Chaos roars, and rifts filled with curses, blasphemies, and defilements are devouring the galaxy.
Abaddon is on the march; he shattered the Cadian Gate with the Black Stone Hammer, tearing his blasphemous claws into the heart of the Imperium.
Crying blood, crying blood, crying blood, crying blood.
The entire galaxy is weeping.
Chief Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines was inundated with these visions and images.
He felt an unspeakable disaster approaching, but he never imagined it would be so terrifying.
Now he saw clearly: Great Despoiler Abaddon had torn open the Cadian Gate; his ten-thousand-year blasphemous Expedition had succeeded.
The power of Chaos is raging throughout the galaxy, and Ultramar is no exception.
Abaddon the Despoiler did not personally arrive here, but his talons pierced through the crimson path, burrowing into the Macragge System.
Tigurius hoped to guide the Ultramarines with his powerful prophetic abilities.
His eyes widened, and strange Psyker light burst forth. The emperor tarot on the table before him levitated and then burned fiercely in the Psyker flames erupting from his body.
Mortal seers, diviners, and mystics usually sought guidance from the emperor tarot cards.
But they did not understand.
The tarot itself was not important, and never had been.
Only His consciousness mattered.
The tarot burned, seventy-eight cards outlining countless variations.
From priests to the God-Emperor, from Inquisitors to assassins, from Space Marines to the Eye of Horus.
Seventy-eight card faces rippled in the fire.
Tigurius was able to hear that voice.
The voices of billions resounded in Tigurius' ears; the King of Ages cast his gaze upon him.
We are one.
Billions of voices resounded.
"Yes, we are one," Tigurius nodded in agreement.
The Emperor is humanity, and humanity is the Emperor.
A vast and magnificent will squeezed into Tigurius' mind.
Tigurius' soul burned with it.
But he was somewhat surprised.
This time, the pain he felt was much less.
And the gloomy deathly aura on that magnificent will, on that King of Ages, seemed to have diminished greatly.
"My Lord!" Tigurius didn't understand if this was good or bad, so he could only ask that consciousness.
However, that will did not answer Tigurius' question, only continuously displayed various scenes.
Agonized wails echoed in Tigurius' ears; it was the roar of Abaddon the Despoiler.
Abaddon was slumped on the throne of the Vengeful Spirit, numerous tubes inserted into his body, while apothecaries and sorcerers surrounded him, attempting to heal his body with blasphemous, evil power.
But they could not; a hideous wound lay across Abaddon's chest, and his face was also savagely split in two.
Tigurius was startled; Great Despoiler Abaddon was severely wounded?!
And just then, a series of bizarre, symbolic visions appeared before Tigurius.
Blood, fresh blood flowed through the galaxy.
A bare-armed berserker was rushing through the blood, his axe blade cleaving through Bloodletters, and a chainaxe made of mica dragon teeth cut through the Warp bodies of daemons.
Countless daemons, and even Greater daemons, fell at the feet of that berserker.
Khaaaarn! Khaaaarn! Khaaaarn!
Roars echoed through the blood, and the face of the Blood God emerged from the blood, staring intently at the bare-armed berserker.
Why defy! Why defy! Why defy!
"For a head."
The berserker with one bare arm replied, clutching his axe blade tightly, but there was no anger in his voice.
Only calm, a terrifying calm.
"For vengeance."
The pool of blood surged, and the Blood God's figure rose with it, a blood-stained head gazing at the berserker from the clouds.
"The Gods have other plans for him!" the Blood God's roar resounded, the anger making Tigurius' eardrums ache.
A face covered in writing appeared in the pool of blood.
However, the berserker did not hesitate, directly swinging his axe blade into the pool of blood, cleaving the skull within the blood.
The pool rippled and surged.
"This head is not for you."
The berserker growled:
"He belongs to me!"
"He has owed me his head for ten thousand years!"
"The Gods either kill me or let me kill him!"
The berserker slowly raised the axe blade in his hand, pointing it at the towering Blood God.
"Cut off my head, and I will offer my head to you!"
"Or let me pass, let me cut off his head!"
The pool of blood rippled slightly, yet the Blood God was not angry that the berserker had raised his weapon against him.
"Good! Go kill! Khârn!"
A joyous roar resounded, and the Blood God's sharp finger pointed at the berserker's body:
"Go kill! I release you to kill!"
"Just as you said! Even the Gods have no right to stop a chosen of Khorne from taking a head! Not even Khorne himself!"
Listening to the Blood God's roar, the berserker knelt on one knee, placing the chainaxe in his hand into the pool of blood, before the Blood God.
"But if you sever Erebus' head, you will owe me a skull."
The Blood God declared:
"You must repay this debt with a more valuable skull!"
The pool of blood churned, and faces appeared in the blood pool.
