Horus followed Beta's lead, weaving through the palace of the high city. The Shadow-Killers sensed something was wrong. Apparently, Sejanus had successfully earned their loyalty over these ten thousand years. They brandished power-field weapons, hiding in the gaps between light and shadow, attempting to intercept Horus and Beta. But it was like an ant trying to stop a carriage. Horus had completely overcome Fo's poison; wielding Drach'nyen, the demon blade born from the first murder capable of slaying any human, he swung the sword. It effortlessly claimed the lives of the Shadow-Killers, causing these Warp-accumulated memories to shatter and dissipate.
Beta led Horus around slender corridors that seemed to hang in mid-air, entering a high tower on the flank of the palace. They descended through the tower, heading deep into the palace's subterranean levels.
"What exactly are we looking for?"
The Talon of Horus whistled, tearing through a Shadow-Killer lurking nearby attempting a decapitation. Horus felt distracted and irritable. The image of Sejanus dying in his arms still haunted his mind, and those Shadow-Killers... they were trained by Sejanus, their movements bearing his signature. It was as if they were a constant reminder to Horus: he had once again caused the death of his most rational son.
"This is the underground laboratory of the Emperor of Planet 63-19, used to study technologies left over from the Dark Age."
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"You should understand—the reason this place leads to certain areas of Terra is entirely due to the correspondence between this place and Terra."
"A prison leads to a prison, a barracks leads to a barracks, and naturally, a laboratory leads to a laboratory," Beta explained with a chuckle.
A laboratory... Horus frowned. He hadn't visited the Emperor's laboratories often and didn't know much about them...
No, Horus suddenly realized—he had stepped into the laboratories beneath the Palace. Not on Terra, but within the Serpent Lodge on Davin; he had been to one of those experiments when he was dragged into the Warp...
"The underground lab where we were created? Is that where we're going?" Horus asked.
Beta nodded with a smile. "Very clever. If only you had been this smart back then."
Horus furrowed his brow. He was becoming somewhat accustomed to Beta's provocations, or perhaps his hatred for Beta had deepened to the point where he no longer cared about such trivialities.
Horus observed Beta, wondering if he could snap his neck right now. It would be easy—very easy for Horus. However, according to the Angel of Extinction, if you cut off one head, another grows back. Could Drach'nyen kill him permanently?
"I know you're full of hate, but don't bother. Only we can kill ourselves... or rather, re-aggregate our scattered selves," Beta said playfully, seemingly seeing right through Horus's thoughts.
Horus's expression turned cold.
"Of course, if the Angel of Extinction completes his great work, we'll all end up dead anyway," Beta said, shrugging. Then, he looked ahead: "Almost there."
Without Beta needing to say more, Horus saw it: the cold, heavy gate, and... the one guarding it.
"Jubal." Horus looked at his son. Jubal led the remaining Lunar Wolves, standing guard before that door, staring deathly at the approaching Horus.
"Are you truly our father?" Jubal asked. He barely managed to raise his gun, but he couldn't bring himself to aim at Horus.
"Of course. Can't you see?" Horus opened his arms slightly and spoke softly. "I am your father, your Wolf God."
"But you killed Sejanus." Jubal's expression contorted, his eyes full of disbelief. "You actually killed Sejanus! How could the Wolf God kill Sejanus!"
"I didn't! It was a misunderstanding, an accident," Horus said through gritted teeth.
Then, he spoke almost pleadingly: "Do not stand against me. Do not block my way. I don't want to hurt you."
Jubal's expression darkened. Horus noticed his skin rippling slightly, as if something were trying to crawl out.
Samus... Samus, who had once possessed Jubal, seemed to be trying to manifest this way...
"Father..." Jubal's tone shifted slightly.
Horus's expression flickered. For a split second, his vision blurred. He felt Jubal's face overlapping with Samus's demonic visage, and deeper still... Horus saw something beneath Samus's face. Loken?
BAM!!!
