Traitor Horus

"Run."

Endymion faithfully carried out the order, running deeper into the Webway.

The Emperor knew he would never see him again.

He panted slightly, recovering from the wound Drach'nyen had inflicted upon him.

It was now the fifth year of the Webway War. Fewer than one in a hundred of the Adeptus Custodes remained. The Sisters of Silence and the Union had suffered unprecedented casualties, while the god-machines of the Collegia Titanica and shattered armor lay strewn throughout the ruined Webway.

Under the long, unceasing winds of Chaos, even these Titan wrecks were beginning to transform in the direction of daemonhood.

Fortunately, reinforcements had finally arrived. Vulkan, Primarch of the Salamanders Legion, reached the Imperial Palace and, after overcoming countless obstacles, installed the "Seven Hammers Amulet."

This device ensured that, in the worst-case scenario, all of Terra would turn to dust rather than become another playground for the Chaos Gods.

Once the device had been installed, the Emperor immediately used his own power to create a barrier between the daemons and Terra.

Not even the roaring of thunder and lightning could illuminate the darkness within the Imperial Palace. The Emperor's back was heavy as a mountain, and the Adeptus Custodes following behind him could feel an immense pressure rising from within their revered Emperor.

The Emperor sat upon the throne, and the pain inflicted by this wondrous device instantly made his thoughts incomparably clear.

The dream had ended...

That sigh pierced through time and illusion, acting directly upon the God-Emperor of the present.

Suddenly, sorrow and helplessness wrapped around his entire body, affecting his ability to maintain the Astronomican.

The Emperor's Chosen, preparing to be cast into the Astronomican, felt that suffering and wept silently.

The Navigators observing the Astronomican to guide the fleets felt that helplessness as well. They