Warhammer [392-394] (Patreon)

Chapter 392:

For the next two months, Rhodes’ ork army swelled to a terrifying three billion, with hundreds of billions more orks flocking to join from the wilds!

A massive wave of ork bosses, boyz, painboyz, mad dok, and mekboyz joined Rhodes’ forces.

On the surface, they appeared to be waging war on the Tyranids under the leadership of the super-invincible, mighty ork Gromm. But in reality, they were all fighting to carve out an empire for Rhodes.

Two months passed, and through ceaseless warfare, Gromm gained a new title, evolving from an ork warlord to the Overfiend of the orks.

In Octarius, the highest title in the Ork Empire is the Overfiend—a title every ork warlord dreams of.

Who the previous Overfiend was doesn’t matter—he failed in battle against the Tyranid Hive, and orks have no sympathy for losers, let alone follow them.

In just over two months, Gromm waged a mad campaign, liberating over a hundred ork worlds and slaughtering an unimaginable number of Tyranids.

Moreover, Gromm and his orks possessed a formidable technology: the corpses of slain Tyranids would vanish entirely.

These slain Tyranids left behind no corpses, and with no corpses, the Tyranids couldn’t reclaim the biomass, so they were unable to recycle their fallen and hatch new ones.

This tactic drastically reduced the fighting strength of the Tyranid Hive. At the beginning of the war, orks were reluctant to deal with corpses—be they their own or the enemy’s.

Orks reproduce in an unusual way; after reaching maturity, they constantly emit spores, but this is slow. The real rapid method is death—when an ork dies, every cell, every drop of blood, every bit of flesh becomes a new ork seed, growing mushrooms that orks love to eat.

Orks' favorite mounts—squigs—are also raised from these, as are their preferred meat and battle squigs! So in ork culture, corpses are just nutrients, never needing to be cleaned up. Even enemy corpses, by their usual thinking, become fertilizer for the next generation.

But the Tyranids taught the orks a lesson: corpses must be dealt with quickly, or else any organic matter—ork, Tyranid, plant, or animal—will be converted into biomass for the Tyranid Hive, and new swarms will rise endlessly.

So orks began to make flamethrowers, trying to burn up as many Tyranid corpses as possible after battle.

Normally this would require a lot of ork manpower, but those who joined Gromm’s army didn’t need to worry: with the blessings of Gork and Mork, the Tyranid corpses seemed to be devoured by the two ork gods—at least, that’s what the orks believed.

Thus, at Rhodes’ direction, Gromm proclaimed to all orks he was favored by the two gods. Loved by countless orks, he was crowned the new Overfiend of Octarius, ruler of the entire Ork Empire.

Today, they finally captured the planet Octarius, the heart of the Ork Empire, a strategic core world that has produced countless ork heroes.

Though exalted as Overfiend, Gromm had never gone through a formal coronation ceremony—until today. Surrounded by adoring orks, he finally ascended his throne.

Orks worked overtime to build him a massive iron throne.

“Overfiend! Overfiend! Overfiend!”

“WAAAGH!” “WAAAGH!”

Countless greenskin orks raised their weapons high, cheering and roaring in excitement.

It was a great moment—a legendary Overfiend was born.

At this point, even without transforming, Gromm stood at a terrifying 6 meters tall, rivaling the legendary Beast of old. In total combat power, he surpassed even the Beast, and if he transformed, his super-beast form reached a staggering 85 meters.

He saved all of Octarius, reclaimed most ork territory, and won the adoration of countless orks. Gromm’s own WAAAGH field evolved to a whole new level.

This was a power beyond words. With this immense power of WAAAGH, Gromm could alter certain rules of reality, turning things that made no sense into reality, making fortune real and misfortune a dream. This move was taught to Grom by Rhodes. Such an awesome ability should be used flexibly; the psychic energy of hundreds of billions of orks together…

It could even change a planet! Worlds once barren and stripped by the Tyranids teemed with life again, becoming habitable.

Rhodes looked at the orks with new respect. These guys were just too OP. Rhodes even suspected the Aeldari were just a bunch of pretty trinkets created by the Old Ones—perhaps even designer pets, like humans breeding dogs or snakes.

They might look nice and build a huge empire, but their breeding is fragile, more like artificial life than the products of nature.

But orks completely defy this—they can survive for millions of years as drifting meat and spores in space, until they find a planet to take root.

Rhodes’ conclusion: The Aeldari are just the Old Ones’ pretty pets—the real weapons of war are Orks!

A Gor-Rok stands about 12 meters tall. In power armor, they can match Primarchs. Imagine thousands of them! No wonder the Necrons went into hibernation after winning the War in Heaven—they hoped time would wipe out the ancient orks.

