Loken wore his trademark grey-and-white Luna Wolves power armour, the helm fixed at his waist.
"You ought to be dead already." Khayon stared at Loken; his pupils contracted; his body trembled almost imperceptibly; his voice was full of terror.
"Samus was born from your despair and death. Long ago, born from your death."
"A daemon's birth occurred after that daemon's death. That means you are fated to die. Only your death can produce Samus."
"Something is wrong. This is absolutely wrong. Even thinking it through logically, it doesn't add up. If you had not died, how did Samus come to be born?!"
"Does something that came from the Warp really need to follow logic?" From the shadow behind Loken, another low voice was heard.
Another Luna Wolf in ash-white power armour approached Khayon with a firm stride.
That visitor was a person Khayon knew well.
As Abaddon's right hand, he without doubt needed to know the Warmaster of Chaos's past.
Loken, and the Astartes who had appeared from there, told Khayon from Abaddon's memory: "In your memory I too may be dead, yet unfortunately, like Loken, I am still alive."
"Besides, I too am a son of Horus. You keep saying the Sons of Horus will surely win — yet I, a son of Horus who refuses to betray, am I regarded as a 'Son of Horus' in your eyes?"
Khayon stretched out a hand and pointed at the Astartes who had come out. "How is such a thing possible? Why Torgaddon?! Weren't you supposed to have died on Isstvan III?! Why are you still alive?!"
Tarik Torgaddon, company captain of the Luna Wolves Legion, was a member of the Mournival like Loken.
Torgaddon had previously joined Erebus's organisation, yet after witnessing that organisation's dark motives and latent corruption, he firmly withdrew.
For this reason, in the Isstvan III operation, Horus had regarded him as a potential threat that must be eliminated.
Loken and Torgaddon organised loyal Luna Wolves and set them against their Primarch father.
Unfortunately, Torgaddon finally lost his life at the hands of another member of the Mournival, Ezekyle Abaddon, and was beheaded.
"Sorry, but Death thought my sense of humour was far too good, decided such a death would be too much of a waste, and revived me," Torgaddon said humorously in an ironic tone.
During the Great Crusade, he had always been like this. Witty, humorous, able to talk about any topic.
His worthless jokes about hunters and bears were things he told everyone he met, and they were rather funny.
"Then let me tell you a joke. A Word Bearers chaplain, a World Eaters berserker, and a Night Lord walk into a tavern…"
"Save the jokes for later." Another voice cut off Torgaddon's dull joke.
Hearing footsteps, Khayon turned, and again shock robbed him of words.
The one who approached was none other than Tarvitz, former loyalist leader among the Emperor's Children.
This man too had been a hero who fell on the planet Isstvan III.
When Fulgrim betrayed the Emperor, Tarvitz's refusal of a certain xenos organ-implant became a threat and obstacle to the traitors, and he was regarded as one who must be eliminated.
It is worth noting that the now-infamous Lucius the Eternal was Tarvitz's subordinate and had been on the purge list from the start.
However, Lucius chose to surrender.
The Emperor's Children had continued to resist to the end, yet by this wicked son's betrayal they were defeated in an instant and massacred.
One after another, Imperial heroes appeared from the study's shadows and approached Khayon.
On Isstvan III, the Luna Wolves had been annihilated by orbital bombardment.
Ultramarines ambushed from behind by Word Bearers in the Battle of Calth.
Custodes and Sisters of Silence who had fallen outside the Eternity Gate during the Siege of Terra.
The Imperium's heroes had been revived.
Khayon stared at them with a grim expression.
Clearly, these heroes were the rebirth of human heroes.
"Fake. It's all fake. You cannot still be alive!" Khayon shouted hysterically as if he had gone mad.
Malcador, leaning on the aquila sceptre, walked slowly toward Khayon.
"You who live in a false world the gods have spun, who have fallen into the abyss of darkness, know nothing of this universe's truth yet remain self-righteous."
"In the Nameless Ones' hands there is nothing impossible. Abaddon's defeat is a settled course, and the Imperium of Man will surely win."
"If you believe the Imperium of Man will win, what do you intend to do with me after taking me out of the prison?" Khayon's voice trembled.
Malcador turned toward the nameless man standing in the corner, giggling, and instantly grasped what he was thinking.
Every time the other party laughed like that, it meant he intended to smash the other party's spirit.
"We want you to see with your own eyes how Abaddon failed."
"The Primarchs have all returned. Even Ferrus and Sanguinius have returned."
"You keep saying Abaddon will win, yet we all want to see how he wins. That is why you are standing here talking with us. Otherwise you would already be dead."
Hearing the other side's explanation, Khayon lost his words.
All he could do in his heart was curse. These people are seriously insane!!
The purpose of healing his eyes was to show him directly how Abaddon failed.
This was a serious illness. Truly a serious illness.
After breaking Khayon's line of defence, Datch began to carry out the mission Malcador had given and started preparing to extinguish the galaxy's greatest rift, the Eye of Terror.
He first took out the Spark Lens, transformed into a giant of light, then used that item to borrow the power of Gaia, Dyna, and the other giants of light.
Inside his shining body, countless rays intertwined and fused, forming a unique golden pattern.
Then he raised his right hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet; when he snapped his fingers in the air, the six Infinity Stones set in the gauntlet shone brightly in unison.
Space warped; in an instant, Datch transferred everyone, including Khayon, onto a gigantic fragment of the former planet Cadia torn apart by the Blackstone fortress.
