"Look here, monster! I'm your opponent!"
Magnus's psychic power surged like a tide sweeping across the world, forming an invisible barrier outside the pyramid, completely sealing the Chaos Spawn within, ensuring none of its power could leak out.
The Chaos Spawn lurched to a halt. Dozens of twisted human faces, bristling with sharp teeth, split open on its bloated mass of flesh. It abandoned its chase of Enael. The faces let out piercing shrieks capable of shattering a mortal's mind, greedily turning towards the Primarch.
The Primarch would be even tastier than the girl!
Crimson flames condensed in Magnus's palm into a burning, spiral spear. He thrust his arm forward and hurled it, like a god-king casting divine punishment.
Boom!
The spear, like a meteor, pierced through the Chaos Spawn. The exploding flames instantly engulfed it.
These flames were not ordinary fire, but Warp-fire that Magnus had comprehended from the fragment. They could burn all evil entities in the world, even granting true death to the Primordial Annihilators!
Yet, the Chaos Spawn still resisted death. Fate would not let it fall here!
Coincidences protected it.
It screamed. Its mutated, twisted remnant body suddenly erupted in a burst of blinding blue light.
The light expanded outward, extinguishing the flames on its body.
In an instant, its shattered body suddenly ignited with blue flames.
Under the flames' burning, all its ferocious wounds healed and closed within a nanosecond. Its bones reknitted. Its severed blood vessels and veins writhed like living things, reconnecting.
But it was still a Chaos Spawn.
Within those newly healed wounds, countless new deformed limbs were frantically growing, making it even more twisted and terrifying than before the burning.
Its body was completely chaotic. Wounds only made it more chaotic than before.
It was like the deepest essence of Chaos itself: completely disorderly and endlessly mutating.
Boom!
The Chaos Spawn's spinal tentacle smashed the wall to pieces. The strike nearly hit the Primarch; Magnus only narrowly dodged at the critical moment.
Magnus's expression grew grave. He had prophesied the Chaos Spawn's attacks, but it didn't follow the prophecy.
Its chaotic thinking prevented it from thinking at all. Even it couldn't predict when or in what manner its next strike would come.
Magnus's prophecy failed against it.
But Magnus was not like those weak Aeldari Farseers who, once deprived of prophecy, became helpless.
Prophecy was but a single wave in his vast ocean of knowledge. He commanded the entire ocean.
Even without prophecy, even if he lost the entire ocean, he was still a Primarch, a demigod walking among mortals!
Ordinary psykers could only spend their lives mastering one of the five major branches of psychic power. But Magnus was different.
He was a born transcendent, the omnipotent master of psychic power.
Prophecy, biomancy, elemental control, mind domination, reality distortion, the secrets of all branches were under his command.
Those mysteries that other psykers could scarcely touch in a lifetime were, for him, merely skills at his fingertips.
He knew too much!
Vast psychic power surged within him like an endless, unceasing river, as boundless as the pouring radiance of the stars themselves.
The Chaos Spawn screamed and wailed in the flames. Its flesh was burned away inch by inch by the Warp-fire. Its twisted limbs shattered under the tearing force. Its bodily fluids boiled and evaporated. Even its own body seemed to betray its master.
The azure flames still frantically repaired its shattered body. Each flame fought desperately against Magnus's crimson flames.
Its body was caught in a tug-of-war between destruction and rebirth. Deformed flesh buds grew in the azure flames, only to turn to ash in the crimson inferno an instant later.
The azure flames' growth made it increasingly twisted, but the crimson flames' burning also made its body shrink.
Finally, it completely collapsed into a nauseating ball of flesh. Spines and tentacles frantically grew on its surface, like a virus magnified billions of times.
They flailed wildly, like a demonic dance. It moved its body, struggling to roll towards Magnus.
'Eat him!'
It had no reason, no thought. Only obsession and instinct drove it.
But Magnus wouldn't give it the chance. As the crimson flames and azure flames rose and fell, it would eventually be annihilated.
Chaos Spawns weren't usually this difficult to deal with. But this one was created by a God Himself.
