Facing the Archangel who stood before the Vengeful Spirit, the Archangel who returned from death, Abaddon's first thought was to run.
Before the massive Gloriana-class battleship, the beautiful figure gently fluttering her wings seemed so fragile, as if she would shatter like a ruby at a touch.
Abaddon saw that the Macragge's Honour, a sister ship of the Vengeful Spirit and the flagship of the Lord of Ultramar, was rounding a star and heading towards the battlefield. But even before that, the Vengeful Spirit was capable of attacking Sanguinius.
But Abaddon was simply afraid. Not just him, but all the Black Legion warriors who had survived from the Great Crusade era were afraid.
During the Great Crusade, Sanguinius and Horus maintained a genuine brotherly friendship. Before Sanguinius even returned to his own Legion, he had already fought alongside Horus with the Luna Wolves. After he began leading the Ninth Legion, the two Legions often cooperated.
And the fallen Horus' Sons had also witnessed Sanguinius' wrath firsthand during the Siege of Terra.
Therefore, the Black Legion, inheritors of the Horus' Sons, knew exactly how powerful Sanguinius was.
As an ally, he was incredibly reliable, gentle, and reassuring.
As an enemy, he was terrifying, furious, and chilling.
Only newcomers who hadn't experienced the Great Heresy would clamor to attack Sanguinius.
The veterans, however, would only recall those terrifying scenes, remembering the moments from the Siege of Terra.
"He was yelling things like 'I will not die today!' and 'But not today!' over the public comms, and then he took down an Emperor-class Titan."
"I bear witness, I was there. On his way back to the city walls, he even took ten seconds to take down a Reaver-class Titan."
"Angron is awesome, right? He's even more awesome than Angron. He even pulled out Angron's Butcher's Nails."
"I was there when he boarded the Vengeful Spirit. You ask what the situation was like? Damn it, I was already inside a Hellbrute, what do you mean, what was the situation like?"
The veterans of the Long War tremblingly shared their fear, which had lasted for ten thousand years, with the young Black Legion warriors.
Abaddon clutched his wounds, turning his head to look at Khârn, who stood beside him with his arms crossed, fused with a daemon.
"If Sanguinius chooses to attack the Vengeful Spirit first, can you stop him?"
He was severely wounded, and the scars extended from the wounds Horus had inflicted on Sanguinius in the past. Although only a small part had spread to Abaddon's body, it left him too weak to fight for more than a short time.
And the Tzeentch Chief Greater Daemon, Kairos, had already taken the seven still-sane Lords of Change and was preparing to teleport to Guilliman's location.
On the entire Vengeful Spirit, Khârn was now the most dependable.
Abaddon knew Khârn's strength, especially now that Khârn was fused with a daemon, and the daemon fused with Khârn had even eaten the two Lords of Change that had gone insane. Khârn's power must be even greater than before.
If Sanguinius attacked the Vengeful Spirit first, instead of Tizca's Revenge, only Khârn had a slight hope, using the internal terrain of the Vengeful Spirit, to hold out until Magnus arrived.
Khârn slowly turned his head. He stared intently at Abaddon, his gaze seeming to ask Abaddon: Did you hit the Butcher's Nails or did I hit the Butcher's Nails? Why does it seem like you're the one with brain damage?
"Blood has no origin, skulls have no source."
The daemon possessing Khârn spoke:
"Khârn, if Sanguinius attacks, let's chop off Abaddon's head and take it to our Lord."
The daemon was clearly referring to Doraemon.
Khârn remained silent, just staring intently at Abaddon, his fingers involuntarily rubbing his chainaxe, the bloodson.
Just then, Sanguinius slowly turned his head and looked at the Vengeful Spirit.
His burning golden eyes seemed to look directly at Abaddon, who was seated on the command throne, and he gently took a step forward.
Boom!! Whoosh!!
The Vengeful Spirit suddenly retreated a long distance, so fast that many Astartes on board lost their footing and fell to the ground.
Khârn stood steadily, still staring intently at Abaddon without a word.
The Vengeful Spirit was connected to Abaddon through the command throne; the retreat that just happened must have been an instinctive command given by Abaddon to the machine spirit out of fear.
Abaddon felt his topknot bristle under Khârn's gaze.
"..I still have some Long War veterans who can hold off Sanguinius."
Abaddon said, sweating profusely:
"Before Magnus arrives, Sanguinius can't kill all of us."
Khârn lowered the bloodson in his hand slightly, his gaze falling on Sanguinius outside the Vengeful Spirit.