Before Horus could react, the blurred visions vanished. Wings burning with azure flames snapped open. The Angel tore through reality, appearing directly beside Jubal. He hoisted Jubal up; Jubal's body twisted and convulsed a few times before exploding into a cloud of dust with a bang.
The surrounding Lunar Wolves were shocked by the scene. The Angel's wings vibrated rapidly, blue fire raging, and the Lunar Wolves fell one after another.
"He escaped." The Angel waved his hand, shaking off the dust. His face bore a look of regret, as if he were lamenting the escape of something.
The veins on Horus's temple throbbed. He gripped Drach'nyen...
"It was Samus."
Just then, the Angel of Extinction placed a hand on Horus's shoulder, shaking his head slightly. "Samus has defected to Alexander. He took residence in Jubal's body, attempting to influence you."
Horus's expression grew more ferocious, but in a place he couldn't perceive, the darkness in his mind acted like chains, binding his will. His anger was quickly submerged by darkness, leaving only a bitter sigh and compromise.
"I understand," he said.
The Angel of Extinction nodded slightly, then frowned and looked toward the ceiling.
Horus sensed it too. It was Sanguinius. Sanguinius was already on the planet, specifically at the tower they were just in.
The Angel of Extinction's gaze shifted slightly. "The barrier hasn't fully formed..."
Nearby, Lorgar, who was responsible for preparing the ritual, was sweating. He didn't understand why the Warp energy released when the Blackstone Fortress exploded hadn't swallowed all the Red Corsairs as planned to form a reality-warping barrier to protect the planet.
That barrier was the power of the Indeterminate Distortion Field. Once formed, it would make the planet uncertain to outside observation, even losing its accurate coordinates. Even That One's "Anywhere Door" would find it difficult to step onto.
But now, the barrier was forming too slowly. Sanguinius had obtained a coordinate, allowing him to teleport directly via the "Anywhere Door." This was going to be troublesome.
The Angel of Extinction, however, wasn't surprised. If Alexander had been stopped just like that, He would have been suspicious instead.
"Let's go." The Angel of Extinction reached out and gently pushed open the heavy metal doors. Cold air whistled from behind the doors. Horus first smelled cold disinfectant, then the scent of metallic molecules dispersed from running machinery and the smell of glass. He stepped through the door, feeling as if he had crossed a barrier in an instant, traversing a vast distance.
Pipes, cables, and various types of test benches filled Horus's vision. But what truly caught his attention were the twenty gestation capsules standing in the center of the lab. This was their birthplace, the origin of everything—the unknown Primarch cultivation site, the Emperor's strictly protected secret laboratory...
A figure flashed past Horus. Horus's expression shuddered; he gripped Drach'nyen, but after seeing the figure clearly, his expression froze. That figure was himself, wearing pearlescent white power armor, looking around the lab with an expression of wonder.
"This isn't your first time here, is it?" At that moment, a real figure stood beside him.
Gamma looked at Horus with a smile.
"Is this... a trace left by my past self?" Horus asked, frowning.
"Yes, many who have been here left traces," Gamma said, shrugging. "Look, there's you, there's Erebus, there's Argel Tal, there's Ingethel, there's Zaphon, there's Lorgar..."
"All of these people once used the power of the Warp to arrive at this moment, watching the process of your creation and the moment you were sent into the void by the Warp storm."
Gamma said with a giggle.
Horus's eyelid twitched. Looking at the dozens of phantom figures before him, he thought: Is this a bit too many? What is this, a famous tourist attraction?
Is this some 'must-visit' spot in the Warp?
The thought of a crowd of people using Warp power to come here and watch the Primarchs being cultivated made him feel a bit creeped out.
"Warp filth." At that moment, the Angel let out a roar of disgust. He looked at the gestation capsules, seemingly wanting to shatter them and utterly destroy the Primarchs.
"Don't do anything meaningless," Gamma said, shrugging helplessly. "This is just a record of the past. Destroying this place serves no purpose."
