"This is bad!!!"
Seeing the sky enveloped in a blood-red light, Guilliman's face changed drastically. He was reminded of a battle from ten thousand years ago, after the conflict on Calth. He had led the regrouped Ultramarines and had pushed back the combined forces of the World Eaters and Word Bearers. He had them cornered on a single planet, on the verge of scoring a double kill against Lorgar and Angron.
But then that damned Lorgar had performed the daemonic ascension on Angron.
The ascension itself wasn't the end of the world; he could still have fought. But the moment Angron was ascended, the immense blessings of Khorne descended, and Guilliman was beaten straight into the ICU. If not for his incredibly capable Honour Guard, he would have been done for.
And now, the Blood God's blessing was even more powerful than it had been back then. Guilliman immediately hefted the furiously burning Emperor's Sword and prepared to charge out to aid this brother he had never met.
And then...
"Dad, calm down!!!"
In that instant, every Smurf present felt their heart skip a beat. A veritable mountain of Ultramarines piled onto Guilliman, catching him off guard and pinning him to the ground.
"Father, there are still countless daemons on Macragge that need to be dealt with!"
"You're not him! You don't have that kind of power!"
"Father, don't feed!!!"
"Get off me, all of you!!!"
Seeing his sons instantly fly into a panic, black lines creased Guilliman's forehead. But with this interruption, he realized with a start that he was, in fact, completely unable to intervene.
---o---
In the blood-red sky, Angron once again unleashed his frenzied diving cleave at Zhou Ye. This time, however, Zhou Ye did not choose to meet it head-on. Instead, he swung his sword in a wide arc.
BOOM!!!
In a flash, a massive flaming slash materialized, a hundred-meter-long wave of fire sweeping across the sky. The colossal golden flame-slash collided with the blood-red firmament above, and through the cracks it created, golden light rained down.
Angron himself was sent flying high into the sky by the powerful blow. Zhou Ye bent his knees slightly, and in the next moment...
VMMMM.
With a thunderous roar, Zhou Ye became a streak of golden lightning, shooting straight towards the red angel.
At that moment, the last sliver of hope in Guilliman's heart died. He was a psychic blank, completely incapable of participating in a battle of this caliber.
BANG!!!
In the next instant, Zhou Ye was face-to-face with Angron. Golden lightning continued to crackle across his body. The surging electricity was so powerful that it even caused a momentary paralysis in Angron, despite the blessings of Khorne. It lasted only a split second before the Blood God's power surged and purged the effect.
But that was enough time. They had both left Macragge's atmosphere and were now in the void of space.
Every one of this beast's attacks was on a cataclysmic level. Zhou Ye simply could not fight him on Macragge. This madman didn't know the meaning of holding back, and this wasn't Dragon Ball; no one was going to power down for a fair fight.
In the next moment, Angron once again charged at Zhou Ye, moving in a way that defied the laws of physics.
In response...
BOOM!!!
The shockwave of their collision erupted below. The people of Macragge could only see flashes of gold and red light blinking in the sky. At the same time, Ashira led Zhou Ye's Honour Guard in a charge. They truly couldn't keep up this time; Zhou Ye was moving far beyond the speed of sound, and their jump packs simply couldn't match him. So, they found the other Imperial Primarch.
"Guilliman!!!"
Ashira wasted no time on pleasantries. She went straight to the great blue-armored figure and asked, simply and directly, "You are the only other Primarch here. You are the strongest. Can you go into space and help our Lo... him... fight the fallen Primarch Angron?"
"..."
Feeling the expectant gazes of Zhou Ye's Honour Guard and the nearby Grey Knights, Guilliman slowly raised a hand and pointed at himself.
Are you talking to me? The guy with no psychic powers? You want me to join that god-like battle up there?
He could watch it, sure, but if he went into space, he'd just be floating there like a dead fish.
Useless.
Though Ashira didn't say the word, her eyes conveyed the meaning perfectly.
Meeting that gaze, Guilliman wished he could find a hole to crawl into. The Smurfs behind him couldn't bear to look, averting their eyes one by one. After all, it was this very Honour Guard that had just carried their gene-father back from the front line.
"The wayward path ends in a cage; all evil, near and far, is rendered void."
In the void of space, facing Angron, Zhou Ye spoke slowly. In an instant, he threw out a small but extremely compressed containment field.
ROAR!
Angron's movements stuttered. A huge portion of the blessings from Khorne upon him was instantly stripped away. This deprivation caused Angron to let out a pained scream. But it was clear that one binding field was not enough to kill him; even Fulgrim had been able to withstand it by relying on the immense blessings from the Warp.
But it was enough. Zhou Ye charged forward again.
In a flash of golden light, a golden fissure appeared on Angron's body. An immense aura of death was inflicted upon him.
"NURGLE!!!"
On the Brass Throne, Khorne's furious roar echoed. The Emperor was one thing; he was human, after all, so the gods of the Warp had tacitly accepted that he belonged to humanity's faction. But this... this was different. For those disgusting walking corpses to dare interfere now, how could he not be enraged?
ROAR!
"Time is frozen here!!!"
In the next moment, time around Zhou Ye froze solid. Even Angron's movements became sluggish. This was the Authority of the Herrscher of Finality.
ZZZZZT...
