The relic spear burst with a roaring blaze and slammed hard into Rogal Dorn's chest.
He was sent flying like a mortal struck by a siege hammer, arcing through the air before crashing back into the still-hot pile of blackstone.
Broken rock and flame erupted together.
Carter and the Custodes were utterly resolute.
Dorn had not only attacked a vital Imperial construction site, but even worse, he had desecrated and destroyed the statue of the Savior.
He had also brazenly declared that the Savior was a heretic and traitor, shouting that His Majesty would pay the price.
That was blatant heresy.
It had completely crossed the bottom line of the Savior's Custodian Guard.
It could not be forgiven.
He had to be arrested.
To be honest, if the figure before them were not suspected to be a returned Primarch, Carter and the others would already have called in annihilating orbital weapons to encircle and purge him.
Even so, they still could not allow any Primarch to threaten the Savior's authority and rule.
That was one of their duties.
Bzzzt, bzzzt~
Several heavily armored Custodians in Aquilon Terminator Armour stepped forward, their strides heavy and deliberate. The Aquilon Pattern was a Custodes terminator war-plate, and the Ares Gunships above had been armed with Arachnus magna-blaze cannons, both established Custodian wargear. Rogal Dorn is also canonically known as the Praetorian of Terra. (warhammer40k.fandom.com)
They ignited their high-voltage shock lances and pinned the fallen Dorn in place, restricting his movements.
Violent currents ran across Dorn's body, inflicting agonizing numbness and temporarily disabling his muscles.
"Prisoner, or perhaps Primarch.
"We still cannot confirm your identity. That will require a complicated verification process.
"As for whether or not you are a traitor, that judgment will be made by the great Savior Majesty Himself.
"For now, I suggest you remain still, so that no further mistakes are made."
After learning the relevant information, Custodian Marshal Carter realized there might be some misunderstanding behind all this.
His tone softened somewhat as he patiently tried to persuade Dorn.
Carter had no right to pass judgment on a Primarch, but no matter what, he had to restrain the man before him.
Otherwise, Dorn might create even more chaos, or force his way into the Imperial Palace and threaten Savior Majesty.
He knew all too well how much influence and danger Rogal Dorn would represent if the man truly was who he claimed to be.
"I am no traitor. You are the true traitors, stealing the authority of the Imperium alongside the Savior."
Half-kneeling on the ground, Dorn slowly raised his head and spoke.
He was now certain that this group of Custodes had already defected to the Savior.
He barely dared imagine what things were like inside the Palace itself.
From every angle he could judge, the Savior looked like a heretic and a traitor.
For example, the Savior had brought the Iron Warriors, the same traitor Legion that had once besieged Terra, and even the xenos Necrons into the Palace.
Or there was the fact that He had turned the Palace Custodes into His personal troops, placing His own authority above that of the Emperor.
None of those things could be explained away or cleansed, at least not within the logic of the Watcher, the Lord of the Mountain Bastion.
And they were things he simply could not accept.
Dorn thought rapidly.
Perhaps while their father slept, the Savior had secretly colluded with a fallen faction inside the Custodes and stolen the authority of the Imperium of Man.
Or perhaps the identity of these Custodes themselves was fake.
They were powerful, certainly, but different from the Custodian Guard their father had once commanded.
"You are hiding the truth. You do not dare let me enter the Palace. You fear that once the truth comes to light, the loyal will rise against you.
"But you cannot stop me from entering. You cannot stop the Emperor's loyal son from reaching the Golden Throne."
Dorn stared at Carter and the Custodes, his will hardening further.
"Your greatest mistake was underestimating the might of a Primarch.
"And above all, underestimating me.
"Rogal Dorn!"
By the end, he was nearly roaring.
"Hold him down!"
The Aquilon Terminators increased the strength of the electrical restraint field, and more Custodes stepped forward to assist.
Carter's relic spear ignited once more, ready to unleash a concussive strike.
But it was already too late.
Dorn's strength was even greater than they had imagined.
Resisting the electrical field head-on, he surged to his feet. With a furious sweep of his arm-plate, he shattered the restraining guardian lances that held him.
He even hurled several Aquilon Terminators off their feet.
Then he seized the relic spear thrusting toward him and crushed the relic-grade weapon apart with raw force.
Flames exploded skyward.
His clenched fist smashed into Carter's chest and sent him flying.