But they only half-succeeded. The proto-orks vanished, but the happy greenskins were born!

The coronation lasted three days—every ork world and all recently-liberated planets erupted in celebration.

Everyone feasted on squig barbecue and green mushroom dishes, celebrating the birth of the Overfiend and the impending defeat of the Tyranids.

Rhodes, meanwhile, watched silently from the shadows.

“Master, the young master is about to be born—within the next two days. You’d best hurry back.” Tartarus came to inform Rhodes.

According to the due date, his first wife Elena’s child was about to be born—Rhodes’ first child! Born a Primarch—no, beyond a Primarch, a super life-form!

The entire Imperium awaited this child with inexpressible anticipation.

The Imperium had already declared him to the public as a third-generation royal, grandson of the Emperor himself—a new life born from two mighty Primarchs. His birth meant more to the Imperium than even the original Primarchs.

“I want to go back, but I still don’t know what the Tyranids are up to. I have a feeling they’re up to something.” Rhodes sighed.

In two months, Rhodes’ orks had swept almost all Tyranids from Octarius, liberating half the ork worlds. The remaining worlds were under attack by his forces. Rhodes’ system reward points had hit 20 million! Just one more upgrade and he’d unlock the advanced system shop.

Rhodes planned to save up another 10 million system coins, then upgrade the advanced shop and do a long-awaited hundred-pull draw.

But more important than all that was figuring out what the Tyranids were doing. Rhodes still hadn’t found out, despite destroying countless Hive Ships.

Recently, the Hive Ships he’d destroyed were empty—no biomass, just hollow shells.

It was strange. Two months and no clue what the Tyranids wanted. Rhodes was uneasy.

He even suspected the Tyranids had discovered him!

Rhodes had hidden all his mecha-beasts, cosmic phantasms, and other monsters—even Gromm hadn’t used his super-beast transformation.

But was this really enough to fool the Tyranids? Rhodes considered: whenever his army killed Tyranids, no corpses were left.

Once or twice, the Tyranids might not notice. But again and again, after every battle, no Hive remains—very unusual.

The Tyranids aren’t stupid. They can observe what happens on a planet via their hive ships. They could clearly see it wasn’t the orks burning the bodies.

The only time they’d ever failed to reclaim swarm corpses was in battles against Rhodes. Recently, the Tyranids had even sent out decoys to obscure their movements.

Rhodes became certain the Tyranids knew he was here—and were trying to lure him elsewhere. They were plotting something!

“Don’t worry, Master! Leave the war to me! You, Tartarus, and Mefilas should go home. I’ll clear every last Tyranid from Octarius!” Gromm came to Rhodes’ side, promising.

His strength had multiplied in this time—hundreds of billions of orks’ WAAAGH energy had powered him up massively.

He even felt, a bit mischievously, that he could challenge his own master! Whatever the Tyranids were plotting, his invincible green tide would smash it!

“If the Tyranids really have a scheme, you can’t hold out without my help.” Rhodes shook his head.

Gromm was very strong, his army huge and growing, but in terms of numbers, greenskins couldn’t always outnumber the swarm.

“Master, you should go! If anything happens, your system will alert you instantly, and I can open a portal for you at any time to reinforce Octarius.” Tartarus advised.

Once the master returned, aside from the birth of the child, there was still a hidden Void Dragon C’tan shard on Mars to deal with!

If the Tyranids really had a plot, Tartarus could reach the battlefield instantly.

“Very well! Gromm, I now give you full war authority over all of Octarius. Your mission is to wipe out every last Tyranid. If you meet an unbeatable foe, I allow you to use your super-beast form—no need to hide it anymore!” Rhodes declared.

The enemy comes, the general stands fast; the flood comes, the dam holds—why worry? Right now, going home for the birth was the priority, and the coins for the advanced shop were ready.

With the advanced monsters, even if the Tyranids pulled something, Rhodes was confident he could crush them.

Chapter 393:

“Rest assured, Master! I’ll clear all Tyranids from Octarius. I’ll also slowly purge the local orks—the land will run with my bloodline, my sons.” Gromm promised.

His super-beast orkoid bloodline was precious—his sons bigger, stronger, more WAAAGH!

Ordinary orks worship Gork and Mork above all else. Whatever happens, they say it’s Gork and Mork’s will.

But his own bloodline would say: “The great Gromm led us!”

 The ultimate idol for all orks would become Gromm, not those two so-called gods.

After his coronation, all orks would see him as Gork and Mork’s chosen, but Gromm didn’t recognize those gods. He believed he was the only one worthy of being the orks’ new god.

“As long as you understand. You can send them to attack the Imperium—target my territory, pick an outlying world, and I’ll have my people fight them.” Rhodes instructed.

