Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 437 Three-Headed Snake

"I think, from what I know of him, Horus would be very pleased with the implications of this duty," Magnus said, standing against the wall of the infirmary, gesturing with his hand as he spoke. "He deserves to be chosen as Warmaster. You know, he is a very nice man, and besides being very tolerant, this makes everyone get along well with him."

+Except? + Perturabo said.

His voice floated on the edge of the real universe and the sea of ​​souls. Even though he was still a little dazed, his mind had regained clarity. He was able to communicate with the two psychic masters present and even engage in sufficient logical thinking.

+It sounds like this led to him being on good terms with Sanguinius, Mortarion, and Konrad Curze. +
"Oh, don't mention it!" Magnus shook his head in annoyance.

"It sounds like you're well enough now to be interested in joking with Magnus," Morse said coldly, "My advice is still that you talk less and rest more."

"For example, meditate with me," Magnus said. "It is good for the soul's recovery, believe me. You will be well again soon. I think you can make it in time to repair the coronation hall of Ullanor with Rogal Dorn. Even Horus would regret not having you."

"Magnus," Morse warned gently.

"Okay." The Crimson King stopped talking and smiled reassuringly at Perturabo.

Even though the Lord of Iron couldn't see his face now, he believed that the emotions reflected by his etheric aura could still express his emotions, even more clearly than simply through limited expressions.

After confirming that the situation was stable, the Iron Warriors' pharmacist considerately left on his own, and at the same time helped Perturabo write back to Rogal Dorn, saying that he would go to Ullanor when he was free.

This made Magnus let go of his rare reserve. He knew that he had been a little too anxious just now.

+Horus is indeed worthy of the Emperor's trust, and only he is suitable for the position of Warmaster,+ Perturabo said slowly, leaving time for thinking and recalling between breaths. + And he also understood that even if he did not want to be above the other Primarchs, what he could not accept was that the honor of Warmaster was taken away by other brothers. +
"No, Perturabo, if it was you or Sanguinius being crowned by the Emperor, I guarantee that Horus would not say a word, and even if Robert were to come, Horus would be grudgingly prepared to follow orders," Magnus said seriously, nodding to emphasize his tone.

"I asked him before, he has always admired you. He doesn't care so much about the honor bestowed on him by his father, so he is talking about these things more and more openly. Your Majesty, if he knew that you were injured now, he might not even be interested in fighting the orcs of Ullanor..."

+You have a good relationship with him, let alone others, Magnus. + Perturabo smiled back.

"Oh, yes, maybe..." Magnus pulled his hand back and ruffled his lush red hair instead, "He's very forgiving."

"Most of the Iron Warriors on the Daven Satellite have been treated," Morse said suddenly, "but they are still blocked from the real universe by the black light of the Nightmare Sun. With time, they will be able to return to normal."

This topic immediately attracted Perturabo's full attention, and the fatigue in his soul was instantly eliminated. +Let them rest first,+Perturabo said,+and try to transfer the unfinished tasks to others. +
"If Malcador doesn't do this, the first thing I will do when I return to Terra will be to duel with him on the top floor of the Corona Spire." Morse showed a cold smile, "The Cliff is already near Betanjamon..."

"How did you take the shortcut?"

"...We will arrive at Terra soon. You will be able to see me within a day after the Nemesis Blade is taken away by Constantine Valdor." Morse ignored Magnus' question, "Your father is busy performing his tricks in Ullanor. As for how much he knows about the Nightmare Sun, I will go to him after you have fully recovered."

In addition, Mors learned from Malcador that the Emperor's order to confirm the Warmaster came very suddenly, almost at the same time that Mors found Perturabo on Sivers. Assuming this was not a coincidence, then the Emperor must have known what was happening on the other side of the galaxy.

+By the way, the vision I saw in Daven is as follows...+
"Don't rush to recall. For Chaos, recalling is potentially harmful. First..." Morse glanced around, "Meditate with Magnus."

"Ah? Oh, then... uh, let's start by breathing slowly..."

-

The wind wrapped in raindrops blew across the surface of Sivers, bringing a turbid chill. Some of the shells that contained dangerous substances finally cracked and gasped under the corrosion of acid rain. The unstable substances were ignited in the rain, flashing briefly, exploding with a stunning wave of air, and then quickly disappeared, transforming from dead objects into even more lifeless residue.

John Grammaticus looked up at the sky above Sivers with concern.

The dark clouds there were strangely gathering, and the dim blue sunlight fell sparsely from the gaps in the clouds to the ground, and together with the tattered plastic sheets rolled up in the wind, they fluttered on the moldy ground. Shadows gathered invisibly, and the phenolic smell of some dangerous and addictive drugs evaporated again from the old garbage dump.

He felt his pocket and the three blank tarot cards left by the Joker were slightly hot. He quietly took out one and examined it. It was still empty, with no pattern visible.

