Ultio Ultionis was forced to crane his neck up at the colossal beast, it was an unusual experience for most of his life he had been used to beings looking up at him. Despite his attempts to be humble his entire life it was not a feeling he liked now looking up to something, especially what this thing purported itself to be a god of the warp, what his father the Emperor of Mankind had spent his entire life trying to destroy.
Your father does not try to destroy me he has not treated with me. Said Malal, his words shaking Ultio's bones. The Emperor does not even know I exist which is one of many mistakes he has made in his long lifetime.
Instead of devoting study to the warp and the gods that reside in it your father denies their existence to lessen their power. It could be a strategy that might work if those whom you deny exists could not strike back.
Instead of enlightening your brothers to the dangers of the warp your father surrounds them in a shroud of ignorance, those whom he could not keep in the dark he wiped their memories before they moved from Molech.
Your father has blinded your brothers of the danger of the gods, he does this as he thinks it will protect them and protect the Imperium. The Emperor believes they cannot fall to chaos if they do not know it exists. What your father does not know is that the gods have been planning for these days longer than the Emperor has been alive.
As much as I despise the so called Architect of Fate, there isn't much that escapes his notice and there isn't much that he cannot plan for or counter in a myriad of ways you could not imagine. For millennia Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Khorne have been laying plans for the downfall of your brothers decades before your father even thought to sire them.
'So what you brought me here to tell me how my brothers will fall?' asked Ultio Ultionis, he refused to be cowed by this being that called itself a god.
I brought you here to tell you a great many things and all of them you won't believe but it won't make them any less true. We have to start somewhere so why not start with how your brothers will fall from grace?
'If my brothers will fall from grace.' Stated Ultio. 'How do you know such things?'
As much as I despise my brothers the pantheon they are powerful, I am not ashamed to admit it that my power is lesser than theirs it is parasitic in nature, the stronger they grow the stronger and more powerful I grow and they are mighty indeed for the plans are slowly ripening. I am linked to them symbiotically I see into their schemes, I am able to see what they plan, I know how they seek to corrupt your brothers and I know which will fall to chaos.
'Uvall Jormungand.' Stated Ultio.
Malal's laughter boomed that hit Ultio in waves. You are a clever one but if you wish to know the fate of Uvall Jormungand you will have to learn it first-hand.
'So Ghargatuloth was right.' Said Ultio. 'Uvall Jormungand is a pawn of The Outcast God.'
Ghargatuloth tells as many lies as he tells truth I would be surprised if Tzeentch's spawn knows the difference between the two anymore so long as the words he spouts serve his masters purpose.
You are not an ally of mine Ultio Ultionis and nor will you ever be an ally to any of the chaos gods you will die before you turn. I have brought you here to tell you and show you what will be bought if the Emperor of Mankind or the Pantheon win through. I will not ask if you wish to know for I know you do, who's fate do you wish to learn.
'Lorgar.' Said Ultio Ultionis.
Lorgar will undertake the Pilgrimage in sixty years when he is humbled by the Emperor, after three years he will happen upon Cadia at the ordained time.
'So Captain Scarus was right.' Said Ultio.
The Shield of Scarus never made it to Cadia, not in Captain Scarus' timeline, he did not witness the fall of Lorgar. Captain Scarus didn't witness the depravity unleashed by the heathens on Cadia, he did not witness the hideous murder and sacrifice of poor Vendetha.
Ultio looked shocked. 'Custodian Vendetha?'
The very same following Lorgar's humbling the Emperor invokes the right of the Oculi Imperator, twenty custodes are sent to watch over the Word Bearers, five to personally watch over Lorgar. Vendetha is sacrificed in order to bring forth the forces of chaos. Lorgar falls to chaos he then sets about schemes that will take decades to come to fruition but will corrupt and sway half of your brothers to the Pantheon.
Ultio closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, he had a chance to ask a question he had wanted to ask since he was an infant in the laboratory under the crust of Terra.
'What were the Serrated Sun doing in the Emperor's laboratory.' Said Ultio. 'It was impossible for next to the grey clad astartes was scientists making geneseed, when that was taking place the Emperor's thunder warriors were still roaming earth. The astartes could not and should not have been there for not a single astartes had been created.'
