Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor

Chapter 802 - 802: 801

"How is that possible?"Such terrifying strength made Guilliman's heart clench.

He had not expected Horus to have reached such an inconceivable level of power. The Warmaster had crushed a force field capable of disrupting molecular bonds with his bare hand.

The relic weapon, forged with special alloys, shattered in his grip like brittle ceramic.

The battle had only just begun, yet Horus had already destroyed Guilliman's primarch-grade weapon with overwhelming force.

Power at this level had gone beyond imagination. It meant that even supposedly indestructible power weapons could no longer harm him.

"At this range..."

Once Guilliman realized the Radiant Shortsword had been destroyed, the danger closing in on him became even more vivid.

He made his decision at once. Releasing the sword hilt, he retreated while activating every defensive field on his armor.

More than a dozen specialized force fields unfolded at once, layer upon layer, so bright they dazzled the eye.

It was a force-field suite painstakingly crafted by his Savior brother, nearly capable of withstanding any attack.

With those defenses, Guilliman had barely fallen in battle over the past several decades.

Even when he had been stranded in a turbulent region and assaulted by an entire planet's worth of Chaos Daemons, he had not been forced onto the back foot.

Even against multiple Greater Daemons of Chaos or primarch-level combatants, he could meet them head-on.

"Damn it!"

Yet the moment the shields flared to life, every hair on Guilliman's body stood on end. A lethal threat crashed toward him.

By instinct, he raised his armored arm to shield the vital points of his chest.

Horus's claws, shrouded in corrupted power, were terrifyingly sharp. Moving faster than the naked eye could follow, they tore through every layer of the force fields.

Then the claws split the Hand of Dominion in two and left deep gouges across Guilliman's breastplate. Blood welled out at once.

Had he not raised his arm in time to block the blow, those claws might have torn through his hearts and taken his life.

Horus's assault was so savage that Guilliman had only just felt the sharp agony in his chest before another brutal strike followed.

He was kicked away and smashed into the machinery behind him, sending violent sparks flying. Even the armor over his abdomen cracked and caved inward.

In only a few exchanges, Guilliman had been gravely wounded by his fallen brother, the Dark Emperor, without even finding room to strike back.

He had fallen again.

"Roboute, you truly are weak. So weak you do not even have the right to make me bleed.

"Perhaps this is the frailty of mortals. Without truly grasping the power of the Warp, you will always have a ceiling.

"You are not worthy to fight me. This ends here." Horus's sight had returned, and he strode toward him.

Now that he wielded higher authority over the Warp, he had become a life-form on another level entirely: ruler of the galaxy and the immaterium.

That was the level of one qualified to take part in the Great Game. A primarch like Guilliman, who had yet to step into that realm, was no different from a mortal to him.

"I am mortal," Guilliman said, forcing his upper body up as he drew out a launcher, "but you are nothing more than a slave to the Warp's dark gods."

With distance now between them, he finally had the chance to use heavier weapons.

Thump, thump, thump.

Guilliman fired several more rounds at Horus: more powerful sanctified ash shells and hell missiles.

Perhaps they were the only weapons he had left that could slow him down.

"Ridiculous."

Horus kept walking, without the slightest thought of dodging, allowing the special munitions Guilliman fired to strike him head-on.

Gold, crimson, and black flames intertwined, surging around him in a violent tide.

That power was enough to kill the vast majority of Greater Daemons of Chaos and reduce them to ash.

Yet Horus did not retreat a single step, even after being struck directly by sanctified ash shells and hell missiles.

He simply advanced through the bombardment of weapons forged from the False Emperor's and the Savior's energies.

"Is this your resistance? Unless the False Emperor comes in person, you have no chance of surviving.

"As for that Savior, I now bear the assembled might of the gods. My authority within the galaxy has surpassed his.

"His power has no effect on me..."

Beneath the burning touch of sacred psychic force and hellish energy, Horus's face grew even more hideous.

Even such attacks brought him only the faintest sensation of heat.

It was like being brushed by sparks from a firework. There was no real harm.

When Horus crossed the raging energy field and appeared before Guilliman wreathed in black flame, his shadow nearly swallowed him whole. It was so terrifying that it sealed off every path of escape.

It was a despairing, unstoppable threat of death. He could take Guilliman's life at any moment.

Yet the instant Horus looked at Guilliman, he discovered that his enemy had suddenly exploded.

The Lord of Ultramar, the Primarch of the Ultramarines, simply detonated in the open, releasing immense force.

The powerful blast and blackstone fragments pierced straight through the Chaos barrier, forcing Horus to raise an arm to block them.

Hmph.

When Horus raised his head again, all he saw was a hole torn through the hull and the void beyond.