All of it happened in a single second, or less.
To the ordinary Iron Warriors warriors nearby, they saw only a blur. In that instant, Dorn had broken the Custodes' restraint and sent Custodian Marshal Carter hurtling away.
The scene fell silent at once.
This was the power of an awakened Primarch, force beyond a Primarch, strength that even a Custodian Marshal struggled to oppose.
The Custodes were indeed the Emperor's perfect creations, but their upper limit was fixed. They had no way to continue evolving or growing beyond that.
And so the Emperor had used His own genes to create the Primarchs, beings capable of endless growth.
Ten thousand years had passed, and many Primarchs had acquired powers rooted in their very essence, becoming ever stronger.
Dorn, through the force of his own will, had gained an even tougher body, greater mastery of his craft, and exceptional skill at using terrain for battle and defense.
Faced with that level of terrifying personal might and combat technique, even armies found it hard to encircle and suppress him.
The Lord of the Mountain Bastion did not linger.
He forcibly crossed the defensive line and charged toward the Palace.
That was the proper strategy for someone seeking control of truly overwhelming firepower.
"Damn it!"
Carter climbed back to his feet.
His golden breastplate had been driven inward, its surface now riddled with cracks.
Even after taking such a devastating blow, he lunged back into the fight almost immediately, fiercer than before.
This commander of the Savior's Custodes had no real special talent, except that he was exceptionally good at taking the worst beatings imaginable.
Leading the elite Custodian guard, Carter rushed forward and engaged the awakened Dorn head-on with the bodies of the Custodes themselves.
Each collision between the two sides sent shockwaves bursting through the air.
Time and again Carter was knocked down, only to rise again in pursuit and obstruction.
More Custodes arrived to support the battle, coordinating their assault and holding the Lord of the Mountain Bastion in place.
"You cannot stop me!"
Dorn grabbed Carter and smashed him into a multi-limbed engineering Titan that had been trying to back away, causing the watching Iron Warriors to cry out in anguish.
"What a pity. Only a Primarch can defeat a Primarch.
"With gene-strength like yours, you are not fit to be my opponent. You cannot break through the strongest wall in the Imperium."
As he spoke, he tore open Carter's golden armor and drove him to the ground with a brutal kick.
After breaking through Carter's offensive, Dorn crossed yet another defensive line.
That was already the seventh.
Victory was in sight.
And yet, in his field of vision, Carter slowly climbed back to his feet again.
Even with his golden armor shattered, his body covered in wounds, he still retained the will to fight.
It seemed that only death itself could make him stay down.
"You are impressive."
A change came over Dorn's stern face. He could not help but admire this opponent, a man who truly deserved to be called a warrior.
Carter possessed both a sufficiently resilient body and an indomitable will.
If only Dorn's own gene-sons had possessed such toughness of body and spirit.
He thought back to the limp, baffling, absurd behavior he had just witnessed from the Imperial Fists.
His heart twitched painfully.
If he survived this crisis, he would execute every traitor and thoroughly rebuild the Imperial Fists Legion from the ground up.
Staring at Carter, Dorn delivered one final warning.
"If you continue fighting, you will die here. There is no chance of survival."
It was not the warrior's life he pitied.
He simply did not want the man wasting any more of his precious time.
Hearing that, Carter hesitated for a moment.
Then, unexpectedly, he slowly stepped aside, as if giving up on blocking the path.
Dorn looked at him, stunned.
He had not expected such an outcome.
In all his predictions, a warrior of the Savior would never step aside. Only death would stop him.
"That is Savior Majesty's order. That great being has already arrived. You no longer have any chance.
"If you stop resisting and clear up this misunderstanding, that is your only way out…"
Carter answered Dorn's unspoken confusion and offered his advice with solemn sincerity.
If not for that command from the Savior, he would have fought to his last breath.
"Clear up the misunderstanding?
"You people… what are the Savior's terms? Do you dare let me enter the Palace and stand before the Emperor?"
Dorn paused to think, then asked, "If the Emperor Himself acknowledges your loyalty, then I will believe all of this."
"You may enter the Palace."
Carter's reply was surprisingly direct.
But then he added, "On the condition that you surrender your weapons and any mechanical devices you may possess.
"You will proceed to the Golden Throne under the supervision of Savior Majesty."
