Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 465 The Crimson King (Part 2)

Silence.

Magnus stood at the edge of silence, and the sound had disappeared from his side.

Here, all actual existences repeated the action of self-devouring, like a wave of silence pouring out from the void of the atomic structure inside things, starting with their own existence, until every crystal transparent layer, every drop of floating mist, every oscillating echo, all advanced to the ultimate extinction.

Deathly silence.

Deathly silence spread with darkness, just as thunder and lightning came together - but the silence at this moment was far more deafening than the roar of thunder, and the blinding effect of lightning and thunderbolts could never match the absolute darkness.

Magnus stretched out his hand, and the rubbing sound of his robes stopped. The psychic spell was taken away by the darkness before it was formed, and this was just a simple lighting technique.

"I... did it wrong?" Magnus murmured, took a step back, and helplessly opened his right eye to scan the surroundings.

There was nothing left. He could not see Omegon's body or the flickering walls of the webway. It was as if all the light in his world had gone out, as if the candle in the lantern had finally burned out and gone out, and the world had stepped into the depths of darkness.

He took a trembling breath and exhaled it in a rolling throat.

The tarot cards in his hand were as cold as ice, losing their former lightness and warmth. He stroked the cards, carefully distinguishing the textures on the cards with his fingers.

An arc, the arc of the star card, with a cone on the edge... No, it seemed to be the Knight card, the pattern on its back was deep and unshakable... Really? The Space Marine card seemed to have the same effect... Damn it!

His heart was beating hard, which made Magnus frustrated that he could not distinguish the content of each card. He yelled in vain, and the sound died in silence before it was born into the world.

Or was he dead too? Magnus thought confusedly.

No... He still had to find a way out. The small area where he was had completely fallen into the realm of darkness and destruction, but this was because Omegan died here—he was killed by him, and the energy was gathered from this.

The fifth god of destruction and the end had not yet been completely born, otherwise he would have disappeared long ago.

Since he still had the leeway to think, the Dark Lord had not yet entered reality.

Therefore, in the worst case, the only area that fell into absolute darkness should be the area covered by the Thothmons rune in the Webway, or, together with the area around Terra, which was enough.

His finger stopped on a Navigator card under the suit of creation. Following the revelation of this card, he could escape from the Webway and return to the real universe.

Yes, this was what he needed. He had to escape from this area and leave behind the darkness and silence in front of him.

The atmosphere of fear created by this darkness would sooner or later completely take away his sanity. He had only stayed in this absolute darkness and silence for... one minute? Ten minutes? He had already felt every second as if it were a year.

Magnus felt a painful chill rush through his spine, just as his soul was burned through by confusion.

He could clearly feel the light of fear brought by the Dark Lord twisting his heart step by step. Soon he would be lost in the madness, and no one would even know he was here. No one knew where Magnus was lost in the Webway. Maybe a year later, someone would find him, a crazy wandering soul floating beside a skeleton...

He had to leave here.

What should he do next? He would tell everyone who could help the Emperor what happened here, ask them to forgive him for the serious consequences of killing Omegan by mistake, and then, before they had time to mourn, let them think about what else could be done to save the current situation...

Really?

Yes, it sounded great. He only needed to temporarily abandon this dark area and leave the Tyrant Star in the throne room to let it run wild for a few months, maybe enough for it to destroy half of Terra. Then he could return to Terra with his helpless brothers and send the source of life into the abyss of the Dark Lord one by one.

All he had to do was allow fear and fear to consume his soul.

He raised the Navigator card and pressed it against his forehead, feeling the clarity that passed through his soul.

Then he let the Navigator card turn into a ball of fire that turned to ash in an instant, and brushed the dust from his palm.

Magnus was dizzy and weak, but he felt much better after cutting off his retreat.

"Webway Node City," he muttered to himself where he was going. "Throne Room. Magnus, Magnus, do you hear me? Go to these places, find the Iron Warriors, they can't die here. And then find the Emperor, my father is the key to everything. Do you hear me? Magnus, time is of the essence."

He paused.

"This is your duty, Magnus."

