After several days of inner turmoil, Horus finally forced herself to harden her heart. Using the authority and identity of the Warmaster, she summoned the Legions to Isstvan.
The matter of purging the corrupted Legions could no longer be delayed.
To be safe, Horus even made an additional preparation. She feared that Lorgar might only send the loyalists within his Legion to Isstvan while secretly retaining his main force.
So she issued another order: the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines were to form a joint force and exterminate a xenos civilization.
That way, no matter what choice the Word Bearers made, battle would be unavoidable.
As for the other Legions, Horus had already prepared corresponding measures.
For someone like Fulgrim, if he was willing to cast aside the "stingy" daemon sword in his hand, then perhaps he could still be saved. Otherwise, he too would be marked as a traitor, and the anti-human experiments within the Third Legion would be gradually purged.
Then there was Perturabo, the sort who made mistakes, feared the Emperor's judgment, and tied himself into knots over it. Horus would have to appear in person to persuade him.
And then there was Mortarion, whose Legion had infiltrators within it. Horus's strategy there was early warning and reinforced support. As long as the coordinates for Warp travel did not go wrong, the chance of him being dragged off by Nurgle would be greatly reduced.
For this plan, and for her brothers' futures, Horus had gone to tremendous lengths. After repeated discussions, refinements, and revisions, she had finally found a relatively balanced solution.
If everything proceeded smoothly, Horus truly might be able to save the vast majority of her brothers. If fortune favored her just a little more, then even Lorgar, who had already fallen, might be dragged back.
However…
If nothing unexpected ever happened, then it would not be life.
"What?!" Horus was stunned when she learned of the World Eaters' movements. "What do you mean the World Eaters refused my orders? Angron made no response at all?"
"Where did he go?!"
She was only one step away from sending out notices to every Primarch, and now this happened? And of all people, it was Angron, whom Horus had always considered one of the most obedient.
At once, Horus felt a violent headache coming on.
Damn it! Why did this have to happen at a moment like this?!
"The latest information says the World Eaters' expeditionary fleet, along with Lord Angron, has left the Sadis Sector. They gave no indication of their destination, but according to the Navigators aboard our fleet, their course appears to be toward the edge of the Ultramar Sector," the intelligence officer reported.
"What is he going to Ultramar for?!" Horus simply could not understand Angron's train of thought.
She knew very well that this brother of hers was not blessed with the clearest mind, but even so, his actions usually followed some kind of logic. This time, however, it was utterly incomprehensible.
"He's probably been goaded into it by someone," Bruce said as he stared at the tactical star-map of Isstvan. "No surprises—it's Lorgar's doing."
"Lorgar? He's directing Angron toward Ultramar? Does he intend to make one last desperate gamble? Knowing he'll lose, he still wants to join forces with the World Eaters and launch an assault on the Ultramarines?" Horus found the idea absurd.
If Lorgar and his Word Bearers really dared do that, Horus would have no choice but to give them credit and call them men of iron.
But obviously, the chances of that were close to zero.
"It's not that simple. Of course, it's not that complicated either."
Bruce looked up at the anxious little rabbit and said helplessly, "Angron's target is most likely Nuceria. That's the only explanation."
"Nuceria? The world where Father found Angron?" Horus knew a little about that world.
Then she understood how serious this was. Among all her brothers, Angron had always been one of the most unusual—whether in physical condition or in the circumstances of his return.
Unlike the other Primarchs, who usually took the world where they had landed as their homeworld, Angron had never done so. Moreover, the Emperor had deliberately downplayed Nuceria's existence, even going so far as to suppress related records and especially forbidding Angron from approaching or even mentioning it.
Although Horus did not know why her father had gone to such lengths over Nuceria, she knew there had to be a reason.
And Angron himself had always followed that unspoken rule. He never went looking for Nuceria, and he had forced himself to bury the memory of his years as a slave. But now, he had torn away that veil with his own hands and was heading there of his own accord.
"There's filth trying to stir up trouble. That's all," Bruce said. "And I have every reason to believe Lorgar is using Angron for his own ends."
