Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor

Chapter 807 - 807: 806

Eden, the Lion, and Dorn had already sealed off the corner of the illusion completely, cutting off every possible route of escape Magnus might have had.The pressure radiating from the three of them had crushed him utterly.

"D-Damn it!"

Faced with this predicament, Magnus grew more and more tense.

Three Primarchs working together. Aside from Horus, no other fallen Primarch could withstand this kind of encirclement.

He instinctively rose, his crimson body turning insubstantial in an instant as he tried to dissolve into mist and flee.

"You little bastard... still trying to run?!"

When Eden saw it, he raised a hand, and dark-gold arcs of psychic lightning erupted from his palm.

In an instant, endless pressure descended across this region of the illusion, blocking the Sorcerer-King's attempted escape.

Then Eden slapped him hard across the face, sending him crashing back into the corner and scattering every sorcerous message he had tried to send for help.

"Save your strength. I already control this region. You could scream yourself hoarse and no one would come to save you!"

Eden spoke with a cold laugh.

Hellish fel energy burned around his entire body, making him look so oppressive that anyone who did not know better would have thought he was the fallen Primarch.

Eden had more than enough confidence that he could keep Magnus here.

He was already one of the strongest psykers in the galaxy, and now he was borrowing the power of the Lord of Hell to control this region. If Magnus still managed to escape under these conditions, then he might as well quit calling himself Savior, Emperor of the Imperium, Hope Sun, and Lord of Hell.

"Talk! What exactly did you see just now?"

"What is your purpose in launching a boarding assault on New Dragonwood? What are you plotting? What is your battle plan?"

"Where is the Thousand Sons' treasury hidden? Hand it all over!"

Eden pressed him with one question after another. He had to seize this chance and interrogate Magnus properly.

At the same time, he used his authority to guide Magnus's consciousness.

Opportunities like this were rare. The Sorcerer-King was an extremely proud being, but his heart was also terribly fragile, prone to swinging toward the opposite extreme.

Right now, Magnus had clearly collapsed from arrogance into withdrawal. This was when his mind was at its weakest, exactly the moment Eden could dig out the information he needed.

"I... I..." Magnus had been left dizzy by that slap, and even the sorcerous fel energy circulating through his body had grown sluggish.

Under the Savior's pressure and psychic guidance, he instinctively began to answer.

But then he remembered the terrifying GW sigil he had seen earlier, along with his own speculation, and fear swallowed him again.

He resisted.

"My brother asked you a question. Answer him."

Seeing Magnus stammer and hesitate, Rogal Dorn copied the Savior's example and gave him a clean, physical slap across the face.

That slap felt good.

The Praetorian of Terra sighed inwardly. This was why it felt good to fight at his elder brother's side. In the past, when would he ever have gotten the chance to slap fallen traitors like this so freely?

"Talk!"

Thinking of the pressure and pain he had endured during the Siege of Terra ten thousand years ago, and of the countless loyal warriors who had died, Dorn slapped him again so hard that blood spilled from Magnus's nose.

It showed exactly how fierce that slap had been.

"Dorn, even you dare strike me?!" Magnus's fury was finally beaten out of him by the Praetorian of Terra, and he glared at Dorn with venomous hatred.

The Savior might be someone from a mysterious world, a being who possessed more knowledge and psychic power than he did. Being attacked by that existence was something he could accept.

But Dorn was merely the False Emperor's hound, nothing more than one of the Savior's followers. How dare he strike the Sorcerer-King?

Magnus roared and lunged toward Dorn.

Yet the moment he moved, a sudden, devastating kick to the chest came from another direction.

The kick struck with such ferocious force that it sent him flying back into the corner once more.

The one who attacked was the silent Lion. He stood beside the Savior like an old-school, taciturn bodyguard and enforcer.

Together with Dorn, he formed one of Eden's two hard-hitting right hands.

Of course, the Lion was not particularly used to this kind of arrangement, so he had stayed silent the whole time.

But if they could properly teach these fallen traitors a lesson and extract valuable intelligence, he did not mind using a few mob-handed methods.

"D-Damn it!" Magnus gasped for breath, stronger sorcerous fel energy erupting from his body until it almost tore this region apart.

Even the high-rise buildings of Warp energy behind him began to crack across wide areas.

After being humiliated again and again, the Sorcerer-King was furious beyond measure. He drew on all his strength, preparing to risk everything against these three outrageous bastards.

But in the next instant, Magnus discovered dark-red crystal shackles forming around his body.

Those crystal shackles seemed to emerge from his own memories, binding both him and his erupting fel energy in place.

???

"The Changeling's psychic shackles... when did you..."