The Crimson King skillfully stacked the Astropath on the Emperor card, and then a Knight of Mission, a symbol of stable perseverance, to stabilize the direction of this navigation system.

A phantom, invisible path of light seemed to appear beneath his feet, even though there was no light at all.

Then he began to move deeper into the area that was replaced by darkness at all levels.

Sometimes he expected some fluctuations in the darkness in front of him, such as the appearance of more rocks, or the appearance of a few fierce chains hitting his arms, so that he would know that he was not standing still. But within the scope of his perception, the dark void has long been saturated, and the full power has smoothed out any potential whirlpools and waves...

It's simply infinite here. There's no end. No hearing, no vision, not much perception left. And even the turbid soul solution ocean of subspace is filled with the anger and arrogance of teasing each other, or the depraved desires that stir up wind and waves...

"Go find the Iron Warriors, Magnus. If they have been gathering to retreat, they must be below the throne world, right?"

Magnus muttered to himself, sometimes suspecting that he was spinning in circles with one leg as the center. From an intellectual standpoint, someone who has lost an eye is prone to this bias when it comes to smear walking.

"Magnus, you've been to Terra a thousand times, a thousand times! Even if you haven't, it's almost five hundred times based on twice a year. You can find the way even with your eyes closed, right? You can do it, not to mention the Emperor Tarot is still guiding you."

Yes, the Emperor Tarot is still enlightening.

They often say that every time a clear enlightenment appears in the hearts of those who use this set of cards, it is a distant glance sent by the Emperor. The Emperor is the only light... This is just a rumor, not the true principle of Tarot operation. Magnus even wrote a special article to express the scorn of this superstition within his empire.

However, Magnus now began to believe that the Emperor was guiding him, because it meant that the Emperor was still awake.

He chanted trivially, imagining his brisk voice in his mind: "Look, you have two things to do now, Magnus. First, you can find the most stable exit for the Iron Warriors to send out. …

"You bad guy, did you reinforce the web tunnel connected to Prospero twice as many times as the other tunnels? This must be your doing. Prospero is one of the greatest masterpieces of your life. 1. The Webway is for the Imperium of Man, and Prospero is the home of Magnus. That is the best way, and you can let the Iron Warriors leave through Prospero's exit..."

He calculated it a hundred times in his mind and confirmed the feasibility of this plan. It was like a candle lit in his heart, making his tired steps quick again in a burst of flickering light. He strode forward, following the path he perceived.

"The second thing is the Emperor. The Emperor... this situation is much more complicated. Let's list it in points. It is known that darkness is coming, so is the Emperor still on the throne? Is Thutmons all sealed?

"The best case scenario: The emperor is on the throne, the formation is closed, then everything runs as normal, leaving Magnus alone with his wild thoughts and worries."

"The second situation is that the emperor is on the throne and the formation is not closed. In this way, we can just block the last node, and then analogize it to the first one..."

"It's not a good situation. The emperor is not on the throne and the formation is not closed... Then it's still too late. Through the last opening, the power of darkness can still be stuffed back into the formation that spans the galaxy. There will be in the middle Some turmoil, who can put the darkness back where it should be? It'll be done."

"The worst kind is that the emperor is not on the throne, but the formation has been closed. That is equivalent to a closed cage, but what is locked in the cage is not the beast, but the key... Then we have an abandoned The iron cage, and the wild beast raging outside, a beast that feeds on death...

"This is completely unacceptable. Tutmons is our only controllable weapon against the Tyrant Planet. It cannot be abandoned like this..."

Magnus took a big breath, and then restrained his breathing speed, letting the suffocation caused by excessive breathing disappear in the darkness, even though the endless darkness itself was about to strangle him to death.

The fearful environment was still pulling at his sanity, and his physical strength was draining away at a speed far exceeding the consumption of normal walking. This should also be related to his previous days of calculations and a fierce battle. Oh, he felt terrible.

His steps paused for a moment, and then, with a sudden surge of joy, he reached out and groped forward, looking for a hidden entrance on the invisible wall carved with runes. He slid in silently and reached the other side of the invisible formation.

