Chapter 367: Magnus: Identified as Inferior Carbohydrate

"Damn it!"

Guilliman growled a curse.

He had maintained a distance of seven or eight meters from the sprinting Magnus, but that stretch felt like a chasm—he could not close it no matter how hard he pushed.

Guilliman gradually realized Magnus was not merely running with his body, but using some strange warp power.

This was normal for Magnus—he was a master of psychic energy.

But Guilliman felt Magnus's current use of psychic energy resembled the Ork WAAAGH! force.

It carried a crude, stupid, yet efficient style.

What made Guilliman feel worse was his own condition.

It wasn't just the fatigue left by Carlos's spell, but also the kick Magnus had delivered to his knee.

That kick carried psychic energy, shattering the intricate mechanical structure within the ceramite, damaging the power system of one leg of the Fate Armor and slowing Guilliman's pace.

This caused him to fall further behind Magnus.

And Magnus—perhaps an illusion—in Guilliman's eyes, seemed to be slowly lifting off toward Terra.

He truly appeared capable of running all the way to Terra!

Guilliman could not allow this—he lunged and swung his Hand of Dominion at empty air.

The bolt launcher hidden in his power fist roared, and searing bolter rounds shot toward Magnus like fire meteors.

"Hah!"

Magnus roared, his back muscles writhing like serpents, unleashing a violent shockwave that acted like a force shield, blocking the incoming bolters.

"What use are mere bolters against my honed flesh?!"

Magnus laughed heartily, pride ringing in his voice.

To hell with honed flesh!

Guilliman spat inwardly.

That statement made sense for Angron, Lorgar, Lion, or Fulgrim—they had all endured long, brutal physical training.

But Magnus's crimson body was clearly an external manifestation of his psychic power; during the Great Crusade, he preferred to stay in libraries studying knowledge rather than train his body.

Watching Guilliman fall farther behind, Magnus laughed freely.

He felt his muscular power surge even more; Terra grew larger before his eyes. He leapt upward into the air.

In Guilliman's stunned expression—as if physics no longer existed—Magnus ran across the sky as if stepping on the thin air of the Moon.

But at that moment, a pink-tinged wooden door suddenly appeared before Magnus.

Dozens of whistling small missiles shot from the door, aimed straight at Magnus's head.

Magnus roared and channeled his muscle power again, trying to block the missiles.

But the missiles detonated midair, spewing ash-like dust in all directions.

"Roar!!!!" Magnus let out a cry of agony.

The moment the dust touched him, his surging muscular power sharply weakened, and he felt a hint of instability—dizziness and vertigo overwhelmed him.

"In the name of the Emperor and Saint Dora!"

"Heretic! Return to your blasphemous master! Terra has no place for you."

A roar rang out as Battle Sisters clad in Paradigm Power Armor appeared on the battlefield like metallic titans forged from ceramite, gold, and silver.

The holy power spear, gifted by the Imperial Guard, pierced the thin air and stabbed directly toward Magnus's face.

Even in pain, Magnus's reflexes far surpassed those of mortals—he dodged the Battle Sister's spear in an instant.

But the Sister knew she could not match the Primarch's speed, even with the sacred clockwork granted by Saint Dora.

She never intended to chase him. The missile launchers mounted on her Paradigm Armor hissed again.

Dust mixed with the ashes of the Unmentionables and the Lighthouse's embers exploded outward, engulfing Magnus once more.

Magnus felt his muscular power suppressed again, his footing loosened, and he fell back onto the lunar surface.

Guilliman seized the opening, swinging the Emperor's Sword downward. Scorching Emperor's Fire carved a grotesque wound into Magnus's muscular frame.

Zhou Yun, hovering midair on his bamboo dragonfly, watched this scene.

He had encountered Battle Sisters, Imperial Guard, and the Silent Sisters' Valkyrie gunships along the way, and quickly used his Gate to enter one, planning to teleport them directly to support Guilliman.

He expected to need persuasion, but the leader of the Battle Sisters, High Sister Mo Wen Val, immediately knelt before Zhou Yun in fervent worship, declaring she had come by the Emperor's command and would obey every order of Saint Dora.

They had already prepared for Magnus as a hypothetical enemy.

The Astropathic Guild Master Kellaprin had ventured deep into the Lighthouse and retrieved the ashes left after its burning.

These ashes possessed potent anti-psychic effects, capable of causing psychic users and demons to be consumed by their own psychic energy.

Kellaprin mixed these ashes with the bone dust of the Unmentionables, who naturally possessed anti-psychic traits, crafting a powerful anti-psychic explosive, loaded into Mo Wen Val's Paradigm Armor missiles.

Of course, their preparations went beyond this.

Silent Sisters wearing half-face metal masks glided like ghosts across the dusty lunar surface.

These silent female warriors were all Unmentionables, born with innate anti-psychic abilities—or rather, negative psychic traits.

If psychic users projected as torches, mortals as candles, and Tau as tiny sparks, then Silent Sisters were black holes.

Merely by existing on the battlefield, they made anyone with psychic potential feel discomfort and suppressed psychic reactions around them—they were natural psychic predators.

Traditionally, Silent Sisters were companions of the Emperor's Guard, but after the Great Crusade, they gradually declined.

Yet summoned by the return of the Primarchs, these psychic predators once again gathered on the Moon to confront Magnus.

Their mere presence made Magnus feel discomfort.

So did those strange, peculiar ashes.

These things weakened Magnus's muscular power by roughly ten percent.

What were these things? Why did they affect his honed muscular power?

Could it be…

Anger surged in Magnus's eyes. He let out a deafening roar:

"Disgusting!"

"The Tau are disgusting!"

"You dare attack my honed muscles with inferior carbohydrates?!"

"You are Lorgar! You are Mortarion! You… you are all ambitious!"

(End of Chapter)