Awakening the Lion

Following the Dark Watchers, Chen Xi's group traveled through the unknown core regions of the Rock fortress.

The passageways here no longer bore grand Gothic decorations. In their place were rough, primitive rock walls, as though they had been carved directly from the massive fragment that remained after Caliban's destruction.

The air carried the cold scent of ancient stone, along with an indescribable sense of stagnant energy, as if even time flowed more slowly here.

The vibrations beneath their feet grew increasingly distinct, while fine dust occasionally sifted down from overhead.

The sounds of distant battle were muffled and remote behind thick layers of rock, yet every violent explosion still traveled through the structure, reminding them that the fighting outside remained fierce.

The Dark Watchers moved without a sound, guiding them ahead like ghosts. They knew this tangled route as well as if they were walking through their own halls.

After passing through a stone door opened by the Dark Watchers, its edges glowing faintly with energy, the sight before them suddenly opened up.

It was an enormous natural cavern, greater in scale than imagination could grasp, its lofty ceiling vanishing into darkness.

At the center of the cavern was not some splendid bedchamber or altar, but a vast underground lake, perfectly still and black as a mirror.

Its waters were dark and fathomless, as though they connected to the void of the cosmos.

A powerful psychic stasis field permeated the air, making even one's thoughts seem thick and sluggish.

At the center of the lake, a huge, flat slab of stone, like an ancient altar, rose above the water.

Upon it lay a massive figure in silence.

He wore a suit of ancient, magnificent dark-green Power Armor, adorned with the symbols of the Dark Angels Legion, proclaiming his authority