.
But if their Primarch just happened to be a little girl, then that was a completely different matter.
Astartes revered their father.
There was nothing wrong with that, right?
And so, the greatest clown in the entire Legion emerged at once:
Shavok, the man who had only recently insulted Curze to her face.
Though Shavok himself had no psychic talent, he learned of Curze's return through his subordinates. And from their descriptions, he pieced together a terrifying truth.
The little abhuman runt he had mocked that day...
was actually their great Primarch?
No.
No, how was anyone supposed to guess that?!
"This is insane! Don't any of you find this strange?! How could that little shorty possibly be our Primarch? Looking like that, how could she possibly lead the Legion properly?!"
Shavok's cry of despair only made things worse, because his men's answers shattered him further. None of them thought there was any problem at all. Some of them even felt that the Primarch being small and adorable now was a good thing.
Damn these criminals.
No wonder the Primarch had been disappointed in them.
According to apocryphal records, when Curze, self-proclaimed judge of sin, discovered that her Legion's scum were all closet lolicons, she promptly went insane.
The news of the Primarch's return swiftly drew a flood of responses from the loyalists. Even some among those who had initially planned to follow Shavok defected on the spot.
The ability to switch sides at lightspeed was a necessary skill in any world.
But those opportunists earned no forgiveness from Curze. She ordered Acting Commander Bruce to reject their attempts at surrender and forbade them from approaching Nostramo. Anyone who dared disobey would be met by Sevatar and the Atramentar, who would purge the traitors on the spot.
The Primarch's stance could not have been clearer.
Those who had stood with the Acting Commander before were her good sons, the ones she acknowledged.
Conversely, those who had not stood with him were now branded traitors.
As for whether they would later be purged or simply left to stew in fear, they could wait and find out.
And sometimes, waiting for judgment was itself a form of torture.
Soon enough, under Bruce's orders, all Night Haunter Council members except Shavok and Krukesh gathered at the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
These loyal captains, the core members of the council, became the first in the Legion to witness the Primarch's return in person. In terms of both honor and practical value, the privilege was immense.
More importantly, they all realized the same thing:
Bruce, this Acting Commander, really did have something special.
From the moment he inherited the Crown of Night to now, with civil war all but unavoidable, the Primarch had reached down to support him at every crucial juncture.
So how exactly had this kid pulled that off?
Why was he so favored by the Primarch?
That question was answered very quickly.
When the captains, led by the fairy maids, arrived deep within the palace and beheld the master seated upon the Night Throne, they immediately understood.
What?
The Primarch had actually been at their side this whole time?
"Do any of you have anything to say?" asked Curze, seated upon the throne in master-crafted power armor modified with the Nightmare Cloak. She did her best to look down upon her sons with the bearing of a true ruler. "If you want to laugh, go ahead. I promise I won't kill you."
The armor itself was certainly intimidating enough.
But that tiny little head...
No matter how one looked at it, it was strange.
Even though the Night Throne was elevated high above them, Curze's height erased most of that advantage. No matter how much she craned her neck back, it did not really help.
She could not even properly look down her nose at them. At worst, the council members below would merely assume their Primarch had strained her neck.
"N-no..."
"Though we had our suspicions, we never expected that such a majestically imposing being was truly our gene-father."
"Welcome back, Father!"
"The Night Lords Legion rejoices in your return!"
"Father, no matter how you change, my loyalty to you remains the same!"
...
The council members all voiced their thoughts, but astonishingly, not one of them lied.
They all chose submission.
Not a single one harbored a different thought because of Curze's transformation.
In fact, a select few, after confirming that Curze truly was Curze in her current form, actually lit up with excitement.
That reaction frightened Curze instead.
For the first time in her life, Curze felt fear.
"Sevatar... are these people actually sane?" Curze hugged her arms tighter around herself and turned toward Sevatar, who stood beside her in full power armor.
She had prepared herself to be mocked. She had even made peace with the idea of killing a few of them to establish her authority if things went badly.
But these men—
Not only had they not mocked her, some of them looked even more excited because of what she had become.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
How had the Legion somehow become even worse than before?
At that moment, Curze's confidence took a direct hit. She had always known her Legion was made up of degenerates, but she had not imagined it could rot to this extent.
They could really accept a little girl as their Primarch just like that?
What was actually going on in their heads?
"That only proves that no matter how you change, you remain just as majestically imposing as ever," Sevatar soothed her.
"This is a good thing."
Curze tilted her head, thought about it for a few seconds, then turned toward Bruce.
"Uh..." Bruce could feel the look and knew exactly what Curze wanted to ask, but under the present circumstances, silence was the wiser choice.
He knew perfectly well that the whole Legion was full of lolicons, but if he actually said that aloud, Curze would probably begin a massacre on the spot.
That would be far too depraved.
So that was the real reason Curze had gone mad in the original timeline.
Well.
That certainly explained a lot.
"Ahem! Brothers of the Night Haunter Council," Bruce announced loudly, "you have been called here today not only so we may proclaim that our great Primarch has undergone some slight changes, but also to declare something else of great importance."
He continued in a ringing voice:
"The Primarch's current transformation was caused by a certain object. Since she now bears this form, it is only right that she should not be the only one made to carry that burden."
"For the Primarch! And for the Legion! Let us all change together!"
The moment those words fell, the hiss of pressure valves releasing filled the chamber.
Everyone turned toward Sevatar, and their faces immediately cycled through a whole range of expressions.
What?
Sevatar had changed too?
Wait—
How had she become—
Not nearly as cute as the Primarch.
Shock. Confusion. Anticipation. Disappointment. Indifference.
Those were the captains' collective expressions, in order.
"So sorry that I didn't turn out as adorably as the Primarch," Sevatar said in a flat, ghostly tone after witnessing everything.
"..." The captains shivered.
Damn it.
They had almost forgotten.
This was the Crow Prince.
Sure, she had turned into a woman too, but if anyone provoked her, death would not be far behind.
"That is the situation," Bruce said, smoothly taking over. "And now, all of you also have the opportunity to become like the Primarch."
With a snap of his fingers, hidden Atramentar emerged from the shadows carrying bottles of Transformation Drink and placed one before each kneeling captain.
"Make your choice."
"When you drink it, imagine what sort of person you want to become. Imagine how you could better serve the Primarch."
Bruce clasped his hands behind his back and paced a few steps forward.
This was not really a choice.
Anyone who refused to drink would be sent straight to heaven.
But if you drank, then your loyalty was no longer in question.
Those who passed the test would keep their seats on the Night Haunter Council.
"..."
The captains took the strange bottles in hand and fell into thought.
"We come for you."
Sevatar? No—Soul Hunter, Talos? No. In this scene it was Sol Sahaal who moved first, without the slightest hesitation. He uncorked the bottle and drank.
"We come for you!"
"We come for the Night Haunter!"
"Hail the Lord of Night!"
Then, amid shouted slogans and battle cries, the captains all drank the potion.
Those cries were the very reason they had answered the summons and come to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
Because the Primarch was here.
And because their loyalty belonged to the Primarch.
Join here to read ahead.
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter100)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 60
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
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From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 50
The Way the Umamusume Look at 31
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 26
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 26
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