How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 369: All will be well as long as the Regent returns to his loyal Macragge
"What am I here for?" Akultona repeated the question in a puzzled manner, and then answered, "I have come to give you something to do, so that you will not indulge in your fantasies in the barracks and drown yourself in unwarranted shame and regret."

This was the question that Kuven, who was barely familiar with Akuldona, finally asked after the latter suddenly appeared in the Phoenix Sons' base a week by Terra standard. As he expected, Akuldona did not show any doubts and answered him directly; the answer he got was also as he expected, without any euphemisms, and therefore, it was far from being "nice to hear".

Judging from this unpretentious and straightforward statement, Kuven highly suspected that Akuldona might also belong to a warband under the Dorn bloodline. But on Macragge, whether it is the Black Templar, the Blamer, or the Hammer of Dorn - none of the three warbands obviously has a champion swordsman named "Akuldona".

Someone with such swordsmanship must be the champion of the entire chapter. Kuven took it for granted, but did not let these useless speculations occupy his mind for too long: "What is the 'groundless' shame and regret?"

Kuwen's tone was low and depressed. No doubt, this description dragged his memory back to the disastrous reception ceremony. As a member of the Chapter Master's Honor Guard, when Rogal Dorn denied the entire Phoenix Sons Chapter with his old and hard face and bluntly stated "You are not my sons", the Chapter Champion held the flag symbolizing honor and stood in the first row behind the Chapter Master - Kuwen was at the first scene to face the entire process of this incident. The Primarch's cold, firm, and obviously unyielding gaze still makes his heart bleed like a knife.

"Did you really do something wrong?" Akuldona sat next to him during the halftime break, and asked himself with a little doubt, "As far as I know, no. I heard from the Ultramarines that you have been doing well since the Grey Shields formed the Sons of Phoenix Chapter. Although Lord Dorn's evaluation... But for you, I think it can be called an 'unprovoked disaster'."

After hearing this, when Kuwen looked at Akuldona again, there was something inexplicable in his eyes. But because the strong always have some privileges, after the round-the-clock training battles in the past few days, all the brothers who ranked first in swordsmanship in the Phoenix Sons had to admit that Akuldona was indeed a brilliant and powerful man, worthy of more privileges than ordinary people - so after hearing this, Kuwen's first reaction was not to scold the other party for making irresponsible remarks about the Primarch, but to try to express his views in a softer way:
"But he is the Primarch after all." His tone was very bitter. "Like Master Guilliman, Master Dorn's words can easily stir up a storm in the Imperium. He can launch a large-scale expedition with just a thought, and decide the life and death of some chapters. After his positive statement, no matter what we think in our hearts, it doesn't matter."

"How can it not be important? From the perspective of the present, if you keep thinking about these trivial things, you won't be able to wield the sword well." Akurdona sighed, and the second half of the sentence sounded more like he was talking to himself. "Sometimes I really feel that I don't quite understand what you young people are thinking. Is this the so-called 'generation gap'..."

Kuven secretly glanced at Akuldona's profile - to be honest, he couldn't guess the exact age of this firstborn. His face was delicate and didn't look old. There were no scars worth mentioning under the thin training clothes. Even his skin was smooth: either he had taken great efforts to maintain his appearance, or the more logical guess was that he had not experienced too many battles. But if the latter was the truth, it couldn't explain Akuldona's superb swordsmanship, which even among the Primaris warriors of the Son of Phoenix had not been able to gain an advantage over him to this day.

He glanced at the warrior braids on the back of the other's head. Kuven believed that if there was a Space Marine anywhere who grew his hair to a length that dragged on the ground, no matter how powerful the person was, he would become the protagonist of a famous story because of this extravagant and useless act. But Kuven had never heard of such a story, just as he had never heard of Akuldona's name before.

"It seems that no one has asked you your age yet." Kuwen chose his words carefully, trying to avoid topics related to the Primarch as inconspicuously as possible. "You said we are 'young people', but you don't look very old."

"Anyway, it's older than you. I haven't calculated it carefully for a long time, but... probably around three hundred." Akurdona had almost forgotten it, so he gave an approximate number perfunctorily - of course, it was the data before his death.

