Hearing Abaddon's name, Gavriel Loken fell into a brief silence. The look of horror on his face was impossible to hide. The shock this name brought to his heart was like the tumultuous waves stirred up by a storm at sea. To be honest, knowing that Abaddon was imprisoned here surprised him more than seeing two Primarchs.
Abaddon, First Captain of the Sons of Horus, and head of the Council of Four.
Horus' most favored son.
During the Great Crusade, he became a First Captain early on due to his military achievements.
He was the foremost figure in the Sons of Horus Legion, second only to the Primarch.
During the Horus Heresy, he participated in the Battles of Istvaan III and V, slaughtering countless loyalists.
"He's here too?" Gavriel Loken asked, frowning slightly.
"Yes, he is also here. Captured by the Holy Emperor's legendary general, Lord Calgar, and sent to Terra. This is his prison, and it will also be his grave," Trist nodded and said.
"Let's go, take me to see him," Gavriel Loken said.
He had clashed with Abaddon several times. The first time was in the city of Choral on Istvaan III. The Council of Four had completely broken apart.
He and Torgaddon fought against Little Horus and Abaddon. Torgaddon also died in that battle. The second time was at the Saturnine Wall during the Siege of Terra.
Abaddon intended to lead his forces to breach the Imperial Palace from beneath the Saturnine Wall, but Dorn sealed them all in with quick-drying concrete, suffocating all the traitors involved in that operation.
Many loyalists died at Abaddon's hands.
Abaddon was eventually surrounded and was on the verge of being killed by the loyalists when he was teleported away by the traitor forces' teleportation device.
After that, they had no further encounters. The Pharus Aeternus was unimaginably vast.
Giant pillars supported the massive dome, making it as magnificent as a miraculous structure.
It made Gavriel Loken wonder if such a building was even built by humans.
Gigantic arches, hundreds of meters high, stood with several statues parallel to them on either side. They held shields in one hand and swords in the other, guarding the Pharus Aeternus like loyal sentinels.
A surging crowd walked beneath the statues' feet, their height barely reaching the statues' insteps.
Stained glass depicting various legendary deeds was embedded high on the walls, using colorful paintings to immortalize the legends of those heroes.
Custodians in golden armor patrolled within the Pharus, wary of potential trouble from traitors and to prevent any rebel infiltrators among the tourists from releasing the monsters.
Of course, their greater duty was to make the visiting guests realize the might of the Imperium. They wielded halberds and wore full golden armor.
Standing like gods on hovering platforms.
Flying over the heads of the people.
Like jailers from ancient myths who imprisoned Chaos Gods. The probability of those traitor prisoners escaping was almost zero.
Present-day Terra was the domain of the Holy Emperor, and the entire star system was protected by his power. The Webway also isolated the primal, chaotic Warp. The traitors could not borrow any power from the gods they worshipped.
Built from special materials, designed to suppress their power to the maximum extent and weaken them through soul siphons. The visiting guests poured in like a tide, moving along the designated corridors.
Observing these traitors who had once brought countless deaths to the Imperium of Man. These people had abandoned the light of humanity, plunging humanity into the abyss. Traitors would never be forgiven.
No form of clemency would ever exist.
Any mercy or sympathy shown to them was a betrayal and harm to those who had sacrificed.
Gavriel Loken walked along the wide corridor, led by Trist.
Every so often, he could see statues of Imperial heroes. They stood there, silent guardians overseeing these traitors.
Gavriel Loken didn't recognize those people.
But he could feel their steadfastness and courage in their eyes. They possessed courage no less than their predecessors.
Gavriel Loken knew that the Imperium had endured a long dark millennium until the Holy Emperor brought them the long-awaited salvation and dawn.
During those arduous ten thousand years, humanity suffered immensely.
Blood and the dead filled every moment the gears of time turned.
Human civilization had fallen to an unprecedented low.
Productivity was sluggish.
Science and reason were utterly gone. Trist was very familiar with the Pharus Aeternus.
She had hosted many guests visiting Terra and introduced them to the attractions. The Pharus Aeternus was a must-see attraction for those guests. Trist led Gavriel Loken through the intricate corridors inside the Pharus Aeternus. The Pharus Aeternus imprisoned a large number of Imperial traitors.
Using soul siphons to extract and torment them. To ensure the Pharus Aeternus' projection into the Warp. The corridors connecting these cells were intricate; if one didn't know the way, it was easy to get lost.
After all, it was filled with people as far as the eye could see, densely packed with heads.
One wrong turn, and you couldn't find your way back. Trist, relying on her knowledge of the Pharus Aeternus, always chose the correct corridors leading to Abaddon's cell.
After walking for about ten minutes, they arrived at Abaddon's cell.
As the Warmaster of Chaos, his status was no less than that of the daemon Primarchs. The Imperial wardens had given him a cell of equivalent size, allowing more people to view him simultaneously. There were many visiting guests. They came from all directions, from all parts of the Imperium. To see this traitor who had brought such heavy disaster to the Imperium.
Abaddon, a name that once struck fear into countless hearts.
