Warhammer: Start with a dog.

What kind of quest combination are Horus and Lucius in Chapter 802?
Amidst the pharmacists lying sprawled on the ground once again, another uninvited guest arrives.

"The Moon of Devon... Although it is currently trying its best to conceal part of the process of fate weaving, there are a few candidates... like jewels strung on a thread, who must appear on the surface of the Moon of Devon."

"Hmph." The other party in the conversation sneered. "Why didn't you stop Gavial Loken when he was sent to Devon? Didn't he have to go to Devon Moon? I remember he was supposed to be there, even... Oh, wait, I see. His 'necessary' role was to find and bring back the nemesis blade that stabbed 'Horus,' but the nemesis blades are now all in Ramizane's possession, so Loken's 'necessity' in Devon Moon is greatly reduced, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"That……"

"Euphrates must participate in this landing."

"Why?" The other frowned. "I don't remember her being on the landing list. This place isn't safe for mortals, especially since she's still essentially a mortal. Aren't you afraid..."

"There must be 'a Primarch's personal female chronicler landing with bodyguards.' That's how the pattern is drawn. Although it doesn't have to be exactly the same, it still needs to be embellished a bit. The original Capinus family girl is no longer of much use."

Is this kind of arrangement really necessary?

"Have."

In the end, despite their strong doubts, the other party relented, "I will put Euphrates Kira on the landing list. As for her bodyguard... no problem, Lucius is more than capable of being a bodyguard."

"Okay. Now let's talk about the other people on the landing list."

……

--------

Since Gavial Locken had already been ordered to Devon, the landing list for Devon Month included almost all the 16th Army company commanders and their core subordinates, except for him.

Three members of the Council of Four Kings, Targoust of the 7th Company, Luke Seidari of the 13th Company... even Malorhorst, who was no longer able to fight in armor, were forcibly added to the list.

When Horus heard about this, he thought it was a blatant act of distrust and a complete lack of compassion.

With his crippled body, the War Commander's attendant was completely incapable of fighting. The mere act of landing on the ground would cause his damaged respiratory system unbearable pain.

He tried to offer his opinion as a chronicler, but the Lord of Steel insisted on doing so.

Even more shockingly, the Lord of Steel specifically assigned a Tyrant Terminator to carry Malhohorst, giving the latter absolutely no room to maneuver.

The Shadowmoon Wolves—especially the Sons of Horus among them—considered this a blatant act of defiance against the Legion and an atrocity against the heroes.

Horus keenly sensed that these sons of Xenia might once again unleash a simmering undercurrent of discontent and fury within the legions, similar to the kind he himself had encountered before.

Clearly, the nameless one inside Peturabo's body also noticed it.

So they were delayed for three days before landing.

In those three days, Horus Lupecal witnessed how this nameless man personally quelled the surging discontent within the Sixteenth Legion in a short period of time.

First, he did something that surprised everyone but which Lucius greatly appreciated: he carved out a huge gladiator pit on the Vengeful Spirit, open to all who could come and watch.

Subsequently, he issued a decree stating that anyone who was dissatisfied with him or thought they could challenge his authority could try to enter the pit one-on-one.

He even announced that he would not wear armor and would only carry a melee weapon; challengers could choose to wear armor—if any hero of the Shadowmoon Wolves could harm him in the slightest, he would promise never to interfere in the affairs of the Sixteenth Legion again, handing it over to the Council of the Four Kings and the Warmaster's Squire.

Such promising and generous conditions naturally gave the heroes and warriors in the legion, who had long been dissatisfied, a very satisfying and honorable reason to launch a gladiatorial challenge against the Lord of Steel without reservation.

Horus watched almost every gladiatorial match, and even he had to admit that some of his offspring were a bit too much of a bastard, daring to use such desperate and insidious Krzunian gang fighting techniques against a Primarch, without holding back at all.

But what is even more astonishing is the Lord of Steel.

No hero—not even the newly recovered platoon leader—could survive a second round against the Iron Lord, clad in the Olympian robes and wielding the Worldbreaker.

The gamblers' betting odds have shifted from "who can make the steel flow blood" to "who can last longer."

So much so that some people began to suspect that the Steel Lord might have used methods that were not entirely in accordance with the edicts of Nicaea.