The God had even generously blessed it.
If it weren't a Chaos Spawn, this blessing might have elevated it to a Daemon Prince.
But if it weren't a Chaos Spawn, it wouldn't have received His blessing.
Even with the blessing, it would still become a Chaos Spawn.
Boom!
The azure flames suddenly exploded. The dying Chaos Spawn exploded. Viscous black pus shot out like a rain of blood in all directions.
Every drop of bodily fluid contained the cognitive corruption of Chaos. Any mortal touching it would become a new Chaos Spawn.
But Magnus was prepared. Even during the fight, his psychic barrier had always enveloped the pyramid.
The fluids splattered on the barrier, causing ripples. Not a single drop escaped the tower.
From the ripples, raging flames ignited, completely annihilating the fluids.
Even those that had splattered on the floor, hiding in the cracks of the ruined walls, were laid bare by the Primarch's perception.
The fight was over. Temporarily.
"Thank you, Sister Aenor."
Magnus looked at the young woman approaching gracefully. He had learned her name from his prophecies.
"Aenor, how is Claudia these days?"
Aenor inclined her head slightly. "My master misses you very much."
Caelan fell silent. 'Alright, I shouldn't have asked.'
In the pre-interstellar age, civilization was merely dependent on worlds.
Even if civilization was destroyed, the world still revolved around its sun.
But in the post-interstellar age, civilization had spread across the galaxy. Worlds were just accessories of civilization.
Civilization could easily destroy worlds. The destruction of a world didn't affect the continuation of civilization.
Above civilization are Gods.
Even if Prospero was destroyed, Caelan and Magnus would be safe.
Aenor had protected Prospero, both the world and its civilization.
She was not a God of humanity, nor did she shelter mortals, yet she sent her handmaiden to protect Prospero.
She wanted something else. Caelan was her goal.
They all tacitly understood this. Magnus also remained silent.
He had no mother. But perhaps he would in the future.
Caelan frowned, staring at the spot where the Chaos Spawn had vanished. "Where did it come from?"
Magnus answered, It was Theod. Chaos's corruption had long eroded his soul. Everyone in this facility became its fuel."
His psychic prowess had reached perfection. Not only could he prophesy the future, he could also reconstruct past events.
Nothing escaped his eyes.
Theod thought he was the chosen one. He was indeed a 'chosen one' of a God.
But the God's choice wasn't favor. He was just a trash bag to be used and discarded.
Magnus's psychic perception spread to every inch of the pyramid. Every corridor, every secret chamber was laid bare by his investigation.
This pyramid had once been Tizca's spiritual symbol. The psychic array had once sheltered the Prosperines. But now it was a breeding ground for Chaos.
Magnus would not tolerate any lingering seed of Chaos. Even the smallest corruption had to be completely eradicated.
Any slightest negligence would give Chaos a chance to reignite.
…....
Only after Magnus confirmed everything was clean did he go to the underground shelter and personally open its doors.
"Is it over?" Thousands of hopeful eyes fell on Magnus.
Magnus shouted to the crowd, "It's over. You can go home now."
Amon was relieved. The residents wept with joy. Every face held the celebration of surviving a disaster.
The nightmare was finally over!
"It's not over. This is just the beginning."
Magnus told Amon and the other Masters privately.
"The Libertines completely destroyed the psychic array. If we can't restart it, the shadow of disaster will always hang over our heads."
They had to place the fragment within the 'membrane' to cut off its connection to the Warp.
Now the device that created the 'membrane' was destroyed. The fragment still had a lingering connection to the Warp.
As long as this connection remained, the threat of the Psychneuein would never be truly eliminated.
Amon asked, "How many Psychneuein are still on Prospero?"
Magnus replied, "Conservatively estimated, at least hundreds of millions."
"But they are scattered across the world. There should be few left around Tizca."
"In the short term, we don't have to worry about a Psychneuein invasion."
"But Chaos's corruption is everywhere. The Libertines is certainly not the only corrupted."
