At this very moment, within the Black Library, Adam was delivering a textbook-level pitch to the Goddess of Life, who was still lying on the ground with a bewildered expression, attempting to coax out the precise formulas for every single toxin she had ever sampled from Nurgle's pestilential cauldron.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy.
In the Webway.
Ancient trees of Caliban stood quietly under a soft, dim light.
These forests, sprouted from fragments of the Ouroboros, bore the unadulterated essence of Caliban in every leaf.
They formed a bizarre symbiosis with the Webway's wraithbone structure, as though two completely different creations were embracing each other.
Lion El'Jonson walked out from this forest.
His pace was neither hasty nor slow; his hunter-like eyes swept across every corner of the Webway passage that could potentially conceal a threat.
Behind him followed a squad of Risen, their power armor gleaming with a dark green sheen in the dim light, each warrior with a hand resting near their weapon, maintaining a state of readiness for combat at a moment's notice.
Yet, not long after this team—newly formed but bound by tacit understanding from past experiences and bloodlines—began their march, a light appeared around a bend in the passage ahead.
Immediately following, another full squad of Space Marines clad in white power armor turned out from behind the corner.
After a short moment.
"So, you are the Primarch... Lion El'Jonson?"
Kor'sarro Khan stared with wide eyes, sizing up the green-armored giant before him.
He spoke up, his usual unruly arrogance uncharacteristically subdued, replaced by a genuine, heartfelt reverence.
And small wonder.
That overwhelming sense of pressure was impossible to fake.
Kor'sarro Khan was no stranger to Primarchs. He had fought side by side with Ferrus Manus, witnessing the Iron Hands' precision-machined art of command, and had glimpsed the godlike figures of other Primarchs upon the battlefield from afar.
Yet the aura emanating from Lion El'Jonson was something entirely different.
It felt like being watched by an unseen beast deep within a dense jungle—it sent a chill straight down the spine.
Even a legendary Space Marine veteran like Kor'sarro, seasoned by countless battles, could feel the insurmountable gulf between them at this moment.
Lion El'Jonson gave a reserved nod.
"It is good to meet you here, White Scars."
The process of verifying the Lion's identity proceeded far faster than an outsider might imagine.
The true core leadership of this White Scars strike team was not Kor'sarro Khan, but Qin Xia.
This hero from the Great Crusade had laid eyes on the Lion himself more than once during those legendary, mythical years.
Though time had etched a few strands of gray into the Lion's temples, in Qin Xia's eyes, the green-armored giant before him matched the figure in his memory completely.
Thus, he immediately gave the order to stand down from alert.
"Then, by my Father's command," El'Jonson began, his voice low and resonant, "I shall track the traitors within the Webway and search for the whereabouts of my brothers. However, having just arrived, I require your intelligence to coordinate."
Qin Xia nodded: "As it should be."
Once all the Risen and White Scars confirmed that neither side was an enemy, the two groups halted in the broad main arterial corridor of the Webway.
The passage was wide enough to allow an entire armored column to advance side by side.
The warriors sat directly on the ground. Someone lit a portable bonfire—less for warmth than out of an ancient habit passed down through millennia.
Lion El'Jonson sat by the fire without hesitation. His massive frame towered over everyone else even while seated, his dark green armor reflecting dappled shadows in the firelight.
He listened quietly to Qin Xia's debriefing, his eyes slightly narrowed, rapidly analyzing every fragment of intelligence in his mind.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the campfire.
As the T'au Expeditionary Force commander traveling alongside the White Scars, Shadowsun withdrew her curious, recurring glances from the Lion's direction.
She turned around, leaned in close to Kor'sarro Khan, and lowered her voice.
"Is that... a Primarch?"
Shadowsun's voice carried curiosity rather than awe: "Since Lord Qin Xia said so, I assume his identity cannot be fake."
She paused, then added: "Still, he truly just looks like a somewhat oversized human who may have undergone certain genetic modification techniques. Why does the human Imperium across the entire galaxy take it for granted to view them as sons of a god?"
Kor'sarro Khan's movements stiffened slightly.
He slowly turned to look at Shadowsun with a very subtle expression.
