A/N
Well, I planned to make Sanguinius II unlikable in the beginning to produce a more believable character as he would have a journey of self-improvement later, I hadn't counted on him being THAT unlikable. Well, we're here now, so close to the end of the second book. I'm glad to have so many of you still onboard with me on this journey, and I wish you all the best! So here's another chapter for you, enjoy :)
}!{
"The walls have been breached! Charge!"
A shared roar rolled across the valley in contest with the thundering peal of the storm as the Lykkarian army broke into a run. Earlier on, they had set up positions some considerable distance away from Samarkar's walls, being cautious of the unknown as they operated under the assumption that the rebels had fortified the city defenses. The fight between the two angels caught the attention of the Lord Regent, and to his surprise, it ended with the destruction of a sizable chunk of the western wall. Quickly, Maltheus summoned his commanders to prepare to seize the opportunity presented before them, thus leading to the Lykkarian army's vanguard mobilizing and swarming over to the breach.
"It is Sanguinius!" A shared cry for caution swept across the vanguard, "Sanguinius!"
The advance slowed almost instantaneously as the young angel took to the skies. He returned swiftly to the ground with an earth-shattering blow that threw dozens of Maltheus' footmen to the air.
"To the breach, quickly!" Their commanders bellowed above the din of battle, "Don't let the rebels fortify it!"
Sanguinius heard them better than their own men did, and he leaped up to ascend to the broken ramparts of the western wall. Already, the enemy had begun scaling the pile of rubble in an attempt to gain access to the city. Sanguinius' followers, still slow from their long week of celebration, stumbled out of the houses and alleys barely suited for the battle raging outside. Wide-eyed, they stared dumbly as the first Lykkarian soldiers ascended the breach and began pouring into the streets of Samarkar.
"To arms! To arms!" Sanguinius roared, "The enemy has come to steal your freedom from you once more! Take up your swords and fight!" He swooped down to hold back the tide to allow the former slaves enough time to rouse themselves. Alone, he stood in the middle of the breach with nothing but his fists to defend himself against the Lord Regent's soldiers.
The former slaves, instead of rushing in to help their liberator, chose to retreat further into the city. They opted to make their defense there instead of the bottleneck that Sanguinius singlehandedly was holding himself, or just to disappear entirely from the scene.
Sanguinius growled in frustration but stood his ground, which was just exactly what the Lord Regent was counting on.
In the midst of the conflict, eight specialized ballistae were rolled into the fray. These bolt throwers were crafted with the hardest metals and reinforced with arcanic proportions, designed to pierce the armor, stone or some magical barrier. Bolts, seething with black magic that glowed green with fell fire, were hurled at Sanguinius as he fought against Maltheus' men swarming over him. The Regent cared little for the bodies that were skewered in the way, he only cared that the bolts hit their intended target.
Sanguinius cried out in agony as the bolts tore through his arms, shoulders and legs. For the first time in a long while, he had experienced vulnerability and felt as mortal as the ones he had torn apart in his battles.
The bolts, connected to the ballistae with thick ethereal chains, brought him to his knees as they pulled taut and dragged him forward. Seizing their chance, the soldiers rushed for the city breach and spilled into Samarkar. Without their liberator to hold them up, the rebel horde fell apart within minutes. The Regent's legions took control of the eastern districts and prepared to burn out, trample and rout any opposition that remained in the city's walls.
Sanguinius struggled with all his might against the bolts and tried to fly away. He strained against the chains as his mighty wings flapped in futility to gain him the heights. Dozens of Maltheus' strongest warriors, most of them the mecha-knights he had hired from the mercenary companies, took hold of the chains and pulled with all their worth to bring the demigod back to earth. More chains were looped about his body, and with power unleashed by sorcerers in Maltheus' army, the combined strength of human might and magic, Sanguinius fell completely at the mercy of the Lykkarian army.
Once assured of the success of his enemy's capture, Regent Maltheus emerged to meet Sanguinius face to face.
The lord passed the hundred or so men straining to hold the demigod in place, brushed by the sorcerers hunched over with their indecipherable incantations, and finally approached the hapless angel. His triumphant gaze was met with a defiant and baleful glare from Sanguinius.
"You probably don't remember me, but we met once before." Maltheus said.
"Is that so? I don't believe you." Sanguinius snarled, "All that have met and challenged me now lie dead. You are still standing."
"Not personally, but I understand where the hubris comes from." Maltheus indulged in his enemy's banter, "As to that, I do believe there's a first time to everything." He extended his hand to one of his officers who stood with an axe still wrapped in a embroided red cloth. "Like now, where a self-proclaimed god realizes his own mortality."
