Without the Primarch, the remaining enemies were no threat at all.
The thousand sorcerers and daemons, having lost their leader, were shattered to pieces by the concentrated hail of fire the Blood Angels unleashed.
Datch used the Infinity Gauntlet to drag the young Magnus out of the ruins.
The Battle of Prospero was over. The cleanup would be handled by Sanguinius.
The Primarch Magnus would probably be taken to Terra, imprisoned, and put on trial.
Datch did not care much about that. He had to continue his mission.
He summoned the TARDIS telephone box and took the young Magnus to the next location.
By the time Ferrus rushed over, the TARDIS telephone box had already vanished into the flow of time.
Ah… you're really going to abandon me like this?
Nameless one, you are truly the worst kind of person.
They left without even saying goodbye?
"You'll get used to it eventually. For the nameless one, that's reality."
Seeing Ferrus's dejected expression, Sanguinius lightly patted his shoulder.
"Come back to Terra with me and escort the traitor Magnus back."
"That's all we can do." Primarch Ferrus quickly settled his feelings and set out with Sanguinius on the journey back to Terra.
...
Inside the TARDIS telephone box,
the young Magnus approached Datch, who was standing in front of the control panel, and asked, "What on earth is going on?"
"Why did I become like that?"
During the battle, Magnus had discovered a fact that filled him with terror.
That man with daemonic horns and daemonic wings was himself ten thousand years later.
He could not understand at all why he had become like that!
"Do you want to know the truth?"
Datch turned around, saw the exclamation mark displayed above Magnus's head, and felt that the time had come to reveal his next fate to him.
"Yes! I definitely want to know why I end up looking like that in the future!" Magnus nodded.
"Alright. Then I'll show you what you did."
Datch adjusted the TARDIS telephone box and took Magnus to the moment when the other party faced the Emperor.
To keep his identity from being exposed, Datch put on a stone hat from Doraemon's gadget and handed Magnus a frog-shaped candy.
He turned the other party into a frog, set him on his shoulder, and walked out of the TARDIS telephone box.
As the Great Crusade progressed, Prospero was discovered, and the Emperor was surprised to learn that his son was there.
The golden Imperial Dream floated in orbit above the planet Prospero.
The people of Prospero held a grand ceremony to celebrate the arrival of the Master of Mankind.
In the center of Tizca's largest square, a red-carpeted path stretched from the entrance all the way to the highest viewing platform at the very back.
On the carpet stood scholars, artisans, psykers, and ordinary citizens of Prospero.
Their faces shone with pride and smiles; they wore formal attire that was worn only during the most magnificent festivals.
At the end of the red carpet, on the high platform, the Magnus of the original story was welcoming his father.
Datch stood among the crowd and watched this scene.
Magnus, transformed into a frog, also stared intently.
"This is your first meeting with His Majesty the Emperor. In reality, even before the official meeting, you had already met many times in the Warp."
Datch recounted the entire sequence of events in a voice only Magnus could hear.
"That's why the Emperor dotes on you and gives you treatment he does not give to your other brothers."
"He talked with you all night and told you more about the Warp in detail."
"But he also warned you to be extremely careful with the Warp."
"You, however, found it bothersome and refused to listen. Even at this point you stubbornly believe that if you act carefully and wisely, you can completely control the Warp."
Magnus, now in the form of a frog, silently listened to the Nameless One's story.
Datch's strange frog-like appearance attracted a lot of attention, but people were immersed in the joy brought by the Emperor's arrival and did not pay it much mind.
After finishing the story of the meeting with the Emperor, Datch took Magnus to the next destination.
This time, however, he did not summon the TARDIS; he chose to use the power of the Infinity Gauntlet and the Time Stone.
Emerald-green light burst forth, and the surrounding scenery changed once again.
Datch led Magnus into the pyramid.
This was a secret room deep inside the Great Library of Tizca; it was not open to the public.
