When the Emperor led his sons and dramatically climbed out of the Golden Throne...
The whole world was shaken. Regent Guilliman stared at the Emperor and his brothers with his mouth hanging open. His giant mouth looked big enough to swallow an entire watermelon.
"What? You're that shocked to see me standing again, and to see your brothers have all returned? Or is it that you haven't had enough of being Regent and want to keep doing it?"
Jovian stood with his hands behind his back and questioned the Regent in front of him.
"No, no, no, that is absolutely not what I mean. Since you have risen, then authority should naturally be returned to you."
After hearing Jovian's words, Guilliman quickly backed away several steps, then dropped to one knee before him. Now that the Emperor had risen from the Golden Throne, how could he possibly dare keep clutching power? Besides, looking at all the brothers standing behind the Emperor, there was no way he could keep them in line by himself.
"What is the current state of the Imperium?"
With a wave of Jovian's hand, the Golden Throne appeared behind him. He leaned against it and asked Guilliman about the state of the Imperium.
"This..."
Guilliman genuinely did not know what he was supposed to say. He was thinking, with the shape the Imperium was in and all the problems humanity was facing, how could the Emperor possibly not know? Or was there some deeper meaning hidden in the question? As he thought that, Guilliman raised his head and looked toward the brothers standing behind Jovian.
But when he looked at them, all he got in return was a perfectly synchronized turning of heads.
"You all..."
Guilliman nearly choked on his own frustration. What was that supposed to mean? Had brotherhood faded after all these thousands of years? And those traitors, did they seriously have the nerve to stand behind the Emperor?
"Answer me, now."
Jovian fixed Guilliman with an unblinking stare and pressed him.
"This..."
"The Imperium is full of peace and harmony right now!"
"Humanity is living wonderfully carefree lives..."
"Everyone is completely loyal and free."
Guilliman started making things up on the spot. He had no idea whether he should tell the truth, a lie, something flattering, or something ugly. So he kept it vague, hoping he might be able to bluff his way through.
"That is complete bullshit!"
"Humanity is living carefree?"
"Have the Necrons been wiped out? Have the Tyranids been wiped out? Those heretics are still alive and standing where I can see them, so how could humanity possibly be living carefree lives?"
After hearing Guilliman's answer, Jovian shouted him down.
"..."
Guilliman stayed on one knee and did not dare talk back.
"Guilliman, do you know your crime?"
At that moment, Jovian suddenly asked him whether he knew his fault.
"I... know my crime."
Guilliman wanted to explain himself. He wanted to tell Jovian that while the Emperor had slept, he had never once rested, that he had worked with total devotion the entire time. But since the Emperor was asking whether he was guilty, he did not dare deny it. To deny it would be to argue back. To argue back would be disloyal. And loyalty that was not absolute was equivalent to absolute disloyalty.
"Roboute Guilliman, Imperial Regent of the Imperium of Man, failed to govern the Imperium well while I was repairing the Webway. That is a crime, and a grave one. From this moment on, your status as Regent is revoked. Return to the Ultramarines and be their commander once more."
Only after hearing Guilliman admit guilt did Jovian reveal the faintest trace of a smile. The next second, he turned serious again and delivered his punishment.
"So that's what this is..."
Guilliman was not stupid. The moment he heard those words, he understood everything. No matter what he had said today, he was going to get scolded, and the title of Regent was going to be taken from him no matter what. The Emperor did not actually need a report on the state of the Imperium. He just needed a reason to send Guilliman back to the Ultramarines.
"You've worked hard all these years. Ten thousand years is long enough. Go back and rest properly. As for the Imperium of Man..."
"Heh, as long as I am here, as long as I am seated here for even one more day, the Imperium will not fall, and humanity will not perish."
Just as Guilliman's mind was racing, Jovian spoke again. His voice was calm, but it filled Guilliman's heart with a powerful sense of security.
"..."
Guilliman said nothing. He only felt a sting in his nose. He had always regarded the Emperor as a god, as the very symbol of the spirit, and had always warned himself never to disgrace the Emperor, never to disgrace a god. But after serving as the son of a god for ten thousand years, he was, for the first time, truly acting like a son.
