Chapter 295: The Influence of Khorne
"I believe the Primarchs will surely have a way to solve your problem."
In the sanctum, filled with the scent of incense and holy oil, the flickering candlelight made the golden reliquary of the saint's remains shine brightly.
Draigo knelt on one knee, his fingers deftly adjusting the power armour's interface on Hyperion. As a special force created personally by the Emperor and Malcador the Sigillite, the Grey Knights, due to the sensitivity of their work, had an exaggerated requirement for secrecy.
Normally, the only ones who knew of this force's existence, aside from the highest echelons of the Terran Inquisition, were the Chapter Masters of the early founding Space Marine chapters. Any other armed force or Imperial noble who accidentally learned of the Grey Knights' existence would face a harsh disposal after the battle. This included, but was not limited to, physical annihilation, personality modification, and memory alteration. Even the Imperial citizens who had been affected by Chaos events would face a cruel extermination after the battle.
But just as the Ordo Malleus would say that they must strictly prevent the influence of the warp, and that any act of making a deal with a warp daemon should be punished, while secretly using daemonhosts to manipulate those daemons and trying to use promises of grand rewards to tempt them into betraying their comrades... the Imperium was terrifyingly flexible in certain situations.
Before the situation had completely gone out of control and could still be handled with a minimum of force, the Grey Knights preferred to use appropriate disguises, such as acting as the Exorcists Chapter. In this way, they could temporarily avoid the strict regulations within the Grey Knights and prevent the extreme disposal measures after the battle from further tearing apart the fragile trust between the various Imperial armed factions and bringing more serious trauma to the Imperium itself.
The most typical case was the First War for Armageddon. At that time, among the forces participating in the fight against the Khornate daemonic legions, the Third Brotherhood, the 'Warders of the Ordos,' had made a rational judgment. They only purged the forces that had been directly contaminated by the Blood God's ritual, preserving the pure forces that were stationed on the other side of the planet. This decision had even received the tacit approval of the Space Wolves, and had allowed them to receive the Space Wolves' help in the subsequent banishment of the Daemon Primarch Angron.
But in the end, the Eighth Brotherhood, the 'Prognosticars,' had, after the battle, insisted on finding fault with the Inquisition, and had wanted to purge all the combat forces that had established a friendship with the Wolves. In the end, even if those mortal forces would eventually be corrupted, what was the harm in letting those who had participated in the fight against the daemons live, to avoid a conflict between them? The number of elite troops that had died in the subsequent clashes between the two sides was enough to fight another War for Armageddon.
"I hope so," Hyperion replied noncommittally to his companion's words, his gaze fixed on the silver mirror before him, on the prophecy within.
It was common knowledge that the number of Grey Knights was far less than the Chaos enemies they had to face. So they would often, through their prognosticars, observe the warp in a silver mirror, searching for clues. It was through this silver mirror that the prognosticars could see those beings that would bring countless disasters to humanity in the future, and before that, would select the things they considered important and stop them.
They saw countless mixed warp-entities swimming in the tides, like a school of hunting fish circling a bright light. And a void, ever-changing silhouette was behind this scene, leaving a long, black shadow. Then, the circled light was dissipated in repeated bites, and the surroundings became empty. The light in the mirror gradually dimmed under the repeated bites, and finally, was completely extinguished.
The entire scene fell into a dead silence, leaving only those greedy predators to flee in panic. And at this moment—the void silhouette moved. It swept up like an invisible abyss. With each pounce, several daemons vanished into thin air. Hyperion saw a Khornate Bloodletter still brandishing its claws, and the next second, it was gone without a trace, like a pencil drawing erased by an eraser.
In the end, only absolute nothingness remained in the mirror. Even the faintest warp-ripple had returned to calm. As experts in prophecy and divination, the Grey Knights gradually realized what the terrible future implied in the prophecy was. This was Ramesses. Or rather, this was the Primarch they were about to meet.
"..." But this was not what Hyperion wanted to see. He stared at the surface of the silver mirror, his body leaning forward, his knuckles white from his grip, as if he wanted to press his entire body into the mirror. He wanted to see blood, to see war, to see a tangible threat that could be cut down by a Grey Knight's sword.
Click~
The closing of the armour broke his thoughts. The silver mirror returned to calm in a ripple. He looked up. The strange figures in his eyes were long gone. Instead, a Custodian with a resolute face was staring at him.
"Marcus? When did you arrive?"
"Just now. Korrin knocked and there was no answer. The mortal servants couldn't understand her hand signals, so I came over," Shield-Captain Marcus said, frowning at the silver mirror. He noticed the human remains in the sanctum, and his brow furrowed even deeper. As a Custodian, he had no way of understanding the principles of these warp-sorceries. But even if the current state of the Imperium made it unavoidable for humanity to rely on these sorceries, he couldn't help but feel wary. "You were too engrossed in your thoughts. You didn't even notice someone had entered the room," he said, expressing his concern appropriately.
This Grey Knight, after accepting the Primarchs' invitation, had shown an abnormal obsession with the movements of the Daemon Primarch, as if he were eager to prove something. Although his emotions were controllable, and there had never been a case of a Grey Knight betraying in ten thousand years, this state was still too abnormal for a warrior.
"My apologies," Hyperion replied apologetically. "I have given Sister Korrin permission to enter my area at will." His state was indeed a little too bad, though not to the point of betrayal. But he could feel the anger that had erupted in him due to the influence of the artifact shard, and his obsession with Angron himself. These emotions had a profound effect on him, to the point where they had interfered with his behavior to a certain extent.
"Is there anything else?" Hyperion asked, after a brief reflection.
"It is about our landing application," the Shield-Captain said. "The planetary defense fleet has approved it."
Hyperion looked surprised. "They have already taken control of Armageddon?" He remembered that when they had agreed on a meeting place, the Primarchs were also on their way to investigate. Had they already taken care of it?
"Lord Arthur is also there," the Shield-Captain replied. According to Navradaran's report, the Primarchs usually did not act alone. At the very least, they would be in pairs, and would maintain constant contact. And the stability of the warp-travel around the Armageddon system had also surprised them. Even the Relentless's Navigator had been in awe of the psychic light of the Emperor that had been displayed along the way. The astropaths had also said that their astropathic communication had been unprecedentedly smooth.
That's not strange then.
Activating the motion-assist system inside his armour, Hyperion flexed his wrist slightly. By the standards of an Astartes, his current physical condition was terrible. But for a Grey Knight, the combat capability of the physical body was just the icing on the cake. "Let's go," he said.
Draigo looked at his friend's back and couldn't help but shake his head. To avoid their arrival interfering with the Primarchs' work, and to ensure the secrecy of their actions, after passing the Imperial code verification, Hyperion had commanded the Relentless to dock directly at the military port, but had not sent out a shuttle.
When the Dawnbreakers' coordinates were sent, Krom led the Custodes and his comrades onto the teleportation array. A dazzling blue light flashed, and their figures appeared on the surface of Armageddon without any obstruction, leaving only a faint smell of burnt ozone in the air.
This was a chapter of a thousand controllable psyker-Astartes.
On the warship's landing pad, a lone Sister of Silence, under the guidance of the flight crew, boarded a shuttle, all the while constantly signing towards the surface. The curses were very foul.
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