As the last gleam of sunlight sank below the horizon, Zeke used one piece of charcoal and a few wooden logs to craft a Campfire.
A Minecraft Campfire never goes out; it was vastly more useful than the firewood Halin and his group had collected.
Halin accepted the Campfire Zeke gave him as if it were a priceless treasure. "My Lord, I truly do not know how to thank you. I hope you will accept this."
Zeke took it in his hand; it was a bizarrely shaped compass.
"It is incredibly easy to get lost in the forest. This is a special compass I made; it can guide your way."
[Mod: Explorer's Compass Unlocked]
[The compass will point you toward your desired target, including but not limited to biomes, structures, entities, or items.]
Getting a compass actually unlocks this mod? Zeke was dumbfounded. In Minecraft, the Compass and the Clock were the two most useless items in his eyes. This had resulted in him never even having the thought to craft either of them.
Holding the Explorer's Compass in his hand, Zeke first inputted the name of an old acquaintance: Abaddon. It displayed that the distance was too far.
Zeke then tried Guilliman, only to find the needle spinning wildly—one moment pointing to the person right beside him, and the next pointing toward the north of the forest.
Is it because there are people with the same name? Zeke added the word "Primarch" in front of Guilliman's name. This time, the compass accurately locked onto Guilliman.
A sudden thought struck Zeke: could he input the name of a mod? Zeke typed in Twilight Forest.
It still showed that the distance was too far, but this was enough to prove that the compass could be used to search for mods!
Zeke simply typed in the word "Mod" without specifying which one.
The Explorer's Compass stopped spinning and pointed north, indicating that there was something capable of triggering a mod over there.
In this vast universe, unlocking mods was the highest priority. Everything else could temporarily be pushed to the back burner.
"Guilliman, I have some business to attend to. I might need to step away for a bit." Zeke solemnly stuffed the compass into his backpack.
"Could you explain the matter of you resurrecting the Great Angel? It won't take up too much of your time."
The Lion's tone carried a hint of pleading. Facing the man who had saved his most beloved brother, he was exceptionally patient.
Zeke looked at the two Primarchs, the Fallen Angel gathered around the campfire, and the mortal children watching them from the side.
"Alright then, I'll only tell this once."
The firelight flickered. Guilliman and the Lion sat to the side, quietly listening to Zeke recount his experiences.
–
"Chapter Twenty: The Blockman cures the Red Thirst with Milk, and instantly one-shots the Tyranid swarm with a Netherite Trident!" Zeke announced, imitating a classic storyteller.
"Now, this Red Thirst is truly terrifying, capable of devouring a person's will and turning them into a monster! Fortunately, I possessed an antidote called 'Milk', and with just a slight exertion of my power..."
I hadn't realized Zeke had done so much, Guilliman thought to himself.
Lion El'Jonson was much more straightforward; his first reaction was that this human was spouting a pack of lies.
However, a galaxy-shaking event like the resurrection of the Great Angel couldn't possibly be faked, no matter how he looked at it.
"Alright, that's about it." Zeke concluded his tale.
"Truly an incredibly thrilling journey," the Lion offered his assessment. Upon learning that Sanguinius had returned, his words were no longer filled with hostility, and he actually sat down to have a proper chat with Zabriel.
Just as Zeke had said, there were no conflicts that couldn't be resolved by sitting down and having a good talk.
As the Fallen Angel Zabriel and the Lion compared their accounts, they immediately realized something was wrong.
The Lion's heart was filled with intense bitterness. Both sides were loyal to the Imperium, but because someone had pulled strings in the shadows, brothers were driven to slaughter each other, resulting in mutually assured destruction.
Not again. The Lion was consumed with remorse. A tragedy that could have been avoided had plummeted toward an even more disastrous outcome because of his own errors in judgment.
Back in the day at Diamat, it was he who had handed over the siege weapons to the traitor Primarch Perturabo, mistakenly believing Perturabo would use them to crush Horus's shameful betrayal. Instead, those very cannons were aimed at the Raven Guard and the Salamanders on Isstvan V.
And there was more. It didn't stop there.
What if he had been able to see that Lorgar's love for their father was growing darker by the day?
What if he had realized that Angron's fury was truely endless?
What if—and this was the most crucial of all—he had been able to see the flaws in Horus earlier?
"I, Zabriel, still love the Emperor and humanity."
To prove that everything he said was true, Zabriel swore the highest oath he could possibly make.
Zabriel looked straight into the Lion's eyes. "Do you dare to swear as well?"
A low growl rolled in the Lion's throat. His own warrior was actually questioning him. But he bit back his initial response. "I swear it," the Lion said.
Zabriel sat up and grasped his hand. The Lion raised his arm and pulled him back to his feet, and immediately noticed Zabriel's tear-dampened eyes.
"What have we done?" Zabriel muttered to himself. "The betrayal we believed in never existed. We took up arms against each other for absolutely no reason."
"Zabriel, enough. Now is not the time to wallow in despair," the Lion said sternly. "I must know the current status of the Dark Angels Legion. There is still time; there is still time to clear up this misunderstanding."
Zabriel let out a bitter laugh. "The Dark Angels Legion has been gone for a long time."
"Gone?" The Lion closed his eyes. "What do you mean 'gone', Zabriel?!"
Guilliman closed his eyes. It's over. It's all over.
When he saw the Lion and his son reconcile, he was genuinely happy for his brother. He hadn't expected the topic to suddenly pivot to the Legions.
"The Dark Angels were reorganized under the orders of Lord Guilliman," Zabriel explained. "All the Legions were dismantled and split into individual Chapters."
Hearing that his Legion had been dismantled and reorganized, the Lion's grief was instantly replaced by surging fury.
"GUILLIMAN!" the Lion roared, smashing the chair he was sitting on in half with a single hand.
"How could he do this?! How dare he do this?! Had I known, I should have dealt with him the very first time we met on Macragge!"
I didn't want to either! Guilliman cried out desperately in his heart.
He had dismantled the Legions solely to prevent massive, Legion-wide corruptions of Space Marines. He never expected that right after issuing the Codex Astartes, he would fall into a coma, leaving the Imperium to execute the order worse and worse over time.
Lion El'Jonson looked up at the sky and howled in anguish, "During the Horus Heresy, why couldn't it have been HIM who died?! Why did it have to be Sanguinius?!"
Crack. Sitting next to Guilliman, Zeke practically heard the sound of the Regent's heart breaking.
"Does anyone know what's to the north?" Zeke kept his eyes glued to the Explorer's Compass. His mind was entirely focused on the mods.
The Lion was still furiously pummeling a nearby tree to vent the absolute rage in his heart.
"That is the territory of the Ten Thousand Eyes Warhost," Zabriel answered Zeke. "A terrifying organization mixed with xenos, heretics, and twisted Astartes."
"Then we'll have to strike hard." After confirming the direction of the mod, Zeke patted Guilliman on the back. "Don't worry, there are no problems that can't be solved by sitting down and having a good talk."
--
Did I mention that there is literally no limit to the amount of bonus chapter you can get this week? btw I uploaded 10+ chapters the last time we did this type of event, but this time I hope we can reach Top 3, so just imagine the amount of bonus chapter you can get!!!