Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 465: Crimson King (Part )

A silence.

Magnus stood at the edge of silence, the sound having faded from him.

Here, all actual existence repeats the action of self-devouring, like a silent wave pouring out from the void of the atomic structure within things, starting with the elimination of its own existence, until every crystal clear layer, every drop of floating mist, and every echo of oscillation, all move towards ultimate extinction ahead of time.

Dead silence.

The silence spread with the darkness, just as thunder and lightning come together - but the silence at this moment is far more deafening than the roar of thunder, and the blinding effect of lightning and thunder can never match the absolute darkness.

Magnus reached out his hand, and the rustling of his robes ceased. The psychic spell was snatched away by the darkness before it could be formed, and this was just a simple lighting trick.

"I... did something wrong?" Magnus murmured, took a step back, and looked around helplessly with his right eye wide open.

There was nothing left. He could no longer see Omegon's body, nor 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 pitch-black darkness.

He took a shaky half breath and exhaled it with a roll in his throat.

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

An arc, the curve of the Star card, with a taper on the edge... No, it seems to be the Knight card, the pattern on its back is deep and unshakable... Really? The Space Marine card seems to have the same effect... Damn it!

His heart was beating fast, and Magnus was frustrated at his inability to make out what was on each card. He yelled in vain, and the sound died in the silence before it was born into the world.

Or is he dead too? Magnus wondered confusedly.

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

The fifth god of destruction and end has not yet been fully born, otherwise he would have vanished into thin air long ago.

Since he still has time to think, the Dark Lord has not yet entered reality.

Therefore, in the worst case scenario, the only areas that would fall into absolute darkness would be the areas covered by the Thothmons rune in the Webway, or the area around Terra, which would be enough.

His finger stopped on a Navigator card under the suit of creation. Following the revelation of this card, he would be able to break away from the webway and return to the real universe.

Yes, this was what he needed, he had to get out of this area and leave behind the darkness and silence.

The atmosphere of fear created by this darkness would eventually take away his sanity. He had only stayed in this absolute darkness and silence for... a minute? Ten minutes? Every second seemed like an eternity to him.

Magnus felt a chill of pain run through his spine, 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. No one would even know he was here. No one knew where Magnus was lost in the Webway. Maybe it would take a year for someone to find him, a crazy wandering soul floating beside a skeleton...

He has to get out of here.

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

really?
Yes, that sounded great, he only needed to temporarily abandon this dark area, leaving 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 cowardice to devour his soul.

He held up the navigator's card and pressed it to his forehead, feeling the clarity that traveled through his soul.

Then he caused the Navigator's Card to turn into a ball of fire in his hand that turned to ash in an instant, and brushed the dust off his palm.

Magnus was dizzy and weak, but now that he had cut off his retreat, he felt better.

"The Webway Node City," he said silently, thinking of where he was heading. "The throne room. Magnus, Magnus, do you hear me? Go to these places, find the Iron Warriors, they cannot die here. And then find the Emperor, my father is the key to everything. Do you hear me? Magnus, this is the time to lose."

He paused.

"That is your duty, Magnus."

The Crimson King skillfully stacked the Astropath on top of the Emperor card, and added a Knight of Mission, a symbol of stability and 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 which was being replaced by darkness at every level.

Sometimes he hoped that the darkness in front of him would fluctuate, such as a few more reefs, a few fierce chains hitting his arms, so that he would know that he was not standing still. But within his perception, the dark void had already been saturated, and the abundant power had smoothed out any potential whirlpools and waves...

It is simply infinite here, with no end. There is no hearing, no vision, and not many senses left. And even the turbid soul solution ocean of the warp is filled with anger and arrogance that tease each other, or the depraved desire that stirs up the waves...

"Go find the Iron Warriors, Magnus. If they have assembled for retreat, they must be beneath the Throneworld, right?"

Magnus muttered to himself, wondering from time to time whether he was spinning in circles with one leg as the center. From the perspective of knowledge, people who have lost an eye are prone to such deviations when walking in the dark.

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

Yes, the Emperor Tarot is still enlightening.

