Leticia looked at the reborn Crimson Sage before her, observing the pure, untainted wisdom and loyalty in her eyes, and a satisfied, gentle smile appeared on her face.
She could feel Magna's sense of responsibility and compassion for her old kin, emanating from the depths of her soul.
It was not a burden.
Instead, it was a brand new, purest desire to protect—a desire to share the light she had obtained with more of her family.
"They are also your family."
Leticia smiled and nodded gently at Magna, her voice soft yet filled with unquestionable certainty.
"Go."
"Bring them back from ten thousand years of suffering."
"Yes, my Goddess!"
Having received Leticia's permission, a flash of indescribable, profound gratitude crossed Magna's beautiful crimson eyes.
She bowed deeply to Leticia once more.
Then, her figure rose slowly and gracefully into mid-air, like a weightless feather.
She hovered above the ruins of the crystal city of Tizca, which was still burning.
Behind her was the purified, clear blue sky.
Beneath her feet lay the filthy, blood-red earth soaked in war and despair.
She hovered there quietly, like the first and brightest morning star rising on the boundary between dawn and night.
...
Amidst the ruins, the battle continued.
The surviving Thousand Sons sorcerers were making a final, desperate stand, relying on broken cover against the Space Wolves who were flooding into the city like mad dogs.
Their psychic powers had long since fallen into chaos due to the destruction of their home.
The flesh on their bodies had also undergone various terrifying and nauseating mutations due to uncontrollable power.
Some sorcerers had arms that transformed into writhing, fleshy tentacles covered in eyeballs.
Others had their backs torn open, sprouting a pair of asymmetrical, ugly wings made of bone and rotting flesh.
They were the most pathetic scholars in this universe.
They were the most tormented seekers of knowledge in The Galaxy.
They had been created by their father, yet they suffered a ten-thousand-year curse because of this creation.
They were lonely children lost in a storm of knowledge, unable to find their way home.
Just then.
An unprecedented psychic ripple, so pure that it made their souls tremble, swept across the entire battlefield like the gentlest tide.
It was not any energy they were familiar with from the Subspace, which was full of impurities and malice.
It was a... deeply familiar psychic power, originating from the very depths of their genes, belonging to their Gene-Father!
But... it was completely different!
There was no longer the madness and pain hidden deep within the power, enough to drive anyone insane.
Replacing it was a sense of absolute harmony and serenity, as vast as the cosmic sea and as pure as a newborn infant.
The surviving Thousand Sons sorcerers stopped casting spells in unison.
They walked out from their respective cover and ruins in a daze, lifting their heads.
Then, they saw.
They saw their newborn, goddess-like Gene-Father, hovering above the city, bathed in holy radiance.
No... it was their Gene-Mother.
Extreme, unbelievable shock and bewilderment appeared on everyone's faces.
At this moment, a gentle voice, filled with compassion and wisdom, resonated slowly not through the air, but directly in the depths of each of their souls.
"My children."
Magna opened her arms, and her beautiful crimson eyes, shimmering with the brilliance of wisdom, gently swept over every pained, bewildered, or mutated face below.
"For a long time, you have suffered for pursuing knowledge."
"You have been twisted by the desire for power."
"Your souls have struggled in endless lies and pain, and your bodies have wailed under the power that has spiraled out of control."
Her voice carried a divine, soothing power capable of healing all wounds.
"Today."
"I shall grant you true peace."
"And true wisdom, the path to the truth!"
As she finished speaking.
Magna closed her eyes, and the vast psychic power within her, purified by the power of creation and strong enough to shake the stars, was completely released!
But it was not a violent energy storm.
Nor was it world-destroying psychic lightning.
It was a gentle, beautiful, crimson rain of light.
Billions of crimson light particles, like dandelion seeds composed of the purest wisdom and life, diffused from her body, covering the entire burning crystal city like the most resplendent meteor shower.
The rain of light fell.
When the first drop of "rain" landed gently and softly on the arm of a Thousand Sons sorcerer that had already mutated into a bird-like claw.
