"Nothing is more sorrowful than seeing you again."
Horus raised his head, gazing at Sanguinius in the heavens—at that beautiful figure shrouded in pure white light. His voice carried a hint of melancholy: "I do not wish to kill you a second time."
"Do you still think you are that Everchosen of the Four Gods, Chaos Warmaster Horus?" Sanguinius's lips curled slightly into a beautiful yet mocking smile.
Hearing this, Horus lowered his head slightly and flexed his fingers, then clenched them into a fist, feeling the power surging through his veins. "Indeed, I am no longer a puppet of the Gods. Their chaotic, deep, and dark power no longer flows within me."
"But Father's power flows within me now. Sanguinius, surely you can see that?"
"The blessings of our Father constitute my bone and blood. In this regard, I am even stronger than I was back then."
"Is that so?"
The mockery in Sanguinius's smile deepened. "That is quite a coincidence. The power of neighbor Alexander also flows within me."
"Then it can be considered a fair fight." Horus clenched his fists and nodded slightly. "Only this time, I am loyal to the Emperor, while you have betrayed him."
"No." Sanguinius's voice turned cold. The mockery in his eyes melted like snow, leaving only a trace of desolation and pity: "What you serve is the very thing our Father spent his entire life resisting."
"That is why he was great."
The moment Sanguinius finished speaking, he transformed into a streak of pure white light, striking right before Horus. The teardrop-shaped head of the Spear of Telesto shimmered with blazing psychic radiance, and the crimson cloth bound to the spearhead fluttered in the wind like a rehearsal for the blood about to be spilled.
How beautiful, Horus thought. His warhammer rose to meet Sanguinius's attack, and pitch-black warp energy erupted like solar prominences. Light and darkness split the world in two. The teardrop spearhead violently shattered Horus's breastplate, but Horus's hammer was inexplicably deflected, grazing past Sanguinius's body. Horus growled as he retreated repeatedly, his gaze fixed on the crimson cloth wrapped around the spear—his hammer had been deflected just by grazing that cloth.
Simultaneously, Sanguinius's jaw moved slightly, crushing the pills hidden in his mouth: High-Efficiency Pill, Super Powerful Luxury Tablet, Tri-State Pill, Floating Pill, Robust Pill, and the Yellow Gate Pill.
Sanguinius swallowed several types of item-based drugs at once, and then...
"Sanguinius!" Sanguinius suddenly shouted his own name.
Horus froze for a moment. Before he could react, an inexplicable terror surged in his heart, and his knees suddenly buckled. BANG!!
Horus knelt directly on the ground.
Item Name: Yellow Gate Pill (Komon-pill)
Origin: 22nd Century Earth, Future Department Store
Production Date: 251.M3
Function: After consuming this pill, if you announce your name and others hear it, they will feel terror and be compelled to kneel. Valid for fifteen minutes.
"What...?"
Before Horus could rise, Sanguinius—his speed and reflexes enhanced by various items—swung the Spear of Telesto and charged. The spear lunged straight for Horus.
A crater formed as if hit by a meteorite, but Horus rolled away with extreme agility, dodging the lethal strike.
"Sanguinius!" Sanguinius shouted his name again, attempting to use the Yellow Gate Pill to restrict Horus's movements.
But it had no effect. Clearly, Horus realized the key to the pill's effect was sound; he adjusted his power armor's sensory systems to neutralize, eliminate, and isolate Sanguinius's voice.
Horus sprang up, his warhammer swinging toward Sanguinius's face, but Sanguinius's body instantly dispersed like gas, causing the hammer to strike nothing but air.
Item Name: Tri-State Pill
Origin: 22nd Century Earth, Future Department Store
Production Date: 233.M3
Function: Consuming this pill allows transformation between gas and liquid states. One pill for liquid, two for gas. Caution: if dispersed by strong winds, it is difficult to re-aggregate.
The Spear of Telesto stabbed toward Horus again. Horus threw up his arm to block; the searing power within him extended through his arm, darkening his gauntlet. The spear struck his gauntlet three times in succession, but all were repelled by that deep, dark power.
Sanguinius's figure shuddered, and a pitch-black silhouette filled with rage, madness, and bloodlust separated from his body. It instantly circled behind Horus, thrusting the spear toward the back of his neck. Horus spun around, swinging his hammer at the dark figure, but the shadow didn't engage him. It flashed past, charging straight for the brown-haired girl.
The girl did not move. The mace known as the Illuminator tore through the air, blocking the dark figure's spear. Lorgar stood firmly in front of the shadow. Simultaneously, Sanguinius's body flickered, turning into white light and merging with the dark silhouette in an instant. The Spear of Telesto flicked upward, knocking the Illuminator out of Lorgar's hand. Sanguinius used the momentum to kick Lorgar in the chest, sending him flying. Sanguinius then swung his spear at the girl. She raised her hand slightly, but in the blink of an eye, Sanguinius turned into a gaseous storm, sweeping past her. The spearhead lunged straight for the twisted Eight-Pointed Star.
This had been Sanguinius's target from the start. Nothing else mattered; as long as Alexander could break free from the entanglement of that Eight-Pointed Star, he could project his power instantly through Sanguinius.
A pair of pale spearheads suddenly blocked Sanguinius. Beta and Gamma, moving as if they were one person, swung their spears in unison to stop Sanguinius's strike.
Sanguinius swept his spear, forcing Beta and Gamma back. But at that moment, Horus appeared behind him like a savage beast wreathed in black clouds. He raised his hammer high and slammed it down on Sanguinius's shoulder—yet the blow only caused Sanguinius's body to dip slightly.
Siegfried Bath Essence: Thirty minutes of immortality...
