The sheer number of Sisters of Battle was truly terrifying. While their numbers were still less than the Astra Militarum or the Imperial Navy, compared to the Space Marines, it was an astonishing figure.
Estimates suggested there could be tens of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions. The Ecclesiarchy had churches on every world, and they would always take in so civilian girls or war orphans.
About half of these girls would beco ordinary hospitallers, archivists, or noble sisters. The other half would all beco Sisters of Battle.
These fanatical Sisters of Battle regarded Elena, the daughter of the Emperor, as the faith of their entire lives.
"Let's talk about the child. Have you felt any malnutrition or anything else?" Rhodes gently stroked Elena's large belly and asked.
According to the original plan, Rhodes intended for Elena to inherit two cosmic phantom beasts; the cosmic phoenix had also been prepared for her.
But that plan needed to change now. Letting the cosmic phantom beast within her devour a C'tan shard and then evolve was a better option.
The Void Dragon's shard, Rhodes planned to let Elena's cosmic Frost Leopard, Huron Blackheart's cosmic Red Dragon, Yvraine's cosmic Crane, Ahriman's cosmic Giant Python, and Guilliman's cosmic Black Tortoise absorb.
Then, he would have the cosmic Water Buffalo, Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Phoenix, and White Tiger help neutralize the darkness within the C'tan's body.
The Void Dragon was among the top-tier C'tan in combat power—almost the strongest of them all.
It was far stronger than the naless C'tan he had absorbed before. The previous C'tan shard he absorbed was rather large, as that C'tan had almost a complete personality and intelligence.
Although the Void Dragon was powerful, Rhodes had over a dozen cosmic phantom beasts, five of which had not yet absorbed any shards, so they should be able to successfully devour the Void Dragon.
All he had to do was oversee the process.
"No problem at all! As a mother, how could I not nurture my own child well?" Elena replied with so surprise.
After becoming pregnant, her activity level had only decreased a bit, but it hadn't affected her otherwise.
"This child will be a super lifeform from birth, with a powerful soul. As he grows, he'll surely reach the level of a lesser god. That's why I'm worried it might burden your body," Rhodes said.
Apparently, his eldest son was a normal human by blood—not a god—but his potential was still very high. The Emperor seed even more fond of the eldest son.
"You're wrong about one thing. The child's potential isn't just that of an ordinary lesser god, but of a god of order," Lelith said, lying beside Rhodes.
After fusing with the Eldar Life Goddess for so long, she often conversed with her in the psychic space, and had thus learned so things.
The child in Elena's womb wasn't as strong as herself, but his potential was limitless, since he was Rhodes' offspring.
"Sister Lelith! So, your child is a heavy burden, right?" Elena asked.
No wonder Rhodes had asked her that just now. It seed that Lelith's child was indeed difficult to nurture.
"This child is both mine and Rhodes', but also the child of the Life Goddess and Rhodes. So strictly speaking, he's a divine offspring.
Our Eldar's reproductive conditions are extrely harsh, and a divine child is even harder," Lelith explained.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Elena asked.
Pregnancy seed so troubleso for them—she had never experienced any issues, and her son was growing strong and healthy.
"No need. The most difficult period has passed. Now, just with my own strength, the power of two cosmic phantom beasts, and the Life Goddess' life force, it's enough for this child," Lelith said.
The most critical first half-year had passed, and now the embryo was fully developed. All that was needed was for it to absorb enough life force and cosmic phantom beast energy.
Of course, it would be even better if they could occasionally supplent with so C'tan shard power. So, this ti, she also wanted a share of the cosmic C'tan shards.
The three chatted for a while longer before falling asleep together. Rhodes, just back, wanted to rest as well, and with both won so heavily pregnant, he didn't want to do anything extra.
The night passed uneventfully.
…
Early the next morning, after waking, Rhodes first headed to his legion headquarters.
Within two enormous space fortresses, his legion commanders received his inspection and reported on the current state of the legion.
