Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 690 Let Me Take You to the Moon
"The more you know, the less you know." - Ancient Terran proverb.

"Fly me to the moon..." - Ancient Terra Song
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"Are you ready?" Magnus was lying on the altar made of white stone slabs, also wearing a robe made of white silk. His long scarlet hair flowed from his head onto the stone slabs like fine red wine, and then fell to the ground, spreading out into the six layers of circular patterns engraved on the ground - originally there were five layers, and he had already engraved runes on four of them according to the secret book he had consulted, but his mortal assistant suggested to be safer, so they engraved the fifth circle together.

He put away his memories and looked up at the dome with his one eye, reflecting the light from the crystal sphere inlaid on the ancient instrument - the soft and bright light emitted from it came from the sunny Tizca New City on the ground.

Now, he thought with a hint of sadness, the sun was shining brightly on the harbor beach.

It was midday, and the daytime fireworks display consisting of fireworks fired by the Space Wolves' lances and macrocannons should be about to begin.

Alas, although Perturabo had repeatedly assured him that nothing would really be hurt, he could not clear himself of the humiliation of allowing the Space Wolves to point their guns at Tizca, Magnus thought sadly, and he still felt uncomfortable while explaining to his sons that he was submissive to the Overseers from the Royal Court. Just thinking about Rus's fleet firing at Prospero, and the residents of Tizca might not know it at all, still looking up at the magnificent explosions in the sky, he could feel the temperature of his cheeks and forehead begin to rise significantly, and the jumping flames on his skin around him made the spirits in the crystal scatter in panic.

"My lord, you need to calm down now. You don't want to go through the preparations for the ceremony again, do you? Then you will have to bathe again." The green-eyed young man reached out his hand and used the secret method taught to him by Magnus to harmonize his power with his, helping him sort out his emotions.

Soon, the Fifteenth Primarch felt a gentle and cool stream flow into the surging river of power in his body, like a barge guiding a huge ship into the harbor, guiding his spirit to a higher state of mind. While enjoying his guidance, he was once again surprised that there was such a wonderful work in the galaxy, and that the body created by the Emperor with superb skills and craftsmanship could also have something natural and eternal that seemed to be of the same origin.

His anger, his dissatisfaction, his contempt and perhaps a hint of hatred and jealousy, soon all became unimportant - he was gradually becoming calm under the guidance of the ancient meditation method.

This experiment, he did not call his offspring or even Amon to accompany him here because of this - only in front of Utherma Atla, he would allow his emotions to be richer, or allow a corner of his heart to be seen - Magnus is the master of all knowledge, he can do anything, including saving his offspring and the legion. What would happen if this mask of confidence that has accumulated over the years was broken? Just thinking about the doubts and whispers about his knowledge reserves and other abilities, he felt cold all over, wanting to grab something -

"Focus. My Lord."

His pilot boat tightened the bond between their hearts, and Magnus' mind once again returned to the right direction. He hid the slight shame very well, because he did not want to admit that this thin Terran mortal youth could calm down and maintain it faster than him in the way of meditation and calmness that he had been good at for many years.

The faint scent of verbena wafted from the crown on Magnus's head, and a silver chain was faintly visible among the verbena leaves. He listened to Uthermaatla opening the book - the Book of Magnus. This was the result of his life's hard work and words, and it was also a treasure he wanted to leave to his sons and even all mankind. Ordinary people would cry bitterly because of how much wisdom they had missed out on after taking a look at the leather cover bound with gold thread. Only a puppet like Mahavastu Callimachus, whose mind was completely controlled by Magnus, could write down these angelic secrets with a feather pen without any ripples and safely.

He did not turn his head, but he heard Maatra's sandals walking through circles of runes and whispering the power of spells from the Book of Magnus.

Yes, there must be a reciter who recites the contents of the Book of Magnus during the ceremony, even if no one else can understand it except him.

Ahriman was originally his choice, but now it seems that Maatra's performance is unexpectedly good, and he has also withstood the pressure of the additional knowledge he has embedded for him, and he is not worried that he will discover that thing at any time like Ahriman... This young Terran really understands the skills and knowledge of all schools at once, and can use them thoroughly. The fragile body of a mortal is the only confinement of Maatra, but this last weakness will soon be repaired.

When the person chanting the mantra finished the ninth circle, the footsteps stopped.

The silver chain wrapped around Magnus's head on the verbena crown automatically slid down as the spell was completed, and entwined with the iron chain on the stone altar like a snake - this represented the connection between his soul and the vast ocean, and was also an anchor point that allowed him to return to his physical body as soon as possible after the ceremony.

A gentle psychic force lifted an obsidian dagger and suspended it above Magnus's red, smooth, broad chest, steadily and accurately.

This was a technique from the Falcon School, and his new student was truly the work of five. It was really, really suitable for use in this small experiment.

Magnus had this thought for the umpteenth time today.

Uthelma Atla was like a precious gift that fell from the sky and was exactly what he wanted.

"It's time, give it to me."

Maatra carefully opened a golden tribute box inlaid with turquoise, red agate and lapis lazuli, and a tuft of long black hair inside floated towards Magnus. This was the hair of Russ's black wolf that he had someone secretly get - if the personal belongings of the Primarch or the Astartes were discovered, there would be no room for maneuver, but using animal hair as a medium to fly to the Hrafinkel above Prospero and circle the planet would be just right. Besides, no matter how smart the Fenris wolves are, they cannot speak human language, and their own rejection of the warp can protect his experiment, which is foolproof - this cautious thought is also one of the reasons why Magnus convinced Maatra.