"That won't do. We need Angron to turn back. We need him to come to me." Horus turned to the communications officer and barked, "Establish contact with the World Eaters under my authority. Tell Angron I need to speak with him immediately. It's urgent. Do it now!"
"Yes, Warmaster!"
The officer executed the order at once.
"It won't work. If he's chosen to return home on his own, then he's already made up his mind. With his temperament, I don't think you'll be able to pull him back unless you beat him into the ground in time," Curze said coldly.
"Why did it have to be now…" Horus groaned, clutching at her head.
But very soon, she forced herself to recover. After analyzing the situation, she realized things were not quite as disastrous as they seemed.
At worst, she would simply let Guilliman deal with the headache himself. The Isstvan plan would continue as scheduled.
Even if Angron and one Legion slipped through her fingers, the overall situation would not be irreparably damaged, because the true target remained the Word Bearers.
"I think there's still time to get there," Bruce said after a moment.
"So you're planning to act alone again?" Curze saw through him immediately. "But have you thought about the price of stopping a mad dog?"
"I have to try. If Angron and his Legion really reach Nuceria, it will absolutely turn into a disaster."
"The damage to the Imperium would be enormous—especially for all those worlds that have already submitted. What would they think?"
Nuceria might not have been an important world, but it was still a symbol. The Emperor had promised that any world that submitted to the Imperium would not be destroyed.
That was the true reason Angron had never exacted his revenge on Nuceria.
But if a maddened Angron flattened the world, then the implications would be catastrophic. All those loosely integrated worlds across the Imperium would see that even the Emperor's promises offered no protection. Many would likely rebel.
The achievements of the Great Crusade simply could not afford that kind of damage.
"So…" Bruce paused, then stood and spoke his proposal aloud. "Let me go to Nuceria. I'll try talking to Angron directly, while there's still time."
"As for you, Warmaster… and Father… keep preparing the Isstvan plan."
"Maybe we can get both sides handled at the same time."
That sounded a little like wishful thinking, but it was the best solution Bruce could come up with at the moment.
Even if he failed to pull Angron back, he could at least prevent Nuceria from being annihilated and stop the Imperium's credibility from taking irreversible damage.
As long as Horus's plan succeeded, they would be able to free up their hands and come reinforce him at any time. If they could reduce even Lorgar to ash, then what was Angron by comparison?
As for whether Angron and Lorgar might join forces and decide to smash their way through the Five Hundred Worlds—well, that was fine too. Then they could simply sit back and enjoy the show.
Once the two sides had battered each other half to death, the loyalists could stroll in and clean up afterward.
In short, there had to be an anchor on Nuceria, someone watching the situation no matter how it changed. Otherwise, by the time the problem became severe enough to demand intervention, it would already be too late.
"Why not simply declare the World Eaters traitors at once?" Magnus suggested.
If the World Eaters were branded disloyal in advance, then whatever they did afterward would have nothing to do with the Imperium. That way, both the Imperium's credibility and the Emperor's dignity would be preserved.
"That's the worst-case scenario," Horus said. She still wanted to struggle for something better. "Over the next few days, I'll continue trying to contact Angron and make him turn back."
"If he still refuses to listen, then I will notify the nearby sectors that Angron and the World Eaters have gone traitor."
"But if that happens, won't the High Lords start barking again?" Curze could already picture the faces the politicians would make if an Astartes Legion were openly declared traitorous.
"It can wait. Politics comes later. What matters most right now is dealing with the threats that endanger the Imperium," Horus said from the standpoint of the greater whole.
Even if she knew the situation was a mess, it was already this far gone. What else was she supposed to do?
"That Lorgar…" Magnus sighed, disgusted. "How exactly does his mind work? He knows Angron's head is broken, and yet he still provokes him like this."
Ever since she had learned from Bruce how utterly sincere and devoted the IF-route version of Lorgar had been toward Angron, the contrast with the present situation had become almost unbearable.
"Don't try to guess the thought process of a lunatic," Bruce said flatly. "If that man were even slightly more normal, he wouldn't have shattered the moment his precious city was destroyed and then gone running off to worship evil."