"Lord Rhodes, after six months of developnt, we've recruited another 100,000 new soldiers. Our total force now numbers 800,000.
Many were drawn by our reputation. After we reestablished ourselves as a legion, so chapters who couldn't find their parent chapter also joined us," Marshal Avarich reported.
"Good. That's not a problem. These veterans will be helpful to our legion," Rhodes said.
He was aware of these imperial chapters seeking refuge. They were usually fully equipped, each with its own think tank and technical experts, and even so Dreadnoughts, all of whom Rhodes integrated into his legion.
These Dreadnoughts, Rhodes planned to upgrade—to Dreadnought Super-Beasts—once extra-dinsional energy was plentiful in the future.
"Lord Rhodes, our legion's howorld has been established within your territory, and we've stationed 100,000 battle-brothers there for permanent garrison. What do you think?" Creed suggested.
"That works, but the legion's howorld needs to be redistributed. Our legion is simply too large.
One world isn't enough. In the future, any planet in my territory can serve as a howorld or recruitnt base," Rhodes said.
With Huron Blackheart and filas in charge of developnt back ho, Rhodes wasn't worried about logistics.
"You think just like , Lord Rhodes. The new deputy commander you recruited is an excellent garrison officer," Creed continued.
Truthfully, although he was skilled at internal affairs and garrison, compared to the new deputy, he was far behind.
He didn't know where Rhodes had found such a top-tier administrator—this person's internal governance skills ranked among the best in the Empire, perhaps rivaling even Lord Guilliman.
"He's indeed very skilled. You don't need to worry about internal affairs.
Just manage the legion here well. Once my territory expands, we'll send another 100,000 Space Marines ho as garrison," Rhodes said.
His holand must be well protected—100,000 Space Marines was insurance, but only 200,000 would bring peace of mind.
"Lord Rhodes, your think tank has also been preliminarily selected. There are over 1,000 mbers, now undergoing training.
However, it will take years of honing before they can be integrated into the legion," phiston reported, bowing to Rhodes.
"Thank you for your hard work, phiston. In a few days, assemble the trained think tank mbers.
I will bless them with psychic power, granting them stronger warp resistance," Rhodes said.
He had learned from Guilliman how to use his own psychic power to bless other mortal psykers, protecting their souls from the warp and boosting their abilities.
"With your psychic protection, they'll be better able to resist warp powers and strengthen their own abilities," phiston said.
He had been extrely busy lately—training the chapter's think tank was troubleso, and honestly, not all the selected candidates were qualified.
The think tank's psychic level requirents were very high. In just half a year, he had done his best to select from the Black Ships, but it was rely picking the tallest among dwarfs.
By the strictest standards, only a few dozen of these thousand were truly qualified.
But with Rhodes' psychic blessing and gene-seed assistance, they should reach standard think tank levels.
Luckily, so of the newly joined chapters ca with their own think tanks—these people could help train others or directly serve as think tank mbers.
"Lord Rhodes! One more thing—Lord Magnus reports great progress in his sorcerer research.
If you have ti, could you visit? He's also reserved 100 apprentice slots for your gene offspring," phiston added.
Frankly, he wasn't fully confident about the path of the sorcerer, and hoped Lord Magnus and the Grey Knights could suppress demonic power.
"Thank you, I'll rember. Once I'm done with legion matters, I'll visit Magnus," Rhodes replied.
The others reported on the legion's situation, and Rhodes addressed various issues one by one.
Weapon and equipnt allocations, arrangents for new chapters, promotions for the chapter masters who had joined—all were handled. Captains were generally promoted to previous thousand-man chapter master status.
Each incoming chapter master was promoted to brigade commander and arranged for gene-seed replacent and Primaris Astartes upgrades.
After finishing these matters, Rhodes bid farewell to his deputy commanders and headed to the laboratories of Balt and Yapool.
Half a year had passed, and the labs had changed dramatically—now massive and luxurious, with more advanced equipnt.
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