Mortarion was struck senseless by the Chaos evil rushing toward him. He could not help holding his breath.
Within the sulfurous fog, he vaguely saw an abominable crimson body. It was so enormous that it seemed to loom over all of New Dragonwood.
The abominable daemon god was made of blood and Chaos matter. Its skin was dark red and covered in runes. It had two pairs of arms, one large and one small, and its body was long, massive, and hideous.
Its head bore enormous, curving, layered horns like an evil crown, and behind those horns, savage spikes extended all the way down its back.
The wicked wings on its back were stained with hellfire, as though every beat of them could bring destruction, terror, and despair.
More importantly, that daemon god was staring in their direction. Staring at all of them. Mortarion could feel its incomparably evil and cruel gaze.
The feeling of being watched like that was terrifying.
For a dazed moment, he almost thought he was facing the Chaos Gods themselves, and he nearly lowered his head to avoid that gaze.
"Could this be... the legendary Lord of Hell, Diablo?"
Mortarion took a deep breath and suppressed the fear in his heart. He thought of certain rumors he had heard before.
The Lord of Hell, Diablo, slumbered in the depths of the Warp. He represented destruction and terror, endless firepower, and mighty power.
Once he fully awakened, hellfire would burn to every corner of the universe.
Previously, the Death Lord had disdained such rumors. But with the formation of the Hell Legions and the Terror Legion, the beings of the galaxy and the Warp had discovered that another powerful existence had appeared within the Warp.
In the past, he had believed that the so-called Lord of Hell, Diablo, was probably similar to Vashtorr and could not be compared to the Chaos Gods.
Now, however, it seemed that the Lord of Hell's might was even more terrifying than imagined. He was awakening and participating in the Great Game.
He was competing with the Chaos Gods.
"Grandfather, we may be in trouble."
Mortarion frowned deeply, his voice somewhat hoarse. Thick unease filled his heart.
If they only had to face the Savior, Guilliman, and beings like them, he still had confidence in victory. But now they also had to face the Lord of Hell, an existence seeking to contend with the Chaos Gods.
Under such circumstances, could they still win?
It was not only Mortarion. When the other fallen primarchs faced the evil power surging toward them and that cruel gaze, they also became wary.
Any being facing the gaze of a higher-dimensional existence would instinctively feel fear. It was a kind of suppression beyond rank and level.
If a mortal faced such a higher-dimensional gaze, they might go mad on the spot. Their body and consciousness would fall into corruption, and they would submit completely to that entity.
In the end, they would lose themselves entirely and become that being's Chaos slave.
"Impossible. Before I established the teleportation passage, New Dragonwood had not yet been deeply corrupted..."
Magnus endured his discomfort, his face filled with disbelief. Compared with fear, he was more eager to answer the confusion in his heart.
He stood frozen in place, gathering information from his surroundings as he attempted to analyze the answer.
"Perhaps during our transfer, that Warp entity used the node to rapidly corrupt this planet.
"Under normal circumstances, that would be impossible, because the Savior placed a large number of blackstone installations here to block large-scale Chaos contamination.
"But someone shut down the installations and guided this power's descent. Now we must fight in an environment corrupted by that force.
"This is an entirely new faith-born corrupted power. As for what effects it will have..."
The King of Sorcerers sank into the mysteries of new knowledge, while the other fallen primarchs looked at one another.
The situation had exceeded their expectations. Mortarion in particular had deep hesitation in his eyes.
The Lord of Hell had eroded this planet with terrifying might, and he was filled with hostility toward them. That was an extremely dangerous matter.
He was worried about the consequences of this great decisive battle, and about the terrifying threat that deity might descend upon them.
"Perhaps a temporary retreat would be a good choice. This place is no longer suitable as a battlefield."
Mortarion thought this in his heart. In the current situation, continuing to seek out and decapitate the Savior was highly risky.
"No need to worry. That is merely an illusion."
Suddenly, Horus reached out and patted Mortarion on the shoulder, comforting this hesitant and uneasy fallen primarch.
Although he disliked this timid and indecisive brother, this was a critical moment. He had to stabilize the team's morale.
"Heh. So this is the Lord of Hell?"
Horus raised his head and looked up at the abominable crimson figure in the sulfurous fog. There was not the slightest fear in his eyes. It looked more like provocation.
He was not afraid of this being at all.
This was the galaxy, not the Warp. Separated by a thick barrier, no matter how mighty the other side was, it could not do anything to him.
Forget this Lord of Hell. Even the Chaos Gods themselves could not do anything to him while he remained in the galaxy.
Horus and the Chaos Gods did not share a relationship of master and servant. They were cooperating, and he had firmly controlled and absorbed the corrupted faith-power they had bestowed.
To put it simply, the Chaos Gods were sponsoring him, the Dark Emperor, and their goal was the complete imprisonment of the Anathema.
That corrupted faith-power, and even the authorities bound within it, were his payment. Whether he succeeded or failed, there was no possibility he would return them, and they could not cross the barrier to drag him back.
Horus did not have much respect for the Chaos Gods, let alone this Lord of Hell, whose strength was inferior to theirs.