You have guessed right so many times the pantheon created a paradox by compressing the skeins of fate, they allowed the Word Bearers to travel back in time in order to bring about the scattering of their genesire and his brothers, a scheme so convoluted the Emperor could not see coming.
'You do not call my father the Anathema?' asked Ultio, he had noticed this from the get go.
The Emperor of Mankind is not anathema to me for we share the same purpose the destruction of the chaos gods be it for different purposes, if your father succeeds I will succeed for my purpose is to bring about their destruction.
'If they are destroyed you will be destroyed.' Countered Ultio. 'You have said it yourself your power is parasitic if they die you will die.'
Malal's laughter boomed out once more. And what an experience that will be! They do not call me the Anarch for no reason, I am a being made from anarchy and chaos taken from human emotion.
I am a being without rhythm or reason I live for violence for violence sake, I do not wish to rule or conquer, I only wish to destroy and sow terror amongst mortals and immortals alike. That is why the pantheon contacted you for they fear what I am capable of, they wish to sway you to their cause so you can further their own plans.
'And you wish to show me theirs to further your own?' asked Ultio.
I have no ulterior motive save for the destruction of all things. I am the antithesis of order, form and function. I exist only to unmake things and sow anarchy. The pantheon have plans and I seek to unmake them to the destruction of the gods and the burning of the galaxy. The chaos gods ultimate aim is to supplant the Emperor of Mankind from the Throne of Terra and replace him with Horus Lupercal.
'Horus?' asked Ultio, remembering the day he looked at him from his gestation capsule. Ultio lied despite what he had seen in the laboratory on Terra. 'Horus would never turn.'
You know that that is as an outright lie, you saw him in your fathers laboratory but not as an infant. You saw Horus Lupercal as he will be over sixty year in the future, when he is turned from your fathers light.
'How will Horus fall?' asked Ultio.
How most of your brothers will fall through lies, deceit and trickery. The forked tongue Word Bearer, Erebus will treat with the Warmaster-
'The Warmaster?' asked Ultio, he was unfamiliar with the term whether it was a name or a title.
In the future your father will declare his ultimate victory of the Ork's at a world named Ullanor, entire continents will be planed smooth and many of your brothers will attend the celebrations. There the Emperor of Mankind will plant his sword into the ground and declare that his crusading days are over, he will hand over the reins of power to Horus declaring him his proxy and lord of all his armed forces including his brothers.
After this time Horus will wage many compliances but in each he will make what he deems to be mistakes. On a world where the inhabitants claim to be from the true Terra a being calling himself the Emperor of Mankind will assassinate the Lupercal's favourite son Hastur Sejanus. The world will become to be known as sixty three nineteen and before the world is declared compliant the last vestiges of resistance will summon a daemon named Samus that will possess an astartes and run amok murdering his brothers.
The events will be covered up but Horus like the rest of your brothers believe that the creatures in the warp are just that creatures, that in itself is a failing of your father for what befouls Horus is partly the Emperor's fault. The sixty third expeditionary fleet will travel to a world named Murder where they will seek to rescue a combined force of Blood Angels and Emperors Children, the former there are no survivors and the latter are indignant in regards to the need for rescue. The Luna Wolves, the Blood Angels and the Emperors Children wage a war against a lethal xenos that inhabits murder they name the megarachnids.
This is when Horus believes he has made yet another mistake for when the sixty third expeditionary fleet approached Murder there were beacons relaying musical tones that were ultimately meant to be a warning from a lost strand of humanity named the Interex that consorted with xenos named Kinebrach and marooned the megarachnids on Murder. Horus will question his own decisions so much that he will actually treat with the Interex and travel to an outpost world of theirs much to the chagrin of his sons, brothers and nephews.
This is where things turn ill for Horus being racked with guilt and indecision he turns to Erebus who already knows of the Interex for it was the very reason he joined the sixty third expedition. For Erebus steals a weapon named the Anathame from a museum housing Kinebrach weapons and in doing so sets the Luna Wolves against the Interex. The Luna Wolves fight their way clear of the outpost world and yet again Horus takes this as a failure in leadership as he believes his father would have found a way. It is here that Erebus has slowly primed Horus to be weak enough to strike.
