Erebus fell heavily to the ground, most of his head shattered, and two bowl-sized blood holes in his chest. The Water of Thirst then drained him into a mummified corpse in the blink of an eye.
His remains lay broken on the ground, and the Curses that bound Karlaen and Titus vanished.
"Dead?" Karlaen gasped, looking at Erebus' corpse as he asked.
Logically, after taking that level of attack, an Astartes certainly wouldn't have a chance to survive.
Erebus, the most sinful man in the entire galaxy, the mastermind behind the Great Heresy, the primary instigator... was dead.
Karlaen picked up the boltgun from his waist and furiously pulled the trigger.
Six rounds of bolter fire exploded on Erebus' body, kicking up a cloud of pale dust from his shriveled, dehydrated corpse.
No reaction, Erebus was truly dead.
"Khârn will be very happy, and the entire galaxy will be happy," Karlaen said with a slight smile. "Shall we have a celebration banquet tonight?"
Karlaen had always been very fond of the duck blood vermicelli soup conjured by Saint Doraemon's Magical Food Tablecloth.
He vaguely remembered that Titus preferred sweets; chilled blueberries soaked in yogurt were his favorite.
Titus tilted his head slightly to look at Karlaen.
Karlaen's expression also trembled abruptly.
He suddenly realized something: if Erebus was truly dead, then the task of desecrating the corpse wouldn't fall to him. Khârn wouldn't still be lurking in the shadows...
Feathers, blue feathers, suddenly seeped out from Erebus' power armor.
"Erebus!!!"
"You betrayed me!!!"
A sharp, bird-like wail came from within the power armor.
A hideous, bird-headed beast struggled out of Erebus' power armor, spreading its muscular, azure wings, as if trying to escape, flapping them furiously.
This was a Tzeentch Great Unclean One, a Lord of Change!!!
But before Karlaen and Titus could react, half of the Greater Daemon's head suddenly exploded.
For a moment, they both thought that the Raven Guard lurking in the shadows had once again fired his harbinger-like sniper rifle.
But very quickly, they realized something was wrong.
Because no gunshot was heard, the Greater Daemon seemed to have been injured out of thin air.
After a brief moment, the Lord of Change's Psyker energy first weakened, then surged violently, attacking its own material body. Then came the shriveling; its body began to rapidly dehydrate, becoming extremely withered.
This, this was exactly the same injury Erebus had just suffered. The effects of large-caliber steel needles, untouchable ashes, Astropath ashes, and the Water of Thirst simultaneously manifested on the Lord of Change. It seemed unable to resist, unable to withstand, unable to refuse the fate that had already arrived.
Finally, two bloody gashes appeared on the Lord of Change's chest, and scorching golden Psyker energy surged out.
At this moment, Karlaen and Titus noticed that the two steel needles the Raven Guard had fired into Erebus' chest at the end contained no untouchable ashes, Astropath ashes, or Water of Thirst, only two thin pieces of parchment.
But on the parchment, a golden name was written in blood and ink, containing burning and scorching Psyker energy.
This was a change of fate in the most treacherous and rugged corner, a sharp turn of destiny, a subtle alteration of an established fact.
This was a complex ritual, allowing a Lord of Change to prematurely inhabit his flesh, using him as a sacrifice, to have the Lord of Change bear the fate of death in the most critical moment of life and death.
This was originally a perfect ritual, as death does not exist for daemons. To bear the fate of death would merely mean temporarily losing their material body and returning to the Warp.
But who would have thought that Sarojin's bullets contained the Emperor's personal signature, written in Psyker energy and blood? The Emperor's Psyker energy is an absolute bane to daemons, capable of utterly annihilating them and bringing about their true death.
The Lord of Change let out a piercing shriek, the Emperor's Psyker energy igniting its entire body, every muscle condensed from Warp energy burning.
It cursed Erebus with the most foul and vulgar words imaginable, condemning Erebus' betrayal and deceit, yet it could not resist the predestined death.
This was a fated, unchangeable destiny, merely shifting from Erebus to the Lord of Change.
Erebus also did not make any futile attempts to save this Lord of Change; he could simply contract a new one from Tzeentch later.
The Warp has no shortage of daemons; if one died, there were plenty more to do his bidding.
He quickly emerged from the Lord of Change's body, and, using the Greater Daemon's massive form as cover, swiftly drew his ritual dagger and cut a slit in the void, tearing open the veil of reality.
Erebus quickly plunged into it, not daring to linger for a moment, fearing the harbinger's gunshot would sound again.
As for corrupting Titus?
Erebus believed he had tried hard enough and could report back to the Blood God.
After all, if he hadn't been cautious enough, with a thousand years of accumulated power, he would have been utterly dead here just now.
