"F-Father, I…" Little Horus struggled under the sudden pressure, his face twisted in pain.
"I'm… sorry…"
Bang!
After roughly three seconds, he could no longer bear the crushing force and dropped to one knee. At the same time, the joints of his power armor let out a shrill mechanical screech.
That was his limit.
And the armor's limit too.
This suit had originally been designed for a primarch. For his body, wearing it at all was already a burden. Now, with the psychic pressure layered on top, even trying to resist was almost impossible.
It was only thanks to the Serpent's Scales that he had managed to hold out this long. Had he been wearing standard power armor instead, he would not have merely knelt—his bones might already have shattered, his flesh burst open.
"My brother, do you understand now?" Magnus said, his voice swelling with conviction as he stared down at him. "Even one as proud and mighty as you, before truly overwhelming psychic power, can only fall to your knees."
"This is the strongest power in the world!"
The more he spoke, the more impassioned he became.
"Father is clearly the greatest psyker in existence, and yet he has never once thought of using psychic power to save humanity. His thinking is wrong!"
"As long as every human learns to wield psychic power, we can become the strongest species in the galaxy! Humanity's rebirth should begin with psychic power!"
In the future he had seen, the Imperial Truth had not saved the Imperium. It had only made it more ignorant. As for the Mechanicum, their beliefs were even more rigid and rotten. If neither of those paths could bring about humanity's revival, then what could?
Psychic power.
After leaving the Warp, Magnus had spent nine days and nine nights thinking, and at last he had reached a conclusion: he would use the knowledge he had mastered to open a brand-new path for mankind.
If Father cannot fully save humanity, then I will.
"Horus, my brother…" Magnus's voice grew deeper and darker. "Now do you see? The ban on psychic power is absurd."
He had heard Magnus's argument, had tried to tell him to stop, had repeated the Emperor's prohibition—but Magnus no longer wanted to listen.
"The ban is the ban!" Horus shot back. "You cannot keep making mistake after mistake! You're not helping anyone!"
"I am not wrong!" Magnus thundered. "It is all of you who harbor blind, baseless hostility toward psychic power. You have never understood the greatness of the Warp, nor what kind of beings you and I truly are!"
He spread his arms, his crimson figure radiant beneath the psychic glow.
"You merely forbid it, yet you have never once considered that this is humanity's greatest treasure!"
"Do not forget—both of us were born of the Warp. Father is the greatest psyker there is. If that is true, then why should psychic power be forbidden? It can only mean that Father fears the strength of psychic power will shake the foundation of his rule. That line of thinking itself is wrong!"
"I will correct him! I will make him face the greatness of psychic power! I will make him understand that studying it is not an error, but the key to saving humanity!"
"I will vindicate psychic power!"
The instant those words fell, the crystal "QR-code" patterns underfoot came alive.
Black and white dots rose into the air like an ocean of data, surging upward into the crystal vault overhead. Then, within that sea of Warp-like stars, an eye formed.
It gazed down at the three primarchs and the two Astartes. Observing. Examining. Understanding.
Then it locked on.
And the moment it did, Magnus froze.
What do you mean… they show no trace whatsoever of Chaos corruption?
No curse either?
"Magnus! You're hopelessly arrogant!" Horus snapped, drawing her black straight sword and preparing to argue with steel instead.
Talking clearly wasn't going to work on this fool. He needed a beating.
This guy really doesn't listen to a single word!
Magnus looked at the rabbit-eared girl before him with pity.
"Horus, my brother… I will save you. I will free you from the curse that traps you in the shell of this abhuman girl."
"???"
Horus's temper, which had been rising, stalled for a heartbeat when she heard that.
Then she realized what he meant—and exploded.
"Your Thousand Sons' flesh-change isn't even solved yet, and you want to save me? What in the world is wrong with you?!"
Magnus's immense body shuddered slightly.
Golden lines blazed across his skin as his emotions surged.
Absurd.
I'm trying to save you after your body was twisted into this form by a curse, and you repay me by pointing fingers at my sons?
"Horus, my brother, you disappoint me," Magnus said, shaking his head with genuine sorrow. "We both suffer from mutation now. I thought you would understand. I thought you would help me."
"Instead, you reject my goodwill. Still… I will save you."
"You are simply too deep in delusion to see clearly. Once the curse is lifted, everything will be all right again."
"Delusion? You think I'm like you?" Horus snapped. "You read a few books, wandered the Warp a few times, and now you think you understand everything? You have no idea what Father's great work truly is!"
"I don't understand? And you do?" Magnus roared back. "I inherited his psychic talent! His wisdom! I understand him better than anyone!"
"I lived with Father for thirty years!" Horus shot back immediately. "He raised me, taught me, told me I was his only one—his proudest son! I obviously understand him better!"
Magnus's eye twitched.
"And before I even returned to him, I communicated with Father through psychic means! He guided me, answered my questions! No matter how you count it, I understand him better!"
"Damn you—!"
At that point Horus was too angry to care whether outsiders were present. She kept shouting, and Magnus shouted back just as furiously.