That fragment was an ancient rock layer separated from the planetary body when Cadia was destroyed; its cross-section still retained the layered granite structure unique to Cadia's fortresses.
The fragment floated in the void, surrounded by other wreckage scattered when Cadia was destroyed.
Collapsed fortress walls, wreckage of torn void-shield generators, and countless unrecognisable corpses of the Imperial Defence Force and Chaos rebels.
The fortress-world that had once boasted magnificence had been smashed to pieces. The magnificent walls and anti-air batteries that had stood for thousands of years were now ruins slowly vanishing into the void.
Datch stood at the edge of the rubble; a complex emotion floated on his face.
The first world he had logged into in the game was Cadia.
At that time, he had only basic equipment and no power to overturn the situation before numerous rebels. He could only protect the Imperial forces with all his strength while they withdrew to the landing zone and departed on transports.
"This is a fragment of the planet Cadia!" Khayon stood at the edge of the fragment and said in a voice full of joy.
"Hahaha. The plan succeeded. I knew Abaddon was a man who bears a great fate!"
"If Cadia's Blackstone Obelisks are destroyed, the Warp energy that was bound will be released in an instant, and the entire galaxy will be torn. By dense chaotic energy, daemons will be able to come and go more freely between Warp space and the material realm."
"Abaddon will win. The Chaos Gods will win!"
He laughed aloud and shouted.
However, Khayon soon noticed. The people around him were looking at him with the worried eyes one turns on a person with an intellectual disability.
Khayon's laughter gradually quieted; eventually only a muffled gurgling remained at the back of his throat.
"Why don't you look around first?" Malcador said without even trying to hide the sarcasm.
Khayon looked around and indeed saw countless planets and Cadia fragments, and ancient ruins and corpses.
However, the Eye of Terror did not expand as he had expected; chaotic energy did not cover the entire galaxy; daemons could not come and go freely.
"Why is this happening?" Khayon's voice was hoarse and full of despair. "Planet Cadia was destroyed, so why is there no change?"
"In fact, when Cadia was destroyed, a surprisingly large rift spreading across the entire galaxy appeared. The thing that once pushed the Imperium of Man to the brink of despair." Malcador looked at Khayon and said with a smile. "But we encountered the Nameless Ones."
"With their help every Primarch returned; even the Emperor's wounds and the Golden Throne were healed…"
Hearing that explanation, Khayon floated an expression of despair.
"Healing the Emperor's wounds may be possible, and resurrecting dead Primarchs may be possible. But how can you close the Great Rift? It is a Warp wound spreading across the entire galaxy; even the Chaos Gods cannot accomplish that!"
"In the Nameless One's hands there is nothing impossible," Malcador said with a smile. "Knowing nothing of the universe's truth yet regarding the falsehood the gods have spun as truth — that is ironic, and truly clever."
A little earlier Malcador had told Khayon that the Nameless One had snapped his fingers.
Together with the sound of a snap, the great rift closed.
Khayon's face went pale; his eyes were unfocused. Malcador's words had dealt him a great blow.
The Black Legion's plan had been correct.
It took Abaddon ten thousand years, thirteen Black Crusades, countless battleships, and countless lives to destroy the Blackstone Obelisks scattered across the galaxy; only then did he finally succeed in opening the Great Rift.
However, the Imperium of Man, at the very moment it was on the brink of ruin, fortunately obtained help from the Nameless Ones.
Borrowing the antagonists' help, Guilliman woke from his coma, defeated enemies one after another along the way, arrived at Terra. Then he began the Indomitus Crusade, purged the High Lords, and seized Imperial power.
Thereafter the Nameless One intervened again and again, helped the Imperium of Man launch a counterattack at decisive junctures, smashed Chaos forces, and even repaired the Golden Throne and its ornament, the Emperor himself.
In numerous battles, the Nameless One inflicted tremendous damage on the four Chaos Gods, made them lurk in the Warp, and did not permit them to appear again.
Even these feats were nothing compared with a still more unbelievable event. The other party actually closed, with only a snap of the fingers, the gigantic rift spreading across the Milky Way.
Khayon could say nothing and fell silent. He did not even want to say anything.
If you have such strength, why not just declare yourselves the winners? Why go through the procedures of defeat?
Malcador's words pushed Khayon to the brink of despair and made him realise Abaddon had no prospect of defeating so powerful an Imperium.
Their grand plan refined over thousands of years collapsed the instant the Nameless One appeared.
Seeing Khayon's face change from excitement to despair, Datch involuntarily hummed a little melody.
That melody was extremely light and lively and harmonised with the soundtrack, expressing Khayon's deep despair.
Mid-hum, Datch raised his hand; the gems of the Infinity Gauntlet released dazzling light.
He spread his fingers wide, aimed at the Eye of Terror, and manipulated the Infinity Stones' power to suppress the Warp storms and purify the chaotic energy.
Khayon witnessed all of this and watched the Nameless Ones release all the Warp energy and Chaos energy and change it into an ordinary star system.
The daemons dwelling there, and the daemon-planets covered in flesh and grotesque limbs, vanished at a speed visible to the eye and returned to their original state.
Then Datch used the Infinity Gauntlet and opened spatial portals one after another.
In the void surrounding the Cadia fragment, several deep-blue teleport portals appeared simultaneously.
Imperial warships passed through the space tunnels one after another. Their scale was gigantic and dense.
....