Kuwen frowned and said reluctantly: "Okay... then your service years are indeed longer than ours."

The original Sons of the Phoenix were pieced together by the Primaris Greyshields during the Indomitus Crusade, and to this day, the oldest Astartes in the chapter is no more than 150 years old.

"But that doesn't prove anything." The Chapter Champion said stubbornly with the unconvinced attitude typical of young people. "In many Chapters with a longer history, there are many Astartes who have served for six or seven hundred years. But I have never heard of any generation gap between them and the new recruits."

For a moment, Akurdona seemed to want to explain something, but the next second, he quickly gave up the decision. The uninvited swordsmanship teacher smiled leniently and said, "Isn't that a good thing? Although it's a little hard for me to imagine."

When he said this, he showed a bit of inexplicable melancholy. Kuven noticed this, but he didn't have time to think deeply about it. Akuldona stood up after saying this, and then patted Kuven's back with the blade of his training sword, urging him: "Go eat, take a shower, sleep, and then practice on your own. Digris from the Extreme Warriors is here to see me, I'll leave for a while."

Kuven raised his head nervously: he didn't know what Digris of the Ultramarines was doing here, why the think tank director who was temporarily in charge of the Hera Fortress wanted to find Akuldona, and why Akuldona had already discovered this before he appeared in front of him - he didn't have more time to think about it carefully. When the firstborn put the training sword back on the weapon rack not far away, Kuven stood up with a little panic, and was driven by the friendship that had been fought in the duel cage in the past few days by the one-sided guidance battle, and called out: "Akuldona?"

"I'll be back." As if he knew what the other party was panicking about, Akurdona turned around and promised hurriedly, "I'll check to see if all of you have made any progress by then - don't let your imagination run wild and slack off while I'm away!"

After saying this, the Firstborn Son hurriedly walked through the duel cage and headed towards the edge of the base.
-
As for how Akuldona discovered that Digris was approaching, it was actually very simple. With his current life form, within a certain range, a soul as powerful as the Chief Librarian would always shine brightly in his senses, and it would be difficult to ignore it.

Then, he was not really sure that Digris was looking for him - but he should not be looking for anyone in the Phoenix Sons, so it could only be him. What this meant was: even if Digris really brought some instructions directly from the Primarch Rogal Dorn, if he wanted to pass it on as it was, he would have to pass it through Akuldona.

In this matter of life and death, the eldest son of the Phoenix knew his own strength. Under the current conditions, the most he could do was to successfully divert the attention of the Sons of Phoenix and control them for a short period of time, so that they would not make any bad decisions out of their passion. In theory, he really only needed to control the development of the situation for a short period of time. The return date of the current Imperial Regent had been set, and the establishment of the Sons of Phoenix was approved under the personal instruction of Roboute Guilliman. Akuldona was optimistic that in the current situation of the Empire where every available force was crucial, Lord Guilliman would not let an entire Astartes Primaris Chapter go to waste because of a mentality problem.

It is always easier for Primarchs to communicate with each other, or perhaps Lord Guilliman can find some better ways than his current delaying tactics... In short, when the Regent returns to his loyal Macragge, the situation of the Sons of the Phoenix will surely improve soon.

If there are no other emergencies, the Glory of Macragge will arrive at the port in seven days from today. As long as Akuldona can delay this period of time...

With these thoughts in mind, he came before Digris, and within a few seconds, he realized that the assumptions he had just made were basically aimless: the Chief Think Tank was indeed here to find him.

"How long has it been since you went back to the underground fortress?" Digris asked directly after a simple polite greeting. The think tank's tone did not contain any negative emotions such as condemnation or complaints, but this simple question still made Akurdona's hair stand on end reflexively: "What happened?"

Before he temporarily settled down in the Phoenix Sons' base, he told the clone what he was going to do. Akuldona said that he might stay on the ground more these days, and the clone also thought that there was nothing wrong with Akuldona's actions - he did not offer any advice, but praised the other party's kindness and noble character in wanting to help another loyal chapter, thinking that what Akuldona was going to do would be helpful, and that he might not have a position to make decisions on this matter, and expressed regret for the fact that he could not go to watch the duel in person, but there was no doubt that he could take care of himself under the surveillance of the Ultramarines.

