Chapter 226: Why Is Abaddon's Head So Pointy?

"Oh my, oh my, oh my! So this is the great and famous young Horus Aximand, is it? You really look exactly like your father!"

"Torgaddon! I've heard your jokes are unrivaled among the Luna Wolves — come chat with me sometime!"

"You ask about that Ogryn? That's a smart-headed Ogryn newly bred by the Sanguinary Priests, with the Thousand Sons participating too — they contributed the key genes."

Morphyton sat in a corner of this great hall built from scrap and steel, holding a cup of rough liquor, his face full of bewilderment.

Zhou Yun told the self-styled gene-thieving clan-chief-in-waiting Horus that he was a member of the Sanguinary Guard, Dekyi. Dante, a hardworking, work-loving Blood Angel assigned by the Great Angel as Horus's bodyguard to show brotherly friendship.

Those words were full of holes, yet Zhou Yun's tone carried a persuasive force, and these genestealers' minds seemed none too clear — they actually believed him.

So this "Horus" agreed to let Zhou Yun serve as a bodyguard, and brought Zhou Yun aboard the Spirit of Vengeance.

The Spirit of Vengeance. Morphyton looked at the battered, broken great hall before him — those genestealers were truly mad, actually claiming this place was the former flagship of the Luna Wolves' sons, a Gloriana-class battleship called the Spirit of Vengeance.

If this dump can be called the Spirit of Vengeance, then the crypt Morphyton sleeps in — wouldn't that be the Imperial Palace? The Hua Di Huang's Phantasm?

What unsettled Morphyton most was that he'd only roughly figured out that these genestealers' worldview was stuck ten thousand years ago — in the era when Horus had just been appointed Warmaster and the Luna Wolves had not yet renamed themselves the Sons of Horus.

Yet Zhou Yun, as if a fish in water, slipped effortlessly into these genestealers' worldview.

Right now he was holding a cup of liquor, smiling as he socialized with a few genestealers who considered themselves Luna Wolves high command.

"Wow, so you're Abaddon! I've heard so much about you, heard so much — the First Captain of the Luna Wolves truly is a fine figure of a man!"

"But Captain Abaddon, why is your head so pointy?"

"What? You ask what I mean? You ask me, then I ask you."

A moment later, Zhou Yun set down his cup slightly and retreated to a corner of the great hall, beside Morphyton.

"Interesting." Zhou Yun leaned against the wall and said to Morphyton: "The Luna Wolves are a touch hostile to my arrival."

"Becoming a Primarch's bodyguard within the Legion is itself an honor, and I — a Blood Angel of mysterious origin — have gotten this position. Heh, some people are displeased."

"In Horus's advisory council, the Four Kings' Moot — young Horus Aximand went with the flow and did not voice Ji De Kan Fa."

"Torgaddon was all jokes, not very serious."

"Abaddon was somewhat hostile toward me, his gaze toward me carrying scrutiny."

"Saenyern. Saenyern is dead, exactly as in history."

"Captain Loken has a very serious temperament, but he only expressed gratitude to me."

Morphyton listened to all this dumbfounded — Zhou Yun's tone when speaking truly seemed as if he'd fallen into the same hallucination as these genestealers.

"Such exquisite role-playing — you really won't join in?"

Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow and asked back:

"They are all echoes of how beings ten thousand years ago perceived the members of the Luna Wolves, and may even contain a fragment of the originals' lingering will."

"Their way of acting is likely identical to ten thousand years ago — a replica of the old Luna Wolves Legion."

Zhou Yun couldn't help but curl a smile at the corner of his mouth. He had felt it — these warriors' emotions really did seem to be a replica of the Luna Wolves of ten thousand years past.

Their spirits brimmed with a vigor and spirit that the humans of this era lacked — full of hope and enterprise, deep in their hearts believing in humanity's manifest destiny, knowing they stood in an age when mankind was walking back toward glory.

It wasn't that the warriors of the 40th Millennium were spiritually inferior; rather, those legendary figures of the 40th Millennium often knew — knew — that they were guarding an Empire slowly rotting away.

That truly was an age of heroes. Zhou Yun gazed at the genestealers before him and thought,

From mortals to Astartes to Primarchs, everyone's heart was filled with the spirit of enterprise; the dust of the Old Night had been swept clean, golden souls shone bright, each one like the heroes of legend — bold and full of soaring spirit.

Even if these genestealers were merely madmen wearing xenos faces, even if from soul to body they were inhuman, the deeds and spirit projected within them were real.

Morphyton's face twitched slightly.

He could understand Zhou Yun's meaning, but simply couldn't accept it.

These xenos faces had nothing whatsoever to do with the heroes of the Great Crusade — and besides, among those Zhou Yun had just spoken with, at least half were traitors in history, Abaddon especially, who even now remained the Empire's greatest threat.

Even if that self-styled "Abaddon" genestealer was only a replica, Morphyton still regarded him with thick hostility.