Lion King Lion El'Jonson, Robert Guilliman, Wolf King Leman Russ, Magnus, Fulgrim, Angron, Lorgar.
Faces of Primarchs appeared one by one in the blood pool.
"Sever the head of a Primarch, or die in a duel with them."
The Blood God's voice slowly resounded, as he gazed at the bare-armed berserker:
"Do you accept? Khârn!"
To sever the head of a Primarch, this was an almost impossible feat.
In reality, the Blood God was simply sending Khârn to his death in a fight with a Primarch.
"I accept."
As the berserker's voice rang out, suddenly only the Blood God's joyful laughter remained in Tigurius' ears.
The Blood God extended his finger towards Khârn.
A wail, a remnant, an anger cried out.
A broken, twisted, nearly dead daemon struggled to crawl from the Blood God's fingertip.
That daemon was so broken, the Warp energy that formed its body expressed only one emotion:
Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!
Revenge! Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!
"Not just you!!!"
The daemon let out an angry Damn, then violently crawled into Khârn's body:
"That deceiver owes me too!!!"
"Give me your body!! Just like Angron!!"
Khârn did not resist.
The daemon and Khârn merged, and Khârn's flesh and blood body writhed and transformed.
Then the blood pool swirled, and the berserker became a streak of blood that shot through the stars, pointing towards the Vengeful Spirit.
Tigurius felt bewildered.
Khârn, the chosen of Khorne, was heading to the Vengeful Spirit to sever Erebus' head??
Why would such a situation arise?
Tigurius felt the fate of the galaxy twisting little by little.
Just then, the scene before Tigurius changed again.
The galaxy flowed and twisted, and the icy winds of the moon raged.
A blue, hazy, round figure stood upon it.
The voice of the Machine God resounded, an aura of dead silence enveloped, and the hungry roars of a Tyranids swarm echoed.
An Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, clad in deep red robes, hunched and knelt at His feet.
Beside the Archmagos was a cargo crate, within which a light symbolizing hope seemed to flicker.
A blizzard swirled, sweeping across Tigurius' face.
A desiccated corpse, weeping violet tears, sat opposite Tigurius.
"My Lord!" Tigurius murmured in pain.
The moment he faced this Emperor, intense Psyker energy washed over Tigurius' will.
But he had already prepared himself mentally when he established a connection with the imperial will using the emperor tarot as a medium.
"Fate."
"The fate of the galaxy has twisted."
"All hope lies there."
"Tigurius, son of Guilliman, you shall witness—"
The voice of the desiccated corpse seemed to become distant and blurred.
"Save us."
"My Lord!!!"
Tigurius' voice rose, but he quickly felt an unbearable, intense stinging pain.
Subsequently, Tigurius awoke in Hera Fortress on Macragge.
Outside the fortress, Chaos roared.
Macragge System, Shrine World Raphis.
The dry, fierce winds of the Aseron Mountains blew, making the blue power armor of the Hydras creak.
The jump packs of the Night Lords roared, the wind deafening.
The sorcerers of the Thousand Sons raised their staves, searching for traces of the Empyrean' torrent.
The aether was twisting in the void; something seemed to be forming.
Suddenly, the real universe roared, and a rift exploded in the void. All surrounding matter was dragged towards the rift, and pebbles on the ground clattered against the power armor of the Black Legion warriors.
These Black Legionnaires, who had invaded the Macragge System, had detected the aetheric flow in these mountains. Alpha spies had brought news, and the prophecies and divinations of the Thousand Sons sorcerers had led them here.
They watched as light exploded in mid-air, and a shimmering, towering Webway gate appeared.
The Black Legion immediately braced themselves, but the situation unfolded beyond everyone's expectations.
The Webway gate was silent, with no one emerging from it.
The sound of a power fist cutting through the air suddenly rang out. Before the leading Thousand Sons sorcerer could react, his head abruptly exploded.
Then, the Alphas in blue power armor heard the roar of chainaxes, and their bodies were cleaved in two by the chainaxes.
The Night Lords Raptors in the sky heard the whirring of propellers, but when they looked in the direction of the sound, they saw nothing. Instead, they heard the roar of an energy field approaching them.
In an instant, the Black Legion fell into disarray.
They could vaguely hear sounds, but when their gaze fell upon the source, they saw nothing.
It was as if the enemy was always hidden in their blind spots.
Moments later, Sylandri Shadowseer shook her hand, severing the last Alpha's head with a monomolecular wire, and removed the small star from her chest.
She watched as the surrounding Blood Angels also removed the stars from their chests, appearing on the battlefield as if they had suddenly stepped out of her visual blind spot.
"This thing is so much better than Cegorach's blessing," Sylandri Shadowseer couldn't help but murmur to herself.