#708 - Dreams of the Horus Heresy

"But... are you sure you want to participate?"

Mark confirmed with Star-Lord again, "The other two academies might not agree to your joining."

"Don't worry, I'll handle it. Besides, don't forget, I'm a wizard too."

As he spoke, Star-Lord used Celestial energy to condense silver energy, showing it to Mark.

"I've been using this kind of magic to defeat Lucifer since I was a kid."

Mark fell silent as he listened to Star-Lord bring up this matter again.

He felt a little sorry for "Lucifer," who was always being dragged out and flogged by Star-Lord for no reason.

"You must be careful, Mark."

Star-Lord, unaware that Mark was internally complaining about him, lowered his voice and said to him, "If I participate in the competition, you, Raven, Loki, Tom, and even the Savior—Harry Potter—none of you are my match."

"I am the one who will end you all! I will prove who is the strongest mage on the farm! Who is the child my father is most proud of!"

"I am the night, I am vengeance, I am Star-Lord!"

Watching Star-Lord say the above words in a hoarse voice, Mark's expression became complicated.

Mark was silent for two seconds, then asked him, "Are you imitating Batman?"

"What?"

"No, this is how I talk. When I get excited, my voice becomes like this. It's very sexy, isn't it?"

Mark shook his head and said to him, "Batman might be a little sexy, but you're not very good at it."

"You don't understand me at all, and you don't understand Batman."

Star-Lord felt that his brother was a little insensitive.

Not planning to continue with the other party, he turned and left.

"Just wait, Mark, I will teach you and Raven a lesson with magic, and by the way, win the Triwizard Tournament champion."

As Star-Lord spoke, he stroked the non-existent beard on his chin, lost in thought.

Should he hire a magician as his partner?

Like inviting Wanda from the Marvel world?

Otherwise, he was worried that Raven and the others would work together to fight him for the honor of the school, which would be troublesome.

Night.

Horus, having eaten his fill, entered his room and lay on the bed, falling into a dream.

After his consciousness entered the dream world, Horus found himself caught in a violent battle.

When his power claws tore through the last energy barrier, the stench of warp, wrapped in sulfur, poured into his breathing grille.

He heard the congealed blood scabs in his armor layers cracking, like the skulls he had crushed.

"For the Emperor!"

The roar of the Custodian Guard commander, wrapped in the hum of the disintegration field, stabbed over.

The sparks that erupted when the power axe struck Horus's shoulder armor illuminated the entire square.

Horus saw the bloodshot pupils of the other party in the electric light, where his altered face was reflected: the originally handsome face was now covered with throbbing blood vessels, and the left eye had turned into a churning lava vortex.

"You should have shared the glory with me, Constantin."

Horus's voice was like two furnaces devouring each other.

His power claws instantly burst out with purple-black arcs, and the blade suddenly extended into a ten-meter-long energy beam, nailing the Custodian Guard commander to the base of the Emperor's statue.

The marble-carved face of the Emperor was melting.

Horus watched the Custodian Guard commander twitch at the tip of his claws, the broken organs sliding down the energy stream.

The sound of treads rolling over bones came from all around the square.

When Horus turned around, the tattered scarlet cloak was rattling in the wind.

In his vision, he saw three Contemptor Dreadnoughts stepping out of the burning ruins, the multi-barreled melta cannons of the mechs already charged to the critical point.

"Pitiful puppets."

Horus raised his bloodstained claws, and the warp storm condensed into a black sphere at his fingertips.

When the melta beam was about to hit, the sphere suddenly swelled into a singularity that devoured light, and the air in the entire area began to flow backward.

With a "boom," a deafening explosion sounded.

When the first missile hit his back, Horus was transforming—his spine pierced through the skin and grew into demonic bone spurs, and the shoulder armor merged with flesh and blood into a living armor of flowing metal.

The square floor tiles turned into dust in his roar.

Horus suddenly leaped upward, and when he landed on top of the Titan-class mech, the entire outer armor of the steel giant melted like wax.

"Boom!"

When the head of the last resister exploded in his palm, Horus heard his true heartbeat—four distinct rhythms tearing in his chest.

"Father..."

He murmured to the incomplete Custodian Guard corpses all over the ground.

"No! Dad!"

Little Horus, who suddenly woke up from his dream, gasped for breath.

Wiping away the fine sweat that had seeped out of his head, he staggered out of bed.

