I'm a magnetic field madman

—He can do better than me.

The Lion King thought to himself that he did not believe he could unite his brothers like Horus, nor did he believe he had Horus's comprehensive abilities, so he decided to let him be the War Master.

In terms of morality, this is a virtue of humility. But in other words, it is also a lack of confidence.

Can I do better? Can I avoid suffering such losses? Am I a failure? Am I a role model?

Leon had questioned himself more than once, yet he was someone who absolutely refused to reveal his weakness or confide in others.

Because of his Leon El Johnson, the commander of the First Legion. He and his legion must set an example for the Empire!

Excessive responsibility and insufficient self-confidence—that was the Lion King's problem... and after the great rebellion, he felt even more guilty about it.

He accomplished nothing; the Dark Angels played a negligible role in the Great Rebellion.

He failed to provide timely assistance to Terra, did not kill any of the traitors, and even after he returned to the Rock, his once-proud Legion turned against him.

You are a utterly worthless man, Leon. You have failed your legion, your offspring, the Empire, your brothers, and the Emperor…

You are nothing but a cowardly sleeping lion.

Countless echoes lingered in Leon's ears, condemning him and eroding his not-so-strong confidence.

When Leon awoke, the pain reached its peak—he learned of the empire's calamities, the suffering of his offspring, the emperor's sacrifice, and... the death of Saint Gilles.

Feelings of self-doubt and insecurity swarmed up like venomous snakes, and even with Chagatai and Guilliman still around, Leon couldn't find any joy.

Losing self-confidence and doubting oneself, even if one chooses to mask it with anger towards traitors, this fundamental nature cannot be changed!

Leon's heart is old.

The once mighty lion is now nothing more than a kitten.

And now, he has been defeated by Angron. This means that all those questions and doubts have come true.

Leon has become a good-for-nothing...

The king on the lake listened to Leon's words, but he did not speak. He simply pointed his trembling hand to the other side of the forest.

There was a building there, or at least the roof of a building; that was all Leon could see from there.

This is a beautiful white stone dome supported by pillars.

He had been searching for his way in the forest in his sleep, and now there was a clear path ahead, a path flanked by bushes on both sides...

A short grassy path surrounded by tree trunks.

"Am I going there...?"

Leon whispered, but the king remained silent.

Another drop of blood slid from his fingers into the lake beneath him, and the spreading stench of blood once again brought the dispersing shadows together.

Without any hesitation, even though his confidence was shattered, the Lion King still walked down that dangerous path.

A candlelight shone on the lion, faint and white, yet it dispelled all the darkness along the way.

Following his nature and his own heart, Leon stepped through the faint candlelight that enveloped him and walked toward the white end.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the path itself posed no obstacle to him. It was a simple route, almost pleasant by the standards of this dense forest.

Soon after, Leon saw his destination, and for the first time he was able to see it correctly.

A marble dome stands atop a square stone building, but it doesn't resemble a king's castle. It's a structure adapted to its surroundings, as it's not so different in nature from the fortifications built by Caliban to protect his people from threats to the world.

By comparison, this was almost an anomaly. The stone was precisely fitted together and carved into repeating, flowing shapes for the eaves, and massive columns stretched out along both sides of the black archway: this was the style of imperial architecture, not that of the Caliban, and it did not belong here.

Leon approached cautiously.

He didn't know how such a structure could have appeared here. But then again, he still couldn't be completely sure where "here" was.

His theory is that it is a space adjacent to the subspace, a stopover that can, to some extent, bypass the distance and time of real space.

But this is just speculation. In any case, the building must have been constructed to house some kind of thing, and Leon intends to find out what it is.

There was no door, but it was very dark inside; at first, even Leon couldn't see what was inside.

Only when he got very close did he catch a glimpse of a faint light, a light that had been obscured.

Involuntarily, Leon's jaw almost dropped when the figure stepped into the soft, misty light.

Her golden hair, much like Leon's, was tangled and messy, with some parts braided, and had not faded with age.

The magnificent armor, much like the lion's own armor, is a symbol of the deathly gray of winter, rather than the deep darkness of night.