They often say that every time a person who uses this deck has a clear enlightenment in his heart, it is a distant glimpse from the Emperor. The Emperor is the only light... This is just a rumor, not the true principle of Tarot. Magnus even wrote an article to express his empire's disdain for this superstition.

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

He muttered to himself, imagining his own 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 leave...

"You bad guy, did you reinforce the webway connecting to Prospero twice as many times as other passages? This must be your doing. Prospero is one of the greatest masterpieces of your life. The webway is for the human empire, and Prospero is Magnus' home. That route is the best, you can let the Iron Warriors leave through the exit of Prospero..."

He calculated a hundred times in his mind and confirmed the feasibility of this plan. It was like a candle lit in his heart, flickering light, making his tired steps agile again. He strode forward and moved forward along 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 about to fall, so is the Emperor still on the throne? Is Thutmone completely sealed?
"Best case scenario: The Emperor is on the throne, the formation is sealed, then everything runs as usual, leaving Magnus with only wild thoughts and worries."

"In the second case, the Emperor is on the throne and the formation is not closed. In this case, we just need to block the last node, and then follow the same procedure as the first one..."

"It's not a good situation. The Emperor is not on the throne, and the formation is not closed... Then everything is not too late. Through the last opening, the power of darkness can still be stuffed back into this formation that spans the galaxy. There will be some turmoil in the middle. Who can make the darkness return to where it should be? It will be done. It will be done."

"The worst scenario is that the Emperor is not on the throne, but the formation is already sealed. That is like a closed cage, but what is locked in the cage is not the beast, but the key... Then we have an abandoned iron cage and a beast raging outside, a beast that feeds on death...

"This is totally unacceptable. Tuthmons is our only controllable weapon against Tyrant Star. It cannot be abandoned like this..."

Magnus took a deep breath, then controlled his breathing, letting the suffocation caused by excessive breathing disappear into the darkness, even though this endless darkness itself was about to strangle him to death.

The atmosphere of fear was still pulling at his sanity, and his physical strength was draining away at a rate far exceeding the normal walking consumption. This should also be related to his previous calculations and fierce battles in the past few days. Oh, he felt terrible.

His footsteps paused for a moment, and then, with a sudden surge of joy, he reached forward and groped, searching for a hidden entrance on the invisible wall with rune marks. He slid in silently and arrived at the other side of the invisible formation.

Yes, this is the inner side of the main realm of Tuthmons, a giant network that spans the Milky Way and the Star Sea, absorbing the silence of the entire world to limit the power of the Dark King on the throne...

Magnus prepared himself for two seconds, suppressed the pressure from the dark environment, and began to detect the integrity of the formation. Judging from the combination of options, he hoped that the node was still open. That was also a high probability event, after all, Perturabo's control over psychic energy was not enough for him to close a node door.

He stood there in shock, unable to believe his own perception.

The last node has closed... A shudder passed through him, like a relentless and persistent drumbeat, beating his eardrums on both sides. Magnus almost fell to his knees with ominous speculation about the future, swallowed by darkness.

Why is that node down?

He thought desperately, trying to disprove his perception.

Why has the last lock of Tuthmons fallen? Moreover, it is sealed so cleanly and neatly, and the nature of the material filled even surpasses 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 within each line network is running freely, working together on the throne world.

So, is the Dark Lord on the throne?

Magnus stumbled and ran, the darkness around him growing thicker, pulling at his arms and legs. This was the Thothmons Circle in effect, a huge sticky spider web that eroded any unfortunate being that dared to enter.

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

The silence continued until Magnus began to grow tired of his own fear, like a man walking through a swamp who finds 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 to cover 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 overlapping tarot cards burned his fingers, forming a sharp contrast with the increasingly cold and dark environment. He gained strength from the pain, if this could be regarded as a kind of self-repentance and condemnation for his patricide.

The fact is that his methods were effective and his heart pointed him in the right path.

In the darkness, he passed many checkpoints, the outer layer, the middle buffer layer, the exchange layer, the fixed sector... He connected with each discontinuous transformation window one by one. The long road shrank again and again in an instant until he reached the edge of a black hole-like void that was even more powerful and had an oppressive force ten times that of the relaxing silent darkness ahead.

