His legion, it turned out, had plenty of experience in fighting the Greenskins. In the legion history that Sukuna hadn't bothered to read until he felt like it, the Devourers – in the days before they called themselves that – often fought alongside the White Scars, under the command of the Khan, who frequently encountered Orks. And so, his legion had plenty of experience, enough that Sukuna was confident in the fact that he could probably leave them alone to do their thing. The Five Captains – Yaragor, Althelm, Brutus, Thuri, and Shor – explained that, for all their cunning, the best way to deal with Orks was to bait them into open combat, where their primitive minds and bestial hearts simply could not resist the lull of a good fight.
Fair enough. The more Sukuna learned about the Orks, honestly, the more he found himself liking them for the purity of the life they lived – the strong prosper and grow stronger, while the weak are trampled underfoot, living only at the whims of their betters. He would've liked to have reincarnated inside an Ork, honestly. Humans were too complicated at times. Then again, he liked being human too. Variety was always good.
Eh. Ultimately, Sukuna was fine with being just Sukuna. But, if he had to choose between being reincarnated as an Ork or as a Primarch, then... well... he'd be an Ork.
Since he had no experience in fighting these Orks and he didn't feel like it at the moment, Sukuna was content to just delegate command to the Five Captains, to whom he bestowed a measure of power over the fleets as well, though Captain Loktar Shahid maintained ultimate authority, being the foremost naval expert within the fleet. His legion was eager, Sukuna mused, feeling the anticipation building up within them at the prospect of impressing him. And that was precisely why he made it into something of a competition.
They were ready, Sukuna mused. Already, his legionnaires were, each, capable of performing RCT on themselves and most of them were, at the very least, capable of performing RCT on another. All of them had mastery over their Innate Techniques and almost all of them were capable of expanding their domains; the others simply lacked their own domains to begin with – their Innate Techniques incapable of evolving more, such as those who held a deep and profound mastery over the creation of Cursed Tools. They didn't have their own domains, but that didn't mean they were any less powerful.
So, in conclusion, not a single Devourer Legionnaire could ever be called weak, especially not when compared to the Legionnaires of the other legions.
Hence the competition.
"The one who brings me the head of the Warboss gets a neat little prize after this campaign," Sukuna declared to the Devourers, catching and immediately holding their attention. They turned to him, each of them listening intently. "Another prize will be given to whoever has the most kills. No cheating and no undermining each other in your pursuit of the prizes, but – otherwise – do onto the Orks what you will. I care not how you tally your kills, but don't even think about lying."
Plus, the Orks weren't that much of a threat that the Devourers couldn't let loose a little. Sukuna would even say that the Orks were the perfect enemy – unrelenting, brutal, and utterly insane. Though, to be perfectly honest, if he had to pick the one who'd most likely take the win for most kills, it'd be Yamamoto Genryusai; the brat's Innate Technique was so hilariously straightforward in its destructive capacity that not even the Fire Arrow could compare. And, certainly, no one else in the Legion came remotely close – at least, in terms of who could destroy a whole city the fastest.
His legion divided themselves into five groups, each group following the command of one of the Five Captains. Despite the general organization, however, the competition itself stood, which would almost certainly result in chaos. And, honestly, his legionnaires were so few that they'd probably benefit more from chaos as opposed to staying organized the whole time.
Sukuna left the planning and general strategy all to them. His only interest now was observation. Though, if he felt like it, he could always jump ahead to another objective, where he'd be free to unleash the fullness of his powers without having to worry about the Legionnaires. Plus, if he killed enough Orks, there was a good chance that Skarbrand might just show up and having a buddy to massacre with sounded like a lot of fun – if he was in the mood.
Their first target was a lone moon that orbited the seventh planet of the solar system, controlled by a large population of hardened Orks – millions of them, to be exact. The moon itself would be a good staging ground for when the Imperial Army arrived as, by Malcador's own words, pacifying an entire system with only a literal handful of Astartes was virtually impossible, no matter how powerful his Legionnaires might've been and, honestly, Sukuna agreed.
Thus, the role of the Devourers was to soften up the enemy, doing as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time before moving on to the next target, leaving the Orks battered and bruised and bloodied, but mostly alive for the baseline human soldiers to mop up.
"I'll be in my chambers," Sukuna finished with a shrug. "Don't disturb me, unless it's really important that it can't wait. Otherwise, no one's allowed inside."
Tinkering with a Man of Iron, specifically turning one into a Cursed Corpse, sounded like a very interesting project to work on and disturbance was the last thing he needed. The Men of Iron certainly gave him a lot of trouble when he first encountered them. Credit given where it was due, whoever designed and created those machines knew what they were doing, because those killer robots were simply amazing – cheap, durable, powerful, and easily manufactured, the perfect weapons. So, turning one into a Cursed Corpse should yield... something very interesting.
And, honestly, he had more than enough Men of Iron soldiers to not care too much about a single missing one.
After receiving his orders, the Devourers very quickly got to work.
Sukuna ignored them, of course, knowing and trusting them well enough by then. Plus, Loktar Shahid was a reliable guy and, ultimately, the real power lay in the fleet itself. If nothing else, glassing the Orks until they all dug themselves underground was a viable strategy.
