Tagore, Who Tore Apart an Adeptus Custodes Bare-Handed, Founding Grand Master of the Grey Knights-I Want Them All

City of Sight on Terra, the Hall of Minds at the heart of the Tower of Whispers.

A thousand senior Astropaths and two thousand Astropaths surrounded Mo Zhi-Ming, the head of the Astra Telepathica.

Each Astropath lay within a sharply outlined frame, their opened Mind's Eye seated like a Spectator upon the ever-rising steps, as though watching a grotesque play.

The Warmaster's betrayal had overturned the order of the Milky Way. The Sigillite and the Imperial Palace Guard demanded verifiable information as soon as possible.

Expeditionary Fleets capable of destroying star systems, along with war fleets carrying tens of billions of Auxilia soldiers, roamed freely across the Milky Way. No one could determine their exact locations or whom they served.

News that one world after another had declared allegiance to the Warmaster reached Terra, but whether these stories were true or merely rebel lies remained uncertain.

Mo Zhi-Ming took a sip of thick Mandrake-infused brew and processed the crimson messages.

The Iron Hands had been utterly annihilated. After Ferrus Manus's death, his Legion had scattered to the winds.

Despite repeated confirmation, Mo Zhi-Ming still could not accept the Primarch's death. He had been just as shocked when he learned of the Warmaster's rebellion and The Scouring on Isstvan.

Each subsequent event overturned every impossibility that had come before. Piled together, they left him unable to believe anything anymore.

No news had come from the Raven Guard, lending greater weight to the rumors:

Corvas Corax and his Legion had been completely destroyed.

The Salamanders' communications cipher was the only reliable source, but after being relayed through three relay stations, even its information was difficult to trust.

The Astropath who sent the message seemed to be in a highly abnormal state. His message might have been intercepted and distorted en route.

He