"And you think I would agree to that? Disarm myself and let heretics and traitors like you butcher me at your leisure?" Dorn replied with a cold laugh.
"You won't." Carter shook his head, then continued relaying the Savior's will. "So His Majesty said He will find a way to make you agree!"
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Within the battle zone, the battered engineering Titan collapsed, erupting in searing flame and exposing the scene behind it.
Following the firelight, Dorn looked toward the Imperial Palace district.
The Savior's banner of honor shone brilliantly beneath the sun, carrying even a trace of the sacred.
On the mountain steps leading up to the Palace, warriors had already formed ranks. Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, Rift Lords, and many other forces spread across the slopes, guarding the banner in the shape of a mountain sigil.
At the same time, countless Thunderhawk gunships, landers, and fortress platforms were still arriving, so numerous that they nearly filled the outer airspace of the Palace.
They hovered in midair, seemingly awaiting orders.
Then dozens of beams of light flared, and the earth rumbled.
Golden Emperor Titans appeared in every direction, their armor hung with Savior banners snapping in the wind.
The encirclement of the Savior's armed forces had completely formed.
"How is that possible?"
Watching the scene, Dorn's breathing grew heavy. Pressure like a mountain became almost tangible as it bore down on him.
His body trembled on instinct.
Dorn realized that at some point, his relic detection device had already stopped functioning.
It had been silent data intrusion and tampering.
He had expected to face an encirclement, but he had never imagined the Savior could mobilize an army on this scale.
He had even deployed dozens of high-grade Emperor Titans, as though the entire Imperial arsenal had been emptied onto this field.
Was that really necessary?!
What Dorn had not expected even more was that no loyalist force had come to the Palace to support him.
Not even his own Bastion Wardens had arrived.
At the same time, in the Bastion Sanctuary, the heavily armed Bastion Wardens stared blankly at the empty flight platform and the severed docking routes.
They seemed to have no way of going to support the Lord of the Mountain Bastion, their gene-father…
The moment the New Imperium received the Savior's order, it had severed every route from the Bastion Sanctuary to the outside world.
It had even taken every vessel from the flight platforms, making airborne deployment impossible.
That transformed the near-orbital sanctuary-fortress into a temporary prison in space.
"Good thing I had a contingency plan. Otherwise that stubborn old mule Dorn really would've caused a disaster."
Eden stepped down from the dark-gold, luxurious assault craft and let out a small sigh of relief.
The moment he received intelligence suggesting Dorn had returned, he had immediately locked down the information and organized an interception.
The only real trouble had been the supreme alert signal Dorn sent out, which had caused a certain amount of confusion.
Fortunately, the New Imperium's communications were advanced enough to reorganize the troops rushing in to defend the throne.
From one angle, that supreme alert message had actually sped up the concentration of his forces.
And having more troops was not a bad thing. The Chaos-tainted Warp corruption spreading through the Iron Warriors construction zone was nearly becoming tangible, so this was a perfect precaution against the risk of a Warp leak.
It also made it easier to intercept the Lord of the Mountain Bastion.
Eden remained extremely wary of Dorn, that stubborn old mule.
He knew exactly how much destruction an obstinate Primarch could cause.
For example, Primarch Curze had thrown the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar into chaos all by himself, and even several Primarchs hunting him had failed to catch him.
Lion El'Jonson had been less stubborn, and he still managed to blow Caliban, the Dark Angels' homeworld, to pieces amid all that misunderstanding.
"Who knows what a stubborn old mule like Dorn, with authority over the Palace defensive works, might do?"
Eden could only judge the situation based on the worst-case scenario.
He had to disarm Dorn and restrict his movements before he dared let him enter the Palace.
Otherwise, if this awakened essence-Primarch slipped into the Palace, seized control of the defenses, and started fighting a guerrilla war against him…
With the Palace interior spanning fortress-complexes equivalent to dozens of hive cities, would he not have to spend endless effort and commit huge numbers of troops to turn over half the eastern continent just to root him out?
That was the influence of the Lord of the Mountain Bastion, the builder of the Palace, the Emperor's final wall-holder. In the right environment, he could unleash terrifying strength.
Now that the chain of mutual suspicion had fully formed, neither side dared lower its guard, lest the price become unbearable.
That was true for Dorn, and it was true for Eden.
Under those conditions, compromise was nearly impossible.