And now, he was confined in a spacious, clean cell, with a soul siphon device installed in his brain, its pulsating glow shining with the roaring machinery, converting the soul of this dark figure, blessed by the Four Gods, into pure energy, projected into the Aetheric Ocean. This man who had brought darkness to the galaxy was now being gawked at like a monkey.
Utterly devoid of dignity.
When Gavriel Loken stood before the cell, Abaddon recognized his former comrade.
"Loken."
"Traitor." Gavriel Loken looked at Abaddon in the cell and spat.
"You are as ever," Abaddon said weakly.
The soul siphon and chains were constantly weakening him.
Replicating all the suffering the Emperor once endured onto him.
No one could bear that kind of pain.
Even Fulgrim would scream from it. The soul siphon device used in the Pharus Aeternus was designed according to the Golden Throne. That was a torture device that even dark eldar would fear.
Abaddon would rather be blasted to pieces by the Imperium on the battlefield than continue to stay here.
Unfortunately, he had no power of choice. The Imperium had even stripped traitors of the right to commit suicide.
Guilliman truly had no humanity.
"It seems you lost," Gavriel Loken said with a mocking expression, "The gods you proclaimed were unable to save you."
"The gods underestimated Guilliman," Abaddon said, his voice filled with hatred as he spoke the name. Ten millennia of forbearance, painstakingly gathering the scattered worshippers of the gods, and tearing open the galaxy through thirteen Black Crusades.
He had believed they were just one step away from final victory.
Who would have thought it would be the beginning of their destruction?
Guilliman's resurrection changed everything. Their previous advantages were gone, and they became prisoners. The forces of the gods retreated to the Warp, needing to gather strength anew before they could launch a counterattack on the real world.
"This is your fated end," Gavriel Loken said. "From the moment you decided to betray, your end was already sealed."
"That wasn't betrayal, the Imperium was created by us, Loken. We fought for it, we built it with our blood, sweat, and fury, we forged it with the worlds we conquered, we constructed the very foundations of the Imperium with the flesh and bone of our brothers.
Do you remember Cayanus, do you remember Kalus, do you remember Viparo? They were our brothers, our family, we once drank together and swore oaths never to betray each other. They died in the Great Crusade, sacrificing everything to build this Imperium."
"But what did we get?" Abaddon roared. "The Emperor betrayed us, surrendering the power of warriors to bureaucrats, letting the blood of warriors be spilled without solace. What did we get, Loken? Tell us, when the Emperor betrayed us, were we just supposed to wait for death?"
"Are you still making excuses for yourself?" Gavriel Loken said. "Just like back then, always finding reasons and excuses for yourself.
You once swore an oath of loyalty to your lord, but you were merely greedy for power and status. You have no dignity or shame, hypnotizing yourself with clumsy reasons, deeply believing that you lost your former glory precisely for those pure and beautiful ideals.
You spent tens of thousands of years repeating such claims to yourself, just to make yourself believe it. But I want to tell you, Abaddon, Horus was harmed by you and fell into the abyss. It was you who made him bear an eternal stigma even in death."
"It wasn't us," Abaddon roared.
"It was you who believed Erebus' foolish words and sent him to the Temple of Davin."
"That was the only way to save him."
"I would rather he died with a warrior's honor, or lost the title of Warmaster and returned to the Emperor's side to recover, than become a puppet manipulated by the gods."
Gavriel Loken's voice pierced Abaddon's heart like a sharp sword.
Making him let out a painful howl.
If he hadn't believed Erebus, perhaps none of this would have happened.
Even with such an injury, he could have been sent back to Terra using stasis fields to seek the Emperor's help. That way, Horus would still be the Primarch of the Sons of Horus.
His statue would stand in Terra's Times Square, and his name would appear in the Imperium's heroic history books, not as a traitor scorned for eternity.
Stasis fields were not widely used at the time, but as Warmaster, Horus had the best tech-priests.
And at that time, Horus and Abaddon were both too concerned with the reputation of the Sons of Horus, unwilling for it to suffer any damage.
Horus being severely wounded and sent back to Terra would inevitably destabilize his position as Warmaster.
Sending him to the Temple of David to seek healing from warp energy was an extremely foolish thing to do.
But at that time, it became a good plan for them to maintain Horus' position as Warmaster and the honor of the Sons of Horus.
Ultimately, they all paid the price for their mistakes.
Horus was corrupted by Chaos when he was injured.
Abaddon and the others' ambitions also swelled, eventually leading them down the path of betraying their brothers and colluding with the evil forces of the warp.
Creating a horrific massacre, the Great Heresy.
"It's not our fault!!" Abaddon said in a pained tone.
"It is your fault, Abaddon. Erebus is the most deserving of death among you, and you are the second most deserving." Gavriel Loken said word by word, "I personally witnessed the foolish things you did, saw how you sent Horus to hell. I personally watched how you led the noble Luna Wolves into the abyss."
"No! It's not like that." Abaddon shrieked in pain.
"It is like that, Abaddon." Gavriel Loken said, "You have no right to accuse. I will not let you go, Abaddon, even if you are now locked up here like a stray dog, I will not show you a shred of pity. This is just the revenge of the new Emperor against you, and the revenge of us who have returned has not yet begun."