"The radar staff isn't pointing at 'Horus.'" Zhou Yun suddenly spoke: "He isn't the murderer yet."

Zhou Yun's voice laid particular weight on the words Horus and yet, indicating he meant the genestealer calling himself Horus.

". Not yet?" Morphyton was slightly surprised: "He might be later?"

"Yes." Zhou Yun nodded, slightly pressing down the deerstalker on his head: "They're acting, reenacting history from ten thousand years ago."

"Reenacting." Morphyton glanced around, digesting Zhou Yun's words as best he could.

He naturally knew the genestealers before him were replicas of the Luna Wolves of ten thousand years ago, but the reenactment Zhou Yun spoke of clearly meant something more direct.

"63-19?" Morphyton seemed to grasp something, murmuring softly.

Planet 63-19 — the nineteenth planet conquered by the 63rd Fleet during the Great Crusade.

On that planet, the Luna Wolves' Saenyern died there.

According to records in the cogitator, the people of that planet believed their world was humanity's homeworld Terra, and there was a false Hua Di Huang and a group of invisible warriors.

In the end, Horus personally slew that false Hua Di Huang.

"You mean to say that everything that just happened is a reenactment of what took place on planet 63-19 ten thousand years ago?" Morphyton was slightly startled.

"Almost exactly the same." Zhou Yun curled a smile at the corner of his mouth: "Garviel Loken's actions, the false Hua Di Huang's trap, the way Horus appeared — all almost exactly the same."

"Though there are minor differences, those can be understood as distortion under the warp's influence — after all, ten thousand years have passed."

"And I should tell you, what happened on planet 63-19 may seem ordinary, but in truth it's practically the opening of Horus's great rebellion."

Morphyton was slightly stunned — what Zhou Yun said was something he didn't know.

The intelligence in the cogitator itself came from reports by Horus's fleet ten thousand years ago, and had been eroded by time — it wouldn't be this detailed.

63-19 was the opening of Horus's great rebellion? Morphyton thought for a moment. Horus killed the false Hua Di Huang here — was Zhou Yun hinting this held some ritual significance?

Zhou Yun himself hadn't actually thought that much into it.

The reason he said planet 63-19 was the opening of Horus's great rebellion was simply because it really was the opening chapter of the first book, Horus Rising, of the Horus Heresy novel series from his previous life.

"Since this segment has been replicated, you should understand what comes next, right?" Zhou Yun glanced at Morphyton and asked.

Morphyton nodded slightly: "Horus was wounded by the Anathame, nearly died, then was sent into Dai Wen's temple and corrupted by the four Chaos Gods."

"But there are no Chaos Gods here," Zhou Yun said softly. "What will corrupt Horus in the end?"

"I suspect it is the Dark Angel within the faith of Baal, the echo of Horus, the sum of all emotions toward Horus as sentient beings mourn Sanguinius's death for ten thousand years. Sanguinius called it his Black Rage."

"Or rather, the Black Rage of all Blood Angels."

Zhou Yun glanced at Mephiston.

In the normal timeline, this Dark Angel should have been sealed within Mephiston by the winged figure in the Bai Guang during Mephiston's Primaris surgery.

Thus, Mephiston became the jinchūriki of the Black Rage.

But now, due to the interference of the Hive Mind and the effects of Sanguinius's resurrection, this Dark Angel is showing signs of losing control.

Zhou Yun pressed down on the reasoning cap on his head, weaving many scattered clues in his mind into a single thread.

"This cunning Horus is clearly the vessel prepared by the Dark Angel."

"He will corrupt this cunning Horus in place of the Chaos Gods, pouring himself into the body of this cunning Horus to obtain a physical form in the material universe."

"I cannot say how strong this Dark Angel's power is, but since Sanguinius only tasked you and me with resolving this, it should at least pose a significant threat to other Blood Angels."

"And who knows if the Hive Mind is involved behind this? Perhaps He wants to take a gamble."

"... Kill these cunning ones?" Mephiston suggested. "No, that doesn't seem to solve the problem..."

Zhou Yun nodded in agreement.

If it were truly that easy, it would be simple.

He would just rub out a few Perturabo-style defense lasers and turn the entire Bastion of the Wing into ash.

The problem is that these cunning ones themselves are nothing special; only their behavior and spirit are influenced by the Dark Angel, becoming an echo of the Sons of Horus from ten thousand years ago.

Killing them has no effect on the Dark Angel himself; he could simply cultivate another batch and reenact this entire scheme.

"The old method."

Zhou Yun and Mephiston spoke almost simultaneously. They looked at each other and shared a knowing smile.

"Use the old method from when we dealt with Kabbanha: first let the Dark Angel enter the physical universe, then stuff him into my four-dimensional pocket." Zhou Yun chuckled.

Mephiston nodded in agreement.

Just then, a cheer erupted from the group of cunning ones nearby who believed themselves to be the Sons of Horus.

(End of this chapter)