The air on the dais of the Temple of Davin was still hot and dry.
The internal strife within the Mournival, combined with the state of alert surrounding the mysterious telephone box, made the atmosphere on the scene extremely tense.
However, the instant Horus stepped out of the TARDIS telephone box,
the noise and strained atmosphere of the platform vanished in a moment.
What was heard instead was the sound of people drawing breath, rising and falling like waves.
Abaddon's pupils contracted sharply; an expression of disbelief floated on his face.
He turned his head and looked at the gigantic serpent gate behind him. The gate was completely closed.
They had only just sent the Warmaster inside.
How on earth had they come out of that mysterious telephone box?
Abaddon had once suspected the other party was a fake, yet the pulse welling up from his bloodline and the suppression at the genetic level could not lie.
The Horus before their eyes was their Primarch and the Imperium's Warmaster.
Horus's mere appearance shocked everyone present; they were confused, unable to understand what had happened. Yet the figure of the Emperor who appeared afterward further astonished the already dazed crowd and made them open their mouths in disbelief.
Due to that intense aura, the flames of the braziers around the dais shrank by several centimeters.
Immediately afterward, Primarchs such as Angron, Lorgar, and Magnus appeared one after another.
Each of them radiated an unparalleled presence and drew everyone's attention.
As a result, when Datch appeared, not many people paid attention to him.
Damn it — he was the true protagonist, the Player of the Warhammer world!
"Commander."
Aximand took a step forward in a trembling voice. His gaze went back and forth between Horus and the firmly closed serpent gate. "Shouldn't you be inside the temple?"
Horus kept silent. The first voice that rang in everyone's hearts was the Emperor's — majestic, cold, and powerful.
"Do you want my son that badly? Does your commander intend to fall into corruption?"
These words were equivalent to condemning their past actions; Aximand's legs immediately trembled.
Knees covered in terracotta armor plates struck the stone slabs of the platform with a dull sound.
This member of the Mournival wisely dropped to one knee at once, lowered his head, and spoke in a voice filled with terror.
"Your Majesty, I cannot."
Abaddon and the others also knelt and said they did not have such courage.
If a guilty verdict were handed down, all honors and achievements would be erased, and a terrible punishment would be imposed.
Among the sons of the Wolf God Horus, only a very few, such as Loken and Torgaddon, remained standing.
They were the few who had firmly refused to put the Wolf God Horus into the Temple of Davin.
The Emperor ignored them. After all, Loken and the others had done their best, yet they had been unable to produce a good result.
The gaze of the Master of Mankind was extremely intimidating; anyone who received that gaze involuntarily trembled.
"Do you all think you understand my will? Do you think that if you join the leader of a secret organization you will understand everything?"
"What a bunch of fools! Because of you, the plan I carefully devised has been ruined."
Many of the sons of the Wolf God Horus were so humiliated they could not even raise their heads; they merely knelt on the ground.
In fact, they could not stand either. The Emperor's will was like a gigantic invisible hand pressing down on their shoulders.
With a powerful, irresistible force, it bound them forcibly and made standing difficult.
Datch ignored the NPCs' exchanges and slid to the front of the firmly closed serpent gate.
He took out the Infinity Gauntlet and used the power of the Power Stone to force the door open.
With a high-pitched sound, the heavy stone doors opened to both sides.
From within drifted cold, damp air with a faint, pungent smell of blood.
The temple beyond the door had been built utilizing a natural cave.
The entire interior of the mountain had been hollowed out, creating a gigantic, cold, eerie sacrificial space.
Wherever one looked, there were strange serpent-like carvings and distorted statues of gods; most had weathered with time and moisture, the paint on their surfaces peeling away.
The Horus of the old world lay on a black rock.
He was not wearing a helmet; his face was paper-pale, his breathing extremely shallow and slow; his chest hardly rose and fell.
Beside him, First Chaplain Erebus, runes carved into his face, was sleeping soundly.
This scene completely confirmed Loken's suspicions. Everything had been a conspiracy by Erebus.
Abaddon, Aximand, and the other sons of the Wolf God Horus turned pale seeing the scene inside the temple.
