Every night, Magnus would replace sleep with meditation.
Within this mental realm he controlled, he could freely explore the mysteries of psychic power and hone his abilities.
He heeded his father's warning and would never rashly venture into the Warp.
It was filled with deadly dangers, and there were Great Entities coveting his essence.
Though they are viewed as malevolent gods from a human perspective, one cannot deny their supreme dominion within the Warp, which no individual can contend with.
But in this safe domain, he could communicate without restraint with his father on distant Terra.
His father would spend time with him every day, answering his questions about the Warp.
"Father, what did She do to me?"
Magnus saw him again, the golden giant shrouded in divine light.
Yet, his father's face was always blurred, as if obscured by an eternal mist.
Perhaps this was because he had never truly met his father in person.
Although he possessed memories from his incubation pod, he had not yet grown into his current form and could not observe his father with his eyes.
But his perception of his father was not based on physical facial features, but stemmed from the spiritual realm.
While all psykers draw power from the Warp, and seem to only differ in magnitude,
In reality, powerful psykers each possess unique psychic signatures.
These signatures, like fingerprints, have subtle differences.
Mortals and weak psykers cannot perceive these differences, but in the eyes of other powerful psykers, they are as distinct as an ID card, easily identifiable.
In many cases, even just from residual psychic traces, one can accurately determine their owner.
His voice was calm.
"Don't you already have the answer? It's a deal. You keep a secret for Her, and She must pay the price."
Magnus questioned, "Will She honor it?"
"It's a fair deal. The pact constrains both parties equally. Even if She wants to break it, She will pay a heavy price."
"Fair?"
Magnus found it hard to believe.
This wasn't what his father had taught him.
"Find it unbelievable? But this is the basis of transactions. All deals in the Warp are built upon 'fairness'."
"The key is: who controls the standard of fairness?"
"It's a simple market principle. In country C, an item sells for 8. In country A, the same item sells for 80."
"Even accounting for tariffs and transport, the profit margin in the latter is still ten times that of the former."
"Yet, for the people of both countries, it is fair."
"Because prices differ, currency exchange rates differ, and naturally the standard of fairness differs."
"The same applies to deals with the Warp."
"What She gives you might be worth only 5, but if you cannot accurately define its value, you may often pay 50,000 for it."
"When you learn the truth, you naturally feel fooled and deceived."
"However, the Warp occasionally shows mercy, selling you a priceless treasure for a pittance."
"From the essence of the transaction, both are very fair."
"The Warp provides the goods, and you pay the price."
"But I was still tricked!"
A flicker of confusion passed through Magnus's eyes.
"No, child," the voice still remained calm. "Being 'tricked' is simply realizing after the fact that the price you paid exceeded expectations."
"If you profit from the deal, why would you feel cheated?"
"The key is you must see the content of the contract."
"Even in seemingly generous clauses, traps may be disguised as exquisite decorations using tiny print."
"You think you bought a priceless treasure, but the contract says you rented it."
"The pittance you paid upfront was just a deposit; the subsequent high rent will completely drain you."
Magnus frowned.
"Why are you telling me this? I will never deal with the Warp!"
"But you must understand it correctly, not simply avoid it."
"Avoidance doesn't solve problems. Understanding the Warp is not about getting close to it, but about opposing it more effectively."
"Only when you truly understand your enemy can you make correct judgments when facing it, instead of being at a loss due to ignorance."
"Remember, ignorance is the most dangerous ally. Knowledge, even the darkest knowledge, can be your most powerful weapon."
"Just like the spark stolen from the Warp that shaped your souls and forms."
"Your father also warned your brother: methods have no inherent good or evil; used rightly, they are good; used wrongly, they are evil."
"The key is who defines 'right' and 'evil'."
"You bear all humanity's future. You represent justice. No one is more authoritative than you!"
Magnus remembered how Caelan had taught his brother on Nuceria.
Just as his father never made them deny or abandon psychic power, but taught them to master it and use it with restraint.
So perhaps the same applied to the Warp.
They must understand the Warp correctly, yet avoid delving too deep into it.
He must compromise and find a balance.
But he also could not cross the line.
Neither of his fathers would permit him to trample the bottom line, and Magnus himself didn't want to.
"But what should I demand?"
Magnus pondered.
His knowledge of the Warp was still shallow, making it hard to choose.
The father encouraged him.
"You need to think for yourself, my child. I believe you have the ability to make the right choice."