The nine Masters' expressions were grim. They had tasted the power of Chaos's corruption.
Although they knew nothing of what had happened in the pyramid, the destruction of the psychic array was the Libertines's doing.
The full losses from the Psychneuein invasion hadn't been counted, but conservatively estimated, at least tens of thousands of residents were casualties.
Many survivors had also been parasitized by Psychneuein eggs. If the eggs in their brains weren't removed in time, they too would die.
Mephia's voice was cold with murderous intent. "All members of the Libertines are under tight control. They won't have another chance to cause trouble!"
Amon said in a low voice, "Pity the ringleader escaped. We searched all of Tizca and couldn't find Theod or his accomplices."
"Don't worry. They're dead."
Magnus didn't reveal the details of Theod's death. The truth itself was a form of corruption for mortals.
Chaos's erosion was all-pervasive, and mortals simply couldn't withstand it.
Even inadvertently witnessing a demon could plant seeds of corruption in their minds.
Nearly all of Tizca's residents were psykers. Their souls were like dry wood soaked in oil. Chaos's whispers were like fire. The two only needed to touch to ignite.
"Those traitors got off easy!" Mephia hated the Libertines. The Masters all felt some regret.
They had once firmly believed democracy was the perfect system. Yet Tizca's disaster was caused by democracy.
The Libertines was dead, but the mess left by their rebellion had to be cleaned up.
Just rebuilding Tizca would be headache enough. The psychic array was completely destroyed, and Tizca lacked the technology to repair such ancient facilities.
But despite their complaints, none of them wanted to give up.
They were Masters. Protecting the people was their duty.
"It's just that we're too weak!" Vennakar said, unwilling.
If they could all possess power like Magnus and Caelan's, perhaps so many innocents wouldn't have died!
Caela said, "This mindset is very dangerous. Your talent determines your upper limit. If you insist on mastering even greater power, you will inevitably seek those forbidden knowledges, step by step falling into Chaos's traps."
"But even if you fall to Chaos, you will never match Magnus's power."
"There's no such thing as a free lunch. Don't mistake a God's blessing for a gift. The blessings of the Gods all hide traps, and you must personally pay the price."
Amon asked, "What kind of price?"
Caelan glanced at him. "The Gods will first have you sacrifice a rabbit. Then, step by step, it becomes a blood ritual sacrificing millions."
Mephia said, "We're not that stupid. We have our bottom line!"
Magnus said, "Don't overestimate your bottom line. Otherwise, you'll eventually become new Libertines members."
"If you must have a bottom line, it's 'don't touch it'!"
"Don't harbor the fluke mentality of just a little taste. Once you start down that path, there's no turning back."
"I don't want to have to personally execute any of you one day!"
Amon didn't respond. The other Masters silently lowered their heads.
No matter the goal, doing anything to achieve it is terrifying.
Amon asked, "How should we handle the statue?"
Magnus answered, "I will keep it personally. Without my father's permission, no one is allowed to approach it."
"I understand the temptation of truth for you. But the truth I command surpasses yours."
"If you have any questions, come to me. I will not hold back."
"If any of you hear strange whispers, don't panic."
"Whispers are not corruption. You can come to me, and I'll teach you how to block them."
"But if anyone continues to be stubborn, then let them bear the consequences."
The unpleasant truth was said upfront. Magnus had given them enough leeway.
If they still didn't know their limits, they would eventually fall to Chaos, and Magnus would deal with them without hesitation.
But he believed the nine Masters still had reason. With the previous example, they wouldn't be easily fooled.
Although Chaos's corruption was terrifying, with careful precautions, not actively making mistakes, and not giving Chaos an opportunity, it might still be possible to cut off Chaos's influence on reality.
The material universe's laws reject the Warp. This was their best natural protection.
Amon nodded, "We all understand the price of truth and won't easily make mistakes. But other Tizcans know nothing of the truth. They are more dangerous than us. Do we really have to keep it from them forever?"
Caelan said, "The truth would do them more harm than good. But you can subtly screen for danger, for example, by strengthening psychological education."
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu