Hades took a deep breath and listened to the silence in the darkness around him. The current that indicated the communication had been turned off.
He looked at Magnus who had fainted and decisively opened the communication.
"Neos-Magnus has fainted. Is anything wrong?"
"No problem."
The Emperor's voice sounded calmly on the other end, and Hades imagined that the Emperor was in the command room advising Mortarion and Leman Russ on the main objectives of this attack.
The Emperor was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking.
"Hades, tell Magnus to be careful with his words."
Hades paused, and he suddenly realized that Magnus had a relationship with Tzeentch, so...
"You mean, just now—"
"Prospero has strong psychic tendencies, Hades, which means that any words or actions of key characters will become a bullet into the future."
Hades blinked.
“But I drive the Black Domain.”
“Not strong enough.”
He did not destroy the only source of spiritual energy in the entire space.
Hades was choked by these words. Malcador and the Emperor really hoped that he would capture a few more Forge Worlds to make him even more waaaagh.
"The fleet has arrived at Prospero."
The Emperor said calmly,
"Time is not abundant. I originally planned to return to Terra after the Nikea Conference, but now the extra trip has interrupted my plan. I think we are all looking forward to my return to Terra."
"us?"
Hades raised his voice.
"I do not wish for you to return to Terra. A king should march among his armies—"
"I mean the existence of the Warp."
Hades was silent for a long time before he slowly spoke.
"I don't understand... I don't understand you, Neos?"
There was a chuckle from the other channel, and Hades seemed to hear a psychic Muggle faintly.
Hades frowned, but the Emperor's voice still sounded calmly, as if nothing had happened.
"This is an anchor point that is bound to happen unless you kill me, Hades."
Hades yelled.
"Don't say that! I'm warning you, Neos! That's not the right thing to say. Don't even think about it!"
"You can't kill me."
The Emperor said,
"Is this the key?!"
The Emperor listened calmly to Hades' warning from the other side. He spoke,
"Chaos has enough leverage to threaten me. The precursors of the subspace storm have been observed. They naturally responded to my actions."
Haddish paused. The empire's navigation and communications all relied on the warp. If a warp storm raged, the empire would be physically isolated and broken into countless pieces in the first place.
If we go back a little in time, the Warp storm was raging at that time, and it was the first scream of Slaanesh's birth that blew away the Warp storm, and the Emperor took the opportunity to start the Great Crusade.
But… But…
"Why so fast?"
Hades asked, and he didn't remember-
"This is the price I must pay for changing my destiny. Or, in other words, this is their warning to me."
Creating a Warp Storm requires rituals, costs, and time, but observing it does not require it to have occurred. There has never been continuous time in the Warp, and the end may occur before the beginning.
The Emperor put on his golden armor and looked down at Prospero. He saw a flash of blue light. Prospero should have been an important anchor point for fate to happen, but with the interference of outsiders, it had obviously deviated from its trajectory.
All the wedges carefully buried by the Lord of Change failed. They should have fallen like dominoes, and finally knocked down the biggest card - the empire.
But now the whole game has been disrupted by outsiders, and all the delicate and subtle layouts have lost their original meaning, except for the soul-calling rituals engraved on the planets and those who stared into the warp for too long...
Lord of Change, what else can you offer
The Emperor knows his enemies. The cunning are cowardly. He will only hide behind the card table unless the previous game is broken and He needs to start a new round.
The Emperor thought, endless predictions, provocations, half-truths, lies, all lies.
But this will be a new beginning, the end of a failed game and the beginning of a brand new game.
What will they do
But don't use any more tricks, the Emperor won't care about them.
“No need to play the recording.”
He opened his mouth and watched as the first drop pod smashed into the ground of Prospero.
————
He escaped.
Or perhaps He never wanted to face him head-on.
The rain was still falling, and the Emperor began to walk down from the top of Prospero's pyramid, which was originally closest to the warp. The Wolf King followed behind him, and the Emperor felt his palms were empty.
He gave the Eye of Magnus to Leman Russ, and the Emperor believed that Leman Russ would make the right choice at the right time.
He saw the miserable plight of the people of Prospero in the gloom. The blinded and the dull escaped, trembling and gathering under the protection of the Death Guard and the Space Wolves, while the wise and the intelligent could not escape their fate. They were more or less tainted by the breath of the warp -
But at the right place, at the right time, and under the right inducing conditions, they were bitten back by their own greed and paid the price.
But this was all He could offer, no more. The Emperor was disappointed to realize that He was unwilling to even set off a grand fireworks display for Him.
Or maybe He has placed His power somewhere else.
On His real goal.
The Emperor pondered this, the vision still seeming before him, he thought of Horus, he thought of Magnus, he thought of the Webway - who could it be? What could it be
Would it even be Sanguinius? Would it be Leman Russ
As he walked down, golden flames blazed along the edges of the pyramid. The golden light drove away the chaos that had originally attached to the pyramid. He stepped onto the flat ground and saw his son Mortarion standing calmly in the rain.
Mortarion looked past him.
Leman Russ,
The Lord of Death hissed,
[You just left a message to keep an eye on the front line, and then rushed forward.]
The emperor raised his hand and frowned.
"He was just worried about me."
Mortarion sighed loudly, bowed dramatically, and shook his head in self-mockery.
[I was busy with the war.]
He squinted his eyes and made way for the Emperor who was moving forward. As far as he could see, he saw those people burning, and the golden flames were like bright lights in the rain, cutting through the darkness.
This is not the performance of a general or a soldier.
Mortarion was silent, but he still followed silently.
The Emperor walked on the dark streets, and with every step several souls lit up. He was originally unable to do this, but he listened to the whispers of his believers - Lorgar fulfilled what he expected of him.
The Lord of Mankind purified this planet, purified this planet that had become an abandoned one. After a brief drama, the Lord of Change abandoned it, but the Lord of Mankind would not do so, because this was once the residence of mankind.
The entire planet seemed to be on fire, and golden light shone through the walls of the fleet, illuminating Magnus' soul.
Most of the Thousand Sons were devoured by their guardian spirits. Some clever Thousand Sons removed their souls in time and severed the connection with their guardian spirits, while others survived because they had never summoned the spirits.
And in Prospero, of all mortals, only servants and children who had never touched a book survived.
In the Warp, Prospero's burning symbolized something else, the annihilation of a crucial anchor.
They all witnessed it.
Now, they can sit at the same table in peace.
Tzeentch laughed.
Oh, my writing about the Warp is also vague. This is what Tzeentch is like. I'd better go play in the mud in the Father's Garden.
(End of this chapter)