Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 317

"Not strong enough."

He did not extinguish the only source of psychic energy in the entire space.

Hades was speechless. Both Macado and the Emperor genuinely hoped that he would capture more Forging Worlds to make him even more powerful.

"The fleet has arrived in Prospero."

The emperor said calmly,

"Time is not plentiful. I originally planned to return to Terra after the Nicaea meeting, but the extra trip has disrupted my plans. I think we all hope that I will return to Terra."

"us?"

Hades raised his voice.

“I don’t want you to return to Terra. A king should walk among his armies—”

"I'm referring to the existence of subspace."

Hades remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking.

“I don’t understand…I don’t understand what you mean, Neos?”

A soft laugh came from the other channel, and Hades vaguely heard a psionic Muggle.

Hades frowned, but the Emperor's voice remained calm, as if nothing had happened.

“This is an anchor point that is bound to happen unless you kill me, Hades.”

Hades shouted.

"You can't say that! I'm warning you, Neos! This is not something you should say, don't even think about it!"

"You can't kill me."

The Emperor said,

"Is this the key?!"

The Emperor listened calmly to Hades' warning from the other side, and then he spoke.

"Chaos has enough leverage to threaten me. The precursors to the warp storm have been observed, and they have naturally responded to my actions."

Hades paused for a moment. The Empire's navigation and communication all depended on the Warp. If a Warp storm were to break out, the Empire would be physically separated into countless fragments in an instant.

If we move the timeline slightly forward, the warp storms were raging at that time, and it was the first shriek of the Slaanesh's birth that dispersed the warp storms, allowing the Emperor to launch the Great Crusade.

But... but...

"Why so fast?"

Hades asked, and he didn't remember—

"This is the price I have to pay for the change of course in my destiny, or perhaps it is a warning they gave me."

The initiation of a subspace storm inevitably requires rituals, costs, and time, but observing it does not require it to have already occurred. Subspace has never had continuous time; the ending may occur before the beginning.

The emperor donned his golden armor and looked down at Prospero. He saw a flash of blue light. Prospero was supposed to be a crucial anchor point for destiny, but due to the interference of outsiders, its trajectory had clearly been derailed.

All the wedges carefully planted by the Lord of Change failed. They should have fallen like dominoes, eventually toppling the biggest card—the Empire.

But now the whole game has been disrupted by outsiders, and all the exquisite and subtle arrangements have lost their original meaning, except for those spirit-summoning rituals engraved on the planets and those who have been gazing into the warp for too long...

Lord of all changes, what else can you offer?

The Emperor knows his enemies well; the cunning are cowardly, and He will only hide behind the table unless the previous round is broken and He needs to start a new one.

It's still the same as always.

The emperor thought of endless premonitions, provocations, half-truths, lies—all lies.

But this will be a new beginning, the end of a losing hand, and the start of a brand new one.

What will they do?

But don't try any more tricks; the Emperor doesn't care.

"There's no need to play the recording."

He opened his mouth, watching the first airdrop pod crash into the ground of Prospero.

--------

He fled.

Or perhaps He never intended to confront Him directly.

The rain was still falling. The Emperor began to descend from the pyramid tip of Prospero, which was originally closest to the warp. The Wolf King followed behind him, and the Emperor felt that his hands were empty.

He entrusted the Eye of Magnus to Lemanrus, trusting that Lemanrus would make the right choice at the right time.

He saw the horrific state of the Prospero people in the dim light. The blind and the dull-witted had escaped, trembling as they huddled under the protection of the Death Guard and the Space Wolves, while the wise and intelligent could not escape their fate, all more or less tainted by the warp's aura—

In the right place, at the right time, and under the right triggering conditions, they were backfired by their own greed and paid the price.

But that was all He could offer, nothing more. The Emperor realized with disappointment that He wouldn't even put on a grand fireworks display for him.

Or perhaps He used His power elsewhere.

It was placed on... His true goal.

The Emperor pondered this matter, the phantom from just moments ago still seemingly before his eyes. He thought of Horus, he thought of Magnus, he thought of the Net—who could it be? What could it be?

Could it be Saint Gilles? Or Lemanrus?

Golden flames blazed up along the pyramid's edges as he descended, the radiant light dispelling the chaos that had clung to the pyramid. He stepped onto level ground and saw his son Mortarion standing calmly in the rain.

Motarian's gaze passed over him.

[Leman Russ,]

The hissing voice of the Lord of Death rang out.

You just left a message to keep an eye on the lines and then charged straight in.

The emperor raised his hand, and frowned.

"He was just worried about me."

Motalian let out a loud sigh, bowed exaggeratedly, and then shook his head self-deprecatingly.

I was too busy with the war.

He squinted, making way for the emperor who was marching straight ahead. As far as he could see, he saw those people burst into flames, golden flames like beacons in the rain, piercing the darkness.

