Chapter 470: Azrael got the MVP!

The Lion of the Forest slept on the Rock, his eyes closed, his face as if carved by the night wind from the igneous rock in the dense forest, deep, old, and firm.

His face was full of wrinkles left by time, seemingly hiding endless thoughts and worries; his nose bridge was quite high, appearing proud and overbearing, and the corners of his mouth drooped, as if he were full of suspicion and dissatisfaction with everything in the world, but the grayish-yellow beard covering the lower half of his face weakened his pride, overbearing nature, and suspicion with maturity, making this face of his not quite so aggressive.

The man's hair was also mixed with gray and white, like gold and silver woven together. In his youth, the man must have had hair like dark gold, but now it had also lost to the passage of time.

The man wore power armor, black with faint dark green, and a golden lion was inlaid on the shoulder armor, the lion baring its fangs and roaring at the sky, and a winged helmet was placed in the man's arms.

Silence spread in the forest, and the Blood Angels were silent, looking blankly at this scene with great impact.

Was the scene before them an illusion? Was there a problem with their consciousness?

Why was it so sudden and coincidental? Why did they encounter this here?

They were Blood Angels, not Dark Angels?!

Mephiston had an impulse to quickly send a psychic message to the Dark Angels' Chief Librarian Ezekiel that was enough to blow up the Rock's void shield, notifying the Dark Angels of the scene before them.

Undoubtedly, what was lying on the Rock was a Primarch.

If what was lying on the Rock was Dorn, Corax, or Vulkan, the Blood Angels would probably only feel joy and be satisfied with being able to obtain the friendship of the Imperial Fists or Salamanders.

Even if it were Leman Russ, Mephiston wouldn't be so hesitant.

But... but this was clearly Lion El'Jonson.

Mephiston was dizzy. As the second psyker of the Blood Angels, he had heard Sanguinius talk about some of the Lion's personality and deeds, and later saw Guilliman's expression like he had eaten shit when mentioning the Lion on Macragge.

And Zhou Yun, Zhou Yun once told Mephiston a joke.

The Lion, the Khan, and the Wolf King were walking on the road when someone suddenly drilled out and shouted at them: "Barbarians!"

Russ laughed loudly, because their Fenrisian men had their own definition of civilization.

The Khan didn't care at all. He knew he wasn't, but enjoyed the alienation of being regarded as a barbarian.

The Lion was furious, stood up, punched the person's head off, and then turned to tell the Khan and the Wolf King that this was to keep their secret.

The Wolf King used the image of a barbarian to disguise himself, the Khan was willing to be treated as a barbarian to keep a distance from the Empire, and the Lion... the Lion was a barbaric giant beast hidden under a knight's skin.

"The Lion is loyal, the Lion is powerful, the Lion is noble, the Lion is brave, the Lion believes that his power is a responsibility, and should lend power to the frail mortals to protect the weak until they no longer need him."

Sanguinius once said this to Mephiston on a certain night:

"The Lion is also cunning, suspicious, terrifying

"If everything is in peril, everything is beyond redemption, and the play is nothing but total darkness, then I hope Lion is by my side."

"But now, I would rather the next one to return be Horus."

Mephiston was sweating profusely; Lion El'Jonson was a dangerous figure, and even Sanguinius could not see through him, could not fathom him, and was even somewhat afraid of him.

And Mephiston's powerful Warp perception also allowed him to faintly sense the non-human existence hidden beneath Lion's flesh and blood body.

Although he felt terrified, Mephiston still gritted his teeth and walked forward; after all, this was a Primarch, and even if Sanguinius and Guilliman had many complaints about him, they would surely welcome his return, right?

Harboring some unease, Mephiston approached the boulder, but as he drew closer, Mephiston noticed something wrong.

Scars—Lion El'Jonson's body was covered in scars, as if he had been blasted to pieces by vortex torpedoes and then pieced back together.

But most of these scars had already healed, with only a few wounds remaining, which were also slowly healing.

Not just physically, Mephiston could sense that within Lion's flesh and blood body, a deeper existence, closer to his essence, had also been severely wounded.

In a faint vision, Mephiston saw a dense forest where giant beasts lurked; the endless forest spread out boundlessly, connecting every corner of the galaxy, hidden beneath reality.

And then, a blast arrived from the future, exploding in the deep forest, tearing everything to pieces, scattering the giant beasts, the forest, the knights, and everything else to every corner of the galaxy.

This... this...

Mephiston trembled at the horrifying scene he had witnessed.

An attack from the future had destroyed the Dark Angels' homeworld, Caliban, severely wounding Lion El'Jonson and scattering countless Dark Angels across the galaxy.

Who was it? Who in the future launched an attack on Caliban during the Great Crusade?

To be so cruel and terrifying—what kind of person could hate the Dark Angels and Lion El'Jonson so much to commit such a crime?

What made Mephiston feel most horrified was that the culprit might still be in the galaxy, perhaps even hiding within the Imperium.

