Lorgar sat at his desk, studying Dexter's report with a deep frown.
Chaos corruption had, in fact, begun long ago.
Cases like this one, however, directly involving psychic energy and the Warp, were exceedingly rare.
The Laer civilization Fulgrim had encountered, and that ritual blade...
Lorgar felt a headache coming on. He would have to deal with Typhus when he returned, then deal with the Laer Blade in Fulgrim's possession.
He did not know whether any of it would help, but doing something was better than doing nothing.
Still...
Lorgar looked down at the scroll he was writing, upon which a plan had been inscribed in gold lettering.
Lorgar had given this plan the name Ignis Aeternus.
Of course, in Lorgar's mind, that name carried another meaning.
Eternal fire.
The Holy Word Millennium Worlds.
Planet Arka.
It had left no trace in the Imperium's countless star charts or the Navigators' secret archives.
It existed beyond deliberately erased Shipping Routes records, hidden behind a dark veil of both physical and psychic concealment.
Only a handful of people knew its precise coordinates or even that it existed.
This silent star cluster in the dark void was a seed Lorgar had quietly planted at the beginning of the Great Crusade era: a core project operating independently beyond the grand crusade's radiant halo, into which he had poured his heart and soul.
Within the Imperium's borders lay a million worlds and trillions upon trillions of souls. Every fraction of tax revenue, every flow of resources, formed part of a web so vast that no auditing court could fully unravel it.
In the most inconspicuous corner of that web, beneath exquisitely intricate financial maneuvering and layers of authorization that concealed it, an infinitesimal share—so small it was almost nonexistent—was quietly being diverted, ultimately converging