After they specifically invited some of the most outstanding members of the Think Tank Brothers, who had been stripped of their psionic equipment and reassigned to the front lines, to observe, the disheartened Shadowmoon Wolves had to come to the conclusion that the Iron Lord had not used any psionic means to deceive them.

“Although it may look very much like warp magic,” a former think tank member told his brothers, “it’s only because the Fourth Primarch is so powerful that it looks too terrifying. He’s too strong, too fast, and too easy to spot your weaknesses. One strike, one kill, that’s all I can tell you, so that’s why it looks like he’s casting magic.”

In addition, there is a detail that everyone is reluctant to discuss.

The World Destroyer.

As is widely known, this warhammer was also a gift from the Emperor to the Warmaster.

Now, it lay obediently beside the Lord of Steel—or rather, casually leaned against the wall of the gladiatorial pit by the Lord of Steel.

Logically speaking, only a Warmaster should be able to wield this warhammer, as it is locked by the Emperor himself through the Warmaster's genetic code.

But now, why the soul of this warhammer is so docile and willingly obeys the Lord of Steel without any hindrance has become a question that no one dares to discuss.

By the third day of the challenge, all the disgruntled or angry warriors had become the defeated opponents of the Iron Lord.

Horus was astonished to find that the situation did not continue to worsen as he had expected.

Although the warriors defeated and wounded by Peturabo had their grievances, they were not as many as he had imagined.

The nameless being within Peturabo showed no mercy to these warriors, even using derogatory terms that were extremely damaging to their fighting ability when unilaterally beating them, such as "Sigh, talking isn't enough, you have to use your hands to beat them up. The one lecturing is the strongest fighter," or "The cubs are cute, but I won't hold back." However, he never pursued the defeated, and would even call apothecaries for them. Sometimes, he would even praise the warriors who fought well.

Those who were praised, such as Targost, who was ready to fight to the death from the start, remained silent after being knocked down in one move but receiving praise. However, Horus could see that Targost's bulldog-like aura had subtly surpassed that of the Lord of Iron.

Faced with an absolute clash of power, a straightforward attack, and a strategy of giving a slap followed by a sweet treat, Horus observed with unease that although there was still some discontent within the legion, the attitude of the vast majority of people had undergone a subtle change. The personal experience of the supreme power and the admiration for the strong had calmed the unrest within the legion.

At this moment, the Lord of Steel announced the order and list for the landing operation once again, and this time, most people quietly acquiesced.

--------

Euphrates Cheryl—or rather, Horus Lupecal—was trying his best to keep up with Lucius's pace, stumbling along the way.

They had been on the Moon of Devon for several hours, but the fog on the ground made communication and regrouping extremely difficult. In fact, Horus suspected they had become separated from the main force.

The last order they received was from the Lord of Steel, which required "everyone to converge in the direction of the tracer bullets fired by Judgment Day*".

Judgment Day was one of the three Titan machines accompanying the Mechanicus. Its enormous, sky-covering body was transported to the surface of Devon Moon by a dedicated transport ship. The shallow swamps and fog there posed no significant threat to such a behemoth.

Horus heard that originally all three Titans were to be deployed, but the relationship between the Mechanicus and the Iron Lords did not seem to be going well. In the end, only Judgment Day was deployed here—but that was enough, after all, it was an Imperial Titan.

But why has the surface of Devon Moon changed like this in just sixty years...?

Horus's gaze fell upon the boundless swamp before him. The murky, yellowish-brown water formed the main color they saw from their orbits, while the black stumps that jutted out like thorns into the sky were the remains of the decaying forest. Maggots scurried among the rotting grass and wood, and every now and then, a swarm of nameless flies would buzz up and greedily swoop over the passerby like clouds.

Horus had no doubt that if any opening or crevice was found, these greedy insects would try to crawl in and bite people, and he didn't want to guess what would happen to them.

He took another step forward, and a series of bubbles rose from the fermenting sediment and silt beneath his feet, then burst on the surface of the water, releasing a terrible stench.

"This is unbelievable... How did this place become such a horrible mess? Ugh, it stinks so badly. It stinks even worse than the orc latrines in Ulanor."

“How would I know?” Lucius said, trying to shake a clump of mud off his boots, clearly not liking the place either. “Oh, I’m sure if my Death Guard colleagues came here, Motug and the others would be happy to give this place a good cleaning.”