A miracle occurred.
Sizzle—a soft sound.
The mutated, ugly flesh melted and reversed rapidly under the crimson light, like snow illuminated by the scorching sun!
Twisted bones reshaped themselves, and overgrown flesh peeled away.
In just a few seconds, that ugly bird claw was restored to a healthy, complete human arm!
The sorcerer stared blankly at his restored hand, and tears instantly streamed from his eyes!
And this was just the beginning.
The rain of light showered the entire city.
Every Thousand Sons sorcerer touched by the rain of light had all their uncontrollable flesh mutations, which represented curses and pain, completely purified and reversed at this moment!
The psychic power within them, which had been as violent as boiling magma, quickly became stable and calm under the soothing and ordering effect of this rain of wisdom, becoming more powerful and pure than ever before!
More importantly, the mark deep within their souls, planted by Chaos God Tzeentch himself, representing fear, lies, and slavery, was completely erased without a trace, washed away by this higher-dimensional rain of "Truth"!
Replacing it was a brand-new brand.
A pure love for knowledge.
And... an absolute, fanatical loyalty and worship, stemming from the depths of their genes and souls, towards the crimson Goddess above in the sky who had granted them rebirth and redemption!
One after another, the purified and reshaped sorcerers stood up from the ruins.
They threw away their weapons.
Then, in unison, they slowly knelt on the ground, facing the holy figure above in the sky.
One. Ten. One hundred. One thousand.
Thousands upon thousands of completely purified Thousand Sons sorcerers, like the most devout believers called by the same oracle, knelt on one knee at the exact same moment!
The uniform sound of their armor colliding with the ground converged into a solemn, thunderous roar!
Immediately after, a tsunami-like chorus of praise, filled with endless fanaticism and worship, resounded throughout all of Prospero!
"Praise to you! Great Magna!"
"Praise to you! Incarnation of Truth!"
"Praise to you! The only Goddess who saved us from the ten-thousand-year curse!"
Their voices converged into a torrent of faith strong enough to shake the firmament, dispersing the last traces of smoke from the war in the sky!
A brand new, pure, loyal psychic legion that mastered true wisdom—the "Crimson Witch Corps"!
At this moment, it was officially born!
Leticia stood at the top of the pyramid, watching all of this calmly, a satisfied smile on her face.
The mission in the historical slice had been successfully completed.
It was time to return with her new Sisters and this newly acquired, powerful legion.
With a thought, she prepared to initiate the return sequence.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the real universe.
Outside the Holy Terra system, the massive "Indomitus Crusade" fleet was sailing slowly through the cold sea of stars like a silent herd of steel behemoths.
The supreme astropathic chamber of the flagship, the "glory of macragge".
Hundreds of Astropaths were sitting cross-legged on a massive astropathic altar constructed of gold and obsidian, like lifeless statues, day after day, processing the vast, ocean-like torrent of information from every corner of the Imperium.
Suddenly!
A senior Grandmaster-level Astropath, responsible for monitoring deep-Subspace psychic signals, began to convulse violently without warning!
"Urgh... ah..."
He suddenly opened his already withered, empty eye sockets, and two streams of blood, like red tears, gushed out from them!
Immediately after, his nostrils, his ears, his mouth...
From all seven orifices, at the same time, blinding, viscous blood poured out!
"No... impossible... this... what is this..."
His mind was completely overwhelmed in an instant by "information" from beyond distant time and space that he could neither understand nor withstand!
He let out a scream so shrill it didn't sound human, jolted up from the altar, and stumbled, reaching out in terror towards the center of the astropathic chamber, towards the towering blue figure who was discussing the star map with a group of Tech-Priests!
"Regent——!!"
His voice was filled with ultimate fear, enough to make a mortal's heart shatter in an instant!
"Regent!!"
"Prospero... the psychic signal from Prospero..."
With his last breath, he roared out the final report that would shake the entire high command of the Empire.
"Has disappeared!!"
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