NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 148: Chapter 148
---Eye of Terror, Vengeful Spirit---
Receiving word of the day's devastating losses, Abaddon the Despoiler flew into an uncontrollable rage that left hundreds of his crew members and slaves dead. Distraught that the successes of his 13th Black Crusade had been mostly undone in half a day, his wounded pride drove him to begin planning for an all-out offensive against the Imperium. Summoning his commanders to the War Room, the Warmaster of Chaos was determined to set sail in two days' time. While he awaited their arrival, Abaddon began poring over his maps and charting their course to Sangua Terra and Vigilus.
"My lord, I apologize for the interruption; several esteemed guests have arrived to speak with you.", one of his men proclaimed, opening the door as he spoke, "Lord- "
"Whoever they are, tell them I am otherwise preoccupied at the moment.", Abaddon commented, unaware his four guests were standing in the doorway.
Seething with rage, Daemon Prince Angron grabbed hold of the Space Marine at the door and threw him at Abaddon. Slamming into his lord, both men skipped across the room sending maps and papers into the air. Believing his subordinate had attacked him, Abaddon cut his head off with a swipe of his hand. Kicking the marine's corpse out of the way, he began reorganizing his documents with an annoyed growl.
"You fucking piss ant, stop ignoring us!!", Angron roared, causing the entire ship to tremble. "We are here to speak with you, so make fucking time!"
Stopping what he was doing, Abaddon lifted his head to see who it was. Discovering the guests were Lord Angron, Lord Fulgrim, Lord Magnus, and Lord Omegon, he cursed their names under his breath, further drawing their ire. Motioning for them to gather round the table, the Warmaster left the papers alone and demanded to know what they wanted.
"Why are the four of you here? I thought the four of you were not on speaking terms…", Abaddon complained.
"You seem a bit grouchy today, Warmaster Abaddon. Did something happen that made you upset?", Fulgrim questioned, with a cruel smile, "Perhaps something like a humiliating defeat at the hands of Guilliman and the Imperium?"
"It is only a minor setback in the grand scheme of things…", Abaddon responded, leering back at him.
"A minor setback?", Magnus laughed before getting serious. "There is no Imperium Nihilus anymore; the nation is mostly whole once again. I should know because the world I spent centuries moving into realspace has been sucked back into the Immaterium once again."
Carefully observing the four men as they began to bicker amongst themselves, Omegon discovered they were sorely misinformed about what transpired earlier in the day. As the Alpha Legion had men hidden within the loyalist forces, he was aware of what really happened. Waiting for a lull in their arguing, the traitor Primarch interjected to share the truth with them.
"For a Warmaster of Chaos, you are sorely unaware of what has been happening within the enemy camp.", Omegon berated Abaddon. "The counteroffensive today was not the brainchild of Guilliman or the Imperium of Man. Since you all seem to be unaware of this, Klordius Aremus' Second Legion has returned to the Imperium of Man."
At the mention of their lost brother's name, the three traitor Primarchs fell silent. Recalling the better days when all twenty Primarchs were united and working together, a downcast expression crept onto their faces. While most of the Primarchs spent time with one or two of their siblings, Aremus and Zephrim worked hard to bond with all their brothers. No one realized it at the time, but they were the glue that kept their mismatched family together. It was only after they disappeared that the eighteen Primarchs truly began to appreciate them.
"So then… Brother Aremus is back in the Imperium?", Magnus asked.
"Unfortunately, our brother passed away several thousand years ago.", Omegon said, with a frown. "While my men were unable to gather much information on the Second Legion, I can confirm the man leading the legion is his biological descendant. He goes by the name Victor von Stark."
Recognizing the name immediately, Abaddon slammed his fist onto the war table, shattering it into millions of pieces.
"The damn mercenary I have been chasing is the gene-son of the Second Primarch!?", Abaddon hissed.
"No, Victor is not his gene-son, he is Aremus' blood descendant. He is the literal spitting image of Aremus.", Omegon corrected him, showing everyone an image of Victor. "During his brief time in the Imperium of Man, Victor has revived the Corpse Emperor, reunited six of the nine loyalist Primarchs, and today rejoined the two halves of the Imperium. All these things, along with a few others, have earned him the moniker of the Second Coming of the Emperor of Mankind."
