Chapter 121: The Final Duel - The Final Chapter
Horus's hands trembled slightly. His chest heaved. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He felt the power of the Four still surging within him, a reminder of the price he had paid for all of this. But deep within his heart, an even stronger pain was tearing at his soul.
Regret and confusion warred for dominance.
"What...what did I do...?" Horus's voice was low and hoarse, as if he had finally snapped out of his madness and realized what the blood on his hands meant. His eyes were empty, yet filled with pain.
Loken still half-supported the Emperor's body, his gaze fixed intently on Horus. "Father! The Emperor is already dead! Give up that damned power!"
His voice carried desperate hope. "You've already lost too much, but it's not too late yet. Let go of this madness, and you still have a chance to return to humanity!"
Sanguinius stepped forward. His golden armor was riddled with cracks. His wounds still dripped blood. Yet his eyes, burning with inner light, revealed deep compassion. He seemed to want to say something, but the words caught in his throat.
Leman Russ stood to the side, holding his spear. His expression was complex...pride and sorrow and something else intertwined. "Horus, lay down that corrupting power of the Four. This is not you, the real you!"
But just as his brothers' voices were trying to touch Horus's heart, the whispers of the Four rang in his ears once more. Their voices intertwined like a malevolent storm echoing in his mind.
"Don't be fooled by their folly!"
"Foolish fools, their logic is nothing but a tragic lie," one voice hissed.
"Do you think the Emperor is really dead? Do you think you can really end this struggle? Ha, the real battle has only just begun!" another laughed, cruel and knowing.
"Leave Francis to me!" a third snarled.
Tzeentch's voice became particularly grating, cutting through the chorus with serpentine certainty. "You think killing the Emperor ends it? Foolish mortal, the Emperor isn't dead at all. He's just waiting, ready to learn from your failure and crush you once again!"
Horus's pupils suddenly contracted. He turned to look at the Emperor's body, which seemed to emanate faint psychic energy, life or illusion, he could no longer tell.
"Why! Even you're lying to me..." Horus muttered to himself, his mind a complete maelstrom. The fractured versions of himself warred for control, each voice claiming truth.
Loken immediately roared incredulously, "You don't even believe me?! Look how corrupt you have become!"
"You don't believe me? Fine! I'll prove it to you! The Emperor is truly dead!" He gripped the blackstone sword and thrust it toward the corpse.
Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
Three times the blade pierced the Emperor's body in succession. Crimson blood flowed down His form. The body only trembled slightly, and then nothing more happened.
"Look! How can He live?! Tell me, how can He live?!" Loken glared, struggling to control himself as he growled at Horus. "You don't even trust your own son! You've been completely controlled by them! You are lost, Father. Even if you become the Dark King now, they will only steal your power!!"
Horus's face contorted at the sight. The inner turmoil drove him almost mad.
"You're lying to me!!!" he roared. "It is you who are trying to take away my power! This was all part of your plan!!"
He clutched his head and banged it repeatedly against the deck, the metal denting under the force of his anguish.
The already corrupted soul now contained a fragment of his former benevolent self, causing Horus agonizing pain as two personalities warring within his head. He desperately tried to reconcile them, but failed.
Boom!
He seemed to be pulled back to the past by an invisible force.
It was the first time he had ever seen the Emperor.
The great golden warrior descended from the sky, illuminating his dark world like a star born anew. The memory was so vivid, so precious, every detail burned into his mind. He clearly remembered the Emperor's gaze upon him; it was not a cold command, but appreciation full of expectation and affection.
"You are my son. You are my first!" The Emperor's words seemed to echo in his ears even now.
Horus remembered kneeling down in that moment...a moment of unwavering loyalty and reverence. He was willing to follow his father to pave the way for His future, to rebuild the galaxy for Him. That loyalty had been absolute.
But now, as memories flooded back, he recalled the years that had followed. He and the Emperor fought alongside each other on countless battlefields, facing endless enemies together.
He remembered how, as he wielded the Talon to shatter the foe, the Emperor's blade flashed across the sky like lightning. Their coordination was flawless. All their enemies trembled before them.
"Today, You were Excellent!" the Emperor had told him. In those days, Horus believed it without doubt.
Beyond the battles, the Emperor's teachings to him were even more profound. He taught him how to rule, how to view the future of humanity, how to suppress his own desires, and how to place the greater good above personal feelings.
Horus remembered those quiet nights when the Emperor would discuss philosophy and civilization with him, talking about hopes and dreams, conversations that shaped his very understanding of purpose.
But the memories gradually became shrouded in shadow. He saw the turning point.
He began to doubt. He began to resist. He remembered feeling lost under the whispers of Magnus and the temptations of the Four Gods, and he remembered questioning the Emperor about why He had left him and why He had made him bear everything. Those questions had opened a door that could never be closed.
Horus pressed his hand to his chest, where an inextinguishable pain seemed to burn, the weight of choices made and unchosen paths.
His eyes welled up with tears, which mingled with the flames of his psychic aura and slid down his cheeks like trails of fire and salt.
He murmured to himself, his voice breaking under the weight of centuries of war. "Father... Father... Father... Why did it turn out like this?"
He saw the Emperor lying on the ground, weak and broken, a state he himself had created. His soul was torn apart. Memories and reality intertwined into endless torment.
"Stubborn to the end!" The whispers of the Four came again, trying to suppress his regret like a hand pressing down on his throat. "Do it! There's no turning back now!"
Horus's body began to rise uncontrollably. His left half raised the Talon high, pointing at Leman Russ, or was it the Emperor wearing his form? Psychic energy surged from his left side, and the weapon flashed with deadly light.