Thinking this, Erebus stepped into the rift. He was very careful not to teleport directly to the bridge, to prevent Saint Doraemon from having already found the bridge's location and setting up an ambush there. Instead, he temporarily chose a dark, cold cabin.
After safely escaping, Erebus let out a huge sigh of relief. The rift behind him quickly closed. But Erebus didn't notice that in the last moment before the rift closed, in his blind spot, a figure had slipped in.
Erebus picked up the ritual dagger, forged from obsidian, and was about to put it into the sheath inside his power armor—
His Psyker precognition talent blared alarms, and he instinctively swung the ritual dagger in his hand, stabbing in the direction indicated by the prophecy.
The bloodson roared and bellowed, the sound of flesh being torn echoed, and Erebus' hand, tightly gripping the ritual dagger, was brutally severed by a chainaxe, falling into a corner of the distant wall.
"Khârn!!!!" Erebus let out a sharp wail. Before Khârn made his move, he had been completely unaware of Khârn's presence. Only in the last moment did Khârn's figure appear in his prophecy.
Khârn no longer hid. He removed his Blind Spot Star, revealing himself before Erebus.
He wore crimson power armor that had completely fused with his flesh, his blood-stained rabbit-eared helmet as hideous as demonic horns, and his bare arms were highly mutated, as crimson as a Bloodthirster's.
"It's truly a pleasure to see you, Khârn."
A gentle smile flitted across Erebus' lips:
"You should thank me. It was I who cleared the obstacles for you, allowing you to walk so deeply on the Eightfold Path of Blood—"
"Shut up and die, you mongrel." This wasn't Khârn speaking; it was Raum, possessing Khârn, snarling.
Khârn's only response was the roar of the bloodson at full throttle.
For ten thousand years, this chainaxe, inherited from Angron's hand, once again felt its master's true fury.
That was not the false anger spurred by the Butcher's Nails, but anger born of hatred, accumulated for ten thousand years.
This anger nourished the bloodson, making it emit the same roar it had only made in Angron's hand in days past.
"Do you think I'm the same as I was ten thousand years ago?" Erebus responded, raising his staff.
Ten thousand years ago, Khârn nearly killed Erebus with three axe swings.
Erebus' staff shattered with a clang. The mica dragon teeth embedded in the bloodson displayed their prowess, tearing apart the weapon that had accompanied Erebus for ten thousand years.
"The same," Khârn said coldly, his voice devoid of emotion. "Exactly the same."
Erebus spat out a string of blasphemous Curses at the fastest speed of his life. Immediately, the air between him and Khârn crackled. Warp energies blew into reality, constantly swirling and rapidly expanding into huge forms of red, green, and purple.
The Keeper of Secrets, Great Unclean One, and Bloodthirster, contracted by Erebus, were released into reality. These Greater Daemons, enslaved by Erebus, opened their gaping maws at Khârn, their bestial eyes fixed on him.
Then Erebus turned and ran, heading towards his severed arm, which Khârn had dismembered, attempting to retrieve the ritual dagger, cut open reality, and escape.
Khârn was indeed very strong, but Erebus was the Hand of Fate, the most favored by the Four Gods, even capable of enslaving four Greater Daemons of the Four Gods.
Even Khârn could not face three Greater Daemons simultaneously.
Even if he could truly fight three Greater Daemons, wouldn't that at least take some time?
Before Khârn could deal with the three Greater Daemons, Erebus would have already retrieved the ritual dagger and opened the rift—eh?
Erebus had only taken a few steps when a hideous, crimson beast's head, trailing blood, flew past him and slammed onto the ground with a thud.
That was the head of a Bloodthirster.
Erebus' body stiffened, and he slowly turned his head.
The Great Unclean One's body had already been torn to pieces, piled into a mountain of rotting flesh, slowly dissipating into reality.
Khârn stood atop the mountain of flesh, his body highly mutated, swollen to three or four meters tall. A pair of blood-stained flesh wings spread from the back of his hands, casting the shadow of his massive wings across Erebus' face.
Khârn's arms, bare outside his power armor, were now indistinguishable from a demon's. Chains and flesh grew together, connecting to the bloodson. His other hand had grown claws, gripping the neck of the Keeper of Secrets.
The bloodson swept through, effortlessly severing the Keeper of Secrets' head.
The Khorne Chosen tilted his head slightly, looking at Erebus. His mutated arm pulled the trigger of the bloodson.
The chainaxe, with the thin parchment attached, roared into a spin. The Emperor's personal signature on it exuded scorching Psyker energy. As the chainaxe spun, the bloodson instantly ignited with a roaring, scorching Emperor's Flame, like a blazing vortex.
Khârn's helmet cracked open, revealing a hideous, bloody maw. He seemed to be smiling.
"Praise the Emperor," he said. "This time, with utmost sincerity."
"Holy crap," Erebus gasped.