Erebus had plotted the theft from the Interex Hall of Instruments, planned the Davinite governor's "rebellion," and conspired to stab the warlord with the Anathame, while hypocritically proposing that the warlord should be sent to the temple.
And they — the Mournival, the successors Horus trusted most —
had not tried to consider any suspicious points at all and had completely accepted the other party's scheme.
If they were thoroughly investigated, not one of them would escape punishment. All of them would be charged with the crime of murdering the Imperial Warmaster.
However they were also confused as to why there were two Horuses.
Had the Emperor already decided to replace their father with another Horus?
"How dare you trespass…"
The priestess raised a shout, seeing someone forcibly enter through the open door.
The instant the Emperor looked at her, her heart stopped beating; her body went limp and collapsed to the ground.
The Emperor showed no mercy to the other cultists either.
With a single glance, their hearts stopped beating.
...
Deep in the Warp,
in the afterlife shaped by the will of the dead,
Erebus called himself Hastur Sejanus and met Horus.
Seeing a familiar face in an unfamiliar place, Horus was wrapped in the utmost excitement.
Sejanus had been the son Horus loved most.
When he learned that the other party, acting as an envoy, had been tragically murdered by the false Emperor of system 63-19,
he was terribly dejected and immediately gave Abaddon and his subordinates permission to take revenge.
"I am truly glad to see you again. When I lost you my heart felt as if it would split." Relief long suppressed seeped into Horus's voice.
"Commander, I well understand your feelings. I can empathize with your sorrow," Sejanus said.
Horus gazed at the perfect warriors, ran his gaze over the honor emblems he himself had bestowed upon Sejanus's power armor; his eyes were filled with praise.
"But I am still confused. I should have seen your corpse with these eyes, yet you now stand before me looking well."
"Yes, you did indeed see it. But my death is actually a good thing."
"Good news? How can that be?" Horus could not understand at all.
"Death showed me the truth of the universe and freed me from the bonds of the living." Sejanus took a step forward and approached Horus. "That is why I am here to help you."
Sejanus's words restored Horus to sanity to some extent. The other party had truly been dead.
Everything he was seeing now was nothing more than an illusion.
Horus did not reveal the truth. He favored Sejanus more than his other sons; even knowing it was all an illusion, he did not try to expose it.
"If you have come to help me, then help me understand this place. Where on earth is this?"
"We do not have much time. We must guide you to the truth as quickly as possible. Only then can you return to the world of the living." Sejanus did not give a direct answer.
"Sejanus, do not dodge the subject," Horus said sternly. "You must tell the truth."
"Well, actually your body is still lying in the Temple of Davin. The one I am speaking to now is only your soul," Sejanus said helplessly.
"In other words, this world is not real?" Horus sharply perceived the problem.
"This is the Warp, the other side of the dead," Sejanus said.
At that moment the howls of a pack of wolves rang out.
Magnus was calling to his brother.
However, Sejanus did not want Horus to make contact with Magnus, so he repeatedly urged Horus to leave.
Horus fell into confusion and hesitated on the spot.
Sejanus was his most beloved son — a child he himself had chosen from the wilderness of Cthonia.
The other party had proven loyalty and excellence by winning battle after battle and achieving numerous merits.
He should trust the other party, yet in his heart… his heart warned him that something abnormal was happening to the Sejanus before his eyes.
What secret are you hiding from me? Who is supporting you behind the scenes?
After remaining silent for a while, Sejanus showed a calm expression.
"Intelligent existences exist in the Warp. They possess unimaginable power, yet they cannot interfere directly with the real universe."
"They need envoys who represent them in the real world."
Sejanus paused a little while looking at him and said, "You are a powerful and ambitious person. Therefore, we intend to choose you as their envoy."
What happens if I refuse to serve as their envoy?
"Then you will die. Right now only they can save your life," Sejanus said.
"Then I would rather die." Horus's voice retained its former majesty and conviction. "I swear loyalty only to my father. Without my father's permission, I will never join hands with an unknown existence."
A complex expression floated on Sejanus's face, yet he quickly regained his composure.
"Your loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor is impeccable. But does His Majesty the Emperor truly highly value your loyalty?"
"What do you mean?" Horus's gaze took on a dangerous light.
"If you want to see the truth, follow me." Sejanus stretched out a hand and opened a door emitting light from empty space.
