Chaos seized the opportunity to invade Horus's body. He felt his mind growing more and more crowded as countless things that didn't belong there poured into him.
Even his vision began to warp. A powerful sense of weightlessness washed over him, and Horus just wanted to let it all out. Clutching his head, he roared in anguish. "Aaaaaah! Shut up!"
With a boom, a powerful psychic surge erupted from him.
The Ork Boy scratched his head in confusion, wondering where that gust of wind had come from.
The Sons of Horus around them weren't so lucky. The Librarians, who had been slaughtering their way across the battlefield with their psychic powers, suddenly began swelling at an alarming rate, like hot-air balloons.
"Primarch, save me! Aaaaaah~"
The Librarians looked toward Horus in agony. Their flesh was growing out of control. Their psychic powers had run wild!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One after another, the Librarians became gateways to the Warp, and countless crimson daemons burst out of their bodies!
Some of them were still alive. They watched clearly as daemons emerged from their bodies, and the usually composed Astartes let out the most terrified scream of their lives.
"Uaaaaaaah!~"
Among the daemons emerging from the fleshly gateways, the most striking was a towering, muscular brute. His face was almost canine, with a bloodstained mane and huge, sharp horns.
He wore brass armor, had enormous black wings, and wielded a whip and a giant axe.
The moment he fully emerged, he pounded his chest with both hands and roared up at the sky. "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
Then he charged into the Ork horde, slaughtering everything in his path. "Hahaha! This is great! So great!"
The grin vanished from Francis's face. "Horus! Look at what you've done!"
"I came to talk things out with you, and you go and summon daemons to kill my boys?"
"You joined Chaos just to win? I'm ashamed of you!"
At Francis's signal, a group of Orks pulled out Gretchin weapons that looked like giant megaphones and fired wildly at the daemons.
They even made farting noises as they shot!
Horus had just begun to calm down, but seeing his sons used as gateways to summon daemons filled him with pain as well.
"No!!!"
Horus leaped down from the mountain of corpses and charged into the crowd, swinging his hammer and tearing through countless daemons and Orks!
"Horus! I was ordered to help you! Keep this up, and I won't hold back!" The bull-headed daemon Ang'rath swung his giant axe. The instant the two weapons collided—
Clang!
Ang'rath was knocked backward. He sprang to his feet the next second and bellowed, "Fine! Killing you will do just as well! Raaaargh~"
The battlefield descended into chaos. The Orks fought the daemons and the Sons of Horus; the Sons of Horus fought the Orks and the daemons; the daemons fought the Orks and the Sons of Horus. The World Eaters even fought each other!
Countless Ork Titans and Dreadnought Titans joined the battle.
Angron asked Francis, who was busy slaughtering daemons, "What now? What's your plan?"
Francis gripped his chainsword, Widowmaker, and swung it, slicing off a group of daemons' lower halves before shoving the severed pieces into their mouths.
"Plan? What plan?" Francis paused, still reaping enemies with his chainsword.
"??? You don't have a plan? Why did you come here, then?" The sentimental Angron was dumbfounded. Just then, a Son of Horus charged at them. Without thinking, he grabbed the warrior and hurled him into the distance.
When he came to his senses, guilt filled his heart.
"Ah, I figured we were already here, so I might as well come see him. He's not like you."
"You've got one lunatic after you, and he's got four! How am I supposed to save him?"
"Oh! Right! I can get the old man to talk some sense into him!"
As he spoke, Francis suddenly came up with an idea. He figured he should be able to contact the Emperor now.
After all, the Emperor wasn't sitting on the toilet right now.
With that thought, Francis picked up some Titan scraps, rolled them around in his hands, and shaped them into a phone.
Then he charged at the blood-mad Horus, wrapped his arms around him from behind, and shouted, "Calm down! Let's hear what the Emperor has to say."
The word Emperor appeared in Horus's mind, and he calmed down considerably. His voice trembling, he whispered, "F-Father!"
Beep, beep, beep~
As the call connected, Francis hurriedly shouted, "Old man... Father, tell Horus what you—"
Before he could finish, a kindly voice came through the phone. It was a voice that made Horus tremble just to hear it.
"I'm busy right now. We'll talk later~"
"Oh, right. He went too far this time. Tell him to come see me after he completes the Eleven Draw Kill."
Francis: ...
Angron: ...
Crack~
I'm busy? No time? Eleven Draw Kill?
Something seemed to shatter. The last trace of hope on Horus's face instantly twisted into fury. He roared, "He doesn't care about me at all!!!"
"The False Emperor doesn't deserve the Imperium!!"
"Aaaaaah!"
Horus wrenched himself free of Francis and swung his hammer at him!
Francis swung his chainsword at the same time. The moment they met, countless sparks flew.
Francis immediately shoved forward with both hands, then kicked Horus in the lower body. With a dull thud, they were both sent flying hundreds of meters backward.
The phone in Francis's hand had already been reduced to a lump of metal.
"How are you?" Angron ran over and asked.
"How do you think? The old man screwed me over! At a time like this, he's still playing the stern father. Damn it!"
"I'm done. I can't carry him. He's hopeless. No wonder he got his tail chopped off!"
Francis spat on the ground, cursed under his breath, and turned to leave.
But Horus pursued him relentlessly, still roaring, "Kill the False Emperor! He can only be with me!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Horus was clearly losing his mind. Francis couldn't be bothered to fight him, so he pointed toward the daemon Ang'rath and cried out, "Holy shit, the Emperor's here! Right over there!"
"Oh no! The daemons are going to take the Emperor!"
Francis's frantic shouting immediately drew Horus's attention to the daemon.
Horus charged after it, roaring, "Put him down! He's mine! Mine!"
Just as they were preparing to leave, Fulgrim came running out in disheveled clothes, with a large number of Emperor's Children flooding onto the battlefield.
Fulgrim wore Terminator Armour too. Standing in their way with a silver sword in hand, he looked at Angron in disappointment. "Angron! Have you fallen so far that you're consorting with Orks?!!"
Angron: ...
"I'm Francis. Long time no see, Third Brother." Francis scratched his head, feeling a little awkward.
"What a sly Ork! You even know Francis's pet name for me! Do you think that'll fool me?"
"I'm not a brainless fool like Angron! Die!" Without another word, Fulgrim swung his sword at Francis.
Francis: ...
"Have you forgotten the Meltagun from a few days ago? Have you forgotten what happened in bed that day?"
As Francis spoke, Fulgrim's sword stopped less than a meter from his thigh. Fulgrim looked confused. Everything Francis said checked out.
"Only Francis would know about that, so you—"
Before he could finish, his arm continued thrusting toward Francis against his will. A flash of cruelty crossed Fulgrim's eyes as he roared, "Die!"
"I knew you'd try that!"
A flash of excitement crossed Francis's eyes. It was just like role-playing!
As the blade pierced his thigh, Francis punched Fulgrim in the face, sending him flying.
"How can this be? Why can't you be corrupted?" One half of Fulgrim's face glared at Francis with vicious hatred, while the other half cried out in terror. "Francis, I didn't do this! It's a daemon!"
"Hehe~ You should ask who's got my back in the Warp!"
"Don't panic, Third Brother. I don't have any balls right now, so it's not a big deal. I can grow them back later and still have kids." Francis dabbed some saliva on his thigh wound, and it stopped bleeding almost immediately.
Daemon: ...
Fulgrim: ...
Before you continue