Human eyes are easily fooled.
Corvus Corax had learned this truth as a youth in the prisons of Lycaeus. He had seen it again and again in the command centers of his enemies, as they discussed his defeat and death.
And so it was now.
The Unsighted King's elite had not detected his solo incursion into enemy territory. They were fighting desperately against the Shadows of Order's Honour Guard.
As Corax's claws found purchase on Merseyside's highest spire, he felt it shudder violently. He looked down.
Two and a half miles below, to his lower right, a Kraken assault claw had struck.
As the smoke cleared, Horus's white cloak billowed.
His Storm Bolter roared, claiming life after life, carving a path through the enemy lines.
'Horus is making a direct assault, aiming to decapitate the Unsighted King's leader.'
Corax's gaze shifted to the lower left.
'And Nareth?'
His black eyes narrowed. Three kilometers away, Nareth had vanished.
He swept his gaze over the area between the towering Shadows of Order Standard Bearer and the spire.
Nothing. No black-armored, golden-winged Nareth.
As he searched, a rush of air passed his ear. A flash of gold entered his peripheral vision.
He banked on his steel wings, sliding away from the spire.
He looked up. A burning golden sun was rising, already a third of the way up the tower.
'Nareth!'
Corax folded his wings, landing back on the spire's wall. A flicker, and he turned.
White wings, touched with pearl-white, swept past.
Sanguinius, his right arm holding Horus, ascended rapidly.
Corax's flight pack vents flared, his steel wings spreading, propelling him upward.
The Lord of Ravens, no longer hiding in shadow, rose on the air currents.
His black eyes fixed on the sky, his superhuman vision taking in the gold and white.
'Sanguinius, carrying Horus, is about a fifth faster than me.'
'Nareth... he is fifty percent faster than Sanguinius... no, his golden wings are burning. He is accelerating. Now sixty percent faster...'
Sanguinius's pristine white wings were fully extended, his left arm supporting his friend Horus.
He had promised the Warmaster he would be his counselor; he would give his all.
His feathers beat, but the golden fire rose higher.
"Nareth is faster than me."
The wind rushed against Horus's shaven head, striking his wide eyes.
His gaze dimmed for a moment, then flared again.
"We cannot let him go in alone."
Horus's response was predictable. A hunter, once he had his target in sight, would not give up easily.
Horus craved a decapitation strike in every battle he fought. That ambition had served him well at Ullanor, where he had slain the galaxy's greatest Ork Warlord, Urrlak Blackfan g.
Even if Nareth reached the top first, the elite guard might still hold him back. Horus still had a chance.
As Sanguinius thought, thunder roared overhead.
A hundred missiles, guided by the augur array, shot from the spire's summit towards the golden fireball.
The sky ignited. A wave of searing heat, mixed with missile fragments, swept down.
Sanguinius did not evade. He would not let his friend's chance slip away.
His white wings folded, closing over his head.
Whoosh!
The rolling heat stripped the feathers from four of his wings, scorching a dozen more.
The charred feathers pierced the heat wave. Sanguinius spread his wings, parting the flames. A vision flashed through his mind:
A black-armored, golden-winged figure bursting through a colored window.
Bang!
Nareth, his golden fire extinguished, crashed through the window into the top floor.
His boots struck the marble floor. His obsidian eyes swept the room.
The top floor was a circular disc. Bronze thrones, set with sparkling crystals, were arranged around it like a clock face.
At the center stood a throne three times the size of the others, its back adorned with twelve crystals.
All thirteen thrones were empty. Five bodies in ornate robes lay on the floor.
His gaze flickered, instantly identifying eight hosts that had not been abandoned, and the sixteen Unsighted Kings within their eyes.
Simultaneously, he locked onto nine transparent worms, their bodies traced with yellow-green patterns, flying towards the nobles and one more.
As the Primarch surveyed the top floor through his Warp Insight, he also noted three figures approaching rapidly.
One was sharp as an arrow, howling like a wolf.
Another, close to him, was radiant and pure, yet wreathed in deep shadow.
The last was dark, swift, and agile.
Nareth felt the wolf-howl rising to meet him.
The eight crowned hosts raised their golden scepters, aiming at Nareth. "Heretic! Kill him!"
As the guards raised their weapons, the "Mentor of Disorder" intoned in Dunnic: "Those who follow the Unsighted King have betrayed humanity!"
The guards fell as if struck by lightning, their bodies charred.
His "Words of Order" continued: "The Unsighted King has parasitized humanity, ravaging the entire Cluster!"
Bang, bang, bang...
The hosts' eyes exploded. Sixteen transparent worms drifted helplessly from the sockets.
The nine worms that had been trying to burrow into the nobles' eyes froze, suspended in mid-air.
The previously hidden Unsighted King leader was suddenly exposed.
The Primarch's eyes flickered. His telekinesis swept out.
He raised his right hand. Twenty-six transparent worms, their bodies covered in yellow-green patterns, flew into his palm.
Black mist rose and vanished. The worms were gone.
After sending the Unsighted Kings to the Kingdom of Disorder, Nareth turned to face the wall.
One, two, three. Three heartbeats later, Sanguinius and Horus landed on the roof.
Horus surveyed the room, littered with corpses, none alive.
He met Nareth's obsidian gaze.
A third time he had missed a decapitation strike three times, each time claimed by Nareth.
The first was in the system, when he had been ordered to teach Nareth.
Then, Nareth's punch had been impressive, impossible to replicate.
The second was on Drune, where Nareth's iron will had allowed him to break free of the xenos' mind-control first.
Today was the third... Was it simply because Sanguinius was slower than Nareth?
He had slain the rebels in an instant, was it sorcery?
As Horus pondered, a crackling sound came from his right.
He turned. Corax's lightning claws tore through the wall, and he climbed in.
'I didn't sense Corax's approach... Nareth's killing of the rebel leader distracted me, and I lost awareness of my surroundings.'
As Horus reflected, Corax walked past him.
"Nareth, congratulations on slaying the rebel leader and ending the rebellion."
Nareth beat his golden wings, smiling. "I just flew a little faster."
"No..." Corax turned, facing both Nareth and Horus.
"Your achievement is well-earned. You slew the xenos. You brought peace to the hundred worlds of the Akum-Sothos Cluster."
As he spoke, he faced Horus, a smile playing on his lips.
"You have fulfilled the Warmaster's command."
With a soft laugh, Corax strode past Horus and dove into the night.
Sanguinius looked at Nareth's golden wings, nodded to him, then turned to his friend.
"Horus, you led the campaign."
Horus laughed. "Sanguinius, are you worried I'll be disheartened because I didn't land the killing blow?"
"Such a small thing won't bring me down!"
He met Nareth's obsidian gaze. "Corax is right, Nareth. You are the hero of the Akum-Sothos campaign."
"You have even outdone me in my own specialty, decapitation strikes."
"This is a reminder to me, that I should not let the Warmaster's crown separate me from the glories of the battlefield."
Horus's eyes gleamed. "I am a commander. But I am also a warrior."
"Sometimes, I must still win glory with my own fists."
Sanguinius looked at Nareth again, then smiled in relief.
"Horus, my brother. You have finally shed the weight the Warmaster's title has placed upon you."
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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