To ensure the flawless success of his plan, Horus had mustered all the Space Marine Librarians who had thrown in their lot with him, every one of them confirmed traitors to the Emperor.
He had also selected a vast number of psykers who had already pledged themselves to Chaos. These Chaos Sorcerers had been trained by the daemons of Tzeentch themselves, and among their number were even several who had ascended to Daemon Princehood centuries ago.
The first step of the Great Heresy was to trap the Emperor on Holy Terra.
If the Emperor himself could not be contained, the rebellion would be meaningless. As long as the Emperor could appear on the battlefield, their defeat was only a matter of time.
Thus, the crux of this war was to ensure that this key figure, the Emperor, could not participate in the fighting.
Originally, Horus's plan had been to reveal himself to Magnus, letting his brother discover that he had turned to Chaos.
Then, he would unleash a ferocious Warp storm to sever all interstellar communication. This would force Magnus to send a psychic warning to the Emperor, and Horus would then, with the might of the four Chaos Gods, shatter the Webway project his father had built.
But this plan had been scuttled when Magnus found Axis and brought him to Prospero. Nevertheless, Horus had a contingency.
As Warmaster of the Imperium, he never waged a war unprepared. If Magnus could not destroy the Webway on Holy Terra, then he would do it himself.
"Horus, all is ready. We await only your command," a man in violet-gold armor spoke, his face possessing an unsettlingly handsome and wicked beauty.
This was Fulgrim, the Phoenician, Primarch of the Third Legion.
"Are you certain of this, Horus?" asked another, clad in verdigris armor and wielding a massive power scythe. This was Mortarion, Primarch of the Fourteenth Legion, the Death Guard.
"I am absolutely certain," Horus declared with supreme confidence, "Our allies in Chaos will aid us."
"Then let us begin. I can wait no longer! I have long wished to kill that hypocrite. He is a tyrant through and through," said the Primarch of the Eleventh Legion.
"We will," Horus snarled, "We will slay the tyrant and rescue our great mother. Our mother tried to stop his schemes, and she failed! Her judgment was correct. He is a tyrant, nothing more. We Primarchs are merely weapons to be used. All our brothers have been deceived by him.
"Begin! My followers, today we fire the first shot in the rebellion against the Emperor! This will be a heavy and powerful blow against him!"
At the command of the great Warmaster, the new Master of Mankind, thousands of Legion Librarians began a unified incantation, joined by tens of thousands of Chaos Sorcerers.
A terrifying tide of psychic power began to coalesce around Horus.
The distorted energies of the Warp reflected in Horus's crimson pupils. The psychic resonance of thousands of Librarians caused a foul, black light to seep from the seams of his armor. As for the tens of thousands of Chaos Sorcerers, their bodies began to convulse, their souls drained to fuel the ritual.
When the incantation reached its crescendo, Horus performed the final act of guidance, directing the terrifying torrent of converged Warp energy toward Holy Terra.
"Now! Let the False Emperor taste our fury!"
...
Crossing time and space, the immense psychic wave surged into the depths of the Imperial Palace on Holy Terra, smashing violently against the barrier of the human Webway. The fragile realm, excavated by the Emperor using the power of the Golden Throne, began to shatter like glass.
The Emperor, who had been calibrating a psychic matrix at the Webway's entrance, abruptly looked up. Outside the crystal dome, the clouds were staining a sickly purple-red. The entire Palace trembled violently, and spiderweb-like cracks spread across the outer walls of the Webway. The psychic wards the Emperor had personally set in place dissolved like parchment touched by acid.
Even more terrifying, as the Webway shattered, innumerable legions of daemons poured forth from the Warp. The four Chaos Gods had hidden a boundless host of their servants in the Warp-space surrounding Holy Terra. It all happened with unbelievable speed. In a matter of seconds, the Emperor watched as the Webway he had painstakingly constructed was utterly destroyed.
A chorus of mad roars echoed as a tide of Chaos daemons surged from the Warp, rushing towards the Imperial Palace.
"All Custodian Guard, hear my command! Join with the Sisters of Silence and enter the Webway. You must hold them back. They must not be allowed to reach Holy Terra," the Emperor commanded.
"As you command, Your Majesty. For Holy Terra, unto death," the Captain-General, Constantin Valdor, knelt on one knee. He bowed to the Emperor before turning to lead thousands of his Custodian Guard and a large contingent of the Sisters of Silence into the breach.