Magnus's mind went blank. He had no idea when he had been struck by a psychic curse, and worse, it was a curse empowered by Tzeentch.

"What can I say? Your mind is too weak. I learned plenty of real tricks from the Changer of Ways."

Eden folded his arms across his chest, as if none of this surprised him in the slightest.

From the moment he stepped into this region, he had planted seeds of doubt and unease inside Magnus. Only now had they fully erupted.

Back then, the Changeling, Tzeentch's foremost Greater Daemon, had relied on this kind of psychic curse to defeat Guilliman with ease in the Maelstrom.

It caused that good brother to be defeated by his own doubt and sent him crashing ass-first to the ground.

As for how Eden, the Savior, had learned it? Naturally, by shamelessly copying it. His reputation as the King of Warp Knockoffs was not just for show.

As long as the Chaos Gods dared to reveal something, Eden dared to steal it.

Eden watched Magnus trying to break free without the slightest concern. Now that Magnus had fallen under his psychic curse, escape was impossible.

Because those crystal shackles were not merely physical restraints. They were psychic bonds as well, a binding that was nearly impossible to resist.

In simple terms, they used the captive's own power to restrict his actions. Unless the captive could overcome his own mental weaknesses, he could not truly break free.

But doing that was extraordinarily difficult. It was like a man trying to lift himself off the ground by his own hands.

The best way to resist the crystal shackles was to maintain mental stability and never allow the seeds of doubt to be planted in the heart.

Unfortunately, because of his earlier experience, Magnus's mind was in a fragile state. He had walked straight into the trap.

The unnatural power of those shackles was dragging him constantly into his deepest fears:

The collapse of the Webway wards. The Emperor's furious rebuke. The burning of his own home world. His soul being beaten savagely by the Emperor during the Battle of Luna. The Savior's humiliation. His terrifying speculation about higher-dimensional life...

"Get away! All of you, get away from me!"

Magnus struggled with all his strength, tearing apart the crystal shackles around him. Yet every time he broke one, ten new shackles formed from the void.

They were not metal. They were chains of Chaos woven from paradox and the threads of fate.

They wrapped around the Sorcerer-King's limbs, burrowed into the seams of his power armor, drilled into his flesh, and reached straight into the deepest memories of his soul.

Every single crystal shackle was inscribed with all the failures, humiliations, regrets, and fears of his life.

"Little Magnus, the knowledge you pride yourself on is nothing but a child's building blocks before me."

Eden shook his head as he watched Magnus struggle, his expression unfathomably profound.

"All your resistance is futile... I have already written all of this into thirty million scripts of the future. This was always destined to happen. It cannot be changed."

Originally, Eden had hated the pretentious, riddle-spouting style of Tzeentch's followers.

But when he was the one who achieved his goal through careful design and got to show off afterward, it actually felt pretty satisfying.

He was beginning to understand those big-headed crows a little. When an elaborate scheme succeeded after so much work, saying nothing at a moment like that really did feel uncomfortable.

Besides, many of their plans were laid over hundreds or even thousands of years. After hiding and grinding away for so long, then finally succeeding, how could anyone resist stepping out and showing off a little?

Magnus, that fallen traitor, was trapped in a maze of memories.

Images of regret, terror, and humiliation played around him in rotation on the largest possible screens, bombarding him without pause.

Every one of them struck his mind like a hammer blow.

It was as if the more he resisted the crystal shackles, the more psychic torment and pain he suffered, and the stronger the rebounding force became.

That was the terror of psychic curses. Struggling only made the victim suffer more, deepening the restraint.

Even the iron-willed Guilliman had fallen to it. For the Sorcerer-King, whose mind was nowhere near as firm, escaping its control and torment was even more impossible.

"No..."

Magnus no longer dared to keep struggling against the crystal shackles. Exhausted, he leaned in the corner and trembled.

Smack, smack, smack. Another crisp round of slaps rang out.

"Traitor!

"Whatever my brother tells you to do, you do it!"

Rogal Dorn had already grown accustomed to his role. Seeing an opening, he slipped in and delivered two more slaps with remarkable smoothness.

Eden watched quietly. After the Sorcerer-King had taken two more slaps from his good third brother, he crouched down and rested a hand on Magnus's shoulder.

"Little Magnus, can we talk now?"

...

Magnus's head was buzzing. Blood ran from his nostrils, and hot tears streamed down his face.

This time, he was truly beaten into submission. He had shut down completely, and he feared the torment of the crystal shackles even more.

So when the Savior placed a hand on him, he flinched on instinct, his whole body jerking.

"We can..."

