Father, Thirteenth is trying to kill Seventeenth! What should we do?!

Lorgar frowned and looked at his own hands, which were indeed not physical.

Instead, it was the power known as the warp-born energy—a power he inherently possessed, yet had only ever displayed once during his first act of defiance against his foster father.

Ever since that day, Kor Phaeron had treated him as a subordinate rather than a master.

According to the description provided by the man before him, in this future, Kor and Erebus were still alive and had divided their own Legion?

His eldest brother had mentioned that once their father arrived, he would have sons of his own.

And his current situation of arriving in the future was presumably due to his eldest brother having fallen into slumber once more, for his eldest brother possessed the ability to reach the future through dreams, and to actively interfere with the course of future events.

Lorgar swept his gaze across the warriors before him with an icy expression.

"A dog cannot change its habit of eating filth..." he whispered softly, resolving to eliminate Kor Phaeron the moment he returned to Colchis.

"Tell me the current year. Where is this?"

He spoke rapidly while keeping the majority of his attention focused on the hull vessels that had clearly detected the anomaly here and were now speeding toward them.

Glae could neither doubt nor refuse an inquiry from his primarch, his gene-father. There was no need for skepticism; the psychically projected avatar before them was indeed their primarch.

Without haste, he spoke deliberately:

"My lord and father, this is after the crusade launched by the Regent of the False Emperor."

"Presently, we had planned to use this mountain mass to transform a minor asteroid, intending to impact the *Glory of Macragge* and draw out the False Emperor's Regent."

"Now that the element of surprise is lost, it would be best for us to withdraw first. You are liberated at last, and you shall lead us in pursuit of the ultimate faith."

A thoughtful look appeared on Lorgar's face:

"Commit my subsequent deployments to memory. You may withdraw first; I have my own plans."

"First, locate Erebus, keep track of his location at all times, and record his actions."

In his own world, Erebus had already been elevated by the entity known as Tzeentch; he did not know what state he was in within this future.

He needed this information to deduce the timeline—no, even the divergence between worlds.

"Second, all Word Bearers are to cease entering the material realm and must not make contact with any demons."

He reached out and thoughtfully plucked the demon residing within Glae's body, sighing as he said:

"Third, gather the possessed warriors and execute those companions whose minds are dominated by demons. Then find Kor Phaeron and tell him that Lorgar will take up the whip."

The very moment Lorgar had first displayed his autonomous will, Kor Phaeron had been powerless to wield the whip and control his foster son.

Within Lorgar's hand, the demon trembled abjectly, offering submissive gestures of goodwill.

It had grown terrified, its demonic form having been so effortlessly stripped away and shoved back in that it dared not act rashly before the power of a primarch.

It seemed his sons were in a rather wretched state, having even become a part of Chaos. In that case, his future self might very well be a complete bastard.

To actually regard Chaos as gods—what a joke.

Even regarding a father he had never met, he already understood that the latter was merely a mortal man.

After witnessing the petty plots of Tzeentch, he understood how utterly ridiculous it was to pin so-called truth onto a specific concept or will.

And to entrust everything that his own hands could enact to such a foundation was an act of extreme foolishness.

If one cared only for devout worship regardless of who was being worshipped, it was putting the cart before the horse.

"Withdraw now. I have matters to confirm here."

Lorgar turned his back. Having issued his commands, he would not spare another ounce of energy for the Word Bearers.

Glae bowed his head and acknowledged the order: "As you command, my lord and father."

Behind them, the warp rift opened by the Chaos sorcerers still lingered, but as the *Glory of Macragge* drew closer, the entire tear was knitting itself together and would vanish within moments.

Glae decisively retreated, leading his brothers away.

Upon entering the familiar warp space, the inquiries of his brothers sounded from behind him:

"Glae, Father seems... different."

"He has never been so decisive, and this time he manifested in his true human form. Is Father preparing to resolve the conflicts among us?"

Glae did not answer his brothers' questions, merely urging them:

"Just carry out Father's orders. At the very least, it is better than the pointless strife of Kor Phaeron and Erebus."

