The Blood God had not been this angry in ages—so long they had nearly forgotten.
When their master raged, the whole Warp drowned in bloodstorm.
"The False Emperor's avatar… dared to touch my domain?!"
His fury was not only Khârn's fall, but the Avatar's appearance—that golden light, that purifying force—effortlessly erasing his greatest warrior. This was not just defeat. It was desecration.
"Blood sacrifice! More blood! More skulls!"
Khorne's will thundered into realspace. Countless Khorne cultists on battlefields fell into frenzy. Their flesh warped and swelled; scarlet light burst from their eyes. Axes and chainblades swung out of control, hacking everything around them—friend and foe alike.
Khorne's wrath also swelled Chaos strength; countless Khorne daemons poured from the Warp.
"Kill! Kill them all! Wash away shame with blood!" His voice filled every believer and daemon. The slaughter became madness.
Empowered by Khorne, Imperial forces were suppressed.
…
Upon the Golden Throne, the Emperor shone with golden radiance. A mighty psychic force wrapped the Warp, hauling human ships swallowed by the bloodstorm back out and returning them to orbit.
"My children, do not make Warp jumps now. Use FTL drives. Under no circumstances enter the Warp for the time being," the Emperor's voice reached Navigators across time and space.
Those ships He saved immediately knelt to pray to the Emperor, then engaged their realspace FTL and traveled without touching the Warp.
Those without FTL engines made for nearby safe regions to lie low. Entering the Warp now would be suicide—the Blood God would devour all.
…
On the Vengeful Spirit's command deck, The Alien Barbarue impersonating Abaddon felt the Blood God's rage. His skin burned; Khorne's roar drummed at his ears, as if he would be torn apart the next second.
"Master… we…" he stammered, looking toward the shadow.
A low, icy voice from the darkness: "Keep attacking—but do not win."
The Blood God had just juiced the Chaos army.
Perfect.
"But the Blood God—" The Alien Barbarue faltered. The terrifying crimson power had brushed him, too.
Fortunately, his Master's presence shielded him from the frenzy.
"The Blood God wants vengeance—give him the chance."
The Alien Barbarue gritted his teeth and spun around to roar: "Black Legion! Advance! The Blood God watches us!"
Chaos Space Marines aboard the Vengeful Spirit howled. The battle grew even fiercer and bloodier.
The Chaos army charged again—this time, more ferocious and more chaotic.
Khorne's Chaos Marines and mortal cultists exploded with unimaginable bloodlust.
Some World Eaters in berserk fury began attacking everything around them, even allies.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
That one word filled their minds. All other Chaos troops pulled away from these terrifying madmen.
Calgar sensed the Chaos host's disorder.
"They're unraveling. The enemy is unraveling. The Emperor's light has weakened them—now the Blood God's wrath is tearing them apart."
Fools and fiends, through and through.
"This time we'll defeat you—defeat the Warmaster Abaddon—oh wait, Abaddon's already beaten. Then we'll wipe out the Black Legion!"
"Whole army! Advance! End them now!" Calgar's gigantic form led the charge; the Ultramarines followed tight behind their Chapter Master.
The Ultramarines surged forward like an iron tide. Battle Sisters' holy fire burned the scattering daemons. Mortals roared and charged, lasgun and bayonet felling traitor after traitor.
Yet just as victory seemed within reach—
The sky split.
A vast blood-red rift slashed the heavens. Brass horns blared. Human soldiers collapsed, clutching their ears.
"That is…" Calgar's pupils shrank.
A massive brass-clad hand reached from the fissure—then a second. They seized the edges and ripped it wider.
"A Daemon Prince of the Blood God… no, something worse—a Greater Exalted of Slaughter…"
With an earth-shaking roar, a colossal being descended—Skarbrand, the Exiled One, King of the Bloodletters, Khorne's mightiest greater daemon, once banished for arrogance, now recalled for revenge!
His wings blotted the sky; his axes burned with unquenchable rage. Each step turned ground into a pool of blood. "Dogs of the False Emperor… your end has come!"
Even after Skarbrand appeared, the rift did not close. A still greater, more terrifying figure stepped through, wielding two titanic axes, hair wild, skin crimson.
It was Khorne's most powerful Daemon Prince—once a human Primarch—Angron. Now Angron had undergone colossal augmentation; his body was no longer merely Warp-energy incarnate.
Aboard the Vengeful Spirit, Rhodes frowned. Khorne truly was enraged, dispatching his trump cards: the greatest Khorne greater daemon Skarbrand, and the Daemon Prince Primarch Angron.
"Dogs of the False Emperor!!" Angron's roar crashed like thunder. His voice was no longer human, but a chorus of tortured souls shrieking. His body was more massive than ever, corded crimson muscle etched with the Blood God's runes, each sigil burning with wrath.
"Now… it's your turn!" His eyes were wholly crimson. The Butcher's Nails in his skull throbbed, driving him into endless homicidal frenzy.
He no longer remembered being a Primarch, no longer remembered being human—now he was merely Khorne's most loyal executioner.
Skarbrand laughed and swung his axes. Brass blades cleaved the earth; dozens of Ultramarines vaporized into blood-mist in an instant.
"Skulls! More skulls for the Blood God! For the Brass Throne!"
Seeing this, Rhodes sighed and released the Avatar once more from the system's space. Without the Avatar, either Angron or Skarbrand alone could hang Calgar out to dry.
Just as the Chaos tide was about to drown the Imperial line, a light brighter than the sun tore the blood-red sky.
The Avatar descended again, his radiance fiercer than before. Sacred flame roared along his blade, as if to burn all blasphemies.
"Angron." The Avatar's voice was calm and icy, yet laden with power that made daemons quail.
"You could have been Humanity's guardian. You had a great and noble purpose," Rhodes intoned through the Avatar.
Angron's mad laughter stopped short. His body shuddered violently; the Butcher's Nails screamed in his skull.
"Shut up! Shut up!! I don't need your pity!!" To Angron, these words were needle-sharp, making him only angrier—making him want to hack apart the golden monster that looked so much like his father.
Calgar knew this battle was beyond mortal reach.
"All units, fall back! Reform the line!"
"But, my lord! The Avatar—" an Ultramarines officer cried.
"That is not a fight we can join!" Calgar snapped.
"Our task is to hold the line—don't let the Chaos scum break through!"
The Battle Sisters began chanting hymns, their purifying flames forming a sacred barrier to blunt the daemon charge.
Mortal soldiers dug in behind cover, lasgun and heavy weapons suppressing the traitor assault.
Angron swung his twin axes with annihilating force as he charged the Avatar. The earth cracked beneath his feet; the air tore with his rush.
Skarbrand roared and joined the fray. Khorne's two greatest warriors struck the Avatar together.
Their battle surpassed physical law. Angron's great axe fell with mountain-shattering power, yet met the Avatar's sacred sword in a blaze.
Golden psychic tempests crashed against the Blood God's fury, bending space.
Skarbrand lunged from the flank, his axe streaking for the Avatar's head, but holy fire erupted, heating his brass armor to glowing red.
In collection