Magnus murmured, "Perhaps I should discuss this with my father."
"But the contract forbids you from revealing the deal's content to him, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
Magnus lowered his head in frustration.
Whenever he tried to speak, the contract covered his mouth.
He simply couldn't reveal it.
"Exactly," the voice softened. "The deal is struck. You must think independently."
"You don't need to ask for instructions on everything. You are his son; he will naturally support you."
Magnus: "But what if I make a mistake?"
The father said meaningfully, "She doesn't belong here. And he will eventually understand that we are helping him."
"We are helping Father," Magnus murmured to himself.
She was lurking in the material universe with some scheme, and he would find it out and expose Her true face.
He would never allow Her to harm his father or brothers!
…....
"The future has changed."
Neoth looked up at the sky.
A bright moon was revealing its true face from behind thick clouds of pollution.
"The future is always unpredictable. Why such alarm?"
Malcador moved a piece calmly.
"This is different. You and I both know that prophesying the future is like solving a math problem."
"We see a problem. The prophecy tells us the answer is 10. We need to derive the correct formula."
"It could be 10 times 1, or 5 times 2, or even more complex combinations. The process varies endlessly, but the result always points to 10."
"Even if the future fluctuates, it's just changing from 10 to 9."
"As long as we stick to our established deduction formula, the result we get will still be 10."
"You need to subtract 1 from 10 to get 9, but if we already have 10, we can anchor the answer at 10."
"10 is the answer, and 9 will be discarded."
"If it were only this, changes in the future naturally wouldn't affect our plans."
"But what if 1+1=3?"
Malcador's hand trembled.
What did he mean, 1+1=3?
"1+1≠2?"
"Maybe it's 2, maybe it's 3."
Malcador's voice deepened.
"In the Warp, 1+1=3 can certainly hold, but this is the material universe!"
"1+1=2. But on top of 1+1, add 100×0.01, and naturally you get 1+1=3."
"The newly added 100×0.01 wasn't in our calculations, but it exists objectively."
"This is troublesome."
Malcador put down his piece, frowning deeply.
"Can we find all these 0.01s?"
Neoth said, "The galaxy is too vast. And we don't have time."
Malcador sighed.
What they lacked most was time.
Even though the successive returns of the Primarchs had greatly accelerated the Great Crusade, they still had too little time.
They had been very patient, but the Warp's entities were even more patient.
They could scheme for thousands of millennia, while Chaos might have been playing a long game for millions of years.
Chaos's pawns were driven like wedges into every aspect of the Imperium.
Even the Emperor didn't have the energy to find them all.
He could only try to ensure these pawns didn't affect his plans, denying them the chance to get on the board.
And Chaos would try every means to get its pawns on the board and mix in among the Emperor's pieces.
And They would surely achieve Their goal.
The Emperor and the Primarchs are not gods.
They cannot plug every loophole.
If They tried to destroy the Emperor's plan, They could be rooted out immediately.
But They don't need to destroy the plan, because the best way to oppose something is to execute it 200%.
They must stand behind the Emperor to stab him in the back.
Malcador asked "Can we find the crux?"
"The crux may not exist in the present. It may have happened in the past, or lie in the future."
"The only thing we know is that the future has changed."
Malcador said, "Then we must bring back all the Primarchs as soon as possible. How many are we missing?"
"Four."
"That's two. Alpharius doesn't need him to teach."
"That depends on him. The timeline is not immutable."
"Regardless, we must prepare early. He has made good progress, buying us 150 years. And Her."
Neoth shook his head.
"We cannot count on Her."
If She truly turned coat, it would be more beneficial than harmful, but who can guarantee She is sincere?
Even if She is sincere now, the future may change.
The natures of the Chaos Gods are all unpredictable.
The face She shows now may just be a mask.
They are not helpless against this, but it's difficult for them to act directly.
Whatever they do will play into the hands of another; doing nothing is the best counter.
Because the opposition between Them is real.
Let Them fight.
Only when She truly turns can they confidently borrow Her power.
But the fall of the entire Aeldari race bought Her birth; how could She so easily switch sides?
…
"Is that what the Emperor said?" Caelan asked.
Magnus nodded.
"Father told me that all deals with the Warp are 'fair'."
"That statement isn't exactly wrong. Without a standard to accurately measure value, any transaction is 'fair'."
"This fairness only manifests in the attitudes of both parties. At the moment the deal is made, both are indeed voluntary."
