"Seeing all this… are you satisfied now, you red Ogryn?" Curze sneered.
"Og… Ogryn?!" Magnus, who had been drowning in grief, visibly cracked the moment he heard his brother's mockery.
Even from the ritual platform, Magnus could still observe what was happening outside through his psychic senses. His sons, his people, his homeworld, the buildings and works of art he had been so proud of—they were all being ravaged by war.
Worse still, the Thousand Sons had once again violated the Edict of Nikaea in full view of the galaxy, using psychic powers far beyond any acceptable limit in open battle, and they had even activated a Titan without the consent of the Mechanicum.
For all his stubbornness and arrogance, Magnus was not so stupid that he failed to grasp the truth now.
The Thousand Sons had, in fact, become traitors.
And not just traitors to one power, either. They had simultaneously offended both the Warmaster and Mars itself. At this point, only the Emperor could still pull him out of the fire. Without that, no one else in the galaxy could help him.
"I… I was only trying to save all of this!" Magnus argued desperately. "I saw your soul imprisoned inside such a ridiculous body!"
"I wanted to remove the curse from you and have Father forgive the mutation in your flesh! Was that wrong?!"
"A ridiculous body?!" The moment Curze heard someone mocking her appearance, she immediately got angry.
Damn it. So what if you're taller? Just wait till I break both your legs. Let's see how proud you are of your height then, Magnus.
"Where exactly did you hear all of this from, Lord Magnus?" Bruce could not help but ask.
The closer he got to the truth, the more absurd the whole thing seemed. At this rate, the most likely explanation was that Tzeentch had fed Magnus a pile of completely false information, which had in turn produced this entire chain of misunderstandings and disasters.
Magnus's arrogance was obviously the biggest problem, but with Tzeentch pulling strings in the background, the blame could no longer be pinned neatly on one person alone.
Good grief. How could Tzeentch be this awful?
Magnus fell silent for a moment in the face of the question. Tears still streamed down his face, but he stared at Bruce with a stubborn, unyielding expression.
After a long pause, he slowly raised his staff.
"You are not one of my brothers, are you? You are Bruce Wayne?"
"You know who I am?!" Bruce pointed at himself, a little surprised.
Then it clicked. That blue-feathered bastard had definitely been badmouthing him in front of Magnus.
"You are the one who turned my brothers into this! You even intended to do the same to me! You would halt the Great Crusade and leave the future Imperium as an empty walking corpse, stripped of its soul!"
"Bruce Wayne! I will not let you succeed! I will drive back the darkness you bring and shatter your schemes!"
With that, Magnus pulled himself together and began casting again. For the moment, he pushed aside the deaths of his sons, the destruction of his home, and the countless mistakes he had already made.
His one and only obsession now was to prevent the terrible future from ever coming to pass. If Bruce died here, then even if Magnus were executed by the Emperor afterward, he would have no regrets.
I will save the Imperium in my own way.
And honestly, he refused to believe that Father would really execute him over a single Astartes. He was a primarch.
The bond between Father and him was no less profound than the bond between Father and Horus. They had been in contact since before his return, exchanging knowledge through the dark. He was not merely the Emperor's son—he was also his student and his most loyal warrior.
No matter how you looked at it, he had to matter more than some random Astartes.
"Recruit! Run!" Curze shouted when she realized Magnus had truly gone all in.
The next instant, Curze herself was pinned in place under a crushing wave of psychic force, followed by chains of warped light wrapping tightly around her.
How terrifying was Magnus when he fought at full power without holding back?
At the very least, Curze knew she had no chance of beating him cleanly right now. At best, she could delay him.
And if even a primarch was in that position, then Bruce, a mere Astartes, didn't stand a chance.
"How the hell am I supposed to run?!" Bruce yelled as a rain of crackling psychic bolts, firebursts, and warped force lances came screaming toward him.
He could only kick off the floor and engage his jump pack, barely lifting himself clear.
What the hell? These things track?!
To make matters worse, the almost supernatural precognitive edge he usually relied on had completely failed him.
Where's my cheat? Switch on already! Otherwise I'm stuck manually dodging this nonsense!
Bruce twisted and rolled through the air as he evaded the barrage, but the entire thing felt less like a battle and more like some lunatic bullet-hell shooter. The patterns were already absurdly dense, and the fact that they actively homed in on him made it even worse.
But worse than the tracking projectiles was the fact that Magnus kept conjuring familiar-like entities—things not unlike daemons—to box Bruce in, cutting off his routes of escape. On top of that, Magnus himself was not content to simply stand back and observe.
"Bruce Wayne! Die!" Magnus moved like a bolt of red lightning, closing the distance in an instant. He gripped his staff in both hands and brought it down in a murderous arc.
The hell?! A caster blinked into melee range and went for a close-quarters smash?!
What kind of lunacy was this?!
No matter how sharp Bruce's instinctive foresight might be, he had not expected Magnus to be this shameless. First the psychic suppression, then the point-blank physical strike.
"Magnus!" Curze flashed in at the critical moment. She hurled Gungnir, slamming it into the descending staff, while at the same time releasing blood magic and a spell card.
The mass of psychic projectiles that had nearly boxed Bruce in from all directions was wiped away in one sweeping motion. That left only the summoned "guardian spirits"—which were, in truth, daemons.
But Bruce was not remotely afraid of those. He swung his lightning claws through the air, cutting the creatures apart in two or three quick strikes, then flung one of the shredded daemon corpses straight into Magnus's face.
I may not be able to beat Magnus, but these trash mobs are another matter entirely!
"Magnus!" Bruce roared again, igniting his jump pack for a burst dash and launching himself straight at the crimson giant.
