"Why didn't you show up earlier? Why are you only giving me this now?"
Inside the Inner Circle council chamber within The Rock, Lion was currently looking at the star chart in his hand with great interest.
The star chart marked the general location of the Black Library—and this so-called Black Library was actually located near a black hole system!
Extreme celestial bodies like black holes required extreme caution even from the sturdiest Imperial warships. Once a ship drifted past the point of no return near a black hole, it was done for.
Furthermore, a black hole's Mandeville point was situated extraordinarily far out; reaching that sector would likely take a considerable amount of time.
"It couldn't be helped!" Yvraine shook her head, her expression helpless.
Ever since she disclosed her physical condition to Thousand-Faces, Thousand-Faces and the Avatar of Ynnead had suggested detaining her while they handled the negotiations themselves.
Yvraine originally thought this arrangement was fine, as it would safeguard the Ynnari's interests.
And what was the result?
After all that buildup, two of the triumvirate had completely screwed the pooch.
"Heh." Lion let out a cold sneer. While their internal policy permitted cooperating with xenos, if the xenos failed to cooperate, he wouldn't mind teaching them a lesson.
"I wonder if the 'couldn't be helped' you speak of means you couldn't stop me, or that you couldn't open the gates to the Black Library?"
"It is true, as rumors among your kind suggest, that only the faction of the Laughing God Cegorach can open the way there. But I don't believe I will be shut out."
A stroke of absolute confidence flashed in Lion's eyes, for he truly possessed a way to enter the Black Library.
Humans couldn't enter the Black Library, but that didn't mean nothing could get in!
Right now, Lion happened to possess the key to entering the Black Library.
It was a group of lizardmen known as the Slann. According to them, they had a way to unlock the Black Library and claim its treasures. All that was required was for the Rock Monastery to reach that destination.
When these lizardmen appeared before Yvraine, sheer shock surfaced in her eyes.
Yvraine had originally assumed this relic race created by the Old Ones was long extinct. Yet here they were, alive in this world, and found by a brute like Lion!
One had to understand—the power of these lizardmen known as Slann derived entirely from the Old Ones. Ever since the Old Ones were utterly destroyed by Warp entities like the Enslavers, this species had vanished without a trace, never to be heard from again.
Yvraine had thought their kind was extinct, so seeing them here with Lion caught her completely off guard.
"Oh, I truly did not expect this!"
"You actually found these beings. With them around, opening the doors to the Black Library indeed becomes trivial!"
"However, taking action there will absolute draw the attention of those strange Harlequin troupes."
"Their strength is no simple matter. Even I could only gather a tiny bit of intelligence on them."
"Is that so?"
Lion didn't care in the slightest. Since those entities wanted to play mysterious with him, he would simply crush them and seize all their secrets.
Lion refused to believe that, as the sharpest blade of the Imperium and the Warmaster of the (Second) Imperium, failing to take a mere library wouldn't make him a complete laughingstock.
Besides, the interior of the Rock Monastery currently held quite a few trump cards.
If they really couldn't win, he could always ask his dear dad to drop down a Doraemon for him, which would solve the problem just fine! After all, the blue cat's capabilities were plain for all to see—as long as one was sincere enough, he could pull out a divine artifact capable of solving any crisis.
"Um!"
"That weapon isn't of much use to you humans anyway. Why not hand it over to us? We will handle it properly!"
Yvraine turned her gaze once more toward the Cronesword in his hands.
They had already gathered four of the Croneswords. With a little more effort, the set would be complete. If one of these divine weapons of the God of Death remained in Lion's hands, matters would become extremely troublesome.
Missing even a single sword would render it impossible to destroy the Prince of Pleasure, an outcome she could not tolerate.
"You mean this thing?"
Lion toyed with the Cronesword he had snatched from Thousand-Faces, flaunting it right in front of Yvraine.
Yvraine desperately wanted to snatch the sword, but due to the Momotaro Dango, she could only submit obediently.
Staring at the treasure before her, Yvraine could do nothing but glare helplessly.
She really wanted to make a move, but right now, it wasn't just Lion watching her—the Inner Circle brethren standing behind him were eyeing her like hawks too!
Individually, these Astartes brethren might not be a match for her, but if they joined forces, even the entire Ynnari army couldn't beat them.
It couldn't be helped; the forces Lion had gathered now were simply too massive.
Although still somewhat lacking compared to Guilliman's scale, the number of Astartes Lion had assembled had already reached a staggering 100,000.