Moreover, he even dared to face the False Emperor, who made the gods feel fear. The Lord of Hell before him could not frighten him.
He believed that with time, he too could take a step forward, obtain more authority like the Lord of Hell, and participate in the Great Game.
Of course, the prerequisite was defeating the Savior, then taking advantage of the Imperium's chaos to carve out a realm for himself and seize a vast population and territory.
He would become humanity's new Dark Emperor, using the power of believers to ascend to godhood and truly control his own fate.
He would not be hypocritical like the False Emperor, refusing supreme authority for the sake of ignorant mortals, rejecting the chance to become the true master of mankind.
Horus shook his head and said softly, "It seems the Lord of Hell has backed the Savior and wants to use the Imperium to compete with the gods.
"That proves he still cannot compare to the gods. He cannot face them in the Warp, and can only stir up some waves in the galaxy to seize faith."
If the Lord of Hell were truly that powerful, he would not act so furtively. He would directly wage war against the gods in the Warp.
Under these circumstances, Horus, who possessed the gods' authorities, still had a decent chance of defeating the Savior.
"So this is the Savior's support. But even the Lord of Hell cannot struggle against all the gods at once." Fulgrim's sharp voice rang out. The discomfort he had felt earlier was already gone.
No matter what, he would not retreat, nor would he leave this planet.
Mortarion nodded.
Even if the legendary Lord of Hell was powerful, he had still not fully awakened. It was impossible for him to possess power surpassing the gods.
And those rumors might not even be true.
Once the Death Lord thought these things through, the worry in his heart gradually faded.
Seeing Horus's firm will, the fallen primarchs steadied themselves and began this decapitation operation.
"The Chaos Temple is not far from here. We will find the Savior and those brothers who willingly serve as the False Emperor's hounds, then execute them as quickly as possible!"
Horus extended corrupted power and pointed toward a vague region resembling a mountain range.
The Chaos Temple stood atop that mountain range. He found it very easily.
Of course, that was also because the Savior had not concealed his position. It was as though the other side had thrown open the doors, welcoming him, the Dark Emperor, to the duel.
Splat.
Horus casually smashed a crimson daemon that lunged at him, then led the others along the lava path toward the fortress.
This planet was deeply fused with the Warp. The original material world had twisted and now possessed multiple dimensions. Even the terrain had changed beyond recognition.
Some regions appeared and collapsed again and again, while even more Warp domains were projected over.
The beings of Chaos saw a massive corpse shaped like a mountain range, a distant gray and dead city, and a certain emerald garden with a huge cauldron.
Those scenes appeared and vanished. They even saw a cramped room where a young man sat at a desk, tapping away at some kind of machine.
Fortunately, while this space was chaotic, the beings of Chaos could still find the correct path.
Or they could simply bombard and smash through the obstacles ahead.
This elite force led by the Dark Emperor advanced toward the mountain range where the Chaos Temple stood at extreme speed.
Along the way, the daemons and abominable lives manifested from the Lord of Hell's corrupted power were ruthlessly slaughtered.
It seemed as though nothing could stop their advance.
"Heh. It seems that Lord of Hell is not particularly impressive either. I never expected the Savior to be so pathetic that he would borrow the power of some lesser god."
Fulgrim's slender sword pierced into a crimson daemon's eye, lifting it up to torture it.
The poison on the slender sword made the creature howl constantly in pain, while he enjoyed the rare opportunity for abuse and torment. It counted as a small amusement during this dull march.
"Slaughter! Terror!"
Behind Horus and the other beings of Chaos, in a basin of magma, a sudden roar rang out. A great host of daemons from the Hell Legions charged toward them.
"Ah, you are destined never to set foot on the correct path. Such is the decree of fate..."
The Thousand Sons Sorcerers were responsible for blocking these daemons of Hell.
As before, they used sorcery to build a labyrinth behind the force. The crimson daemons charged into it, then became lost in another region or fell into scorching magma.
Magnus remained deep in thought atop his disc. He was still learning information related to the Lord of Hell and this planet.
All of it was new knowledge.
But strangely, the Lord of Hell's authority seemed to have merged with other authorities, making it both familiar and unfamiliar.
The King of Sorcerers hoped to understand this planet's operating laws as soon as possible, then use Chaos nodes and sorcery to establish a larger labyrinth, thereby dividing the battlefield.
In that way, the garrison forces the Savior had arranged around the Chaos Temple would become lost. They could then defeat them one by one, or concentrate all their power to deal with the Savior.
"We must go faster."
Horus frowned. After that, he issued another order, further increasing their marching speed.
He led the elite Chaos force into a rapid assault.
The daemons interfering with them were becoming more and more numerous. Although those daemons could not stop the elite force's charge, they would slow the march.
He also feared that the Savior was doing this to buy time for some kind of arrangement. He had to be faster.
At some point, Magnus suddenly opened his eye, corrupted sparks bursting from his body.
He shouted for everyone to stop.
"Stop!"