Sanguinius warily eyed the weapon which gleamed with the sheen of a freshly polished blade and possessed not a single crack nor scratch. This was no ceremonial weapon, but a newly forged one that was crafted for only one purpose- to meet his flesh and his alone. The axe smelled of magic, just like the bolts that pierced his body.
"Commander Vestra, come forward!" Maltheus called out.
Sanguinius' eyes widened as the woman marched out of the Lykkarian vanguard. Their gazes locked, and Sanguinius clenched his teeth as he realized where his actions had led him. As he knelt before his captors, he had that moment of clarity that for so long evaded him due in no small part to his arrogance. Here was a friend he had so quickly transformed into an enemy, whose life he had destroyed for his reckless decisions. The same arrogance threatened to snuff out his newfound perspective, but was quickly overruled by the alien feeling of vulnerability he now felt.
Hammered to correction. The words of his mother rang through his mind.
Vestra took the axe from Maltheus and without a moment's pause, she closed the distance between herself and her enemy and swung the blade. Sanguinius screamed with the voice of a hundred agonized souls, deafening momentarily the men closest to him and causing the sorcerers to recoil for a second.
His right wing, so cleanly cut from his back, fell to the muddied soil.
Vestra, unfazed by his reaction, hefted the axe and swung again. She cut off his other wing, robbing the angel of his dominion of the skies forever. She discarded the axe and struck him across the face with the back of her fist. Again and again, she struck him until her gauntlets cracked and her arms grew sore.
"Enough." A commanding voice thundered from above, causing all to lift their eyes to the heavens. What they saw next caused fear to once again tug at their hearts, and all who bore witness to Saint Celestine's descent from the skies backed away in terror. She was fully girded on with her battle armor, the armor of Saint Katherine, and carried the Ardent Blade. "You will not have his life."
"And who are you to declare this?" Maltheus challenged.
Celestine's eyes, blazing white with the holy fire of the Emperor, seared into the Regent's soul. "His mother." Her feet touched the ground, and she walked among the terrified soldiers to reach her agonized son. She ignored the spears and swords pointed her way, as well as the hundred arrows nocked and drawn to fire at will. "Take back your city. Take your glory, but you will not take my son's life."
"And what of the lives he's taken?" Vestra, aggrieved and furious at this intervention, vehemently protested. "Sanguinius stands guilty for instigating the rebellion of Samarkar's slaves and the butchering of her people! He cannot go unpunished!"
"And you have punished him." Celestine firmly stated, "But by the will of the Throne on Terra itself, his life is not yours to take nor shall I allow it. Submit your grievances here and now."
"I will submit my grievances when I have his head!"
Celestine's voice grew taut as her grip on her sword, "Do not test me, girl. You have all tasted the wrath of but a raw, undisciplined child. Try my patience and you will suffer the wrath of heaven and hell put together."
Vestra's courage wavered at the Saint's words and she backed away slowly to fade into the background.
Regent Maltheus crossed his arms and considered carefully his next words before speaking, "Well, we did get what we came for." His eye fell on the muddied wings on the ground, "And vengeance has been dealt with to an acceptable degree." At his word, the sorcerers ceased in their incantations and the chains were removed. Sanguinius was left to his mother's mercy as the army moved to retake Samarkar.
The screams of the resisting slaves could be heard above the din of battle, and Sanguinius despaired at the sound of judgement raining down upon his followers. So quickly after giving them a taste of freedom, he had inadvertently given them their final taste of death.
"Behold, my son." Celestine said, pulling Sanguinius over to gaze out into the destruction of all he had built. When he would not lift his eyes, Celestine angrily seized him by the jaw and forced him to look. "See the fruits of your labors! This is what happens when you act only upon your whims and disregard all that we have taught you!"
Sanguinius, defeated, fell silent as his mother hammered in everything she had wanted to say to him in his absence. "For all your strengths and gifts, you are no god. Have I not told you this tale long ago when you were but a child, how your father wished to ascend beyond the heavens and beyond the Emperor's light? What happened to him? He was struck down and was destroyed- body and soul. You walk in his very footsteps on a dark road. Do you feel the sting of your mistakes now? Good! If you refuse to heed my correction and continue on this self-destructive path, the loss of your wings will pale in comparison to what you will lose later." She reached down and plucked free the bolts still stuck in her son's body.
Sanguinius grunted, but again said nothing.
"Come." Celestine pulled him up and set him to walk with her, "Let us return home."
Horus watched his daughter with a mixture of pride, caution and curiosity as she displayed the first manifestations of her psychic abilities.
Psykers all across the Imperium, especially the ones unfortunate enough to live in condemning worlds, suffered from both persecution and exploitation. Seen as more of a resource than people, as much as anything in the Imperium, Horus knew that a scant few truly realized their potential to use their abilities for the good of mankind. All too often, the Ruinous Powers benefited the most from these gifted people.
