The mere mention of them turned the entire room frigid cold, with Stelle even swearing she saw some ice forming at the edge of the door. Guilliman himself grimaced at the mere invocation of their memories, being dragged into the memories of the time before the Horus Heresy. Being a Psykic muggle, he could not channel nor handle the energy of the Warp, and Magnus most of the time was invested in repairing his geneseed or researching dark magic to even care about this.
The only ones who knew were Konrad Kurze (but he was an insane madman, driven to ruin by his ever-coming visions of the future), and Perturabo. While the first one was insane with all the knowledge flowing into him at once, the second one, though, he was calmer, more precise...
Guilliman should've believed in Perturabo, instead of dismissing him to the gutter
But that chapter has long gone. I suppose it's time that I move on. The Imperium needs to be saved, with or without them.
But more importantly, I must help brother Shinji in defeating them, otherwise the 'Horus Heresy' will happen again!
Grimacing, Shinji clutched his head as it began switching forms:
An old man with a full beard...
A young boy with freckles on his cheeks...
A teenager sporting wild chicken hair...
A DIL– middle-aged man with scars across his face...
An ethereal face radiating holy light...
All twisting, all moving...
All in pain
Those watching felt immense pain deep in their souls as they watched, with some even bleeding from their eyes as they could not withstand the sight before them. Despite Stelle and Himiko being at the very forefront of display, all they felt was an immense pressure acting upon them:
Roboute Guilliman, Son of the Emperor, had used his blazing sword to shield them from the after effects of the monster of a caricature, though not without a cost of course...
Gazing down at his sword, he grimaced at the cracks that were forming along the edges; any bigger, and they would shatter the blade into pieces.
Damn it brother, rein in on yourself!
Just as it had suddenLy appeared, it quickly disappeared. Combing his sweat-strewn hair, Shinji turned his gaze towards them. "Is everyone alright..."
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Alarms could be heard blazing through the Central Command Center as shadows began appearing across the room, corrupting everything within its sight. Whether it be mechanical or biological, everything began turning into shadows. Heck, one of the staff's hands even turned into a shadow claw, oozing black smoke into the surroundings (to be fair, later on, she bragged about it making her look cool – turns out she was a chuunibyou, and a heavy one at that, much to the dismay of others).
Romani Archamon and Leonardo Da Vinci tried their best to contain the writhing shadows, only barely succeeding after bringing in the Maiden of Orleans. As Jeanne sat panting on the ground, Dan Vinci couldn't help but chug down an entire bottle of iced coffee, trying to calm her nerves. "What the fuck was that!?"
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Deep underground, inside a large hall, dim lights could be seen barely illuminating the large empty hall. Murals of all kinds could be seen decorating the hall, some displaying scenes of men growing wheat, some men hunting for food...
And some men hunting down horrific creatures that plagued the world
At the center of the hall stood a gigantic iron throne, below which patrolled 10 men of enormous strength, no more, no less. Zooming in on the top, an emaciated body could be seen, clad in what appeared to be ancient Japanese apparel. Despite looking very mummified, the monitors on the side indicated it to be, shockingly, alive.
Despite losing their eyes, despite losing their mobility, despite being bound to the throne, they, no...
He
Was still alive...
Suddenly, the body perked up, stars reigniting themselves in its eyes. As the custodian beneath lay shocked, the being, for the first time in 5 millennia, spoke...
You still yet live, my old friend...