In the original story, Magnus and company commander Ahriman were in the secret room, looking at the mutated Thousand Sons warriors imprisoned in iron cages. Painful expressions floated on their faces.
Inside the room, while staring at the mutated Thousand Sons in the cages, an expression of pain floated on his face.
The prisoner was a Thousand Sons warrior named Karim, a psyker from Prospero who had once been a handsome young man.
Now the monster in the cage no longer displayed any features associated with the name "Karim."
Its skin was an eerie color that constantly shifted between deep purple and deep green.
The surface was no longer smooth; it was covered with pustules of various sizes that swelled and burst like boiling mud.
Its limbs had lost the proportions and shapes a human should have, and presented an extremely distorted and terrifying appearance.
The most terrifying was its face. Every feature of the face had become distorted.
Its mouth faced upward, and the entire head was split in two. It was an extremely terrifying, hair-raising sight.
After returning to the Imperium, the Emperor entrusted Magnus with the Thousand Sons, an army composed solely of psykers.
Magnus was extremely attentive to his children and eagerly taught them the techniques and knowledge for using Warp energy.
He poured his own understanding of the Warp, his mastery of psychic power, and his inexhaustible passion for knowledge, little by little, into the depths of their souls.
However, the Thousand Sons Legion has a fatal flaw: it is extremely easy to induce mutation.
The gene-seed of the Thousand Sons Legion was unstable from the beginning, causing most of the recruits to fail the transformation and turn into monsters.
Even those who survived the surgeries could lose control of the power inside their bodies during intense combat and trigger uncontrollable mutations.
Karim was only one of the victims.
Magnus took every possible measure to solve the mutation problem of the Thousand Sons.
He examined every available ancient text and searched for the secret methods psykers of various eras had used to stabilize their own power.
He dispatched his most trusted successors to various places in the galaxy and had them collect records on psychic mutation and countermeasures from other civilizations.
He stepped into the Warp again and again, trying to find a way to completely eradicate mutation.
"You stepped into the Warp seeking a cure in order to save your Legion."
Datch explained the mutations of the Thousand Sons to Magnus, who had been transformed into a frog.
While speaking, he changed the time and place many times.
He manipulated the flow of time at will, turning it into a toy in his hands.
A new scenario appeared.
Magnus stepped deep into the Warp. It was a merciless, all-out attempt.
In order to solve the mutation problem of his children, he completely ignored the Emperor's warning.
His adventure was rewarded. On a grassland created by a supreme being of the heavens, he encountered an old man.
"You poor thing. Are you looking for the answer to your question?"
"Perhaps I can be of help. I know a place where the answers to all your doubts are hidden."
Magnus did not want to pay the other party any attention at all, because the Warp is full of lies, and if he were deceived even a little, he could be completely destroyed.
However, the other party's words made him involuntarily stop.
"Don't try to deceive me. Otherwise you will pay the price," Magnus said to the old man.
"How could I deceive you? I only want to help you," the old man said.
Magnus hesitated for a moment, but in the end decided to accept the old man's help.
After all, he did not know where else he could find a solution to the mutation problem of his children.
The old man led Magnus to a well that emitted a mysterious light.
"This well is named Eternity. Every secret and every answer is there." The old man who had guided Magnus to the Well of Eternity explained things to him.
Magnus gazed at the Well of Eternity and could indeed feel the inexhaustible knowledge dwelling within it.
"If you only pay the price, you can obtain whatever you want," the old man said.
Magnus averted his gaze and looked at the old man. "Then what price must I pay?"
"A treasure of Prospero? Or my right hand?"
"No..."
The old man shook his head. "Human treasures are of no use, Magnus."
"Use your right hand to write and to cast spells."
The old man raised a wrinkled hand and pointed it at Magnus's eye.
"The price of stepping into the Well of Eternity in search of knowledge is to offer one eye as a sacrifice."
Hearing this, Magnus, without any hesitation at all, immediately gouged out his own eye and, following the old man's instructions, threw it into the Well of Eternity.
