Chapter 1077: Left, for Now

"Do you see, brother? This is the difference. You exhaust yourself just to leave a few inconsequential scratches on me. And I... I am connected to the infinite. My power will not wither, my will will not tire, my conviction... is indestructible."

Mortarion slowly stood up and pulled up his Great Scythe.

"Your 'power' is poison."

Mortarion's voice was hoarse.

"Your 'infinite' is a cage. Your 'conviction'... is the ravings of a madman."

Corrupted Jaghatai raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Then why is it you who cannot stand, and not me?"

Mortarion did not answer.

The rift must be closed. Or at least, his connection to the rift must be severed.

But how?

Unless...

A dangerous thought formed in Mortarion's mind.

"You are thinking."

Corrupted Jaghatai sensed Mortarion's small movement.

"How interesting. Even in this desperate situation, you still believe 'wisdom' can solve problems.

This is the most pathetic thing about you lot; you always overestimate reason and underestimate the nature of Chaos."

Corrupted Jaghatai took a step forward.

"Let me tell you the nature of Chaos, Mortarion. Chaos is not disorder, but... possibility. Infinite possibilities.

In your world, the Emperor established iron laws: Humans must be unified, Aliens must be purged, psionics must be controlled. How narrow, how suffocating!"

His voice gradually rose, carrying a fanatical passion.

"And in the realm of Chaos, everything is possible! You can become anything you want to be! Power, knowledge, eternity... as long as you are willing to pay the price, as long as you dare to embrace your true self!"

"Just like you?"

Mortarion asked coldly in return.

"Embracing your 'true self' results in becoming this half-human, half-ghost monstrosity? Letting those... things... crawl all over you?"

Corrupted Jaghatai looked down at the tentacles wrapped around his arm.

"You call them 'things', I call them 'blessings'. They are the tentacles of the true gods, the extensions of the great existence."

Mortarion felt a chill.

"Then, do you see the result today? Do you see how you have failed?"

Corrupted Jaghatai laughed.

"Arrogance, Mortarion. You are still so arrogant. But it doesn't matter, I will shatter it with my own hands."

Corrupted Jaghatai attacked again.

Those tentacles suddenly expanded and elongated, turning into dozens of whip-like limbs, lashing at Mortarion from every angle.

Mortarion immediately raised a Psionic Shield, but the tentacles' method of attack was too bizarre.

The Psionic Shield was constantly eroded; those mouthparts were gnawing on the psionic structure, and those suckers were draining his energy.

Worse still, the tentacles' attacks carried mental corruption.

With every contact, Mortarion could feel something trying to drill into his consciousness: whispers, hallucinations, fragments of memory...

Mortarion saw a scene: the Emperor standing on the Golden Throne, but the throne was not golden, but built from countless human skulls.

The Emperor turned his head, and that face was not the father he knew, but a cold, strange existence with eyes that held only calculation.

"You think he cares about you? You are merely tools, disposable tools once used..."

"No!"

Mortarion roared, using his will to forcibly dispel the hallucination.

But in that moment of distraction, a tentacle broke through his defense and wrapped around Mortarion's right leg.

Countless tiny teeth emerged on the surface of the tentacle, beginning to gnaw at the joints of his Power Armor.

Mortarion swung his staff to sever the tentacle, and black pus sprayed from the stump, splashing onto his greaves.

The pus corroded the armor, making a hissing sound.

"Is it painful?"

Corrupted Jaghatai stood not far away, manipulating the tentacles to continue the attack.

"But pain is also a gift. Pain makes you sober, makes you understand your own fragility, makes you crave... change."

More tentacles surged over.

Mortarion abandoned all-out defense.

He focused most of his psionic energy onto the Great Scythe, and the blade began to emit a white light.

Corrupted Jaghatai sensed the change in Mortarion's energy.

"Oh? Planning to fight for your life? How touching. But do you think this will let you win?"

"I don't need to win."

Mortarion's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"I only need to ensure you cannot remain in this world."

Mortarion gripped the Great Scythe with both hands, held it high above his head, and then plunged it into the ground.

The blade merged into space itself before it even touched the ground.

Mortarion was using the essence of his own soul as an Anchor Point, forcibly stabilizing the surrounding reality structure.

"What are you doing?!"

"Doing what I do best."

With Mortarion as the center, ripples of silver-white light expanded outward in circles.

Wherever the ripples passed, those tentacles began to dissipate.

The spatial rift's writhing slowed, and its edges began to solidify.

"You're insane! Burning your soul like this, you will die! Or worse, you will become an empty shell!"

"Then let me become an empty shell. At least, I do it for the future of Human, not to become a puppet for some 'True Gods'."

The silver-white ripples had already expanded to the feet of the corrupted Jaghatai.

The tentacles on the white Power Armor began to wither and fall off.

"No... impossible... how could you..."

The corrupted Jaghatai staggered backward; those fallen tentacles writhed on the ground, then turned into black smoke and dissipated.

The spatial rift began to shrink.

It shrank from a diameter of ten meters to eight, five, three...

But Mortarion had also reached his limit.

His vision began to blur, and the sensations of his body gradually faded away.

The corrupted Jaghatai looked at the nearly unconscious Mortarion.

His expression was complex: anger, unwillingness, regret, and a hint of... envy?

"You won this time, Mortarion."

The corrupted Jaghatai's voice became unusually calm.

"You held onto your conviction, your... father.

Tell them. Tell all of 'us' who are still loyal to the False Emperor. The time to choose... will always come."

The Jetbike's engine roared to its limit, and dark green flames erupted several meters long.

"Take care, brother. May you have the courage to face the truth... on the day it descends."

The corrupted Jaghatai rode the Jetbike and disappeared from sight.

In the crater, only the surging Ley Line Energy, the wreckage of the damaged control room, and Mortarion, who was kneeling on the ground and had nearly lost consciousness, remained.

"Father!"

"Lord Primarch!"

Dozens of Dusk Raiders Space Marines rushed down from the edge of the crater.

They had heard the sounds of battle, but the previous energy fluctuations of the fight were too strong for them to even approach.

Only now, as the energy subsided, did they dare to enter.

Running at the front was the Librarian Typhon.

This Psionic's face was pale; Typhon had just tried to use his powers to sense the situation inside the crater, only to be injured by the backlash of chaotic energy.

"Father, you..."

Typhon rushed to Mortarion's side and gasped at the sight of his wounds and the nearly shattered Great Scythe.

"What happened? Those energy fluctuations... I sensed at least two Primarch-class entities fighting, but the feeling of one of them... was very strange."

The other Dusk Raiders Space Marines quickly established a defensive formation and scanned the surroundings.

Mortarion slowly raised his head. His vision was blurry, but he could still recognize Typhon's face.

"Typhon..."

"I am here, Father."

Typhon knelt on one knee and carefully checked Mortarion's injuries.

"Medical team! Prepare for extraction immediately! The Primarch needs emergency treatment!"

"No..."

Mortarion raised a hand to stop him.

"First... report the battle situation. The resistance of Fengqi..."

"It has been cleared, Father."

Typhon reported quickly.

"The main Psionic Array has been destroyed. The Planetary Defense System is collapsing, and the Orbital Fleet reports that the enemy remnants are fleeing."

Mortarion nodded slightly.

At least, the strategic objective had been achieved.

"Then... just now... that entity who fought you... who was it? I felt a familiar Psionic presence, but it was completely different. It was filled with... darkness."