If I don't carve you up at least a little, you'll never understand just how badly you've screwed up!
Yet a translucent psychic barrier stood between them. Bruce's lightning claws struck it and only managed to tear open a few tiny cracks before he had to jerk away from a sweeping counterblow from Magnus's staff.
It missed him by no more than a few millimeters.
If that thing had connected, the psychic force embedded in the weapon would have obliterated him on the spot.
Bruce yanked himself back, rattled but alive. Even as a "wizard primarch," Magnus was terrifyingly dangerous in close combat. That was just what raw stats looked like at the top end.
"My brother, your power truly surprises me," Magnus said, still fascinated by the techniques Curze had used moments earlier.
He had bound her with psychic restraints, yet she was still casting what looked like supernatural arts that bore no resemblance to warp sorcery at all. It made no sense.
"You just wait," Curze snapped. She was still straining against the chains, trying to force them apart, but it was taking time.
Once she realized brute escape would not be immediate, she settled on what she considered the best possible solution.
Get Bruce out first.
Then she would deal with Magnus by herself.
Primarch against primarch. Fair enough.
She shouted, "Recruit, get out of here first! Don't look back! This isn't your level of fight anymore!"
At this stage, only another primarch could truly deal with a primarch. Bruce might have enough combat power to threaten one in the right circumstances, but that did not mean he could actually go toe-to-toe with Magnus head-on.
And even if he somehow could, Curze refused to gamble on it. What if he died? Was she supposed to just recover his gene-seed and grow another one? That would take far too long.
"No! I won't abandon you, Father!" Bruce shouted back.
He had taken one look at Curze's situation and drawn a line. She was not in mortal danger just yet, but who knew what Magnus might do next? If he fled now and left his primarch behind, Sevatar and the others would ridicule him for the rest of his life.
Night Lords might be scum, but they were not cowards who abandoned their primarchs in battle.
"Then die, Bruce!" Magnus blinked again and struck.
This time, the attack came at something like nanosecond speed.
Bruce had only just turned his head to check on Curze, and that tiny lapse was enough. In truth, even if he had reacted in time, there was no way he could physically move faster than a primarch.
A dull, brutal impact rang out.
Bruce went flying like a baseball hit squarely by a bat and smashed into a distant wall.
"Magnus! I'll kill you!" Curze screamed. Ignoring the agony tearing through her body, she managed to manifest Gungnir and hurl it again.
"If only my death can restore Father's…" Magnus began—
But the spear hit him straight through the chest, cutting off the thought in a pained grunt. Even so, he only froze for an instant before unleashing yet another wave of psychic force.
"I will save the Imperium!"
He threw every spell he knew and could cast quickly into the space where Bruce had been flung. For a moment the chamber became a riot of color, flickering like some grotesque dance hall.
Each flash of light painted Magnus's face, and with every pulse of illumination, the sorrow there gave way to something uglier—relief, then grim satisfaction.
This was enough.
His task was complete.
Father, Father—through my own hands I have saved humanity. I have prevented your Imperium from sinking into stupidity and decay. That hopeless future will never come to pass.
At that instant, Magnus had already planned the next steps. As lord of the Thousand Sons, he would order the fighting to cease, surrender himself to Horus, and willingly go to Terra to accept whatever punishment the Emperor saw fit to impose.
Curze, meanwhile, stared at the spot where Bruce had vanished beneath the psychic bombardment, and countless visions flashed through her mind.
Yet for all those omens and fragments of prophecy, one simple thought drowned them all out:
Is there still time to recover his gene-seed?
No.
No, that was unacceptable.
This was her favorite recruit.
If he died, then who was going to make her afternoon tea?
"Magnus, you will pay for this!" Curze began drawing on every last shred of her power, even knowing that doing so might transform her into something monstrous and blood-drunk.
But she no longer cared.
Until now, she had only been gradually learning to wield the full power that belonged to Remilia. It was supposed to be a slow, careful process. Yes, she could call on all of it at once—but there would be a price.
At this moment, she could no longer think about that price.
If she did not kill Magnus and make him pay for Bruce, she would never forgive herself.
Because she had brought Bruce here.
Because he had marched onto this battlefield at her side.
"Do not lose heart, child… things are nowhere near as bad as they seem…"
An airy voice drifted out of the warp gate.
The instant Curze heard that familiar voice, the murderous frenzy boiling in her veins eased, and she instinctively checked Bruce's thread of fate—
It was still intact.
Following that thread, she saw the truth.
Bruce was completely unharmed.
The hit from Magnus's staff had knocked him out cold, but the golden psychic barrier glowing around him had absorbed everything else.
Magnus stared as the smoke cleared, dumbfounded.
Why?
He had hurled every spell he had into that space. He had seen them all hit. So why was Bruce not dead?
Could it be that Bruce had truly been chosen and blessed by the Chaos Gods?
Damn it. That made him an even greater heretic. He had to die.
"Die, Bruce!" Magnus rushed in again, lifting his staff and driving it down toward Bruce's body.
If warp sorcery could not kill him, then the Ankh-Nurta Blade would. It was both a mighty staff and a force sword.
Curze moved faster than Magnus expected, intercepting him with a spear-thrust that knocked him back. At the same time, she unleashed another spell card barrage, forcing him to evade.
Then she came in hard, wings beating, spear aimed straight for the heart he had only just healed.
"You're the one who should die!"
"Father's psychic light… why is it on you?!" Magnus recoiled in horror when he noticed the faint golden aura now shimmering around Curze as well.
"Magnus, from here on out, this battle is between us!" Curze swore then and there that if she did not tear this bastard's head off and give it to Bruce to use as a ball, she would take Bruce's surname herself.
That was how far past fury she had gone.
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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