"I have returned!"
Horus's thunderous voice was like a boulder hurled into a still lake, sending violent ripples through every corner of Hope's Grasp fortress.
On the walls, the defenders who had just been rejoicing at their "saviors from the heavens" now wore frozen expressions of fear, shock, and utter bewilderment.
Horus Lupercal.
Over ten thousand years of Imperial propaganda, that name had become the ultimate symbol of evil. He was the embodiment of corruption, the very definition of betrayal. Every citizen of the Imperium had been taught from birth to hate him, to curse him.
And now, this "source of all evil" stood before them in the flesh, proclaiming his return. Stranger still, beside him stood the Emperor's most loyal, legendary guards-the Adeptus Custodes.
The scene clashed so violently with everything they knew that many soldiers' minds simply shut down. Their Lasguns sagged in their hands, and they no longer knew whether to aim at the Orks outside the walls or at the... "Arch-Traitor" in the center of the square.
"Heretic! He's a heretic!"
At last, a hysterical voice rang out from the crowd. It belonged to a young junior Commissar with a fanatical expression. He drew the pistol at his waist and pointed it at Horus without hesitation.
"Don't let him deceive you! This is a trick of Chaos! The Custodes... the Custodes must have been corrupted! For the Emperor, fire! Fire!"
His cries were like a match, instantly setting alight the taut fuse of fear running through the crowd.
Bang!
Several soldiers beside him instinctively pulled their triggers. A few white laser beams streaked erratically toward the square.
Yet more than ten meters from Horus, the beams struck what seemed to be an invisible wall. They were effortlessly deflected, leaving several charred streaks across the ground.
It