"End him! Now!" the Four commanded, their voices a unified roar that seemed to shake reality.
The roars of the Four seemed to transform into giant waves, propelling him forward against his will. Francis and the others gripped their weapons, preparing to retaliate. This was the moment. This was the end.
But then something broke inside Horus.
"You will not control me anymore!" His right-hand power claw plunged into his own chest without hesitation, embedding itself deep into his body corrupted by darkness. A shockwave of psychic energy erupted from his form, shattering everything around him in a radius of destruction.
His left side contorted in a grotesque grimace as he let out a frenzied roar, a sound of defiance that echoed across the void.
"Horus! Are you insane?! This is outrageous! You were the chosen one!!" The Four shrieked in fury, their reality-warping power thrashing uselessly against his deliberate self-destruction.
His right eye closed peacefully, and he whispered with the last of his will, "This is my salvation!"
The roars of the Four echoed throughout the void. The Vengeful Spirit trembled violently in the midst of this internal conflict.
"Fool!!! Fool!!!" they howled, enraged. They exerted all their strength to try to regain control of Horus's body, ordering him to pull out the power claw embedded in his chest. But he would not obey.
Horus's face was contorted, half with frenzied rage from the Chaos trying to reassert control, and half with painful resolve from his human will fighting back. His left arm muscles were taut as if being pulled by steel cables, Khorne's raw fury trying to force his hand to withdraw the killing blow.
However, his right side radiated a faint but firm light. The power of his right hand pressed down on the claw with all his might. His knuckles were reduced to white bone from the force, and blood dripped down the claw's blades. He would not relent. He could not.
"Leman Russ" took a deep breath. His figure gradually returned to its original form, the Emperor, revealed at last.
In His right hand, He held a seemingly crude weapon: a dagger made of sharpened stone. It was ancient and simple, quite incongruous with the Emperor's magnificent form, yet it exuded an indescribable aura of destiny, as if this moment had been written into the fabric of reality itself.
Horus struggled to lift his head. In his eyes appeared the figure he could never forget.
"Father...you're really not dead!" His voice was filled with disbelief, yet also tinged with relief, as if waking from a nightmare to find salvation, only to realize the nightmare was real.
The Emperor approached silently. His steps were slow and deliberate, as if afraid of disturbing this shattered battlefield where everything hung in balance. His gaze was complex and profound, containing both reluctance and endless pain.
He stood before Horus, slowly raising the dagger. Its blade reflected a dull light, not the gleam of a warrior's weapon, but the worn look of something sacred and terrible.
"Horus....." the Emperor spoke, His voice low and calm. "This all ends now."
Horus's expression shifted from shock to relief. He glanced down at the power claw embedded in his chest, his statement of defiance, his final act of will. Then he looked up at the Emperor, and a bitter smile appeared on his lips.
The smile of a son who had wandered so far he could never find his way home.
"Is it over? This has been a long nightmare..." His tone was one of exhaustion and profound relief. "I can finally rest?"
The Emperor stretched out His hand and grasped Horus's right arm, the arm that held the power claw against his chest, the arm that had chosen humanity over godhood. That hand was still as warm and strong as ever. His eyes were filled with pain, yet they also revealed a final tenderness that only a father could show a son who had fallen so far.
"I'm so glad... you're still here," Horus said softly, a tear sliding down his ravaged cheek. "Father, I have reached the end... Let me finish this as a son."
The Emperor's hand trembled slightly, but His face remained cold and composed, the face of a denied god who must do what mortals cannot bear to imagine.
He raised the dagger and said softly, with a voice like the closing of an age.
"You will always be my son, Horus. You will find peace in tranquility."
...
The Four in the sky roared in unison. Their deafening roars echoed at the boundary between the materium and the immaterium, reality itself screaming under the weight of their fury. The power of the Four poured out wildly, trying to immobilize the Emperor and stop this mercy killing.
However, Horus still firmly kept his claw embedded in his body. No matter how they tried to control him, they could not pull out the deadly implement. His will held. His defiance remained.
The dagger's blade gleamed coldly as it rose into the air one final time.
Horus closed his eyes. A relieved smile still lingered on his lips, the smile of a man who had finally found absolution in sacrifice.
"I love you! Father." His voice was barely a whisper, yet it carried everything unsaid, all the apologies never made, all the loyalty that had endured even through his fall.
The roar of the Four reached its peak at this moment, as if the entire universe was being torn apart. Reality fractured around them. But the dagger still resolutely pierced Horus's armor and penetrated his heart.
A dazzling surge of psychic energy rushed into the dagger like a torrent. The blade began to emit blinding light. The entire Vengeful Spirit seemed to be submerged in the intense radiance, not the harsh light of war, but the soft golden glow of ending.
As the last ray of light surged in, Horus's body completely collapsed. What remained was a withered corpse, curled up in the center of the shattered battlefield. Empty. At peace. Finally free.
The Emperor knelt on the ground. The dagger in His hand fell to the deck. He looked down at the corpse before Him, His face filled with endless weariness and grief.
The Warmaster was no more.
The heresy has ended.
But the cost... the cost was written in the Emperor's tears and Blood.
[End of Chapter]
Want to read more than 50+ chapters right now!
patreon.com/cw/Mr_UmU
https://www.patreon.com/Mr_UmU
____
Want bonus chapters? You got it.
Goal: 200 – Achieved: 212 = 2 Bonus Chapters
📌 1 Power Stone on the Book Page = 100 on Chapter Pages!
!! VISIT the BOOK PAGE to donate your Power Stone.