Grand Master Voldus looked up and gave thanks as the Emperor's deliverance rained down upon the battlefield. The crusade forces had broken into small batches of resistance: some hunkered down amid spacecraft wreckage, others crouched behind bulging Luna rocks.
The Thousand Sons had surrounded them, relentlessly pouring fire into the loyalist positions while never-ending Tzeentchian Daemons hurtled overhead on golden discs, raining Warpflame down on them.
Now, though, help had arrived.
Gilt-chased fighter craft shot down over the Luna landscape. As they did, rippling lines of fire exploded amid Rubricae and Horrors alike. Las blasts and hails of explosive shells tore the Tzeentchian footsoldiers apart. Bombs fell amongst them, burning and exploding armour and flesh.
At the same time, vast leviathans of adamantium and plasteel rumbled overhead as they arrived. Naval system monitors of the Terran Defence Fleet moved into low orbit, their enormous forms plunging the battlefield into shadow.
Guided by triangulatory targeting data transmitted by Archmagos Cawl, the ships rained pinpoint-accurate fire on the Chaos forces, dealing tremendous damage.
Luna dust flew all around in sudden whirlpools as teleport energies blew them apart. Bright light flared, and the golden giants of the Adeptus Custodes stepped out. These were the pinnacle of humanity, stuff of legend and myth for most of humankind.
Their golden guardian spears crackled with power as they levelled them. And like a well-oiled machine, they erupted at the same time. Hails of bolter fire ripped into the Rubricae.
Cursing, the Sorcerers ordered their golem warriors to turn around and fight these new adversaries, but to no avail.
Moving with breathtaking speed and skill, even among the superhuman Astartes and Grey Knights, the Custodians hacked their way through the Heretic Astartes. Each fought like a born hero from an old Terran legend, their blades splitting Chaos power armour like firewood and sending empty helms spinning lazily across the Luna surface.
Their speed was what was so frightening. They appeared as blurs even to the Astartes, and while the most skilled and powerful of the Grey Knights, Voldus included, could augment themselves with the Warp, the Custodes did so on their own.
The last enclaves of those warriors who set out from Macragge rallied as aid appeared, fighting back with renewed fury and hope. Voldus stepped out from the wreckage of a bulk carrier, leading his remaining Grey Knights and Dreadknights in a courageous charge.
His hammer smashed through ceramite wherever it struck, and psychic lightning danced around him despite the Sorcerers' best efforts to stop it. Voldus was a powerful psyker, and he made good use of his powers, channelling them through his body, weapon, and armour to block attacks and unleash devastating blows.
Katarinya Greyfax, a powerful psyker in her own right, fought alongside him. Her iron will let her contend with Tzeentchian conjurers and bring them to their knees before she cut off their heads with her masterwork power blade. She was bloodlusted in this situation, surrounded by heretics and the archenemy.
Seizing the moment, Saint Celestine swept through the enemy ranks like a golden winged wrecking ball. The Ardent Blade slashed left and right as her Geminae Superia pumped bolt fire into the Daemons. Being in Celestine's presence seemed to uplift others' spirits.
Captain Sicarius followed her, rallying the Ultramarines and Primogenitors behind him as they cut a path toward the Adeptus Custodes.
The muffled boom of engines sounded overhead, heralding the arrival of more Imperial forces. Stark yellow Drop Pods slammed down, with their thrusters flaring to slow them down just enough. Their hatches opened, and squads of Imperial Fists Space Marines emerged, bolters in hand, already firing at the enemy.
Yellow-hulled Stormravens and Stormtalon Gunships arrived, their weapons tearing through the Thousand Sons.
It was utter chaos. Literally.
Several of the gunships were struck down from the sky by bursts of sorcery and streams of rotary cannon fire. The enemy was certainly not helpless now, as flames erupted from ruptured hulls while the gunships spun down to crash among the wreckage of starships, adding to the large pile.