When the eyeball entered, the light spraying from the Well of Eternity slowly parted, and Magnus was able to walk to the well and drink the water.
The moment he drank the water of the Well of Eternity, he instantly obtained knowledge that far surpassed all the knowledge he had gained in his life up to that point.
This included methods to suppress and resolve the mutations of the Thousand Sons Legion.
"Thus my downfall began?"
The frog perched on Datch's shoulder watched the scene and asked a question.
"Ah, you made your first deal with Chaos," Datch said calmly.
"This was the first time Pandora's box was opened."
Next, Datch took Magnus to the venue of the Council of Nikaea.
Under his control, the flow of time moved again; the image of the Well of Eternity melted away from its edges and was replaced by an entirely new scene.
The Emperor and the Primarchs summoned Magnus on the planet Nikaea.
They demanded an explanation regarding the abuse of psychic power and proposed rules to regulate psykers.
During the Great Crusade, the Thousand Sons Legion had interfered with their comrades in various ways in order to collect knowledge, causing great dissatisfaction among the other Legions.
The council chamber of Nikaea was packed.
The Emperor sat in the highest seat, radiating a light so dazzling one could not look directly at it, and looked down on his sons and ministers.
The Primarchs sat in the circular seats below the Emperor and interrogated Magnus about the actions of himself and his Legion.
Magnus's performance was truly terrible.
He used sophistry and illogical arguments to defend the various strange actions of the Legion and his sons.
The Legion's mistakes that had caused casualties among allied forces were attributed to "deficiencies in the operational plan itself" and "a lack of understanding of the characteristics of allied psychic warfare."
He also did not apologize to the Primarchs who had condemned him.
Instead, he used the eloquence he had honed through countless debates with the scholars of Prospero and refuted their accusations one by one.
They refused to accept any advice whatsoever.
He firmly believed that everything he and the Thousand Sons Legion had done was correct, reasonable, and beneficial to human civilization.
He also cited Plato's allegory of the cave to mock those who condemned him, calling them all ignorant illiterates.
After his fierce remarks, even the Primarch brothers who had been supporting him were left speechless.
The Emperor was also disappointed by this. After careful consideration, he finally decided to restrict the use of psychic power.
In the Imperium, the only ones permitted to use psychic abilities are astropaths and Navigators; no one else may use them at all.
After this council, the think tanks of every Legion were all disbanded.
"Am I that stupid??"
Magnus, disguised as a frog and perched on the Nameless One's shoulder, had watched the entire council and was completely dumbfounded.
This meeting was clearly targeted at the Thousand Sons.
However, if they had shown some attitude, sincerely apologized, and obtained the understanding of the major Legions, they would probably have been treated with leniency.
Who would have imagined that at this time I would become so stubborn that I would neither admit my mistakes nor try to atone for them?
My god…
He despised foolishness, so he involuntarily grimaced.
"Is there a problem with the Well of Eternity?"
Magnus considered the possibility.
Before drinking the water of the Well of Eternity, he had been arrogant, strongly curious about the Warp, and increasingly irritated by the Emperor's warnings.
However, he could not have been so foolish as to anger all of his brothers and his father.
Clearly, ever since the Well of Eternity incident, the power of Chaos had influenced him, causing him to commit foolish mistakes and take all kinds of strange actions.
Datch ignored Magnus's muttering and headed for the next destination.
"Come. Now the most important turning point of your life is about to arrive."
The scene before their eyes changed again. Datch seized the opportunity to continue carving his name into the history of Magnus.
After the Battle of Ullanor, Horus was chosen as Warmaster.
The Emperor then returned to the palace and began construction of the Webway project, attempting to completely free humanity from dependence on the Warp.
During this time, Horus fell on the planet Davin.
Upon learning the news, Magnus performed a psychic ritual in order to warn the Emperor, and at the same time intended to prove to the Emperor that the astonishing power of psychic energy should not be arbitrarily banned.
