Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 665 Conversation on the Iron Blood
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"So what exactly happened? And what Ramizane just said - is this something we can watch without paying anything?"

Fulgrim Pallas once again raised a soul-stirring question that overturned his worldview. He began to wonder if he was left here just because his two sworn brothers knew that he might have the opportunity to see major events in the past from other people's perspectives?
Leman Russ sat in his seat, and for the first time he threw away all the disguised savagery and revealed a prudence that only a true professional elite could have. "I'm not sure." He finally said, turning his gaze to the top of Pallas' head.

"I want to ask you, father, did you bring me here from ten thousand years ago, in exchange with Perturabo, just to let me see all of this?"

"What?" Pallas asked, as the dove woke from its nap. "Coo?"

"I originally thought that I was brought here to make things easier for Nikaea. If I had not been exchanged with Perturabo, there would have been no doubt that a battle would have broken out. I would not have allowed anyone to undermine the decision of the Emperor of Nikaea. Then the possibility of everyone on this volcano being wiped out would have become... a little higher, but this is obviously not the fate that my father wants to see."

"So you think you were replaced to make it easier for Perturabo to take over?" Pallas asked.

"Obviously. This is at least a major purpose." Russ raised an eyebrow. "My professional status, which requires controlling the Sons of Fenris, cannot be like that. The wolf pack does not want to see me as a civilized person now, and the Emperor... does not want to see me look too opinionated. But if 'I' suffer a serious psychic accident, then everything will change."

"Aren't you quite opinionated now? The old man is here too?" Pallas pointed to the top of his head.

"Ah." The wolf king smiled softly, but when he raised his lips, those obvious and sharp canine teeth destroyed the soothing and comforting nature of the smile. "If 'He' had always been like this, maybe things would have been better."

"What do you mean? Isn't He Lao Deng?"

"Of course he is the father." Russ glanced at the pigeon wearing a golden crown, which tilted its head and looked at him with its bright black eyes. "But the pigeon's "He" is much more... amiable and less stressful than the human-shaped "He", believe me." As if seeing through Pallas's thoughts, the wolf king added, "You also have several good caregivers and servants. How old are you?"

"Two and a half," the young Phoenix muttered reluctantly, "I guess. Two and a half at most."

"Lucky boy." Russ stretched himself on the chair, and his appearance reminded Pallas of a wolf stretching its limbs. "You are raised by your own kind, and the teachers and playmates around you are all of your own kind... and because you are the youngest, everyone loves you."

"Hey! What do you mean!" Pallas said angrily, "I also personally led the Phoenix Guard to fight face to face with the Death Guards on Medusa!"

"..." Leman Russ stared at Fulgrim and paused for a moment, as if he had said something that was difficult to understand.

"Wait, this kind of thing actually happened here. You must talk to me later. - But if the exchange is not just to allow Nikaea to solve the problem of psykers and the Thousand Sons Legion abusing psykers more peacefully and smoothly in the future... I think this is an opportunity for me. Especially now that this Ramezane and Perturabo you are talking about are obviously digging deeper clues, if they are sure that there is something wrong behind the matter..."

He glanced at the white dove and said, "Father, you also think there is something wrong with this matter after so many years?"

"I," the pigeon seemed to have just woken up, and it proudly raised its white chest, "I think you need to observe with your own eyes and draw your own conclusions once again."

The Sixth Primarch leaned back in his chair and thought. If any wild wolf saw him at this moment, they would certainly not dare to come forward to recognize him immediately. The upright and self-contained posture of the wolf pack leader had nothing to do with barbarism, but he still retained the primitive elegance of a ferocious predator, just like a wolf king who, after eating and drinking, lay on the top of a huge rock and patrolled his territory with squinting eyes.

"I will not deny that I am not omniscient, but I am proud of what I have seen, heard, and my power, and the damage done to my sons of Fenris. What my sons saw on Aguru, and what I saw on Shrike, only reinforced my impression that Magnus and his sons have fallen into a dark path."