The Imperial forces had gained support, but it was by no means enough to just end the fight outright. Kairos Fateweaver still had his powerful sorcery, and the Sorcerers, and even Exalted Sorcerers, from the Thousand Sons had something to say.
But this part of the battle wouldn't determine the Imperium's fate. That memorable fight took place on another side of Luna.
.
Amid gunships and burning wreckage, a trio of Valkyries soared through the chaos; their crimson-and-black painted hulls bore the emblem of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica on their flanks.
They manoeuvred through the explosions and turmoil above the battlefield, heading towards the distant point where Guilliman and Gerhard continued to battle the monstrous red Primarch.
Purple fire lanced upwards, ripping the wing from the leading craft and sending it crashing to a sudden halt in a blazing fireball. The other two flew on towards their target, and as they came in low, their side doors slid open.
While their brave pilots blitzed fire at Magnus the Red, two squads of helmed Sisters of Silence dropped from the gunships.
They landed near Guilliman in fighting crouches and looked around. Gerhard, who had calculated how to fight to maximise the chance of 'not dying', realised their chances had gone up... by at least 3%. He knew they hadn't seen Magnus' full power yet.
Angrily, Magnus swept his clawed hand through the air, dragging one gunship sideways with telekinesis and smashing it into the other. Both Valkyries exploded and fell, but the Sisters of Silence leapt nimbly aside.
Magnus scowled, jabbed his glaive, and sent tendrils of green and yellow flames spiralling toward them. It looked like a tsunami of fire, blocking the sun. However, the Sisters of Silence didn't move, and the sorcery faltered and died before it reached them, undone by the empyric dead zone around the Blanks.
Guilliman jumped down from the mound of wreckage and landed amidst the Sisters of Silence. Gerhard positioned himself on Magnus's other side, knowing full well this would get bloody and not get any easier.
The Sisters of Silence would shield Guilliman from his brother's psychic powers and sorcery, letting Gerhard take a more active role.
Together, the Primarch, Gerhard, and the Sisters charged toward Magnus.
The Daemon Primarch hurled another volley of psychic destruction, manipulating gravity, and growling in frustration as it flickered out like the first attack against Gerhard's massive null-aura.
Angrily, Magnus charged forward with his glaive to meet his enemies up close, his massive red legs kicking up lunar dust. If he could not destroy them with the Warp's power directly, he would hack and crush their mortal bodies until nothing remained but blood and gore.
The two Primarchs and Gerhard crashed together once again.
Guilliman lunged, the Emperor's Sword burning with psychic flames as it cleaved through the vacuum towards Magnus's throat. The Daemon Primarch parried with monstrous force, his glaive grinding against the power sword's edge in a cascade of sparks that looked like miniature fireworks.
Before the shockwave could even disperse, Gerhard vaulted off the crumpled wreckage of a Thunderhawk and drove his Bonesword straight down in a lightning-fast arc, pushing himself with several skills.
[Mana Reinforcement] + [Flight] + [Telekinesis]
CRACK—!!
The blow struck the Crimson King's shoulder guard, the compressed mana detonating with enough concussive force to stagger the giant and carve a smoking trench through his crimson plate.
"RAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Magnus roared with pure hatred and pain. His free hand shot outward and caught Gerhard's entire body. He clenched his fist as hard as he could and smashed him into the ground.
The damage registered in Gerhard's vision, and he felt his life flash before his eyes. Thankfully, he was reinforcing himself and using his growing skill at manipulating vectors to help him. But now, buried beneath the ground, he felt as though his entire body hurt, but knew that he had to get back or many of the Sisters would die.
"Fuck..."
.
Veilwalker leapt into the air. She drove one foot into the side of a Rubricae's helm, ripping it free with the force of her kick. The Shadowseer pushed off her first victim, spun through the air, and hurled a confusion spell at a nearby Sorcerer.
The Tzeentch worshipper howled in panic, clawing at his helm and ripping it free. His flesh froze in seconds in the vacuum; his eyes burst as bloody streams and gore squirted from his nose, mouth and ears.
