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Chapter 263: The Emperor's Possession
🕑 Added 2025-09-02 13:46:41 +0000 UTCChapter 263: The Emperor's Possession
To his surprise, Magnus suddenly found that the psychic tentacles were beginning to disappear. The psionic energy required to sustain the sorcery was being absorbed by what appeared to be ordinary mortals. He did not sense the unique aura of a null-soul around them; in his psychic sight, these humans were still clearly visible.
These were the Artificial Blanks that Lucan had provided for Guilliman.
The moment the Chaos sorcery manifested, they had instinctively moved to the side of Guilliman and the Ultramarines. The psychic power was being broken down into its purest warp form and channeled into their bodies.
Magnus did not know what these humans were, but he would not allow Guilliman to escape his grasp. He unleashed a massive torrent of psychic energy, and the Thousand Sons sorcerers around him followed suit, amplifying the output.
Soon, the unique individuals began to show signs of strain. A contingent of forty was simply not enough. As a former candidate for the Golden Throne, Magnus's psychic power was terrifyingly strong. Amplified by his cabal of sorcerers, the amount of energy they unleashed in that short time far exceeded the tolerance limit of these special humans. One by one, the Artificial Blanks began to break down, not mentally, but physically. The raw warp energy caused every cell in their bodies to rupture, but their sacrifice had bought the Ultramarines precious time.
A portion of the Ultramarines broke free from their restraints and launched a desperate assault on Magnus and his sorcerers. Marneus Calgar led the charge, the bolters on his gauntlets spitting death at the Daemon Primarch.
Magnus looked at the attacking Ultramarines with disdain and brandished his staff once more. A psychic barrier centered on him enveloped the entire battlefield. Within this barrier, everyone was trapped in a stasis field that nearly stopped time itself. Bolter shells and plasma bolts froze in mid-air, just short of the Thousand Sons. Even Marneus Calgar's movements slowed to a crawl under the power of a spell cast by Magnus himself.
The Thousand Sons, however, were unaffected. They opened fire on the immobilized Ultramarines, and one by one, the sons of Guilliman were killed, trapped in stasis.
But there were others within the field of influence who were only minimally affected. The Protoss began to charge. They moved past the trapped Ultramarines, their energy shields absorbing the enemy's fire as they slammed into the Thousand Sons. Immortals provided powerful fire support from the rear, and the psionic storms of a High Archon tore a group of Rubric Marines to shreds. The Protoss's own powerful mastery of psionics allowed them to resist Magnus's control spell to a certain extent.
"Artanis! Stop Magnus! Quickly!" Calgar roared, seeing his Primarch's plight. Guilliman's lower body had already passed through the barrier of reality and into Tzeentch's labyrinth. Looking down, he could see countless daemons of Tzeentch screeching, waiting for him to be dragged in completely.
Seeing Guilliman's situation, Artanis focused his attention on Magnus. Through the Khala, his plan was instantly transmitted to the minds of the other Zealots. They began to intercept and eliminate the Thousand Sons sorcerers that constantly orbited Magnus. From time to time, a Zealot's shields would be shattered by a blast of destructive psychic energy. Some Protoss who suffered a direct hit were annihilated, body and soul, before they even had a chance to warp away. The warp-fire from Tzeentch's domain consumed not only the flesh but also the spirit.
Magnus's mastery and expression of psychic power was something that even Artanis found incredible. How could a single individual's psionic strength reach such a level? The Greater Daemon of Tzeentch he had encountered in the Blackstone Fortress was nothing in comparison.
Magnus, in turn, sensed an astonishing psychic presence from Artanis. The Protoss Hierarch's powerful psionic control meant that his signature was not strong when he was not in combat. But when he unleashed his full power, he immediately drew the attention of every Chaos sorcerer. In the warp, Artanis now shone like a brilliant star.
"This xenos race... they are innately psychic? How could a power of this magnitude have gone unnoticed for so long? Incredible..." Magnus no longer underestimated his opponent.
Artanis's speed, already far exceeding the limits of an Astartes thanks to Protoss technology, was further amplified. By devouring the souls in the Infinite Loop, he had learned this universe's methods of utilizing psionic energy, and his short-burst mobility was now akin to teleportation.
"He vanished?"
Magnus found that he could no longer track Artanis with his physical eyes; he could only sense his presence with his psychic sight. But by the time Artanis appeared in his psychic vision, he was already right in front of him.
A psi-blade slashed towards Magnus's head.
Magnus had already manifested a solid psychic barrier in front of himself, but the powerful shield was pierced with ease. The psi-blade seemed to be the bane of all psychic sorcery.
Seeing that his spells were ineffective against Artanis, Magnus resorted to his physical prowess for the first time in a long while. It had been a long time since he had needed to fight with his body. Few enemies could survive his psychic onslaught to force him into melee. He barely managed to move his body to avoid the fatal blow, but the psi-blade still left a wound so deep it nearly passed through his chest.
"Get away, xenos!"
In the end, Magnus had to swing his staff, using it as a melee weapon to force Artanis back.
The Zealots pinned down the Thousand Sons, while Artanis, by himself, held back Magnus. His incredible combat skill left a multitude of wounds on Magnus's daemonic body. But the sorcery was still active, and half of Guilliman's body was now completely inside Tzeentch's labyrinth. Daemons had begun to grab hold of him, accelerating his descent into the Chaos God's domain. Even as Guilliman swung the Emperor's Sword in a blur of motion, he could not kill the endless swarms of Tzeentchian daemons.
Once inside the labyrinth's sphere of influence, Guilliman began to be directly affected by Tzeentch. Escaping on his own was now almost impossible.
"Guilliman, are you ready to accept this power?" Magnus gloated. "You will soon learn that your past convictions were meaningless! The Lord of Change will reveal the true face of the Corpse-Emperor to you! Embracing the warp is the best ending for all things!"
Artanis could not banish Magnus in time, and Magnus could not kill Artanis. The Daemon Primarch let out a triumphant laugh.
Gradually, only Guilliman's head remained in the material universe. He looked at Magnus with defiance.
In the next second, the flames on the Emperor's Sword suddenly erupted with unprecedented ferocity. A divine will began to descend upon Guilliman.
"Father... Father... is it you?"
Guilliman could feel the control of his body being supplanted by the Emperor.
The possessed Guilliman then willingly plunged into Tzeentch's domain. Only by being fully inside the warp could the Emperor channel more of his power into his son.
The surrounding daemons of Tzeentch, sensing the arrival of this will, began to flee in utter terror. Tzeentch himself, feeling the Emperor's presence, immediately stopped pulling on Guilliman and began to use all his power to push him out of his labyrinth. Tzeentch preferred his victims passive; something this aggressive could only mean trouble!
Lucan's direct and overwhelming support on the battlefield had made both the Chaos forces and the loyalists temporarily forget the existence of the Emperor. On the current Cadian battlefield, even the Legion of the Damned and Saint Celestine, who should have joined the ground war, had not appeared. Manifesting these "Greater Daemons of the Emperor" in the mortal realm was a great strain on him. But sensing Guilliman's peril, the Emperor could not help but intervene.
The sacred light of the Emperor began to pour from Guilliman's body. It shone upon Tzeentch's labyrinth, and legions of daemons dissolved into nothingness with agonized screams.
