Perturabo, King of Ideas

"Damn it, how are we supposed to reach Terra with all these vermin?"

Perturabo still wore that expressionless dead man's face, but deep inside, he had already begun cursing.

He had already asked Horus about the next arrangements, but the Warmaster's answer was to let him act as he saw fit.

"My brother, I have more important matters to attend to."

"The future has changed drastically. Our father has stepped down from the Golden Throne. He is now waiting for us on Terra, and I must keep him occupied so that he cannot directly join this war."

"I am pressuring him on the level of the Warp, weakening his control over the Solar System so that our daemon allies can land safely."

When Horus explained his difficulties to Perturabo in this manner, the Lord of Iron's anger and resentment abruptly vanished.

It was not because he sympathized with Horus's predicament, but because of that last sentence.

The Emperor had returned.

His father—the man he hated and worshipped—had returned.

Only Perturabo himself knew the cold dread that rose from the depths of his heart when he heard this news from Horus.

Within the heart of this traitor primarch, who believed himself to be steel within and without, a crack suddenly opened and swallowed all his fury, hatred, and arrogance.

Since childhood, Perturabo had been able to see the man known as the Cygnus X anomaly within the galaxy. He had also been the one to name that thing which plagued him at every moment the Eye of Terror.

More than the other primarchs, he understood just how terrifying the Emperor's power was. That cold sun absorbing humanity's faith within the Warp surpassed even the legendary gods by far.

For one brief moment, Perturabo considered abandoning this rabble altogether. With the rebels'