40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 676 58. Interlude: Lion, Wolf, God (I)

Lion El'Jonson felt that he would soon fall asleep.

He was warm all over, extremely comfortable, as if he was lying in a bed that was perfect. His windows were closed, the stove was burning quietly, and the temperature in the house was just right, regardless of the heavy snow outside.

This is not reality, this is just an illusion.

He struggled to open his eyes, using up his last bit of strength to breathe, to wake up, but he was too tired. Even with such an effort, he could only breathe in a little bit of the hot air.

At the same time, that strong feeling of comfort returned, wrapping him gently like a reassuring quilt, whispering to him: Go to sleep, just close your eyes, there is no need to struggle anymore.

Leon seemed to have heard the voice, and his eyes slowly closed.

The desert was still hot. He fell to the ground, motionless, without even a breath. However, after just a few seconds, he opened his eyes again. Although it was very slow and difficult, he opened his eyes and tried to breathe again.

A little bit of air flowed through the nasal cavity into the trachea, flowed into the lungs, and then exhaled. This simple process took Lion El'Jonson a full ten seconds, and it was a ten seconds that exhausted all his strength - what did he gain in the end after such efforts?

The answer is a few grains of blown sand.

His extraordinary physique, born from the knowledge and genetic engineering of the Emperor, was still helping him, but it could only do so much. His injuries were so severe that they would kill an ordinary person thousands of times.
He knew this himself, but the lion of Caliban could not allow himself to fall down and give in. The last bit of clarity in his confusion was constantly replaying the past.

The forest, the Legion, Terra; father, brother, son. His captains, his mortal officers, the pedantic but brave officers, the civilians torn apart by the xenos before him, finally frozen in time under a flag, the eagle for which he had fought all his life was flapping its wings, ready to fly.

At this moment, the reassuring voice came again, asking: Is this ending unworthy of you, Leon? You have used everything, even shed all your blood. In this situation, death is like a natural law.

You can't fight nature. You can fight it, but nature always wins - just like now, you can fight, but death will always come. Just this once, let it go, Leon, and make yourself feel better.

Once again, the lion shuddered and closed his eyes, as if giving up. His body began to slowly sink, and the hot and silent desert was accepting him.

The sand rubbed his rough face, the hot wind blew across his wounds that had bled dry, his white hair lost its luster, and his face, which was majestic without being angry, actually looked a little more peaceful.
A few seconds later, the lion twitched and opened his eyes, as if awakened from a dream. He was experiencing a violent spasm, and nothing could explain why this dying body could burst out with such strength at this moment, even enough to allow him to sit up.

However, it was difficult to relate his eyes to those of ordinary people, or to the eyes he had in the past.

The pair of emeralds that were once emerald green and now deep were now extremely cloudy, without any sign of life. The pupils had already dilated, and they did not react at all even when the dazzling sunlight was shining on their faces.

So, the fact is, Lion El'Jonson is dead.

He was half-sitting on the ground, his head stiffly tilted back, staring at the sky, and there was not a single piece of healthy flesh on his body.

If someone were to perform an autopsy on him, they would find that the Primarch of the First Legion had bled to death, which was the biggest reason why he looked so old and thin at this moment.

They would also discover that he had sustained multiple mortal wounds, each of which could have been enough to kill him.

Finally, and most importantly, they would find that he was clenching his fists.

That voice did not sound again.

So, is this the end?
the answer is negative.

Suddenly, a gap appeared in the desert sky. It was not huge, but conspicuous enough. It was straight and sharp, like a pitch-black knife. But it only appeared for a short time, not even a second, and then disappeared directly, as if it was an illusion.

However, a black dot appeared right below where it had been, negating this with its own existence. It fell at a very fast speed, streaking across the horizon, looking inconspicuous. Finally, it landed not far from the body of Lion El'Jonson.

Accompanied by a loud bang, countless yellow sands were raised high, first splashing, then falling, flowing down the river like a waterfall, and were blown around by the strong wind like a sandstorm.