Perhaps to Lion, this was already a peak number—though Lion himself knew that the warriors he could truly trust were still that core group of veterans.
"I can tell you want this very much, but I'm sorry, I cannot give it to you right now!"
"If you want this thing, go find the Lord Regent. My brother is very easy to talk to... yeah, you should be able to handle him!"
Lion was no good at handling administrative affairs, so work regarding political alliances or strategic marriages was thrown straight to Guilliman!
Lion had also heard that this weapon could kill Slaanesh, but he didn't trust these Aeldari, so he intended to toss this headache over to Guilliman to deal with.
The previous "Corn Incident" had made Lion deeply realize that he was still best suited for waging war. As for internal affairs and the like, toss them to Old Dad, or toss them to Guilliman.
"Can you not make the decision?"
Yvraine wanted to goad Lion, but unfortunately for her, Lion didn't fall for that kind of provocation.
"Heh."
Lion let out a cold snort, then waved his hand to make Yvraine kneel down.
Currently controlled by the Momotaro Dango, Yvraine could only obey. Even with resentment burning in her heart, there was nothing she could do.
"Make the decision?"
Lion rested a hand on his slender waist and let out a cold laugh. "If it's regarding military matters, I can indeed make the decision!"
"With the information and forces in my hands, I could launch an all-out war against most Craftworld Lords."
"You want them to attain true death, but if things go down the drain, I wouldn't mind selling your entire xenos group out to Slaanesh!"
"You!" Yvraine wanted to fly into a rage, but she couldn't muster the anger.
The control exerted by the Momotaro Dango affected not just physical behavior, but mental states as well. Right now, Yvraine was simply incapable of harboring true hostility toward Lion. Her reaction just now was merely a tiny spark resulting from mental stimulation.
"What 'you'? 'You' what?"
"Your Aeldari race has fallen to such a pathetic state, and you still dare talk to me about your past glory?"
"There's an old saying on Terra: 'A hero doesn't boast of past exploits!'"
"Dad told me that you can't even mass-produce Wraith Engines anymore. You've fallen this low, so what right do you have to put on airs in front of me?"
Looking at Yvraine, who sat speechless and could only frowst in silence, Lion felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
Being able to berate her fiercely felt overwhelmingly cathartic—making these arrogant xenos bow their heads was far more entertaining than simply killing them.
[Caleb: It's not over yet!]
Caleb disclosed a few more small Aeldari secrets to Lion. Lion didn't say much aloud, silently noting down these little secrets into the Inner Circle's little notebook.
Presently, Lion didn't just love creating secrets; he also loved stealing other people's secrets. Collecting these secrets and sealing them away within the Inner Circle left him feeling refreshed and invigorated.
The secrets the Inner Circle needed to keep were truly increasing by the day.
"It seems your father knows a great deal. I truly did not expect that a being on the verge of becoming a god... could still tell you so much!"
Yvraine let out a subtle smile, as if poking fun.
However, the tsundere Lion still felt compelled to say: "The Emperor is not a god!"
When Lion uttered these words, even he didn't quite believe them. But as a Chapter that loved keeping secrets, Lion still had to lie through his teeth with a straight face.
"Not a god? You yourself are already close to a demigod in your current state, yet you still claim your dad isn't a god!"
"Perhaps when the Emperor truly becomes a god, your ultimate fate will be identical to ours. Mock our race all you want for now!"
"When that day comes, your end will be no different from ours!"
Yvraine closed her mouth and refrained from arguing further. Unless the other party questioned her, she wouldn't answer another word.
Yvraine realized that trying to get along peacefully with Lion was far too difficult. This man placed far more trust in the sword in his hand; he solved problems with fists and didn't believe for a second that words or negotiations could resolve anything.
By comparison, Yvraine was much more willing to make contact with the Lord Regent of the Imperium to see if he could resolve certain issues. If the Lord Regent could represent the Imperium in forging a limited alliance with her, it would undoubtedly be a massive boon for the upcoming Cronesword collection plan.
While the two were talking, the Rock Monastery had already approached the star system where the Black Library was located.
To be precise, the Black Library was not built within the material universe; it was established within a Webway portal, requiring entry through this sector.
Yvraine had heard that the Webway passage here was the closest to the Black Library. As for the truth of the matter, it would likely require sending forces for a close-range reconnaissance.
It couldn't be helped—when Yvraine was in Commorragh, she had sent people out to explore as well. But the results were either empty-handed returns or perishing in the attempt.