Magnus explored the edge of Thutmons before slipping temporarily out of it and falling into the interior of the Throneworld Map Node City below where the Iron Warriors were stationed.

The sky and earth here were still dominated by darkness, but tiny streaks of light gently pierced the dark environment, like scattered stardust. Even though they were tiny, they still made Magnus breathe a sigh of relief from the inside out, and a complex feeling of joy arose from it.

These are the star-like etheric auras that spread out from the sparks of human souls in the darkness. They are so vivid and lively, 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 not in danger, and they were not swallowed up by the darkness that was about to come.

Magnus touched the wet bloodstains on his face and realized how miserable he was. For the first time, he was grateful for the darkness that concealed his condition.

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

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

"Iron Warriors, take notice. I am Magnus, the fifteenth Primarch. My voice should be familiar to you, warriors.

"At present, perhaps you are confused by the dark situation in front of you, and feel uneasy about the unusual 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 over the past two hundred years have been of immeasurable 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 that is mired in darkness. 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, they cut through the hazy darkness and led to a path to follow.

"By this route you can follow the Webway to Prospero, whose gate is in my Tizca Fields. Be kind to Prospero, and I trust you need no further instructions from me as to how to contact your father.

Did his voice reach them?

Magnus believed that he had done it, not only because the dark power in this node city had weakened, but also because the light spots representing the soul began to move, like schools of silver fish swimming in the deep sea, no, like nebulae rotating in the Milky Way, surging in large numbers and in an orderly manner, steadily moving towards the glowing road.

"Good luck," he murmured quietly to himself, the feeling of having accomplished something greatly soothing 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 relentless. Humans cannot stop moving forward because of this, and he just hopes that he will not regret his choice one day.

If he regretted it...if he made a mistake that he couldn't have foreseen with his current perspective...

He will pay it back.

He walked in the opposite direction of 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 the dark torture under the heavy pressure, and continued to move forward 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 wall. He silently recited random words, and sometimes even began to recite the philosophical principles of psychic books to bring himself distraction and comfort.

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

Now it is known that Thutmose is closed and the lock of the iron cage of the universe has been welded. The question is whether the Dark King will be born in the golden cage or escape before that... This is a gamble that may win on both sides. Any slight deviation may determine the fate of the galaxy, and he must be prepared for the worst - that is, the death of Omegon will allow 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, for Morse had told him that his guess was correct, his judgment cold and accurate.

——Open the golden cage.

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

If the great cage of Thutmons is closed with nothing inside, humanity will lose its last weapon with which to safely fight the Lord of Darkness. So the lock must be unlocked, and the gate must remain open until darkness is pushed into the cage and sealed again...

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, so they need to find a series of matching new locks. Coincidentally, there is already a set of natural locks in the galaxy. The Emperor forged them long ago, and the Primarchs will play the role they were originally designed for.

Magnus suppressed the horrible thought.

They had spent nearly two hundred years, countless energy and material resources, and the existing costs had already been submerged in the deep sea. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he could not easily attack the Tuthmons rune array itself, nor could he...

He took a deep breath.

He couldn't use the lives of his seventeen brothers to exchange for humanity's freedom for tens of thousands of years to come.

...Can't I?

Magnus' heart twitched violently. If in the end, there was no other choice, would the Emperor regretfully send his offspring to die for humanity?
He closed his eyes in pain and shook his head. An answer had already emerged in his mind.

The Emperor's voice echoed in his ears, and Magnus finally understood the silence. +I had another plan. +The Emperor had said, and the implication was that it would be carried out if necessary.

No, maybe there are other ways, or maybe the Black King is about to be born in the throne. He is just... He is just...

He had to prepare for the worst.

After what seemed like centuries of heavy darkness, a thin ray of golden light suddenly pierced into his only remaining right eye. Magnus approached the golden light with anticipation and even more intense fear. He stretched out his hand, trying to touch the bright but weak golden light.

He had hit an insurmountable barrier.

The Emperor's Light is located outside of Thutmons' formation.

It is not on the throne node.

Not here.

(End of this chapter)