These defected orks were gold mines in system coins—couldn’t waste them! Send them to his territory, let Blackheart Huron and Mefilas deploy to take them out—earning system coins, training new Space Marines, and helping Gromm purge rivals.

Let the greenies enjoy a glorious final WAAAGH before death.

As for whether his marines could win, that wasn’t a problem—his gene-sons were all as tough as the old Custodes, with berserker transformations even stronger than them.

Let the orks die happy, and the system would convert their corpses to coins—no chance to infect the planet.

“A great idea, Master! Once I control Octarius, I’ll organize the local orks for a great crusade—targeting your realm.” Gromm agreed.

“Soon, I’ll launch the Unyielding Crusade—the first stage is reclaiming lost Imperial worlds. You can send ork crusaders then; I’ll lead the army against them.” Rhodes said.

Billions of orks—his territory couldn’t possibly take them all. So during the crusade, he’d have to wipe out more orks.

Gromm and Rhodes discussed more details, then Gromm left Rhodes’ ship to organize the orks for battle—time to purge Octarius of all Tyranids.

“Master, you can’t let him so easily purge all rivals and fill the world with his super-beast sons.” Mefilas cautioned.

“Oh? Why?”

“First, Gromm isn’t truly ours—he’s under kaiju control by Zett. You beat him, but it’s a forced control, not system-based—you can’t fully trust him.

 Second, if all green orks are replaced by his bloodline, he becomes their sole idol.

 Originally, green orks’ worship was enough to birth two ork gods. If the new super-beast orks birth a god, imagine how strong it would be?”

He’d learned a lot this year—the two ork gods were each as strong as the Aeldari war god Kaela Mensha Khaine. Together, they could face a Chaos God; maybe not win, but not be destroyed.

Another rumor claimed Gork and Mork could kill a Chaos God if they joined forces.

If all orks became super-beasts, the two gods would lose their worshippers. The new orks would worship Gromm.

Gromm already had powerful psychic might; his soul could manifest in the Warp, and with a super-beast body could house a god’s soul.

He’d become a god stronger than the two current ork gods—at least Chaos God level.

And as a being of that level, he’d break free of Battlenizer. Zett’s kaiju were generally low-intelligence and low-soul strength.

 As a true god, Gromm’d break the Battlenizer.

With enough ork faith, his WAAAGH power could break all limits and let him break free outright.

Ork WAAAGH fields are simply too OP—directly altering reality, growing in power with their numbers. It’s hard to see how the Old Ones that created them ever lost.

Gromm is a super-beast, and ork bloodlines evolve madly—no one can guarantee his sons won’t evolve into super-beasts, dozens of meters tall.

If even a few bosses or warlords evolved, it could become a huge threat to the master.

“You’re right—the orks’ special abilities are indeed OP. I can’t be careless.” Rhodes stroked his chin.

Mefilas was right—Gromm couldn’t be 100% trusted! Rhodes had seen the WAAAGH’s reality-warping power firsthand, and even considered killing Gromm immediately.

“Should we just kill him now?”

“Not yet, Master! That’s just the worst-case scenario.

Instead, we can limit him—he’ll want to wipe out all native orks and replace them with his bloodline.

You need to support a rival ork warlord—so long as the native orks aren’t wiped out, Gromm will focus on fighting them and remain loyal to you.

You need time, and you have infinite possibilities. Maybe the system shop will offer a way to control him fully in the future.”

“Agreed. After my son is born, and I finish off the C’tan, I’ll handle this. For now, you and Zett watch him—if Gromm acts out, report immediately.” Rhodes ordered.

The best native rival would be Ghazghkull Thraka, but without kaiju powers he’d never match Gromm. If given kaiju power, Gromm would instantly recognize it.

For now, Rhodes could only hope the high-level system shop would give him some good draws!

“Don’t worry, Master! I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Rhodes nodded, gave Mefilas more orders, then left with Tartarus for Holy Terra, ending the Octarius campaign.

Chapter 394:

The war in Octarius would have to wait. Back in Holy Terra, Rhodes spent his time with elena and Isha-Lelith.

He didn’t need to manage Imperial affairs—he was less qualified than a Space Marine for that!

Do what you’re good at, don’t make a mess of what you’re not. elena was due any day now.

He was busy, but still kept up with reports of daemon-purging in his territory and the war in Octarius.

One day, Isha found Rhodes alone; her child was still dormant, ceaselessly absorbing warp energy in the womb.

“Rhodes, this child’s been gestating nearly a year now. My burden is much lighter. We can begin the experiment we discussed.” Isha said.

The main work of nurturing the child fell to Isha—she provided the warp god-power, transforming it with the powers of the Life Giant and cosmic phantasm into perfect order energy to nourish the child.