"The problem is that this so-called fairness is fundamentally unequal from the start."
"Because Chaos exploits the information gap in cognition to obtain a price far exceeding actual value."
Magnus the Red's deal with Chaos was a prime example.
If he could truly exchange one eye for the knowledge to save his Legion, Magnus would certainly think it an amazing deal.
He didn't care about losing an eye, and the Fifteenth Legion's flesh-change was urgent.
But then the deal would be unfair to Chaos.
Because His taking Magnus's eye was meaningless.
And the price of that deal was far more than just an eye, making that deal equally unfair.
He paid an insignificant price to obtain Magnus's soul, while Magnus lost everything for false knowledge.
Caelan said, "Understanding the Warp correctly is right. But never be so presumptuous as to think you can understand the Warp correctly."
"Understanding the principles of deals is also right. But never make a deal with the Warp!"
"Because Chaos will inevitably use the deal to obtain everything from you. Their schemes are always layered."
"Even if They give you some sweeteners initially, it's just a Ponzi scheme, a game of hot potato."
"Even those sweeteners may be poisonous. Once you become entangled with Chaos's deals, there's no turning back!"
"Even if the price seems minimal, even if you don't seem to pay anything, never, ever make a deal with Chaos!"
"I understand, Father."
Magnus's expression was extremely serious, but his heart couldn't help but sink.
He had already unknowingly made a deal with Chaos.
Just as his father said, even if the deal seemed safe and harmless, who could guarantee there were no traps?
If he demanded the price from Her, would She truly give him what he wanted?
Even if She did, how could he know the price wasn't laced with poison?
Magnus wasn't unwilling to confess to his father; he simply couldn't.
He could only bear it alone.
However, Caelan knew the Primarchs too well.
Just from Magnus's expression, he could tell Magnus was hiding something.
Caelan trusted Magnus.
He trusted every Primarch.
But he could probably guess what Magnus was worried about.
The curse of the flesh-change always plagued the Fifteenth Legion.
It wouldn't disappear just because they held the line and refused to deal with Chaos.
Magnus still needed to find a cure for his Legion.
No Primarch would abandon their Legion.
But even the Emperor was helpless against the flesh-change.
Where could they even begin?
Magnus already knew what suffering his Legion was enduring.
Surely he was troubled about saving them.
"In ancient Africa, zoologists observed a thought-provoking phenomenon: many wild horses died from continuous running."
Magnus immediately caught on and cooperatively asked, "Did they run themselves to death?"
"In a sense, yes, because their cause of death was cardiac arrest or internal bleeding. No external fatal wounds were found."
Magnus asked, "But why did they run so wildly?"
"Because they were bitten by vampire bats. And because they couldn't shake them off, they ran wildly in anger."
"Do the bats drink a lot of blood?"
"Very little. A single feeding is only 50-200 grams, less than 0.05% of a horse's body weight."
"Of course, there are cases where large swarms of bats attack and kill horses."
"But in most cases, only a few bats attack, and they leave after feeding."
"While the wounds don't heal immediately, they're usually not fatal."
"However, even after the bats were full and left, the horses would still run for hours at 60 km/h in anger."
"So, they basically died of anger?"
Caelan noddd, "Exactly. The bats wouldn't drain their blood, but they died from their own mental attrition."
They were injured, but the wounds were not fatal.
But they remained immersed in the irritable anger caused by the injury, eventually running themselves to death.
"You're telling me to control my emotions?"
"I'm telling you not to be so conflicted!"
Caelan increasingly felt he had never left Olympia, or that everywhere was Olympia.
Conflicted people are everywhere, and they're becoming more numerous.
Caelan didn't understand what Magnus was so conflicted about.
"Instead of mental attrition, blame others."
"Whatever you're struggling with, don't be conflicted. Blame someone."
"If you can't figure out who to blame, blame Tzeentch. Cursing Him is definitely not wrong."
Magnus took a deep breath.
"Father, I will never make any deal with Chaos in any form, not now, not ever!"
"Not just Chaos. It's best not to make deals in any form with anyone or any entity."
"Because Chaos can also disguise itself as a harmless mortal or seemingly neutral Warp entity, setting traps without you knowing."
"Even an unintentional word from you could become the opportunity for a deal."
"Remember, the devil is in the details."
Magnus raised his head, his eyes firm.
"I understand, Father."
.....
30 Chapters [email protected]/DaoistJinzu