Fulgrim

by Graham McNeill

  ‘You sought to make me a traitor!’ snarled Ferrus. ‘Horus is mad. Look at all this death! How can this be right? You will hang from Traitor’s Gibbet for this sedition, for I am the Emperor’s loyal servant and through me his will and vengeance will be done.’

  ‘The Emperor is a spent force,’ snapped Fulgrim. ‘Even now he whittles away on some trivia in the dungeons of Terra while his realm is in flames. Are those the actions of a being fit to rule the galaxy?’

  ‘Do not think you can win me to your cause, Fulgrim. You failed once and you will not get a second chance.’

  Fulgrim shook his head. ‘I am not offering you a second chance, Ferrus. It is already too late for you and your warriors.’

  Ferrus laughed at him, but he could sense the despair in it. ‘Are you mad, Fulgrim? It’s over. You and the Warmaster are defeated. Your forces are routed and the power of another four Legions will soon crush your attempt at rebellion utterly.’

  Fulgrim was unable to keep the sensations seething in his head contained any longer and he shook his head as he savoured his next words. ‘My brother, how naive you are. Do you really think Horus would be foolish enough to trap himself like this? Look to the north and you will see that it is you who are undone.’

  THE FORCES OF the Raven Guard and Salamanders fell back in good order to the drop zone, where their reinforcements were deploying to join the fight. The drop-ships of the Iron Warriors, armoured bastions connected by high walls of spiked barricades, formed an unbroken line of grim fortifications on the northern slopes of the Urgall Depression.

  A force larger than that which had first begun the assault on Isstvan mustered in the landing zone, armed and ready for battle, unbloodied and fresh.

  Corax and Vulkan led their forces back to regroup and to allow the warriors of their brother primarchs a measure of the glory in defeating Horus, dragging their wounded and dead with them. The victory had been won, but the cost had been steep indeed, with thousands of all three Legions lost to the betrayal of the Warmaster. Horus’s forces were in retreat, but there would be no celebration of the slaughter, no joyous victory feasts or glorious days of remembrance, only another sad scroll added to a banner that would never again see the light of day.

  Scorched tanks rumbled alongside the Astartes, their ammunition expended and their hulls battered by the impact of shot and shell.

  Unanswered vox hails requested medical aid and supply, but the line of Astartes at the top of the north ridge was grimly silent as the exhausted warriors of the Raven Guard and Salamanders came to within a hundred metres of their allies.

  A lone flare shot skyward from inside the black fortress where Horus had made his lair, exploding in a hellish red glow that lit the battlefield below like a madman’s vision of the end of the world.

  And the fire of betrayal roared from the barrels of a thousand guns.

  FULGRIM LAUGHED AT the stunned look on Ferrus’s face as the forces of his ‘allies’ opened fire upon the Salamanders and Raven Guard. Hundreds died in the fury of the first moments, hundreds more in the seconds following, as volley after volley of bolter fire and missiles scythed through their unsuspecting ranks. Explosions flashed to life in their midst, vaporising warriors and tearing through tanks as the force of four Legions ripped the beating heart from the first wave of loyalists.

  Ferrus Manus watched in mute horror as he saw a storm of fire engulf Corax, and a titanic explosion mushroom skyward from where Vulkan stood in astonished outrage at what was happening.

  Even as terrifying carnage was being wreaked upon the loyalists below, the retreating forces of the Warmaster turned and brought their weapons to bear on the enemy warriors within their midst. Hundreds of World Eaters, Sons of Horus and the Death Guard fell upon the veteran companies of the Iron Hands, and though the warriors of the X Legion continued to fight gallantly, they were hopelessly outnumbered and would soon be hacked to pieces.

  Ferrus Manus turned to face Fulgrim, and the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children could see the despair etched into his brother’s features, his silver eyes dull and lifeless. To have so great a victory snatched away in an instant must be the most sublime sensation. Fulgrim almost wished to switch places with his brother just to taste that feeling for himself.

  ‘Only dismal defeat and death await you, Ferrus,’ said Fulgrim. ‘Horus has commanded your death, but for the sake of our past friendship I shall plead your case to him if you throw down your arms. You have to surrender, Ferrus. There is no escape.’