Of course, the clone obviously knew and agreed to Akuldona's disappearance in the fortress basement in recent days. But - just a few days, at most a Terran standard week, under the care of the Ultramarines and the Chapter's servants, what could happen to the clone?
"Something disturbing." Diglis carefully observed Akurdona's demeanor while speaking. "That person... has he ever shown any emotional instability or mental symptoms similar to delirium before?"

Unconsciously, Akurdona pursed his lips.

"What happened?" he repeated emphatically, and this time, Diglis did not try to beat around the bush:
"You know, although we restricted his range of movement, we did not skimp on basic living facilities." The Librarian said, "But not long ago today, when the regiment servants went to deliver food, they found that all the mirrors within his reach were broken."

It was certainly strange, but Akurdona’s focus wasn’t on “what happened”: “How is he?”

"He's fine. Nothing seems to be wrong." Diglis's tightly knitted brows showed that what he was thinking was obviously different from what he said. "The servant reported that when he arrived, the man was very calm and even cleaned up the broken mirror with his own hands. He apologized to the servant and said, 'I was a little hysterical just now, but I've adjusted myself now.' But when the servant left, he was sure that he heard the man talking to himself."

Akurdona pursed his lips and remained silent for a while. After he finished speaking, Digris couldn't help but said, "No offense, but if you have any clues about this matter, you might as well tell me--"

"—Have you told Lord Dorne about this?"

"——We can also prescribe the right medicine for the disease." Digris blinked and sighed, "Allow me to complain, but this is not a cooperative attitude..."

"Have you informed Lord Dorn of this?" Akuldona asked with unusual insistence.

"Not yet, but it depends on whether the situation will deteriorate further." said the current nominal commander of the Hera Fortress. In theory, before the Glory of Macragge re-entered the port, Digris had the final say on the entire planet, but in reality, in front of a Primarch who returned to the Empire very suddenly, Digris was only a Space Marine with a slightly higher rank who could serve as a command. If the Primarch of the Imperial Fists was very persistent on a certain matter (in recent days, Digris felt more and more that something like this might happen - but it didn't happen after all), then the Chief Librarian could not disobey the other party's order - even if the Primarch was not Guilliman.

"Then the situation won't get worse, so don't say a word." Akurdona still pursed his lips nervously, "Excuse me now, I have to go down and take a look at his condition..."

Sometimes Akurdona did feel that with the technical support of Fujimaru Ritsuka, it would not be a bad thing for him to just be a dead man - at least when he really needed to hurry, he could disperse his physical form, ignore the obstacles formed by actual matter, pass through the ground and walls freely, and after a few minutes of high-speed running, walk in a straight line to reach his goal.

When he rebuilt his spiritual base in the underground part of the fortress, knocked on the door and got a response, and walked into the temporary residence of the clone, he immediately realized: Obviously, it has been a while since the incident. Macragge's servants were really fast. The carpet was clean, and there was a bottle of freshly cut local flowers on the small table. If the frame of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the living room part of the suite had not changed, Akurdona would hardly have seen what had happened here before.

When Akurdona entered the room, the clone was sitting on the soft chair farthest from the floor-to-ceiling mirror. He looked calm, holding a book in his hand - he should be pretending to read, because when he realized who the visitor was, he immediately behaved like a deflated ball, and put the "little book" in his hand like a pocket book on the armrest on the side, and covered his face with his hands.

"...Did I mess up?" In a very un-Fulgrim way, the clone exposed his weakness and lack of confidence without any disguise in this question.

“Not yet,” Akuldona replied, “but I suspect it’s very close. Perhaps we must talk about this in detail.”

The eldest son of Phoenix slowly walked towards the clone of his genetic father, trying not to irritate the other party's nerves, which might still be very sensitive, and asked carefully:

"So, in fact, 'that illusion' has been chasing you all the time?" Even though Akurdona was very careful in his attitude, the words he actually said were not euphemistic at all. "Those unwilling echoes of death and hatred from the warp?"

He omitted a name of the source, but in this room the omission only served to make it more obvious.

Fulgrim's clone sighed wearily. "Yes. The good news is that this confirms that the original is indeed dead. The bad news is that he is very... haunted."

(End of this chapter)