Magnus ordered a large-scale sacrifice so that he could send his soul to the Imperial Palace on Terra to deliver the message.
However, Magnus's will was blocked by a mysterious barrier in the underground palace; no matter how hard he tried, he could not break through it.
Meanwhile, in the underground palace, the Emperor had convened the Imperium's finest Tech-Priests.
The sole purpose was to repair the portions of the Webway that had been damaged in the war between the ancients and the Old Ones, and to place them under the control of the Imperium of Man.
During the repair work, in order to prevent entities in the Warp from invading the Webway through damage that had not yet been fully repaired,
the Emperor constructed a barrier capable of isolating every extra-dimensional creature and maintained it directly with his own will.
Magnus did not know this, because the Emperor had not informed the Primarchs of this plan at all.
His only thought was to break through the barrier and inform the Emperor of Horus's rebellion.
Unfortunately, he did not have the power to do so.
In order to break the barrier, Magnus ordered his subordinates to intensify the sacrificial ritual and made a new deal with an existence of the Warp.
Through the ritual and the cooperation of the Warp existence, Magnus succeeded in breaking through the Emperor's barrier.
He went on a reckless rampage, not only causing a large number of deaths but also inflicting serious damage on the Webway engineering project.
In the end, Magnus even invaded the Throne Room and inflicted irreparable damage on the Golden Throne.
At the same time, a vast number of daemons poured into the Webway from that rift and slaughtered the members of the Mechanicus who had been constructing the Webway.
Units such as the Ten Thousand were urgently deployed to the Webway in order to suppress the daemons and prevent the situation from worsening further.
At this point the reckless Magnus did something even more foolish.
Realizing that he had made a mistake and ruined the Emperor's efforts,
he was so terrified that he did not even tell Horus about the rebellion, turned on his heel and fled, and hid himself in a remote fortress.
This incident later prompted the Emperor to order the Space Wolves to capture Magnus and bring him back to Terra.
Horus seized the opportunity to use his status as Warmaster to change the order and demanded that Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, execute Magnus.
Leman Russ knew nothing of this and led his own army toward Prospero and surrounded it.
Leman Russ did not act rashly. He was also concerned that there might be some hidden intention.
He tried many times to contact Magnus, hoping the other party would come forward, return to Terra, have an audience with the Emperor, and explain everything.
At this point Magnus realized he had committed a grave mistake. He hid himself in the pyramid of Tizca, ordered his sons not to rebel, shut down all defense systems, and did not respond at all to communications from his brothers.
Meanwhile, a small number of traitor cultists constantly caused disturbances, fanned the conflict, and ultimately led to the outbreak of fighting.
Left with no other choice, Leman Russ ordered a full-scale assault on Prospero and the execution of Magnus.
Thus the Battle of Prospero broke out. The Space Wolves slaughtered and destroyed the entire planet, destroyed countless pyramids, and lost countless pieces of knowledge.
In the final moment, in order to save his children, Magnus activated a large-scale teleportation.
He sent all of his children to the Planet of the Sorcerers in the Warp, but in the process his own soul was also shattered into pieces.
"Please, let me go back and beat him up." After finishing the original text, Magnus said to the Nameless One, "The development within the boundaries of that period."
He could no longer endure it and wanted to go back to the past right now and teach the Primarch a lesson.
How can there be someone this foolish and childish?!
Brother, if you went through that much trouble to break the Emperor's barrier, why don't you announce the news that Horus betrayed him?
They were so terrified they turned on their heels and fled — was it all just to cause trouble for the Emperor?
When they knock on the door after you've exhausted every option, just honestly admit your mistakes and act together with the Space Wolves. That way you can at least protect your children.
As a result, you dropped your guard and shut yourself away.
Only after the Space Wolves and the Thousand Sons have fought a fierce battle, both sides have suffered enormous casualties, and a deep-rooted hatred has been born, do they hypocritically step forward.
Is this some kind of serious illness?