Chapter Forty-Nine: A Breach of Honor

“Farewell, Magnus.” With the helmet already removed by Magnus, the Traveler could now only mouth the words at him, and even then, he spoke Chinese, which Magnus could not understand.

As soon as the Traveler finished speaking, the nuclear bomb installed in his power pack detonated.

This was a plan agreed upon before going to support Guilliman: first, the Travelers would draw Magnus’s attention; then, they would rescue Guilliman, and finally, hit Magnus with a nuke.

Incidentally, the idea of nuking Magnus came from the Traveler who had previously clung to the outside of Raphis, wielding a melta and playing suicide games with Chaos.

The nuclear bomb exploded amidst the wreckage of the ship, and in an instant, a massive nuclear fireball engulfed the remains. With no atmosphere on the moon to carry the shockwave, the blast radius was much smaller than it would have been on Earth, and the bomb itself was not particularly powerful, destroying only the ship's wreckage.

From a nearby lunar ridge, Wang Ming and a thousand other Travelers of the First Company watched as the nuclear explosion consumed the ship's remains.

“Boss, will this work?” asked one of the Travelers, recently resurrected, standing beside Wang Ming as he observed the devastated ruins.

“This won’t be enough to take down Magnus. Ready your weapons.” Wang Ming replied, unconvinced that a single nuclear bomb could kill a Daemon-ascended Primarch.

And indeed, Magnus slowly emerged from the nuclear-ravaged wreckage, the psychic energies swirling around him shielding his body from the radiation.

Magnus was furious. He immediately spotted Wang Ming and his companions hiding among the lunar ridges and charged toward them.

Wang Ming, seeing Magnus’s rage, made no move to engage him. Instead, he simply switched on his helmet comms.

“Captain Leandro, is the Lance ready?” Wang Ming spoke through the comms to Leandro Ferreira.

“Ready and locked on, my Lord Primarch. The Lance has targeted the Daemon Primarch and can fire on your command.” Leandro Ferreira replied, the Lance of the “Imperial Truth” having already acquired Magnus as its target.

“Fire immediately!” Wang Ming ordered without hesitation. He had never intended to confront Magnus head-on.

Wang Ming knew that with his current combat abilities, he stood no chance against Magnus, whose psychic powers were terrifying.

If he could kill Magnus outright, Wang Ming would never bother to fight him directly.

As for capturing Magnus and hauling him back to enthrone the Emperor on the Golden Throne—ridiculous. Magnus’s terrifying psychic might, coupled with the blessings of the Dark Gods—two legendary buffs—meant no one could catch him if he chose to escape.

At Wang Ming’s order, the Lance of the “Imperial Truth” pierced the black lunar sky, striking directly at Magnus’s position.

“Missed!” With his Primarch’s vision, Wang Ming saw the moment the Lance struck the ground—Magnus had instantly opened a Warp rift and slipped inside, leaving the Lance to blast nothing but empty terrain.

Wang Ming looked at the vitrified ground, feeling a pang of regret. What a shame Magnus hadn’t been killed outright.

But just as he was lamenting, a staff suddenly appeared from behind and pierced straight through him.

“No honor at all, ambushing me like that!” Wang Ming exclaimed in surprise, turning to see Magnus half-emerging from a Warp rift behind him, those words escaping his lips.

No one had expected Magnus to attack Wang Ming in such a way.

But Wang Ming reacted swiftly, grabbing hold of Magnus’s staff and yanking Magnus out of the Warp rift.

The First Company Travelers saw Magnus being pulled out by Wang Ming and immediately swarmed around him.

Like a hive of angry wasps, the Travelers piled onto Magnus, hacking away with their power swords.

“Wang Lei! You stabbed me! Aim for the gap in the middle! That’s where Magnus is!”

“Who stabbed my leg?”

“Hit here! Magnus is here!”

“Damn it! Who switched on the plasma? Don’t use heat weapons—they have splash damage!”

“Someone pull Li Peng away! He’s got the melta out again!”

“Brothers! I’ve found Magnus’s mouth! Hand me the melta!”

“Hey! Get your hand off! That’s my mouth!”

“Who’s standing on my head?”

“I hit Magnus!”

To call the Travelers’ attack on Magnus chaotic would be generous; it was utter bedlam.

Magnus, irritated by the Travelers clinging to him, unleashed a powerful psychic wave, flinging them all away at once.

Having cleared the Travelers off, Magnus turned to the wounded Wang Ming. He had infused his staff with Tzeentch’s dark power, intending to corrupt this unknown Primarch.

“Worship me, and I will grant you endless knowledge, the power of the Sea of Souls,” whispered voices, laced with temptation, echoed in Wang Ming’s mind.

“No, I’m lazy. I don’t want to learn so much,” Wang Ming reflexively replied.

“I can also grant you mighty psychic power,” the seductive voice continued.

“No, I don’t care for psychic powers,” Wang Ming said.

“Then what do you want? I can give you anything,” the voice urged.

“Hmm… I want…”

“What do you want?” the voice pressed, sensing Wang Ming’s hesitation.

“I want to kill you,” Wang Ming suddenly replied, reaching out in his mind and seizing the source of the darkness before him.

The origin of the tempting voice was a monstrous bird with blue feathers. It struggled desperately in Wang Ming’s grasp.

“You are the one of the cursed…” the bird stammered in terror, staring at Wang Ming.

Before it could finish, a golden light burst forth in Wang Ming’s hand. The bird shrieked in agony as the light consumed it, erasing its form until nothing remained.

With the bird’s disappearance, Wang Ming’s consciousness returned to the real world.

Magnus, seeing Wang Ming approaching him once more, believed the corrupting daemon he had implanted had succeeded.

Wang Ming walked right up to the unsuspecting Magnus, who was completely unguarded. Just as Magnus was about to speak to his “corrupted” brother, Wang Ming landed a thunderous slap across his face.

Magnus was utterly stunned. Hadn’t he already been corrupted? Why was he being struck? What was the meaning of this?