Chapter 197: Magnus Meets Emperor and Emperor
Magnus was the first to be summoned to Terra.
He had come of age on Prospero, a world where he had cultivated psychic abilities second only to the Emperor and Malcador themselves. Now, as the ship's bell tolled, signaling their arrival at the heart of the Imperium, Magnus felt anticipation stir within him.
The viewport's blast shield rose with a mechanical hiss.
What Magnus saw left him breathless.
The Solar System spread before him, a testament to human mastery over the cosmos. Magnificent orbital structures crowned every strategic point, their purpose as much symbolic as functional. Yet even these marvels paled before what awaited at Terra itself.
Perturabo's Wrath hung completed in the void, and Magnus could only stare.
The testing of this stellar-scale weapon defied comprehension. Even with all his psychic prowess, Magnus understood in that moment how formidable the Human Empire had become.
The construct dwarfed imagination. Stars themselves served merely as ornamental fixtures upon this great scepter of annihilation.
As the weapon activated, Magnus watched an entire sun's energy drain away, siphoned through incomprehensible mechanisms. The stolen power transformed into pure force, flowing with ethereal luminescence through channels built on a cosmic scale.
Streams of multicolored light surged through the megastructure. Countless arrays and matrices blazed to life in sequence. Space-time twisted, warping until a transluminal corridor tore open in reality's fabric.
Then the scepter's tip began to glow.
A lance of stellar fury erupted forth, bridging tens of thousands of light-years in an instant to strike an uninhabited world.
The beam pierced the planetary crust, drilling into the core and triggering a cataclysmic detonation. The explosion ripped through the mantle and the surface alike, shattering continental plates before consuming the entire planet.
In seconds, a world ceased to exist.
Magnus felt something shrivel within him, the quiet arrogance that had taken root during his years on Prospero, nurtured by his unmatched psychic talents. It withered now, exposed as the delusion it had always been.
Against such devastating ordnance, deployed across impossible distances, what use was sorcery?
An enemy would be annihilated before they even knew death approached. His psychic might meant nothing in the face of such power.
After witnessing Perturabo's Wrath, Magnus was escorted to the Imperial Palace for his first meeting with the Emperor.
Terra's architecture sprawled in layered magnificence, seemingly without end. Accompanied by the Legio Custodes, Magnus passed through a grand archway and emerged into an open-air plaza that stole his breath anew.
Pilgrims thronged the thoroughfares in such numbers that passage became nearly impossible. Surrounding the plaza stood walls of stained glass, each rising several kilometers high and depicting the portraits of significant figures in brilliant, painted light.
At the very center stood the Emperor.
A radiant halo crowned His form, and perched upon His shoulder sat the other ruler of the Imperium, Raven, whose name was spoken with reverence throughout the realm.
Below them, arranged in order of precedence, stood the Primarchs.
Lion El'Jonson, proud as any knight of legend, standing victorious amid mountains of the slain.
Leman Russ, driving his wolf packs forward, their howls echoing among the stars.
Horus, magnificent in bearing, cradled a captured star in his mighty hand.
A war hawk mounted on a winged white steed, blade held high in dominion over the heavens.
Vulkan, Lord of the Salamanders, wielding a forge hammer of impossible size, with an entire world serving as his anvil below.
Three other panels remained blank, awaiting their subjects.
Magnus understood that one belonged to him. Like these legendary figures, he too was a son of the Master of Mankind, destined for greatness from the moment of his creation.
The party did not linger among the pilgrims. They continued through Terra's architectural wonders, traversing the Triumphal Avenue with its heroic statuary before arriving at the towering gates of the Imperial Palace itself.
They abandoned their transport and continued on foot, passing through opulent corridors and magnificent halls until they reached the Throne Room, where the Emperor held court.
After a final security inspection, Magnus walked through the slowly parting doors and entered.
The Throne Room exceeded all imagination.
Intricate mechanical systems interwove with arcane runes to form a machine of staggering complexity. Even after mastering every grimoire and text Prospero possessed, Magnus could not comprehend the principles at work.
Technology and mysticism existed here in perfect harmony, producing a resonance that channeled immeasurable power into the pulsating core at the chamber's heart.
A Custodian gestured for Magnus to ascend the high platform, climbing the steps to the summit where the Emperor waited.
This privilege belonged to the Primarchs alone; lesser mortals could approach only the platform's base.
The closer Magnus drew to the Golden Throne, the more keenly he felt its power. Immense forces rippled outward from the throne like a stone cast into still waters, spreading in waves that touched all of Terra and beyond.
Step by reverent step, Magnus ascended until he stood before the father he had yearned to meet.
Everything he had witnessed spoke of the Imperium's might, power sufficient to obliterate worlds across countless light-years, to grant ordinary mortals abilities approaching divinity. And all of it had been forged by the Master of Mankind, his creator, his father.
The Emperor sat upon the Golden Throne, making fine adjustments to the Webway's construction. Raven lay sprawled like a sunbathing cat across a Custodian's shoulder while another guard dutifully held out French fries for him to eat.
