"Open the city gates, quickly!" An urgent voice called out over the comm channel.
The convoy raced towards the city walls in a cloud of dust. The guards, hearing the call, opened the gates.
The gates had barely opened a crack when the black, pressing mass of the Psychneuein swarm surged forward like a tidal wave.
Although these Warp predators had low intelligence, their hunting instincts drove them to seek advantage and avoid harm.
Knowing that high-altitude attacks were proving fatal, they sought other breakthroughs.
The most dangerous were the swarms that had been following the convoy all along. They reached the city gates even before the transport trucks.
Though it was by chance, the gate area indeed had no psychic barrier, otherwise the entering convoy would also have been indiscriminately destroyed.
If the swarm were allowed to pour through the gates, Tizca would face annihilation!
But Caelan and Magnus's coordination was seamless.
Before the convoy arrived, the pale blue psychic barrier had already quietly extended to the gates, leaving only a finger-width gap with Magnus's barrier to prevent mutual cancellation.
These gaps were not small, but the Psychneuein were large. Forcing their way through would inevitably touch Magnus's barrier.
The rain kept falling, the atmosphere not quite harmonious.
Swaths of Psychneuein fell from the sky like kites with cut strings. The convoy slowly entered the city gates amidst this downpour, tyres crunching over the growing mounds of insect corpses.
Although the residents of Tizca were going all out, frantically collecting the corpses with special containers, the rate of the swarm's death far exceeded their cleanup efficiency.
As the last transport truck entered the city, Caelan's psychic barrier began to contract.
Almost simultaneously, Magnus's barrier perfectly filled the defensive gap, completely covering the entire city.
Like a giant, transparent piece of amber encasing the city, showing the people inside living and working in peace and contentment.
But if anyone tried to enter the amber, they would die instantly.
The black Psychneuein swarm uselessly rushed into the barrier, only to turn into a torrential downpour.
One unlucky person was even knocked unconscious by the falling masses of corpses in this downpour. If other residents hadn't dragged him back indoors, he might have become the city's sole casualty, his ridiculous manner of death a cautionary tale for all Tizcans.
"Everyone to your positions! The psychic array must be restarted within the hour!"
The convoy drove along the marble streets into the pyramid. The transport trucks parked in stages at designated assembly areas. The waiting Tizcans immediately helped unload, assembling the device that would change Prospero's fate.
Although Magnus's psychic barrier protected Tizca, the threat of the Psychneuein was not yet eliminated.
As long as the 'hole' between the Warp and reality still existed, the Psychneuein would continue to pour in, potentially even attracting more terrible Warp entities.
Only restarting the psychic array could completely seal the 'hole' and end this disaster lasting nearly a century.
Caelan did not stay. His power was no longer needed here.
He went to the top of the pyramid, where Magnus was intently gazing at the linen-wrapped giant bird.
"Father, do you dream?"
Magnus did not turn around, but the moment Caelan's footsteps sounded, he sensed his arrival.
The bond between them was so close that they could communicate telepathically without words.
Caelan walked towards Magnus. "Yes, I still dream."
"I dream that one day, humanity can become the master of the galaxy, no longer bound by the shadow of the Warp."
"Then we will no longer have to worry every day about survival. We can live leisurely in the Emperor's palace. You, your brothers, Neoth, Malcador, and I, we can play chess, sip tea, and plan humanity's future."
"Is that a dream, or a hope?"
"Unless the dream comes true, a hope is just an imaginative dream."
"Whatever your hopes, Father, we will make them real."
Caelan asked, "But what about the Emperor?"
Although the Emperor was occasionally inhuman, he still deserved Caelan's respect.
The Emperor had always been the Emperor, from his birth tens of millennia ago to the present. His grand ambition had never changed, unwavering.
He had spent tens of millennia accumulating experience, seeking the truth.
Now the path to redemption was before him. Who could bear to see him fail at the final hurdle?
Caelan was not Erda.
Even though he too was a father to the Primarchs, he did not demand half of everything from the Emperor.