Yes, this is the inside of the main realm of Tutmons, a giant network that stretches across the stars and the Milky Way, absorbing the silence of the entire world to limit the power of the dark king on the throne...

Magnus made mental preparations for two seconds, suppressed the pressure brought by the dark environment on him, and began to detect the integrity of the formation. Judging from the combination of options, he hoped that node would still be open. That is also a high probability event. After all, Perturabo's control over psychic energy is not enough for him to close a node door.

He stood still in astonishment, unable to believe his perception.

The last node has been shut down...

A shudder passed through him, like a relentless and continuous drum beat, beating on his eardrums on both sides. Ominous speculation about the future brought Magnus almost to his knees, swallowed by darkness.

Why is that node down?

He thought desperately, trying to falsify his perceptions.

Why has the last lock of Thutmons fallen? Moreover, it is so cleanly sealed, and the material of the filling is even stronger than the toughness of the other eleven branch nodes, just like the contrast between adamantium and plastic steel...

The entire cage used to imprison the Dark Lord can no longer be opened. The energy in each network of lines is running freely, working together on the throne world.

So, is the Dark Lord on the throne?

Magnus stumbled and ran, and the darkness around him became thicker and thicker, pulling his arms and legs as if there was a substance. This is the effective Thutmons magic circle, a huge sticky spider web, corroding any unfortunate existence that dared to enter.

His legs are screaming, and excessive fatigue is dragging them down. Every Primarch is a demigod, but they are not gods, and the power of gods is not infinite.

The silence continued until Magnus began to get tired of his fear, like a person walking in a swamp who found the rhythm of moving forward after a long struggle.

He laughed at his own hesitation and helplessness a few hours ago, which gave him more courage to move forward. This courage was a mask that covered the despair that was gradually breaking out from the bottom of his heart. He needed more support to continue to move forward endlessly here.

The shining path became brighter and brighter, and the three superimposed tarot cards burned his fingers, forming a sharp contrast with the increasingly cold dark environment. He gained strength from the pain, if this could be regarded as a kind of self-confession and condemnation of his parricide.

The fact is that his method was effective, and his heart pointed out the right path for him.

In the darkness, he passed many checkpoints, the outer layer, the middle buffer layer, the exchange layer, the fixed sector... One by one, the discontinuous transformation windows were connected by him, and the long road was reduced again and again in an instant, until he reached the edge of the black hole-like void, which was more powerful and ten times more oppressive than the quiet darkness ahead.

Magnus explored the edge of Thutmons, then temporarily slid out of it and fell into the interior of the throne world mapping node city where the Iron Warriors were stationed below.

The sky and earth here were still pitch black, but a series of star-like lights gently pierced the dark environment, like scattered stardust. Although small, they still made Magnus breathe a sigh of relief from the inside out, and a complex joy was born.

These were the star-like etheric auras spread by the human soul sparks in the darkness. They were so vivid and so agile, completely different from the endless silence before.

These Iron Warriors were safe and sound, perhaps a little panicked, but they were in good condition and their lives were safe, and they were not swallowed by the darkness that was about to come.

Magnus touched the wet bloodstains on his face and knew that he looked embarrassed. For the first time, he was grateful that the darkness here obscured his state.

The Crimson King adjusted his breathing, found the words he had been preparing along the way, and then activated the amplified musical text engraved in advance in the holy book.

"Iron Warriors," he said loudly, his voice full of his usual pure devotion, and he tried to add some joy of success.

"Iron Warriors, please pay attention. I am Magnus, the fifteenth Primarch. You should feel familiar with my voice, warriors.

"At present, perhaps you are confused by the dark situation in front of you, and feel uneasy about the abnormal turmoil in the Webway. I must be honest and say that the current empire is indeed facing some difficulties. However, these problems do not need to be solved by you, nor are they within your scope of responsibility. This will be the responsibility that I and other capable people need to bear.

"And you - all your efforts in the past two hundred years have inestimable value. You have done your duty.

"Iron Warriors, your mission has been successfully completed. Now, what you need to do is to leave this node city in the dark. When you get in touch with Gene Father Perturabo, please convey my information to him.

