Prophecy

Fu Qinghai looked through the porthole of the Stormbird at the ugly, scarred earth below, riddled with cracks caused by tectonic movements.

The transport ships remained hidden within these vast, deep rifts.

It was irrelevant; the locations of all three ships had been pinpointed, and their propulsion systems were destroyed, leaving them with no hope of escape.

On this desolate, silent land devoid of life, history, or legend, the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers had fought a bloody battle.

Including Fu Qinghai himself, this group of Astartes—the most elite and advanced biological weapons of the Imperium of Man—had bled and fought to the death here.

They had exhausted every stratagem, pitting their wits and courage against one another.

Magic and technology, loyalty and faith.

They fought, and they died.

Yet, in the end, it was merely a tiny microcosm of a localized conflict.

And this Horus Heresy, which had swept across the entire Imperium of Man and plunged hundreds of billions of souls into misery.

In the history of the entire galaxy, compared to events like the War in Heaven, the birth of Slaanesh, the Cybernetic Revolt, and others—compared to those wars that overturned galaxies, caused genocides, and shifted the masters of reality—the Horus Heresy was nothing more than a war of unremarkable intensity and scale.

Pondering all of this, Fu Qinghai easily fell into a state of nihilistic melancholy.

What is the point of living... what is the meaning of fighting... what has all this sacrifice bought...

In the end, we are nothing but a speck of dust in the universe.

Fortunately, the cold, prompt tone of the Reincarnation World pulled Fu Qinghai back from his philosophical musings just in time.

[With your assistance, the Ultramarines cruiser Sotharan won the skirmish on Planet Roswell VII, achieving a stage milestone!]

[Calculating Assimilation Points... 1675 points.]

The Assimilation Points rewarded by the Reincarnation World were far higher than those for wiping out the Kotohira-gumi.

I suppose the Reincarnation World deemed the Possessed Marine and the Helbrute that appeared on Planet Roswell VII to be beyond my power level... Fu Qinghai mused, guessing the logic behind the Reincarnation World's point distribution.

The Stormbird moved further and further away from the planet, the deep rifts becoming blurred until only a barren, black-gray sphere remained.

Meanwhile, on the transport ship Bloody Worm in the surface rift, the story was not yet over.

Inside the command deck of the Bloody Worm.

Liaoxia Hong was in a state of panic; unlike the feigned elegance he displayed in front of Klofa, he was now scurrying about aimlessly like a frightened fly.

"What do I do... what do I do..."

Liaoxia Hong clutched his head, completely losing his composure.

He had originally thought his sorcerous domain had been deployed successfully, and according to Klofa's initial plan, wearing these Ultramarines down would have been a simple task.

He never expected that even Klofa himself would be killed.

The two trump cards of the Word Bearers transport fleet—sacrificing the Possessed Marine and awakening the Helbrute that should have been deployed to the front lines of Terra—had both been used by Klofa.

Previously, Liaoxia Hong had not understood why Klofa was so confident that he could keep the Ultramarines on the planet's surface.

The moment he saw the terrifying Possessed Marine and the Helbrute, he understood.

Liaoxia Hong had felt that victory was well within their grasp.

Yet, he never imagined that even the powerful Helbrute and the Possessed Marine would meet their end.

"It's all the fault of that Space Marine in the white armor..." Liaoxia Hong thought with a dejected expression.

Fu Qinghai, wearing Power Armor with a white base and red trim—entirely different from the deep blue Power Armor of the Ultramarines—was extremely conspicuous in the eyes of the other reincarnators.

Furthermore, he had single-handedly killed Klofa, the Word Bearers commander of the transport fleet and a figure the rebellious reincarnators of the fleet considered unfathomable and incredibly powerful.

Unlike Alicia the Heartbreaker, who knew the white-armored warrior was powerful but decided to assassinate him anyway to earn more Assimilation Points, Liaoxia Hong, having witnessed Fu Qinghai kill Klofa in single combat from the porthole, had lost all courage to oppose him.

Knowing that the Word Bearers' cause was lost, Liaoxia Hong did not know if the Ultramarines would search the entire transport ship after their victory, so he desperately tried to find a place to hide.

However, he saw the Ultramarines leaving the planet's surface, either by teleportation or by boarding landing craft.

"It seems their losses were also massive, and they have lost the ability to search the entire transport ship..." Liaoxia Hong thought to himself.

Liaoxia Hong, who had let out a long sigh of relief, had forgotten what Klofa had told them at the very beginning.

The Ultramarines had a Lunar-class cruiser parked in orbit, capable of launching an orbital bombardment at any moment.

Outside the engine control room where Fu Qinghai had been impaled.

The blood spilled on the floor had dried, and the corridor was deathly quiet.

A short, elderly woman draped in tattered robes, with graying hair and a face covered in brown spots, walked over with a smile.

It was the old woman who called herself the prophet Agu, whom Fu Qinghai had met in the brig.

