It didn't take long for the two clones to stand in the castle courtyard.
The atmosphere was tense.
Both men were perfectly aware of their weaknesses and shortcomings, but also of their strengths.
The winner would be the clone capable of properly exploiting each skill accumulated up to now.
"The winner will be whoever makes the other give in, one way or another."
In the middle of the field, between the administrator and the former mason clone turned adventurer.
There was a masked clone who would act as referee.
"No problem for me," declared the administrator, while keeping his attention on his opponent.
"Same here," he said, drawing a sword.
Unlike him, the administrator had no weapon on him.
His job didn't require any weapon, so why would he have a personal one?
He simply placed his hand at the level of his neck, and in one swift motion... his spine came out.
Normally, this is a crazy act.
However, all the clones had a special physique.
Their bodies were very close to the dragons from Jin Mori's universe, creatures possessing abnormal vitality and bones.
The extracted spine soon became hard under the influence of its original creator's will.
Of course, the administrator remained perfectly upright, without any physical problems.
He had simply self-healed thanks to his Holy power.
The referee glanced between the two, before signaling to begin.
Bing.
The exchanges of blows began to rain down between the two individuals.
Their strength was undoubtedly equal, but their individual equipment began to show their differences.
Crack.
Wound.
The superiority of the draconic bone proved itself.
The clone's sword began to accumulate cracks in various places on the blade, from repeated contact with the draconic bone.
On the other hand, the administrator had trouble handling the adventurer clone's experience.
After all, one has lived through battles and the other just has memories of various battles.
Finally, the adventurer clone concluded that close combat with the administrator wasn't viable.
His equipment wasn't suitable, and his desire to use it to save his strength risked costing him dearly.
"Lightning!!"
Despite his failure in close combat against the bureaucrat, the clone showed no sign of panic.
He triggered an intermediate spell without incantation, thanks to his great understanding of it.
"Water creation," a basic spell that generates water.
Normally, water is a conductor.
But that's not the case with pure water.
The latter doesn't conduct electricity.
Boom.
The collision between the basic spell and the intermediate spell was surprisingly won by the basic spell.
A compatibility problem, but this created a gap in both individuals' mana reserves.
Without wasting time, a thrust executed by the bone spear pierced through the thick fog.
Unfortunately, it hit nothing, except a clone of pure light.
'I see, he's gone back to fundamentals to buy time and prepare a big attack...'
The administrator found the approach interesting, but his opponent wasn't the only one playing this little game.
At that moment, the administrator had already begun preparing the end of the fight.
If he succeeded, then the fight would be over.
Otherwise, it would be pure and simple death.
Boom.
While he was chanting his spell, he didn't stop harassing the bureaucrat with his Holy Power, which fired bullets non-stop.
Of course, using the divination skill to dodge was out of the question.
The other also possessed this asset, so he would just recalibrate his attacks.
He had to block, but also continue manipulating his opponent to guide him toward his spider's web.
Finally, the fog was dissipated by advanced explosion magic.
Unfortunately, the administrator took the attack.
Crack.
Nothing remained except a skeleton and a spear in a crater.
"...I did well to bless myself with several buffs before the fight, because I've always found this guy very cunning."
The fight had seemed quick; both hadn't stopped feinting and inciting the opponent to waste mana or use a particular skill.
The clone didn't know if he could have cast fast enough to get out of it without his preventive buffs.
But it didn't matter: he had won.
"Sorry... because of me, our original lost a part of himself... I'll keep this," he said, picking up the bone spear.
Clap.
Clap.
The clones around began to applaud.
Now they could march under a single path again.
"Now that I'm the new administrator... *coughing blood*"
"Hehe, I really sacrificed a lot to beat you."
A golden spear had pierced the "winner's" heart, as a clone emerged from an illusion.
All the clones present were confused by the situation before them.
"H...how??"
Unfortunately, he would never know the truth.
The "bureaucrat" clone had immediately decapitated him, to avoid an unforeseen situation.
'He technically killed me, but I was more determined to reach my goal.'
Administrator Sanguinius had used proxy magic combined with the Adjustment skill and pheromones himself.
A bold combination, but also risky.
He had literally weakened his opponent's draconic sense for a good while, before adjusting his perception.
Finally, he had divided himself thanks to proxy magic!!
Yes, he had accepted to permanently lose power to win.
A high-risk bet and sacrifice.
'The end justifies the means.'
"Today, I declare the end of the "Trust" power and the birth of the Neo-Citadel!!"
'I no longer need to slow down, now that I've united everyone thanks to the sacrifices of half my stats.'
The Citadel.
A project supposed to use a floating city to lead original Sanguinius's advance in the multiverse, thanks to a Space Marine weapon under his control.
However, the Administrator had advanced this.
A decision made by necessity and not by greed or thirst for combat.
'With this, they'll be busy enough and won't think about bullshit.'
...
3 years.
That's the time it took for the clone in the Warhammer 40K universe to grow enough.
Not only that, but also digest all the information related to Baal Secundus firsthand.
"Horus..." Walking nonchalantly on the radioactive sand, an "adult" man observes the desert landscape, lost in his thoughts.
Yes, this man is Sanguinius.
He has grown abnormally fast since his reincarnation.
At first, he associated this with the knight breathing technique used by him and the flesh of mutant animals.
A sort of side effect.
But the AI chip concluded something else.
The supernatural technological object showed him the recording observed during his reincarnation.
'A foreign spiritual energy... and these visions... no, not visions – memory fragments that weren't mine.'
He suspects these are soul fragments of Sanguinius scattered by Horus during the end of the mortal combat between the two Primarchs.
Why isn't he 100% certain?
Sanguinius isn't the only Primarch to have gifts related to the Warp, able to predict the future, and a soul... in tatters.
For example, Primarch Magnus the red .
The latter also has shards of his soul somewhat lost everywhere in the galaxy, because of Leman Russ's attack back then.
Despite this, Sanguinius remains his number 1 suspect.
"I... I saw things and felt them from his point of view."
"Grrr!!!!"
While he was lost in his thoughts about the memories and the reason for the attraction of Sanguinius's soul fragments to him,
An intimidating growl resonated not far from his location.
'I'll think about it later, I've got a bunch of food on legs to bring back to "my" tribe.'
Several mutant scorpions the size of Earth elephants began to gather, after the territory violation alert from one of them.
Despite their number and size, the most dangerous thing about these belligerent creatures was their poison and annoying agility.
One wound, and you end up with your blood changed to acid.
"Stab ~"