During that boarding action aboard the Vengeful Spirit, several primarchs had endured the trials of the Chaos Gods, and Jaghatai Khan had even fallen into the hands of Grandfather Nurgle.
Lion and Russ remembered that incident even more vividly than Jaghatai himself.
They had both been beaten badly by the "Plague Monarch," Jaghatai Khan. Had the Emperor not intervened in time, they might both have fallen at his hands.
The reason Jaghatai Khan had been so powerful was that he had gained a portion of Nurgle's authority and fused with the powerful Warp artifact known as the Heart of Plague.
With those multiple blessings, the Khan's combat power had nearly rivaled Horus blessed by all four gods. Naturally, subduing his other brothers had been no challenge.
Although those experiences had not been entirely real and had occurred upon an illusory timeline, Jaghatai Khan had still formed some unseen connection with the Heart of Plague.
He could vaguely sense its location, or at least the direction in which it existed.
It was through that hazy perception, combined with the guidance of the Tuchulcha Engine, that the three primarchs had led a portion of their warriors into the Webway and ultimately found Commorragh, this colossal Webway nexus.
The whole of Commorragh had already descended into chaos. Compared to these humans, Warp daemons were a higher-priority target for the Drukhari.
Especially those damned daemons of Slaanesh. If they were not wiped out, Slaanesh's attention would penetrate ever deeper into Commorragh, stripping the Drukhari of their last refuge.
The situation had become so dire that the numerous endlessly feuding kabals had temporarily joined forces, coordinating their warriors and using their numerical advantage against the Warp daemons.
The Drukhari absolutely could not use psychic power, depriving them of the most effective weapon against Warp creatures.