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

Chapter 370 How can there be such a straight man among the emperor's sons?
Akurdona didn't know how to deal with this problem. But the situation was that he had to go ahead with it because he couldn't be sure whether it was safe to let anyone other than himself know about it.

Regarding the issue of clones, he believed that the only person he could trust 100% was Ritsuka Fujimaru, who was not an imperial man in essence. But this reliable savior was obviously far away. It was still the problem that distant water could not quench immediate thirst. Akuldona could only rely on himself now. But considering that he was a stunning Muggle who could not understand the Noble Phantasm even though he had become a creature of the Warp in essence and even had Sigurd's Heroic Spirit plug-in, he seemed to have no room to play in such a very metaphysical issue.

It's very sad: even when he wanted to say a few nice words to comfort the other person, he was not sure whether he could really say it well.

But he really shouldn't be blamed for not having a talent for psychic powers: theoretically speaking, Akuldona believed in the Imperial Truth - although now, his own way of existence was not in line with the Imperial Truth, and he had inevitably gotten used to the treacherous, changeable, and illogical idealistic state of the Warp during the 2.0-year Webway War. But after all, the root of all fear was the lack of firepower. If he knew that he could solve the problem by simply chopping the initiator of the anomaly to death, and that he could really chop the demons into slices and cook them in the Warp, then there would be nothing to fear from the Unliving Ones who were causing trouble everywhere. All idealistic anomalies could be transformed into problems that could be dealt with by materialistic spirits, and this was the "Imperial Truth " that Akuldona believed in the new era.

But unfortunately, like the original Imperial Truth, the 2.0 version of Imperial Truth also has its limitations: because he really can't beat him, and he really can't hit him. Moreover, the one who is entangled with the clone now is neither beatable nor hit by Akuldona - he is indeed the eldest son of the Phoenix, the champion of the Emperor's Children Legion, an Astartes with unparalleled swordsmanship, and a legendary figure in the Great Crusade. But this does not mean that he has the ability to do anything for his Primarch.

No matter which one.

The Fulgrim who fell into the demon prince of Slaanesh ten thousand years ago was probably indeed dead. Those blood brothers of Akuldona who were still in the warp had some sense of this matter, and some rumors circulating among the Unliving could also provide indirect evidence of this fact, but what really soothed the doubtful nerves of the Phoenix Son and made him sincerely believe that this speculated event had become an ironclad fact was the detailed narration given to him by the clone in front of him.

He therefore knew that Fulgrim was killed by Ferrus Manus. When the clone described this "story", it acted as if it had experienced it all. If that were all, it would be fine - as we all know, the clone was obviously crawled out of the incubator at a time long after the Great Crusade, due to some accidental factors that Fabius Bile could not determine. But when Akurdona realized something from the fact that "the clone could actually give such a detailed account", he began to deliberately mention some old events from the Great Crusade in front of the clone, and the latter showed that he also had memories of these things that he had never experienced. Akurdona deduced from this that the clone might have inherited the memories of the deceased Fulgrim himself for some reason.

This inference soon led to an advanced version, because Akurdona was present when the clone broke the mirror in the Hera Fortress for the first time. At that time, the clone stared at his own virtual image reflected in the mirror, as if facing a great enemy, and asked Akurdona, who was present, whether he looked normal. Akurdona did not understand what the other party meant at first, and asked blankly how the other party determined the standard of "normal", because in his opinion, the other party was no different from usual. The clone's reaction to these words was very slight, and he only showed a little body language symbolizing "I heard it". He kept frowning and staring at his reflection in the mirror with hatred. Akurdona was of course puzzled by these unreasonable reactions, so he walked up and stood beside the clone, trying to look at it from a similar perspective as the other party, trying to find the culprit who made the other party nervous -

But before he could even see his own image clearly, the clone shattered the mirror.