Horus hesitated, unsure whether he should follow.
The howls of the wolves heard from afar grew louder and more urgent, like a pebble thrown into a quiet lake.
After hesitating several times, Horus ignored the wolves' howls and stepped into the portal.
Sejanus led Horus through the portal to a shrine-world of the 41K era.
Horus appeared on a main road wide enough for dozens of people to walk abreast.
Every street stretching in all directions from the main road, every building, every square had been built for the same purpose.
The outer walls of the buildings were covered in dense, complex reliefs; the exquisite detail and fine craftsmanship shone.
Religious reliefs that evoked an inexpressible sense of oppression in the heart.
The streets were packed with people in various attire, chanting prayer-words Horus could not understand, staring vacantly yet at a single point.
No one paid attention to Horus and Sejanus, as if they did not exist.
"If the Emperor is not stopped the future Imperium will become like this. The entire world will become a land of religion; people will fanatically worship the Emperor." Sejanus's voice rang in Horus's ears.
"That cannot be. The Emperor is not a god. He has spent centuries freeing humanity from the bonds of religion. Why would he do such a thing?" Doubt seeped into Horus's voice.
"The reason the Emperors destroyed various ancient faiths was to ensure that a religion worshipping them would take their place. Everything before your eyes is the evidence," Sejanus said.
In the past, Horus would already have taken action against this strange Sejanus and slammed him into the ground.
However, at this time, even though irrefutable evidence lay before his eyes, he could not take action.
"Come. There are other things I want to show you." Sejanus took Horus and set out on a journey around shrine-worlds throughout the world.
They walked streets packed with believers and squares covered in reliefs.
From cathedrals with soaring domes where hymns constantly echoed to cathedrals almost swallowed by shadow.
Horus saw a statue of Guilliman standing before a magnificent church. Guilliman held an open book; his expression was calm and resolute.
On the opposite side stood a statue of Saint Sanguinius; both wings spread widely behind him, a spear in his hand, his unrealistically perfect face tilted slightly back, looking up at the sky.
In addition, there were Leman, Dorn, Vulkan, and Corax — yet Horus himself was not to be seen.
"Why are there only a few? Where are the others? Where is this?" Horus ran his gaze back and forth among the statues and glanced over them a third time.
"I have never seen your statue," Sejanus said. "There is not a single statue of you in the world."
"That's wrong! I fought and bled for him. My warriors died for him. Yet he completely ignored me, behaved as if I had never existed!" Horus shouted.
"The Emperor abandoned you, General. Before long the Emperor will also betray his subjects and become one of the gods."
"He thinks only of himself, of his own glory and power. We have all been deceived by him. In his grand plan there is no place for humanity or for us."
"When the time comes, he will completely abandon us and you. While we fight bravely in the Emperor's name he secretly accumulates power in the Warp."
Sejanus shouted at Horus and made him cry, "No, this is not all real!"
Sejanus stared straight at Horus and said each word carefully. "For an extraordinary existence like the Emperor, after conquering the galaxy, what should he do?"
"Aside from becoming a god, what is there worth striving for? What use are those he leaves behind?"
"No, I can assert he would never do such a thing." Horus shook his head, then turned and ran into the crowd.
The people along the road naturally parted like a prow cutting water, then merged again behind him.
No one tried to look at him, no one tried to touch him, no one even noticed his existence. Everyone ignored him.
Never once in his life had he been ignored to this extent; Horus was deeply disappointed.
In the many battles of the Great Crusade he had been the wolf-herd god who planted terror in the enemy's hearts.
In every diplomatic negotiation he had been the Emperor's most valuable general; his status was second only to the Emperor.
Yet in this city where only the Emperor lived, no one was watching him.
Horus realized for the first time how much he had yearned for others' respect and affection.
He had believed he was fighting for the Emperor, for humanity, and for the Great Crusade — that is, for destiny.
When believers in hemp robes passed by his side, ignoring his existence,
seeing Guilliman and his brothers (including Saint Sanguinius) worshipped in statues while he himself had no statue,
he realized there how arrogant and vain he had been.
Horus had wanted to be worshipped. He had wanted to remain in people's memory.