Leman Russ smashed through the sand curtain and appeared here quietly. His steps were slow but focused, but his eyes were completely different - he did not look at the lion, not once, and his gaze was not focused on his brother, but on nothing. Finally, he walked step by step to Leon's side, shielding him from the glaring sunlight, and then slowly squatted down.

Finally, he set his sights on the lion. The observation ability of the Fenrisians, which was outstanding even among the Primarchs, began to take effect, and many conclusions were born one by one, and they were passively summarized and refined.

He sighed softly, realizing that his brother's death was not an easy one. On the contrary, Lion El'Jonson died in great pain. He had been lingering for at least ten minutes before his death, and during this time, was he able to think?

Ruth thought the answer was no. If Leon was still conscious, he would definitely try to leave some traces around him or crawl further.
Therefore, during that painful period of death, his brother had actually entered an unknowable vortex where there was no rationality or logic.

At that time, he probably only had a few basic instinctive reactions left, such as trying to breathe, and some twitching of the extremities of the miracle. As early as that time, from a medical point of view, he could have been declared dead.

Ruth shook his head.

"You stubborn bastard," he whispered, no sadness in his voice. "So what if you're a Primarch? You get hurt, you bleed, and you bled dry, idiot."

He stood up and turned to look back at the path the lion had come from. The sand had covered all traces, but with the Primarch's eyesight, it was not difficult to see the body nailed to the ground.

So he turned around, picked up his brother's body, and walked towards that side at a steady pace.

In three minutes and forty-one seconds, Russ walked the 1,761-meter distance at a relatively slow pace. He measured Lion El'Jonson's final struggle before his death with his own pace.

Then he saw the young face.

A few seconds of silence passed quickly, and Ruth heard himself grinding his teeth.

The corpse's eyelids were shrunken and his face was twisted. A sword pierced his head, and he was nailed to death in the desert. The sand around him, which was half-solidified by the blood, took on this responsibility very well.

The smell of blood lingered around for a long time, and the smell was exactly the same as that of a lion.

Just like his face, it is no different from that of a lion.

The Fenrisian suddenly closed his mouth, and his teeth collided with each other under a huge force, making a dull sound. A little blood slid down his lips to his chin. Russ had no expression on his face, but he twitched his lips nervously, letting the blood slide down.

He is an excellent hunter. Even if you look at the entire galaxy, I am afraid that there are not many people who can compare with him in this aspect. He has a dead brother in his arms, another dead brother and a missing brother.
So, long before Ruth realized - or accepted the truth, he had already seen some details beyond the corpse.

For example, traces of fighting and splattered blood could help him roughly reconstruct the scene of the two men fighting. Without much effort, Russ knew that his brother had used that old trick again.

"Showing weakness to the enemy, huh?" The Fenrisian asked the corpse in his arms in a cheerful tone, without a smile on his face. "New teeth cannot come out of an old dog's mouth."

After saying this indifferently, he focused all his attention on the sword. Logically, he only needed to take a glance at it to get all the useful information, but the fact was quite strange. Russ stared at the sword without saying a word for a full five minutes.

Then he turned around and left without any hesitation. However, a strong wind suddenly blew up, and the originally calm sky suddenly became covered with dark clouds. In the blink of an eye, the sun that was scorching the earth was blocked.

Russ narrowed his eyes and watched the yellow sand sweeping in, unmoved. Soon, the sudden sandstorm engulfed him and the lion. The Fenrisians said nothing, but curled up and used their bodies to build a barrier around the corpses of their brothers.

No one knew how long it had passed before the storm subsided, and the desert had disappeared, replaced by an indescribable scene of destruction. If Russ had to use a word to describe it, he would choose 'doomsday' - and that was indeed the case.

Countless hanging bodies were strung together by chains with blue flames, forming the sky and the earth, and even more mountains and hills made up of more broken bodies. The person who created this hell must have been a very careful bastard, and he didn't miss even the forests and rivers.

At first glance, there is nothing wrong with them. If a normal person comes here, his brain will tell him in a semi-deceptive way that there is nothing wrong with all this.

But if that person is observant enough, he will see the truth.

