Khorne's Husband

"Now, a horrifying slaughter is taking place on Manros."

"I see storms representing hatred, injustice, and rage attaching themselves to the corresponding psychic structures of Manros in the Warp."

"I see the Blood God seated upon a brass throne, enjoying the grand performance of its favored one... It interferes in nothing, deliberately maintaining the purity of this planet on the participants' level."

"As a Scholar, I shall record these events."

Outside the Imperium world of Manros.

The Ragefang, Vengar's fleet, all these warships are moored peacefully.

For reasons unknown, the fleet's probing signals can no longer reach Manros, and no communication signals are being emitted from Manros either.

No one can know what is happening on Manros.

Except for someone within the navigator's sanctuary aboard the Ragefang.

"Ten thousand years ago, during the Horus Heresy, Manros was considered a recruitment world by the World Eaters."

"Angron's sons left behind some military facilities for the locals, such as devices capable of blocking any signal..."

"The local nobles, or perhaps that Inquisitor, clearly activated that device out of fear of the fleet outside Manros, causing the fleet's absolute ignorance of the surface situation."

A man clad in scholar's robes sits in the sanctuary.

He murmurs softly, writing.

His quill, devoid of ink, glides lightly, and his spoken words transform into lines of gilded text branded onto the pages.

And in the room behind the man, a small compartment serving as a storage area within the sanctuary.

The Ragefang's navigator, Onaas, is inside, curled up in a corner, trembling, her hands clamped tightly over her ears.

Onaas's third eye catches a glimpse of a corner of the planet...

She sees... her mother dying in her father's arms, a chainsword plunged into the third eye on her father's forehead, and the wielder of the chainsword is gripping the hilt, smiling coldly as they look down at the girl before them.

This is, of course, not something happening now or recently, but something from the past.

Onaas is that trembling girl, and the Inquisitor is the abuser who plunged the sword into her father's third eye.

This incident occurred during the "Luring Trap."

Perhaps if others were to recall, they would remember the Angels of the God-Emperor being slaughtered by another group of angels, mowed down by bolters while defenseless, falling like wheat to the ground.

And the navigator, then a child, was so terrified that she could only watch everything that happened around her.

For a child who witnessed her parents' brutal murder by an Inquisitor with her own eyes, her focus would be solely on her parents, not on the God-Emperor's Angels falling around her.

"She was terrified."

"She was just a little girl, and after experiencing so many terrible things, then when Lu Jin attacked Vengar's ships, she was frightened by seeing a psyker unable to control their powers and blow their own head off."

"And due to her uncontrollable precognitive abilities, she saw what was going to happen on Manros, saw that Inquisitor, and trembled with fear, only able to huddle in the corner, hugging her legs and begging for comfort."

The man continues to record.

"The men in the Legion were clearly too harsh on her; how could she possibly complete a navigation?"

"It was I who helped her complete the navigation, guiding the entire fleet to the Manros system."

"Lu Jin doesn't know this... Why would he think a little girl needs solitude rather than an embrace when she's scared? It shows he's a man who doesn't understand women very well."

The man, considering himself a scholar, pauses here.

After gaining insight into the events on the planet once more, he analyzes.

"If we are to summarize this series of events on Manros as the 'Manros Incident,' then it is undoubtedly a series of coincidences and fate's arrangements that led to its occurrence."

"There are three factions on the planet."

"The Inquisitor—pursuing the Fierce Angels Legion, attempting to lie in wait on the planet, and indeed, they succeeded, so he devised an ambush for the Fierce Angels."

"The Fierce Angels, Lu Jin—they came for a transaction and to find an armor that doesn't exist yet. They didn't expect an Inquisitor to ambush them, nor did they understand what was happening on Manros, and found themselves ambushed in a daze."

"The Nobles, Commoners, and Slaves—the nobles of Manros, influenced by the Maelstrom, became increasingly decadent and cruel. They subjected the commoners and slaves to heinous oppression and torture. A rebellion was already brewing before the arrival of the Inquisitor and Lu Jin, and Lu Jin's portrait, something that accidentally flowed onto Manros, became a symbol."

"Coincidence and fate's arrangements led to this incident."

"This universe does not revolve around any one of them."

The man continues writing.

He writes about what he has heard regarding Lu Jin, and about the events that transpired during the annihilation of the Cunning Hounds Clan.

He writes about the Blood God's favor and expectations for Lu Jin.

"While such intense conflict is occurring on Manros, the Blood God refrains from interfering entirely for the sake of observation. This is undoubtedly... an abnormal occurrence, highlighting its favoritism towards one individual."

"This reminds me of Khorne's bride—Valkyria."

Having finished writing, the man closes the book, preparing to title it.

As he conceives of a name and intends to brand it, he suddenly hesitates.

Next.

Driven by a sense of dark humor, mockery, or purely metaphorical thought, a book title was branded onto the cover of the book.