When a fry appeared, Raven opened his beak, then resumed his lounging.
"This one's laziness knows no bounds," Valdo muttered, his mouth twitching.
Rogal Dorn and Cegorach, the Laughing God, recently returned from the Azur Lane expedition, stood nearby, assisting with the Webway's calibration.
When Magnus reached the platform's summit, Raven stirred from his repose.
"Little Magnus has returned to the Imperium! This calls for celebration, the Webway's master has found his heir!"
"Master Raven." Magnus inclined his head respectfully.
Before departing Prospero, he had learned of the Imperium's other ruler, his father's most trusted companion, "The Great Raven".
It was also due to Master Raven's influence that the Imperium's specialty flavored fries commanded such astronomical prices; rumors suggested a single new variety could trade for the wealth of an entire sector.
There was even a popular saying that illustrated the relationship: 'The great Emperor could lose all else, but never Master Raven.'
The Emperor opened His eyes slowly, and brilliant flames of golden light spilled forth, making direct observation impossible. When He rose from the throne, the fire receded, though His radiance remained bright as a captured sun, merely no longer blinding.
"Magnus."
His voice carried absolute authority, and Magnus found his head bowing instinctively.
"I am pleased by your return. You possess remarkable psychic talent and will serve ably as Master of Webway. But first, you must undergo sufficient tempering to ensure your worthiness for this responsibility."
Raven covered his small head with one wing, utterly exasperated.
The communication between father and son left him speechless.
It also made him understand why, in the original timeline, Magnus had been so easily manipulated by Tzeentch, setting out as a loyalist only to become one of history's most tragic traitors.
Magnus was arrogant, disdainful, and self-assured, second only to his golden father in sheer hubris. His temperament combined the Emperor's stubbornness with Perturabo's bullheadedness.
Meanwhile, the Emperor spoke either too bluntly or too cryptically, leaving His sons to interpret His intent.
The two played guessing games with each other's meaning, and then Tzeentch stepped in to "help" translate, twisting every message until their relationship shattered completely.
In the predetermined timeline of the Horus Heresy, Magnus had started as loyal. He'd projected himself psionically to Davin, attempting to thwart Erebus's corruption of Horus.
After failing, he'd immediately tried to warn the Emperor about his "dutiful son" through psychic means.
The Emperor had erected psychic barriers around the nascent Webway for protection. Magnus, in his arrogance, had relentlessly assaulted these barriers.
Unable to breach them alone, he'd borrowed power from the Chaos Gods themselves, tearing open the breach known as Magnus's Folly.
Through it, legions of daemons had poured into the Webway, igniting the catastrophic Webway War that decimated the Legio Custodes and the loyal Mechanicum, leaving the Emperor weakened and vulnerable.
Realizing the magnitude of his error, Magnus had retreated into seclusion. When Russ arrived to bring him to account, Magnus had ordered no resistance, allowing the Space Wolves to slaughter his sons.
Then Chaos had interfered again with deliberate miscommunication, transforming a retrieval into a massacre that left Prospero in ashes.
Afterward, Magnus had turned to Chaos entirely.
'Stubborn man, stubborn fate,' Raven thought.
He needed to intervene personally, to teach young Magnus that there were always greater powers, vaster mysteries. The myriad cosmos contained wonders and terrors beyond counting, and arrogance was a luxury that invited disaster.
"How about sending Magnus to a mystical universe for his tempering?" Raven suggested. "The Lord of the Rings world, perhaps?"
"Mystical universe? Lord of the Rings?" Magnus looked confused.
"What do you believe exists beyond our universe, young Magnus?" Raven asked.
"The void, naturally. Eternal nothingness." Magnus spoke with certainty. "There is nothing there."
"You are half correct. Beyond our universe does lie the void, but it is far from 'nothing.' Strange entities wander that emptiness, and other universes exist within it. Some are vast, comprising multiple grand cosmoses. Others are small, no larger than a few galaxies."
"The Lord of the Rings universe is one such grand cosmos. It was shaped by Eru Ilúvatar, and countless stars drift through its void, home to innumerable races. They developed a unique power system, known as the Rings of Power. Through these artifacts, native beings can harness universal forces, reshape reality's rules, and open gateways between worlds."
"The most potent of these is called the One Ring, powerful beyond measure, capable not only of commanding lesser rings but of usurping the Creator's own authority."
"That sounds fascinating." Magnus's expression shifted, hunger flickering in his eye.
"That's not even the strangest example," Raven continued with a shrug.
"The Discworld universe defies belief entirely. In its void, enormous turtles swim through space, and upon their shells stand four colossal elephants bearing disc-shaped worlds on their backs."
"The beings inhabiting those worlds command equally peculiar magics and lore."
"Are these inventions of yours?" Magnus asked, curiosity warring with skepticism. "They sound too fantastical. How could universes exist on the backs of turtles and elephants?"
"In the vastness of the infinite cosmos, nothing is too strange to exist," Raven said with obvious amusement.
"You are currently a frog at the bottom of a well, unaware of how boundless the world beyond truly is."
[End of Chapter]
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