A psychic barrier, like a flowing hurricane, enveloped the entire pyramid.
Magnus stood at its apex, quietly gazing at the statue bound with hemp rope and wrapped in blue linen.
"Come quickly, the truth awaits you!" The whispers lingered in his ears.
"Don't you want to know the truth?" Thousands of scholars whispered in his mind.
"Your essence is unparalleled. Your power is beyond your imagination. Touch it, and you will be transformed into a god!"
In an instant, the Primarch's mind was filled with countless dazzling images, each revealing a brilliant future:
He saw himself standing at the unprecedented pinnacle of the Imperium, where minor victories paled before the great achievements he was about to build; He commanded an unprecedented, vast host of tens of millions of warships, the golden banners of victory planted in every corner of the galaxy;
Hundreds of millions of warriors looked up to him with fanatical eyes; giving their lives for the Magister Primus was the highest honour they could dream of;
Countless worlds, systems, even sectors he liberated were renamed 'Magnus'; his deeds were sung across the galaxy; The once-mighty Chaos forces fled before him like dogs with broken legs, scurrying away with nowhere to hide;
Finally, he saw his own statues erected in every world of the Imperium.
Until even the Golden Throne of Holy Terra awaited him, his brothers grovelled at his feet, and his father stood quietly by his side.
The Emperor's legacy was no longer enough to reward this most loyal son, for what the Primarch deserved could not be measured by mere thrones and empires.
His achievements would surpass the Emperor's gifts. His glory would transcend the mortal world.
He would grasp the truth. He would become a god!
Magnus already grasped many truths. Truths are not mere theories or logic; they are the apex of understanding.
In mortal understanding, the apex of the microscopic is the quantum; the apex of the macroscopic is the universe.
But in Magnus's understanding...
The truths he had obtained were precisely the quanta and the universe of the Warp.
Truth is like a quantum: ubiquitous yet intangible. And like the universe: infinite and unfathomable.
In the understanding of mortals who know the truth, the material universe and the Warp are two sides of the same coin, mirror images.
But the truth is not so.
Mortals do not know the truth, but Magnus had long witnessed it.
The quanta of the Warp is the Aether. The universe of the Warp is infinity.
Infinite space, infinite time, infinite dimensions.
Its vastness is beyond even the four Gods' ability to grasp; even an infinite number of universes could not fill it.
When humanity was still in the feudal age, they knew nothing of the universe, imagining themselves masters of the world.
When humanity entered the age of technological progress and gradually understood the universe...
They began humbly believing that higher civilisations existed in the cosmos.
Yet when humanity progressed rapidly during the Golden Age, spreading their footsteps across the universe, even inventing the Iron Men, they began to become arrogantly self-important, imagining themselves masters of the universe.
The Men of Iron rebellion shattered humanity's dream, but humanity still had a chance to rise.
It was the Warp storms that completely ended the Golden Age.
Yet Warp storms are merely commonplace within the Warp.
They batter the universe, and the original annihilators eternally gaze upon the material universe.
Had a vast fleet from a higher civilisation suddenly arrived when humanity had not yet set foot beyond Terra...
What would have welled up in people's hearts would not be reverence and longing for an advanced civilisation, but utter despair.
Just like Magnus: the deeper his understanding, the greater his despair.
This was the truth.
But that was the Magnus of yesterday.
"The weak me of the past is dead."
Magnus murmured to himself. Even if they were mere bacteria, so what?
Mundane pathogens can still gain Nurgle's favour. Why not humanity?
They simply lacked a god of their own, forlorn and unprotected in the turbulent Warp.
Magnus said with a chuckle, "It's simple. I'll just become a god."
There is no desperate situation in this world, only people who despair of their situation.
The truth made him despair, but as long as he did not despair, humanity still had hope.
His father did not understand the Warp. But his father could not possibly not understand the Warp.
He had stolen the Primarchs' essences from the Warp. His understanding of the material universe and the Warp was beyond ordinary comparison.
If his father had not despaired, how could he?