After the Word Bearers departed, the warp rift closed completely, leaving only Lorgar's time-traveling psychic avatar standing upon the defiled asteroid.

The magnificent fleet of warships slowly came to a halt, as if receiving some command.

All the vessels assumed an attack posture. The dark, profound muzzle arrays, the smaller craft primed for action, and the electromagnetic fluctuations and high-thermal energy outputs they radiated allowed Lorgar to perceive the internal structures of these creations almost as if through X-ray vision—along with the dangers contained within them.

"My brother, are you within those?"

"It seems I have caused quite a bit of trouble in the future."

He frowned, yet faced the situation with composure. According to Aaron's performance, whenever he suffered a massive shock, he would snap back to his original timeline.

Immediately afterward, the primarch's gaze scanned a smaller craft descending from the massive vessel, maintaining a stable hovering posture just two hundred meters above him in the upper air.

Then, several palm-sized flying devices soared toward him, occupying the corners of a rectangle and each projecting a beam of light to form a holographic screen.

On the screen, his eldest brother was visible, cheerfully waving and greeting him as his voice rang out from the surrounding devices:

"Hey, Lorgar! I ended up dreaming within a dream again, and this time I dragged you into an even more distant future."

"Fortunately, I landed right beside Guilliman. Even when there are two younger brothers in the dream at the same time, I can actually sense your presence. But for some reason, Guilliman's forces are very hostile toward you; their almost immediate reaction was to open fire."

"Luckily, Guilliman stopped them so we could find you this way."

Aaron's bald head occupied a vast portion of the screen, his tone hurried as he tried to explain everything as clearly as possible.

Behind him, Guilliman watched the detected imagery in silence, gazing upon the face of the brother he had once known so well.

"Lorgar Aurelian. From more than ten thousand years ago—an uncorrupted brother."

Ten minutes prior, just as the entire fleet was preparing to conclude warp transit and re-enter the material universe, the primarch had seen his eldest brother tumble headfirst onto his chair from the central command dais.

Almost the instant the *Glory of Macragge* detected warp corruption, Guilliman had sensed Lorgar's presence on the corrupt asteroid ahead.

Weapon systems had been activated immediately—until Aaron clambered up, clutching his face, beheld the unfolding scene, and stopped him.

Father, what on earth are you doing? Or rather, do you view even your eldest son as some kind of tool to alter the past?

Guilliman wondered inwardly, decisively issuing orders to restrict communications so that most ships would merely assume it was standard security upon exiting warp travel.

Only his personal honor guard, the bridge crew, and the two Custodians trailing behind him knew the truth.

The Custodians had nearly moved to slaughter Aaron on the spot, and it had taken his own quick realization and a booming shout in the Emperor's name to prevent his eldest brother from dying a sudden death right before him.

Fortunately, the Custodians were aware of the bizarre ritual performed by Cawl and the results it yielded, forcing them to acknowledge the existence of the Emperor's firstborn son.

That conclusion had been reached after a throng of Custodians swarmed around him—attired in nothing more than a crude pelt skirt—poking, prodding, and even sniffing him all over.

Guilliman clutched his head in anxious distress: "Brother, how are we supposed to resolve this mess now? I must tell you—ten thousand years ago, Lorgar chose the side of the demons. He... betrayed Father."

Aaron muttered under his breath:

"At least this Lorgar hasn't yet, and we just saw Erebus get hacked to pieces. I also stopped those chaotic demonic powers from corrupting him. Guilliman, don't fire yet! It's hard enough seeing two younger brothers at the same time; maybe we can help Lorgar avoid his past mistakes."

"Father always says you boys caused trouble in the future, and now I don't even know what on earth you did!"

He noticed that Guilliman's hand remained resting upon a certain button—the very action he had prepared to take the moment Lorgar was discovered.

Guilliman had been ready to open fire from the very beginning; it was solely because of him that the button had not been pressed.

That practically meant that without him, Guilliman would have killed Lorgar!

My younger brothers, what kind of catastrophes have you unleashed in the future? I only hope I'm enough to clean up your mess!