He will see the riverbed made of dead people's teeth and their sticky blood, he will see the so-called "land" paved with dry bones and flesh, and the wailing human-faced trees planted on it.
Then, he would go crazy, but Ruth wouldn't.

Compared to the doomsdays he had seen, this place was not up to par.

The Fenrisian watched all this calmly, not even bothering to comment. He slowly stood up, and sand fell from the gaps in his armor. He gently put down the lion's body, which had been ravaged and now looked more than twice as thin.

Leman Russ looked around, licked his bloody lips, and suddenly smiled. However, this smile was far from gentle and friendly, and was full of murderous intent.

He stretched out his right hand, and without any movement, a pale golden spear suddenly appeared in his hand, but there were already many cracks on the surface, as if it would break in the next second. Rus ignored it, just held the spear in his hand, then raised his arm and pointed it straight ahead. "Come out." He urged with a smile.

A giant arrived as promised.

He was very tall, at least much taller than Beerus and the lion when he was still alive. His blond hair was wildly disheveled, his muscles were knotty, and he was extremely strong, like a human tank, and his cheeks were covered with scars left by life-and-death struggles.

He was not wearing power armor, but animal skins, with many bone ornaments and prey skulls hanging on the corners of his clothes and waist, colliding with each other as he walked, making a light sound. Similarly, he also carried a spear, but it was made of bone, and it was full of the stench of Chaos.

The giant walked calmly to a place not far from Rus, then stopped and nodded in greeting.

"Hello, Russ," he said, his voice deep, but without any madness or even fighting intent in it.

Russ did not respond to his greeting, but just raised his nose slightly. After sniffing a few times, he set his eyes on the bone spear in the giant's hand.

"How many demons have you killed?" Russ asked.

“I can’t count them all.”

The giant replied, frowning slightly. Such a simple action brought great deterrence, but it was just his subconscious behavior when talking about demons.

"Ever since I became self-aware, I have been fighting them." The giant continued, and reached out to lift a necklace hanging around his neck as proof.

He seemed to want to say something, but, whether it was due to his nature or because he rarely communicated with others, he ended up saying nothing and just pulled the necklace so that Ruth could see it clearly.

Like the other ornaments, it was made of bone, polished and strung together. Russ stared at it for a moment and suddenly raised his eyebrows. His wildness told him that each section of this necklace was born from a different demon.
He raised his head, looked at the giant again, and asked, "Have they never stopped? They shouldn't have been this active in the early days of the Great Crusade."

The giant shook his head and replied, "It's not like that in my world. The Great Crusade was only halfway through before it was forced to end. Countless demons leaped out of the void and attacked every planet we recaptured at the same time."

He fell silent again, this time because of memories. Deep hatred flashed across his face, just for a moment, but it was enough for Ruth to catch it in an instant.

"And then? What happened?" Ruth asked softly.

The giant raised his eyes to look at him and shook his head. "We lost contact with each other. The warp began to fluctuate, causing endless storms. We could no longer navigate the warp, nor could we communicate across galaxies. Even the light of the Astronomican was obscured. Later, I learned that I had lost nine brothers at the beginning of the war."

He stared at Ruth, who grinned: "Me too?"

The giant nodded.

"Who else?"

"Everyone except me," the giant said very calmly. "And I mean everyone. Father, Malcador, Luther, the other Primarchs, the other Legions, my own. Chaos has won, and Mankind has been enslaved for eternity."

Ruth took a deep breath to calm down: "What about you?"

The giant raised the spear in his hand, and the answer was self-evident.

"Okay..." Russ sighed and raised the Spear of Dionysus in his hand. "But why are you standing in front of me and my brother?"

"For nothing, Rus." The giant suddenly became a little excited when he heard this. "I don't want to fight another me, let alone you. I was forced to come here."

"Forced by whom?"

The giant took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and said slowly: "Who else could it be? That traitor Serafax."

"He appeared before me, imprisoned me with the sorcery of the Warp, and brought me here to meet other Lions El'Jonson like me. He said it was for humanity, but I didn't believe him. Looking around, what kind of savior could do such a thing? And, if it wasn't him -"

The giant suddenly gripped his spear tightly.

