Riding in the aircraft, the group entered the castle.
As they stepped out of the cabin, the rebels surrounded the aircraft, but only to gawk, their faces filled with surprise and bewilderment.
Lion scanned everyone as he walked.
The Primarch tried to find someone he knew, but none of them were people he had met or gotten to know after first awakening. There wasn't a single Fallen Angel, let alone any Mortal he recognized.
"Who among you is the leader?"
Lion stopped and questioned them.
A man stepped forward.
"Where's Corvin?" Lion asked, naming one of Zabriel's Fallen Angel brothers.
The man froze for a second.
In that moment of stunned silence, the Primarch rattled off a string of names, all of them Mortals.
Once he'd finally recovered, the man gestured for the Primarch to follow him.
Lu Jin had already guessed what had happened, but silently followed along.
The group entered the castle's great hall.
There stood a statue of Lion.
Kneeling before it were three Fallen Angels and more than a dozen Mortals clad in plate armor.
There was no life left within those suits of armor.
"What happened?" Lion asked in shock. "What happened after I left?"
"You've been gone for two hundred years."
The leader's voice was full of disbelief.
"Legend says the castle and the Rebel Army were founded by a Primarch. Those of us who came after always thought it was a story made up to boost morale—"
"The three angels and the Mortals before the statue fought to the death a hundred and twenty years ago. A civil war broke out inside the castle, and we would've been wiped out if they hadn't sacrificed themselves—"
As Lion's expression slowly turned distant, the current leader of the Rebel Army recounted the history.
Listening beside