In the blink of an eye, the whole confrontation had devolved into something that looked less like a clash between primarchs and more like children quarreling over which of them was Father's favorite and who understood him best.
"Can I interpret this as them both losing it?" Bruce asked from the side, not daring to raise his voice too much.
Because with primarchs, he knew better than to interfere when it came to family matters—whether it was shouting or fighting.
The aftershocks alone could vaporize him.
Besides, the bigger problem was that he needed to hide the fact that Magnus's psychic pressure was doing absolutely nothing to him.
Little Horus was already on one knee, shaking under the strain. Curze and Horus were both under varying degrees of pressure.
Bruce, meanwhile, felt nothing at all.
And that was the real problem.
"Nothing worth arguing about," Curze said lazily, having no interest whatsoever in getting involved.
Let them squabble.
To her, it was just the usual divide: Imperial Truth versus psychic research. Pointless noise.
In Curze's eyes, both the Emperor and Magnus were guilty of the same vice: arrogant certainty. Neither was wholly right. Neither wholly wrong.
"What do we do now?" Bruce asked his father for direction.
If he had been alone, it would have been simple: Magnus had already made his move with psychic force, so Bruce would have answered with a practical lesson to the face.
But with a parent on site, things were different.
Whatever she said, went.
Curze yawned. "How should I know? You're the primarch of the Eighth Legion right now—Konrad Curze. I'm just Remilia Scarlet, remember?"
In truth, Curze understood the situation perfectly well.
Magnus was simply making a fool of himself again.
Chaos had nudged him, yes, but he had not fallen yet. At most, he had been talked into limping in the wrong direction.
Some "greatest scholar beneath the Emperor." Hilarious.
The more knowledge he amassed, the more cursed he seemed.
"Then I'll solve this my way," Bruce said.
As he spoke, he slipped into stealth, moving quietly around the room while the two primarchs kept shouting at one another. He began edging into position.
At this point, talking Magnus down clearly wasn't going to happen. Since the man wasn't yet fully corrupted, that was good enough.
All Bruce needed to do was figure out where the real Magnus was hiding and then—
Have Curze beat the hell out of him.
As he moved behind the throne, Bruce spread his senses, trying to pinpoint the true body behind the projection.
Attacking the illusion was meaningless.
He had to find the real one.
"Hmm?!"
Magnus sensed something at once.
Without hesitation, he raised a hand and fired off a psychic blast—a beam of condensed force streaking straight toward Bruce.
When did he move? And why isn't he affected by the pressure?!
"Oh, hell!"
Bruce had already felt the attack coming and threw himself aside, diving forward into a roll.
The beam sliced through the place where he had just been standing, then rebounded—
Once.
Twice.
And then split into three separate lines, sealing off every retreat path.
At the critical instant, Curze raised a magic shield and absorbed all three beams. Bruce came up from his roll, hand cannon already raised, waiting only for his father's command.
Magnus stared in disbelief at the defensive spell.
What was that?
Why hadn't he sensed even the faintest trace of psychic power?
"Magnus," Horus said coldly, "shall I take this as a declaration of war against the Warmaster's command?"
"If so, then choose now. Surrender and apologize to Curze—or I will destroy Prospero."
Magnus said nothing.
Compared to Horus's threat, what truly gnawed at him was that from the moment these people entered the hall, everything had stopped making sense.
His scans were correct. His psychic tests had shown no corruption. Even Warp scrutiny had revealed nothing.
So if the results weren't wrong…
Did that mean he was the one who was wrong?
No. Impossible.
His brothers were cursed. That much was obvious.
Something had to be wrong.
"Can I say something?" Curze asked, shifting from her lounging stance to a proper stand, hands on her hips as she looked at Magnus.
"What do you want to say?" Magnus asked heavily.
"Do you want war or peace?" Curze asked with a smile.
Magnus opened his mouth.
"I choose—"
Horus moved first.
Her black sword flashed forward, piercing straight through Magnus's projection. Then she slashed upward, sending a blade of force toward the ceiling.
Crack!
The crystal dome shattered with a spiderweb of fractures.
With the Throne Hall's greatest source of light destroyed, the entire room dimmed sharply. Only the crimson glow of Horus's black sword, the red aura around her arm, and the bloody radiance in Curze's eyes and spear now illuminated the space.
"You two—!!!"
Magnus's furious shriek rang through the hall.
That crystal dome had been one of his masterpieces, something he had personally polished and crafted with painstaking care.
And now it had been damaged.
That hurt.
He had only wanted to save them—and they had repaid him like this.
They would pay for it.
"Heh. I was starting to think you wouldn't do anything at all," Curze said.
She studied the threads of fate around them, already having a good grasp of the next move.
"You were being obvious enough," Horus said, coming to stand at Curze's side, sword in hand. "And this fool really was asking for a beating."
The golden walls around the Throne Hall began to tremble violently.
Then they opened.
From behind them emerged several towering figures, each holding a staff, flames flickering over their bodies.
The elite of the Thousand Sons.
And now they had come to defend the honor of their gene-father.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 147)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter185)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/23
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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