  Ferrus Manus tore his eyes from the slaughter of the loyalist forces, his teeth bared with the volcanic fury of his home world.

  ‘Maybe not, traitor, but only dishonour holds any terror for me,’ spat Ferrus. ‘The Emperor’s loyal warriors will not surrender to you, not now, not ever. You will have to kill every last one of us!’

  ‘So be it,’ said Fulgrim, launching himself towards Ferrus Manus, swinging his mighty warhammer. The primarchs’ weapons, forged in brotherhood, but wielded in vengeance, met in a blazing plume of energy, and the battlefield was illuminated for hundreds of metres by their ferocious energies.

  The two primarchs traded blows with their monstrously powerful weapons, the strength to defeat armies and topple mountains unleashed as they fought like gods forced to end their dispute in the realm of mortals. Ferrus Manus wielded his flaming blade in fiery slashes, his every blow defeated by the ebony hafted hammer he had borne in countless campaigns.

  Fulgrim swung his hammer in great, looping arcs, its heavy head powerful enough to crush the armour of a Titan to paste. Both warriors fought with the hatred only brothers divided can muster, their armour dented, torn and blackened by the fury of their conflict.

  To fight an opponent of such magnificence was a privilege, and Fulgrim savoured every clash of hammer and sword, every fiery line cut across his flesh and every grunt of pain torn from his brother’s mouth as Forgebreaker glanced his armour. They circled in the midst of cries of pain and roaring savage glee, the Morlocks of Ferrus Manus slain, but for a last few desperate heroes.

  Ferrus cut the shoulder guard from Fulgrim’s armour and spun inside his guard to deliver a lethal thrust towards his groin. Fulgrim stepped to meet the blow, batting aside the tip of the fiery sword with the haft of Forgebreaker, and hammering the warhammer’s head towards Ferrus’s skull.

  The Primarch of the Iron Hands took the blow, dropping to one knee and lashing out with his blade as blood streamed from the terrible wound in his temple. The sword’s fiery tip cut across Fulgrim’s stomach, opening his armour and tearing through his flesh. The pain was indescribable, and Fulgrim fell back, dropping his hammer as his hands sought to stem the blood pouring from his body.

  Both primarchs faced each other on their knees through a haze of pain and blood, and Fulgrim once again felt an ache of sadness well within him. The pain of his wounds, and the sight of his brother’s broken skull coated in blood, tore a window into his mind. The sensation was like a powerful gust of fresh mountain air, clearing away the fog that had wrapped him in a suffocating embrace for so long that he no longer noticed it until it was gone.

  ‘My brother,’ he whispered, ‘my friend.’

  ‘You have long since lost the right to call me friend,’ snarled Ferrus, pushing himself to his feet and staggering towards Fulgrim with Fireblade raised to smite him.

  Fulgrim cried out, and his hand leapt unbidden to his waist as the flaming blade carved a burning path towards his neck. Silver steel flashed as he drew the sword he had taken from the Laer temple and blocked the descending weapon. Ferrus’s sword hissed and spat as it bit into the silver blade, the Primarch of the Iron Hands’ strength forcing the blazing metal, centimetre by centimetre, towards Fulgrim’s face.

  ‘No!’ cried Fulgrim. ‘This is not right!’

  The amethyst stone at the hilt of Fulgrim’s sword pulsed with an evil light, bathing Ferrus Manus’s face in a leering purple glare. Energy streamed from the blade, and musky smoke billowed aro
und them, deadening sounds and obscuring sight. Fulgrim felt a monstrous presence swell around him, its power and nameless essence more intoxicating and dreadful than anything he could ever have imagined.

  Diabolical strength flooded his limbs and he pushed against the power of Ferrus Manus, feeling his brother’s surprise at his resistance. With a cry of animal rage, he surged to his feet and hurled Ferrus Manus back, spinning and lashing out with his sword.

  The silver edge bit deep into the breastplate of his brother’s armour, and the Primarch of the Iron Hands cried out, falling to his knees once again as the blade’s flaring energies parted his dark armour like a fingernail through cold grease. Hot blood sprayed from the wound and Fireblade slid from Ferrus’s hand as he gasped in fierce agony.