There was nothing around him but the wreckage of equipment. As for Guilliman's presence, it had vanished from this region entirely.

He was in another area now, far from here.

That bastard escaped?

Horus stared into the vast empty stretch of space before him, momentarily numb.

For a moment, he could not understand how Guilliman had fled so far in an instant despite the blockade of Chaos.

No sorcery or teleportation device could have achieved such a thing.

If Guilliman truly possessed such powerful mobility, he would never have been trapped aboard this ship so easily. He would have withdrawn long ago.

Horus frowned slightly and scanned the surrounding void. Understanding came to him at once.

The region of space he occupied had changed greatly from its original position.

That meant Guilliman had not escaped quickly. Rather, the ship itself had moved a certain distance at the instant Guilliman left it.

That was what had rapidly widened the distance between them and allowed him to escape Horus's attack range.

"You do know how to run..." Horus said, staring in the direction of Guilliman's presence with a cold smile.

Such a flawless response made him think a little more highly of him.

Perhaps the rumors that Guilliman was a reckless brute on the battlefield had merely been distortions repeated from mouth to mouth.

"Magnus, intercept Roboute."

Horus did not immediately pursue him. Instead, he issued a pursuit order to the fallen primarchs.

At their current distance, they would be able to intercept him faster.

Guilliman was still within the effective range of their flagship throne. There was essentially no chance he could shake off the pursuit and escape this region.

Especially now that he had lost his vessel. What was he going to do, swim back to New Dragonwood?

"I would like to see whether you dare come rescue him. If you do, I can leave all of you here."

Horus stared into the distant void and thought this as the murky winds of the Warp poured through the breach, making his black cloak sway faintly.

Because of the deep connection between the Warp and the Sol System, the physical laws and ecology of space here had changed too much. It was utterly different from before.

Perhaps such changes could never be restored.

At the same time, in the void.

Several drops of blood drifted through space. Plague flies buzzed over and greedily sucked at them.

"I finally got out..."

Guilliman floated in midair, weightless, and swatted the plague flies away in disgust.

The ecological changes created by the Chaos-tainted Warp were repulsive. They would make this place unfit for human habitation.

At this moment, he looked as though he had shrunk by a full size. His armor had also shifted into a close-fitting form rather than the heavy, massive shape it had possessed before.

Not long ago, Guilliman had activated his armor's emergency evasion system, causing the outer layer of armor to self-destruct. The violent explosion had blocked Horus and blasted a breach through the hull.

He had seized that chance to escape from the ship into space.

To make this dear brother of his sturdier and harder to kill, the Savior had truly spared no effort. He had even designed the armor in two layers and included numerous escape measures.

And at the instant Guilliman left the hull, the Eternal Soul used its remaining momentum to shift a short distance, allowing him to escape with his life.

Of course, such a complicated sequence had not been operated by Guilliman alone. He had the help of Webby, the Machine-Goddess.

The Warp authority Webby possessed could draw even greater potential from mechanical vessels.

More importantly, Brother Eden had not abandoned him. He had bypassed the Chaos blockade and sent Guilliman an escape coordinate.

"Brother Eden has never forgotten me. He is trying to help me escape this predicament."

Thinking of his dear brother's concern, Guilliman could not help feeling moved. Warmth spread through his heart.

He had endured betrayal and attacks from his fellow primarchs. Such care and brotherhood had become impossibly rare.

Only by standing united and fighting shoulder to shoulder in the hardest moments could one be a true brother.

"Horus will bring us a tremendous threat. I wonder if Brother Eden has found a way to defeat him..."

Guilliman recalled what had just happened and still felt lingering fear.

Judging from his performance, that fallen primarch, that Dark Emperor, had already surpassed the Savior in strength within the galaxy.

Perhaps only if the primarch brothers fought together would they have a chance to defeat him.

Thinking this, Guilliman subconsciously glanced again toward the Eternal Soul, now completely dead in the distance. Horus had not pursued him.

Then he lowered his head to confirm the region of space indicated by the coordinates and used the small thrusters attached to his armor to move forward.

Yet he had only traveled a short distance when the shadows of the Chaos fleet slowly covered him.

Together, they formed an encirclement, pressing toward him like mountain ranges in the void.

Any living being caught in such an encirclement would face pressure beyond description. It meant endless Chaos armies.

And there were other fallen primarchs pursuing him as well.

Guilliman's body trembled faintly on instinct. He knew he absolutely could not be captured by Horus and the other fallen traitors.

Otherwise, he would face unbearable humiliation, and the war between the Imperium and Chaos would be affected as well.

If things reached that point, he would rather fight the traitors to the death and die completely than let himself become a burden to his brothers.