This doesn't resemble the behavior of a general or a soldier.

Mortarian remained silent, but he still followed quietly.

The emperor walked down the dark street, each step illuminating several souls. He could not have done this before, but he listened to the murmurs of his believers—Luojia had fulfilled his expectations.

The Lord of Humanity is purifying this planet, purifying this planet that has become an abandoned pawn. After a brief drama, the Lord of Change abandoned it, but the Lord of Humanity will not do so, for this was once the home of humankind.

The entire planet seemed to be burning fiercely, and golden light shone through the walls of the fleet, illuminating Magnus's soul.

Most of the Thousand Children were devoured by their guardian spirits. Some clever Thousand Children managed to sever their connection with their guardian spirits by cutting off their souls in time, while others were spared because they had never summoned a spirit.

In Prospero, for ordinary people, only servants and children whose hands had never touched a book survived.

In the subspace, Prospero's burning symbolizes something else: the annihilation of a crucial anchor point.

They all witnessed it.

Now, they can sit at the same table peacefully.

The cunning one burst into laughter.

Ugh, even my writing about the Warp is a bit of a mystery. Tzeentch is like this... I think I'll just go play in the mud in Father's Garden.

Chapter 384 Try it once

Magnus awoke with a dry, powerless feeling, and as he awoke, he felt a strange throbbing—a connection with the Thousand Sons. He seemed to hear the wails of his offspring as they were possessed by the guardian spirits before they died.

The Primarch struggled to sit up, and then he realized that anxious footsteps had been there all along. Magnus coughed as if to say something, but he was stopped.

"Quiet, Magnus."

Hearing a voice, Magnus realized that the guard was very close to him, and Hades was in the cell.

The ease and nonchalance that had characterized his everyday speech had vanished, replaced by emotionless words that reminded Magnus of the unadorned words of the mechanical sage.

“I was wrong before, Magnus. You yourself are a mark of His, and unless I destroy your soul, I cannot remove His surveillance over this place.”

Magnus heard the hiss of the blade cutting through the ground. His muscles tensed. He wanted to do something, but felt there was nothing he could do. He was being toyed with by Chaos, and his Thousand Sons and Prospero had vanished.

"So, He heard my conversation with you earlier—and He wants to end this, even using your words. Is this a warning, or a joke?"

These words were spoken very softly, more like Hades talking to himself.

"What's worse, I think the Emperor also agrees with the other side's view. What he saw in Prospero may have changed his mind. I should go to a more important occasion instead of guarding a expendable pawn."

The anxious footsteps sounded again. You can never be sure whether when Tzeentch stops you, he wants you to stop or he wants you to continue.

After a long while, the footsteps stopped, and Hades seemed to squat down next to Magnus, who was half-sitting against the wall.

"Let me tell you a story, Magnus. This is my last attempt."

He said the sickle made a hissing sound as it scraped against the ground.

“There was once an unlucky fellow like you who was chosen from the start, but the one who chose him was different from the one who chose you. He was always unlucky, and on his predetermined fate, all the great things he wanted to accomplish failed.”

Hades paused for a moment.

“You see, it’s the complete opposite of you. You should have had a smooth and successful life—but unfortunately you met me.”

"But then he changed his fate. On one hand, he did change a lot of his bad temper; on the other hand... not to boast, but the waves of the warp also need someone to dam them before they can cause significant changes—"

[...Did you alter his fate?]

Magnus's voice trembled as he listened to Hades remain silent for a moment.

"Yes, soulless beings are best suited for this kind of thing, aren't they? Rather than carefully entangled with the various waves of fate using psionic energy, it's better to cut them off directly, but unfortunately, this requires the soulless being to have sufficient ability."

Are you the only one who can do this?

"Yes."

Magnus remained silent.

"You just mentioned Mortarian? He was also... also..."

"Shh, be quiet, Magnus."

Hades said,

"So you are the luckiest of the unfortunate, Magnus."

Magnus recalled the unique aura of death emanating from Mortalian and his morbid behavior, finding it hard to imagine what Mortalian had experienced in the past.

"Not just you, and not just him."

Hades murmured,

“I have also witnessed entire legions on the verge of extinction, their offspring mired in bloodshed, and those who could not escape their fate. He, too, can be said to have escaped his predetermined destiny.”

[...Angron?]

Hades remained silent.

“You must have seen the device on his head, so I say you are lucky.”

Magnus remained silent as if dead, and after a long while, he finally uttered a soft question.

You originally... came to help me get rid of... those things?

"perhaps."

Hades said,

“But you are different from them. Even in the most perilous moments, their souls did not yield for a moment, Magnus. You know what I mean.”

Magnus had already given part of his soul to Tzeentch from the beginning; what he faced was not a cruel curse, but a lie wrapped in honey.

"Then... what else can I...?"

He opened his mouth in vain; it was just a matter of habit.