Staring at Omegon in disbelief, Abaddon, Angron, and Fulgrim could not believe so much had happened without them knowing. Having been made aware of some of this already, Magnus stared at the Warmaster with disdain. One of his gene-sons had personally come here to tell him about Dorn's return and the revival of the Corpse Emperor, but he was pretending to be ignorant of everything.
"Why are you acting so surprised, Abaddon the Fool!? We sent word to you about the Corpse Emperor and Dorn months ago. If you had acted upon it immediately, you might have prevented your failure today.", Magnus snapped, with annoyance, "I can see why Tzeentch believes you are no longer fit to be Warmaster."
"I… I do not remember any such conversation.", Abaddon lied, 'Can you truly blame me for not taking it seriously? I thought the information came from Tzeentch himself, so I did nothing with it. Had I known the intelligence was genuine, I would have acted!'
"In short, Abaddon, I would highly recommend not rushing headfirst into another conflict with the Imperium of Man. According to my intelligence, the Second Legion consists of several million soldiers, over fifty thousand vessels, a fully operational Blackstone Fortress, and a monstrous vessel that is larger than the Phalanx with firepower greater than a Fortress.", Omegon said, with a proud smile, "Before you begin worrying about that, though, you should also know Victor is far more powerful than any of us here. On Dharrovar today, Victor successfully crippled Slaanesh in a one-on-one fight. She may have been weakened a bit, due to the waning power of the Warp in realspace, but that does not lessen the achievement."
"Slaanesh was defeated by our nephew?!", Fulgrim gasped, 'So that is why my power and strength have begun to wane. Lady Slaanesh is critically wounded, and her blessings have begun to fade away. I must act quickly to prevent the other factions from moving in to steal our precious territory and treasures!'
Breaking out into uncontrollable laughter, Angron found the situation hilarious. As his patron deity, Khorne, was the mortal enemy of Slaanesh, he took this news in stride.
"Even though we will be enemies on the battlefield, I cannot help but be proud of our nephew!", Angron stated, with a big grin, "I hope the two of us can share a drink before our fight."
"Count me in as well. I can only imagine the look on that bitch's face when she lost to him!", Magnus laughed, grinning ear to ear.
"Oh right, there was one other thing.", Omegon said, looking at Abaddon. "While I cannot absolutely confirm it, I have reason to believe your Planet Killer is now in Victor's possession. Planet Killer's fleet engaged the Second Legion armada in the Sanguis System; they were obliterated in less than ten minutes."
Hearing this horrible news, Abaddon fell to his knees in shock. Between Arkham and Worldclaimer's fleets, nearly a third of his fleet had been lost in one day. Having counted on using Planet Killer in his retaliatory strike, all the plans he had in mind just went up in smoke.
"He… he has a Blackstone Fortress, Planet Killer, and third vessel with firepower greater than both of them…", Abaddon laughed dryly, "Is there really any chance for me to turn this around? I do not have the firepower to overcome that much firepower."
Wanting to make their displeasure known to Abaddon personally, the three Chaos Gods opened portals at the end of the shattered war table and began speaking.
(Nurgle)
Closing their portals without another word, Abaddon hung his head in defeat. No longer blessed by the Chaos Gods, he was no better than the above-average Space Marine. Knowing threats to his position as leader of the Black Legion were bound to increase, the fool rushed out of the room to prepare, putting everything else on the back burner.
"So where is Mortarion?", Magnus inquired. "I figured he would come to mock Abaddon too."
"Oh well… He is not in any better shape than Abaddon is.", Omegon began to chuckle. "You see, Victor gave the Imperial forces some incredibly powerful boons during the fight. Unfortunately for Mortarion, those boons bypassed the blessings he received from his patron."
"Oh?", Fulgrim pressed him.
"That idiot… He… he got his ass handed to him by a group of guardsmen!!", Omegon cackled, "Here, let me show you the video recording!"
Showing his brothers the recording his gene-sons took, the four traitor Primarchs began laughing at Mortarion's anguish. Blissfully unaware they were just as vulnerable as Mortarion was, they fell to the floor and began giggling like schoolchildren at what they were watching. Even though Victor was their enemy, they were happy to see that Aremus' descendant was just like him in both appearance and personality.