Khorne's Husband—The Appearance of a Disruptor in My Eyes

The man stood up, holding the book, and passed through the wall like a phantom, entering the cabin and arriving before the trembling Onaas.

"Here." The man handed over the book.

Onaas turned her head away, trembling.

"Look at me, little girl."

The man crouched down, his smile as warm as a spring breeze.

"Your fear, powerlessness, and confusion all stem from ignorance."

"The greatest good is knowledge, the greatest evil is ignorance."

"Out of pity and kindness, I will tell you a law about the real universe and the place where our power originates."

"That is, if the emotions of many humans erupt, they will gather, weaken the structural integrity of reality, and cause supernatural phenomena to occur where they are."

The man gently placed Khorne's Husband in front of Onaas, then stood up and vanished like a phantom.

He might have left.

Or perhaps he hadn't moved at all.

Onaas reached out a trembling hand, picked up the book, and hugged it to her chest.

Her current fear and unease stemmed more from what had happened on Manros.

As the mysterious man had said—

When the fervent emotions of humans gathered, they would weaken the structural integrity of reality and trigger supernatural phenomena.

Onaas felt something staring at the Manros system, a gaze that sent chills down her spine.

But fortunately, and to her comfort, she could sense that the gaze was not directed at her.

"They broke through the guard line?"

"No!"

The Governor sat in the car, screaming as she listened to the guards' report.

The guards, however, harbored a deeper fear than the Governor, because, by their estimation, the guard line might have been breached several solar hours ago.

"The Awakened" and his followers should have already begun slaughtering the others on the spire.

Family after family lost contact; that was proof.

"Where's the Inquisitor?" the Governor asked in terror.

"Fled on a transport ship."

"His flagship wasn't even in the Manros system, how could he..."

"My Lord... you should understand, as one of the highest echelons of the Imperium, the Inquisitor possesses many technological artifacts or wondrous powers that we cannot comprehend, right?"

"..."

The Governor fell silent.

At this moment, the Governor's private guard escorted over a dozen slaves.

The officer performed the Imperial Eagle salute and reported, "My Governor, these slaves intentionally resisted and were discovered by us. What are your orders...?"

"Kill them all."

"Yes."

The guards dragged the slaves aside and executed them.

The Governor looked out through the car window and saw the slaves' blood pooling together... forming the image of a fierce-looking man holding a warhammer and a battle-axe, glaring at her.

The Governor gasped in shock, then looked again. The blood was just blood; it hadn't formed any image.

"To the church, to the church!" the Governor yelled, patting the seat.

The driver immediately drove the vehicle, escorted by the private guard, tanks, and armored vehicles, leading the convoy towards the Emperor's Church on the spire.

Along the way, many nobles joined the convoy.

They had all heard about the Inquisitor's plan spiraling out of control and had fled to stay with the Governor, to prevent themselves from being slaughtered.

Upon arriving at the church, the guards remained outside, establishing a defensive position.

A large group of nobles swarmed into the church.

As the Governor entered the church, she glanced at the Emperor's statue in the hall.

She saw that the statue's eyes were open, and its expression was no longer compassionate or calm, but mocking.

But with a blink, the statue's eyes were closed again, with no change.

She felt like she was going crazy from fear.

"Can anyone tell me where those people have attacked up to?" the Governor asked the hundreds of nobles.

"Wherever they've attacked, my family values defense and military strength the most. Before the enemy reaches this side, they'll have to face my family's castles and manors, along with the garrison inside that's heavily armed."

A noble spoke calmly.

"Then why aren't you staying there to command the battle!" the Governor roared.

"Because remote command is safer." The noble took out a palm-sized device and placed it on the ground.

A holographic image showed the state of his castle.

His son stood before the communication device, the sounds of gunfire outside his opulent room.

"Father, there's no need to worry. Although they are attacking our..."

Before he could finish, a guard rushed into the room and reported loudly.

"The slaves fought back and killed their guards, they stormed the armory and seized weapons... It's a rebellion!"

A moment later, the room door was kicked open.

A Space Marine, shirtless and wearing only basic armor, strode into the room.

Behind him, fifteen crimson Space Marines could be seen clearing the courtyard's firing positions, and the rebelling slaves were seen setting fire to houses.

Not a single noble in the chapel made a sound, as if Lu Jin, who held an axe and warhammer and appeared in depictions of outcasts, was standing before them.

"I went to your dungeons."

As Lu Jin spoke, the rebelling slaves rushed into the room, dragging out the guards and nobles within.

Lu Jin approached the communication device.

"All the outrageous acts I've witnessed in my life don't even amount to one ten-thousandth of the scenes in your dungeons. Just a glimpse of your horrific actions made me vomit up everything I ate at the banquet."

"You also captured my person and locked her in the dungeon... Her name is Carly."

"She told me more things..."

Lu Jin leaned closer to the communication device, his expression terrifyingly fierce.

"There's one difference between me and you: I don't torture."

"Craning your necks, wait for me."