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

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 in a bed that couldn't be more suitable. His windows were closed, the stove was burning quietly, the temperature in the house was just right, and he let the heavy snow fall outside.

This was unreal, it was just an illusion.

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

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

Leon seemed to hear this voice, and his eyes slowly closed.

The desert was still hot. He fell to the ground, motionless, without even the rise and fall of his breath. However, after just a few seconds, he opened his eyes again. Although it was very slow and difficult, he still 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 his strength - what did he gain for his efforts?

The answer is a few grains of blown sand.

The extraordinary physique born from the knowledge and genetic engineering of the Emperor is still helping him, but it can only do so much. The injuries he suffered were so severe that ordinary people would die thousands of times.

He himself knew this, but the lion of Caliban could not allow himself to fall down like this, to surrender like this. The last bit of clarity in his confusion was constantly replaying the past scenes.

The forest, the legion, Terra; father, brother, and heir. His captains, his mortal officers, the pedantic but brave officials, the civilians torn apart by the aliens in front of him finally froze on a flag, and the eagle he had fought for all his life was flapping its wings on it.

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

People cannot resist nature, you can fight it, but nature will always win-just like now, you can resist, but death will always come. Just this time, let go, Leon, make yourself feel better.

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

The sand rubbed his rough face, the hot wind blew across his wounds that had bled dry, and his white hair lost its luster. His face, which was majestic without anger, 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 make him sit up.

However, his eyes were already difficult to connect with ordinary people and the eyes he had in the past.

The pair of emeralds that were once emerald and now deep were now extremely turbid, without any life, and the pupils had already dilated. Even if the dazzling sunlight fell on his face, there was no reaction.

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

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

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

They would also find that he had suffered multiple fatal injuries, each of which should have been enough to kill him.

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

That voice did not sound again.

So, is this the end?

The answer is no.

A gap suddenly appeared in the desert sky, not very large, 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 spot that appeared just below where it had been denied this with its own existence. It fell at a very fast speed, across the horizon, and looked inconspicuous. In the end, it landed not far from the body of Lion El'Jonson.

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

Leman Russ smashed the sand curtain and appeared here quietly. His steps were slow, but very focused, but his eyes were completely the opposite - he did not look at the lion, not once, and the focus of his eyes was not on his brother, but on the empty space. Finally, he walked step by step to Leon's side, shielding him from the dazzling sunlight, and then slowly squatted down.

Finally, he set his sights on the lion. The observation ability of the Fenris people, which was outstanding even among the Primarchs, began to take effect, and many conclusions were born one by one, and they were passively accepted for summary and refinement.

He sighed softly, and realized that his brother's death was not easy. On the contrary, Leon El'Jonson died in great pain. He had at least ten minutes of lingering breath before his death. During this period, did he have the ability to think?

Russ thought the answer was no. If Leon was still conscious, he would definitely find a way to leave some traces around him, or try to crawl further.

So, during that painful moment of death, his brother had actually entered an unknown vortex, without reason or logic.

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

Russ shook his head.

"You stubborn bastard." He spoke softly, without any sadness in his voice. "So what if you're the Primarch? You'll get hurt and bleed, and you've bled dry, idiot."

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

So he turned back, picked up his brother's body, and walked steadily towards that side.

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

Then, he saw the young face.

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

The corpse's eyelids were shriveled and his face was distorted. A sword pierced his head, and the whole person was nailed to death in the desert. The sand around him, which was burned into a semi-solid state by 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 was exactly the same as that of a lion.

The Fenrisian suddenly closed his mouth, and his teeth were collided with each other by a huge force, making a muffled sound. A little bit of blood slid down his lips to his chin. Russ had a blank expression on his face, but he twitched his lips nervously, letting the blood slide down.

He was an excellent hunter. Even if you look at the entire galaxy, you probably can't find many people who can compare with him in this aspect. There was one dead brother in his arms, another dead brother and a missing brother.

