"Don't bother introducing yourselves," Sukuna declared for all his children to hear. "I have no wish to know all of you. In fact, it's better if we don't talk at all. The Emperor, the big man himself, gave us a single task and that is to conquer as many worlds as possible – nothing more and nothing less. We will do no more than what is expected of us."
A few of his supposed children shifted at his words, but Sukuna didn't care. This was only their first meeting and he already hated them. Why? Well, it might've had something to do with the strange bond that connected him to each of them, telling him that they were, in fact, of his blood. And he hated that feeling of familiarity. It reminded him too much of the days when he was nothing more than just another weak cretin in a world of monsters.
Whatever the case, getting rid of that connection seemed impossible – at least, for now. So, he was gonna have to live with it.
There were five thousand of them, give or take a few hundred; he didn't care. It was interesting to note, however, that more than 3/4ths of their total number were sorcerers – or, at least, had the potential for Jujutsu. That was something he kept in mind. Apparently, however, according to the Golden Man, five thousand was absolutely puny compared to the other Legions. In fact, they were so few that most Legions and Primarchs weren't even aware that they existed. The reason for that was due to something called a Gene-Seed, which was some form of genetic material that could only be harvested from the Primarchs themselves to create new Legionnaires. In Sukuna's case, his Gene-Seed, while extremely stable and pure, had a tendency of killing anyone implanted with it at a mortality rate of 95%. Sukuna had a theory as to why that was, but he couldn't be certain.
Regardless, only the most physically-capable human beings survived the implantation.
Sukuna's theory was that those who possessed potential for Jujutsu likely had a very low mortality rate, while otherwise normal human beings almost always certainly died, which would explain why almost all of his Legionnaires had the capacity for Jujutsu.
Standing at the front of the gathered Legionnaires were the five captains who led them. Once again, Sukuna didn't care, but he made sure to memorize their faces anyway, because they were also apparently the wisest and the strongest, which meant they weren't as worthless as the rest of them.
"I expect you guys to be efficient in how you conduct yourselves. Beyond that, do whatever you want." Sukuna finished, shrugging. They had a ship. They had a navigator to tell them where to go. Things would go smoothly if no one did anything weird or unexpected. Quite frankly, given his current power level, Sukuna was rather certain of the fact that he was more than capable of conquering entire worlds by himself. He didn't need his legion; he'd slaughter them all if he could, but two things stopped him. The first was the weird bond that made him not want to kill them outright, just for breathing the same air as he did, and the second thing was that the Emperor, the Golden Man, specifically told him not to kill any Imperial citizen, which included these armor-clad Legionnaires. So, there wasn't much he could do, except tolerate them.
Ah, what the hell. At the very least, they brought with them the technology to make more of themselves, which meant he'd be able to recruit the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerers from his world into this little legion of his. He'd tolerate those ones a little more, simply because they worshiped him and he gained a passive amount of Cursed Energy from their presence alone. That had him wondering, then, just how many Jujutsu Sorcerers there were on his world. He'd never really bothered checking before. But now, he was curious. He knew there were a lot as it had been... quite a while since the first of them appeared before him, seeking guidance on the matter. Surely, there was a sizable population of them now, ready to be recruited into his legion.
One of the Captains stepped forward. Normally, Sukuna would've sliced his head right off for daring to do that, but – once again – he was forced to tolerate the audacity. That was another reason why he'd prefer recruits from his own planet; aside from the worship, they also treated him with the respect and reverence that was owed to him. "Father, please let us prove ourselves to you."
Sukuna raised a brow. "You really don't have to do anything at all, except for what is already expected of you. Also, don't call me father."
The Captains all turned to each other and all five of them nodded. "Still, we wish to prove ourselves worthy of you... sir. My brothers and I have wanted to meet you for a very long time. Please, allow us to prove you that we are not worthless."
Sukuna glanced around and hoped, for a moment, that they'd disappear and he could go back to not being around them. They did not disappear. He couldn't kill him for talking. So, Sukuna had to talk back. For a moment, Sukuna considered it. These Legionnaires haven't really done anything to deserve his ire. They haven't offended him through conscious actions, for instance. And so, maybe he could offer them something of a carrot. He was a generous king, after all. "You know what? Fine. You have once chance to prove yourselves."
The Captains all fell to their knees. Sukuna scowled. "What would you have of us... sir?"
Sukuna raised a hand and flared his Cursed Energy, unleashing a wave of it so powerful and so dense that every single Legionnaire was sent sprawling onto the floor. That should be enough, he mused. And so, Sukuna stopped and lowered his hand, extinguishing the blaze of Cursed Energy around himself as the Legionnaires began pushing themselves up off the ground. "Those of you who are able to learn to harness this power within the next... three hours will be permitted to give me their names. They shall be acknowledged as my warriors and will be permitted to fight at my side, but no more than that. Those of you who fail... I won't care, really; just keep yourselves out of the way and do as you're supposed to do."