The old Emperor had been a god, unquestionable. The Emperor now felt more like a person. All of the brothers could sense it. The old Emperor had always held himself apart, but the one before them now felt more like an old father, and they were his sons. They could betray a god, because a god could be merciless, but they would never betray their father, because their father had always loved them.
"Bring me Sanguinius, and all those foolish sons of mine who fell and never stood up again."
Just as Guilliman was still full of emotion, Jovian spoke again.
The bodies of demigods never rotted. Even after ten thousand years, they still remained in the world.
"You... could it be..."
The moment Guilliman heard Jovian's order, he seemed to realize something, and his eyes trembled.
"Yes."
Seated upon the Throne, Jovian gave the faintest nod.
"I... understand."
Guilliman said nothing more. But even without speaking, he had more or less understood.
"You lot standing back there, stop loafing around and go rebuild your Legions."
"I'm giving you one year. By this time next year, those Legions had better be rebuilt."
"Next spring, I want the second Great Crusade. Understood? If you understood, then get out."
Jovian never turned around. He remained seated on the Throne, but those words were clearly meant for the people behind him.
"As the Emperor commands!"
The instant Jovian finished speaking, the primarchs dropped to their knees in a row. Every one of them was gritting his teeth, a fire burning in his heart, resentment toward his own weakness, fury at how stupid he had once been. They needed release. They wanted to split open the heads of every alien they could find with their chainswords. They wanted to blow the Tyranids' heads apart with their bolters.
"Mm. Everyone else can leave. Gui..."
"Guilliman, you stay."
Jovian casually waved a hand and dismissed the rest of those idiot sons.
"Emperor, may I ask what else you need of me?"
Guilliman could not understand why Jovian had singled him out. Watching his brothers run off as fast as they could, he suddenly felt a little envious. For some reason, he felt that even though the Emperor was more human than before, he was somehow even more terrifying now.
"Can't I call you over just because I feel like it?"
The moment Jovian heard that, his gaze sharpened.
"No, no, no..."
"You may call for me whenever you wish!"
Guilliman inexplicably began to panic and hurried to explain himself.
"All right, enough joking with you."
"I'm planning to move the capital..."
Jovian looked at Guilliman seriously and began discussing the most important issue of all.
"Move the capital?"
Guilliman stared at Jovian in disbelief.
"Yes, that's right, move the capital."
Jovian looked at Guilliman and repeated himself.
"Which world in the galaxy have you set your sights on?"
Guilliman asked cautiously. He had the distinct feeling that whatever Jovian said next was going to make his hair stand on end.
"I think moving the capital, together with the Webway, to the vicinity of the Eye of Terror would be a fine idea."
Seated on the Golden Throne, Jovian looked at Guilliman and calmly proposed his plan.
"You..."
After hearing that, Guilliman's eyes widened immediately. Move the capital and the Webway to the Eye of Terror? That was a direct challenge to Chaos.
"I'll guard the Webway and the Eye of Terror. You lot will wipe out the xenos in the material universe for me. If you can't wipe them out, then I'll wipe you out and remake the primarchs."
Jovian was not joking in the slightest. Seated upon the Throne, he spoke with the calm, still gaze of someone discussing the weather.
"..."
Kneeling on one knee before him, Guilliman could not get a single word out. He just stared with a pale face.
"Get up. Why are you still kneeling there in a daze? Go inform your brothers."
Jovian looked at Guilliman, who seemed half scared senseless, and spoke in an even tone.
"As... the Emperor commands!"
Guilliman got to his feet and walked away into the distance, but his steps were uneven, as if his soul had left his body. A great demigod, a primarch of the Space Marines, now looked nothing like a primarch at all.
"Heh..."
Watching Guilliman leave, Jovian rose from his seat. His strength was overflowing. He had no need, like the Emperor once had, to remain seated on the Throne at every moment.
The very next day, several coffins and several bodies appeared in Jovian's palace.
Those bodies belonged to Konrad Curze, nicknamed "Batman," his angel Sanguinius, beloved by everyone, Warmaster Horus, who had been beaten into pulp by the Emperor but still had not decayed, and Manus, whose head had been severed by Fulgrim, leaving him a headless knight.
"Ah..."
