Chapter 364: Run, Magnus!

"You failed! You failed! You failed!"

"The Machine God betrayed itself, the Eternal Dragon devoured itself, the Dark King destroyed itself!"

"You failed! You failed! You failed!"

"This was all part of the plan."

Carlos shook his head like a madman, spouting fragmented words that made Zhou Yun frown.

Was the fourth-dimensional pocket thrown into the Eternal Well? Or was it Chaos?

This… Zhou Yun's expression grew slightly odd; concerning the fourth-dimensional pocket, he had to focus.

And the Machine God, the Eternal Dragon, and the Dark King should correspond to Vashthor, the Tyranids, and the Emperor.

But in Carlos's mouth, how did these three terms seem to refer to himself?

The first two I can accept, but replacing the Emperor as the Dark King?

That absolutely must not happen!

"Is this a prophecy from the Eternal Well? A future event yet to come?" Zhou Yun asked Carlos quietly.

The Eternal Well reveals fate—even the Lord of Change cannot touch it. If this prophecy came from the Eternal Well, its value is immense.

"This… is something that has already happened!"

One of Carlos's heads screamed at the top of its lungs.

"No! This is something about to happen!"

Another head swiftly contradicted him.

"This is something that happened in the past!" the final two heads shouted in unison.

Clearly, Carlos had slipped again into the state where one head lies and another tells the truth.

Zhou Yun rubbed his chin, hoping to extract more information from Carlos.

But at that moment, a piercing wail echoed through the void, like something beginning to shatter.

Above, the Revenant of Tizca had nearly vanished, leaving only pure energy, the nine Arcane Foci, and Magnus, bathed in the Warp's torrent, lost in thought.

The nine Arcane Foci blazed brighter than the two stars left behind by Ahriman, radiating intricate, dazzling light—each beam seemingly containing tens of thousands of cryptic runes, runes that pierced the Warp's current and dragged all material and immaterial things into them.

Even a star corrupted by Ahriman's sorcery was pulled toward the Arcane Foci by their blinding radiance, sucked into their gravitational wells, compressed into pure psychic vortices, and absorbed into the Foci.

A violent psychic tsunami surged across every visible space; the broken fragments of the Webway beneath Zhou Yun's feet groaned, on the verge of disintegrating.

This was merely the aftershock before the nine Arcane Foci fully exploded.

Intense Warp energy had already spilled outward; Zhou Yun knew if they didn't flee immediately, they'd be swept in.

He shoved Carlos straight into the fourth-dimensional pocket, while Mephiston simultaneously used his psychic energy to bundle the other six Lords of Change and the viscous liquid on the ground into the pocket as well.

Zhou Yun then swiftly shoved Mephiston, the exhausted Guilliman, and the dazed, psychic-energy-depleted Leina into the pocket without hesitation, opened a portal, and stepped through.

Bathed in the Warp's torrent, Magnus let out a savage roar.

His mind was full of blanks—memories, knowledge, even will had shattered.

He was lost, confused, feeling himself slipping away.

Magnus knew he was in danger; the nine Arcane Foci—whose maker he did not know—were about to explode.

Though the nine Arcane Foci posed great danger to Magnus, he still marveled at the craftsmanship of their creator.

Surely they were forged with profound psychic artistry? Too bad his mind was now blank—he could not discern any of the psychic techniques applied to the Foci.

He suspected he had been attacked, perhaps to stop him.

Was it from the entities in Chaos that called themselves gods?

Magnus had witnessed with his own eyes his brother Horus corrupted by dark entities of the Warp.

That knowledge still lingered in his hollowed mind—one of the clearest memories he retained.

"Do you wish to stop me from telling my father this news?!"

"I tell you, you shall not!"

I am Pue... Pue what... Lord! I am the Crimson King! I am the Emperor's... the son... how many sons am I?

"Regardless, I am Magnus! The tides of the Warp shall bow to my will! My stride shall be unstoppable!"

Magnus roared, drawing in the increasingly dense Warp energy with every breath.

For some reason, he felt strangely attuned to the psychic energy emitted by the Arcane Foci—as if they were his own psychic energy crystallized.

Magnus pondered, realizing he had forgotten all teleportation spells and all spells for transmitting information.

If so, then only one option remained.

Magnus searched his knowledge.

If a man cannot teleport or make a psychic call, how does he quickly reach a place and deliver vital information?

Run!

A fragment of knowledge surged into Magnus's mind.

In 490 BC on ancient Terra, the Greeks and Persians went to war; the Athenian army fought bravely and defeated the Persian forces on the Plain of Marathon.

To deliver the news of victory to Athens, the soldier Pheidippides ran over forty kilometers without stopping, collapsing and dying upon delivering the message.

Yes—run!

Magnus recalled that he had once seen a map among his son Ahriman's possessions.

The map marked a Warp portal on Luna, Terra's moon. If he ran through that portal, he could reach Terra.

Thinking this, Magnus immediately shed his golden upper armor, exposing his muscular crimson body to reduce weight.

According to Magnus's memory, the Warp portal to Luna was several light-years away.

But it did not matter!

With his superior legs and unyielding momentum, he would make it!

Merely several light-years? How could they overcome his body, honed through relentless training?!

Just one look told him—his powerful muscles would never betray him!

Perhaps he had once been an athlete? Or a bodybuilder?

Never mind—he couldn't recall. Either way, he must hurry to save his father.

Magnus assumed his stance and violently channeled his psychic energy into his legs.

Father! Do not fear! I am coming to save you!

Magnus gave himself a low roar of encouragement, then shot forward in a sprint.

Muscles! Roar!

Run, Magnus!

(End of Chapter)