To be precise, at the moment when Akurdona's reflection also appeared in the mirror, the clone who was just standing there suddenly yelled in response, and almost at the same time took a step forward, and punched his own reflection in the mirror at a speed that Akurdona could hardly react in time. The sharp glass flying everywhere failed to hurt the flexible skin of the original body, but Akurdona still noticed that there were several white marks on the hands of the clone caused by sharp scratches. The reason why he noticed these marks that would completely disappear in a few breaths due to the recovery power of the original body was because the next action of the clone after breaking the mirror was to turn around immediately, kneel on one knee in front of him to lower the height, hold his shoulders, and inexplicably check him carefully from top to bottom:
"Are you okay?" The clone's attitude was unnecessarily serious in Akurdona's eyes. The latter had to admit that he was a little happy at that time, but he was more confused:

"It's fine," Akuldona answered honestly, but also doubtfully, "A few flying glass fragments can't hurt an Astartes wearing power armor."

At that moment, the clone showed an expression that was both angry and amused: "That's not what I meant."

"So, what are you talking about?" Akurdona looked in the direction of the mirror in confusion. Now, there was nothing there except a broken mirror frame and a pile of reflective fragments. Each fragment reflected the same clone and Akurdona at different angles. To the latter, everything was normal, with no special differences worth noting.

The clone paused and said nothing. But Akurdona realized something from this hesitation and asked again, "Do you see something different in the mirror than in the actual reality?"

The clone looked away, stood up again after confirming that Akurdona was unharmed, and answered nonchalantly: "Don't think too much." Akurdona was familiar with this attitude, so he knew that his guess was true.

He did not ask for details, nor did he confirm how often this happened. Instead, as an Emperor's child should do, he quietly and politely pretended not to notice his superior's momentary gaffe after confirming that no real damage had actually occurred, and let the issue go calmly and naturally. He remembered some of the things that Fujimaru Ritsuka had said when he was chatting with Fulgrim in the illusion, and based on this, he made some guesses, and then kept these guesses in his mind. After dealing with the wreckage of the mirror and the mess nearby, he also took the responsibility for the property damage on his head. After dealing with these things, he waited for a few hours, thinking that the clone had successfully extricated himself from the indecent emotions brought about by the previous indecent behavior, and then ran back to confirm the follow-up:
"Are you sure you can handle the mirror yourself?" he asked the clone. "Should we just find a reason and tell the fortress servants that we don't need a dressing mirror?"

"That's too fake, Akurdona, because this is really a necessity for me." The clone said so. He really couldn't stand that he couldn't adjust his clothes before leaving the room. Even though he had begun to claim "I am not Fulgrim", he was still very picky about his clothes and appearance, just like Fulgrim in the past. "Besides, I don't think this is a very difficult difficulty to overcome. I just... occasionally saw a little illusion. It may be the sequelae of the warp or imaginary submersion. It will be better after a while."

Akuldona knew that the other party was perfunctory, but he took these words seriously for the time being. He had some guesses that matched the actual situation: Fujimaru Ritsuka once mentioned in the illusion that in her concept, the unique existence of "human" can also be divided into three parts: "body, spirit, and soul" - followed by some slightly difficult to understand religious or philosophical topics such as the Trinity, ego, id, and superego, most of which flowed through Akuldona's brain, which had become like a colander due to indifference. But he still grasped the most fundamental part, and based on this and some other half-understood knowledge of necromancy that he was forced to learn as a warp creature, he made a guess: the body of the clone did not only inherit the memory of the original body - after Fulgrim's warp body was completely destroyed by the Emperor's golden flame, the "spirit" or "soul" that had nowhere to go outside the "body" fell into the body of the clone along some metaphysical connection. In other words, the clone now has two spirits or souls, and the two are still fighting each other.

Akuldona didn't know if his guess was right, but he decided to assume so. Considering that the clone had always behaved very stably, with only a few sudden and brief attacks, he thought the situation was relatively optimistic: the ghost that came over somehow couldn't seize the clone's control over the body, and could only occasionally mess with the clone's mentality through some mental illusions. At least when he first heard the clone "don't think this is a very difficult difficulty to overcome", he was willing to believe it, and he also believed that these symptoms would indeed gradually alleviate over time as the person said. But now, looking at the somewhat depressed clone in front of him, he felt that things might not be as simple as he originally thought. But this is also normal. After all, nothing related to the subspace can go all the way to the end smoothly.

