After navigating the Warp for a month, the Thousand Sons fleet finally arrived at the first target of this crusade—Varnum II.
This was a temperate planet covered by endless ancient oaks.
Twelve gray-stone spired castles were scattered among the forests, and each stood beside a statue of a sword-wielding knight.
The knightly houses here possessed a legacy of eight thousand years, piloting ancient mechs covered in stellar runes and believing in the ancient doctrine of “The Oak and the Holy Sword.”
The Imperium’s advance envoys had arrived a month ago to persuade them to surrender but were expelled on the grounds of “outsiders desecrating holy ground,” and even the Emperor’s edict was burned in public.
“The scan results are out.”
Ahriman’s voice rang out on the bridge of Magnus’s flagship, the Photep.
This Terran-born new chief magister of the Corvidae School had walked over to the star map at some unknown point.
His fingertips trembled uncontrollably as he traced across that dark green planet on the holographic instrument.
His normally cold gaze was frighteningly hollow at this moment.
Standing beside Magnus, Levi caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of the worn, shiny silver oak leaf badge on Ahriman’s shoulder guard, and he sighed softly in his heart.
The fluctuations of Ahriman’s “aura” were too violent.
Levi unintentionally touched upon fragments of his escaping thoughts.
He saw a powerful Thousand Sons warrior who ultimately fell to the Thousand Sons’ Flesh Change.
That was Ahzek Ahriman’s twin brother, Ohrmuzd.
Before Magnus returned to the Imperium, the youngest captain in the history of the Thousand Sons Legion had brought only a few dozen warriors thirty years ago and, relying on powerful psychic energy, reclaimed a Knight World almost exactly identical to the one before them.
“There’s probably something wrong with this,” Levi muttered in a low voice while gazing at this planet.
He glanced at Magnus, who was listening to Ahriman’s report, and his heart sank.
A trace of bitterness welled up in Levi’s heart.
During his recent interactions with Magnus, he had gradually realized that Magnus’s arrogance was ingrained in his very being.
This Primarch, possessing the strongest brain in the entire galaxy, always believed that his wisdom could control everything, including the Warp.
He only believed that there were no deities and no good or evil in the Warp, only pure tides of energy.
Magnus was, in fact, a staunch follower of the Imperial Truth.
And the so-called Imperial Truth expounding that mankind was supreme in the galaxy was fine.
But preaching that there were no deities and only science was merely a white lie used by the Emperor to unify the will of mankind.
He could only guide him, only use facts time and time again to awaken this proud Primarch little by little.
There was good and evil in the Warp, there were deities, and even more so, there were bloodthirsty behemoths lurking in the darkness.
Suppressing the churning thoughts in his heart, Levi continued to look through the information on this planet on the data terminal.
He suspected this was a trap set for Ahriman by that ever-changing existence.
In the memories of his previous life, Ahriman could be called the strongest psyker of the Thousand Sons besides Magnus.
It was absolutely possible that Tzeentch had set its sights on Ahriman, this psychic genius.
This planet.
It was highly likely that Tzeentch was exploiting the obsessions of the human heart to lay the most insidious and inescapable trap.
“I will go down personally to negotiate with the rulers of this planet.”
He wasn’t going to investigate; he had already prepared for the worst—he kept feeling something was wrong.
The very moment Magnus agreed to Levi’s request, Ahriman abruptly raised his head, his eyes carrying a near-paranoid firmness.
“I want to go to the surface with Levi.
I want to see for myself.”
Levi looked at the pale and handsome Ahriman in front of him.
Those pale blue eyes were filled with an unconcealable obsession and longing.
He knew that if he refused, Ahriman would not give up.
Moreover, Ahriman’s attitude was resolute, and Magnus looked approving.
Levi pondered for a moment and finally nodded.
“Alright, we will go together.” Levi sighed softly.
“Stay alert.
Tell me immediately if anything seems amiss.”
Three hours later, the Stormtalon landed in the square in front of the Holy Oak Castle.
In the center of the square stood a statue of a knight holding a sword and gazing up at the starry sky.
Ahriman stood before the statue, his body trembling slightly.
His fingertips caressed the silver oak leaf on his shoulder guard over and over again, not moving for a long time.
This was his brother’s relic, an amulet given by their mother before they marched off to war.
Levi stood three steps behind him without disturbing him.
He could clearly perceive Ahriman’s churning emotions: nostalgia, pain, and a trace of deeply buried fear.
What was he afraid of?
Afraid of seeing a similar scene repeat itself, afraid of losing someone important again?
Levi thought silently in his heart.
Just at this moment, the heavy stone doors of the castle rumbled open.
Supreme Lord Thranduil walked out wearing black and gold knight armor, holding a rune-inscribed greatsword covered in oak leaves.
Behind him followed thirty fully armed knights, their eyes full of ingrained arrogance and hostility.
“Outsiders, get out of Varnum!” Thranduil raised the holy sword high, his voice echoing across the square.
“This is the territory of the oak and the holy sword, not a playground for your self-proclaimed Emperor!”
The knights simultaneously raised their weapons, and the engines of their mechs let out a low rumble.
Ahriman abruptly recovered his senses, a flicker of blue fire flashing in his eyes.
Levi pressed down on his arm and said softly through a mental link, “Leave it to me.
Don’t let your emotions control you.”
He stepped forward alone, his deep red power armor gleaming with a cold luster in the sunlight.
Without any extra nonsense, Levi slowly raised his right hand.
Gold and purple light swept across the entire square.
The Abyssal Resonance Method circulated silently, and pure psychic energy transformed into invisible shackles, firmly locking all the knight mechs in place.
The roaring of the engines stopped abruptly.
No matter how hard the knights pushed, the mechs did not budge an inch, and even the operating systems were completely paralyzed.
Thranduil’s expression changed drastically.
Roaring, he drove his Dominus-class Knight mech, brandishing the holy sword to cleave at Levi.
But the holy sword had only been raised halfway into the air before it was firmly blocked by a purple psychic barrier.
No matter how he exerted his strength, he could not advance another fraction of an inch.
“I said, stop.”
Levi’s voice was not loud, yet it carried an unquestionable majesty.
The psychic pressure suddenly increased.
Thranduil’s mech emitted an ear-piercing sound of twisting metal, its knees bent, and it knelt heavily on the stone-paved ground.
The entire square was dead silent.
All the knights looked in terror at the man before them.
Their proud knight mechs were unexpectedly as fragile as toys in front of him.
Levi slowly lowered his hand, and the psychic pressure dissipated with it.
He looked at Thranduil kneeling on the ground, his tone calm.
“I will give you one more choice.
Swear loyalty to the Emperor, and retain your traditions, territories, and all honors.
Or, be wiped from the planet by the Imperium’s artillery.”
Thranduil raised his head, looked at Levi’s unfathomably deep eyes, and then looked at the immobilized knights beside him.
Pride was unable to withstand a single blow before absolute power.
He slowly lowered his head and placed the holy sword on the ground.
“I…
am willing to swear loyalty to the Emperor.”
All the knights lowered their weapons simultaneously and knelt on one knee.
Ahriman stood in place, gazing at the scene before him with a complex expression.
Back then, Ohrmuzd had also done exactly this, conquering the planet Varnum with absolute power and winning the respect of the knights.
Only this time, no one would ever again die from the Flesh Change.
Levi walked to his side and gently patted his shoulder.
Ahriman turned his head and revealed an extremely rare, relieved smile to him.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.