That might not be entirely a bad thing, though. If handled properly, Eden could use this incident to permanently install the Machine-Goddess and his military forces inside the Palace.
That would eliminate the New Imperium's final hidden danger and defensive weakness, allowing all defense systems to be unified rather than continuing to rely on that backward, uncontrolled mess.
It would also complete a key facility needed for the Imperium's counteroffensive plans.
Eden thought as he walked toward the outer Palace steps, rank after rank of Custodes following behind him.
His preparations were complete.
Now it was time for him to step in and end this.
Under the protection of the Imperium's loyal warriors, Eden came beneath the banner of honor and looked toward Dorn in the distance, the Lord of the Mountain Bastion still standing there.
He casually pulled over a bare-chested Imperial Fists brute and shoved a vox-array into the man's hands.
"Talk some sense into your gene-father and tell him to stop being so pigheaded. Otherwise he's only going to make more mistakes."
In truth, by this point, persuasion from the Imperial Fists would not do much.
But procedure was still procedure.
It would help establish the correctness of him, the Savior.
"Me?"
The Imperial Fists warrior, stern-faced and impeccably disciplined in appearance, felt immense pressure.
On one side stood the Savior.
On the other stood their gene-father.
The Imperial Fists warriors were put in a deeply awkward position and did not know how they were supposed to handle this.
If he did this, was his gene-father, the Lord of the Mountain Bastion, going to beat him to death later?
And yet, looking at Savior Majesty, the imposing Custodes, and the battle-brothers from the other Legions all around him…
He quickly made his choice.
Anyone with eyes could see that the Savior's side was the loyal side of the Imperium.
Their gene-father Dorn had only just returned. It was obvious he did not understand the current situation, which was why all this misunderstanding and chaos had erupted.
Fortunately, there was still room to salvage things.
"Savior above, worst comes to worst, I'll just apply to transfer to the Hope Legion later!"
Clenching his teeth, the Imperial Fists warrior stepped to the Savior's side and immediately felt much more secure.
Using the vox-amplifier, he shouted to his gene-father Dorn, his voice trembling slightly.
"F-Father!
"Savior Majesty is a being personally crowned by the Emperor, a being loyal to humanity.
"Please end this misunderstanding at once, cooperate with the arrangements, and help set things right…"
At the same time, in the area outside the Palace.
Standing within the encirclement, Dorn finally saw the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium.
Surrounded by the Custodes, that being walked out from the Palace.
He was massive in stature, clad in True-One Armour, his cloak billowing, projecting overwhelming authority.
It was like seeing the Emperor reborn.
Then came the vox-broadcast of an Imperial Fists gene-son urging him to surrender, echoing over and over across the Palace district.
Dorn's vision nearly went black.
That was a killing stroke to the heart.
"How pitiful…"
Dorn stood there alone, looking up at the Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium, surrounded by Imperial warriors.
It was as if the Savior was the true loyal son of the Imperium, while Dorn's own side had not a single being willing to stand with him.
Like a hunted heretic.
Like a stray dog driven out and cornered.
What in the name of the Emperor had become of this Imperium?!
For one dazed instant, Dorn even felt as if he himself had become the traitor.
A surge of grief rose in him.
The Savior had likely already taken control of part of the Custodes and inserted even more of His own armed forces, all in an attempt to hijack the Golden Throne.
Their father's ruined body lay under His threat.
"Stand down, Brother Dorn. On this side, all you see are the righteous armies of the Imperium."
At that moment, Eden's calm voice rang out, patient and almost gentle in its persuasion.
"Do not keep forcing this, and do not keep making the same mistake. Once I take you to the Golden Throne, everything will explain itself."
Dorn looked up at the Savior in gleaming golden True-One Armour.
That figure seemed to stand across the entire breadth of the Imperium.
His majesty was overwhelming.
Above the Palace, fortress platforms had moved into position, while more and more vehicles, ships, and aircraft continued arriving.
They blotted out the sun and cast deep shadows over the ground.
"What kind of authority is this? Is this still our father's Imperium… or the Savior's Imperium?!"
The Watcher, the Lord of the Mountain Bastion, trembled faintly.
Suddenly, he realized that Terra's sky had become impossibly deep.
The heavens of the Imperium were covered by a darkness greater than ever before.
Too dark.
(End of Chapter)
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