The first heartbeat marked the beginning of everything.
With the sixth heartbeat, humanity's most basic desires-love, hatred, passion, and resentment-returned to a body.
With the seventh heartbeat, the long-dead body began to brim with powerful vitality once more.
With the eighth heartbeat, its muscles began to exert themselves again, restoring humanity's most primal strength.
With the ninth heartbeat, blood flowed through the brain again, and intelligent thought returned.
With the thirteenth heartbeat, a powerful hand tore out the heart of the daemon before him.
The man inside the coffin sat up, one hand tearing the heart from the daemon that had charged up to him. Then he seized its horns and slammed its entire head against the coffin.
Beside him, Arlith, who had nearly been killed by the daemon, froze.
The man before her could hardly have looked less like a savage daemon.
Powerful muscles, a head of black hair just like His Holy Majesty's, and a resolute gaze.
Bona had no idea what had happened. All he knew was that when he woke, a daemon had been baring its teeth at him.
The daemon before him was still trying to resist, so Bona bashed its head against the coffin a few more times, until its skull was completely shattered.
He spotted the Chainsword embedded in front of the coffin, walked over, and pulled it free.
When he looked up, the surging tide of daemons had already vanished.
Bona rubbed his head. He had no idea what had happened; he only felt that he might have slept for a very long time.
Just then, he heard the clank of metal, followed by the sight of a group of figures dropping to one knee before him.
Dakan's face flushed with excitement. As he gazed at the man before him, that figure increasingly overlapped with the one that had begun to fade from his memory.
He's grown up.
"Your Highness, the Thunderhawk Second Company awaits your orders."
Yet the man before him remained silent for a long time, simply staring at him.
Bona recognized the figure before him.
"You're... the Fifth Company's captain?!"
"Yes, Your Highness!" Dakan said excitedly.
"What year is it now?"
"982.M41. At least, it was when we came in."
"Ten thousand years..." Bona's head hurt even more.
Ten thousand years. Who knew what a mess the Imperium could have become in ten thousand years? He dared not even imagine it.
Suddenly, his gaze fell on Arlith beside him.
"Miss, may I ask who you are?"
"Arlith, Inquisitor of the Ordo Originatus."
Arlith did not presume to ask his name outright. After all, it was enough that this Thunder Warrior seemed to know him.
"The Ordo Originatus?" Bona asked in confusion.
"Your Highness, it's a rabid-dog organization called the Inquisition. The entire Inquisition is a bunch of lunatics and traitors in all but name."
"Shut your mouth, you damned mutant!"
Watching the two begin to argue, Bona felt an unbearable headache coming on.
Forget it. I need to get out and see what's happened out there. I'll go to Terra and see Father first.
|If you want to get yourself killed, go ahead and visit Terra.|
Bona immediately frowned and looked around.
Apart from the Thunder Warriors and Storm Troopers pressing guns to one another's foreheads, and Captain Dakan and the Inquisitor poised to strike, no one was speaking to him.
|Stop looking. I'm inside your head.|
"Who are you? Do I know you?"
|You could say we're quite close. The sort of friends who'd take a knife for each other.|
"I don't remember having a friend that close."
|Of course, neither do I. Because you were the one who stabbed me!|
As that somewhat familiar voice grew angry, an answer gradually formed in Bona's mind.
"Horus."
|Heh. Not entirely stupid, then.|
Bona began marshaling his psychic power, intent on dragging that bastard out of his mind and hacking him to pieces.
Horus immediately understood what Bona was thinking.
|That eager to kill me?|
"You damned traitor. I'm going to kill you right now."
|Yes, yes, I'm a traitor. If you hadn't stabbed me, I would have led the Imperium to conquer the galaxy by now, instead of being vilified in history books.|
Bona fell silent.
Indeed, strictly speaking, he had fired the first shot of the Horus Heresy.
He had been the first to betray his father, not Horus. Strictly speaking, the Horus Heresy should have been called Bona's Rebellion.
He had even killed Uncle Malak with his own hands and indirectly driven Grandpa Malcador to his death. He was the one who most deserved to die.
Seeing Bona apparently sinking into misery, Horus hurriedly spoke up.
|There's no point moping here now. Hurry up and figure out how to clean up the mess the Imperium's become.|
"Why are you in my head? Didn't you die?"
|Oh, that's thanks to you, of course, my young friend. You happened to be nearby when the Four Gods tore my soul apart, allowing what remained of it to take refuge inside you and survive by sheer luck.|
|I lay in the Warp for who knows how long before I managed to piece myself back together using other shattered human souls.|
|You should be thanking me, too. While you were asleep, I controlled your body and hacked apart more death-seeking fools than I could count.|
"Since you're fine now, get the hell out of my head!"
|Then give me my body back! You did it yourself. Have you forgotten?|
A Primarch's body?
Where was he supposed to find a Primarch's body? Having only just woken up, the only person he could think of was his father.
But he had no idea what state his father was in now. And according to Horus, going to see his father now would very likely get him killed.
No, wait. There really is someone I know who could recreate Horus's body.
|Wait, you lunatic! Don't go looking for it!|
Before Horus could say anything more, Bona pulled his attention back to the outside world and looked at the people before him.
"Everyone, if you have nothing to do right now, would you accompany me somewhere?"
Captain Dakan and his battle-brothers all clenched their right fists and struck their chests in unison.
"We will follow you unto death, Your Highness."
Beside them, Arlith hesitated, then nodded as well.
"Very well."
But a moment later, she regretted it. It might well have been the worst decision of her life.
Before you continue