My Mom Is Gone!?

In the corridor outside the Stasis Chamber, Lion Johnson had just finished the first wave of his counterattack against the Chaos invasion.

He was covered in blood, his bare upper body was covered in Power Armour again, but the exhaustion was still deeply etched in the depths of his gray-green eyes.

But he didn't rest.

He turned to Belial, his voice low and resolute:

"Where is Luther? I need to see him."

Belial's body stiffened slightly.

He lowered his head, remained silent for a moment, then raised his head, his face showing an unspeakable helplessness:

"I'm sorry, Primarch... I've discovered that we can no longer return to the Caliban ruins."

Lion was stunned.

Those two words were like a cold, sharp blade, piercing his heart.

"The ruins of Caliban?"

He slowly repeated the word, each syllable seemingly weighing a ton.

His brow furrowed, and for the first time, confusion appeared in his grey-green eyes—an expression that was not typical of a lion, almost one that could be described as "vulnerable."

What is meant by the "Caliban ruins"?

His voice was hoarse, with a tremor he himself didn't even realize, "My home planet... has it become a dead star now?"

Belial did not answer.

He simply knelt down slowly.

Behind him, the fifty-odd Deathwing members, those elite warriors clad in white Terminator Armour, all knelt on one knee.

The sound of metal knees striking the ground was uniform and echoed in the silent corridor.

More than fifty Space Marines knelt before Lion, their voices low and subdued.

That was the oldest ritual of the Dark Angels, and also their heaviest confession.

Belial took a deep breath and slowly spoke:

"This is a betrayal from ten thousand years ago... and also the secret to our survival for ten thousand years."

His voice was low and steady, as if he were telling a story unrelated to himself, but every word was like a dull knife, slowly cutting into Lion's heart:

"It was your final battle against that despicable traitor, Luther."

After you disappeared... a terrifying Warp Storm tore Caliban apart.

Lion's pupils suddenly contracted.

"The entire home planet... was reduced to fragments."

We found the largest piece and transformed it into the Rock we see today."

Belial raised his head, looking directly into Lion's eyes, which were beginning to burn:

"And for such a long time, you disappeared."

We... have launched an eternal crusade against all traitors, vowing to slay all the Fallen!

Lion stood still, motionless.

His brain was like a frozen computer, completely shut down.

He heard Belial's words, each one crystal clear, but he couldn't understand their meaning.

Caliban... reduced to fragments?

My mom is gone!?

Because he had neither a biological mother nor an adoptive mother, Lion always regarded his home planet as his mother.

As a result, his mother passed away today; not only did she pass away, she flew away!

His mom was absolutely furious!

His home planet, his homeland, the ever-green jungles deep in his memory, the eternally pale moon, the ancient legends that forever echo in the wind—

All... reduced to fragments?

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

After a long while, he asked in a hoarse, almost unfamiliar voice:

"So, where I am now... is the Rock?"

The voice carried hesitation, uncertainty, and a bewilderment that the lion had never shown in its millennia of history.

Belial shook his head.

"No," he said. "Even we members of the Deathwing and Ravenwing don't know where we are right now."

He paused, then began to explain:

"We were originally engaged in a battle with the Black Legion."

Large numbers of the Black Legion have appeared near the star system under the jurisdiction of the Rock.

The Dark Angels have now led a large number of their minions and the Primaris Legion to intercept them—and we are one of their vanguard forces."

"But we encountered a Warp turbulence."

Belial's description became more detailed, as if reenacting that scene:

"It was a golden light, with some blue light shining through it."

When we opened our eyes again, we had arrived at the castle in this forest.

His voice carried a hint of confusion, a confusion that even now could not be fully understood:

"I couldn't believe it at first. Warp turbulence could transport me anywhere, but how could it have transported me to the Gene-Father?"

He looked up at Lion, a complex light flickering in his eyes:

"Until I seemed to pierce through endless time and saw a black sun in the Warp."

Lion's brow twitched slightly.

A black sun.

That is...

"With just one glance, I knew that he was the great Master of Mankind."

Belial's voice became pious, "And beside that Black Sun, there is a pure white radiance, as bright as the moon."

The pure white light, as bright as the moon, remained silent.

But in an instant, a suit of blue-gold armor appeared before me.

Belial's voice trembled slightly, a tremor of uncontrollable awe from the memories:

The armored figure placed its hand on my head.

In that instant, I understood—the place I was in was the resting place of the Gene-Father."

He lowered his head deeply:

"I have unconditional faith in the Emperor."

I swear I will stay here and guard this place until my father is resurrected."

"And that blue-gold figure seemed to smile gently at me, taking out a powerful blue-gold Psionic Energy energy."

"The moment I returned to the real world, I saw that blue-gold Psionic Energy energy being channeled into the coffin at the center of the fortress."

He raised his head and looked at the shattered Adamantium coffin behind Lion:

"Shortly afterward, your arm broke through the coffin."

"And so it has continued until now."

Lion listened quietly.

After Belial uttered the last word, he remained silent for a long time.

Then, he slowly began to speak:

"You mean... you saw my father, and a figure like the bright moon, and a blue-gold figure?"

Belial nodded.

Lion's lips curled up slightly.

It was a very faint, almost imperceptible arc.

But it was indeed a smile—the first real smile from a lion in ten thousand years.

The figure was as bright as the moon; he couldn't guess who it was.

But that blue-gold figure was all too familiar to him.

The one who smiled at him from the Warp, the one who crushed the Peacock Demon's head with a single hand, the one who cleaved the howling demon's chest with a chop to the bone—

It's Robert.

His brother.

The Thirteenth Primarch.

Son of War.

"So..." Lion's voice suddenly turned sharp, "My legion has been attacked?"

His eyes changed.

The confusion and vulnerability vanished from those grey-green eyes, replaced by a sharpness like a drawn sword.

Although he was still somewhat thin at the moment, and although he was not wearing full armor.

But he is still the Primarch, the First Primarch, the proudest lion of the Imperium!