"For example, I have witnessed with my own eyes..." Russ hesitated, as if he was unsure whether he should reveal the scars of his brother's legion that were public but also the most secretive. Even when he almost brought the other party to the dust during the trial of Nikea, he did not instruct Othrel to say it out loud in front of everyone.

"You have witnessed the flesh and blood mutation of the Thousand Sons Legion, and the problem has not been cured by Magnus' return, right?" A line of words suddenly flashed behind Magna's mind. "Don't worry, at least I know everything about this here, and Pallas has also heard about it. It won't be a big problem if you tell it."

"Hey! How much do you know? But it feels good to be able to tell everything." Russ seemed to be relieved, as if something heavy was lifted from his heart. "Yes, my descendants saw it with their own eyes, right in front of them, in the mountains of Aguru, they only relied on a Thousand Sons warrior to block the attack of an alien Titan's main gun on Magnus..."

"Actually, that's a Titan from the Eldar. There wasn't much research on them in your time because you didn't have much contact with them at the time. And this giant war machine is very precious even in the Ark," Pallas added. "It's one of their spirit bone creations, and it often carries the souls of the dead as the driver. I guess you encountered a phantom Titan. There aren't many of these pointy-eared creations now."

Russ glanced at Pallas again and said in a half-joking tone, "You may know much more than us old wolves at your age. What's more valuable is that the knowledge you know has been verified and tested for ten thousand years. If I am sent back later, I will definitely try to catch you and take you away with me. Boy, you are beginning to please me. You are much more likable than the Fulgrim I know."

"Thank you. I'll take it as a compliment, but we are equals, Leman Russ. Don't talk like I'm your little wolf cub. If you do, then I swear that as soon as I get a chance to leave the Iron Blood and run around, I'll go find some wild wolves and let them see how I tame them." The cloned Phoenix raised his head. Even though he was young, his noble posture at this moment was no less than that of his genetic brother who had been fighting in the starry sea for more than a century.

A burst of laughter broke out from Russ's mouth, "Then you have to work harder, Pallas. The sons of Fenris hate white skin and delicate looks like you the most!"

"Is that why you dress like that?" the young Phoenix replied sharply, "but you still remember to shave every day."

"Where were we talking about? Oh, yes, the wolves told me that when they thought that the Titan's main lance was about to turn Magnus, who had just destroyed the first Titan and was weak, into ashes, his Thousand Sons warriors began to absorb the surrounding energy recklessly and used it even more recklessly until the second Titan was destroyed. Then they stepped into the depths of the cave guarded by the two Titans together - they found the place they were supposed to guard, and the situation was even worse. Our rune priests were still horrified when they described it. At that time, the place was full of demons and the smell of evil spirits. There was a hole below, a huge mouth, extremely evil, a dark abyss, a hotbed of sin... But my descendants told me that Magnus called this evil thing more... neutral."

"What did he call these things?" Pallas asked, already forming a hypothesis in his mind about what the Thousand Sons and the Wolves had seen in the caves of Aguru. After all, there weren't many things that two Eldar Phantom Titans could guard as gatekeepers. "Skarson and Othrell reported that Magnus called them 'pure matter' and 'the manifestation of the essence of the primordial creator.' Othrell said that Magnus used the words 'I have not seen such vitality in a long time' when he called the evil ancient things."

A silence fell over the room.

"That's right. That's right." The pigeon's abrupt voice appeared in their minds, "It's not enough, it's not enough. We need to move forward, even further."

"Old Deng, what do you mean? You are playing dumb again." Pallas poked the pigeon suspiciously, but the pigeon closed its mouth again, so he could only turn to the wolf king, "And then?"

"Then they went through a hard battle. Of course, I wasn't there," Rus tapped the table with his fingertips. "Perhaps I should have gone there myself, because my descendants' report also mentioned one point - Magnus was swallowed by the abyss and disappeared from their sight for a while. No one knew what happened during that time, but at a certain moment afterwards, Magnus came back. With his return, all the evil and dark things turned into dust and disappeared. He saved the remaining dozen warriors and walked out of the cave with them. They announced that they had destroyed the evil that had been entrenched underground in the world of Aguru for many years."