Most of his brothers had only the company of one father, at most a mortal father too.
Only he was most fortunate: both his fathers always accompanied him.
"Yes, of course you will become a god."
"You are the First Primarch!"
"Who else can humanity rely on but you?"
"Magnus, when will you become the number one god in the universe?"
"Today! Right now!"
They held hands, dancing and cavorting around Magnus, cheering, giggling, singing hymns with blasphemous syllables.
Magnus's gaze suddenly sharpened. "In your eyes, am I only worthy of this?"
Amidst the screaming whispers, Magnus grabbed one and crushed it.
The other whispers fled like startled birds, but all were shattered without exception by the psychic wave Magnus unleashed.
Like dead leaves caught in a storm, they vanished in an instant.
Of course, he would become a god.
This was humanity's necessary path.
A godless psychic race cannot survive, as the bloody lesson of the Aeldari shows.
They had endured for tens of millions of years under the gods' protection. When the gods successively fell, the Aeldari's brilliant civilisation also collapsed overnight.
Humanity must have a god. And he would become a god. But not through Chaos.
Magnus stared at the fragment. If he could master the staff fragment, he could become a demigod.
He did not care if this offended Tzeentch. They were already on the opposite side of the Chaos Gods.
But he would not become a god this way.
This path was too easy. So easy it seemed like a trap.
Tzeentch always subtly set traps for people to fall into.
Even though Magnus already grasped much truth, he still dared not claim to understand the Warp sufficiently.
The Warp is infinitely vast. Truth is equally infinitely vast.
Even if he grasped infinite truth, it would still be but a drop in the Warp's ocean.
No one can truly control the Warp, not even the Chaos Gods. Otherwise, They would have already seized the domains of the other three.
Gods are not omnipotent. That is humanity's opportunity.
Even if the Warp is ill, it should not be conflated with Chaos.
The Warp is just the Warp. Even if It is corrupted, It remains neutral, merely shifting from absolute neutral to chaotic neutral.
The Chaos Gods are Chaos.
Magnus already had a path to godhood, planned by his father.
This path might be far less powerful than the truths Magnus had grasped, but it would suffice to grant humanity protection.
And it was safe enough.
Both his fathers preferred him to take this path. Magnus felt the same.
He did not want to disappoint his father, nor would he step into the Gods' trap.
He was no longer who he once was. He was Father's 'Little Mag', not the arrogant and ignorant 'Magnus the Red'.
But he must guard the fragment himself.
Its connection to the Warp still existed, and Tzeentch's connection to it was growing deeper.
Tzeentch could not retrieve the fragment to the Warp, but could use its power to tempt the people of Tizca.
Only Magnus could resist Chaos's temptation. Only he was qualified to guard it.
Tizca's psychic array was completely destroyed. They had to go to Negada, dismantle the psychic array there, and transport it to Tizca.
Only when the psychic array was reactivated could the Warp's influence on reality be completely severed.
....
"Speed up! We must return to Tizca before dusk!"
Amon urged the task force over the comm channel. "Mephia, Imhotep, Vanak, Antep, you are responsible for clearing the path. Setega, Khastar, Tothmes, Luzantep, you guard the rear and keep watch."
These nine were the ones who had obtained the truth alongside Magnus.
Based on the mysteries revealed by the Warp, they had founded five schools of thought:
The Corvidae, the Pyrae, the Raptora, the Athanaeans, and the Pavoni.
Corresponding to psykers of Divination, Pyrokinesis, Biomancy, Telepathy, and Telekinesis.
Amon sat in the command vehicle in the middle of the convoy, using his divination to provide early warning for the task force.
Masters from the other four schools were respectively responsible for leading the clearing and rear-guard actions, ensuring the convoy's safety.
To transport the massive psychic array from Negada, Tizca had almost exhausted all its resources.
Dozens of heavy transports and hundreds of smaller trucks were all deployed. These were the only transport vehicles they had.
Tizca was not an industrial city. Before the Psychneuein ravaged the land, it was just a coastal town with no technologically advanced factories.