The ferocity lurking within Leon was reflected here... but it was revealed in his gleaming blue eyes and the long, thin canines that appeared when his upper lip lifted to roar.

Relief, anger, joy, and terror swelled within Leon, but in the end, they all coalesced into a simple name.

"Russ?"

"Hello, traitor!" Lemanrus roared, grabbing Leon's throat with both hands and charging forward.

Leon was no longer wasting time on words. He had fought Lemanrus before, and he knew that this kind of thing would only end when the Wolf King lost his ability to act or chose to stop.

He dodged Ruth's lunge and then threw a punch. On one occasion, he knocked Ruth unconscious in Duran, but his brother was laughing at the time.

Ruth was no longer laughing. He deflected the punch and slammed his other fist into Leon's chest, his face contorted with rage.

Leon met him head-on, his intense focus a battle against the surging rage. Fists clashed, some dodged by sidesteps, some by crouching to avoid, and others slamming into the terracotta armor with deafening thuds.

His hands trembled violently as he tried to find an opening in his opponent's defenses. After breaking free from the wolf king's grip on his forearm, the lion king swiftly turned and, using his own hips as leverage, slammed the wolf king against a pillar.

“Traitor?” the lion demanded. As Ruth stood up again, he knew he could no longer convince his brother, but the accusation stung him.

"You know that's not true!"

"Then why are you so bothered?" Ruth said with an ugly laugh, but it wasn't Ruth's voice. A powerful figure encased in a giant Terminator armor appeared where the Wolf King had just stood. The figure that stood up was taller and more imposing than Ruth, with long and sharp power claws.

"Your soul has long since dissipated, and you're dead beyond recognition," Leon told Horus.

At the same time, he felt an even more suffocating discomfort.

Leon was even less willing to face Horus than Horus, his brother who was his sworn enemy.

“An ancient Terran saint said that there are three deaths, and as long as people are still talking about his name, he will never truly die.”

Horus gestured with his claws as he spoke. His movements and voice, just as Leon remembered, effortlessly displayed the elegance and charisma of his true form, which was itself a weapon.

"Therefore, as long as humanity exists, I will continue to live... because I have become a mirror, which all my brothers can now use to compare themselves to."

You know what I mean. Ever since you first learned of my behavior, you've done it every single day. You can no longer truly be yourself because you're only focused on not becoming me.

Leon clenched his fists and growled, "You may not be Horus, but wearing his face won't lessen my desire to destroy you."

This time, he acted first, completely disregarding the fact that Horus was powerful enough to inflict a fatal wound on the Emperor.

That was a completely different Horus, a monster bloated by the evil blessings of the Chaos Gods.

This is Leon's memory of Horus. Although his beloved Lupecal was very powerful, the lion remembered Guilliman's admonition to him in Kulag—

Horus hated lions because he knew they were equal.

So Leon knocked Horus down, and as he moved his power claws aside, he became another face.

"It's a pity you lack distance on Tiamat."

“At least I can find a brother I once cared about…” Leon retorted.

He leaped up from the pillar behind him, launching a strike... but Perturabo caught him in mid-air and slammed him to the ground, then brought his fists together and smashed them toward Leon's face.

Leon rolled to the side and slammed his leg down, sweeping it past Peturab's feet... but as his brother landed on his back, his armor was white, and the Khan had jumped right back to his feet.

“If you had acted any faster, you would have been able to deal with Horus’s betrayal in time…” Chagatai Khan said, but the illusion changed in an instant.

“If you were a little smarter, you could have foreseen the Horus Rebellion…” Red Devil Grenus solemnly chanted, as he punched Leon in the cheek, only to have it shattered by the lion's kick…

"You're definitely fake! Magnus doesn't hit that hard!" Leon spat.

“Perhaps you’ve just gotten old…” Angron said dismissively, stomping heavily on the lion’s chest until he was panting even inside his armor. “Exhausted, utterly worn out!”

Leon wanted to retaliate, but he was too weak to muster the strength. And before him, changes were still taking place.