Already, his enemies had witnessed the power growing within Aggregia. His brother Magnus, ever the trickster like his patron god, thinly veiled his true intentions under the guise of a friend to sway her to his malevolent cause. Horus warned his daughter of his brother and the many traps laid ahead by the enemy. Aggregia would realize her potential, and under his careful supervision she would not fall prey to the temptations of the Warp. The first step would be here, at home.
In the time he spent alone with her, Horus began imparting his knowledge of the psychic arts and how Aggregia would harness her gifts. Hers would manifest in its own unique way, for he knew that no two psykers were entirely the same in their practice of the psyker disciplines. Aggregia had already displayed a talent for simple divination, so Horus endeavored to build up on what she already had. Later, he would teach her all he knew about biomancy, pyromancy, telekinesis and telepathy.
He had a surprisingly good time doing it too, for unlike his rebellious son, Aggregia displayed an eager willingness to learn. As he trained her in the days following their adventure, the bond between father and daughter grew stronger as did Aggregia's talents.
Each day, she manifested a new ability. Raw in its form and begging for an experienced hand to temper its flame, Aggregia worked hard together with her father to master herself. This did not mean, however, that her training was without its own mishaps. Her power, unfortunately, attracted more attention from the malevolent entities residing just beyond the thin veil of reality. Just as her power grew, so did her connection with the Warp, and her nightmares increased in their intensity.
But under the protection of the watchful eye of the Custodes, Aggregia was safeguarded from the attacks of the daemons foolish enough to tear through the veil in an attempt to possess the girl. Not a day went by where she and her father trained that some random portal would suddenly open, spilling daemons into Y'ttetia, only to meet their end at the tip of Arther's spear. This almost discouraged Horus from continuing in their training, but Aggregia was determined to learn.
Here, Horus saw the same eagerness that led to Magnus' corruption. Aggregia, so young and so vulnerable, wanted to drink of the waters of knowledge that the universe offered, not in the least worried that such an ocean sought to drown her. Horus was torn between his fatherly instinct to protect his child and his duty to the Emperor to offer up an acceptable champion of humanity in Aggregia, but before he could make a decision on what to do next, fate dealt a heavy blow upon the house of Lupercal.
"My lord, there's something you must know." Arther took Horus aside one morning. "Remember the day we first set foot on this world?"
"Yes." Horus replied, "We came alone and took great pains uphold complete discretion."
"And you know of the small security network I've installed in this system, utilizing three Luna Wolf battlegroups to safeguard this world while you raised your children." Arther said, "They've detected a warp storm that has entered this system- a swiftly moving warp storm, sir. Further analysis suggested this is no mere happenstance or some random anomaly stemming from the Warp. It is a storm conjured to mask an enemy fleet."
It was a change in the course of events, and not in a good way. "I suppose that explains the increasing number of daemonic incursions here. This is no accident, indeed. Where is the storm now?"
"Less than a lightyear away from Y'ttetia, and with each hour that passes the distance closes. We have to get you and your family out of here, while there is still time."
"And what of the planet itself?" Horus inquired.
"What of it?" Arther asked, annoyed that the Primarch would even ask if the people of this world mattered more than their lives and the safety of the Emperor's grandchildren.
"Never mind." Horus sighed, "Make your preparations, Arther. But we must wait until my wife and son return, before we depart for safety. It won't be long now."
"As you wish, my lord."
Sanguinius' wounds, though grievous, fought hard against the poisons that still ate at his flesh, then soon after scabbed over and closed. Though they were many, the hollow gashes in his shoulders most frequently assailed his tortured mind. He had never known defeat in his life, but when he tasted of it, he realized it was the most bitter thing one could ever taste in life.
This bitterness served to melt away the arrogance that so corrupted his mind all these years, though the process itself was loathed deeply by the young demigod.
"Mother." He lifted his eyes to his mother, who bore him aloft as she flew them across the skies. "Why did you save me, if you hated what I've become?"
Celestine had not spoken to him since they've left Samarkar, and the first words her son uttered, free from the haughtiness and pride that she so condemned, coaxed her hardened heart to open up once more for his sake. Sanguinius, for the first time, spoke to her as her son. "I bore you into this world, Sanguinius. I carried you as you suckled at my breast, and held you to my heart when you cried out for me. I let you sleep at my side when the storms raged against our house, and together built up your courage till you no longer feared neither lightning nor thunder. Would a mother forget these precious moments and let her son be destroyed by his own foolish actions? No, Sanguinius. A mother sees in ways no other eyes could see, see hope where others might only see darkness."
