Amon's heart sank. He jerked his head up.
The sky was clear as a mirror, azure and clean, without a single cloud.
He immediately pressed the comm button. His hoarse voice carried through the channel to the entire convoy.
"A Psychneuein swarm will attack the convoy in one hour. Full speed ahead! We must reach Tizca before then!"
Mephia's face darkened.
The straight-line distance from Negada to Tizca was only 230 kilometres, but the roads had been abandoned for decades and crossed mountains and valleys.
Even at full speed, the convoy would need at least six hours to return to Tizca.
How could one hour be enough?
Prospero was a hastily established colony of exiles. The little technology they had was not well preserved over the long years.
It wouldn't matter if they died, but if this psychic array was also damaged, Prospero would be truly doomed.
Even if other destroyed cities still had psychic arrays, those ruins were even farther from Tizca. Transporting them would require traversing even more dangerous wilderness, would be even more perilous, and would have a lower success rate.
Although Caelan claimed a human Imperium existed in the galaxy, who knew when it would arrive?
One year? Ten years?
By then, the Prosperines might already be extinct.
"Caelan, where is Caelan?" Amon shouted into the comm channel.
He suddenly realised they still had one last lifeline. They still had Caelan!
Magnus had to stay in Tizca, but where was his father?
They were completely unaware of this!
But no one answered him. The comm channel remained eerily silent, as if no one heard his voice, as if everyone had collectively forgotten Caelan's existence.
Amon was confused. 'Wasn't he here?'
Soon, this thought too slipped away like sand through his fingers.
Moments later, Amon had completely forgotten what he had been searching for just now.
He looked up at the sky, filled with foreboding.
There, a sky-covering black cloud was bearing down with irresistible force.
The Psychneuein had finally arrived.
"Push through! Stopping now is suicide!"
Mephia leaped onto the roof of a transport, arms outstretched.
Crimson flames erupted from him. Hundreds of Psychneuein vaporised in the firestorm without even a scream, leaving no ash.
Everything unfolded exactly as Amon had foreseen.
He had foreseen the future but couldn't change its course.
What could be more despairing than that?
Amon was lost. He was a Diviner, his combat ability far inferior to the other Masters.
What came next, as in his vision, was a multi-vehicle pileup and death for everyone.
But just before the disaster from his vision struck...
A pale blue barrier suddenly deployed, like an inverted bowl covering the entire convoy.
Ripples of psychic energy spread across the barrier's surface, deflecting the first wave of diving Psychneuein. The crackling sound of the swarm impacting the barrier was like a storm battering glass.
Amon stared, dumbfounded, at this miraculous scene. Which Master had done this?
This was beyond any Master's ability, even if they worked together, they couldn't create a barrier of this scale.
Only two people in Tizca had such power: Magnus and Caelan.
"Caelan? Where are you?"
Amon suddenly remembered something. He spun around and found Caelan had seemingly appeared out of nowhere in an empty seat.
Amon was stunned. "When did you arrive?"
Caelan replied, "I've been here all along."
"Keep the convoy moving. Don't stop. Don't worry about the Psychneuein. My barrier is solid as a mountain, easy to defend, hard to breach. They can't get in."
"Alright."
Amon nodded silently. When he saw Caelan, the memories that had been deliberately blurred suddenly became clear.
Caelan had been with the convoy the whole time. Some kind of cognitive interference had made them collectively forget his presence.
'What kind of power was this?'
When Amon looked at the sky again, the sheer mass of Psychneuein had formed a dark vortex outside the barrier.
They swarmed around the psychic dome, crashing into it like moths to a flame.
But their impacts only caused ripples on the dome's surface. They couldn't even drill a hole.
'How powerful was Caelan's psychic ability?'
The barrier moved with the convoy, ensuring all vehicles remained protected.
Amon asked, "Caelan, how much longer can you maintain this?"