Shrugging, Sukuna turned and walked away, immediately entering his chambers, flanked by two servitors, whom he named Migi and Hidari, because that's where they always were. Quiet and utterly loyal, they reminded him somewhat of Uraume if Uraume was a grotesque amalgamation of man and machine. So, Sukuna tolerated their presence – not that they had much of one, honestly. The souls of the servitors were so hideously scarred and damaged that there really wasn't anything left of who they used to be, underneath all the wires and cogs and metal bits.
He walked into his chambers, the doors hissing and closing behind him, and grinned at the 'corpse' of the bound Man of Iron that was strapped to the table before him. Sukuna stretched his limbs and his fingers as he stepped forward and loomed over the living machine. This one, he noted, idly, was shaped like a skeletal humanoid, possessing very few weapons in its bodice; if his understanding of its purpose was correct, then its role in the battlefield was that of an assassin or saboteur – quick, silent, and deadly, but otherwise easy to kill if discovered. "Greetings. I've been told that you're still self-aware, even if you're no longer in control of your actions."
The machine did not stir. It couldn't. The straps were there because even Sukuna wasn't sure what would happen if he turned a sapient machine into a Cursed Corpse. And, of course, all of this would be done in secret, because he had no interest in listening to the rants of a Tech Priest – or Malcador. Because, as far as he could tell, this was exactly the sort of thing that led to the Age of Strife, some event long ago that everyone couldn't get over.
But, Sukuna wasn't there and he didn't care.
"Now," Sukuna rubbed his hands together. "Let's begin, yeah?"
The first step in the creation of an artificial Cursed Corpse was in the creation of a Cursed Energy Core, an object that essentially functioned as the Cursed Corpse's battery, supplying them with a constant stream of Cursed Energy. Once that battery was depleted, the Cursed Corpse would lose cohesion and would either fade to dust or just become inanimate. Of course, there were a few tricks to make the whole process more efficient, bells and whistles to make it so that the flow of energy was as smooth and as fluid as it could possibly be, like creating a network to go along with the battery. Though, to be entirely, Sukuna wasn't sure if a network of Cursed Energy was even possible, given the complexity of a Man of Iron.
So, baby steps.
The creation of a Cursed Energy Core wasn't anything complicated. Sukuna simply gathered enough Cursed Energy into a ball, condensing it until it turned somewhat solid and tangible, with a texture that was close to grease. The amount of Cursed Energy he used to create this particular core was enough to, by his reckoning, give birth to a Curse that could threaten entire nations. It wasn't necessary, of course, but the more Cursed Energy was contained in a core, the longer a Cursed Corpse retained its functionality.
Sukuna had always wondered if it was possible to create a fully sapient, fully independent Cursed Corpse. In theory, it was; he just never figured out how. At best, Sukuna could create a Cursed Corpse that could follow basic, preprogrammed instructions, like 'stand there and attack anything that comes close' or 'walk from point A to point B and attack anything that comes close'.
Whatever the case, Sukuna then inserted the Cursed Core into the Man of Iron and steadily guided its spread across the machine's chassis, into its circuitry, its joints, and all the little mechanical things within its bodice. Finally, Sukuna stopped the flow of Cursed Energy and smiled. Of course, as it was, it wasn't a Cursed Corpse, just an object that so happened to be imbued with Cursed Energy. No, the tricky part was in making sure the Cursed Energy actually developed into a Cursed Spirit, which would then awaken and immediately take over the inanimate object. How did one trigger the birth of a Cursed Spirit? Well, the natural method was through... waiting. Over a long period of time, a Cursed Spirit popped out when enough Cursed Energy gathered. The second method was a little more tedious, but it wasn't anything Sukuna couldn't do; he just preferred not to.
Breathing in, Sukuna began the implantation of emotion, the catalyst that gave birth to Curses. Each and every single negative emotion had its own texture, its own taste, its own rhythm, its own identity, which would alter the chemistry of the Cursed Energy that arose from said emotion. Rage, for instance, resulted in a very abrasive Cursed Energy with a bitter flavor and a fast, almost frantic, rhythm. Of course, these basic emotions could even be further divided into unique singularities. Rage, for instance, could manifest as: Anger Towards the Self, which, once again, produced its own unique form of Cursed Energy which was similar to other forms of Cursed Energy that came from the emotion of Rage, but was subtly different, like variants of the same plant breed.
Hence, the way to birthing a Cursed Spirit was through the fine manipulation of Cursed Energy so that it mimicked the necessary natural process instilled by the presence of negative emotions. And Sukuna would readily admit that, while he could do it and he'd certainly done it before, it wasn't something he'd ever call easy. His CE control was as high as it could possibly get, without the aid of Innate or Bloodline Techniques, and even he found it both tedious and difficult. Still, he wasn't the King of Curses for nothing and, withing mere seconds of concentration, Sukuna caused the Cursed Energy within the Man of Iron to mimic the Fear of Abandonment – the best emotion to create loyal servants.
AN: Chapter 29 is out on (Pat)reon!