Jovian looked at the four corpses before him and sighed. These were the primarch bodies that had been delivered so far. Counting these four and the crooked bunch he had found in the Warp, they were still three short of the full roster from the primarchs' peak days, Rogal, who was still missing, Omega's brother Alpha, and Vulkan, whose whereabouts were unknown.
"We'll find them slowly."
Jovian sighed, then unleashed a vast tide of psychic power and life force over the four corpses before him.
As Jovian expended his strength, fighting as a guest in a foreign field, he began to visibly age.
"This won't do. I need to eat a few more demons and build my strength back up."
Feeling his own aging, sweat beaded on Jovian's forehead. These four sons had consumed an enormous amount of life energy. In the material universe, where psychic energy converted inefficiently and he was still fighting on foreign ground, his power really was being affected quite heavily.
"Rise, my angel!"
Boom!
As Jovian continued pouring power into them, the four who should have remained dead opened their eyes once more and returned to stand before the Emperor.
"Am I dead?"
Horus opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was being blown apart by his enraged father.
"I'm... still alive?"
Sanguinius looked at Jovian and his brothers around him in total disbelief.
"Sanguinius?"
Horus froze when he saw Sanguinius, then lowered his head, unable to meet his eyes.
"Horus! Have you not already wronged the Emperor enough? As long as I stand here today, every one of your schemes is nothing but delusion!"
Sanguinius was perfect, like an angel. No, more precisely, he was an angel.
At that moment he spread the wings behind his back, pointed his sword at Horus, and demanded an answer in a booming voice. As he spoke, he was already about to throw himself into battle with Horus.
"That's enough. Haven't you fought enough already? Are you only going to be satisfied once you smash this place to pieces too?"
Just as Sanguinius was about to strike, Jovian, seated on the Throne, suddenly spoke.
"Uh..."
Sanguinius, who had been seconds away from cutting down the traitor, stopped at once.
"Emperor..."
Sanguinius looked toward Jovian and obediently settled down.
"Horus."
While Horus still looked like a man who had lost his soul, Jovian called his name.
"Emperor..."
Horus dropped to one knee before Jovian and did not dare lift his head to look at him.
"Oh, so now you call me Emperor..."
Jovian let out a soft chuckle. His fingers tapped rhythmically against the Golden Throne beneath him, producing a steady click, click, click.
"..."
Even as Jovian mocked him, Horus did not dare rise. He lacked even the courage to look straight at him.
"You won't stand? You won't let me look at my finest son, the son who claimed he would replace me and become the new Emperor of mankind? I wonder what that son looks like now."
Jovian looked at Horus, and his voice turned icy cold.
"..."
After hearing those words, Horus still did not dare raise his head.
"What is it? You died once and came back a coward? You don't dare say you'll replace me as humanity's Emperor anymore? You don't dare say you can build a better Imperium than I did? You don't dare call me the false Emperor anymore?"
Jovian hurled those deadly questions at Horus one after another.
"I..."
Horus did not know what he could possibly say. He had wronged the Emperor, and he had wronged Magnus, the brother he had dragged into hell even more. He had wronged the Imperium, and he had wronged humanity.
"Didn't you want to kill me and become Emperor yourself? Fine, I'll give you the chance. Kill me, and this throne is yours." Jovian's face remained expressionless, impossible to read, as he ordered Sanguinius to hand over his sword. "Sanguinius, give him the sword. Give it to Horus."
"I..."
Horus jerked his head up, agitated. He had things to say. Too many things to say.
"Emperor, you can't give a sword to a traitor!"
The moment Sanguinius heard Jovian order him to hand over the blade, his expression turned tense. He absolutely could not hand a sword to a traitor who had tried to murder the Emperor, who had tried to murder his father.
"Give it to him."
Jovian's response to Sanguinius consisted of only two words.
"Ah..."
Sanguinius was unwilling, but he had no choice. He threw his sword down before Horus, then turned his head away, as though he could not bear to look at Horus even once.
"Well? Come on. Kill me."
Still seated on the Throne, Jovian looked at Horus without a trace of expression.
"..."
Horus's body trembled constantly, but he could not make himself stand.
"Back then, during the crucial moment of the Great Crusade, I would not let you kill, and you weren't able to."
"Now I'm giving you the chance, the sword is right in front of you, so what exactly are you hesitating for?"