"What do you see in the mirror?" Akurdona didn't think he had enough ability to solve this problem, but he still tried to struggle. "Or, should we consider getting some help from outside?"

"No." The clone refused strongly almost reflexively, "I mean, no need, I can handle this problem myself."

"But your outburst this time was obviously more..." Akurdona wanted to say "uncontrollable" but felt that he shouldn't say it so bluntly. He racked his brains to find a milder-sounding alternative to this word but found nothing. So he had to let this sentence die and instead presented another fact. "Last time you only broke a mirror because my reflection suddenly appeared in it and you were scared. Last time, I could put it down to a ridiculous accident and get away with it, but this time, you didn't even leave any room for your own decency. Even if others don't know what happened to you, they will clearly realize that you are now allergic to mirrors."

The clone had smashed every mirror within reach: in the living room, in the closet, in the bathroom, on the dresser, none of them were spared. Even the servants failed to pick up the larger pieces from the carpet: they concluded that all the fragments larger than a mortal hand had suffered a second blow, crushed to dust by a force similar to that of the original.

The clone on the chair wanted to refute, but he couldn't refute anything in the end, so after a slight dissatisfaction expressed by a little body language, he adjusted his sitting posture, and the expression on his face showed that his attitude had loosened. Akurdona keenly caught this and moved the conversation forward in time: "If you don't tell me exactly what is happening to you, how can I help you?"

"Because it's meaningless." The clone's tone was very bitter. He lowered his head and buried his face in his palms. "This is... This is obviously a problem that only I can solve. I may not say discouraging words, but... Those 'bad illusions' about the real Fulgrim are looking more and more real in the mirror. You understand, I am not Fulgrim, but my genes, my birth, everything about me determines that I can't be 'not' Fulgrim. Everything about that arrogant and corrupt man is inextricably linked to me, I..."

Akurdona twisted his body uncomfortably and interrupted tentatively: "This is probably just some Warp trick. If we can find a trustworthy think tank -"

"--This is not just a matter of 'subspace tricks'." The clone put down his hand and interrupted Akuldona's statement hastily. He turned his face to the other party and said in an almost reprimanding tone, "Can't you see! This question is so simple--look at my face!"

Akuldona stopped talking after being slightly frightened. He didn't know why the other party suddenly became excited, but he still instinctively followed what the other party said, standing in place and carefully observing the clone's exquisite and glorious face. He thought it was as perfect as ever. Apart from a few traces of fatigue and indignation, Akuldona didn't find anything "wrong" from it.

"You are the same as always." Even though he knew that this was probably not the answer the other party wanted to hear, Akurdona still chose to express his honest feelings with a cautious attitude, and added a sentence according to the sometimes-effective cheat sheet that Fujimaru Ritsuka handed him, "Still radiant."

The clone laughed—angry: "I didn't ask you to watch this!"

Akuldona could indeed sense the clone's anger from this sentence, but the other party was indeed laughing, which made him temporarily unsure whether the cheat sheet of "If you really can't figure out what the other party means, it's at least right to praise the other party" worked. However, considering that the clone's next sentence was a complaint of "Oh my God, Akuldona, you ruined the whole atmosphere!" instead of directly punching him out of the door, the eldest son of Phoenix still tended to think that the cheat sheet was somewhat useful.

"I mean," after the awkward moment had worn off, the clone grabbed Akultuna's shoulders again and turned his head so that his eyes met his own, "you look at my face. On that basis, can you look at this identical face and say from the bottom of your heart, 'This person has nothing to do with Fulgrim'?"

Akurdona didn't even think about it and said, "Of course—"

Then, his voice was cut off by his own hands in the subspace. Because at that moment, he realized the true answer in his heart in time:
Of course not.

(End of this chapter)