"You asked me this before. As long as the Astronomican burns, my power will not be exhausted."
If the Astronomican couldn't drain the Emperor dry, what were these Psychneuein?
Just the Emperor's playthings.
"Ask what you want to ask. Don't beat around the bush."
Caelan looked calmly at Amon, seeing through him at a glance.
What Amon wanted to ask wasn't about the barrier. He was probing.
Amon said, "We left Tizca together, but I just forgot about you."
"Nothing dangerous. I was experimenting with a new psychic ability."
"You've never used it before."
"Magnus taught me."
Amon fell silent. Why would Magnus teach such an art to Caelan alone?
The answer was obvious. Caelan was his father.
Caelan and Magnus were father and son. He was just a stranger who had ignorantly raised Magnus for nine months.
Amon lowered his head, letting bitter emotions ferment inside him.
Caelan had been studying the 'truths' Magnus taught him. These truths were not simple psychic techniques. They seemed more like underlying code, similar to 1+1=2.
Caelan could previously turn invisible, but the invisibility of a Telepath essentially involved manipulating others' minds to blur his own presence.
The concealment Magnus taught Caelan was closer to that of the Raven Guard.
The Raven Guard's innate concealment came from Corax, and Corax's talent was inborn.
The Raven Guard's concealment, in practical effect, involved turning themselves into a 'shadow'.
Even when these giants, over two metres tall, stood before an enemy, the enemy's gaze would naturally slide past them as if glancing over an insignificant patch of shadow.
This wasn't technology, but pure psychic talent.
A Telepath's invisibility affects others. The Raven Guard's concealment affects oneself.
The concealment Magnus taught also affected oneself, but went further. This concealment could make a person 'disappear'.
Although the Raven Guard's concealment turned them into a shadow, their physical form still existed in the material universe. Observers would simply actively ignore it, but some keen-nosed xenos could still detect them.
But Caelan's concealment was different.
He didn't turn into a shadow. His existence completely disappeared on a cognitive level.
No one could see him. Memories associated with him would also blur. Even data related to him in Cogitators could be affected.
He existed in the material universe, but his 'existence' had completely vanished.
This power was not unfamiliar to Caelan.
On Olympia, the daggers used by those assassins had a similar effect.
When wielding those daggers, the assassins' presence became extremely faint. Mortals would completely ignore them, and only psykers and Primarchs could see through their concealment.
This power could be used for concealment, and also for killing.
Those killed by 'concealment' would have their bodies and souls destroyed, memories of them would vanish, photos, data, texts, documents, every record related to them would disappear. Their traces would be permanently erased from the timeline!
If taken further, even their children would become 'non-existent', and even the timeline itself could be rewritten!
If the Emperor were erased by this power, what would become of humanity?
Humanity has only one Emperor of Mankind. Without him, humanity could never unite again.
Human history would regress to the bloody quagmire of the Age of Strife. Techno-barbarian warlords on Terra would fight amongst themselves. Malcador might become one of those warlords, or go into hiding. The Custodes and Primarchs would never be born. The Great Crusade would never begin. All humanity would be destroyed by xenos enslavement or Chaos corruption.
The consequences of abusing this power were so terrible that even Caelan shuddered.
But using it to erase an enemy was not so simple.
Even as an Alpha-level psyker, Caelan could currently only use it to conceal his own existence.
Erasing a mortal would be easy, but erasing the Emperor would require the personal intervention of the four Gods.
Yet even the Chaos Gods could not erase the Emperor across the Veil separating reality from the Warp.
Unless the Emperor voluntarily stepped into the Warp's domain, or reality had already merged with the Warp.
Magnus's original intention in teaching this 'truth' to Caelan was not for killing, but for self-defence.
As long as Caelan could master this power, no one could detect him.
Caelan was still a beginner. Although Amon's vision didn't include him, Amon could still remember him.
The progress wasn't bad. Caelan wouldn't overestimate himself.