Just now, he had discovered the hidden danger in the region ahead. A large amount of dimensional turbulence from the Warp existed there.
More importantly, that dimensional turbulence did not seem naturally formed. It was being controlled by some kind of authority.
That was very likely a trap set by the Savior.
???
Yet in the next instant, Magnus's eye widened.
The space before him was empty. There was no one left, only him standing alone atop his disc.
The King of Sorcerers had lost contact with Horus and the other fallen primarchs. He was trapped within some region of turbulence.
Magnus was numb. Before he could construct a large-scale sorcery to split the battlefield, the Savior, Emperor of the Imperium, had split them apart first.
Magnus took a deep breath and drove his disc into a new turbulence entrance.
He had to reconnect with Horus and the other beings of Chaos as quickly as possible.
"So it is just us now?" Horus frowned slightly and looked toward Sanguinius and several dark honor guards beside him.
Without his realizing it, this region had been swallowed by Warp turbulence, and its structure had been further damaged.
The elite Chaos force had advanced step by step, fighting with every step. More and more of them had been scattered.
They were crossing a fusion of the material and immaterial. Some regions even took on the appearance of the Vengeful Spirit or the Realm of Chaos.
Some places looked like a palace, with gorgeous corridors and arches, while gardens and trees stood outside.
There was also a pool packed with demihuman women. Some had cat ears, some had tails, and all of them wore only a few scraps of cloth, as though they were playing some kind of game.
They laughed and beckoned someone into the water, calling that person master.
Horus realized that they were not physical entities. They were more like images formed from memories, and old memories at that. They were piled together in a disorderly mass, then vanished like bubbles into the mist of the void.
This was the Empyrean's influence on this region, a flowing, blurry memory. It did not contain only the Savior's memories, but the memories of even more beings.
All of them had been awakened by some special authority, linked together with the Savior's memories as the main body.
Of course, these images were not purely immaterial in this region. Occasionally, under the Warp's shaping, they could take on physical form.
The only thing that puzzled him was why the Savior's memories could interfere with this planet.
Horus could not understand it, but he did not continue thinking. That was not what he was good at.
He stared at a certain point in the void. "So this is the trap you set? Divide my forces?
"Unfortunately, such petty tricks are useless against me. Even if I am alone, I can defeat all of you!"
The Dark Emperor was not worried that the Savior and the other primarchs might gather together to fight him. It would merely cost him a little more effort.
His only true enemy was the Savior. The other primarchs did not pose much of a threat.
Boom!
Horus tightened his grip on Worldbreaker and swept out a heaven-scorching wave of black flame.
The unnatural black fire was like a high-temperature furnace, burning through the void before him. The Chaos Temple appeared again in a region not far away.
After that, he led Sanguinius out of the turbulent region and headed toward the Savior's Chaos Throne.
...
In a certain region, hellfire blazed.
"The plan succeeded."
The Savior sat upon a savage throne formed from obsidian, overlooking the regions around the Chaos Temple.
When he saw Horus and the other fallen primarchs separated into different areas by the turbulent regions, he nodded in satisfaction.
Not long ago, he had controlled the Lord of Hell and gone all in, investing all accumulated energy into this Chaos fortress world and fully transforming it into a domain where he could exert influence.
Only by doing this could he block the Chaos Gods' influence outside the planet to the greatest possible extent.
It also allowed him to use the Lord of Hell's power against Horus and the other fallen primarchs.
Of course, this also had a minor side effect. Some of Eden's memories inevitably echoed through this region, and could even take shape.
But that should not be much of a problem.
It had to be said that using Warp authority to influence a planetary world felt truly wonderful.
For a dazed moment, Eden felt as though he had become a creator god. Unfortunately, the Lord of Hell could not directly enter the galaxy, or this battle would be settled with ease.
Of course, the prerequisite was that the Chaos Gods did not come, or else Eden would have to grab his bucket and run before he was beaten by all of them at once.
Just like that miserable time with Grandfather Nurgle.
Fortunately, once the Chaos Gods' scheme completely failed, the days when he had to grab his bucket and run would soon be over.
Eden looked down over the void and sighed with feeling. "This moment is just like that moment..."
Ten thousand years ago, when the Chaos Gods controlled the overstuffed Horus and made him fight the Emperor, they had divided the Emperor's forces in just this way.
By the time the old man finally reached the core region where Horus stood, only he and the Great Angel Sanguinius remained.
That scene from back then was strikingly similar to the current one. The difference was that this time, Eden held the initiative, just like the Chaos Gods and overstuffed Horus back then.
Next, he only needed to work with his primarch brothers to defeat them one by one, destroying Horus and the other fallen beings in sequence.
Everything was going according to plan.
Suddenly, Eden thought of an important problem.
"Hiss. But in the end, they failed, and Horus got killed too. This position seems a bit unlucky. There shouldn't be any accidents, right?"
...
At the same time, in another region.
Magnus stood on the main road of an industrial world, surrounded by strange-looking vehicles passing by.
He stood there blankly, a little lost, and filled with deep terror. His whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Especially when he saw the wall in front of him...
(End of Chapter)
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