Magnus reached out and grasped the tuft of black animal hair, feeling the surge of power in it, and sighed as he thought of the deep, sad secrets he had seen in Russ or other Space Wolves.

He clenched the fur and began to try to focus on its owner, his breathing becoming faster and sweat began to appear on his forehead.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Maatra asked quietly, the sharp obsidian blade and silver handle dagger now standing upright, hovering directly above Magnus' heart. "You can still regret it now."

"I am willing to try anything to save my brother Horus. Wait, this..."

Before the questioning word "yes" came out, the reflective tip of the dagger suddenly accelerated and pierced Magnus' heart.

"Then let me take you to the moon."

The figure of the young man in white robe and black hair began to flicker like a shadow, "Borrowing the power that Perturabo stole when he fell into the mortal world."

Just like a huge ship being led by a pilot boat unable to change course in a canal, a paler but larger body of light rushed into the sky, led by a smaller but brighter light.

Rushing towards the distant moon. ———————————————

Perturabo BC suddenly jumped up from the beach chair, curled up its tail, erected its ears, stretched one hind leg, raised its head, and pointed its muzzle forward, making a very typical "prey indication" posture.

His movements were so violent and sudden that they startled the wolves surrounding him. Some of them bared their canine teeth, while others tensed their muscles in alertness.

"What's wrong? Is the fireworks display not good? Uh, the picture formed by the volley of light spears may lack some changes, but they will start dropping fireworks on the pyramids soon..."

Ramizane glanced at Waldo who was frowning at them, stood up and walked over, bent down in front of the shocked heirs of both sides, and personally combed the hair around the ears and both sides of the head of the "Wolf King" to comfort him.

The shepherd dog's eyes were fixed on a certain point in the void. He tilted his head left and right in alertness and confusion, with his nostrils contracted, trying to smell out anything wrong nearby.

But in the end, he gave up. Although the intuitive doubt still lingered in his chest, now was not the right time to leave and pursue it.

[Please sit back in your seat. As for me, you shouldn't be so condescending in front of Ruth... Wait until this matter is over. ]

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"Where are you taking me?! Stop now!"

Magnus had never imagined that when he was flying in the vast ocean with a perfect body of light, there would be such a moment of unfreedom and panic.

Breaking away from the confinement of the flesh and enjoying the feeling of traveling alone in the vast ocean has always been something Magnus likes to do. Although he has encountered the natives and the horrors in the abyss, he has always been able to escape unscathed - except for one time, which caused a defect in his flesh, but in the sea of ​​souls, he still has intact eyes -

The figure of light beside him sneered.

"It really makes me feel pity for you, One-eyed One. Don't you ever wonder why your body has two eyes after you got here?"

He recognized that familiar tone, the accent of the nobles from the North African region of Terra, but it lacked the softness, humility and submissiveness. It was now filled with a kind of confidence that made him feel very familiar, and the excitement of "We are going to do big things!"

"Uthelma Atla! I curse you! I curse you by every name and in a thousand languages! You evil-minded guy! You fool who ruined everything! Bastard!"

The other party just laughed in response.

"Oh? Now I am the one with bad intentions? Didn't we agree that I would help you for the rest of your life and create new glory together?"

The green-eyed young man laughed. Magnus tried hard to break free from his slender fingers, but he couldn't. He was now like Maatra itself. They were independent of each other, but also overlapping. This would never happen in the real universe, but in the vast ocean it could indeed be regarded as existing.

"But now you are messing everything up! I want to save Horus! And what are you doing?! And that tuft of hair! That's right! That tuft of hair! That is definitely not the hair of the black wolf! There is no way it can have such powerful power!"

Magnus also realized that what was driving them to accomplish their feat of flying among the stars was not the resonance of the spirit power stored in the reflective cave guided by the soul power of the two of them as he had originally planned, nor was it the power in himself or the person in front of him.

He raised the tuft of black hair that seemed to be sucked into his hand and could not be thrown away to his eyes, and noticed that the end of one of the hairs began to ignite - no, it should be said that it was directly decomposed from the material form of the hair into more primitive particles and even emotional fluctuations, and the power released from it was like rocket fuel, enough to push the two of them across the galaxy in the subspace star sea.

His mind just reached out to try to feel it, but it retracted like a mortal child whose hand was burned by the incense stick.

"What on earth is this?!" he asked in shock. "It's like lighting a stick of incense, but the energy released when it burns is enough to be comparable to the unreasonable conversion ratio of a Dyson sphere! How can it exist so stably in the real universe? If such a stick were completely decomposed, it might be enough to collapse Prospero's sun into a neutron star or a black hole!"

"In fact, what you got at the beginning was indeed the hair dropped by Fritsch, to be honest." Maatra had calmed down and was taking him to a certain destination.

"I just replaced it with another black fur. As a canine, it matches the place, location and time. You can hardly find out through general inspection that someone would remove the bag, to be honest. This is the first lesson, Magnus. When facing anything that is contaminated with the warp, it is never too cautious. I believe that this approach is more suitable for you."

"Tell me what this is," Magnus demanded. "What kind of creature could have such power? Does it really exist?"

"Well, I'll tell you after we come back from the moon." Under his gaze, the other party gently plucked the strings of time with human fingers. His skillful and cautious posture when plucking the vast ocean made Magnus realize that this was definitely not the first time the other party did such a thing.

"What moon?" The Scarlet King asked vigilantly, and at the same time drew several defensive patterns, but the other party just made a move to relax him.

"Hold on to me," Uthelma Atla said, "and I will fly you to the Moon of Davin."

(End of this chapter)