Horus raised an eyebrow in surprise beneath his helmet visor. "When did the Emperor's Son become so close to the Death Guard? Colleagues?"

"...Never mind that. I have a good relationship with Locken and Torgarden, so what?"

"When did you become on good terms with me... I mean, when did you become on good terms with the Council of the Four Kings?"

"That's not something you should be asking... Let's hurry up and find Judgment Day... Be careful!"

As Horus crouched down at the sound of Lucius's warning—the training had some effect—the swordsman's powered longsword swept over her head, severing the head of a putrid black shadow that suddenly emerged from the water behind her.

"What the hell?!"

Before he could answer, several more figures, all swaying unsteadily, appeared one after another around him.

"praise……"

They were chilled to the bone to hear the sticky, phlegm-like murmurs coming from the throat of the maggot-infested corpse, which was clearly already beyond saving.

"Praising...corruption..."

"Squat down and don't move!"

The swordsman shouted, then leaped up to the other side, wielding his weapon to cut off the heads of all the rotting corpses.

Horus clearly saw that green flames were flickering in the single eye of these obviously mutated, rotting heads.

Silence returned, and Horus cautiously examined the monster closest to him.

These rehydrated, decaying skeletons clearly belong to humans, yet they also do not.

Each of the bizarre corpses now has only one eye socket on its skull, and even more strikingly, a large, sharp bony horn has grown out of its forehead or the top of its head.

But Horus knew they weren't originally like this—with a heavy heart, he rummaged through the tattered uniform fragments on one of the bloated, greenish corpses: the number "63" under the tattered wolf head was still legible.

“They are the men of Yugan Tamba, the governor of Devon,” he confirmed. “These are the uniforms left for his defense forces; I recognize them…”

Lucius snorted. "I recognize it too."

"What do you recognize? Do you recognize them?"

“I don’t know this damned Yugan Tamba you’re talking about, but I do know this kind of walker… It’s so typical, one of the mission targets I hate the most. If I weren’t here, I would have suspected that I would have run into Typhon and his men next.”

"And who is Typhon?"

"Oh... well, well... if you don't know yet, just pretend I didn't say anything."

Clearly, Lucius heeded Saul Tavetz's earnest advice on the importance of secrecy, but not enough.

Then, for some unknown reason, the thick fog and the remaining decaying tree trunks in the swamp seemed to have a sense of life. Horus felt many times that the tree trunks seemed to be moving, but upon closer inspection, they were completely still, with only clumps of fat maggots wriggling on them.

After walking for a while, Horus asked in the voice of Euphrates, "Don't you feel like we're getting further and further away from the rendezvous point mentioned on the communication channel?"

Lucius frowned. "It's strange. We just heard the Iron Lord's summons, and our landing point wasn't too far off. Logically, we should be able to see Judgment Day."

However, the water level in the strange swamp had reached Lucius's knees—that is, almost to Horus's hip bones.

At this moment, Horus was truly grateful for the new hazmat suit—if he still had his own armor and body, he would certainly be fearless in the face of such poisonous fog, but now he was just a mortal… He didn’t want to think any further about how those people had turned into bizarre, rotting corpses.

The foul, putrid fog grew thicker, even condensing into greasy droplets on the narrator's hazmat suit and the Emperor's son's power armor—Lucius, who had been wearing no helmet and showing his proud face, had already dutifully put on his helmet and locked it tightly, clearly recognizing the danger.

"I really think we can't go any further." Horus's voice carried an undeniable judgment. "Even if we stay put and wait for reinforcements, it might be better than continuing to move forward."

"No, no, I think I saw something... take a few more steps forward..."

Lucius pulled him a few steps forward. Horus was secretly annoyed that the current power imbalance between the two made the other party so rude, when he suddenly noticed that the thick fog in front of him suddenly lightened.

It felt as if I had suddenly stepped into another world.

The swamp beneath my feet had turned into mud at some point.

“Tara…” she murmured, looking up at the rusted steel cliffs that rose abruptly from the mud before them.

"Terra Glory..."

“What?” Lucius asked.

“This is… the flagship of Governor Yugan Tamba of Devon.” Horus’s voice trembled almost imperceptibly. “The Terra Glory. How could it… how could it have crashed here?!”

(End of this chapter)