Yet dead men could sometimes speak more than the living. Since certain people hadn't returned alive from specific locations, it indicated that something was fishy about those spots.
Now Yvraine had roughly confirmed the position of the Black Library—though whether they could succeed would depend on the current strength of Lion's forces.
As The Rock drew closer to that terrifying celestial body, almost every Astartes felt a deep sense of unease in their hearts.
When you could gaze upon a light-devouring celestial body at a distance visible to the naked eye, a shade of darkness would inevitably stain your heart.
The black hole warped the surrounding light; through its event horizon, one could even glimpse the space behind it. The starlight behind it was distorted, bending objects originally situated behind it onto a cross-sectional plane.
Viewed from afar, it resembled a colossal hole ripping through space. Yet a black hole's entity was not a hole at all, but an extraordinarily extreme, special celestial body.
"So it's here!"
"I truly didn't expect a strange planet to be orbiting a place like this!"
The location Lion spoke of was not inside the black hole, but on a sturdy planet situated relatively close to it.
This planet's orbital speed reached 8% of the speed of light—it was quite strange that it hadn't been torn to shreds by the black hole's gravitational pull.
Lion chose not to use Thunderhawk gunships to approach the planet, as the gravitational field here was wildly chaotic. The vast majority of aircraft were simply incapable of landing on the planetary surface.
Lion had no choice but to use Terminator teleporters alongside his own psychic abilities to teleport directly onto the planet's surface.
Conventional means were truly incapable of landing on this planet, which was perhaps another measure used to keep the library a secret.
Upon reaching the surface, Lion spotted a bizarre set of ruins.
Among the debris lay remnants from various species—Imperial, Chaos, and even Necron. Their remains were scattered all around, and strangely enough, they looked as though they had just died, bearing no trace of erosion by time.
"The flow of time here seems to be somewhat off!"
Yvraine followed behind. When Lion voiced his observation, Yvraine nodded calmly.
"Yes, time on this planet is virtually frozen!"
"To be precise, the speed at which time flows on this planet is extremely, extremely slow!"
"If you spend several years here, only a few days might pass in the outside world."
"Even we do not know what kind of divine artifact accomplished this. After all, regarding everything about the Black Library, even the Aeldari know very little."
The accompanying technical personnel, military officers, and members of the Ironwing found this utterly mind-boggling.
One had to know that the closer one got to a black hole, the faster the flow of time was supposed to be. Logically speaking, under normal circumstances near a black hole, if one year passed here, 1,000 years might pass outside.
Yet something here seemed to have inverted that physical law.
Without further chatter, the group pressed forward against 2.4 times normal gravity.
Although this planet's mass was roughly similar to Earth/Terra, the gravity here was extremely erratic.
Sometimes taking two steps would subject one to inexplicable pressure, while at other times, one's body would suddenly feel weightless, as if the weight pressing down had vanished into thin air.
And some unlucky soul might take a step only to encounter a gravitational pull a million times normal strength—instantly turning him into a potato chip, flattened beyond belief.
"Be careful. Do not approach places that look strange. Walk on the dust of this desolate planet as much as possible, and stay clear of those bizarre phenomena!"
Lion was naturally well aware of how strange such a place was. If the Black Library were somewhere any random nobody could approach, it would be far too unimpressive.
Though speaking of which, the spatial environment here was indeed extraordinarily chaotic. Even the gravitational systems were completely erratic, devoid of any discernible pattern.
"It should be right here!"
Yvraine managed to locate the Webway gate in this area.
However, her psychic powers were currently unable to open the Webway gate.
Furthermore, scattered haphazardly around the perimeter of this area lay numerous Aeldari corpses. Judging by appearances, they were likely the personnel she had dispatched earlier.
"What on earth happened here?"
Yvraine felt perplexed. Yet right at that moment, Lion experienced a very familiar sensation!
[Lion: Wait, there are Fallen Angels here!]
Although logically speaking, Fallen Angels could be encountered anywhere, their appearance in a place like this still caught Lion off guard.
Why were these unredeemed traitors appearing here? Could it be... was there a traitor inside his Inner Circle?
Lion directed his gaze toward Azrael and the others—by now, Azrael had also detected the signal of the Fallen Angels.
Asmodai had already quietly led his Interrogator Squad to hunt down that group of Fallen Angels.
However, right as they dispatched their squad—they were ambushed by a band of mysterious Aeldari.