"It sounds like this is a sad sacrifice, but it's still a good ending in the end."

"Othrel said he felt the same way at the time. After all, it was Magnus who saved them. He also saluted Magnus respectfully. But when he reported it later, he still felt strange about Magnus's condition at the time."

"state?"

"The Rune Priest said that everyone was injured and had gone through a hard battle. Even the Thousand Sons warriors were not immune and were equally exhausted. Magnus was swallowed by the dark maw, but when he finally destroyed the darkness and walked out, he looked like..." Russ thought for a moment and chose a suitable High Gothic word, "like 'very satisfied', looking very energetic and unharmed."

"Although this is a little strange, you can't conclude that there is something wrong with Magnus. You may still have a deep prejudice against them."

"Perhaps." Russ glanced at Magna Dorn as if unintentionally, "But I have begun to feel that I was brought here alone to see these things so that I could have a completely different and undisturbed perspective to interpret the information I have obtained, to combine them and try to activate my brain that has not been used for many years, and to deduce a new lifeline beyond intuition. Perhaps this is the real meaning of my father asking me to come here and to convey it to me."

"That's right." Pallas agreed approvingly, "If we lift our perspective from specific matters and look at the overall situation, we will find that the cross-weaving of fate is so ingenious. Ramizarn said that this is called 'not knowing the true face of Mount Lu because you are in the mountain'."

"Where is Lushan?"

"I don't know, but Ramizane explained that it is a mountain range with complicated roads and ridges like a maze, and there is a lot of fog covering it. In this way, people walking in the mountain can only see what is in front of them, and cannot see more other information. The conclusions they get are only deduced from the evidence in front of them."

"That's a good description. I would say that only on the ocean of Fenris can you see the cliffs of Asaheim." Russ sighed, "Then we met at Shrike Star in the Ark's Edge Cluster - or the Second Planet, as the locals call it - anyway, the three of us finally met there."

"Three?" Pallas asked. "Who else is there? I thought it was just you and Magnus who were there."

Magna's electronic eyes flashed a faint blue light.

"Lorgar," Leman Russ said, seeming a little surprised. "Why? Don't you know? Lorgar and his 47th Expeditionary Fleet, the Word Bearers are there fighting with us."

Suddenly, the dove uttered a sharp cry in the heart of each of them.

"Attention!" He cried. "Attention!"

"Pay attention to what?! What do you want us to pay attention to?! Pay attention to Lorgar?! We all know that we should pay attention to him!" Pallas asked, but the pigeon remained silent again.

Ruth looked at the white dove thoughtfully, and it was hard to guess whether he took these words to heart.

"Yes, Lorgar was there too. In fact, he told us that the unified council of the Ark's Edge Cluster, a pluralistic democracy of multi-planet monarchs and galaxy leaders known as the Phoenix Court, rejected the negotiation terms proposed by Lorgar and Kor Phaeron, so a war was needed to bring these worlds back into the arms of the Empire."

Magna suddenly flashed a line of words at this moment, "Really? Did you participate in the negotiations between Lorgar and them?"

"No." The wolf king admitted readily, "This is not what a wolf pack should do. All a wolf pack needs to do is to destroy. We are the wolves of war. We only need to bring war. Let Lorgar and his descendants do things like negotiations."

The golden-armored mechanical being flashed another line of words, "Because war was more beneficial to both you and Fenris at the time, Russ, so you eagerly embraced the war and deliberately discarded the things you didn't want to see. We are now trying to make you remember more of the things you ignored. I guess one of the purposes of Him making all this happen is to review and find the key to the problem. Ten thousand years ago, there was a conspirator lurking under the water. The fate of the Wolf and the Thousand Sons was watched by him. If none of us can find him, then there will still be a thread missing in straightening out the thread of fate."

(End of this chapter)