Erebus summons the Warmaster to Davin a world which the Luna Wolves brought to compliance, the world is purported to be in rebellion its governor a man named Eugen Temba appointed personally by Horus Lupercal himself is supposed to have spat upon his loyalty to the Warmaster himself personally and not the Emperor. After punishing himself with what he sees as failures Horus' patience snaps he strikes for Davin's moon where Erebus tells the Warmaster that is where Eugen Temba is waiting for him.
Horus Lupercal lands on the moon to purge the stain on his honour, he lands his newly renamed legion the Sons of Horus, Auxilia militia and battle titans to purge the governors flagship The Glory of Terra that has crashed on the surface of the moon. The moon is not as it seems it is meant to have a temperate climate but it is a rotted world corrupted by Nurgle, the Imperial forces battle plague zombies that threaten to rout them. Horus with a number of his sons fight their way into the heart of The Glory of Terra. Horus Lupercal confronts Eugen Temba but is grievously injured by the Anathame sword stolen by Erebus.
The Warmaster is stricken by a malaise that no apothecary can cure, all seems lost it seems that Horus Lupercal will die, the Emperors chosen proxy will be no more. Stricken by grief and fear Erebus persuades the majority of the Sons of Horus to take the Warmaster to a Serpent Lodge where Erebus tells the Sons of Horus that their father can be healed. They do this despite it being against the Imperial Truth for the Sons of Horus have always been legion first Emperor second, well for the most part. Horus resides in the Serpent Lodge for three days and during this time he is taken into the warp by the Pantheon.
'Where I saw him when I was a child.' Said Ultio, he shivered.
Just so, Ultio Ultionis. Your brother will be shown a great many things many of them true and yet untrue. Your brother will be shown fantastical evidence that your father will be worshiped as a god, that he will undertake a great apotheosis and take his place amongst the gods. Horus Lupercal will see evidence of the Emperor being worshipped as a god and he will see entire worlds devoted to the worship and celebration of the primarch's but not Horus.
In the vision's Horus see's statues venerating the "God-Emperor" and venerating Sanguinius, Dorn, Guilliman, Vulkan and more but Horus is not remembered let alone celebrated and this is one of the things that rankles at Horus the thought of not being remembered. But the pantheon lie and deceive they do not show him the truth but in fact they show him a consequence of his actions. In the wake of Horus' corruption to chaos he will set the galaxy alight with civil war.
'How is this any different from the plans you purport to sow?' asked Ultio.
Malal grinned a monstrous wolfish grin. Now we come to the crux of the matter, in the ten thousand futures there are two that come to the fore the most. That either Horus will win or the Emperor will win, the exact effects of each outcome cannot be really known for hundreds of thousands of decisions can change the outcome. But the two prominent futures are that Horus will win and claim the Throne of Terra in the name of the pantheon, Horus will either bring the human race into the very bosom of the chaos gods his father tried to eradicate or he will purge his own species in the wake of furious self-loathing and shame.
'How is this different from what you plan?' asked Ultio, still unconvinced.
The pantheon are not foolish they will do everything in their colossal power for Horus to win through and in such a way that the human race are forced to worship chaos for all eternity. They will not wish for the human race to be extinguished for they know it will be the end of them too.
Ultio paused for several moments taking in what he had been told. 'What will happen if the Emperor wins through?'
There is only one future I have seen where the Emperor wins, he will strike down Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit but he will be mortally wounded, only the power of the golden throne will sustain him. The Imperials win the civil war but at a terrible cost, half of your brothers turn to chaos, the remainder are battered and bloodied. Then something happens over the cause of millennia, the Emperor immortal sitting atop his golden throne begins to be worshipped as a living-god. The ultimate irony is the fact that the architect of the Imperial Truth. The master of a secular empire is worshipped as a god, the very text created by Lorgar, the Lectitio Divinitatus venerating his father as a god comes to the fore thousands of years after it was written.
