The two spoke for a while longer, primarily focusing on their next steps.
Goodwin advised Raynor to return to the Governor's Mansion first to stabilize the situation. The fighting at the Forbidden Wall was ongoing, and the Noble Council needed to be dealt with. As for Luna, he warned against acting impulsively; she was now the "legal" Regent. Moving against her meant moving against House Saint Gallus itself, which would shake the very foundations of Brevis.
Raynor signaled his understanding. Before leaving, he asked one last question: "Arch-Cardinal, regarding the Adeptus Mechanicus... do you have a way to deal with them?"
Goodwin remained silent for a long time. Finally, he spoke with profound meaning: "There is always a way, but it depends on the timing, and it depends on the price."
Raynor didn't press further. Taking Isod with him, he left the plaza. Behind them, the mourning ceremony continued, the priest's hymns echoing endlessly in the biting wind.
Leo didn't know how he had managed to make it back to the Forbidden Wall. These past two days and nights of flight had been a long, waking nightmare.
His two thousand personal guards had fallen one by one. They had taken bullets for him, blocked pursuers with their bodies, or turned back to charge against former comrades they once called brothers. All of it was just to buy him a few more seconds.
His last clear memory was that earth-shattering explosion. Quinn's machine had grappled Aiden, golden flames intertwining with blue energy until everything was consumed. He had been thrown by the shockwave, protected by the "Ice Lotus," and eventually found by the Wildlings, who had supported him to a safe place to rest for half a day.
After that, they began the silent journey home. The Wildlings escorted him south toward the Forbidden Wall. There was no communication between them; they simply walked mechanically. Leo's mind was still reeling, unable to process the trauma.
The wind on the ice fields remained bone-chilling and the snow continued to fall, but he couldn't feel the cold. He couldn't feel anything at all—until the silhouette of the Forbidden Wall finally appeared on the horizon.
Leo came to a halt. The Forbidden Wall was still there. That towering barrier still stood defiant in the wind and snow, looking exactly as it had for centuries.
But the smell in the air was wrong. Acrid smoke, the metallic tang of blood, and the stench of death. It wasn't the scent of human and Greenskin blood mingling; it was only humans. There was still fighting at the base of the wall.
By the time Leo arrived, the civil war was nearing its end. He squinted, peering through the driving snow. Soldiers in the blue-grey uniforms of the Vanguard were surrounding a group of men in golden military fatigues.
Those were the Knight Auxiliaries of House Saint Gallus—the family's most elite troops, specifically trained to support and protect the Knight suits. Even heroic Paladins needed rest. When they disembarked from their Knights to recuperate, they were at their most vulnerable. That was when the Auxiliaries played their role.
Why were they here? Why were they fighting the Vanguard?
Leo quickened his pace. The Wildlings followed behind him, still silent. After a few steps, a realization seemed to strike Leo. His pupils dilated, and his face filled with disbelief.
"The family... the family guided the Council to start a civil war?"
The Leo who had just returned to the Forbidden Wall felt a sharp pain in his chest.
On the battlefield, Hammond was preparing to issue the final order for the purge. Less than two thousand Knight Auxiliaries remained, cornered in a ruin on the east side of the Forbidden Wall. They were resisting stubbornly, but with no reinforcements, they wouldn't last much longer.
Hammond raised his hand, ready to signal the total assault. Then, he heard a commotion behind him.
"Lord Leo is back!" "It's Leo!" "He's alive!"
Hammond's hand froze in mid-air. He turned around to see a tattered, blood-stained figure walking toward them, step by agonizing step.
Leo Saint Gallus. He was alive.
A surge of complex emotions hit Hammond—relief, but also a trace of... suspicion.
The soldiers of the Vanguard, upon seeing Leo, were initially overjoyed. But that joy quickly morphed into hesitation, suspicion, and something indefinable.
Inside the ruins, the Knight Auxiliaries saw Leo as well. Their reaction was even more complex. Some were shocked, some were furious, and some looked down, unable to meet his eyes.
Sensing those gazes, Leo's pace slowed. He didn't understand. Why were the men of the Vanguard looking at him like he was a criminal suspect? Why were the Auxiliaries here, fighting his own Vanguard?
He looked to Hammond, hoping to find an answer on the scarred face of the one-eyed Commissar. Hammond said nothing. He simply watched Leo, his face an expressionless mask.
"Leo Saint Gallus..."
An officer of the Knight Auxiliaries stood up from the rubble. He was covered in blood, one arm severed and crudely wrapped in rags. But he stood straight, his eyes burning as they glared at Leo.
"You traitor!"
Leo was stunned. "Traitor?"
"You betrayed the family!" the officer roared, his voice hoarse. "You conspired with outsiders, framed the High King, and murdered Lord Callum. And now you have the nerve to come back?!"
Leo's lips trembled. He wanted to speak, but he didn't know what to say.
Conspired with outsiders? Framed the High King? Murdered Callum? He had done none of those things. He had simply been fighting at the Wall, then was inexplicably hunted by Aiden and forced to flee across the frozen wastes. He had returned after a brush with death, only to find that everything had changed.
He looked at the Vanguard soldiers. These were the men who had charged with him, held the Wall with him, and shared starch-meal rations with him. Now, the way they looked at him made his heart turn to ice. Some avoided his gaze, while others bit their lips as if struggling with a moral dilemma.
They were doubting him. They were wondering if he truly had defected. Was his disappearance for these two days spent doing something unspeakable? And then there was the notice from the Hive: Leo Saint Gallus has defected to Chaos; a hunt-and-kill order has been issued by the family.
Countless suspicious and scrutinizing eyes fell upon him. Leo staggered back a few steps. He felt the snowy ground beneath his feet turning into a bottomless swamp, swallowing him whole. He felt the air grow heavy, as if it were trying to crush him.
The hardships of flight, the unyielding will to fight to the end, the frost and wind of the journey—none of these had managed to break this man. But now, facing the misunderstanding and suspicion of his family's soldiers and his brothers-in-arms, this usually resolute and brave man felt, for the first time, like he was about to be struck down.