Jovian rose from the Golden Throne, planted his hands on his hips, and questioned Horus.
"..."
Horus still said nothing. He remained on one knee with his head lowered, his eyes fixed somewhere near his own feet, not daring to look at the sword even once.
Clang.
Jovian said nothing. He simply kicked the sword until it landed directly in front of Horus's feet, where he could not possibly miss it.
"Hm?!"
The moment Horus saw the sword, his expression changed in alarm and he hurried to stand, intending to step back.
"You are not allowed to retreat. Pick up the sword."
But in the next second, he heard the Emperor's command.
"I..."
Horus's face was full of terror, his lips dry.
"Come on. Pick up the sword."
With a wave of Jovian's hand, the sword rose naturally from the ground and dropped into Horus's grasp.
"Horus!"
The moment Sanguinius saw the sword in Horus's hand, he drew the second sword from his waist.
"You will not interfere. Let him kill me. If I die, then let him be Emperor, but remember this, the Imperium of Man must not fall into chaos."
Jovian held Sanguinius back and refused to let him disrupt things.
"As... you command."
Sanguinius was unwilling in every possible way, but the Emperor's order was absolute.
"Come on. Raise the sword and cut me down."
Jovian stood there with his hands on his hips, staring directly into Horus's eyes.
"Emperor, I..."
Horus's hand shook. His entire body shook.
"Honestly, I gave you my life. I made you Warmaster. I put you in command of the entire army. How is that any different from handing the Imperium over to you? So what exactly are you panicking about?"
Jovian felt truly helpless looking at Horus. The Emperor had practically raised Horus as the crown prince, the chosen heir, and yet Horus had still been too stupid to be satisfied.
"Emperor!"
After hearing those words, Horus finally broke. His body shook violently, and he threw the sword aside, then dropped to one knee before Jovian once more.
"Why are you throwing the sword away? I already gave it to you. Take it, walk up here, and kill me. Kill me, and this Imperium is yours. You won't have to listen to the Earth Council anymore, either. You can do whatever you want, and no one will stop you. You can have the entire Imperium of Man worship the Chaos cults with you, worship those four bastards, believe they will save you all, and then every day and every night you can indulge in slaughter, deceit, debauchery, and plague, using all of it to entertain them, to please them as much as you like. Let the whole Imperium, let all humanity, die for their amusement. Sure, no problem. That's not a big deal at all, right..."
Jovian looked down at Horus and spoke in a cold voice.
"I... Emperor, Father, I was wrong. My mind was too immature. I believed what I never should have believed. I brought war and plunged the Imperium into civil strife. Kill me. I have no face left to show my brothers."
Horus's body shook as he picked up Sanguinius's sword. Under Sanguinius's tense gaze, Horus lowered his head and offered the sword to Jovian with both hands.
"If you know you were wrong, then your answer is to have me kill you? And you've got the nerve to say that? Get back out there, organize your Legion, and in one year return to the battlefield for the Great Crusade. Finish what you left unfinished. This time, I will move the capital and the Webway to the Eye of Terror. I'll personally keep watch on those four bastards. The material universe will be left to all of you. Don't disappoint me again. If you disappoint me again, then put a blade through me yourself. At that point, the only thing I can say is that trusting you was my mistake. If a son is not taught properly, the fault lies with the father."
Jovian turned around and walked toward the golden palace.
"Emperor..."
Horus looked at Jovian's back, as though he still wanted to say something.
"Get out."
But before he could finish, Jovian gave him only those two words.
"..."
Horus fell silent for a while. At last, he tightened his grip on the sword and let the blade cut into his palm, letting blood drip onto the ground. Then he returned the weapon to Sanguinius with both hands.
"Ah..."
Sanguinius sighed and took the sword back from Horus.
"I'm sorry, and... thank you."
After apologizing to Sanguinius, Horus thanked him as well.
"..."
Sanguinius said nothing. He only waved a hand to show that he did not care.
"..."
Horus nodded, then turned and left. He knew Sanguinius was only letting the matter go for their father's sake. At this moment, there was only one thing in Horus's heart, to organize his forces and complete what had been left unfinished.
For a time, only two primarchs remained on the field, having watched their eldest brother speak with their father without daring to move at all, along with Sanguinius, who still had things he wanted to say to Jovian...
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