Ever since ascending as Slaanesh's Daemon Prince, Fulgrim had never felt such regret or fury.
In his plan, he would toy with these clone impostors, then capture them all once he had had his fill, claim credit before the Dark Prince, and demand greater blessings.
Clone primarchs were still clone primarchs. They merely resembled the originals; in actual power, they were not even on the same level.
Daemon Fulgrim had been one hundred percent certain that he could complete this mission smoothly and draw a perfect conclusion to his past.
But he had never imagined that this damned clone impostor could suddenly erupt and turn the tables just when he was about to die.
He had even used that damned flaming sword to carve "Counterfeit" into Fulgrim's heart.
As Slaanesh's Daemon Prince, Fulgrim sensed an intangible change the instant those two words were carved.
He had exhausted every ounce of his psychic power trying to erase "Counterfeit," but even after extinguishing the golden flames, the two words remained utterly immovable.
He had a powerful premonition that even if he destroyed his body and was reborn, those two words—the symbols of infinite humiliation—would not vanish.
He had been branded with this damned mark. It was utterly absurd!
For Fulgrim, who pursued absolute perfection, this was worse than killing him.
More fatally, as Daemon Fulgrim was branded with the concept of "counterfeit," Clone Fulgrim had vaguely become the source of the concept represented by the name "Fulgrim."
After the original Fulgrim ascended, his essence had effectively been sacrificed to Slaanesh, leaving the daemon primarch himself as nothing but an empty shell.
A primarch's essence was its most precious and important possession.
Ferrus's physical body might have died, but as long as his essence remained, the Emperor could shape him anew through sorcerous