Sanguinius seemed to notice Khârn's gaze; a slight smile played on his lips, and he took another step forward.
Whoosh!!!
On the Vengeful Spirit, which had again rapidly retreated a large distance, Khârn looked at Abaddon with a twitching face, and the bloodson in his hand suddenly rose higher.
"It was instinct, pure instinct," Abaddon said, looking embarrassed.
Sanguinius outside the Vengeful Spirit laughed two or three times, then flapped his wings and turned to fly towards Tizca's Revenge.
"What the hell is Abaddon doing?!"
"Are the engines of his Vengeful Spirit jammed by Horus' corpse?"
Ahriman, while burning a stored Chaos artifact to use its immense Psyker power to create a massive Psyker barrier, protecting his eight sorcerers and himself, simultaneously cursed the Great Despoiler Abaddon.
The Macragge's Honour above them unleashed a volley of fire. Although they bombed with great restraint to avoid friendly fire, nearly a third of the Red Letter Warriors who couldn't take cover in Ahriman's barrier were instantly pulverized, and brilliant colored ashes flew everywhere on the battlefield.
And after the bombardment from the Macragge's Honour ended...
"Damn you, little Ahriman, stop hiding in your turtle shell! Come out and let your Grandpa Kaso punch you a few times!"
"You have the guts to let your Legion be bombed to ashes, but not the guts to come out and see the tools Lord Doraemon equipped Grandpa Kaso with?"
"Hey! Don't say it, your brother looks really good when he's scattered!"
A Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought grabbed the body of a Red Letter Warrior, twisted off its head, and continuously scattered colorful dust into the air.
When one was done, he would grab another and wildly scatter it, all the while mockingly taunting Ahriman through his loudspeaker.
Which Tech-Priest came up with the idea of installing loudspeakers on a Dreadnought?! What is the purpose of this function?!
What annoyed Ahriman the most was that he had tried several times to directly kill the Dreadnought.
But as soon as Ahriman left the barrier, supported by the eight sorcerers and the Chaos artifact, very quickly, very quickly,
Mephiston, Reyna, Sylandri Shadowseer, Ultramarines Second Company Captain Sicarius, and several other Astartes Captains would swarm him.
If it were just them, Ahriman alone could deal with all of them.
But Guilliman, Greater Daemon, and Alexander would also arrive, and the Emperor's Sword, the club, and a laser gun powerful enough to destroy a building would all be unleashed upon Ahriman.
The Emperor's Sword and the club were fine, Ahriman could at least dodge them, but for some reason, that laser gun was impossible to avoid. Several of Ahriman's flying discs had already been destroyed, and if not for his superb Psyker skills, he himself didn't know how many times he would have died.
Ahriman gritted his teeth. It was agreed that Magnus, Abaddon and his Black Legion, Kairos and his Lords of Change would all cooperate with Ahriman's actions.
But why did Ahriman feel like he was the only one fighting now?
Were Magnus, Abaddon, and Kairos all just Ahriman's hallucinations? Had he been the only madman to attack two Primarchs and a god all along?
The only good news was that the Macragge's Honour had not launched another round of bombardment, but had instead rounded the stellar body in mid-air and was piercing deep into the Warp… Hmm?
Ahriman saw a fierce Warp light flare up nearby. The Tzeentch Chief Greater Daemon, Lord of Fate, Kairos Fateweaver, appeared on the battlefield, followed by seven Tzeentch Great Unclean One Lords of Change.
"You idiot! Bastard! You waited for the Macragge's Honour to leave before showing up!"
Ahriman simultaneously cursed Lord of Fate, Kairos Fateweaver. This scoundrel actually waited for the orbital bombardment to end before appearing, leaving Ahriman to endure so many lances in vain.
What made Ahriman even more uneasy was why there were only seven Lords of Change left behind Kairos? Shouldn't there be nine?
Now, every time Ahriman saw the number seven, he felt a premonition of ill omen.
In the void, seeing Sanguinius pounce on Magnus' flagship, Tizca's Revenge, Abaddon immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as it wasn't Sanguinius, everything was fine.
Abaddon quickly turned the ship around, intending to bypass the star in front of them, which was tainted by sorcery, and go support Ahriman.
But just then, Abaddon suddenly saw the Warp in front of the Vengeful Spirit twist and writhe.
Then a massive shadow lay across the bridge...
Abaddon suddenly looked up and realized the shadow was... a giant, distorted snail, clinging to the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit.
Crack — — — — — —
A huge pair of garden shears fell from the snail's body.