He had wanted at least one of his statues built in this city that fanatically worshipped the Emperor after he became a god.
Yet the Emperor had abandoned him, so there was not a single statue of him in shrines throughout the world.
He had clearly been the most outstanding, the finest person.
Why was there not a single statue?
Horus ran through countless streets; soaring temples and cold cathedrals vanished around him as blurred afterimages.
On every street corner, numerous monks and preachers shouted themselves hoarse to spread the Emperor's teachings.
Declarations that the Emperor is humanity's savior, the only god, and that salvation can be obtained only through the Emperor filled the air.
Wherever Horus looked, he saw murals, portraits, and reliefs.
Guilliman, Sanguinius, and other Primarchs appeared, as well as Emperors — but not his figure.
In despair, Horus knelt on the ground and thrust both hands toward heaven. "Father, why — why did you abandon me?"
Seeing people praise the merits of Primarchs such as Leman and Guilliman, Horus felt terribly sad and pained.
He could not understand why such a thing was happening.
Even if the Emperor betrayed the Imperial Truth and chose to become a god, he himself should be taken along. Why would the Emperor need to abandon him?
"This is the truth, Warmaster." Sejanus's voice was heard from behind.
Horus sank into sorrow and kept silent.
"Come. I will show you more." Sejanus stepped forward, made Horus stand, and led him toward a new portal of light.
After passing through the portal of light, they arrived at the gene-laboratory in the Himalazian Mountains.
And it was here that the proto-genes were generated.
Horus saw not only himself but his other Primarch brothers here as well.
"The Emperor stole the power of the gods and used it to create you. His purpose was to dominate the entire galaxy, overthrow the faith of the ancient gods, and establish himself as the only god," Sejanus explained to Horus.
"Gods?" Horus turned toward Sejanus, wanting to know more.
"This is an honorific given to the great existences of the Warp. They hold the secrets of life and death; all things are under their dominion. The Emperor…"
"Once he learned of their existence, he pretended to swear loyalty to them, then deceived them and seized their power."
Sejanus stopped speaking.
"His Majesty the Emperor would never do such a thing," Horus retorted. Yet a warm, unshakable conviction dwelt in his voice.
"My friend, you underestimate his lust for power. The gods of the Warp are unimaginably powerful, yet they struggle to understand the physical universe. That gave the Emperor the opportunity to deceive them and seize their power. Now the Emperor is far too powerful to confront directly; the gods have no choice but to search for an agent in order to defeat him."
"And you are the best choice. As long as you swear loyalty to the gods, you will be able to obtain power that even surpasses the Emperor."
"..."
At that time, an alarm rang out.
Horus witnessed the gods' attack on the Himalazian laboratory.
A crack opened in the Warp at the center of the laboratory; the gods who had been deceived by the Emperor and had their power seized launched a surprise attack.
Chaotic energy surged into the laboratory and ravaged the nutrient chambers in which the Primarchs were being raised.
They were all thrown into the turbulence of the Warp and scattered throughout the galaxy.
Horus witnessed the Emperor rush into the laboratory. His golden power armor still shone even under the impact of chaotic energy.
He repelled the gods' attack and resealed the dimensional rift that had been torn.
However, the Emperor did not pursue the Primarchs thrown into the Warp turbulence. He merely stood in the chaos, stared at the empty laboratory, remained silent for a while, then turned on his heel and left.
The Great Crusade had already begun; he did not have time to recover the Primarchs immediately, so he could only watch them be swept away by the Warp turbulence.
Horus witnessed all of this and believed the Emperor had abandoned them.
Overwhelmed by unparalleled hatred, the Warmaster, for the first time, hated his father and swore revenge.
When everything vanished, Horus returned to the place where he had first awakened.
At that time, a pack of wolves appeared.
The alpha wolf transformed into the figure of Magnus.
His brother wore bronze armor, had deep-red hair, and wore a cloak fluttering in the wind.
"Magnus." Surprise seeped into Horus's voice.
"Ah, brother, it's me," Magnus said.
"Did you die too?" Horus asked with a puzzled expression.
"No." Magnus shook his head. "I came to find you and take you back to the real universe."
"I have little time left. The spells and wards placed around you are extremely powerful; my servants are constantly sacrificing their lives to bring me close to you."