"If only his faith in Father's will had been stronger…" Magnus said regretfully.
"Hm?" Horus's suspicion was instantly piqued.
She had no proof, but she increasingly felt there was some wall separating her from the others during these discussions.
It was as if the other three had their own little circle, a shared set of facts she had not been told.
"Son, I heard you were planning to go to Nuceria anyway?" Curze stepped in smoothly and steered the topic elsewhere.
Curze hated riddles herself, but some truths needed to be revealed to Horus gradually. For instance, the secrets hidden in the depths of the Warp, or the real reason the Emperor preached the Imperial Truth.
Until the Emperor gave his approval, both Curze and Magnus intended to keep silent.
"Yes. Even without this business with Angron, I'd still have to go."
"What do you want on Nuceria? I remember it as a savage, primitive world," Horus asked.
"I'm going to try to save him. Or rather…" Bruce hesitated, but ultimately said it plainly, "I'm going to try to sabotage Lorgar's scheme."
"What do you mean?" Horus pressed.
"If possible, I want to make up for one of the Emperor's old mistakes."
"You know as well as I do that when the Emperor carried Angron away from Nuceria, Angron was in the middle of leading a slave revolt against the slavers."
"And because of that, Angron hated the Emperor for the rest of his life. Compared to being dragged away alive and forced into command of the War Hounds and the Great Crusade, maybe what he really wanted was to die there with his comrades, fighting to the bitter end—even if the end was death."
"But isn't that all in the past?" Horus frowned. "Even if you go to Nuceria now, can you change Father's decision back then?"
That answer irritated her, though she could still accept it.
Father's mistake? Since when had Father ever made a mistake?
And that rebellion had been hopeless from the start. Father had clearly saved Angron's life, and Angron had responded by hating him for it. Wasn't Angron the one in the wrong?
"That's why I said I'm trying to make amends," Bruce said. "I need to let Angron see another truth about what happened then."
"Can you explain further?" Horus's interest sharpened immediately.
She had studied Angron's files more than once in order to command this difficult brother of hers more effectively. But no matter how deeply she dug into the Nuceria incident, every attempt to recover the truth had been blurred or blocked by some mysterious force.
No one knew what truly happened there, or why the Emperor had acted as he did. The only thing anyone knew was that once Angron returned, the War Hounds changed beyond recognition.
And Angron had remained furious ever since. Though he obeyed the Emperor's orders, it was obvious that, in his heart, he had never submitted.
"That'll have to wait until I actually reach Nuceria," Bruce said. He wanted to explain, but the conditions simply were not there.
As a reincarnator, he knew that the Emperor had refused to help Angron not because he could not, but because Angron, during the uprising, had done something foolish. To stabilize him afterward, the Emperor had no choice but to suppress certain memories.
Rather than let Angron sink into endless self-destruction, it had been more useful to make him hate the Emperor instead. After all, he was a tool—so long as the tool could still be used, that was enough. That had been the Emperor's thinking at the time.
Of course, the exact truth of those events did not matter now. What mattered was that if Bruce could find the souls of Angron's comrades and bring them before him, make them tell him to his face that falling to Chaos would lead to nothing but ruin—
Then no matter what Lorgar had said to him, no matter what poison he had poured into his ears, it would all be rendered useless.
Still, there was another possibility.
That Angron, even after learning the truth, would refuse to accept it and would stubbornly keep marching toward destruction anyway.
If it came to that… then Horus would have to kill him.
"All right," Horus said at last. "I'll assign Torgaddon to assist you, along with enough ships to matter. In addition, I'll ask the nearby Legions to lend you support."
"I'll send Krululu and Shalltear as well," Curze added.
"And I…" Magnus said, "will provide assistance whenever it is needed."
"That's enough," Bruce said, deeply satisfied.
With that much force, merely delaying Angron and the World Eaters would be more than feasible.
And if things went wrong—if they had no choice but to kill him—
Well, wasn't Magnus right there to cover for them?
If Bruce couldn't beat Angron, he could always call in help.
That was what Primarchs were for.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
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Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
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After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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