A tear escaped her eye as she swallowed the dry lump in her throat, "Indeed, you have angered me with your rebellious nature. What I saw in that moment was not a rebel that needed correction, but a son that needed his mother. All I knew was that I had to save you, and so I did."
"I didn't want to go this far..." Sanguinius said quietly. "I didn't want to hurt anyone, even if I did. I just...I wanted to be more than what you and father wanted to mold me. I thought I could find that opportunity when I took that city."
Celestine stopped in mid-flight to hold her son closer, "Oh my son, if only you knew that time would come on its own. You cannot force it. Had you stayed home, you would have realized this without all this suffering and without the destruction of this world."
"Mother?" Sanguinius inquired, "What do you mean by that?"
Celestine sighed heavily and explained sternly, "Sanguinius, there are three things that hold the Imperium together. The love for the God Emperor, hatred for his enemies, and the fear of his angels' wrath. Today, the people of Y'ttetia have seen you bleed. Human minds and hearts are corruptible, and the sight of the Emperor's grandson being so vulnerable will spark the first flames of revolution- not just for mere hamlets and kingdoms, but entire systems. Do you understand what I meant by the consequences of your actions? You have but seen only a glimpse of it. No one must know you can bleed. And so this world must die."
Sanguinius stared, mouth agape and at a loss for words. When he found his voice again later, he asked her. "W-What about Gia and father?"
"We will leave this world before then." Celestine replied, "Afterwards, only then will I consign Y'ttetia to oblivion. We will depart for another world, one under the guiding hand of the Ecclesiarchy, so that you will truly know the Emperor's love." She resumed her flight back home with a powerful thrust of her wings.
A little while later, they both arrived back on solid ground. There, at the courtyard of their family's shelter, they were met with a strange sight. A Luna Wolf Thunderhawk sat at the courtyard, with a small squad of Primaris Luna Wolves standing guard at their gate. Servants helped stow away their packs and belongings, at the behest of Horus as he stood waiting at the door to their house, all dressed in his full battle regalia.
This was the first time Sanguinius had seen his father in power-armor and he found it to be an awesome sight indeed. He eyed the Luna Wolves spacemarines curiously and was taken aback when they greeted him with respectful bow.
"Sangy! What on earth has happened to you!" Aggregia cried out at the sight of her mutilated sibling. She rushed forward in an attempt to use her newfound powers to healing to see to his wounds. Horus too was astonished at the absence of his son's wings and demanded an explanation, to which Celestine replied with a hiss to beg for silence.
"I see you're already packed for departure." She said, "Good, I was just about ready to have us pack up and leave as well."
"It's not exactly for what you think, my dear." Horus replied, sharing what Arther explained to him. "There's a warp storm headed this way, which Arther believes to conceal an enemy fleet. I believe it's no coincidence, and our enemies are plotting to take our children away from us."
"It was only a matter of time." Celestine agreed, turning to Sanguinius. "Go, board the ship and remain silent." Once her son obeyed and disappeared from view, she spoke to Arther. "How far away is the storm?"
Arther's face was grim, "It is already in the system, about a quarter of a lightyear away from this world. This was according to a report sent my way two hours ago, right before communications were severed. If we are to leave, my lady, we must leave now lest we be caught up in the storm's path and our opportunity lost forever."
"My lord! Look!" A loud cry from one of the Luna Wolves caused everyone to snap into combat mode.
The all too familiar scream and crackle of eldritch energies broke through the stillness of courtyard, and the earth began to break apart with abyssal fissures as the Warp manifested itself under the behest of some dark power. Aggregia doubled over and cried out in agony as her head felt like it would split open. Then, heretical symbols branded themselves on the ground as a portal opened, spilling a horde of daemons into the compound.
The rattle of bolter-fire sounded in tandem with the cacophony of yips, giggles and roars of the mixed tide. Daemons of Slaanesh, daemons of Tzeentch, daemons of Khorne- they all rushed forward and attacked the mountain abode.
A tall figure, clad in ancient pre-Heresy armor that pulsated with unholy life, stepped out of the portal with dozens of similarly clad Wordbearer legionaries. Practically brimming with the foul powers of Chaos, though not at all seeming changed physically and maintaining the same mortal form prior to his ascension, the Black Cardinal of the Wordbearers revealed himself for the first time in thousands of years to enact another of his dark patrons' greatest atrocities.
His eyes, black as night, met the Primarch's gaze. He smiled as he greeted the one he at one lifetime called friend and fellow believer, "Horus Lupercal."
The Wolf of Terra grimaced in disgust as he spat his adversary's name, "Kor Phaeron."
"Come now, why do you hide from me?" The Black Cardinal chuckled at the sight of Aggregia fearfully cowering behind her father. "Your uncle Lorgar desires a family reunion! It is unwise to refuse him."
}!{