So, long before Russ realized - or accepted the truth, he had already seen some details beyond the corpse.

For example, traces of fighting and splattered blood, they could help him roughly restore the scene when the two fought. 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 pleasant tone, without a smile on his face. "You can't get new teeth out of an old dog's mouth."

After saying this lightly, he focused all his attention on the sword. Logically, he only needed to take a look to get all the useful information for him, 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, but a strong wind suddenly blew, and the originally calm sky suddenly became cloudy. 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, but he was not moved. Soon, this sudden sandstorm submerged him and the lion. The Fenris people said nothing, just curled up and used their bodies to build a barrier for the corpses of their brothers.

It was unknown how long it had passed before the storm stopped, and the desert had disappeared, replaced by an indescribable broken scene. If Russ had to use a word to describe it, he would choose ‘doomsday’ - and it was indeed so.

Countless hanging corpses were strung together by iron chains with blue flames, forming the sky and the earth, and more and more broken corpses forming mountains and hills. The person who created this hell was probably a very careful bastard, and he did not miss even the forests and rivers.

And at first glance, there was nothing wrong with them. If a normal person came here, his brain would tell him in a semi-deceptive way that there was nothing wrong with all this.

But if that person's observation was detailed enough, he would see the truth.

He would see the riverbed made of dead teeth and their sticky blood, he would see the so-called ‘land’ paved with dry bones and flesh mud, and the wailing human-faced trees planted on it.

Then, he would go crazy, but Russ would not.

Compared with the doomsday he had seen before, this place was not qualified.

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

Leman Russ looked around, licked his bloody lips, and suddenly smiled slightly, but this smile was far from gentle and friendly, and it 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 many cracks on the surface, as if it would break in the next second. Russ ignored it, just held the spear in his hand, and then raised his arm and pointed it straight ahead.

"Come out." He urged with a smile.

A giant arrives as promised.

He was tall, at least much taller than Russ and the Lion when he was still alive. His blond hair was spread wildly, his muscles were tangled and extremely strong, like a human tank, and his cheeks were covered with scars left in the fight between life and death.

He did not wear power armor, but instead wore animal skin clothing. Many bone ornaments and prey skulls hung on the corners of his clothes and waist, making soft noises as he walked. Similarly, he was also carrying a spear, but it was made of bone, and it was full of the stench of chaos.

The giant man walked not far away from Russ with a calm expression, then stopped and nodded in greeting.

"Hello, Russ," he said, his voice low, but there was no hint of madness or even a hint of war in it.

Russ did not answer his greetings, but simply shrugged his nose. After sniffing a few times, he set his sights on the bone spear in the giant man's hand.

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

"There are too many to count."

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

"I have been fighting them since I became self-aware." The giant man said again, and reached out to lift a string of necklaces hanging around his neck as proof.

He seemed to want to say something more, but whether it was because of his nature or because he rarely communicated with others, he finally said nothing and just pulled on the necklace so that Ruth could see clearly.

Like the other ornaments, it was made of bone, polished and then strung together. Ruth observed for a moment, then suddenly raised his eyebrows. His wild nature told him that each piece of this necklace was born from a different demon.

He raised his head, looked at the giant man again, and asked: "Have they never stopped? They shouldn't be so active in the early days of the Great Crusade."

The giant man shook his head and replied: "This is not the case in my world. The great expedition was only halfway through and was forced to terminate. Countless demons jumped out of the void and attacked every planet we recaptured at the same time. ”

He fell silent again, this time from memory. Unforgettable hatred flashed across his face, just for a moment, but it was enough for Ruth to capture it in an instant.

"Then what? What happened?" Ruth asked softly.

The giant man looked up at him and shook his head: "We lost contact with each other, and the subspace began to fluctuate, setting off an endless storm. We can no longer navigate the subspace, nor can we communicate across galaxies. Even Star Torch's The glory was also obscured. Later, I learned that I lost nine brothers just at the beginning of the war."