“Let us go, Aurelion,” he said anxiously. “The silversmith may have made his way through the Warp, and I have a - bad feeling about this place. I think he has taken his three-headed snake with him.”

"Three-headed snake?" Lorgar murmured, stroking the cross hanging on his chest with his right hand and lowering his eyes, as if he was feeling the changes in Sivers' environment, or perhaps he was immersed in his unique theological thinking.

"Only an equal force can fight against the Nightmare Sun," John Grammaticus quietly made a simple decision.

The longer he mixed with the fleet of the human empire, the easier it would be to recognize this huge and unrivaled force. And... after all, the mentor did not stipulate that the Illuminati must be separated from the human empire.

He licked his lips. "The three-headed snake is the symbol of our association, and it is also the force we use to fight against the Nightmare Sun. It is said that it is a controlled crystallization of witchcraft, wandering in the warp space, and can dispel the shadow brought by the Nightmare Sun. It was born before I joined the Illuminati, and I believe it has been artificially shaped - perhaps by a mentor I have never met. Because if you have seen it in its entirety, you will be amazed at its exquisite beauty."

John reached out and touched his arm, grasping the slightly trembling arm through his sleeve. The temperature around him was still dropping, and the cold raindrops formed ice crystals the moment they landed on the surface of Sivers. As he breathed, a needle-like sweetness rushed into his throat.

"Now that we've scared off Elihos, I think... honestly, I think the Nightmare Sun has been eyeing this place for a long time, and it's bound to come sooner or later. I suggest we leave, Aurelion."

He took a step back, bumping into the hard armor of a Word Bearer. "Sorry," he muttered, giving up the attempt.

"No..." Lorgar said softly, as softly as the fading sound of a song. "Did it hurt Perturabo?"

"Yeah, so—what are you going to do?"

"I will wait for it." Lorgar calmly took his clean hands off the cross hanging in front of his chest and stretched them out to the curtain of drizzle in front of him. "I will witness it, know it, understand what this nightmare fears, destroy what this sun shines on, and then, I will destroy it."

"No, Primarch... you'd better not do this. I advise you sincerely." John said, "Didn't the human empire receive any reports about the Nightmare Sun? You were exploring the Holy Grail expansion fifty years ago. This is not a force that any individual can resist."

"It made my loved ones bleed!" Lorgar shouted. The faintly radiating power wave shocked John's mind and he couldn't say a word. Lorgar raised his head and closed his eyes. Ice rain blew across his cheeks and flowed down his noble face covered with scriptures.

He had heard its voice, its vicious cold tongue of fire quietly licking the atmosphere of Sivers, swallowing up the little heat on the planet. A faint and distant eagle cry passed through the edge of his mind, harsh and sharp, and the cold sting made him sober...

"Aurelian..." John called out softly, looking desperately at the group of Word Bearers priests around him who were meditating with the Primarch without fear of life or death. The things in his pocket seemed to be affected, getting warmer and hotter, and then scalding hot, forcing him to take them out of his pocket.

"Anyone want to hear what these cards say?" he said quickly, staring at the changing tarot card. "First card revealed, the Major Arcana, the High Priestess...Anyone listening?"

"I'm here." Lorgar answered with his eyes closed, his voice like a dream, only showing the existence of his consciousness. "And then?"

"Not yet..." John said, cursing the mysterious clown in his heart. He was going to kill him.

The rain fell even harder, covering the surface of the Sivers world with a thick, hazy, frozen veil.

In Lorgar's perception, in the quiet corner where he often received the Holy Light of the Emperor in his heart, he gradually felt another kind of sinful holiness, a hungry and hot harsh will, like footsteps, like heartbeats, oscillating, trampling, crushing the darkness and light where it landed into desperate charcoal dust, eager to be born, eager to destroy...

Is that the Nightmare Sun?
As he was thinking, a vague doubt arose in his heart.

For some reason, in his mind that hated paganism so much, it was difficult for him to develop a deeper hatred for it. On the contrary, a dark holiness along with the cold rain in the sky touched him and made him almost cry.

Without reason, he recalled the origin of his name, Rainmaker, which was the original meaning of "Lorgar" in Colchian.

This abnormal state almost simultaneously suppressed his anger at being stung, and Aurelion's accumulated emotions flowed away like a tide.

It was as if facing it, everything was possible, everything was just the side of it reflected through the dimension, and his oath was standing on it...

“Second!” John blew into his shaking hands. His veins were freezing and his hands were burning. “Second… The Major Arcana, the Emperor. I don’t quite understand, Aurelion. What do you think?”

Luo Jia shook his head slightly without saying a word. His will rose upwards, cautiously exploring the edge of the Youyang projection behind the curtain. He was constantly attracted by it, eager to get closer like a moth to a flame, and even merge into it.