"He is a fraud." Sejanus appeared from another direction. His face was distorted with hatred and ferocity, astonishing Horus.
"Someone who does not even have the courage to show his true face dares call me a fraud." Magnus clenched his fist; Sejanus screamed.
Suddenly, intense silver light erupted; Cygnus transformed into the figure of Erebus.
Crimson power armor, a bald head, a face covered in religious runes.
"You are Erebus," Horus said in a tone filled with suspicion and surprise.
"He is a fraud. The instigator of every evil. Horus, the fate of the galaxy rests in your hands. Do not believe a single word this man says," Magnus said.
"The fate of the galaxy is precisely entrusted to the warlord's hands. The Emperor is toying with humanity's fate. The only way to truly save humanity is to defeat the Emperor." Erebus's tone was extremely serious.
"All of this is according to the will of our Lord Lorgar. He already knows the conspiracy plotting the Emperor's ascension to godhood and has sworn loyalty to the power of the Warp."
"Of course the blessing he received is insignificant compared to the blessing you are about to receive."
Horus hesitated. He felt a little jealousy that Lorgar had been chosen by the gods first.
However, since even the wise Lorgar had chosen to submit to the gods, there must have been some reason or consideration.
"Horus, you must never trust Erebus!" Magnus shouted anxiously.
His figure became unstable, constantly vanishing, becoming like a phantom.
"You can return to the real universe by your own power. You need not concern yourself with Erebus."
Magnus's power was fading; the attendants maintaining his spells and wards from a remote location were constantly losing their lives.
"The Emperor is recklessly toying with the fate of the entire galaxy, Horus. Only you can save it." Erebus looked at Horus in a tone filled with expectation.
"Horus, please don't do that!" Magnus shouted, yet his voice gradually weakened.
As the repulsive force strengthened, his figure slowly vanished and disappeared without a trace.
"If you choose the path of believing Erebus, everything we have fought for and built will be destroyed. You must not commit such a great mistake."
"This is not such a great mistake," Erebus retorted in an urgent voice, drowning out Magnus's fading shout.
"This is a trivial matter. If you only offer the Emperor to the gods of the Warp, you can obtain infinite power."
"The gods have no interest in the boundaries of the real universe. Once the Emperor's era ends, Horus will rule the galaxy as humanity's new master."
"Horus, you…" Magnus vanished completely before finishing his last words.
"Horus, you must save humanity," Erebus said while looking at Horus, emphasizing each word.
Horus stood there staring at the place where Magnus had vanished; various thoughts raced through his head.
When he raised his face again, his gaze had become firm.
"Father, I did not want to do this. But you stole the power of the gods and lied to your sons…"
Hearing Horus's words, Erebus's face overflowed with joy.
He believed it. He believed it from the heart.
We did it! The grand plan is finally about to succeed.
Milky Way, burn out. All living things, cry out.
Erebus slowly opened eyes filled with excitement.
The cave dome of the Temple of Davin entered his field of vision; then the Emperor appeared.
Uh...
The Emperor?
Erebus doubted his own eyes for a moment, blinked, and looked again.
The Emperor was still wearing golden armor.
His entire body was wrapped in golden light as if a god had appeared among humans.
Just standing there, a terrible sense of oppression drifted.
Erebus's mind went blank. The joy he had felt just a moment ago had vanished without a trace.
He looked around and saw the corpses of the lodge's priestesses and attendants.
They were all dead; there were no conspicuous external wounds.
They had died instantly. Their soul had been destroyed by unparalleled power.
Many of the sons of the Wolf God Horus were on one knee; each wore an expression of despair.
Abaddon knelt at the front with his head bowed; Aximand knelt beside him; Targost knelt a little farther away.
Erebus: w(ﾟДﾟ)w
If I say "it was all a misunderstanding," will anyone believe me?
Where are the four gods? Hurry and come save them!
Horus, who had been lying on the black rock bed, slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes first held sorrow, then became calm.
Through the truth Erebus had shown him, he had realized one thing: that he must stand up in order to stop the Emperor's conspiracy.
"Father, I will never…"
Before he finished speaking, Horus raised his face as if he had sensed something.
He saw his father, the Emperor, Master of Mankind, staring at him.