Thinking of this, Mephiston no longer hesitated and reached out toward Lion, who was lying on the boulder, attempting to take away this sleeping Primarch.

But a thin mist suddenly welled up between him and Lion.

This mist was no different from a soft, thin veil and seemed as if it would break at a touch, but Mephiston's fingers could not cross this mist no matter what.

Even the figure of Lion El'Jonson, wrapped in the mist, gradually merged with it, slowly dissipating into the air.

Not just Lion; looking around, everything in the surroundings was dissolving, becoming thin and difficult to see, like ice disintegrating in water.

In the blink of an eye, both Lion El'Jonson and the dense forest around him disappeared from Mephiston's sight, gone to who knows where.

Leaving only Mephiston and a group of Blood Angels standing blankly in the empty ship hold.

"My lord, what should we do next?" Gaius asked from the side.

Mephiston's expression was solemn; he shook his head slightly and said, "This is no longer something we can decide. Report it to Lord Dante, and also write an emergency report to send to Lord Sanguinius."

"Only the Emperor, the Primarchs, and Lord S-Doraemon can decide on such matters."

"Ah! An attack from the future that blew up Caliban?"

"Don't worry, that was done by Azrael, the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels Chapter."

On the *Bright Lord*, in Zhou Yun's room, Zhou Yun waved his hand, signaling to Guilliman that there was no need to worry about the attack from the future on Caliban mentioned in Mephiston's report.

This matter was actually not as complicated as Mephiston thought; there was no enemy in the future launching an attack on the Great Crusade era.

The truth was that under the plotting of Cypher, Typhus, and others, the three Old One artifacts—the Ouroboros, the Plague Heart, and the Tuchulcha Engine—had briefly gathered to a certain extent not long ago, which directly tore through space-time, opening a rift to Caliban ten thousand years ago, on the day Lion and Lu Se clashed.

In order to close this rift and prevent the Fallen from coming from ten thousand years ago to the present, Azrael launched an attack at the rift, ultimately destroying it but accidentally blowing up the Caliban of ten thousand years ago as well.

"... You mean, Lion's son, the current Chapter Master of the Dark Angels, Azrael, personally blew up Caliban?" Guilliman's expression was strange, as if he could not understand what Zhou Yun was saying.

The true culprit for Caliban being blown up should be Lion, right? After all, it was he who ordered the bombardment of Caliban.

Lu Se also had responsibility, right? It was he who first incited the Dark Angels on Caliban to rebel.

Are the Four Chaos Gods innocent? This was all their evil plotting.

Holy crap, Azrael got the MVP!?

"Although it's very abstract, the result is exactly that; it was Azrael who blew up Caliban, causing the Fallen and Lion to be swept into different times and spaces, and it was also he who almost blew Lion to death—well, this is a very important little secret." Zhou Yun nodded and said.

"We had better not tell Lion about this, for the sake of Azrael's head," Sanguinius said, shrugging his shoulders.

Guilliman and Zhou Yun both agreed with this.

Although according to Zhou Yun's memory, the old Lion, who had now experienced the fratricide with Lu Se and the passage of time, had a personality that was much calmer and gentler than before.

But this calmness and gentleness were ultimately in comparison to the former Lion; Lion was still Lion, after all.

If he knew about that mess Azrael had made, there was no guarantee he wouldn't recreate the Lion's Flying Head Punch.

"Lion will eventually discover that the yield of his bombardment of Caliban back then was insufficient to destroy a planet."

Guilliman said somewhat helplessly:

"He is our brother, with a transcendent mind blessed by our father."

"When the time comes, just say it was Erebus who did it," Zhou Yun said, waving his hand.

"Agreed," Sanguinius smiled and nodded.

"That's all we can do—do you think Mephiston discovering Lion by chance was a coincidence?" Guilliman asked.

Lion had been randomly teleporting through the galaxy; Zhou Yun, Guilliman, and Sanguinius had discovered this before.

The reason they hadn't tried to fish Lion back was that Guilliman and Sanguinius both agreed that bringing Lion back to recreate the structure of the Second Imperium was really not a good idea.

The Second Imperium had left too severe a psychological shadow on Guilliman and Sanguinius.

Lion, Guilliman, and Sanguinius were all excellent and outstanding Primarchs; scattered, they were stars in the sky, but gathered, they were a lump of Second Imperium.

Especially now, with Sanguinius sitting in the Imperium Nihilus and no lack of military force, the necessity for Lion's return was not high.

"Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps Erebus did something?" Zhou Yun asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Erebus seemed to have promised Lu Se something—he wasn't really planning to resurrect and corrupt Lion, was he? Could he really do it?

"I don't think Erebus is bold enough to try to teleport Lion to his side," Sanguinius shook his head in denial. "I will take people to investigate what Lu Se is doing—oh, right, about Lion, should we notify the Dark Angels?"

Guilliman and Zhou Yun looked at each other.

"No need!" the two said in unison.

(End of chapter)