All Isha had to do was regularly provide life energy to help the child grow.

Rhodes had discussed with her before about using his life energy and that Yapool’s help to convert extradimensional energy—that’s the key material for making super-beasts.

If Yapool did it alone, it’d barely cost any life energy, but the amount extracted daily was tiny.

When they’d first returned to Terra, Isha was still pregnant and couldn’t help. Now the child was stable, she could use some life energy.

“No rush. You’re still carrying this little one—don’t waste your life force.” Rhodes patted her head.

They had enough extradimensional energy, and Rhodes planned to further enhance Yapool’s power before opening a small extradimensional space to produce more energy.

“Don’t worry. All the genetic material and warp energy are covered, and your cosmic beasts are powerful. Two cosmic beasts generate massive life force; healing your subordinate doesn’t cost much.

Don’t underestimate me—I survived ten thousand years in Nurgle’s Garden. If I lacked life energy, I’d have died long ago.” Isha smiled.

If not for the Dark King and the Dark Emperor persona causing trouble, she could even have healed the Emperor while pregnant.

Yapool was just a super life-form—so long as the energy consumed wasn’t huge, she’d be fine.

“If you say so, let’s do it! Once every few months is enough; the energy per session lasts a long time.” Rhodes said.

To face the Tyranids and the coming crusade and plague war, Rhodes planned to mass-produce super-beasts—pain-free, perfectly obedient weapons.

He planned to make all his super-beast dreadnoughts from Primaris Marines. Belisarius Cawl had built new five-meter-tall dreads for Primaris.

In the coming crusade and ork battles, zero casualties was impossible, but he’d ensure enough dreadnoughts.

Wounded Marines would be interred in dreads, then undergo super-beast fusion, becoming super-beast dreads—high intelligence, utterly loyal to Rhodes and the Imperium.

His own gene-sons deserved that trust. As for other legions, he’d grant a few slots per year; after fusion, they’d return to their teams.

After super-beastification, these Marines could freely switch between human and giant forms—a perfect solution.

Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Ultramarines, White Scars, Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, even Elena’s Frost Sisters all had quotas. The Dark Angels were still missing!

The Emperor had even suggested using his avatar’s flesh to make Custodes into super-beasts.

That needed to get started too—Emperor was eager to see his Custodes upgraded.

Soon, Rhodes and Isha went to the secret lab, called in Yapool, explained, and began.

Yapool grew giant, compressed his life force, and converted it into continuous extradimensional energy crystals.

Red extradimensional crystals poured out, while Yapool’s life force faded, his body shriveling.

Isha waved her hand, sending a green beam of life energy into Yapool.

As the Aeldari goddess of life, she was also curious about this extradimensional energy—how was it different from warp energy?

Extradimensional energy could become extradimensional metal; each Ace Killer could generate 100,000 tons of it through this process, so Rhodes never lacked for it.

The main use now was powering the super-beast machines and making more super-beasts.

With Isha’s life energy, Yapool instantly revived!

“Such powerful life energy! My lady, and great master—with your help, I can provide massive extradimensional energy!” Yapool said.

“Excellent!” Rhodes was pleased.

His theory had worked—Isha really was a treasure: she could bear his children and provide life energy!

Stealing her from Nurgle had been a huge win!

…

An hour later, Yapool had refined tens of thousands of tons of extradimensional crystals.

Isha, sweating at the brow, had provided life energy for an hour.

“That’s enough for today! I’ll rest a month before providing more.” Isha said.

Providing constant life energy to a super-being was draining; if not for fusing with the Dark Giant, even strengthened by the cosmic beast, she couldn’t have handled it.

“Rest well, Isha! There’s enough energy here to make dozens of super-beasts. Rest a few months before the next session.” Rhodes patted her shoulder.

Next time, he’d upgrade Yapool’s extradimensional energy again. Octarius and his territory’s Dark Portal hunters could keep farming coins.

“Agreed, my lady. This much energy is enough for now.” Yapool said.

“Fine, I’ll rest. If you need me, bring me over, Rhodes.

Oh! Could you spare some of that extradimensional energy for me to study? I’m really curious about it.” Isha asked.

Isha had been specifically instructed by Aisha to study this rare energy from another universe.

“No problem. How much do you need?” Rhodes asked.

“Not much—a few pounds is enough.” Isha replied.

“A few pounds? That’d make me look stingy! Yapool, prepare two tons of extradimensional crystals and deliver them to Isha’s quarters.” Rhodes said grandly.

“Dear, you really are generous! In that case, I won’t be polite.” Isha grinned.

Rhodes was truly reliable—she and Aisha would get a good look at these crystals.

“As you command, great master.” Yapool replied.