This absolute contradiction between emotion and reason made him frown, and a feeling of confusion arose spontaneously.

Then, another opposing force emerged from the sea of ​​souls.

It was larger and more concrete than Lorgar Aurelion had expected. On the parts of its body that occasionally emerged from the darkness, faintly reflective serpent scales were inlaid on a transparent surface like the starry sky. Each scale was carved with concrete and gorgeous decorations, some with specific human shapes, and some decorated with ancient hieroglyphic runes.

All of these floral decorations were hidden in the hazy colorful light, like glass vessels and lattice windows, ever-changing, and at every moment could only reflect a tiny part of the whole picture... After wandering for a few feet, this section of the crystal clear body sank back into the endless darkness, and the next section of the luminous shape quickly emerged, replacing the disappeared part.

Like a huge crystal wreath, it languidly and pliantly wraps around the outside of Sivers' world, emitting a glassy glow.

The feeling it gave Lorgar was similar to that of the Nightmare Sun, yet different, but its essential power made Lorgar Aurelion extremely disgusted.

With just one glance, the Truthsayer's chest was filled with disgust and anger, and he couldn't help wanting to cut the disgusting giant snake into pieces and throw each piece into the fire to roast, even though it was the only creation that John Grammaticus said could fight against the Nightmare Sun.

"The third one has color," John said, staring at the last LCD Tarot card that was developing color. The arrival of the three-headed snake raised the temperature around, even though the chaotic power it harnessed made the smell around it not so pleasant.

"Speak," Lorgar whispered, his voice a little hoarse.

The next moment, the three-headed snake attacked suddenly, and the central snake head bit at the solar wind that was gradually emerging from the Nightmare Sun behind the curtain. The coiled body suddenly shortened and coiled around one side of Sivers, isolating the planet from the light of the Black Sun. The sudden twisting vortex of the Warp knocked the Word Bearers to the ground and blew the cards in John's hand away.

John's head hit a metal pole inserted in the garbage heap, and he turned around and hugged the pole, fixing himself behind the pillar. At the last moment when the metal pole was about to be lifted up, the hurricane stopped rolling. John took a last look at Lorgar Aurelion who was still standing there, and turned to look for the card that had floated away.

Outside the curtain, the battle between the three-headed snake and the nightmare sun continued. The snake coiled up, revealing colorful black light against the backdrop of the black sun. The illusory dark sun gradually retreated into the depths of the vast ocean, becoming increasingly distant from reality. The frenzy quietly broke his rationality. Lorgar gritted his teeth and used a simple method like his talent to let his etheric light approach the direction where the giant snake and the sun were fighting.

"Aurelian—" He heard John calling his name behind him, but he had no time to pay attention to what the mortal was calling. "Lost Son," his voice came through the distance in a trance, "The last one—Major Arcana, Lost Son..."

The black light of the sun and the colorful colors of the giant snake weakened together. The incomplete black sun and the artificial snake with a limited power were not willing to give in to each other, and the barrier between reality and the subspace brought them back to the depths of the soul sea together...

Lorgar suddenly opened his eyes, knelt on the ground, tightly grasped his cross in one hand, and panted violently. In the last moment of fading away, he seemed to see the reflection of a completely different world from the core of the black sun.

There are flowing water, green trees and steel, undulating sand plains and silver angels, the end of the world, and the world at the end nested within it.

This dreamlike reflection was more untouchable than the nightmare sun, and it appeared so suddenly: it seemed to appear suddenly within the circle formed by the snake shadow, in the flashing shadow of the bird's claw, and then be obscured by the shadow of the warp in an instant.

But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the glorious world should be there, and it was the true appearance of the nightmare sun. It was too kind and too familiar, and it quietly wrapped around Lorgar Aurelion's panicked heart. At this moment, he felt that he had everything he needed.

"Aurelian?" his cult leader trotted over to him, calling out in concern. Then John Grammaticus stumbled over with his cards. "Do you hear me talking about these cards? Can you read them?"

Lorgar had no intention of responding, he was still immersed in the fiery and intense joy. Any doubts were dispelled in this burning emotion, and the names of Nightmare Sun, Komos, Tyrant Star... were no longer important.

If he is filled with joy, it must be from Him, a selfless reward and gift that he will receive.

But what was the connection between this dark sundog and the God-Emperor far away in Ullanor? Was the Nightmare Sun also a creation of the Emperor, just as He was the Father of All Things, the Ruler of the Universe? And was the inference he was making now a misunderstanding of the God-Emperor, a wrong interpretation of His Word?
Besides, how could it harm Perturabo? His brother had been wounded by it, after all!
Thinking of this, Lorgar Aurelion felt as if a bucket of cold water was poured over his head. His enthusiasm died down and flowed away with the falling rain.

"Aurelian..." John patted him on the back carefully. "Someone is coming. To the north."

(End of this chapter)