The temperature in the hall of Caliban Monastery was gradually falling.
For any Astartes Legion, its homeworld was sacred and inviolable.
Had anyone else expressed the same sentiment—even a representative of another Astartes Legion—they would likely have been hacked into mincemeat by Caliban's Inner Circle superhumans by now.
The Dark Angels were merely low-key; that did not mean they lacked tempers.
Indeed, among all the Legions, the most ancient First Legion was also the proudest.
The Third Legion's once ostentatious "pride" was laughable before the First Legion's "pride," like a nouveau riche compared to an aristocrat with an ancient lineage.
The Dark Angels had served the Emperor since the era of the Unification Wars. Their achievements were beyond measure, yet they could only remain hidden in darkness, unknown to the world.
Although the Dark Angels, Lion El'Jonson included, all claimed that loyalty itself was the finest reward.
No one knew whether those warriors clad in black armor, with their immensely complex internal hierarchy, truly possessed no yearning for glory in their hearts.
In Lox's view, claiming that the Dark Angels had no such desire would be a lie.
Among the Dark Angels he knew, whether the Lord Cypher Luther, Astelan, or Redloss, whom Horus had slain during the Great Heresy, all secretly harbored an intense desire for glory.
Yet discipline and creed restrained the Dark Angels, like a lid clamped over a heating pressure cooker. No one knew whether there would come a day when it exploded in backlash.
Before the glory they craved had arrived, the Emperor intended to destroy Caliban, the homeworld so vital to the Dark Angels...
The last Legion to receive such treatment had been the Word Bearers. By the Emperor's order, they could only watch helplessly as their Perfect City was destroyed by Ultramarines orbital