The rift in the Webway gaped like a festering wound as the energies of Chaos erupted from within, and a twisted Warp storm engulfed the entire passage. Countless daemons charged forward.
Constantin Valdor raised his Apollonian Spear, its golden power armor gleaming in the gloom of the Webway. "For the Emperor! For Terra!" His voice boomed like thunder, and thousands of Custodians roared in unison, forming an unbreakable shield wall to meet the demonic tide.
"To the last, never retreat!"
The first wave to enter the Webway was a legion of Khorne led by Bloodthirsters. They brandished enormous brazen axes, roaring as they flung themselves at the Custodian line. Valdor did not take a single step back.
His Apollonian Spear lanced out, and a beam of golden light pierced the foremost daemon, its body disintegrating into nothingness under the holy power.
But the daemons were endless.
The second wave consisted of Daemons of Nurgle. Their putrid bodies writhed through the passageway, spewing clouds of plague-mist from their maws in an attempt to corrode the Custodians' armor.
The Sisters of Silence immediately moved forward, deploying their null-field. The corrupting power of Nurgle dissipated before them. When the Sisters of Silence and the Custodes fought in concert, their might was beyond imagination.
The Custodians' shields interlocked, forming an impassable wall of gold. Yet the daemons of Khorne knew no fear. They clambered over the corpses of their own kind, their assault relentless. Like tireless golden giants, the Custodians formed an iron bastion, desperately holding back the limitless demonic host.
Deeper in the Webway, a third assault was already forming.
Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, their twisting forms flickering in the shadows, unleashed bolts of psychic lightning from their fingertips, seeking to tear open the Custodian formation. The null-field of the Sisters of Silence suppressed most of the sorcery, but a Custodian was still consumed by a psychic blast. His armor melted and his flesh carbonized, yet he did not retreat an inch, even in death.
"Hold the line!"
Every Custodian knew they could not completely destroy these daemons, but they had to buy time. For the Emperor.
One Custodian raised his power spear and instantly skewered several daemons, but in the next second, more swarmed in to fill the gap.
The war in the Webway was horrifically brutal. In just a few hours, the Custodians lost count of the number of daemons they had slain.
These golden-armored warriors could fight for months on end, but the daemons were limitless. With a mere wave of their hands, the Chaos Gods could create thousands more.
The Emperor's expression was grim. Everything had happened too suddenly.
The Imperium of Man had been in its golden age, only for a terrifying Warp storm to appear and sever Holy Terra from all its colonies. Immediately after, an immense psychic force had blasted the Webway to ruin.
"Emperor! The Warp rift is still expanding! We, we must do something," Malcador said, hurrying to his side.
With the Webway torn open, the terrible power of the Warp would now corrode the Imperial Palace, gradually widening the rift until it was possible that all of Holy Terra could be dragged into the Immaterium, forming a new Eye of Terror.
The Emperor took a deep breath. The world itself seemed to be telling him to make that decision.
"There is no other way."
"I must activate the Golden Throne. I will use my psychic power to contain the collapse of the Webway." He did not hesitate.
His gaze fell upon the great throne in the depths of the palace, and he walked towards it and sat down.
The instant he sat upon the Golden Throne, the Emperor felt a pain that defied description, a torment of both soul and flesh.
The good news, however, was that his body had been greatly enhanced by Axis's ki and the spiritual fruit Axis had given him. He could endure this agony.
"Malcador," the Emperor said, "you must bring Magnus here now. If Magnus and I work together, we may be able to repair the Webway's barrier. He must be brought here with all speed." Now, only a combined effort with Magnus could hope to repair this shattered realm.
"I understand, Emperor. I will dispatch Leman Russ at once to bring Magnus back. Emperor, should he take a contingent of Custodes and Sisters of Silence as well, as a precaution?" Malcador asked.
It was obvious Chaos had made its move against the Imperium. To venture out in such a situation was incredibly dangerous; they would need sufficient strength to counter whatever they might face.
"Yes. And remember, you are not going there to apprehend him! Axis is there as well. Bring Axis back too," the Emperor ordered.
The Regent, Malcador, nodded.
He immediately commanded the few hundred remaining Custodians, along with the Sisters of Silence and the Space Wolves, to force a passage through the Warp to the planet of Prospero.
"Warmaster, a force has departed from Terra," reported a Chaos Sorcerer monitoring the Throneworld.
A sinister smile spread across Horus's face.
...
...