The extremely realistic dream just now made his heart still pounding wildly.

Was that himself?

Or was that his future self?

The man whose left half of his face remained normal, his ash-gold long hair scorched into burning catkins by the energy aftermath, and the skin on the right half of his face carbonized into black, his eyeballs embedded in cracked eye sockets, was that himself?

He had actually lost his mind and been invaded by the evil gods of the warp to become a traitor!

And he had actually launched a rebellion against the Emperor!

Recalling the feeling of being devoured by the desire for madness and revenge during the battle, Horus felt a little apprehensive.

But at the same time, he felt that his strength seemed to have increased a bit, and he also had some experience in combat skills.

"No, it's not like this."

Releasing his clenched fist, Horus murmured in a low voice, "This is not me, this is just another parallel world, the me of a parallel universe."

Horus kept searching for reasons to comfort himself in his heart.

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After a while, he raised his head and turned his gaze to the dark night outside.

After staring at the night for a moment, he pushed open the door, preparing to go outside to breathe some fresh air and look at the starry sky.

He had always liked to look up at the stars in the night sky.

With a "creak," he pushed open the door, and Horus walked into the corridor.

Going downstairs and pushing open the door of the living room, he entered the outer porch.

With his small hand supporting the porch railing, he stared at the stars above his head, feeling that his heart was beginning to calm down.

"Nice night, isn't it?"

Peter's voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Little Horus, hearing Peter's voice, turned around in surprise.

"Emperor Dad?!"

Peter's mouth twitched, then he pretended to be nonchalant and walked to his side.

"You look like you had a nightmare, Horus, there are still beads of sweat on your head."

"Y-yes, Dad."

Horus said somewhat uneasily, "I... I dreamed that I was fighting, but the target of the fighting attack was the Emperor. I don't know why? It's a nightmare."

Little Horus had already awakened the memories belonging to the Primarch in his body, and he was gradually beginning to understand the Emperor.

He even vaguely began to guess whether his body was also related to the Emperor of that world.

Otherwise, why would he dream of these scenes?

"Sometimes, nightmares are not all bad."

Peter shook his head and said to Little Horus, "The good thing about having nightmares is that you wake up and find that life is not too bad."

He put his hand on Little Horus's shoulder, "You don't have to completely regard nightmares as the root of your troubles. That's not you, or your future."

"Then, Emperor Dad, do you think I will become a bad person?"

Little Horus raised his head and asked Peter.

Peter was stunned for a moment, then said to him, "No, of course I don't believe it, because no one can determine your future. I won't question you because of a dream. You are my son, my Warmaster, and we will have the dark forces of the entire universe to fight against in the future."

Peter had always held a sympathetic attitude towards Horus in the Horus Heresy.

He did not think it was entirely Horus's fault.

The gentle and noble Horus was turned into a mad puppet by the Four Gods, and it was never from his own heart from beginning to end.

Watching his father and brothers turn against each other, watching the results of his father and brothers' years of expedition turn into bubbles, watching the bright future of mankind leave only endless darkness.

That was unspeakable pain for him.

After a moment of silence, Peter used the power of the Ruby on his right hand to project a book he liked from the dream world.

"This... what is this? Emperor Dad."

Little Horus was immersed in the emotion of Peter saying that he would fight against the darkness together, and when he saw Peter project a book, his face was full of surprise.

"A book about constellations, I like it very much, I'll give it to you. Dad hopes you can also learn some constellation knowledge."

"A book about constellations?"

Little Horus took the book in surprise, "This is the first gift Emperor Dad gave me!"

Opening the book, Little Horus flipped through a few pages with excitement, reading it at the fastest speed.

"Emperor Dad, I've finished reading it."

Peter: "..."

Is this the legendary instant reading?

Clearing his throat, Peter asked him, "Then which constellation do you like?"

"Uh... I don't know."

Little Horus scratched his head and looked at the starry sky.

"I only remember the names of the constellations, their shapes, associations, structures, but if I were to say which one, I can't be sure yet."

Peter nodded and said, "Constellations are an ancient and unreliable astronomical concept. Now, people have begun to draw more detailed maps of the universe, but even now people still like it."

"There are twenty constellations in the sky, and perhaps one day, there will be twenty children like you on the ground, each child representing the personality and ideas of a constellation."

Little Horus held the book and asked Peter, "Emperor Dad, which constellation do you like?"