"Hiss... that's a tough line to answer..."
"Careful with those words," he replied in a hushed tone. "If you ran into a more radical Inquisitor, they'd brand you an excommunicated traitor on the spot."
Shadowsun's eyebrows furrowed.
Truth be told, even after the T'au forces had integrated into the galaxy for so long, she remained unaccustomed to humans being so superstitious.
"How is this any different from ancient religious zealots? Everything in the world can be understood through reason, and all phenomena in the universe have natural laws behind them. There are no gods in this world—holding fast to this duty is our true path, the Greater Good."
"Well said."
A deep voice echoed from behind them.
Shadowsun and Kor'sarro Khan both gasped in shock.
They whipped around instantly.
There, they saw a sight that nearly made their hearts stop—Lion El'Jonson, the massive figure who had been listening to Qin Xia's report in the distance just moments ago, had somehow silently crept up right behind them.
His movements were as noiseless as the night wind in the forests of Caliban.
Forget footsteps—neither the Space Marines' sharp senses nor the reconnaissance drones accompanying Shadowsun had detected a thing!
In the dancing firelight, the Lion was looking at Shadowsun with a look of genuine intrigue.
Kor'sarro Khan's pupils shrank violently, like a cat instinctively bristling when cornered by an apex predator from behind.
Shadowsun's expression, on the other hand, was a different story.
Caught red-handed by the subject himself after uttering such disrespectful remarks, she froze for a moment before setting her expression firm.
Clearly, Shadowsun had no intention of backing down.
What she said was correct.
Even if this giant flew into a rage and knocked her head off with a single punch, she wasn't going to take it back!
Yet the Lion did not fly into a rage.
Instead, a subtle smile appeared on the Primarch's face.
Though he wasn't entirely sure how he appeared to others, he was genuinely trying his best to seem less threatening.
"My..." The Lion deliberated slightly on his form of address, "...my lady. Could you tell me why you think so?"
Five minutes later.
'So that was it.'
After briefly listening to Shadowsun describe her origins and gaining a basic understanding of her civilization's core philosophy, a look that was hard to classify as either disappointment or confusion washed over Lion El'Jonson's face.
How to put it?
It was completely different from what he had imagined.
At first, he had thought that after ten thousand suffocating years, there were still people who, just like in the era he was familiar with, steadfastly believed in the Imperial Truth.
Though he himself did not hold an almost religious adherence to the Imperial Truth like Guilliman did.
To the Lion, it was merely a governance concept proposed by his Father during a specific period—a tool, not a dogma.
Still, in this unrecognizable galaxy and this alien era, the Lion was genuinely pleased to hear someone utter such words after so long.
'There are still inheritors holding to the principles of the Imperial Truth.'
Unfortunately, reality was entirely unlike his assumption.
They actually originated from a Dark Age of Technology human colony ship that had drifted in the Warp for a full ten thousand years, eventually crashing onto a remote Imperial world roughly six thousand years ago.
The survivors had rebuilt civilization on that world, entirely cut off from the Imperial mainland, developing an independent branch of human civilization.
After rising to prominence, they had clashed repeatedly with the Imperium, only recently joining its fold as a whole.
Ah well.
The Lion quietly noted this in his mind.
On the other side, Shadowsun was equally shaken.
"You are saying..." her voice carried disbelief, "...ten thousand years ago, the Imperium of Man did not hold this kind of... blind worship toward gods? The Emperor, who is now worshiped by almost all humans, personally denied being a god himself?"
Shadowsun had read vast amounts of historical material regarding the Imperium.
However, those texts were either scriptures compiled by the Ecclesiarchy or strange treatises, repeatedly emphasizing the Emperor's divinity without allowing any room for doubt.
This was completely at odds with the education she had received since childhood, especially the knowledge inherited from Dark Age of Technology artifacts.
Meanwhile, the White Scars warriors gathered around listening to the entire exchange had expressions that could only be described as marvelous.
'Good grief, is this really something we're allowed to hear?'
The sheer volume of information left them momentarily unsure of how to digest it.
Qin Xia, standing to the side, was not surprised by this scene.