  Finish him! Kill him! the voice screamed, and to Fulgrim it seemed as though it echoed across time and space as well as within his skull. He staggered with the blunt force of its imperative, lurching as though his limbs were not his to control.

  His normal grace and élan were forsaken as he falteringly raised the silver sword in preparation of delivering the deathblow to Ferrus Manus. Unknown energies coruscated along the notched blade and down the length of his arms into the meat and bone of his wounded body.

  Fulgrim was wreathed in purple fire. Crackling arcs of lightning caressed him with a lover’s tenderness, seeking out his open wounds and licking them with balefire as they sought entry to his flesh.

  Fulgrim stood above Ferrus Manus, his chest heaving convulsively as his entire body shook with the violence of the power that sought to claim him.

  He must die! Otherwise he will kill you!

  Fulgrim looked down at his defeated opponent and saw his own reflection in the mirrors of Ferrus’s eyes.

  In an instant that stretched for an eternity, he saw what he had become and what monstrous betrayal he had allowed himself to be party to. He knew in that eternal moment that he had made a terrible mistake in drawing the sword from the Laer temple, and he fought to release the damnable blade that had brought him so low.

  His grip was locked onto the weapon and even as he recognised how far he had fallen, he knew that he had come too far to stop, the realisation coupled with the knowledge that everything he had striven for had been a lie.

  As though moving in slow motion, Fulgrim saw Ferrus Manus reaching for his fallen sword, his fingers closing around the wire-wound grip, the flames leaping once more to the blade at its creator’s touch.

  Kill him before he kills you! NOW!

  Fulgrim’s blade seemed to move with a life of its own, but it had no need of such impellents, for he swung the blade of his own volition.

  The silver blade clove the air as it swept towards Ferrus Manus, and Fulgrim felt the ancient triumph of the presence that he now knew had dwelt within it all this time. He tried desperately to pull the blow, but his muscles were no longer his own to control.

  Unnatural warp-forged steel met the iron flesh of a primarch, its aberrant edge cutting through Ferrus’s skin, muscle and bone with a shrieking howl that echoed in realms beyond those knowable to mortals.

  Blood and the monumental energies bound within the meat and gristle of one of the Emperor’s sons erupted from the wound, and Fulgrim fell back as the searing powers blinded him, dropping the silver sword at his side. He heard a shrieking wail, as of a choir of banshees, whip around him as phantom, skeletal hands clawed at him, and a thousand voices tore at his mind.

  Ghostly whirlwinds seized him and spun him around, twisting him like a limp rag in their grip, and threatening to tear him limb from limb in retribution. Even as he welcomed such oblivion, he felt another presence move to protect him, the same presence that had guided his sword arm, the same presence that had been his constant companion since Laeran, though he had not known it.

  Fulgrim fell to the ground as the winds released him, and faded with a shrieking howl of anguished frustration. He landed heavily and rolled onto his side, heaving great gulps of cold air into his lungs as the sound of battle returned to him. He heard cries of pain, gunfire, explosions and the rhythmic crack of bolters as they fired relentless volley after volley. It was the sound of death.

  It was the sound of a massacre.

  His entire body aching with pain and loss, Fulgrim pushed himself upright. Blood and the detritus of battle surrounded him, the stoic figures of armoured warriors staring in wonder at the headless body that lay on the black ground before him.

  Fulgrim took a shuddering breath and raised his hands to the heavens, screaming his loss at the sight of his brother so cruelly murdered.

  ‘What have I done?’ he howled. ‘Throne save me, what have I done?’

  What needed to be done.

  Fulgrim heard the voice as a sibilant whisper in his ear, the breath of the speaker hot on his neck. He twisted his neck, but there was nothing to be seen, no unseen speaker or mysterious presence.

  ‘He’s dead,’ whispered Fulgrim, the aching loss and guilt of his crime too monstrous to believe. ‘I killed him.’

  Yes, you did. With your own hands, you struck down your brother, he who had only thought well of you and fought faithfully with you through all the long years.

  ‘He… he was my brother.’