Horus understood Gamma's words. He walked over to a gestation capsule. IX—this Roman numeral was engraved on it, representing the Ninth Primarch. Through the semi-transparent cover, Horus could faintly see the embryo inside... an embryo without wings...
There was no power in that embryo; it was just a shell, a shadow, a record.
"Hmm?" Horus sensed something. He crouched down and looked at the bottom of the capsule. A metal plate was embedded there, engraved with complex characters that were not High Gothic. With just one look, Horus realized the writing itself possessed power, seemingly naturally aligned with human thought. Even without knowing the characters, he could faintly discern their meaning...
Blood, Darkness, Rage, Howl, Death, Fall, Broken Wings, Ghoul...
Many meanings flooded from those characters directly into Horus's mind.
"Are these... names?" As if to verify his theory, Horus turned to the capsule next to IX. Capsule VIII...
Night, Fear, Justice, Lightning, Flayer, Corpse, Impulse, Rain...
Complex concepts flooded from those characters again, making Horus dizzy.
"These are your True Names. Names that point directly to your essence—or rather, these names are your essence," the Angel of Extinction said in a low voice, standing beside Horus and looking at the names carved on the capsules.
"Is this what you were looking for?" Horus looked up and asked the Angel of Extinction.
His heart tightened slightly. Sejanus's words echoed in his ears: If he truly were the Emperor, why would he bother coming here to find what he needs?
Weren't the names on these inscriptions carved by his own hand?
Why? Why did he have to come back himself to find these True Names?
But Horus did not voice his confusion. He suppressed all his doubts in his throat and at the bottom of his heart. In places he didn't notice, pitch-black chains bound his mind...
In deeper reaches, a part of Horus's soul roared, but the boundless power of the Dark King bound him firmly to the altar. He had made the wrong choice at the moment the Dark King was born; he had failed to fall alongside the Master of Mankind and instead became a slave to the Dark King... he couldn't even perceive his own fall.
This was why the Angel of Extinction didn't worry about Horus betraying them again. As long as the causality of the Emperor killing Horus remained unbroken, as long as the Dark King did not actively release him, and as long as that sacrifice still existed in the past, Horus would always be a member of the Dark King's altar—his sacrifice.
The Angel of Extinction withdrew his gaze from Horus and glanced at another gestation capsule nearby. VI, the capsule of the Sixth Primarch. The Angel gently placed his hand on the cover, looking at the complex characters engraved upon it, representing the inner essence of Leman Russ...
Wolf, Oblivion, Old Days, Elder Gods, Ice and Fire, Ancient, Ages, Winter, Einherjar, Rune, Storm, Ice Sheet...
A revival of ancient myth, a reappearance of things forgotten, the primitive savagery of ice and fire—this was Leman Russ's inner essence, the thing that shaped his nature.
It was precisely because of this essence that the Emperor had tasked Russ with finding the Tree of Life, sending him to this forgotten realm.
Now, with Isha's death, the Tree of Life had fallen into the forgotten realm along with her. Presumably, Russ had already found that Tree of Life...
The Angel of Extinction softly whispered that name. Thousands of voices condensed into short syllables; an ancient, old, and powerful meaning burst forth from the sound. The name was a navigation; the name was a coordinate. Leman of the Russ...
Reality was torn open before the Angel of Extinction, and a deep rift appeared. A cold wind whistled out, as fierce as ten thousand blades.
The Angel of Extinction motioned for Horus and the others to follow, stepping into the ice and snow.
Horus hesitated for an instant but ultimately did not resist the Angel's command. He followed submissively behind him, stepping into the rift.
The snow was like blades, seemingly ready to cut his face to pieces. Heavy clouds, sinking almost to the horizon, looked like a beast larger than the stars. Horus's eyes barely pierced through the blizzard and thick mist covering the world, catching a glimpse of the giant object standing on the horizon...