Magnus's voice was hoarse. He had completely lost any thought of resisting the Savior and looked like a salted fish that had given up on life.

Right now, he could say anything, discuss anything, and might even be willing to be loyal.

The Savior's methods were too vicious. Not even the False Emperor or the Changer of Ways had tortured him like this.

"I am satisfied with your attitude. I will cease my judgment upon you."

After hearing this, Eden did not continue tormenting the traitor.

Instead, he enveloped Magnus's head in psychic power and directly extracted the intelligence he wanted from his memories.

Now that the Sorcerer-King offered no resistance, Eden could obtain all the information he needed.

Through Magnus's memories, Eden learned what had happened not long ago.

He was rather relieved. "Good thing this guy got scared and stopped exposing the secret. Otherwise, my greatest hidden truth might have been revealed."

If that secret were exposed, even his identity could be uncovered by the Chaos Gods, bringing even more danger.

No one knew what the Chaos Gods would do if they learned that higher dimensions existed, or whether they would become even stronger after gaining the secrets of this universe.

Eden did not know about the other evil gods, but if the Changer of Ways obtained that kind of higher-dimensional secret, he would definitely become more powerful.

Of course, there was another possibility.

After Magnus exposed the secret, he might not obtain any information at all. Instead, this entire region could be crushed apart by pressure from a higher dimension.

That would not be good for Eden either.

Fortunately, none of that had happened. He had also captured Magnus, removing one of the Chaos coalition's major combatants.

That man's sorcery could provide Horus with far too much assistance. It was better to deal with him first.

Once Eden confirmed that his secret had not been exposed, he relaxed considerably. After that, he obtained even more intelligence and secrets.

These included information related to Horus, battle arrangements, and more.

This intelligence would help him defeat the Dark Emperor more effectively and utterly crush the Chaos Gods' designs upon the Imperium.

"It's over. You did well." After obtaining what he wanted, Eden nodded in satisfaction.

He patted the Sorcerer-King on the shoulder to comfort him, then turned and left.

When Magnus saw the Savior walking away, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. He would no longer have to face that being's threat.

But in the next instant, shadows covered him again. Two fierce Primarchs loomed over him.

They clenched their fists, eyes filled with murderous light, every muscle in their bodies gathering strength.

The Lion and Rogal Dorn, these two loyalist Primarchs, had been waiting for this moment of revenge for a long time.

???

"N-No... didn't you say it was over? Didn't you say that if I revealed the intelligence and secrets, you would forgive me?

"You deceiver!"

Magnus stared at the Savior's back, his body trembling as he questioned him in a shaking voice.

"Do not slander me." Eden refuted him with righteous indignation. As the dignified Savior, how could he possibly lie so casually?

"I did forgive you. But my two good brothers have not. This matter has nothing to do with me anymore..."

Eden did not even glance at Magnus. He simply began cleaning up the area, mainly removing certain memory fragments that might expose his identity.

Behind him, the Lion and Rogal Dorn had already moved in.

"Traitor!"

Dorn roared, his iron fists hammering out blow after blow, each strike whistling through the air so fiercely that his punches created sonic booms.

The Lion said nothing, but his muscles were so taut that veins stood out across them, and his blows were even more ruthless than the Praetorian of Terra's.

They pinned Magnus in the corner and beat him savagely. Every strike landed clean and heavy, making the fallen Primarch howl.

"Ah, Little Magnus really is too honest. He clearly runs with Tzeentch, so why doesn't he have a little more suspicion in him? How does he trust people this easily?"

Eden sighed with deep feeling.

Then again, it made sense. Back when Magnus had still been loyal to the Emperor, the Chaos Gods had fooled him out of practically everything he owned.

That was why he hurriedly abandoned everything and rushed over to save the day, only to send his Emperor father, who was in the middle of building the Webway, flying headfirst. What a tragedy.

Before long, Eden finished dealing with everything and left the region with the Lion and Rogal Dorn.

Magnus, meanwhile, remained curled up in the corner, trembling and weeping. His armor had been shattered completely, and his weapons and valuable rune-covered sorcerous materials had all been stripped away.

He was left bare, subjected to an utterly humiliating bullying, completely withdrawn and too frightened even to flee.

Because the moment the Sorcerer-King moved, the crystal shackles created by the psychic curse would continue inflicting cruel torment upon him.

Eden chose not to kill him immediately. Instead, he bound him within this region and would deal with him after the battle ended.

That way, Magnus's soul would not fall back into the hands of the Chaos Gods.

Within the Realm of Chaos, Eden and his proud, spirited Primarch brothers continued on their way, heading off to trouble the next traitor Primarch...

(End of Chapter)

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