Over the past ten months, the Thousand Sons Legion also ushered in an explosive expansion.
As the Great Crusade advanced, recruits from the Prosperan homeworld were continuously sent over, and the total troop strength of the legion finally broke through ten thousand men.
The original management model of the five great schools over the Thousand Sons warriors was already overwhelmed.
At an academic conference, Magnus officially announced the division of the original companies, establishing ten Fellowships— that is, ten combat companies, with each company at a full strength of about one thousand men.
The chief magisters of the five great schools would serve as the captains of five of these companies.
The captains of the remaining five companies would still be selected from the strongest senior psykers among the five great schools.
Inside the library of the Photep battleship, Levi was currently squatting in a quarantine pod in a corner, processing a crate of broken stone tablets that had just been dug out from the ancient tombs of a lost human civilization.
It was unknown how many tens of thousands of years these stone tablets had been buried underground.
Their surfaces were crusted with a thick black shell, dry and hard dirt was stuck in the crevices, and they still carried a faint, barely discernible aura of the Warp.
Holding a small, brightly polished scraper in his hand, he scraped off the stone skin bit by bit, carefully identifying the ancient runes carved upon it.
Of these stone tablets, those carved with text and patterns were scanned into the data slate and stored in the legion’s database; those carved with twisted symbols that gave one a headache just by drawing near were directly thrown into the system to exchange for points.
He had just scraped open half of a stone tablet bearing faint traces of Warp erosion, revealing a few lines of crooked Gothic text written on it, saying something like, “When the stars align, the dead shall return to the mortal realm.”
Levi curled his lip.
He had seen plenty of this kind of mystical nonsense and casually prepared to throw it into the system.
“Lord Chief Librarian.”
A vox-operator called out from the doorway of the quarantine pod.
Levi did not even raise his head, continuing to scrape the stone tablet in his hand.
“What is it?”
“The legion just issued an order, separating three Fellowships to act independently to clear out small outposts and scattered ruins in the fringing sectors.”
“Got it,” Levi responded casually, his mind still calculating how many points this broken stone tablet could be exchanged for.
He had never cared about these kinds of legion military affairs; anyway, Magnus and Amon were keeping an eye on things.
Although this division of forces was the first time since the legion moved out, Levi didn’t take it seriously either.
He paused as if suddenly remembering something and asked one more question, “Which three Fellowships?”
“The First, Third, and Fifth Fellowships.”
The scraper in Levi’s hand abruptly halted, the tip of the blade stabbing fiercely into the stone tablet, chipping off a small piece of stone debris.
His heart gave a thump.
At this moment, the scenes from ten months ago all rushed up at once:
that shattered golden array underground on Varnum II, the sight of Ahriman kneeling on the ground frantically digging through the rubble…
But Ahriman had been too normal these ten months.
He was normally organizing ancient tomes, normally deducing runes, normally attending meetings with Magnus; even the tone of his voice was exactly the same as before, as if that breakdown had never happened.
He seemed normal, yet Levi perceived that the thorn in Ahriman’s heart had never been pulled out.
Especially after having the chance to resurrect his older brother Ohrmuzd but ultimately missing out, Ahriman’s performance was far too calm.
But Levi had also told himself more than once that perhaps he was overthinking it.
After all, Ahriman truly had not made any out-of-line moves these ten months.
He sighed helplessly.
Waiting for the vox-operator to turn and leave, Levi then exchanged the stone tablet, subsequently lowering his head to continue scraping another stone tablet, cleaning the stubborn dirt from it.
But his mind was already a tangled mess, and the movements of his hands were completely out of shape.
Either he scraped down with a knife and turned a perfectly good rune into a blank slate, or he couldn’t scrape off a bit of mud after half a day.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
Scraping two more times, Levi threw the scraper into the crate.
He couldn’t go on.
No matter how valuable the stone tablets in his hands were, they could not compare to the safety of the entire Thousand Sons Legion.
He patted the stone dust off his hands, stood up, and walked out of the quarantine pod, passing through the long corridors of the Photep.
This Gloriana-class battleship was indeed frighteningly large.
The ceiling of the corridor was so high that the top could not be seen.
Painted on it was a complete star map of Prospero, and gilded psychic runes climbed the walls, extending all the way to the end of one’s line of sight.
There was none of the deafening roar of machinery found on other warships; everywhere was quiet and peaceful.
The Thousand Sons monks clad in crimson power armor were either holding thick ancient tomes and reading as they walked, or leaning against marble pillars meditating with their eyes closed.
Occasionally, two people would brush past each other and only greet each other in low voices.
Looking at this tranquil appearance before him, the unease in Levi’s heart grew even heavier.
The malice lurking deep within the Warp wouldn’t let them off so easily.
He walked all the way to the lightless meditation area in the deepest part of the hull.
There was no light source here at all, shrouded in absolute darkness year-round.
It was the exclusive station of the Order of the Blind.
Amon was sitting in meditation in the very center of the darkness.
Hearing footsteps, he immediately opened his eyes.
After seeing it was Levi, he took the initiative to stop his meditation, gave a standard Thousand Sons military salute, and then spoke:
“Chief.”
Levi did not speak.
He raised his hand and swiftly traced runes in the air.
Pale golden lines circulated in the air once, ultimately transforming into a translucent spherical shield that buckled firmly over the two of them.
This was the Sigil of Sosmen, the highest-level isolation array passed down personally by Magnus.
Ordinary technological and psychic eavesdropping fundamentally could not penetrate it, and even those existences in the Warp could forget about peeping into any movements within the shield.
Only the instant the shield completely closed did Levi lower his voice and speak:
“Brother Amon, please dispatch the ten most top-tier members of the Order of the Blind under your command to infiltrate the retinue of the First Fellowship.
They do not need to interfere with anything, do not need to actively investigate; they only need to keep an eye on Ahriman.
“Record all his routes, all the planets he stops at, everything he does when alone, especially any actions involving psychic rituals and runic calculations.”
He paused, adding word by word:
“All intelligence is to be transmitted to me alone.
You are not allowed to tell Magnus, not allowed to tell any captains, not even the other people under your command.”
Amon did not ask why; he only nodded slightly.
Since Levi had desperately stopped the first Flesh Change and saved the Thousand Sons Legion back then, Amon had long since regarded him as a comrade-in-arms to whom he could entrust his life.
He always carried out Levi’s orders to the best of his ability.
Although he was Magnus’s personal equerry, he had also once been Magnus’s teacher, and even more so, the most loyal guardian of the Thousand Sons Legion.
He knew Magnus’s character flaws very well.
Although Levi had no authority to bypass the normal legion chain of command and arbitrarily command the intelligence and espionage organization of the Thousand Sons Legion, the Order of the Blind, as long as Levi did not violate Magnus’s will and the fundamental interests of the legion, he would cooperate without hesitation.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.