"The Emperor has never trusted you! That's why I'm by his side, while you're in the darkest corner of the far reaches of the galaxy!" Dorn roared, punching him twice.

"You think he handed the secret over to you?" Alpharis laughed.

“I know a secret you’ll never guess, Chief Descendant.”

“Where is your revenge?” Finus roared, slamming his other fist into Leon’s abdomen.

“Where is your cunning?” Corax roared, kicking Leon’s head off.

“You’re never perfect…” Fugrim sneered as he pierced his throat.

“But now you’ve accepted the worship of God…” Loka clicked his tongue in amazement. Leon lunged at him, but a foot in blue snake armor tripped him, and he landed face down.

“You dare to proclaim my mistakes to me, but when you have the chance to return to Terra, you will even decide to burn countless planets…” Roboute Guilliman said above him.

Fingers covered in blood-red gauntlets lifted Leon's chin. "If you hadn't done this, would I have survived?"

Saint Gilles asked sadly. The angel vanished from sight, and an incredible force lifted Leon up.

"Will I die?" Vulcan screamed in his ear, then Léon was thrown into the air, toward the building's door.

Leon had no idea what awaited him next; perhaps it would only be a pathetic defeat.

114. The Awakening of the Lion

After Leon had endured the interrogation of all the Primarchs and almost all of his brothers, his weary heart had been hammered to the bottom.

Leon faces only two possibilities: either ascension or eternal damnation.

Before he flew out the door, two shadows were beside him, one as soft as a thought. But it had vanished. Then there was another on his left, as light as a memory, which too had disappeared without a trace.

But it wasn't over yet. Leon still had to face someone, someone he least wanted to face—

The darkness before him split open, revealing a pale face with two deep eyes settling within them—eyes that foresee the future, devoid of any pity.

“At least I know which members of my legion deserve to die…” Midnight Ghost Conrad Coz murmured.

“You all deserve to die!” Leon roared.

Koz laughed. "I know that."

He stepped back again and disappeared from sight.

Leon knew his brother's hunting strategy well and turned to charge towards the mouth, hoping to see the Midnight Ghost pounce on him. Instead, Koz's claws pierced his armor and stabbed him in the ribs from behind.

“They called me a demon because I terrified many worlds, but you killed them!” The curse hissed in Leon’s ears, cutting through the pain.

"My reputation made the planet surrender when it heard of my approach... but you suddenly descended from the sky and burned the soil to ashes!"

He moved his fingers, causing Leon's body to be tormented by new pain once again.

"Brother, why are you the hero and I the villain, just because I left some pathetic bastards alive to talk about me?"

“I am not a hero…” Leon said through gritted teeth. “I did what the Lord of Humanity asked of me, and I believe he knows this best. I am an essential part of his plan to unify and save humanity.”

“So noble…” Koz whispered in the darkness.

“And you’re a villain,” Leon continued, bending his fingers, “because you enjoy everything you do, even when you’re ordered not to, you still do it!”

“Perhaps Father did too well…” Koz hissed, then aimed his claws at Leon’s eyes and lunged. Leon dodged the attack, rolling to the wall in the distance…

"You can only blame the emperor, because you refuse to take responsibility for your own actions."

"You know nothing about what you're saying..." Coz roared, standing so close that Leon felt uncomfortable.

“Maybe,” Leon said.

“But you’re already dead, and I don’t want to argue with ghosts anymore.”

The light he saw from outside shone again from the wall behind him. He turned around and saw that it radiated from the kite-shaped shield hanging there, which was ornately decorated with an imperial eagle crested with laurel leaves.

That was the Imperial Shield that Chagatai had given him, and when Leon raised it, he could feel its warm, protective power.

"You want to use his power again?" Koz emerged from the shadows, mocking...

"It's like your offspring using your words to justify their atrocities."

Leon felt a pang of pain in his heart, which was why he was unwilling to face Koz—facing Koz would mean facing the problem of his descendants who had been wandering and hunted for thousands of years because of his mistakes.

Unable to face or make amends for the mistakes they had made, they instead sought the help of the emperor and their father.

Is the mighty lion really such a cowardly and incompetent creature?