No Need to Kneel

Guilliman effortlessly crushed the power core of the last Chaos warrior.

Foul energy fluid mixed with mutated blood splashed around his feet, quickly absorbed by Macragge's fertile, improved soil.

He walked over to Kai's mother. As he knelt on one knee, the joints of his armor gave off a faint hum.

He raised his right hand, blue-gold Psionic Energy glowing in his palm with the warmth of afternoon sunlight.

It was no earth-shattering spell, merely the finest tendril of a Primarch's vast Psionic Energy, used to examine and soothe.

He held his hand above the woman's forehead, and the glow flowed across her body like rippling water.

A moment later, Guilliman's brow relaxed. He turned to Kai, whose fists were clenched with anxiety, and gave him a reassuring smile. "Your mother is fine.

She fainted mainly from fright and a light impact. She has some bruising, but no internal injuries.

I used Psionic Energy to stabilize her disrupted vital signs and soothe the mental shock. She'll wake up soon."

The tension instantly drained from Kai's body, and tears nearly welled up in his eyes.

He tried to kneel, but the moment his knees bent, a gentle force held him up.

"You need not kneel, child."

Guilliman's hand had already settled on Kai's messy hair, giving it a gentle ruffle.

At the same time, a thread of Psionic Energy finer than a hair silently slipped into the boy's body.

Like the most precise scanner, it sought to uncover what was so special about the body capable of erupting with such astonishing courage and brilliance.

Yet the instant the Psionic Energy went deeper, it was like ice and snow falling into a furnace!

Within the depths of Kai's meridians and bones lurked two vast powers left behind by a violent clash!

One was glorious and righteous, like a rising sun, carrying absolute order and light that looked down upon the mortal world. Guilliman knew this aura better than anyone!

It was the blessing of the Emperor, his "father" seated upon the Golden Throne, the source of his bloodline!

The other was savage and blazing, filled with the most primal thirst for slaughter and urge for destruction. Like a boiling sea of blood, it bore the unmistakable mark of that bastard Khorne!

Under the stimulation of Guilliman's foreign Psionic Energy, these two remnants of divine power clashed violently once more, like embers ignited by a spark!

The blue-gold probing Psionic Energy was instantly swept in, worn away, and assimilated, completely exhausted in the span of a single breath.

Yet that fleeting contact was enough to make Guilliman's pupils contract slightly as understanding dawned on him.

Double blessing?!

Even a Primarch as knowledgeable as he was felt utter astonishment... and a hint of amusement.

The God-Emperor and the Blood God had both cast their gaze upon the same mortal child?

Wasn't this... a child version of Titus?

He withdrew his hand and looked at the innocent yet clear-eyed boy before him. The delight of having found a treasure, along with the calculations of a "parent," nearly overflowed from his heart.

The Imperium's legendary Titus had yet to be found, yet here the Emperor himself had delivered a "youth version" right to his doorstep.

Thanks to the Master of Mankind for this chosen child blessed by both the Emperor and Khorne!

"Grow up well, child." Guilliman's smile deepened, carrying undisguised expectation. "Your future is destined to be extraordinary.

Many magnificent stories are waiting for you to write them."

Kai nodded vigorously. Though he did not fully understand, the Primarch's approval made his chest burn with warmth.

He had no idea that this "divine child driven by whim" had already stamped him in his heart: "Property of Robert's family. Priority training."

Once they returned to Macragge and the Ultramar revival plan began.

A seedling as "gifted" as him would surely be thrown into the Ultramarines' enhancement crucible at the first opportunity!

Run away?

Not a chance.

Just then—

THUD! THUD! BOOM!

The earth suddenly trembled like the heartbeat of some colossal beast!

Smoke and dust rose into the sky beyond the distant horizon.

A savage figure over three meters tall, wrapped in scarlet bloodlight as though it had just crawled out of a furnace filled with blood.

It smashed through the ruins in an incomparably violent charge, rushing straight toward Guilliman!

Behind it, dozens of Chaos warriors howled bloodthirstily like hyenas that had caught the scent of blood, gathering into a filthy black torrent of iron.

"ROAR—!!! AWAKENED DEFECTIVE!

BASTARD SON OF THE FALSE EMPEROR!

YOUR SKULL—IS MINE!!

AN OFFERING TO THE GREAT BLOOD GOD!!!"

The roar of Gore, blessed by Khorne, made the air hum.

The massive axe in his hand burned with tangible bloodflame, trailing scorching waves of heat. Its momentum was terrifying, as though it could truly cleave mountains apart.

The smile on Guilliman's face slowly faded.

He gradually rose to his feet, dusted off his hands, and looked up at the rapidly enlarging scarlet figure, as well as the clamorous traitors behind him.

Silence.

A silence mixed with absurdity, speechlessness, and a faint hint of self-reproach.

Guilliman blinked, even wondering whether he had misheard.

A... leader of a Chaos raiding party?

A traitor Astartes who had just been fed a little power by a dark god and grown somewhat larger?

Roaring at him—the gene-Primarch, lord of Ultramar, Regent of the Imperium?

And intending to offer up his head as a sacrifice?

Even if... he humbly thought, he had not yet fully wielded all the power of Regent Thragg, he was still a Primarch!

A demigod who had been honored at Ullanor, stood shoulder to shoulder with his brothers against the great enemy of Chaos, and been cast into the cruelest battlefields of the stars in a mortal body—relatively speaking!

Since when had trash like this dared leap before him, bare its teeth, and think it could bite off a piece of him?

"Ah..."

A long sigh filled with emotion slipped from Guilliman's lips.

He shook his head, a helpless, self-mocking smile appearing on his face.

"It seems I truly slept for too long..."

He murmured, though his voice remained perfectly clear. "Long enough for little figures lurking in certain corners to develop the illusion that they could challenge a dragon.

A failure. What a failure.

I have been an unworthy Primarch."

Kai looked at the blood-red giant drawing ever closer and radiating terrifying pressure, then at the sighing Guilliman beside him. He could not help tugging at his cloak.

"My lord, that monster..."

Guilliman lowered his head and gave Kai a reassuring, almost teasing smile, then ruffled his hair again.

"Watch closely, boy.

When dealing with noisy, ill-mannered guests..."

Before he finished speaking, the air around Guilliman gave a faint hum, and he was already floating above the ground.

The next instant—

BOOM!!!

A ring of milky-white sonic-boom clouds exploded from where he had stood!

Violent shockwaves burst outward in a circle, brutally flattening the golden wheat fields for dozens of meters around!