You Bring Shame Upon the Emperor

The Emperor’s Children…

Not even the Usulan seer had expected a rift connected to the Warp to appear within the abyss left behind by the world-tree Eywa.

He drew upon his psychic power and tried to seal the breach, but the powerful psychic impact vanished as though swallowed by the sea. The rift greedily devoured some of Usulan’s power and expanded even further.

The seer’s expression quickly darkened. He knew that these superhuman warriors who had once belonged to humanity had already fallen into the embrace of the Dark Prince.

After their primarch Fulgrim had been corrupted by the Laer Blade, this Legion that pursued perfection had naturally been corrupted by Slaanesh as well.

"Traitors of the Emperor’s Children! For the Emperor! Kill them all!"

Lox snapped back to his senses and immediately roared, but Hill’s command came even faster. The Ultramarines raised their bolters and plasma guns at once, unleashing a savage barrage upon the Emperor’s Children traitor who had emerged from the Warp rift.

They did not know why these damned traitors had appeared here, but that was not important.

What mattered was—they were dead!

Yet the devastating bolter shells vanished without a trace after piercing the hazy violet-pink radiance. Meanwhile, more traitors of the Third Legion emerged beside the first Emperor’s Child to step into the outside world.

They still wore their original armor, and even the decorations and markings upon it had not changed.

Only, the aquila that had once adorned them and their sacred, noble bearing had become a dizzying aura of decadent corruption. Some of the Emperor’s Children Astartes wore horrifying ornaments resembling human skin and bones, while all manner of twisted fleshcraft coiled around their power armor, sending chills down the spine.

"Eldar, look what we’ve found. Hehehe…"

One traitor let out a chittering laugh. Most of them held squat, bloated tubular weapons, with countless intricate wires and cables running from those weapons into their power armor. Human skin steeped in a thick bloody stench, tendons, bones, and woven hair wrapped around and decorated the weapons.

"And our foolish cousins, the False Emperor’s lapdogs. I’m starting to get excited."

Waves of strange laughter and whispers rose from the violet-and-pink warriors. They possessed none of the discipline or solemnity of Space Marines. Instead, they resembled a band of vulgar musicians who had just finished a performance.

The auspex continuously registered the number of Emperor’s Children appearing: ten, twenty, one hundred. Only after the six hundred and sixty-sixth Emperor’s Children Astartes emerged in the ancestral land of the primitive Eldar did the number stop rising.

Among the traitors, the one surrounded at the center was a tall Space Marine with a twisted, horrifying face. His sparse white hair was dry and dull, hanging in scattered strands down either side of his head. His two grayish-white eyes bore no trace of pupils, rolling incessantly within his shriveled sockets.

Most terrifying of all was the bloody wound at his neck. Ugly stitches joined his head to his chest, and the warped, mutated flesh was haphazardly connected together, making him look incomparably stiff and grotesque.

"It’s Eidolon of the Emperor’s Children—that damned traitor!"

The first to recognize him were not the Ultramarines, but the nearest White Scars. When the son of Chogoris roared out his name, every Fifth Legion Astartes present, including Gantula, went mad.

The primal urge for battle in the White Scars’ genes erupted instantly. Their battle frenzy ignited.

Their revered Lord of the Keshig, Qin Xia, had died beneath Eidolon’s despicable ambush.

"Oh… White Scars. I still remember Qin Xia lying on the ground, grievously wounded. Hehehe, are you planning to avenge him?"

"Qin Xia? Nothing but a weakling. He was not worthy of being my enemy."

Among the Emperor’s Children traitors, Eidolon saluted the loyalists before him in mockery.

It was an utterly blasphemous gesture, filled with an eerie, twisted quality.

"Our encounter is merely an accident. In truth, those tender, delectable Eldar are our real target. The great Lord of Pleasure sent us here to bring Him the most exquisite feast of souls."

Eidolon’s voice was like a broken bellows roaring, carrying a sickly, half-dead quality.

The purple-and-gold paint upon his ceramite armor was soaked in filthy blood. The overpowering stench mingled together, becoming an unnatural crimson reek.

Lox noticed that aside from the Emperor’s Children who still appeared mostly normal, with neat and clean armor, the ones gathered most densely around Eidolon were strange creatures curled into themselves, their bodies riddled with masses of mutated tissue and countless tubes connecting their bodies to their weapons.

"Those are Noise Marines, variants created after the Emperor’s Children fell. Watch out for their sonic weapons. They are completely different from the enemies we usually face."

Because of Qin Xia’s death, the White Scars had firmly memorized the enemy’s characteristics, lest they be caught off guard again.

This valuable intelligence spread through the communication channels among the Space Marines. Everyone learned that the sonic weapons in the enemy’s hands could unleash deadly subsonic roars.

"You bring shame upon the Emperor. How dare you still call yourselves the Emperor’s Children and wear the Imperial aquila? Despicable, shameless traitors—you should crawl down into hell and suffer endless torment."

Gantula activated the disruption field of his longsword. In the depths of their fury, the White Scars instead became extremely cold. They felt neither sorrow nor joy, only surging killing intent desperate to be unleashed.

Meanwhile, Eidolon held a power hammer named Eternal Glory. In the past, his extraordinary skill had earned it the reputation of the Hammer of Golden Light, but now all its glory had vanished with his betrayal.

Hearing the loyalists’ condemnation, Eidolon burst into hysterical laughter. Pus and bloody filth continuously seeped from the stitches at his neck, while a large flap of loose, thick excess skin swelled like some grotesque air sac, endlessly expanding and contracting with each breath.

"Kill them. Reclaim the Eldar who belong to the Lord of Pleasure."

"Those sweet souls… I can’t wait to suck their brains dry."

The order to attack was ready to be given at any moment. Lox had not expected the final negotiations with the primitive Eldar to turn into an unexpected battle. There were only around four hundred Ultramarines present, along with two hundred White Scars—roughly equal in number to the enemy.

The screaming Emperor’s Children charged wildly forward, utterly devoid of the discipline that had once defined that elite force. They resembled a horde of starving addicts lunging at something that could send them soaring.

Eidolon charged at the very front, swinging his power hammer. Its savage power field smashed brutally into the chestplate of a White Scars warrior.

Though this Lord Commander of the Emperor’s Children Legion was not among its greatest fighters, he still possessed superb martial skill and combat experience. His power hammer almost playfully deflected the White Scar’s slashes before striking the other’s helmet from a treacherous angle.

The Emperor’s Children had always been renowned for their technique. They pursued perfection in every detail.

Each swing of the power hammer produced almost no sound of cutting through the air. His unique methods of exerting force and his technique prevented air resistance from weakening the accumulated momentum, making his blows even more terrifying.

The fallen Emperor’s Child had expected his power hammer to deliver the familiar sensation of tearing through flesh, but all he heard was a dull boom. The hammer had struck something utterly unbreakable, shuddering before bouncing away.

Still, the White Scar did not fare well either. Eidolon’s strength now exceeded the limits of his armor’s shock-absorption system. Intense dizziness swept over him, forcing him to slow down.

"Armor this hard? Is that useful?"

"Try this!"

A horrifying subsonic wave erupted from the slit in Eidolon’s throat. Visible waves of sound completely engulfed the White Scar, and the psychic shriek instantly made blood pour from the warrior’s ears and nose. Trembling all over, he collapsed to the ground.