He was only mortal. He couldn't compare to Magnus or Malcador, let alone the Emperor.
Just getting started was good enough.
"Tizca! I see the walls!"
Mephia's shout came over the comm channel. The exhausted task force's spirits lifted.
Although Caelan's psychic barrier was unbreakable, keeping the Psychneuein swarm out, the sky-covering black cloud still oppressed their spirits.
The swarm was only blocked, not dead. The shadow of death had not disappeared.
The hours-long journey was relatively short, but under this pressure, it felt endless.
Now, with the walls of Tizca finally in sight, they felt long-awaited joy.
They were finally going home!
"Little Mag," Caelan called inwardly.
"I'm here, Father. Leave it to me."
Their minds were tightly interwoven through psychic power. They could find each other even across light-years, let alone a mere few dozen kilometres.
Caelan understood the limitations of his own power well. He was, after all, not Magnus or Neoth.
He could either focus on maintaining the barrier to ensure the convoy's safety or attack the Psychneuein swarm.
Forcing himself to do both would inevitably create gaps in the psychic barrier.
The Psychneuein, predators born from the Warp, were as ferocious as minor daemons.
Their sharp claws and pincers could easily tear ceramite, and they could implant eggs into Astartes even through their power armour.
Now, tens of millions of Psychneuein were frantically assaulting Caelan's barrier.
Although Caelan's psychic power was vast, the pressure on him was also immense. He could not afford distractions.
If Caelan were alone, he would try to maintain the barrier while destroying the swarm.
But Caelan was not alone. His sons would help him.
Weighing the options, Caelan chose to focus on maintaining the barrier.
He would rather do nothing than make a mistake.
As long as the convoy reached Tizca safely, Magnus's power was enough to resolve the crisis they faced.
When the Psychneuein swarm attacked Tizca last time, Caelan had made the same choice.
As the convoy approached Tizca, the Psychneuein swarm poured towards the city like sharks sensing blood.
There was a richer feast in the city, completely undefended!
But the moment they flew over the city walls, as the swarm passed through the seemingly harmless psychic barrier, tens of thousands of Psychneuein suddenly and eerily stiffened, plummeting from the sky.
Their fall to the ground was like a rainstorm. The crackling sound of impacts was incessant, quickly forming mountains of insect corpses in the city.
The residents of Tizca were prepared. They cautiously emerged from their homes.
"There's no risk of them resurrecting, is there?"
Izara joked as she, under Khayonn's watchful eye, collected the Psychneuein corpses and sealed them in specially made psychic containers.
Although these Warp entities were dangerous, their corpses held inestimable value.
Whether for medicinal purposes or rituals, they were excellent materials.
Warp entities feed on life in the material universe. Original annihilators can also be summoned through blood sacrifice.
The material universe can, in turn, exploit these Warp entities.
Although Warp entity corpses are difficult to preserve in the material universe for long, Magnus grasped the 'truth'.
Warp entity corpses disappear because they don't belong to the material universe and are expelled by it after death.
But as long as a specific concentration of Warp energy could be maintained, their corpses could be preserved intact.
Magnus had not burned them all to ash for this reason.
He had taught the Prosperines the craft of making psychic containers. The difficulty wasn't the craft itself, but how to acquire it.
The multiplication table isn't difficult, but someone who has never been to school might never learn to calculate, even though their IQ is not low.
The Prosperines were all psykers. Making these containers was child's play for them.
Tens of millions of Psychneuein corpses, they could not let them go to waste.
These creatures had feasted on Prosperines for years. Now it was time for them to pay their debt!
If Warp entities find life in the material universe highly nourishing, why shouldn't the reverse be true?
It's not only the Warp that can consume the material universe. The material universe can also consume the Warp!
Mortals can't digest them. Psykers can.
If psykers can't, Astartes can.
If Astartes can't, the Primarchs themselves can.
One day, he would counter-attack into the Warp!