"You lost."
Abial's voice echoed through the Deep Pit, carrying the certainty and satisfaction of someone pronouncing a final verdict.
A victorious smile tugged at his lips, filled with relief that centuries of bitter fighting had finally ended, pride at defeating a formidable enemy, and smug satisfaction at offering the Blood God a perfect sacrifice.
His gaze settled on the Khan's pale face, expecting to see resentment, anger, and despair.
Yet all he saw was calm.
Then pain swept through his entire body like a tide.
The wounds he had deliberately ignored in battle, the pain temporarily suppressed by adrenaline, erupted all at once the moment the fighting stopped, as though a thousand red-hot branding irons had been pressed against his body.
His legs lost their strength amid the agony. His body pitched forward involuntarily, and he dropped to one knee on the ground, kneeling before the Khan.
He looked like a defeated man bowing in submission before the victor.
"No, I won..." the Khan said calmly.
Though his voice was faint, it carried a composure and certainty that seemed to come from far, far away, across time and space.
His gaze remained as tranquil as still water, as though he were stating a fact that had long been ordained.
The smile froze on Abial's face.
He raised his head and looked into the Khan's calm eyes, trying to find something absurd or laughable in those words.
But he found nothing.
There was no bluff in those eyes, no madness born of a dying struggle, only the quiet acceptance of someone revealing the final answer to a mystery.
"Because the one you killed was me... not... Lorgar..."
The Khan's voice grew weaker and weaker, each word seeming to consume every last ounce of his strength.
Yet his gaze remained resolute,