Chapter 350: All are dust, only dust remains

Ahriman looked blankly at the massive transfer ritual he had performed with 10,080 sacrifices and nine stars.

Inexplicable, completely inexplicable.

The moment Zhou Yun, Sanguinius, and Guilliman appeared, Ahriman's already prepared ritual was launched, covering the seven Imperial troops and the Webway they were in.

Logically speaking, in the blink of an eye, they would be transferred to the Psychedelic Hell and fall into the killing trap Ahriman had already prepared.

But no, nothing happened. A dry, stuttering, stagnant feeling like a rusted gear surged from the seven Imperial troops and the three commanders of each troop, eroding Ahriman's ritual and making the operation of Ahriman's ritual difficult.

If it were just this, it would be fine, but Ahriman's ritual itself also had problems.

In the seventh second of the ritual's launch, the light of seven of the nine stars suddenly began to dim, and the entire ritual fell into a stagnation, as if stuck by viscous pus, as if a person's body was eroded and infected by a virus and became weak.

Subsequently, the entire ritual fell into collapse. The Warp energy summoned by the ritual began to roar and backfire on the ritual itself. The gorgeous colors on the seven dim stars began to fade, turning into a dim yellow-green like withered leaves, and the prominences ejected from the surface began to be entangled with unbearable toxins.

The souls of the sacrifices trapped on the stars emitted dry coughs, wriggling on the surface of the stars like pale, dying worms.

Ahriman could only hurriedly throw these seven stars, which he had worked so hard to capture from the real universe and spent so much effort to inscribe with profane runes and modify, into the tides of the Warp, preventing this thing from destroying his Prodigal Warband and the Psychedelic Hell he had worked so hard to occupy.

It's really inexplicable! It's really inexplicable!

This is not witchcraft at all!

Witchcraft no longer exists!

Ahriman gritted his teeth and looked at the seven stars falling into the Warp, thinking with indignation.

That stagnant feeling that affected the entire ritual was undoubtedly the power from Nurgle's domain.

But this style of action didn't look much like the Plague God himself.

Ahriman thought for a moment and remembered the strange, Numerology-like troop arrangement of the Imperial army.

The only person in this world who can use Numerology is that clown Mortarion who deceives himself.

It must be Mortarion!

How can this Mortarion be so bad! Actually getting involved with the Empire again!

Ahriman gritted his teeth.

Ten thousand years ago, Mortarion got involved with Horus, who couldn't be called a living thing.

Ten thousand years later, Mortarion got involved with the Empire, which was like a rotting corpse.

Does that damn Barbarus bumpkin have necrophilia?!

In Nurgle's Garden, Mortarion moved his nose slightly. He felt like he wanted to sneeze.

However, this didn't attract much of his attention. Grandfather's gift always flowed in his body, and countless diseases bred in his body. Sneezing was normal.

Hmm?

Mortarion suddenly frowned. Did he forget something?

Did something happen in the material universe?

Oh, Guilliman and Sanguinius were resurrected and were on their way to Terra to see the False Emperor?

Mortarion finally remembered that he had planned to intercept the two before.

But now Mortarion had no interest in taking the time to intercept them.

Ten thousand years ago, Mortarion didn't have any particularly prominent hatred for Roboute Guilliman and Sanguinius.

Guilliman was always ambitious, an aristocrat, a slave owner, and an oppressor, but he was considered to have a conscience among oppressors, and he wasn't polluted into a deformity by the Warp.

Sanguinius's problem was being sentimental. This was obviously because Baal's natural environment was too superior. Letting him live in Barbarus for a few years might save him.

Since they were willing to continue being slaves of the False Emperor, let them go all the way to the dark.

He now had a truly important career to do, a career much more important than humiliating two brothers who had become slaves to the existence of sacred number twenty-two, destroying an empire that was dying like a rotting corpse, or oppressing mortals.

He was teaching Grandfather Nurgle to learn Numerology.

A pure, rigorous, rational science!

He was liberating the thoughts in the Warp that were bound by superstition, starting by liberating a god.

This was a great career, making Mortarion feel a long-lost sense of glory and satisfaction.

Especially when Grandfather gently and politely called him Professor Mortarion, Teacher Mortarion.

The last time he felt such glory and satisfaction was when Mortarion was fighting to liberate Barbarus.

If Jaghatai Khan returned, Mortarion might be able to temporarily put down this career to humiliate him.

But now... Mortarion shook the twenty-sided dice in the turtle shell.

Hmm... nine, fifteen, twenty-two. Is Ma Genusi, the Primarch of the fifteenth legion Thousand Sons, blocking the one with the sacred number twenty-two, Guilliman, and Sanguinius from going to Terra?