He immediately felt a chill from the tip of his coccyx to the crown of his head all at once; it traveled upward along his spine.
The unshakable resolve he had built through numerous trials of hatred and despair in the Warp shattered to pieces.
No, you must be joking?
Were they caught that quickly?
Damn it, Erebus, are you trying to make a fool of me?
"Father… Father," Horus stammered. His tongue felt as if it were packed with lead. "Why are you here?"
The Emperor stared at the Horus of the old timeline; complex emotions swirled in his heart.
He is not the Emperor of this timeline and has no right to judge anything.
Without the Nameless One's help, his fate would have been exactly the same as his own fate on this timeline.
Because of the foolish Magnus betrayed by the son he trusted most, the Webway collapsed, and the entire galaxy was drawn into a terrible war.
His plan ultimately failed. He could only sit on the Golden Throne and struggle to maintain a human civilization destined for extinction.
"Why did you betray me?" The Emperor stared at the Horus of the old world and asked this era's self.
"You betrayed me. You betrayed everyone. Trying to become a god, you abandoned everyone. In the future where you became a god, I do not exist." Horus realized he could no longer hide it and admitted it frankly.
"I do not intend to become a god," the Emperor said. "Humanity does not need gods."
"I have seen with these eyes the temples and shrines dedicated to you. You abandoned all people and became a god," Horus said.
"Are you so certain that what you are seeing is the truth?" The Emperor stared at Horus with eyes filled with despair.
"Then why did you withdraw from the Great Crusade? For an extraordinary person like you who conquered the galaxy, what else was worth spending so much effort on?"
The general stared fearlessly into the Emperor's eyes. In the past, the Emperor's disappointment alone would have been enough for him to apologize humbly.
But now he needed an answer. He needed to know why the Emperor had left them behind.
"To truly free all of humanity from suffering." Saying that the Emperor forcibly implanted his own memories and thoughts into Horus.
He showed Horus what he had done and what he planned.
He did not pursue a plan of becoming a god; he gathered the Imperium's finest tech-adepts and psychic scholars.
He attempted to repair the Webway passages left by the ancients and place them under the dominion of the Imperium of Man.
If this plan succeeds humanity will be able to escape the Warp.
They will no longer need to rely on Warp routes for interstellar navigation, nor will they need interstellar speakers for communication.
Humanity will seize this opportunity and evolve into a more advanced civilization.
Horus was shocked by the information he received and suddenly realized he had completely misunderstood the Emperor's intention.
He had chosen to believe the "truth" Erebus showed him and thought the Emperor had abandoned him and chosen of his own will to become a god.
Horus was seized by an inexpressible sense of shame.
He had tried to betray the Emperor because of a single word from Erebus and his own inexpressible vanity.
This...
Horus hated his own weakness for the first time.
"I'm sorry." The Warmaster looked up at his father with tears in his eyes.
"I knew none of these things. I thought you had abandoned us and tried to become a god alone."
Whether Horus had finished speaking or not, Datch received a notification.
The activity of promoting repentance is showing slight progress.
Not bad, not bad.
"This is not your fault. You were influenced by them, could not control your inner desires, and became their puppet." The Emperor's tone was calm.
The Chaos Gods amplify the desires in people's hearts and use those desires to drive people toward every kind of terrible choice.
Afterwards, people often know nothing about it and merely blame themselves for being unable to control their desires.
"Everything you said was a lie... Lord Lorgar?" Erebus despaired.
If Horus were influenced by the Emperor and swore loyalty again, he and the Word Bearers Legion would be purged.
However, when he looked around at the people present, he was surprised to find that his original body was also standing behind the Emperor.
As you know, Lorgar swore loyalty to the Chaos Gods, so it is remarkable that he felt like siding with the Emperor.
Besides Lorgar, there are also Angron, Magnus, and another Horus.
At this discovery Erebus immediately widened his eyes and realized there was something abnormal about what he was seeing.
"Warmaster, those are fakes!" Erebus shouted like a drowning man clutching at straws.
"Look over there — there is another you."
Hearing those words, Horus, tormented by guilt, involuntarily looked in the direction the other party pointed and another self was there. And his pupils instantly opened.
Lies, deception.