  He was, and all he ever did was honour you. The looming presence that surrounded him and spoke to him seemed to claw at his eyes with insubstantial fingers, and Fulgrim felt his mind wrenched into the realm of memory, seeing once again the battle against the Diasporex and the Fist of Iron coming to the rescue of the Firebird. He saw the resentment he had picked at for months, only now understanding the altruism of Ferrus Manus’s deed and the loss of life his selfless act had incurred. Where before he had seen only self-aggrandisement in his brother’s action, he now saw it for the heroic deed it had truly been.

  His brother’s critical comments, the wounding darts meant to undermine him, he now saw had been jests designed to puncture his self-importance and restore his humility. What he had perceived as Ferrus’s prideful boasts and rash actions had been deeds of courage that he had spitefully dismissed.

  Ferrus’s rejection of his attempt to betray him was the act of a true friend, but only now did he see how his brother had, even then, tried to save him.

  ‘No, no, no,’ wept Fulgrim as the true horror of what he had done struck him with the force of a thunderbolt. He looked around through tear-filled eyes and saw the horrific changes wrought upon his beloved Legion, the perversions that masqueraded as epicurean pleasure.

  ‘Everything I have done is ashes,’ he whispered and swept up the golden Fireblade, so recently wielded by his brother in an attempt to undo the evil Fulgrim had embraced.

  Fulgrim reversed the blade and held its fiery tip against his body, the edge blackening his hands and burning the skin through the rents torn in his armour.

  To end things now would be the easiest thing in the world; to take away the guilt and wash the pain away in a sharp thrust of steel into his vitals. Fulgrim gripped the sword tightly, drawing blood from his palms where the blade’s edge sliced his skin.

  No, noble suicide is not for the likes of you, Fulgrim.

  ‘Then what?’ howled Fulgrim, hurling away the sword his brother had forged.

  Oblivion: the sweet emptiness of eternal peace. I can grant you what you crave… an end to guilt and pain.

  Fulgrim rose to his feet and stood tall beneath the storm wracked clouds of Isstvan V, his once beautiful face streaked with tears, and his pristine armour stained with the blood of his beloved brother.

  Fulgrim lifted his hands and looked at the blood there.

  ‘Oblivion,’ he said, his voice hoarse. ‘Yes, I crave the boon of nothingness.’

  Then leave yourself open to me and I will put an end to it all.

  Fulgrim took a last look around. The grim-faced warriors who had foolishly thrown in their lot with the Warmaster: Marius, Julius and thousands more were damned, and they could not see it.

  All around him,
he could hear the sounds of the future, of warfare and death. The thought that he shared the guilt of the destruction of the Emperor’s dream was the greatest shame and sorrow he had ever known.

  An end to it all would be a blessed relief.

  ‘Oblivion,’ he whispered as he closed his eyes. ‘Do it. End me.’

  The barriers in Fulgrim’s mind dropped and he felt the elation of a creature older than time as it poured into the void in his soul. No sooner had its touch claimed his flesh for its own than he knew he had made the worst mistake of his life.

  Fulgrim screamed as he fought to keep it out, but it was already too late.

  His consciousness was crushed into the dark, unused corners of his mind, forever to be a mute witness to the havoc wrought by his body’s new master.

  One moment Fulgrim was a primarch, one of the Emperor’s Children, the next he was a thing of Chaos.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Massacre

  Daemon

  The Last Phoenix

  LESSER TROOPS WOULD have given up and accepted their fate in the face of such overwhelming opposition, but the warriors of the Salamanders and Raven Guard were Astartes. So they fought like never before, knowing their doom was at hand, and desiring to make the traitors pay in blood for every one of their number that fell.

  Caught between two armies, the first wave of the loyalist forces was being systematically massacred. Unrelenting gunfire from the Iron Warriors at the drop-site, and the resurgent forces along the Urgall Depression crushed the Salamanders and Raven Guard in a terrifying vice, and cut them to pieces in a murderous storm of fire and blood.

  Warriors of the Alpha Legion and Word Bearers followed their leaders onto the black plains of Isstvan V, their guns blazing and their chainswords bright as they cast off the last remnants of their loyalty to the Emperor and turned their weapons on their brothers.