+ Attack his back +
+ This is the Siegfried Bath Essence, his weakness is his back +
Lorgar, Beta, and Gamma seized the opportunity, charging at Sanguinius's back simultaneously. But Sanguinius's body rapidly vaporized, drifting away from the four Primarchs' pincer attack. The weakness of the Siegfried Bath Essence was indeed the back, but the gaseous ability of the Tri-State Pill perfectly compensated for it.
Horus couldn't help but curse out loud. He slightly regretted saying this would be a "fair fight" earlier.
Sanguinius continued toward the twisted Eight-Pointed Star, but at that moment, the girl lowered her arm slightly. A roar like a midnight storm sweeping through the mountains echoed from the Chaos Star. A hurricane of dust and night manifested, and a figure composed of gales and shadows crawled out of the star. It was a hazy, formless existence—a being born from mortal fear and worship of the midnight winds. It occupied a small domain in the Warp, somewhere between a shapeless warp-entity and a hell-storm. It was not yet truly "born," but the girl summoned it, turning it into a wall of wind to intercept Sanguinius.
It wasn't that this being could defeat Sanguinius—the current Sanguinius was far too powerful for such Warp-bottom-feeders.
Sanguinius quickly realized the girl's intent: she was targeting the Tri-State Pill. Its weakness was exactly this—it could not easily re-aggregate when faced with a raging gale.
Unlike most beings in the galaxy, this girl had actually read Doraemon and was intimately familiar with its gadgets.
Beta, Gamma, Lorgar, Horus, and the storm surrounded Sanguinius.
But Horus remained silent, walking step by step beneath the Chaos Star. He reached out and grabbed the Worldbreaker (Talon of Horus) embedded in Abaddon's Helbrute-arm. With a violent surge of strength, he tore the Talon from Abaddon's body and reattached it to his own arm. Swinging his hammer, the wild gale summoned by the girl began to swirl around the weapon. "Get lost," Horus growled at Beta, Gamma, and Lorgar. "Sanguinius is mine alone to face."
Beta and Gamma obediently took a step back. "We'll go find where Corax is hiding," they said in unison.
Lorgar hesitated for a moment. An equation automatically formed in his mind: Corax is stronger than me, Horus is stronger than Corax, and judging by the previous exchange, Sanguinius is slightly stronger than Horus...
"I will go protect Adonai."
Thus, only Horus and Sanguinius remained on the battlefield.
"Just now, it was only that your equipment was slightly better than mine," Horus said.
"Slightly better?" Sanguinius chuckled mockingly. "You country bumpkin who has never seen 22nd-century gadgets."
"For my Father, I fear no 'gadget,'" Horus whispered.
Hearing this, Sanguinius lowered his eyes, which were filled with pity, disgust, and mockery. "You are always like this, Horus."
"You are the centaur among us. No one can withstand your arrows, and your hooves can crush the stars."
"But you lack the eyes to see through falsehood, to know where those arrows should truly be aimed."
Horus exhaled a breath of scalding, turbid air. He stepped forward, and his searing black warp-fire collided with Sanguinius. Light and darkness, Angel and Warmaster, Holy Doraemon and the Dark King—two completely different powers clashed, reality began to collapse, and the duel between them began to descend into the realm of metaphysics.
The girl gazed at this scene. She didn't know if Horus could defeat Sanguinius. The current Sanguinius was Alexander's Daemon Primarch, blessed by two separate domains, while Horus... Horus was the Primarch of the Dark King. Though the Dark King was dead, the power released into Horus was no less than the blessings of two domains. But Sanguinius still had the gadgets from the 22nd century...
However, the girl didn't expect Horus to win. Delaying was enough. The Chaos Star was slowly tearing away Alexander's divinity. The longer it took, the more irreversible it became...
Was Sanguinius the method Alexander used to deal with this Eight-Pointed Star?
The girl looked at the star and shook her head gently. No, it wouldn't be that simple... Alexander must have a backup plan.
Amidst the rising and falling tides of the Warp, a knight in black armor looked down at the surging waves. These were echoes of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, old dreams from humanity's 30th Millennium. Even after ten thousand years, living beings had not awakened from that dream. Former achievements became history, history became stories passed down by word of mouth, stories were sublimated into myths, and myths finally became dreams, settling in the deepest part of the collective consciousness. There were also older dreams—the dreams of the heroes from the Great Crusade era.
Looking across, the Black Knight saw Khârn's dream. The dream of that crimson warrior was shattered, but the Knight could still make out the content: Khârn dreamed he was one of the Nucerian slaves; he dreamed that through his efforts, his father was never implanted with the Butcher's Nails; he dreamed that he and Angron liberated all of Nuceria together, and even the Emperor marveled at their deeds...
But the Black Knight was not looking for Khârn's dream. What he needed to find was his own dream—the dream of the Eternal Crusade of the one named Sigismund.
"This is the place." Samus circled the Black Knight, pointing at the infinitely extending dream of Sigismund.
Samus had been fed the Momotaro Dango (Peach Boy Dumplings) and had been tamed by the Black Knight to serve as a navigator. The Black Knight took out a tool Alexander had given him long ago—a section of wavy ladder.
Item Name: Dream Cloud Ladder
Origin: 22nd Century Earth, Future Department Store
Production Date: 231.M3
Function: A ladder that allows free entry into and exit from others' dreams, rapid movement between different dreams, and can also lure others into one's own dream.
With the help of this ladder, the Black Knight stepped into Sigismund's dream. He raised his head and quickly found the person he was looking for. Aboard the Eternal Crusader, an elderly Sigismund was confronting Abaddon.
Ancient legends believe that two different people can share the same dream, thereby connecting them.
Now...
"Abaddon, do you still dream?" the Black Knight whispered.