Countless more cuts appeared on Angron's body, and in that instant, another massive chunk of blessings was devoured by Zhou Ye. He had actually operated at a net loss when he shattered Fulgrim; now was the time to recoup his investment, and then some. In his current state, Angron was actually a much lesser threat than he had been when piloting the Caestus Sanguine. Not in terms of destructive power, but without Khorne's direct control, Angron's bestial mind couldn't unleash the full potential of his power. In Zhou Ye's eyes, he was clumsy, full of openings.
Of course, down on Macragge, it had been a different story. He'd had to intercept the brute's attacks to protect the planet. It was like he was holding up all of Macragge with one hand while fighting both Angron and Fulgrim with the other. He might be invincible, but it had been far from easy, and the energy consumption had been terrifying.
"TZEENTCH!!!"
The Blood God was now absolutely furious. This was the magic of Tzeentch, and the highest level of it at that. That blue bird was involved too.
For a moment, the Blood God's rage reached an apex, but he quickly calmed himself.
Because...
Combining this with the other four's interference when he had tried to drag Trailblaze into the Warp, Khorne had a strange sense of déjà vu. He felt as if... he was in the same position as the Emperor ten thousand years ago. He seemed to have pissed everyone off.
At the same time, in space, the golden light in Zhou Ye's eyes grew even more intense.
"A water mirror reflects the past and knows the future; in it, truth and illusion are unseen for a thousand autumns."
The Authority of the Eighth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Sentience, was activated. In an instant, Angron's shattered consciousness seemed to stir. His mind began to recall his past, his happiest moments on Nuceria, the days before he was implanted with the Butcher's Nails. For a brief moment, Angron's rage was greatly suppressed by the sweet, corruptingly beautiful illusion.
"SLAANESH!!!"
At this, Khorne finally stopped laughing. His expression was terrifyingly grim. He realized he was caught in a woven conspiracy. He could genuinely lose this Primarch. As much as he disdained Angron, the fact remained: if an unaligned Primarch truly wanted to pledge allegiance, all four Chaos Gods would welcome him with open arms. No god could refuse the fealty of a Primarch.
So...
HMPH!
The Blood God's furious roar churned the Sea of Souls. He would tear open the barrier to reality with his own hands.
"Crap, went too far. Is Old K coming in person?"
Zhou Ye clearly felt the churning of the Warp. He knew Khorne was a sore loser and was about to enter the game himself. He had only wanted to test if he could reawaken Angron. The experiment was a partial success; the illusion he had woven was instantly torn apart. The brief window of time had only allowed him to rip the wings from Angron's back and devour them for a massive energy boost.
But he hadn't expected Old K to get so bent out of shape. He was actually going to make a personal appearance. It wasn't the worst-case scenario, though. They were very far from the Great Rift, and more importantly... there had been no great sacrifice on Macragge. While a horde of daemons had dropped in, they had all been transported from elsewhere, not summoned locally.
That being the case, Khorne couldn't just shatter the stars. And besides...
In the Warp, four lights—gold, green, blue, and pink—converged and slammed into the enraged Khorne. The scene was almost comical. If you didn't know the true nature of these four great blobs of crap, you might have thought it was a Super Sentai team-up attack.
The Great Warp Clusterfuck had begun, in sync with the battle in realspace!
But...
"Crap, he's recalling Angron."
Zhou Ye noticed the problem. Angron had become strangely distorted and seemed to be in immense pain. He had seen this before; it was similar to when Nurgle had recalled Mortarion. However, the Mortarion of that time couldn't compare to the current Angron, or even the previous Fulgrim. It wasn't that Mortarion was weaker than the two of them, but the circumstances were different. With the opening of the Great Rift, it was much easier for the Chaos Gods to intervene in the material world, and their Daemon Primarchs were correspondingly more powerful.
Since that was the case, Zhou Ye had to change his tactics immediately.
He space-jumped directly behind the disoriented Angron. If Angron had been in his previous state, he would have reacted instantly. But now, due to Khorne's interference, he was in complete chaos.
SQUELCH.
In the next instant, the golden greatsword pierced through him.
The weapon in Zhou Ye's hand began to madly devour the essence within Angron. In the blink of an eye, a massive amount of Khorne's blessings was drained away.
Then...
CRACK.
With the sound of something breaking, Angron vanished.
"Phew..."
Watching Angron disappear completely and the red light over Macragge fade, Zhou Ye felt a tinge of regret but let out a long sigh of relief. The battle was finally over.
"Good thing I was fully prepared and my plan was perfect. No strange curveballs this time. Wait, I seem to recall my original plan was just to fight the Black Legion."
Zhou Ye let out another long sigh. The battle was finally over. He was about to gloat and show off the success of his plan when he remembered that two Daemon Primarchs hadn't exactly been in the original script.
Oh well. In the end, his plan was a success.
First, he had woken up Guilliman. Second, he had laid a super-long Star Rail that stretched practically across the entire galaxy, connecting his home base directly to Macragge.
Clearly, no matter what had happened, Zhou Ye considered it a resounding success. His plans truly were infallible.
---o---
Down on Macragge.
"Phew..."
Feeling the disappearance of the Daemon Primarch, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. Guilliman also relaxed. At least they had won a glorious victory.
But before Guilliman could think any further, a sinister voice whispered in his ear.
"Hehehe... It's been a long time, Roboute Guilliman!!!"
In an instant, the Emperor's Sword ignited with furious flames. Guilliman swung it almost by instinct. I couldn't deal with those two, but I can damn well deal with you!