Chapter 361: Review
Oppression. Gloom. Unease.
A faint, simmering agitation.
A colossal, boiling fury hammered at every person's fragile nerves. The Custodes and the Sisters of Silence had been fully mobilized, everyone was ordered to remain in their assigned rest chambers, no one allowed in or out.
The Emperor personally stepped down from His throne, wrath blazing in His eyes so fiercely that everyone present was left dazed for a moment. Perhaps only Hades and Malcador saw the Emperor grab Magnus by the back of the collar and drag him out of the hall in long, forceful strides.
The tip of the sword scraped across the floor, letting out a sharp, hissing sound.
Magnus dangled like a rag doll, his red skin turning deathly pale. He looked like he wanted to argue, but terror robbed him of speech; he stammered, but the words stuck fast in his throat.
Hades thought that perhaps Magnus, in that instant, had glimpsed something of the true nature of the tutelaries.
Hades now stood expressionless outside the Emperor's private chamber, to the right of the door, swallowed in shadow, scythe in hand. On the left side of the door, Malcador stood quietly with his eyes closed, the golden light atop his staff burning fiercely.
In the dim corridor, the clacking of armor echoed now and then as Custodians and Sisters of Silence moved about.
Far away, back in the main hall, the Thousand Sons were kneeling on the platform; the Death Guard and Space Wolves prowled among the scattered ranks of the kneeling Thousand Sons with the posture of victors, while the Sisters of Silence stood watch around them in utter stillness.
They needed to give the Emperor time—and privacy.
Hades could hear the furious reprimands and despairing screams coming from the other side of the door. Psychic pressure seeped through the cracks like a suffocating mist, carrying enough force to make Hades tremble. The thudding impacts and sounds of shattering things were relentless.
Chilling shrieks and sobs echoed faintly. Hades caught Malcador in his peripheral vision; the old man remained motionless, eyes closed, as if nothing at all were happening.
Another harrowing scream tore through the air.
Hades drew in a deep breath and shut his eyes, allowing the thinned-to-nothingness Black Domain to substitute for his senses. Malcador's wavering golden psychic glow flickered irritably within that darkness, but neither of them made any move.
Because both of them could sense the violent emotional upheaval rippling through the Sea of Souls from the Emperor.
Hades "watched" every person's psychic flame within the Black Domain. Once he confirmed that there would be no sudden crisis, he began turning over the entire event in his mind—because the whole thing was simply too absurd, absurd to the point that even he found it hard to believe.
First, on Hades's side: he had hoped to expose Magnus's contact with a Tzeentch daemon. But from Magnus's long attempt at summoning just now, Hades could confirm that no Greater Daemon of Tzeentch was willing to answer Magnus's call.
After the first failure, Magnus—unwilling to accept defeat—began searching for the nearest Daemon of Tzeentch… because the so-called tutelaries have a psychic signature extremely similar to those daemons.
And then… he sensed it.
Right above the main hall—the Tzeentch daemon "Amon," who had come to plant a prophecy in Hawser to confuse Magnus.
Originally, this particular daemon should have been able to complete its task: deliver the prophecy to Hawser and slip away unscathed.
But it ran into Korklan and Vorx.
First, Korklan: before dispatching the Sisters of Silence to the sealed chamber, Hades had contacted the two Tech-Priests, instructing them to keep an eye on the Custodes and protect Hawser—because Hades certainly hadn't imagined that someone would literally blast a hole through the floor.
In Hades's assessment, the chances of Magnus being punished on the spot were slim; far more likely was that the Emperor would punish Magnus afterward for the Custodes incident.
So Hades had envisioned the sequence as follows: the two Tech-Priests would discover the Custodes behaving abnormally, protect Hawser, and then, together with the Sisters of Silence, subdue the Custodes in time.
What he did not expect was that another individual present—Vorx of the Death Guard—had been given a brutal assignment by Mortarion:
Make the situation explode.
By any means necessary.
A faint twitch pulled at the corner of Hades's mouth. This time, Mortarion's foresight had been a complete success.
And so Vorx—outfitted head-to-toe in gear specialized against psykers—decisively chose to preserve as much evidence as possible. After weakening the target with the first black round and destroying the daemon-possessed physical shell using Mortarion's special concoction, Vorx began firing white rounds, using the sudden surge of Warp concentration to forcibly hold back the Tzeentchian Daemon, which had realized the incident was exposed and was trying to flee.
At that moment, Korklan also sprang into action and proposed his earth-shattering idea: blow a hole through the floor so that everyone could see the Warp creature for themselves. What was even more shocking was that Jin, who normally never got along with Korklan, agreed without hesitation.
Without the full-power contributions from these two high-caliber Tech-Priests, that floor would never have been blown open.
But—but originally, that Daemon could have escaped. With the Sisters of Silence approaching, Vorx's white rounds burning through its essence, and its physical shell collapsing, it might have fled before the floor gave way.
Unfortunately for it, Magnus exerted himself.
Though the entire situation was deadly serious, Hades felt he was about to lose it. If anyone in this mess deserved the title of Best Support, it would definitely be Magnus himself.
Magnus's summoning forcibly anchored the daemon in that space, and the psychic gravity pulled it toward him. In fact, Magnus's power likely also played a role in destroying the floor.
In the end, the chaotic struggle toppled everyone downward. Jin was grabbed by Korklan, and the Tzeentchian daemon—landing right in the center of the ritual circle—finally tore free of its physical shell thanks to Magnus's psychic surge. It tried to run again, but the final white round at Vorx's hip detonated.
And so everyone witnessed that momentary burst of frenzied blue energy.
Prompted by the prayer he heard just before Korklan's explosion, Hades sensed what was coming before anyone else.
He immediately activated the Black Domain; the Black Domain clashed with the psychic energies (perhaps Malcador had helped him a little). Everyone's vision went black, and Hades used the opportunity to kick the barely-alive Vorx and Bjorn off the Custodian they had fallen on, shedding the suspicion that either legion had been involved.
Finally, Hades stood alone at the center of the stage and completed Magnus's condemnation and judgment.
Hades blinked in confusion.
This entire ordeal was the sort of impossibly elaborate madness where the failure of a single link would ruin everything.
He thought of the two Tech-Priests who had contributed so decisively. What kind of minds could come up with such a reality-defying plan? Should he reprimand them afterward, or reward them?
He then thought of Vorx, who had taken his full-force kick. Out of the corner of his eye, the unfortunate Death Guard looked nearly dead, yet he had still loyally completed the mission Mortarion had given him.
And Bjorn, who had looked ready to curse the heavens—but, after taking Hades's heavy boot to the chest, the Space Wolf had managed to shut up (perhaps he had passed out), preserving the honor of his Wolf King.
The entire affair—especially the battle above the main hall—had been completely outside Hades's control.
The thought made Hades break into a cold sweat. But his excellent Tech-Priests and his excellent Death Guards had indeed delivered peak performance. (Perhaps Magnus too.)
For some reason, Hades wanted to laugh. His lips twitched, but since he was representing the Emperor, he held it in.
Judging from how desperately the Tzeentch daemon had tried to flee, the one having the most fun this time was probably Tzeentch. With the Emperor taking action, no matter what Magnus did, there was no way he could have blown open the Webway.
Still, Hades knew exactly what Tzeentch would say—
JUST AS PLANNED!!!
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