He stared at Ruth, who grinned: "Including me?"

The giant man nodded.

"Who else?"

"Everyone except me," the giant man said very calmly. "I mean, everyone. Father, Malcador, Luther, the other Primarchs, the other legions, my own legion. Chaos has won, and humanity has become an eternal slave."

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

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

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

"Do nothing, Russ." Hearing this, the giant man suddenly became a little excited. "I don't want to fight the other me, let alone you. I was forced here."

"Forced by whom?"

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

"He appeared in front of me, imprisoned me with the sorcery of the warp, and brought me here to meet other Leon El'Jonson like me. He said this was for humanity, but I don't Believe him, look around, what kind of savior can do such a thing? Moreover, if it is not him-"

The giant man suddenly grasped the spear tightly.

"——I have killed that demon."

Ruth glanced at him without making any comment. It may sound a little cold, but he doesn't want to get involved in these things. He only has one goal at the moment. Apart from that, he doesn't want to touch other things.

The silence lasted for several minutes before the giant man 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 man lowered his head and glanced at the body behind Russ. The excessive oldness and thinness seemed to arouse his curiosity, so he asked: "How old is he?"

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

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

"I stayed here for a long time and couldn't leave, and so did everyone else. They all told their stories, some died of stupidity, some died of arrogance, and without exception, they all mentioned Serafax, as if this person played a great role in their lives, but it is different for me. He is just a traitor in my legion. He is not my elder or my teacher. Then I learned that this guy was the same."

Russ narrowed his eyes, raised Serafax's rating on a certain list in his mind, and then asked, "So? What do you want to know?"

"He just wants to find someone who has the same sympathy for his weakness. He can't protect or save anyone, so he wants to find a little comfort from someone who has gone through a similar experience."

Another voice suddenly remembered and said this, with a terrifying coldness.

Ruth took a gentle breath and looked over there rather uncomfortably - his wildness was warning him, as if a very dangerous creature was coming.

And this is indeed the case. The speaker is wearing black armor, a scarlet cloak draped behind his back, and a golden crown on his head. He's not old, but he's not young either, but he just can't be looked away from.

The giant man moved quickly and stood between him and Russ.

"Leave!" he growled lowly. "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 cries of the dead?"

The one wearing the crown ignored his warning and continued walking leisurely. So the giant man threw the spear in his hand without hesitation, so fast that Russ's hand twitched subconsciously.

However, such a terrifying blow was caught by the man with one hand as if it were nothing, and he even continued to walk around leisurely.

"I forgive your rudeness," he said calmly to the giant man. "But you better not do anything stupid next, kid, or I'll show you what pain is."

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

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

The one wearing the crown looked at him, stopped, nodded solemnly, and acknowledged his identity.

"Exactly, Leman Russ, I am the regent of the human empire. My father is seriously injured, my brothers and sisters are injured or dead. The remaining few are either discouraged and secluded from the world, or they are embarrassed and sink all day long. In pain. I am the only one who has not escaped, the empire is in my hands——"

"——Ha!" The giant man laughed unabashedly. "How about in your hands? The territory is shrinking, the death rate is doubled, the extreme high pressure and conscription policy? Don't think that 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: "In my hands it is sustained."

"My father is seriously injured and cannot maintain the star torch. Maintaining the empire's territory in the solar system and its surrounding parts is the limit of what I can do."

"As for the increase in mortality and those extreme policies, I will not refute it, but I want to tell you that at least I did not waste the life of every soldier. They all died well and died on the road to resist Chaos and the traitors."

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

Ruth twitched the corners of his eyes with a headache, and pinched the center of his eyebrows with his hands - he rarely felt so tired, or in other words, there were really few things in this universe that could make him feel tired.

The quarrel that happened in front of him revealed too many things, which Ruth had never thought about in the past. He couldn't help but look down at the old lion lying behind him, and at the same time thought to himself: At least. You are not like them.