Pain stabbed through Guilliman's entire body, and his vision had begun to blur.

Horus's powerful attacks had shattered bones in several places and damaged his internal organs as well.

"As long as I can reach that place..." He took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the fortress wreckage in the distance.

It was the remains of a defensive platform several kilometers wide, left behind after the destruction of the Wall of Arat. Now it had become the coordinate point set by the Savior.

Once he reached those coordinates, he would be able to escape with the Savior's help, and he would be able to bring back intelligence on Horus's true strength.

Guilliman used the concealment systems on his armor to mask his form and pushed himself toward the target with everything he had.

The encirclement of the Chaos fleet was shrinking. Soon it would be able to detect his location and unleash a ferocious attack.

When that happened, he would not even have a chance to resist.

After an unknown amount of time, Guilliman finally reached the fortress wreckage and dragged himself onto it.

Standing on the metal floor, he scanned the surrounding environment and found no special teleportation machinery, no sorcerous array, and no psychic coordinates.

There was nothing here at all.

"What am I supposed to do?"

Guilliman was a little lost. The message he had received was very simple: reach this region and wait to be extracted.

He looked at the Chaos fleet closing in from all sides, and the pressure in his heart grew heavier and heavier. This region had no protection whatsoever. If the fleet opened fire, the attack would be devastating.

Even so, the Primarch of the Ultramarines and Lord of Ultramar did not panic. He trusted the Savior's promise.

"We have been waiting for you for a long time."

Suddenly, a sharp yet oddly pleasant voice rang out, accompanied by the clatter of scales.

Guilliman snapped his head around and saw a towering figure with a human upper body and a serpent's tail. It was the fallen Phoenician, Fulgrim.

The look he gave Guilliman was full of venom.

Immediately after, several more hateful figures appeared. Mortarion, Magnus, Alpharius, and other fallen beings surrounded him from different directions.

Through prophecy, they had learned the target location where the Primarch of the Ultramarines would arrive, then reached it in advance for a precise interception, leaving him nowhere to run.

"Roboute, you cannot escape!"

Fulgrim slithered toward him on his serpentine body, the slender swords in his hands constantly clashing together with a sound like some kind of threat.

The fallen Phoenician was extremely excited. He still remembered how Guilliman, the Savior, and the other primarchs had joined forces to beat him down before.

That was an unforgettable humiliation. This time, he could finally take revenge. He was going to gang up on Guilliman for once.

Then he would capture Guilliman completely and humiliate him before the Imperial front a hundred times over!

???

Seeing this, Guilliman's brows tightened, and that resolute face once again took on an expression of pure misery.

Had he somehow stepped into another trap set by the Chaos traitors?

Yet before he could find a way to withdraw, the fallen Phoenician's slender sword struck, and the Death Lord and the other fallen primarchs pounced as well.

In another region.

"Ah, Guilliman really has done something impressive this time..."

Eden floated in midair, twisted gravity corridors on either side of him. Space itself was being compressed in some strange form.

He was rather moved.

His dear brother Guilliman had accidentally charged into the heart of Chaos, perfectly drawing the firepower and attention of the forces of Chaos.

Then, under Eden's guidance, he had gathered the main strength of the Chaos fleet and drawn it toward a coordinate node.

That made it convenient for New Dragonwood's core main cannon to charge properly and then launch a concentrated strike.

In turn, they could severely weaken the enemy.

That dear brother was a little unlucky, yes, but whenever Eden fought alongside him, things always seemed to go more smoothly.

Perhaps it was because Guilliman drew all the fire.

In any case, Eden hoped his dear brother could hold on until he arrived and pulled him out.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, space distorted to its limit. The twisted corridor transformed in an instant, becoming the vastness of outer space.

Ahead, he could see the wreckage of a fortress, along with the dense Chaos fleet surrounding it.

He had arrived.

After reaching the area, Eden immediately began searching the fortress wreckage. The image in his field of view zoomed in again and again.

Soon, he saw Guilliman lying face-down on the ground. That iconic rear was very obvious.

More importantly, his dear brother was still alive.

Bzzzt.

Bioelectric energy flashed. Eden swung his chitinous bone wings and plunged toward the fortress wreckage.

A little excited, he immediately sent his voice out.

"Screech, screech-screech-screech!"

It was the sound of Tyranid life, spreading outward as bioelectromagnetic waves.

Eden froze for a moment and realized he had slipped while controlling the Tyranid clone body, the Bladewing Hive Mind.

After that, he used the body to mimic human speech.

"Brother, I have come to aid you!"

Behind him, massive hive bio-ships and narwhal bio-vessels floated in the void.

And the swarm poured out like a cloud of bees.

(End of Chapter)

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