That wasn't right.
Magnus asked, "Father, have you ever regretted your choices?"
A look of reminiscence appeared in Caelan's eyes.
After all these years, did he regret it?
He had voluntarily searched the galaxy for the Primarchs, driven by a pressing desire to do something to change the world and avert tragedy.
He didn't want to spend his life in a daze, plastering and hauling concrete, eating corpse starch every day, only to die unremarked in his bed twenty years later.
He was just one of the masses. His name would not appear in history books, nor was it carved on the bricks of the Imperial Palace.
He would have no part in the magnificent Great Crusade, nor would he witness the poignant epic of the Horus Heresy.
That was not the life he wanted.
Having been transmigrated once, who wouldn't want to leave a bold mark on history?
"Someone once asked me, would you rather be a nobody, live a safe life, and die in bed with a catheter? Or live less than thirty years but be remembered forever?"
Magnus asked, "Did Father ask you that?"
"Not him. An NPC in a trailer-fraud game from the M3 era."
"I didn't like the game's endings. They were all tragedies."
"No matter what I chose or did in the game, the final result made me regret it."
"Even when they later added a DLC that let you become normal, I still regretted it."
"Because I lost the chance to be famous, and the rest of my life would be as an unknown nobody."
"So I chose to reload the save and continue my life of crime in the city, as the famous V."
"As long as I didn't make a choice, the ending couldn't find me."
"But that was just a game. The code framework of a game meant the ending couldn't be changed."
"Reality isn't a game. I have no reloads. One wrong step, and everything goes wrong."
"I also face many choices, but the outcomes are unknown."
"You ask if I regret it. I think the answer is no." Caelan said. "I have done everything I could, everything I should. If the outcome is still tragic, if I am the cause of that tragedy, then I would surely regret it."
"But at least for now, I don't. I have no regrets yet."
Magnus asked, "And what about our other father? Does he regret?"
Caelan answered, "I don't think so. You meet him often in your dreams, so you should know him. He's someone who doesn't stop until he achieves his goal."
"As long as he can achieve his goal, any sacrifice is worth it."
"He, like me, will only regret it when his plan fails."
"He won't regret making the plan, only that he failed to timely remedy the plan's flaws, leading to total defeat."
Although he had helped raise the Primarchs, teaching them through his words and actions about the crisis facing humanity and the mission they bore...
He had also indirectly taken from the Emperor the Primarchs' spiritual belonging. This might lead to 'loving, filial' conflicts between the Primarchs and the Emperor in the future.
But the Emperor would never regret it.
Family affection was just another expendable bargaining chip in the Emperor's eyes.
Including himself, nothing was unsacrificable.
He would grieve the sacrifice of those close to him, but as long as he believed the sacrifice was worthwhile, he would not regret it.
If the Emperor were ever pushed to the brink...
If the four Chaos Gods proposed that by handing over all the Primarchs and sacrificing half of humanity, humanity could be forever free from the Gods' influence...
Even if the Chaos Gods' proposal contained no hidden traps, the Emperor would still hesitate.
He would put even himself on the table, let alone the Primarchs and mortals.
In his mind, nothing was unsacrificable.
But this situation only existed in hypothesis.
If the Emperor were pushed to the brink, he would not have the standing to negotiate with the four Gods, nor would They make a trap-free offer.
If he were not at the brink, he would never compromise with the four Gods.
The Emperor bore the hopes of all humanity. The four Gods had no spirit of selfless dedication.
This was their fundamental contradiction.
The Emperor had found a clear, unquestionable path to redemption. The path was difficult, but as long as he walked it, he would find a way out.
Therefore, no matter what temptation the four Gods offered, no matter how beautiful Their promises, They could not shake the Emperor's resolve.
If someone, standing safely on the shore, only stirred up trouble without even wetting their shoes, they were universally recognized as a 'hypocrite'.
But if someone who could stand safely on the shore chose to throw themselves into the game, risking drowning to save the people from disaster...
Such a person was undoubtedly a 'martyr'.