"I have opened another path for you, and the signposts have been lit." He took out another set of runes from the holy book and scattered them around the node city corresponding to the throne world, like a rainbow bonfire, cutting off the darkness dimly and leading to a path to follow.

"Through this path, you can reach Prospero along the webway. The specific door is located in the suburbs of my Tizca. Please treat Prospero well, and I believe you don't need my further instructions on how to contact your father.

Did his voice reach their ears?

Magnus believed that he did, not only because the dark power in this node city was weakened, but also because the light points representing the soul began to move, like a school of silver fish in the deep sea, no, like a nebula rotating in the Milky Way, surging in pieces and in an orderly manner, steadily moving towards the shining road.

"Good luck. "He murmured to himself softly, and the feeling of having done something greatly soothed his restless heart.

He had done something - oh, don't think too much about the subsequent worries. A plan always seems perfect when it is first created, but change is cruel and ruthless and never stops. Humanity cannot be held back by this, and he only hopes that he will not regret his choice one day.

If he regrets it...if he makes a mistake that he cannot foresee with his current vision...

He will pay it back.

He walked away from the flowing light spots, reentered the inner side of the rune array, and headed towards the darkest core - the main node of the throne. This made him feel much worse than before. After he poked his head out of the suffocating dark water and took a happy breath outside, returning to silence and darkness almost drove him crazy.

Magnus forced himself to return to the depths of dark torture under heavy pressure and continued to move towards the golden chair. Sometimes he felt that he could not go any further, and the darkness in front of him had condensed into an indestructible high wall. He silently recited some random words, and sometimes even began to recite the philosophical principles of psychic books to bring himself distraction.

He squeezed forward with difficulty, and his main thoughts returned to his unfinished thinking.

Now that it is known that Thutmons is closed, the lock of the iron cage of the universe has been welded, then the question is whether the Dark King is born in the golden cage, or escapes before that... This is a bet that can go both ways, any slight deviation may determine the fate of the galaxy, and he must prepare for the worst - that is, the death of Omegan, allowing the Dark King to gain the upper hand and be born outside the cage.

So, if this happens, what can he do?

There must be a way to choose, because Morse told him that his guess is correct, and his judgment is cold and accurate.

- Open the golden cage.

A group of words emerged in his mind, and in the deep silence, Magnus seemed to hear his own heartbeat.

If Thutmons's giant cage is closed without anything inside, mankind will lose the last weapon that can safely fight against the Dark King. Therefore, the lock must be unlocked, and the door must remain open until the darkness is pushed into the cage and then re-sealed...

Then, continue to extend this line of thought. When the blockade is re-established, the Emperor may not be able to exert the might to fight the Dark Lord. Then, they need to find a series of matching new locks. As it happens, there is already a set of natural locks in the galaxy. The Emperor has forged them long ago. The Primarchs will play the role they were originally designed for.

Magnus suppressed this terrible thought.

They have spent nearly two hundred years, countless energy and material resources, and the existing costs have been immersed in the deep sea. Unless it is absolutely necessary, he cannot easily take action on the Thutmons rune array itself, nor can he...

He took a deep breath.

He cannot use the lives of his seventeen brothers to exchange for the freedom of mankind for thousands of years in the future.

... Can't?

Magnus' heart twitched violently. If there is no other choice in the end, will the Emperor sigh and send his offspring to die for mankind?

He closed his eyes painfully and shook his head. An answer has already emerged in his mind.

The Emperor's voice echoed in his ears, and at this moment Magnus finally understood the silence. +I had another plan. +The Emperor once declared, and the implication was to put it into practice when necessary.

No, perhaps there is another way, or perhaps the Black King is about to be born in the throne. He just... he just...

He must prepare for the worst.

After what seemed like centuries of heavy darkness, a thin golden light suddenly pierced his only remaining right eye, and Magnus approached the golden light with expectation, and even more intense fear than expectation. He reached out and tried to touch the bright but weak golden light.

He touched an insurmountable barrier.

The Emperor's light is outside Thutmons' formation.

It is not on the throne node.

Not.