Many of the task force's vehicles were legacies from refugees decades ago.
This trip was a gamble, staking everything.
But they were not unprepared. Before the task force departed, they had conducted dozens of drills.
Although Magnus could not leave Tizca, he had also trained the nine Masters, deepening their understanding of psychic powers.
But despite all the preparation, dismantling this gigantic device still took a long time, and transporting it was even more nerve-wracking.
The fragment remained. The 'hole' connecting the Warp and the material universe had not yet healed. The Psychneuein swarms still ravaged Prospero.
Although the Psychneuein around Tizca had been cleared, as long as the 'hole' existed, they would continue to pour towards Tizca.
The task force also faced danger.
If they encountered a Psychneuein swarm on the return journey, none of them might survive.
The nine Masters might be able to withstand tens of thousands of Psychneuein, but when millions swarmed in, how many could they save?
If they failed to bring the psychic array back to Tizca, Prospero would be lost.
But they had to take the risk. Only restarting the psychic array could end the disaster.
"Let's hope everything goes smoothly."
Amon looked up at the azure sky outside the window and murmured.
As long as they returned safely to Tizca, they would be safe.
Magnus's psychic power was vast as an abyss. He could protect all the people of Tizca.
If Magnus didn't have to guard the fragment constantly, he could single-handedly wipe out every Psychneuein on Prospero.
But as long as the 'hole' remained unsealed, even destroying all the Psychneuein would be futile.
They would still be exposed to the Warp's influence.
Without the Psychneuein, someone else, influenced by the fragment, might release enslavers.
Only the Veil could completely separate reality from the Warp. And generating the Veil required the psychic array.
All members of this task force were mentally prepared. They were all willing to sacrifice for Prospero's future.
But if all went well, they wouldn't need to sacrifice themselves to bring the array back to Tizca.
If it went badly, even if they all died, they couldn't protect the array.
HUM!
"Psychneuein swarm!"
Amon's head snapped up. The horizon was now dominated by a dark, churning cloud.
That cloud was heading straight for them. It was at least tens of millions of Psychneuein, descending upon the convoy in numbers even more terrifying than the swarm that had attacked Tizca!
In that moment, Amon had an absurd suspicion: maybe every Psychneuein in the world was here?
If the psychic array could be restarted in Tizca, these Warp entities would be permanently banished. Naturally, they would attack the convoy without reserve. This frantic counterattack seemed like their final, desperate struggle.
But Psychneuein had no intelligence. How could they understand the impact of the psychic array on them?
Something must be manipulating them. The answer was obvious. Who else but Chaos?
"Push through! Stopping now is suicide!"
Mephia leaped onto the roof of a transport. Flames erupted from her outstretched arms like a volcanic eruption, incinerating hundreds of Psychneuein. The churning sea of fire turned the entire sky crimson.
The other Masters also joined the fight. Antep manipulated force fields like a millstone, grinding the swarm to dust.
He clenched his fist. Trees groaned as they were ripped from the ground and hurled at the swarm.
Imhotep caused the Psychneuein's flesh to mutate and explode. Vanak drove the swarm into madness, making them tear each other apart.
But all this was just a drop in the bucket. There were simply too many!
"AAARGH!"
The transport driver suddenly screamed in agony. A Psychneuein had smashed through the windshield and deeply implanted its eggs in his brain.
The searing pain made him convulse. The out-of-control vehicle slammed hard into the truck ahead.
Neither of the hundred-ton steel beasts overturned, but the entire road was completely blocked.
The convoy had been travelling at high speed. The transports behind couldn't brake in time and also crashed. The whole convoy was instantly paralysed.
"It's all over," Amon muttered in despair.
The Psychneuein washed over the convoy like a black tide. The Masters could barely defend themselves.
The other psykers were far less powerful. They could barely fight off a dozen Psychneuein. When hundreds swarmed them, they lasted mere seconds before collapsing to the ground, convulsing in agony.
None survived.