An unpleasant premonition immediately crossed Horus's mind. Everything before his eyes was false.
He had to counterattack immediately and bring everyone present under control.
Abaddon and the others instinctively reached for their weapons and prepared to counterattack in response to the Primarch's order.
They also felt something was wrong with this. Why do two Horuses exist?
"We came from another timeline." The Horus who had come from the new timeline stepped forward. His voice was not loud, yet it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
"A timeline shaped by the nameless ones, unaffected by the gods."
This statement astonished everyone.
Another timeline — what a mysterious ring.
Do parallel universes actually exist?
"Lies! Another timeline is impossible. Even the gods cannot do such a thing!" Erebus shouted, writhing in the agony of death.
"What you said is a lie." The Emperor turned his face; his voice echoed in Erebus's heart. Majestic, cold, like a steel blade quenched in liquid nitrogen thrusting vertically from the crown of the head into the spine.
"What you revealed to Horus was only the truth you wanted him to see."
"The future holds countless possibilities. Fate is not in the hands of the gods but in the hands of all living things."
"The gods are merely clowns. There are far too many things they cannot do."
"You are lying. You stole the power of the gods in order to obtain your present status. You used the power of the gods to create this illusion, great warrior Horus — you must not be deceived by them!" Erebus desperately shouted at Horus. Only by drawing Horus to his side did he have a chance of surviving.
"Helpless fool." The Emperor coldly cut off Erebus's words. "You know nothing of the true Warp. The Chaos Gods are only a portion of the powerful existences that exist within it. They do not represent everything."
"Everything I possess I obtained by setting foot in the Warp and traveling to places even the gods cannot reach."
"Neither my power nor the materials used to create the Primarchs were of any use."
"They are vile thieves. They are trying to steal my achievements in order to accomplish evil purposes."
While speaking, the Emperor stretched out a hand and gently clenched five fingers in the air.
Erebus was instantly lifted by an invisible force and struggled, unable to move in mid-air.
"You seem to think you have seen the truth, yet it is merely a lie. The gods have always been synonymous with cunning and vile existences, yet you believe their words are the truth. What irony." The Emperor's voice was still calm.
"Cough… cough…" Erebus cried in pain. "You are lying… the gods revealed the truth to us…"
"What they possess is only truth spun from lies," the Emperor replied calmly.
"We have come from a new timeline and are destined to destroy the four gods."
"You cannot… defeat…" Erebus tried to say that, yet the Emperor did not give him the opportunity.
The outstretched hand slowly closed.
Erebus's body ignited in an instant and within a mere few seconds turned to ash.
Then the Emperor turned his eyes toward the Horus of the old timeline.
"I have never thought of abandoning anyone, nor have I ever thought of becoming a god. You have been blinded by the gods and are trying to reduce the fruits of hundreds of years of effort to ashes. That is a great disappointment to me."
"No… I was wrong. I should not have doubted you," Horus said. His voice was hoarse and feverish, bearing an almost pleading urgency from shame crushed again and again.
"Yet you still doubted me and plotted to betray me." Sorrow seeped into the Emperor's tone.
He realized his own failure for the first time.
Without the help of the nameless ones, he would not even have been able to properly carry out the education of the Primarchs.
The Emperor repented of his own actions. Quest progress +1.
The instruction suddenly appeared and surprised Datch.
Ah, why is His Majesty the Emperor also involved in the confession quest?
"I'm sorry, Father."
The Horus of the old timeline descended from the black rock bed, dropped to one knee before the Emperor, and begged his father for forgiveness.
"Father, I was truly wrong. I was deceived and harbored terrible thoughts. Please forgive me. Please do not hate me."
Through Horus's words, this fragment of history lost its support and began to collapse.
Everything around crumbled and shattered to pieces. The corpses of priestesses and attendants lying in pools of blood became particles of light and vanished completely.
However, just as everything was about to vanish, Horus…
Horus raised his face again and stared straight at the Emperor.
His eyes had changed. There was no longer any regret there; hatred and unparalleled power and will dwelt there.
"Father, do you really want to kill me?"
Without doubt, this is Chaos Horus who received the complete power of the four gods during the Siege of Terra.
He realized the foundation of his own existence was shaking and immediately took action.
...