Chapter 209: The Price of Freedom
"Take care of yourself. If anything comes up, let me know in advance. I'm leaving now."
"And drop this matter. Humanity's fate belongs to humanity itself. Your future will be glorious, and you'll become the King who rules the universe. There's no need to maintain a false, perfect image through lies."
"Even if you gain the title of Eldest Son through deception, is that truly what you want?"
After advising Horus, Raven didn't linger. He tore open a spatial rift and left.
He'd originally planned to visit Russ and Mortarion first, but reconsidered. This task should have fallen to the Custodes, but they'd failed to locate where Corax had fallen, Lycaeus.
The coordinates were too imprecise.
Finding a single planet in the galaxy was like finding one grain of sand on an endless beach. Even with vague coordinates, the Custodes would need massive time and resources to search.
The Eleventh had already been found and was being escorted back to Terra.
Raven decided to retrieve the Raven Lord himself. That way, all the Primarchs would return.
He reviewed astronomical data across the galaxy and quickly pinpointed Lycaeus's coordinates.
Kiavahr was a technologically advanced forge world. While many human colonies had collapsed during the Age of Strife due to Warp storms and war, Kiavahr had maintained interstellar trade and preserved much technology from the Dark Age of Technology.
But the long Age of Strife had created a massive wealth gap.
The elite lived in Kiavahr's spired towers, enjoying fresh air, gardens, and unpolluted food. The masses lived in the sunless lower hives, breathing toxic industrial air.
Those declared guilty, idealists who opposed the powerful, workers who failed quotas, and anyone who offended their betters were enslaved and exiled to Kiavahr's moon, Lycaeus.
Lycaeus was a desolate rock with no atmosphere and vast temperature swings between day and night. Slave miners stayed underground, excavating ore for their masters to earn a living.
As an infant, Corax had been stolen by the Chaos Gods and cast down on Lycaeus. He was discovered by a young slave woman who saved him from her master, and the slaves hid him.
They taught him combat, guerrilla warfare, strategy, politics, and philosophy. When he matured, Corax united the workers of Lycaeus through charisma alone.
He'd been secretly preparing an uprising, ordering the creation of five atomic mining charges to destroy the slavers' army.
Today was the day.
The rebels hid their weapons, waiting for orders. Most were young, hearts burning with passion and anticipation.
To ensure nothing went wrong, Corax left his subordinates behind and went alone. He'd disable the Black Tower first, the fortress that monitored slaves and controlled automated weapon arrays, then assassinate the commanders, leaving the slaver army leaderless.
Darkness pooled between flickering corridor lights and searchlights from the Black Tower.
Corax moved through the darkness like smoke.
His body was coated in camouflage made from forge soot and ash, shielding him from thermal imaging, infrared scanners, and other detection systems.
He easily avoided all surveillance, advancing toward the Black Tower.
The Tower covered roughly twenty hectares, a massive structure of black stone reinforced with plasteel columns. Its walls were studded with barbed pipes, its windows fitted with razor blades.
Corax used the shadows to infiltrate, his superhuman mind memorizing every firing point, elevated position, and angle of approach.
Turning a corner, he felt eyes on him.
A quick scan revealed a lit window in a nearby hab-block. A woman stood with her back to it, holding a crying infant and gently patting his back.
The child stared at the tall warrior with wide, innocent eyes.
"I am not here," Corax murmured.
The child's eyes clouded with confusion. His small mind lost all memory of the Primarch. Moments later, the infant forgot everything and rested content against his mother's shoulder.
Corax smiled faintly and left in silence.
This was his gift, erasing his existence from others' minds.
He used exposed plasteel pipes and structural protrusions to scale the building, running silently along rooftops, gliding through the night like a hunting bird. He leaped from structure to structure, passing over guards' heads, advancing toward the Black Tower's center.
With another leap, he glided through industrial smoke and landed in shadow.
Then he felt that gaze again.
He looked around and spotted a black raven perched in the distance. Its eyes were unnaturally bright as it watched him.
Corax felt uneasy under its scrutiny. Something was strange about this bird. Its gaze didn't seem animal, more like an elder's.
'I'm going mad thinking a bird looks like an elder,' Corax thought, shaking his head.
To be safe, he activated his ability again, intending to erase himself from the creature's mind.
The raven kept watching. Its gaze never wavered, completely unaffected.
"What's going on?" Corax frowned.
"An interesting ability," the raven said.
Corax's eyes widened. Fear followed. His first thought, this bird was genetically modified and trained, an informant for the slavers.
When he moved to deal with it, the raven spoke again.
"Don't be afraid. I mean you no harm, Corax. I can help you."
"Of course, help isn't free. You'll have to pay a small price."
A talking black raven, offering help for a small price.
This sounded exactly like the devil's tricks from old stories.
Corax frowned.
"A price? Do you want my soul? Or do you want me to harvest souls for you?"
'Whichever it is, I refuse', he added silently.
He shifted his stance, preparing to eliminate this raven. The risk was too great. If his presence were exposed, not only would he be in danger, but the entire uprising could fail.
"Souls? Only those fools in the Warp need those."
The raven tilted its small head with clear disdain.
"I am a noble raven. I don't need such things."
"You only need to find me ninety-nine different flavors of fries or ketchup, and this planet is yours. Fair and square. Clearly priced."
Several metaphorical question marks appeared above Corax's head.
Ninety-nine different flavors of fries or ketchup for a planet? What kind of scam was this?
"That's all?" Corax had no idea how demanding this truly was.
The Imperium maintained vast research institutes that developed various fry flavors. Imperial expeditionary forces throughout the galaxy, and beyond, had standing orders to collect potatoes and tomatoes from every world they encountered.
Every conceivable flavor had been cataloged in the Imperium's culinary archives.
Black holes had even been used as cultivation sites. The potatoes grown in those extreme gravitational fields were denser than iron and could puncture starship hulls if thrown hard enough.
To find ninety-nine new flavors, Corax would have to venture to other universes. Even one universe might not be enough, he'd need to visit many.
"Of course. A noble raven only requires delicious fries and ketchup. Souls? Those are for uncultured savage creatures of the Warp," the raven said.
"Doesn't sound impossible," Corax said, considering the benefits.
It was just fries. How hard could it be?
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the window to Corax's left.
He pressed flat against the wall, avoiding detection. The raven flapped its wings and landed on his shoulder, hiding with him in the darkness.
Two fully armed soldiers walked to the window, lit cigarettes, took deep drags, then exhaled slowly.
"That son of a bitch. Wouldn't be surprising if someone shanked him one day."
One soldier complained about his superior while smoking.
"Stop whining. We're here for the money," the other said.
"If it weren't for the money, who the hell would come to this shithole?"
"Just deal with it. If you can't, think about all the other humiliating things you've done for credits."
"Fair point, Byrne. By the way, I'm curious, have you ever done anything humiliating for money?"
"Couldn't afford a wife, so I had to borrow the neighbor's."
"You're just like that son of a bitch. Truly deserve to die."
"Haha..."
The conversation left Corax, pressed against the window outside, utterly speechless.
The raven perched on his shoulder muttered inwardly: 'Well, well. A cuckold right in front of us."
Corax seized the opportunity. He leaped up and burst through the window.
[End of Chapter]
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