Saving Private Emperor

"I never imagined that one day, I would have to think about how to save the Emperor."

"Even during Horus's rebellion, all I thought about was saving the Imperium of Man, not saving my father."

"I had witnessed his boundless power. Many mortals believed he was a god, and that was perfectly understandable. After all, someone bathed in holy light who could accomplish any goal through psychic power was no different from a god."

Guilliman sighed quietly. Not even the antics of the High Lords had ever weighed so heavily on his heart.

The Imperium was too vast. So vast that even if its central brain—the High Lords' Council—started wildly losing its mind, it would not inflict much damage on the whole.

"I once discussed the Dark King with the Emperor and Malcador," Lox said.

Everyone immediately focused their attention on him.

"In truth, even the Emperor was not absolutely certain that he understood the Dark King."

"Before facing Horus, the Emperor sensed that victory was not assured. He once absorbed the power of the Warp without restraint, even manifesting in the material universe as an obsidian sphere wreathed in lightning."

"At the time, he may have realized the Dark King existed, but he did not fully understand how terrifying the Dark King was."

"Malcador and I, along with the Emperor's first Warmaster, Oll Persson, had to go to great lengths to persuade him to stop absorbing the power of the Warp and return from the abyss of corruption."

"We told him: Better to die proudly as a human than to linger on as a dependent servant of the Dark King."

"Only then did the Emperor truly realize how terrifying the Dark King within him was."

"The Dark King was, in essence, an unborn Chaos God. It belonged to the