She muttered to herself:

"I've watched for a long time, yet I still haven't seen where the existence that could draw the attention of the Four Gods at once is hiding. Who exactly is the one mentioned in the prophecy?"

She walked slowly to the hatch of the engine control room and looked at the corpse of the woman in black lying on the floor inside.

"Could it be that White Scars lad? He's the only one in this whole affair who seems a bit strange, possessing the air of a hero, but... it's not enough, he is still far from enough."

"...Far from enough to catch the eyes of the Four Chaos Gods."

The old woman muttered to herself as she stepped into the chamber, slowly crouching down before a pool of congealed blood.

"But regardless, the future of the galaxy is always paramount. Even if he is just an ordinary human hero, the Secret Cult should obtain information about him in advance."

With this thought, the old woman extended a withered, aged finger and dipped it into the dried blood on the floor.

"Let me see your future, strange White Scars lad."

She put the blood-stained finger into her mouth, closed her eyes, and began to taste it carefully.

A "boom" echoed in her mind as an image appeared.

It was as if she were inside someone's dream; the surroundings were hazy and chaotic, and she drifted like a ghost above a cathedral.

At this moment, the spire-topped cathedral, with its distinct Imperial Gothic style, seemed to be under attack by some kind of xenos—humanoid aliens with blue skin, no noses, and frail bodies.

Yet, they wore tall, agile combat suits capable of powerful long-range fire.

The Seer Agu lowered her perspective, quickly entering the interior of the cathedral.

Inside, the vast, towering hall was packed with religious figures in ornate robes. Ignoring the hail of gunfire outside, they chanted loudly in praise, surrounding a crystal coffin.

Seer Agu saw at a glance that this crystal coffin was a Stasis Field device; time within it would be frozen, allowing the object inside to be preserved for ten thousand years.

The ordinary Imperial soldiers outside the cathedral could no longer hold back the xenos assault, retreating step by step into the sanctuary.

The aliens' bullets and lasers had already pierced the cathedral's stained glass, sending pages of books and candles flying as candle flames splattered everywhere.

Yet, the religious group remained indifferent, continuing their loud chanting around the coffin.

It was as if the person inside the coffin was their final hope and savior.

It seemed that awakening the person in the coffin would herald a desperate counterattack.

Seer Agu looked into the transparent crystal coffin. Inside lay a young, handsome man with black hair; judging by his build, he was in all likelihood an Astartes.

Who else could it be but that White Scars lad?

Suddenly, just as the defenders were faltering and the enemy was about to breach the cathedral, the person in the crystal coffin abruptly opened his eyes!

He sat up violently from the Stasis Field.

Around him, the religious figures who saw him wake up erupted in cheers, their voices praising the God-Emperor rising one after another.

The soldiers struggling to hold the line felt their morale surge.

Yet, unexpectedly, the awakened black-haired young man grabbed a Plasma Pistol from his side and blew the head off a nearby religious figure with a single shot.

The skull shattered, and blood splattered everywhere.

The black-haired young man sneered and said:

"I hate religion the most!"

"Boom—" The image in her mind vanished at that moment, and the old woman returned to the quiet, cold engine control room.

She widened her eyes, gasping for air, her face full of terror.

Large beads of sweat dripped from her wrinkled forehead, splashing onto the cold metal floor.

"No... no... I cannot let him live to see the future ages..." The old woman trembled all over as she recalled the scene.

At this moment, the old woman did not yet know what the Ecclesiarchy was, or what the God-Emperor was, but she knew—or rather, one branch of the Secret Cult believed—that:

Only that man, that existence known as the Emperor, that Cold Sun, could truly become a god and stand against the Four Chaos Gods in the Warp, shielding all of humanity within the galaxy.

And if this staunch materialist, the black-haired young man, were allowed to live until the future ten thousand years later, he would undoubtedly be a catastrophe of infinite proportions.

In the beginning, this most mysterious organization in the galaxy—the Secret Cult—supported the Horus Heresy. Their prophecies held that the vast Imperium would eventually become fodder for the Four Chaos Gods of the Warp, nourishing their growth until they destroyed all living things in the universe.

Thus, they had been plotting to assassinate loyalist Primarchs and even used certain means to turn the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, Alpharius.

However, certain Aeldari seers held a different view. The Aeldari prophecies believed that with the Aeldari Empire already fallen, only the continued existence of the Imperium of Man could serve as the primary force in the galaxy to resist the powers of Chaos.

Consequently, they thwarted many of the Secret Cult's operations.

This led to a split within the Secret Cult, with some arguing that they should no longer support the rebel faction.

As for which faction or branch Seer Agu belonged to, only she herself knew.

1. The split of the Secret Cult is my own invention; this setting does not exist in the official novels.

2. This plot point regarding Seer Agu's prophecy might not be resolved for a long time. In the outline, this is a foreshadowing I've laid for the subsequent "Age of Apostasy" arc in the Warhammer 40K storyline—I'll just be upfront about it!