"I'll be back in three hours." He didn't even care how they achieved it, honestly. Any sorcerer worth their salt would instinctively know how to channel Cursed Energy after feeling it just once. These Legionnaires were supposed to be the best of the best; so, three hours shouldn't be impossible. In fact, already, Sukuna sensed that over six of them had already figured it out, creating clumsy flickers of Cursed Energy from within themselves.
He took note of those six. Otherwise, the rest of them floundered.
They'd likely figure it out sooner if they helped each other, but that was up to them. It hardly even mattered if none of them got it right. He'd keep his word, however, and acknowledge those who succeeded.
Once that was dealt with, Sukuna turned and walked right out. He had other things to worry about, like coming up with a name for his world and meeting the High Priesthood. All of it sounded rather tedious, but – at the very least – it wouldn't be boring.
"What do you think of him, Revelation?" Came Malcador's obvious question. His friend and ally asked him the same question each time another one of his sons was recovered. It was merely standard operating procedure at this point, though his answers typically varied. He liked and respected Vulkan, for instance, but he cared little for the Khan. This time, however, Neoth didn't have to think long and hard for a suitable answer; he already had one, after all.
"This one's alright," Neoth said, leaning back against his own seat. "Sukuna is simple. There are no mental flaws or mutations to worry about. He obeys me because I'm stronger than him. Sure enough, he'll likely challenge me from time to time, likely as a means of testing if I'm still strong enough to order him around, but such is already expected. It's a refreshing relationship, honestly – no complications, no politics, no brown nosing."
Before him was a three-dimensional map of Sukuna's world, which was already interesting in itself. Apparently, after staging some sort of revolt against surviving Men of Iron, Sukuna more or less just left them to their devices, allowing them to flourish under his reign. He took no hand in their politics and left nearly every single decision to the leaders who naturally arose from the squalor. He had no desire to rule or govern or even lead, which was unusual, given that Neoth himself designed such traits into every single one of his sons. They were meant to be humanity's greatest generals, after all, the one to lead mankind into a new golden age.
Leadership and governance were necessary traits for their office. Sukuna possessed neither of those things.
He was still better than Angron, of course, but that bar was rather low.
No, Sukuna's quality came with the most peculiar mutation Neoth had ever seen on any of his children. Sanguinius liked to keep away his thirst for blood by burying it martial and artistic achievements and pursuits, but Neoth already knew about that strange mutation; and, honestly, he didn't care about it as much as Sanguinius might like to believe. It was a mutation; things happened, especially when God-forged infants were thrown into the Warp. All of his sons, one way or another, suffered some form of mutation. Sukuna took this a step further by becoming a natural Jujutsu Sorcerer.
It was truly a tragedy that his memories of the Age of Jujutsu was... fragmented. Truth be told, Neoth barely remembered it, like a hole in time and thought. His incarnation, at the time, had just been a normal human being – no one and nothing special. He'd lived and died and accomplished nothing of real value, aside from siring children. And, unfortunately, the decline of the Age of Jujutsu began in that time as well. By the time he regained Full Consciousness once more, the last Jujutsu Sorcerer had already been killed. So, all he had to go on were stories and accounts of those who'd lived in that period. Olly was helpful in that regard, but his old friend hadn't involved himself too much at the time. Erda was much the same; she knew almost nothing.
The world of Jujutsu was ancient and secretive. However, Neoth knew several facts. First and foremost, Jujutsu was essentially just a form of Psyker Power; the key difference was refinement. Unlike normal Psykers, Jujutsu Sorcerers are born with a filter in their minds that allow them to absorb raw energy from the Immaterium, without suffering any of the malevolent drawbacks as their natural filters separated the malice and the corruption of the four tumors. This filter lowered their overall potential for raw power, but supplemented it with versatility and fine control. Psykers constantly have to deal with daemonic influence and corruption, for instance, while Jujutsu Sorcerers did not.
Their filters were, in fact, so powerful, that not even the four tumors could whisper to them.
Their powers were far more specialized, too. From his battle with Sukuna, Neoth surmised that, outside of Innate Abilities, a Jujutsu Sorcerer was capable of augmenting their physical attributes with their filtered warp energy, bolstering their hand to hand abilities to impossible levels. The more powerful the Jujutsu Sorcerer, the greater the augmentation. Psykers could do the same thing, of course, but the process by which they augmented themselves was different – costly and dangerous, especially for the weaker ones. In general, however, Psykers boasted greater raw power and potential.
The filters of the Jujutsu Sorcerers, however, granted them unique abilities that not even Psykers possessed. Sukuna's cutting ability was likely an effect of his filter. But the most intriguing thing was the Domain Expansion ability, drawing forth a portion of the Warp into realspace, cleansing it, and then imposing the full breadth of one's Innate Technique into it. Brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Neoth himself couldn't have performed such a strange skill if he hadn't made use of Biokinesis to create a filter for himself.
"You don't think he'll join the side of the traitors, then?" Malcador asked.
At that, Neoth could only shake his head. "I don't believe so. But we'll have to wait and see."