The Shadowseer trilled a mocking laugh as she landed, spinning her stave low to sweep the legs from two more Rubricae, before bowing elegantly to their fellows.
Amidst a hail of bolts, Veilwalker jumped away as her kin cartwheeled from another direction into the enemy's midst. In such low gravity, the Harlequins could achieve feats of agility and grace beyond even their normally blinding skill, and Veilwalker laughed again as she watched the Rubricae move clumsily.
It was like stealing candy from babies.
Jumping into a high pirouette over the battle, Veilwalker sought the one who wore the Armour of Fate. There he was, amidst the wrecks of crude human spacecraft, battling his monstrous brother alongside a band of warriors and the indomitable human figure known as Gerhard.
Even from here, the nulls' mere presence made Sylandri shudder. She didn't even want to think about Gerhard. He was like the image of dread when he had [Blank] active.
Guilliman, Magnus, and Gerhard were trading powerful blows, their weapons crashing together with titanic force. However, Gerhard mostly took the damage meant for others, keeping them alive. The nulls were doing what they could to aid the fight, stabbing blades at the Daemon in their midst or pouring bolter fire into him.
Several already lay broken, but the rest did an effective job of muffling Magnus' sorcerous powers, while Gerhard pressed the attack relentlessly. His Hulk Buster armour was doing damage, but he had to watch out for the Sisters and Guilliman.
Sylandri landed gracefully, ignoring a storm of magical flames that exploded away to her left. Daemons, confused by her domino field, cast their spells where they thought she was. With a thought, Sylandri activated the communications inlay in her helm and communed with her Death Jester, the Hollow Prince.
"The moment has arrived," she said. "Our drama has played out, and the brothers' enmity burns anew."
"Now the final curtain, then?" whispered the Hollow Prince, his voice filled with wicked mirth. "Indignation. Outrage. Vendetta."
"It must be thus," agreed Veilwalker. "I shall ready the gate. You deliver your lines, and let matters play out."
Without waiting for an answer, Veilwalker cut her communications. She sprinted back to the crater they had all emerged from. She bobbed and weaved, dodged and tumbled through the raging battle, finally throwing herself into a feet-first slide over the crater's lip.
She arced gracefully down, moon dust falling about her like snow, and landed in a crouch amid the piles of armoured corpses.
Across the crater floor, the whirling storm of purple light spat from the corrupted webway gate, lighting the darkness. Magnus had done that, cursing the portal to permit his unnatural passage. Veilwalker smirked coldly behind her mask; he would pay for that hubris.
Across the battlefield, she knew the Hollow Prince would be communicating with Guilliman, explaining their plan to the Primarch. The Death Jester would be telling the Primarch that Magnus could be destroyed only by casting his body into the corrupted webway gate.
If Veilwalker's visions were correct, Guilliman would believe him. But that wasn't as certain as she had once believed. The presence of the 'anomaly' was not helping with visions of the future.
Meanwhile, she had to prepare the gateway, which was currently guarded by a pair of Sorcerers.
Ghosting closer through the bodies, illusions flickering around her, Veilwalker drew her shuriken pistol. A gentle squeeze of its trigger, a flick of her wrist, and several more gentle depressions were all it took. The first Sorcerer staggered, and then the others as well, as rounds struck them, perfectly placed to puncture their gorget seals and open their jugular arteries.
The two Sorcerers crumpled to the ground, holding their throats. Before they fully died, Veilwalker stepped forward and hurriedly began her incantations. The energies around the gateway pulsed and shuddered, the runes on its sides glowing brighter as a keening vibration shook the dark pit.
At that moment, battling demigods appeared upon the crater's edge. Guilliman and Magnus, both bleeding from the wounds they had dealt one another, were still flanked by Gerhard, who wore broken armour but wasn't bleeding, and a handful of the last null warriors.
Magnus bisected another of the women with a brutal swing of his glaive, before Gerhard could get there in time, and then lashed around to hack a chunk from Guilliman's breastplate.