"—I have killed the demon."

Ruth glanced at him and said nothing. It might sound a little cold, but he didn't want to get involved in these things. He only had one goal at the moment, and he didn't want to touch anything else.

The silence lasted for several minutes before the giant calmed down with difficulty: "How did you get here?"

"No comment." Ruth shrugged. "All I can tell you is that I just want to take him away."

The giant lowered his head and glanced at the body behind Rus. The excessive age and skinniness seemed to arouse his curiosity, so he asked, "How old is he?"

"Does this make sense to you?" Ruth asked back.

Upon hearing this, the giant was silent for a few seconds again, and then nodded firmly.

"I stayed here for a long time, unable to leave, and so did the others. They all told their stories, some died because of stupidity, some died because of arrogance, but without exception, they all mentioned Serafax, as if this man played a significant role in their lives. But it was different for me, he was just a traitor in my legion, he was not my elder, nor my teacher. Then, I learned that this man was the same."

Russ narrowed his eyes, and raised the ranking of Serafax on his mental list again, then asked, "So? What do you want to know?"

"He just wanted to find someone who could sympathize with his weakness. He couldn't protect anyone, and he couldn't save anyone, so he wanted to find a little comfort from someone who had a similar experience."

Another voice suddenly sounded, saying so, with a terrible coldness.

Russ took a deep breath and looked over there uncomfortably—his savage nature was giving him a warning, as if a very dangerous creature was coming.
And it was indeed the case, the man who spoke was wearing black armor, a scarlet cloak draped behind his back, and a golden crown on his head. He was not old, but not young either, but it was impossible to look away from him.

The giant man moved quickly, standing between him and Ruth.

"Leave!" he growled. "You are not welcome here!"

"This is a prison, big man, and you and I are prisoners—none of us are actually welcome here. Haven't you heard the howling of the dead?"

The crowned man ignored his warning and continued to walk at a leisurely pace. The giant threw the spear in his hand without hesitation, and the speed was so fast that Russ's hand twitched subconsciously.
However, the man caught such a terrifying blow with one hand as if it were nothing, and he was still walking leisurely.

"I forgive your rudeness," he said to the giant calmly. "But you'd better not do anything stupid next time, kid, or I'll make you feel painful."

His words caused a real roar, but Ruth spoke at this time, just in time to ease the increasingly tense atmosphere.

"You look like a king?" the Fenrisian asked in a deliberately frivolous tone.

The man wearing the crown looked at him, stopped, nodded seriously, and acknowledged his identity.

"That's right, Leman Russ. I am the regent of the Empire of Man. My father is seriously injured, my brothers are either injured or dead, and the rest are either disheartened and withdrawn from the world; or are incapable of doing anything important and are sinking in pain all day long. Only I have never escaped. The Empire is in my hands—"

"——Ha!" The giant laughed unabashedly. "How is it in your hands? The territory is reduced, the death rate has doubled, and there is an extremely high pressure and conscription policy? Don't think I don't know your details. Why are you pretending to be the king of kings?"

The king shook his head calmly, without anger, and even began to explain: "It is maintained in my hands."

"My father is seriously injured and can no longer maintain the Astronomican. Maintaining the empire's territory in the solar system and its surrounding areas is the limit of what I can do."

"As for the rising mortality rate and those extreme policies, I will not refute them, but I want to tell you that at least I did not waste the lives of every soldier. They all died for a good cause, all died on the road to resisting Chaos and traitors."

"Without them, the Empire and humanity would have perished long ago. I have never claimed to be the King of Kings. I am only a regent. My power comes from my father's trust and the weakness of others."

Russ twitched his eyes with a headache and pinched his brows with his hands - he rarely felt so tired, or rather, there were really few things in the universe that could make him feel tired.

The quarrel that took place before his eyes revealed so many things that Ruth had never thought of before. He couldn't help but look down at the old lion lying behind him and thought to himself: At least you are not like them.
(End of this chapter)