As a hero from the Great Crusade, he had personally lived through that glorious era.
Back then, though seeds of Emperor worship were already sprouting, within the Legions and among the Space Marine ranks, everyone believed that the Imperium's crusade was meant to light the torch of reason and illuminate every dark corner of the galaxy—not to kneel and pray to the indescribable.
It was just that he hadn't been resurrected for very long.
He had never detailed these events from ten thousand years ago to his battle-brothers.
On one hand, the timing hadn't been right; on the other, as a re-employed veteran of the Legion of the Damned, he had quietly worried:
In this era, the Imperial Truth might have long grown obsolete.
Best leave it be.
But since the Lion had brought it up, there was no longer any need to hide it.
Qin Xia waited until the conversation between the Lion and Shadowsun came to a close, then stepped forward.
"Then you should have gathered enough information to make a judgment, Lord Lion?"
His voice maintained the restraint and conciseness of a soldier, but his eyes held a certain anticipation.
Regardless of which Primarch it was, they might each have their specialties and flaws.
When it came to war, however, not a single Primarch would ever disappoint!
The Lion gave a slight nod.
He quickly organized his thoughts.
While listening to Qin Xia's report earlier, those fragments of intelligence had been continuously sorting themselves in his mind.
All clues converged in his head.
Then, the Lion spoke without hesitation: "I have made my judgment."
His voice was deep, yet every word was clear enough for everyone present to hear.
"If I am not mistaken, the enemy we are about to face is none other than my traitorous, fallen brother."
He paused for a breath, his hunter's eyes narrowing slightly in the firelight, his pupils fixing like a predator locking onto its prey:
"Lorgar Aurelian."
Sparks crackled in the campfire, tiny bright dots bursting and burning briefly in the air before fading into silence.
The White Scars' expressions shifted from initial confusion to absolute shock.
Even Qin Xia's eyebrows raised slightly.
"Why?" Kor'sarro Khan spoke first, his voice carrying suppressed astonishment. "How did you determine that? None of the intelligence we gathered points directly to concrete evidence of the Word Bearers' Primarch."
"At least not currently," he added, though the addition sounded more like an attempt to convince himself.
"There is no need for that," the Lion said calmly. "I know Lorgar's style of doing things all too well. He is still just as he was ten thousand years ago, always fond of pulling these bizarre schemes—petty tricks, nothing more."
"—Once such tricks are recognized, I can lock onto him by instinct alone."
As the Lion pondered, he shook his head.
At that moment, his thoughts drifted back to the conversation just now.
'The Imperial Truth.'
'The Imperial Creed.'
'With humanity undergoing such a monumental turning point, what would Lorgar think, being the origin of the Imperial Creed?'
At the thought of facing this brother next, Lion El'Jonson couldn't help but grit his teeth slightly.
He truly... could not wait.
He said: "Give me the Webway map."
Before long, Holst, his assistant and Captain of the First Company of the First Legion, promptly presented the Webway route map to him.
Glancing over it once unfolded, the Lion stepped forward calmly.
He said: "Let us move."
"Move where?"
Before the White Scars could even react, they saw a light white mist spreading around them, startling every Space Marine present.
Shadowsun stared in confusion as the white mist enveloped them; even the precision instruments built into her battlesuit failed to analyze its nature.
'Wait, what is this stuff?!'
'Could it be—'
Then, dense forests appeared in everyone's line of sight.
Not long after, under the Lion's guidance, they walked out of the thick woods.
Before the eyes of every warrior, they found themselves appearing at an unexpected location.
At the very edge of everyone's field of vision, a diabolical crown crafted as if from blackstone towered high.
A Word Bearers Warband Monastery, several times larger than the one the White Scars had previously encountered, stood prominently within the Webway—who knew when or how it had been built here.
It was crawling with Chaos Space Marine elites clad in power armor, seemingly guarding this invaluable location with their lives.
"We have arrived," the Lion commanded calmly, rousing the still-bewildered Imperial warriors beside him.
He raised his hand, drawing a precious power sword he had just discovered within the dense forest—its blade perfectly suited his needs, razor-sharp and lethal.
'Fealty.'
The battle was about to begin.