In return, the Lord of Ultramar drove Magnus back with hammer blows from the Emperor's blade, while Gerhard rushed forward to slash at the Daemon Primarch's unprotected joints, before Guilliman slammed his shoulder into his brother's chest and sent the Crimson King crashing down the steep slope.
Guilliman leapt after him, giving Magnus no chance to recover, with Gerhard already in the air and descending like a meteor. The Primarch's onslaught pressed on, the wounded Guilliman pouring everything he had into this last storm of blows alongside Gerhard's relentless blade work and use of Mana.
That strange energy was something she didn't understand, and she hated it.
Veilwalker melted away into the shadows as the warring brothers and Gerhard neared the webway gate, still muttering her incantations and weaving her staff back and forth.
Magnus conjured a deadly sphere of Warp energy and hurled it at his brothers with all his might; the nulls couldn't hold it together, and it detonated. The blast hit Guilliman, sending the Lord of Ultramar staggering back.
With his back pressed against the corrupted portal, the Daemon Primarch channelled a wave of telekinetic power, violently sweeping up a massive, morbid heap of fallen Space Marine corpses, both loyalist and traitor, and flung the heavy debris directly at Gerhard and the remaining nulls, burying them beneath the dead and blinking out their contra-empyric drag.
As Guilliman lunged through the chaotic aftermath, Magnus met him with his glaive, but the Primarch of Ultramar drove the burning Emperor's Sword deep under his guard and into his chest. Golden flames chewed hungrily at his flesh, drawing an agonised howl from the Crimson King as he unleashed an uncontrolled sorcerous shock wave that threw Sylandri from her feet and hurled Guilliman onto his back.
Suddenly, instead of dying or being pushed into the portal as Veilwalker had planned and seen, Magnus' power swelled, and his presence turned even more sinister.
Space warped, and though the Sisters of Silence and Gerhard had made their way back from under the corpses, the effect was weaker than before.
.
Magnus felt the gate behind him change. Of course he had.
The alteration was slight: a tightening and a slight shift in the energies he had forced through the ancient passage, a disturbance among the wards he had broken to let him through. Beneath the violence of the battle, someone was working upon the portal.
An Eldar, who else. And a Harlequin as well.
His single eye shifted towards the shadows until he found her. There. For an instant, he caught the movement of a slender staff and the pale suggestion of a mask as he peered through the illusion. Then Guilliman's burning sword came down, and Magnus had to turn his glaive to meet it.
Their weapons crashed together.
Gerhard struck from the other side, his mana-coated blade driving towards the joint beneath Magnus' arm. The Daemon Primarch twisted, letting the weapon scrape across his armour, and drove a knee into the human's battered Hulk Buster suit.
The impact threw Gerhard backwards through the dust, smashing pieces of his armour.
Guilliman pressed forward immediately. Magnus gave ground. First one step, then another and all of them towards the gate.
Understanding settled into place.
'So that was their little ending. How pitiful.'
Magnus felt his powers swell further as a clear plan formed in his mind, plucked right from the deep blue area of the Warp. What a brilliant strategy it was... and so simple.
The dutiful brother would try to drive him through the portal. The Eldar would sever the passage, and Roboute would limp toward their father's throne, congratulating himself on a victory he didn't deserve.
Magnus' mouth curled.
Across the crater, Gerhard halted his flight and caught a falling Sister with psychokinesis before she hit the ground. Blue light closed over the ruin of her shoulder as she was healed.
Again.
Throughout the battle, the anomaly had done it again and again. He had abandoned openings to intercept blows, saving the cursed beings. All while he was the worst of them, the most cursed existence. He had turned aside from Magnus' exposed flesh to catch the wounded. Spent power protecting warriors whose deaths would scarcely have altered the battle.
'Ahhh, of course... How could I not have seen it? Compassion. Good.'
Among those worthless lives, one caught his attention. Magnus had noticed her long before they reached the crater.
The wounded null with the furious eyes. She was special among them. Special to the anomaly.
The Crimson King smiled. The future had already changed.