The Emperor could have stayed out of it, but he chose to defy fate, risking his life.
So the Emperor was humanity's martyr!
No matter what he had done, or what had happened...
As long as the plan hadn't failed, he would never feel regret.
Things hadn't reached the final step yet. Victory or defeat was still unknown!
Magnus was silent for a long time. Even he had not expected his two fathers to understand each other so well.
Magnus's voice was hoarse. "What if... what if he wants to sacrifice you? Would you regret it then?"
Caelan looked at his son. Magnus lowered his gaze, deliberately avoiding Caelan's eyes.
His long confrontation with the fragment had allowed him to glimpse certain fragmented prophecies from the river of fate.
And those prophecies were particularly unfavourable to Caelan. That was why he asked.
It wasn't hard to guess.
What role would he play in this?
Would the other Primarchs stand by and let the Emperor sacrifice him?
Or would the Emperor have already sacrificed them first?
"Would he succeed?"
Magnus was stunned. He clearly hadn't expected Caelan's first concern to be the Emperor's success or failure.
He was silent for a moment, complex emotions flickering in his eyes. He replied quietly, "Perhaps... it could be considered a success."
Caelan replied, "If this truly happens, the future me might regret it."
"But I will not be anxious about prophecies that haven't come true. Some prophecies might be carefully woven lies from Tzeentch."
"If I believe those lies, confront the Emperor or even part ways with him, that would be far too foolish."
"Even if the prophecy does come true, as long as he succeeds, at least it won't be a total loss."
Caelan paused. "Actually, I suspected this back on Terra. If I continued educating the Primarchs, perhaps one day I would end up on his sacrifice list. That's the price."
"Even he and Malcador are on that list. Why should I be an exception?"
"But I don't regret my choice. I would rather be sacrificed and be remembered, than die unknown from disease."
"If you must ask what I regret..."
Caelan's voice was full of resentment. "I regret not chanting the God-Emperor's holy name day and night, so he would have come to me sooner. Then I wouldn't have spent five years plastering and hauling concrete, eating five years of corpse starch!"
"Your biological father is a real piece of work. He was going to sacrifice me, but still made me do manual labour. Is that how you treat a person?"
"In M3, I would have packed my bucket and run long ago!"
"Do you really trust him that much?"
"It's not just trust. I understand him."
"But you've spent less time with him than you have with Angron. How can you be sure you understand him?"
"Some people fall in love at first sight and stay together through life and death."
"Others run a ten-year race, only to break up over an 880,000 dowry."
"In your eternal lives, what are these few years I've spent with you?"
"In ten thousand years, this time will be like a few fleeting days in a mortal's life."
"In my short life, although many memories have blurred, I don't even remember what I ate a year ago today..."
"Some small things that happened on an ordinary afternoon, I still remember vividly. The lessons they taught me still remind me today."
"Understanding him has nothing to do with him. It's about my own bias."
"You have bias against him?"
"I have bias against all of you. It's called a stereotype."
"Everyone has stereotypes. You have them about me, about the Emperor, about your other brothers. For example, you foresee that the Emperor will sacrifice me. Do you believe this future will occur?"
Magnus nodded silently.
"That's your stereotype of the Emperor. The reality is, sacrificing me would entail risks beyond measure for him."
"The Primarchs might betray him for it. Since he would take that risk, it could only be because he was forced into a corner with no other choice."
So what would be a 'corner'? Perhaps if all the Primarchs were dead.
What would lead to all the Primarchs being dead?
Caelan didn't know. Magnus probably didn't know either.
He had only seen fragments of the future. The future wouldn't strip bare and show him every detail like a paid performer.
"Little Mag, if he really wanted to sacrifice me, would you stop him?"
Magnus's gaze was resolute. "Yes. As long as I live, I will protect you at all costs!"
"Then promise me, don't die before I do. Otherwise, I'll have no one to protect me."
"And don't misunderstand your father because of a false future. That's just Tzeentch's trick!"
Magnus lowered his head. "I understand, Father."