This is what Horus Lupercal is shown the pantheon show the Warmaster a fate that he will make himself. Horus is not remembered and adored for he turns from his father and his father is worshipped as a living-god for he strikes him down. This is how the pantheon turns your brother from the Emperors light by taking his future actions and dressing them up as a plot by his father to bring about his own apotheosis. It is a ploy so ridiculously convoluted that I am so shocked that it would actually work, it is only one such as Tzeentch whom could pull such a thing off.
'The choice is death and destruction or death and destruction.' Said Ultio, he laughed despite himself.
Your father took it upon himself to make war upon the gods of chaos, beings that are eternal and nigh on all powerful. There can only be bloodshed, fear, war, death and destruction when a being like the Emperor of Mankind tries to murder gods.
Even I have to admit it is a noble ideal but one that is almost certainly doomed to failure, it is likely that the Emperor will be struck down by Horus, that he will be interred onto the golden throne and that he will be worshipped as a god. It is highly likely that in the grim darkness of the future there will only be war and it will be a future that he brought about himself.
'How?' asked Ultio.
You know the answer, he has kept your brothers in the dark about the true dangers of the warp and the gods that reside there. By keeping Horus in the dark he will feel betrayed and believe that the Emperor could turn from mankind for if he wouldn't then why would he keep the gods a secret?
Lorgar might not have undertook the pilgrimage if the Emperor had not humbled Lorgar on Monarchia. Magnus the Red will fall to chaos because the Emperor will make the same mistake twice for he will ban the astartes the use of warp magic, forcing the Crimson King to practice his powers in secret.
'Magnus would never turn.' Said Ultio, despite a pit of unease growing in his stomach.
The only way I foresee the Crimson King turning from your light is if you force him to, warp craft to Magnus is like breathing to the rest of us, if you command him not to, you know and I know that he will keep breathing but in secret. Which would force you to unleash Leman or me. Fine words, your words Ultio Ultionis you know what I say is true.
But that is not the full story it was Tzeentch who caused the flesh change in the Thousand Sons, it was Tzeentch who gifted Magnus with the knowledge of the cure. It was Tzeentch who took Magnus' eye in the bargain to save what little of his sons remained un-mutated, the truth is your red skinned brother has been dancing to the tune of chaos his entire life his fall from grace was inevitable.
Ultio Ultionis felt numb as much as he wanted to refute what Malal was telling him somehow deep down he knew what he was being told was true, that two futures lay ahead for the human race.
'What is your part in this Malal?' Scowled Ultio, bitterness seethed in him at the thought of chaos corruption in his brothers.
I seek the death of the chaos gods, the annihilation of the Emperor and the genocide of the human race and I want the galaxy to burn.
'How do you seek to alter the fates to bring about this destruction?' growled Ultio.
That is for you to agonise over Ultio Ultionis. Malal said in a mocking tone. But if the pantheon could not have guessed in millennia then I do not see how you could see through my scheme within a scheme.
'You said you do not scheme.' Growled Ultio.
I scheme and I do not scheme. I destroy and I create. I am everything and nothing. I will stop at nothing until the galaxy burns and the Emperor and the gods of chaos are dead.
'How did you sway Uvall Jormungand to your cause?' pressed Ultio.
You have one last question the eleventh son of the Emperor, so ask wisely for you will likely not be walking amongst the land of the living when we meet again and we will meet again.
Ultio Ultionis closed his eyes. 'When will the Emperor enact the Edict of Obliteration?'
That would be telling Ultio Ultionis but let's just say that the sands of time are falling against you. The laughter of Malal boomed out shaking everything then it faded into inexistence.
Ultio kept his eyes closed trying to come to terms with what he had witnessed and what he had been told, when he opened his eyes he was in the hexagonal space of his inner sanctum looking at the great wings of Ra.
Whatever Uvall Jormungand was planning he had little time to find out and even less time to counter, should he fight alongside The Bloodied Visage at Cypra Mundi or double back and strike them down at Cadia. Whatever his decision he would have to make it quickly.
The fate of the galaxy just might rest on how he dealt with the threat presented by Uvall Jormungand.