Corax had considered forcing his way through.
He had weighed that option time and again in the shadows. With his remaining troops, the power of the Shadow of the Emperor, and his own strength as a Primarch, breaking through the enemy's second Defense Line by force was not entirely impossible.
Those star fortresses were sturdy, but not indestructible; those garrison Fleets were tenacious, but not unbeatable.
If he was willing to pay a steep enough price, he could carve a bloody path straight to Colchis.
But Bella's warning and the lingering ache of the wounds Lorgar had left him made Corax abandon that idea.
Bella's words had hit him like a bucket of cold water: "Mr. Crow, you no longer have enough troops to squander them like this. The Legion warriors lost in the earlier battles, the ammunition expended breaking through the Defense Line—those are all losses you cannot replace."
"If you force your way through, you might breach the second Defense Line, but your forces will be exhausted afterward. You won't have enough strength left to land on Colchis, let alone face whatever other contingencies Lorgar left behind."
And the wounds Lorgar had inflicted still ached, reminding him just how terrifying that dead Primarch had been.
Though Lorgar was dead, the defensive system he had left behind, the armies he had trained, and the traps he had laid were still working.
If Corax could not easily overcome Lorgar's contingencies at his peak, then now, with his troops depleted and his strength drained, he had even less reason to underestimate Lorgar's legacy.
What's more, those star fortresses held excessive quantities of the Lectitio Divinitatus.
Those scriptures, blessed by Lorgar himself, those books imbued with the power of faith in the Emperor, naturally counteracted the power of Chaos.
The Lectitio Divinitatus