The Butcher's Nails on Khârn's head were still buzzing, and the demon possessing Khârn had already bowed directly to Alexander.
Alexander looked at Khârn and the kneeling demon, feeling a little stunned.
What was the situation with this demon? How could it surrender so quickly?
And was this an enchanted Khârn?
How could such a cool thing appear?
As a Chaos Space Marine enthusiast, Alexander's XP system was instantly awakened.
After a brief moment, Alexander quickly realized the demon's possible identity.
"Are you… Raum?" Alexander slowly asked, his voice tinged with doubt.
Raum was the demon that once possessed Angron. They were among the first enchanted warriors, daemons and humans achieving harmony, able to freely switch between demon and human forms. In Lorgar's eyes, they were the epitome of demon-human symbiosis, the future form of humanity.
Alexander estimated that the daemons who possessed Angron and his companions were all carefully selected by the Four Gods from the Warp, the less 'fecal' ones, so to speak, the 'seller's show' among 'seller's shows'.
The demon possessing Khârn's expression flickered, as if it had forgotten its name. Only after Alexander's reminder did it recall its name from its fragmented memories.
"Yes, my lord, I am Raum, the demon who once possessed Angron. Now, I am merely a fragment longing for revenge."
Raum, having recalled its name, spoke to Alexander in a hoarse voice.
It truly was him!
When he heard Abaddon had entrusted the Alphas with transporting Khârn to Terra, Alexander suddenly realized that the avenger in the Emperor's prophecy was very likely Khârn.
Khârn and Erebus shared a blood feud: Erebus had killed Khârn's chain-brother, Angron.
For this, Khârn had nearly cleaved Erebus to death with three axe swings, but Erebus had escaped using a ritual dagger.
Alexander had previously suspected Khârn was the avenger, but the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine's judgment was 'false'.
Now it seemed that Khârn and Raum, one human and one demon, together formed the complete avenger, a link in the Emperor's prophecy, and a key to the galaxy's fate for a period of time in the future.
Moreover, as Angron's bloodson, Khârn might align with the prophecy: 'The Red Angel Angron shall guide humanity's future.'
So, when he saw the demon possessing Khârn, Alexander's first thought was only Raum, because Raum and Khârn shared the same hatred.
Alexander took out the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine from his four-dimensional pocket and immediately made a judgment.
The judgment result was 'correct'; the avenger was the fusion of Khârn and Raum, one human and one demon.
A slight smile then appeared on Alexander's lips.
He gently extended his finger towards Khârn's head.
At this moment, Khârn was still struggling against the surging bloodlust and rage constantly emanating from the Butcher's Nails.
The Butcher's Nails told Khârn, 'Go kill, kill to your heart's content, kill these people in front of you!'
Khârn's rationality told Khârn, 'Kill your motherf***ing ass!'
Not to mention Sanguinius and Saint Doraemon, he couldn't even defeat Guilliman!
Khârn wished he could pull the Butcher's Nails out of his head right now and beat them fiercely on the ground.
Now, his rationality and rage had reached a balance, leaving him completely in a dazed state.
Alexander, extending his finger towards Khârn's head, couldn't help but frown.
A tangled mess, it was a f***ing tangled mess.
All sorts of ugly cables were mixed with Khârn's brain tissue, interspersed with various grotesque tumors caused by Khorne's mutation. Khârn's own brain had been gnawed away by the Butcher's Nails for ten thousand years, incomplete, with most functions replaced by the Butcher's Nails.
What made Alexander frown even more was that...
These Butcher's Nails were actually Psyker technology, even alive. They devoured fragments of Khârn's soul, creating a faint projection in the Warp, piercing Khârn's very existence on a soul level.
What a terrifying thing! Where did Nuceria, a feudal world, get such a terrifying creation?
A remnant from the Dark Age of Technology? The humans of that era were truly terrifying!
And these were even a degraded version of the Butcher's Nails; their functions were not as powerful as the original Butcher's Nails on Angron's head.
Alexander forcefully, almost violently, suppressed the power of the Butcher's Nails, fighting against its own functions, the malicious and brutal machine spirit within, and Khorne's blessings.
It took him a lot of effort to suppress the Butcher's Nails' functions, freeing Khârn from his rage.
Then, Khârn's eyes became dull and clear, and he kept muttering meaningless words like 'ababa ababa'.
Alexander was silent for a while, then realized that the Butcher's Nails had replaced most of Khârn's brain functions. After turning off the Butcher's Nails, Khârn became brain-damaged.
He had no choice but to slightly re-activate some of the Butcher's Nails' power, allowing Khârn's brain to function normally without letting Khârn be consumed by rage.
Light gradually returned to Khârn's eyes.
After Khârn's sanity recovered, he looked at Roboute Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Doraemon standing before him, freezing in place.
"Khârn, I am pleased to see you once again curb your rage and regain some rationality and clarity," Sanguinius said to Khârn in a gentle, soft tone.
"Lord Sanguinius," Khârn's tone carried a hint of complexity and heaviness.
Once rationality returned, memories from the Great Crusade flooded Khârn's mind, awakening some of his few emotions other than rage.
"Khârn! What are you waiting for!"
Raum urged anxiously:
"You fool, Saint Doraemon is right before your eyes, why aren't you quickly showing your loyalty to Saint Doraemon!"
Khârn's body stiffened. He hadn't had a normal conversation with anyone in many years.
He could only swiftly and decisively kneel on one knee before Alexander, placing his chainaxe, bloodson, inherited from Angron, between Alexander and himself, performing the gesture of offering loyalty.
"My lord, my chainaxe can be used for you."
"I wish to ask for one thing, for you to fulfill what you said at Baal, and help me find Erebus' location."
"I long to cleave off his head."
Khârn's last sentence was almost a roar, veins bulging on his face.
"You want to serve me?" Alexander raised his voice slightly and said, "What about the Blood God? What about Angron?"
" I no longer long to cleave off all skulls, only Erebus'. The path of the Blood God is no longer my path."
Khârn said in a low voice:
"As for Angron, my father… perhaps he died long ago, on the day he left Nuceria. What exists now is merely a tormented soul trapped within a demonic body forged by the Blood God."
This was something Khârn had realized during these days, constantly fighting against the Butcher's Nails with Raum's help.
Angron's resistance to the Butcher's Nails had failed; at that time, he must have despairingly realized his fate.
That was why he longed to die on the hot sands of Nuceria, to die as a rebel.
Although the Emperor ultimately saved him, the Angron of old had actually died. The primarch of the World Eaters never returned; what came back was merely a body controlled by the Butcher's Nails.
"If given the chance, I would rather kill Angron, end his suffering, and let his soul return to those hot sands."
Silence, wordless silence, enveloped the surroundings.
Khârn waited anxiously. He knew what it was like to make a deal with a god.
The blessings of the gods were not without cost; they were both gifts and curses.
He had once prayed to Lorgar and the Blood God to save his father, but what the Blood God gave him in return was…
A flicker of pain crossed Khârn's face.
Then, Khârn heard a soft laugh.
"Then, stand up, Khârn."
"Now we are comrades, comrades avenging the same arch-villain."
"Let us together cleave off Erebus' head, to avenge your Angron, my unlucky Psyker Ogryn, and many, many others, including Horus and Loken."