Thus Did The Imperium of Mankind Fight There

Part 7 A Noble's Questions

After Count Formal picked himself up from the floor, he stared up at the goliath before him and truly realized how ludicrously large the being was. 

The monster of a man stood at least ten feet tall, his head only reaching the thing's waist and was so broad, that one would have to stretch out his arms to touch the humongous person's shoulders. The face of the creature was clearly that of a warrior and spoke of a lifetime spent on the battlefield. Its voice was gruff, deep, and filled with authority, even when it was not giving orders.

Arik chuckled, "I see that you are worried and nervous, Count. That is to be expected as I am aware of the effect my presence has upon mortals. Let us speak somewhere more private."

The hulking man then strode ahead, down the hall, quickly overtaking Formal and his escorting Arbiters. They reached the door to the soundproof interrogation room he'd entered many times before and went in. Inside was a desk with a regular-sized chair on one side and the other, was probably the biggest chair Count Formal had ever seen.

The giant sat down first and gestured for him to do the same while the guards left the room shortly after he took his seat. With the two of them now alone, the poor mortal's knees began to shake, but he kept his upper body and face calm.

"Now that we are alone, you may speak of whatever is on your mind, Count, I wish to gain a better understanding of a potential ally," Arik began. 

For several seconds, Formal was stunned, speechless by what he'd just heard from whoever he was speaking to.

Stammering, he asked, "A-Ally, I-I'm sorry, b-but, who might you be?"

The seasoned politician stuttered as he hesitantly questioned who he was speaking with. Arik smiled; it was a better reaction than compared to some of the Administratum bureaucrats who'd faced him when he'd had enough of their running, spittle-filled mouths babbling about "protocol".

"My apologies, it appears I have forgotten to introduce myself." The leader of the Thunder Warriors straightened his back and proclaimed himself to the nobleman in a voice full of pride.

"I am Arik Taranis, former master of the Legio Cataegis, the Victor of Gaduaré, the Last Rider, the Butcher of Scandia, the Throne-slayer, Bearer of the Raptor and Lightning standard."

The proto-primarch's voice boomed as he recounted his titles and deeds, such was its power that the Count almost jolted out of his chair. He quickly collected himself once more before replying, doing his best to keep his speech steady.

"It is my honor to meet you, Lord Taranis, I suppose you already know who I am from your capable subordinates, and I do have a question for you, Milord. May I ask, if it is within my bounds to know, what are you?"

The veteran of the Unification Wars pondered over how to answer the Count's query, it was a question he'd been expecting, but that did not make it any simpler to answer.

"What you wish to know is not entirely out of your bounds, Count Formal, but it is a complex subject to understand what I am. I shall tell you what is known to the public of my kind," he offered.

Count Formal listened carefully to what the enormous brute was about to tell him.

Arik explained, "I am a Primarch or at least a prototype one, a superior form of humanity made to be stronger, faster, and more intelligent than any mortal-born man can ever be, created from advanced science and arcane rituals by my master, the Emperor."

Arik's response to his question only raised Formal's curiosity further and his confidence.

"Pardon me, Milord, but what do you mean by "created"?" he questioned.

Arik clarified, "It means that I do not have a mother or father, at least not as you baseline humans do, I did not come into this universe from a woman's womb, I was birthed from a glass tube in which I was grown by the Emperor."

This amazed the Count, the power to create life without a mate, to craft an entirely new and superior kind of human, such a thing could only be possible for a god, and Count Formal inquired as such, "Lord Taranis, i-is your Emperor a god?"

At that question, Arik squinted his eyes and rubbed his chin before looking up at the ceiling. Truthfully, he was not even certain if this question had a proper answer.

Responding, he said, "If you were to ask my master, he would deny any claims of him being a god or a divine being. In fact, he has outlawed any form of worship of him."

This answer puzzled Formal, and his forehead wrinkled with confusion. He simply could not comprehend why someone would deny being a god despite wielding such incredible power, much less why one would even go to such lengths as to forbid any worship of himself.

Seeing that the matter plainly made the Primarch uncomfortable, he decided to ask a different question, asking, "So how large is this "Imperium", Milord?"

Arik smiled again, he wondered how the noble, who'd never seen anything more advanced than a waterwheel, would react to anything related to the Imperium.

"I'm afraid that is a difficult question to answer, for the Imperium is so expansive, that it is practically impossible to calculate its size. From my knowledge though, the Imperium controls nearly a million worlds and that number is continuously increasing," he said.

Count Formal's eyes widened, and his jaw nearly fell off his face before he clamped it shut into a thin line. He was completely dumbfounded by what he heard and wondered for a bit if he'd suffered from a short spell of delirium, caused by the stress of his current predicament.

"A-Apologies, Milord, but I seem to have suffered from a moment of weariness and misheard you," he hesitantly spluttered.  

"I assure you, Count Formal, that you are in perfect health and that you heard me correctly," Arik replied, grinning. 

At this, the Count remained silent for quite some time before mumbling, "Impossible." Arik's superhuman senses easily picked up the mortal's utterance of disbelief and decided to prove his statements to the ignorant man.

"Well then Count, how would you like to be the first Saderan to leave a planet's atmosphere?"

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A few minutes later, Arik Taranis and his impromptu guest were making their way to the Lion's Gate Spaceport. 

Organizing Count Formal's release into his custody on an indefinite basis was of no trouble for the Primarch, not that anyone in the Adeptus Arbites Headquarters could have stopped him even if they wanted to. 

Commandeering a Rhino and an Arvus Lighter at the spaceport went just as smoothly and soon, the Saderan native would truly understand just what kind of lion's tail his Empire stepped upon by coming here.

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