Abaddon looked up at Gavriel Loken, a hint of fear and unease in his eyes.
During the Great Crusade, he knew Loken was a resolute man.
Once Loken set a goal, he would not give up.
He said he would get revenge on him, and he would definitely get revenge on him.
"When we leave Terra, I promise, you will cry with Erebus, and all that you once destroyed will take revenge on you through my hands. I will break your spine again, sever your cervical nerves, and leave you lying there like a paralyzed old man who cannot take care of himself, becoming the laughingstock of the entire galaxy."
After delivering this threat, Gavriel Loken turned and left. Trist also followed this legendary Imperial hero.
She accompanied this Imperial hero as he successively visited the many other traitors imprisoned there.
All the traitor primarchs were here.
Except for Horus, who was already dead, all the others were here. They all knew Loken.
During the Great Crusade, Loken was very active.
As a member of the Council of Four, Loken often accompanied Horus and his colleagues to welcome other Primarchs. Those traitor primarchs no longer possessed their former honor, having all devolved into monsters. The only ones who still maintained some semblance of normalcy were Perturabo and Curze.
Curze did not fully align with Chaos.
He merely participated in the rebellion.
Perturabo, on the other hand, chose Chaos itself, rather than the Chaos Gods.
Both of them still retained a certain degree of their human appearance.
Fulgrim, Mortarion, and the others had all been transformed and were incredibly hideous. They expressed anger at Loken's arrival.
Believing this was another new trick from Guilliman to torment them.
It wasn't enough for the common people of the Imperium to treat them like monkeys.
He even went so far as to resurrect those who had long died, just to let them witness their humiliation.
During the Great Heresy, they had boasted so much.
Mocking the Imperium's foolish attempts to fight against the gods. They mocked the dead as having sacrificed themselves meaninglessly. They had allied with the Chaos Gods, gained immortal life, and would indulge in pleasure until the end of the universe.
Now, they were miserably confined in cages, displayed like monkeys.
What could be more humiliating than being seen by acquaintances when you're down and out?
It's like a man who got rich through dishonest means, mocking his law-abiding friends as poor and never amounting to anything.
When he goes bankrupt due to suspected crime and is released from prison, only to beg on the streets, those poor friends, one by one, have gotten rich through legitimate, law-abiding businesses.
If they were insulted by strangers, even if they were furious, it would still be within tolerable limits.
But if they were insulted by acquaintances, their pride would often be shattered, leading to humiliation and extreme anger.
Indeed, when the many traitors saw Loken arrive, they showed more anger and shame than when others came to see them.
Guilliman resurrecting Loken made their past actions seem like a joke, like clowns. They were confined in cages, while Loken had returned, becoming a hero, a legend.
Such a situation broke their spirits and made it difficult for them to accept.
Gavriel Loken also showed contempt and humiliation towards each of them.
He shattered their last illusions with concrete actions, telling those fools that he was the true Gavriel Loken, Captain of the Tenth Company of the Luna Wolves. The tour of the Atonement astropathic Array lasted for a day, and Gavriel Loken saw all the traitors imprisoned there.
Most of the well-known traitors had been brought back and placed here to endure humiliation.
Gavriel Loken had no pity for any of them. Their past choices had brought about their current bitter consequences. Those traitors deserved it.
If he weren't afraid of causing too much of an impact, he would have suggested torturing those fools.
"This all feels like a dream, Trist," Gavriel Loken whispered to the chronicler as they walked out of the Atonement astropathic Array. "Everything we once dreamed of has become a reality. The heroic spirits who fought to the last moment in despair will finally rest in peace."
"That's not necessarily true, death is not the end of duty," Trist said. "The Imperium has learned how to summon Imperial heroes by utilizing the recorded data hidden in the cosmic background."
"What do you mean by that?" Gavriel Loken asked, puzzled.
"Those you are familiar with may all return. The Emperor needs them to participate in an even grander war," Trist said. "That war is grander and more mysterious than the Great Crusade, involving multiple domains and dimensions such as life and death, fate, and truth."
Gavriel Loken frowned slightly.
He tried to understand the meaning of Trist's words.
Guilliman had an ambition grander than the Emperor's.
More importantly, he was implementing various plans to ensure his vision would come to fruition.
Gavriel Loken felt a sense of unease in his heart. To be honest, his perspective was still that of a Tenth Company Captain from the Great Crusade; even after experiencing the Horus Heresy, he only came to understand the existence and dangers of the Warp. There was too much in this era that he needed to learn.
Gavriel Loken wondered if he should support something like breaking the cycle of life and death. This hesitation lasted until he was sent back to the hospital for recuperation and recovery.
The reason his hesitation vanished was simply because when he was admitted to the hospital, he saw his old trusted friend. They had once fought side by side, confronting evil together. They had once shared drinks and discussed their desired future together.
When they looked at each other, they couldn't help but call out each other's names.
Even after thousands, tens of thousands of years, they recognized each other instantly.
"Torgaddon."
"Loken."