Then Mortarion was even less willing to intercept. The two brothers he hated most were Ma Genusi and Jaghatai Khan.

After putting down the turtle shell, Mortarion looked at the corruption scroll in front of him again.

Time to prepare the lesson plan for the next class...

In the Psychedelic Hell, Ahriman gripped his staff, looking at the only two burning stars in front of him.

He cut off the ritual in time and threw the seven stars affected by Nurgle's domain power into the Warp, so that these two stars wouldn't be eroded too.

Otherwise, the accumulation of the Prodigal Warband over long years would be wasted.

"My lord." Astroth approached Ahriman and asked in a low voice: "They have arrived at the second relay point." "According to our prediction, they only need to use that door two more times to reach Terra directly."

Ahriman gasped a few times. He was trembling all over.

If this was the case, the only one who could stop them in time was Ma Genusi, who was guarding near the Webway.

But how could Ma Genusi alone fight against two Primarchs and one god?

Even if Sanguinius still had the scars from ten thousand years ago, even if Roboute Guilliman didn't understand the power of the Warp at all, even if that god was currently dormant in a material body.

But Ma Genusi, not even a complete Ma Genusi, could not defeat them at all.

Ahriman looked at the nine great sorcerers beside him, and then looked at the Rubric Marines following the nine great sorcerers.

These warriors stood on the spot like puppets. There was no flesh and blood in their armor, only ashes and trapped unconscious souls.

This was all because of his mistake, his failure, the sin he committed.

But he could undo all this, seize the power of that Lord of Death, and reverse life and death. And there was only this one chance.

After this time, Ahriman couldn't get the help of Ma Genusi and the Changer of Ways again.

Ahriman looked at those empty shells of armor, trying to identify who the souls trapped in them were, trying to identify those brothers of his from ten thousand years ago.

But the more he identified, the more painful Ahriman became.

"All are dust."

!

Ahriman whispered, and then slowly placed his hand on his horned helmet:

"What correct words, what prophetic words."

The nine great sorcerers retreated in fear.

They only felt that Ahriman was constantly proliferating, increasing, like the Thousand Sons who suffered from flesh mutation in the past, gradually twisting, expanding, and swelling.

It's just that what Ahriman proliferated was not flesh and blood, but something deeper, more strange, and closer to those high-level existences in the Empyrean.

His/Its/His flesh and blood burned fiercely, radiating sapphire-like brilliance to the surroundings, making everything around him seem to turn into glaze.

The Rubric Marines standing beside him constantly surged with the ups and downs of souls, gathering around Ahriman.

He took off his helmet. The nine great sorcerers around him let out a terrified low roar, not daring to look at Ahriman's face at all————if he really still had something that could be called a face.

The screaming void gazed at the two burning stars in front of him.

He/It/He himself was also like a cold, deep star, grabbing all the light and heat around him, leaving only darkness and coldness.

Cackle cackle cackle cackle.

Sharp bird calls rang out in the void. The Changer of Ways laughed.

He had never enslaved Ahriman. He even considered giving Ahriman the freedom of his soul.

Because He knew that Ahriman would eventually take this step.

From the death of Ahriman's own brothers to the Burning of Prospero, from the first Rubric to the second Rubric, from the Great Rebellion to the 41st Millennium.

Ahriman always acted as Tzeentch expected. He sank deeper and deeper into the Warp bit by bit.

Now, he chose to fall into an even more irreversible situation.

"Everything is according to plan."

The Changer of Ways whispered. This time it was real.

In the Webway, Zhou Yun quickly pushed open the Anywhere Door, passed through the Anywhere Door, and arrived at the second relay point.

As the Right-Wrong Divination Machine judged, according to the plan specified by Roboute Guilliman, they didn't even encounter any attacks at the first relay point.

That was clearly the most suitable location for Ma Genusi and Ahriman to launch an attack.

Or rather, there was an attack, but it was stopped in some way they didn't know?

Zhou Yun couldn't judge, Guilliman knew nothing, Sanguinius seemed to have vaguely discovered something, but there wasn't much time to communicate now.

Only need to pass through the third relay point, Zhou Yun could reach the Webway gate leading to the moon, and then go directly to Terra.

Zhou Yun quickly reached out and pushed open the door again, heading to the third relay point in the plan.

Guilliman and Sanguinius followed closely behind.

And then...

Fire and heat burst out from the other side of the Anywhere Door.

"All are dust, only dust remains."

"Dust and nothingness, I don't know what I am."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 351 =====