When it came to surgeries involving the removal of human tissue and the addition of foreign implants, no one was more adept than Zeke with his Chest Cavity Opener.
He pulled out a pair of palm-sized pliers and walked toward Angron.
That fearless Angron, whose brain was only ever filled with the thrill of battle, did something incredibly rare: he took a step back.
He screamed loudly, doing something he had never done in his entire life—even counting the time before and after his daemonic ascension.
He begged for mercy.
"No," Angron's voice was hoarse.
Anyone could see the pliers in Zeke's hand, and anyone could guess what he was about to do.
Because the Butcher's Nails were physically wired into Angron's brain, they had long since become a fatal weakness. Striking the Butcher's Nails could cause Angron to faint or even die. Sanguinius had in the original lore used sheer physical force to rip Angron's Butcher's Nails right out, killing him on the spot and banishing him back to the Warp.
However, after his resurrection, the Butcher's Nails had returned right alongside him. This was proof enough that a standard physical extraction simply would not work.
In the distance, Lion El'Jonson noticed that the shockwaves of combat in this sector had died down. He rushed over, arriving just in time to witness this scene.
Zeke was approaching step by step with the Chest Cavity Opener in hand, while his pitiful brother Angron was retreating. The Daemon Primarch ultimately collapsed helplessly onto the ground, looking like a cornered beast driven to its absolute limit.
Because of the extreme irritability caused by the Butcher's Nails, Angron's reputation among the Primarchs was notoriously poor. Hardly anyone was willing to associate with a madman who could violently erupt at any given second.
Watching Zeke's actions, the Lion assumed Zeke intended to attack the Butcher's Nails in order to banish Angron back to the Warp once again.
Zeke stood in front of Angron and used the Chest Cavity Opener on him.
The interface of the chest cavity unfolded before him. Setting aside the standard daemonic organs, Zeke's eyes instantly locked onto the Butcher's Nails situated right in the very center.
"This might hurt a little," Zeke grinned. He clicked on the Butcher's Nails and placed them into his inventory.
A clump of wet, metallic tendrils now rested in Zeke's hand. Drops of an unknown, residual biological fluid still hung from them, looking almost like a ribbon bearing a grim medal.
Zeke turned over this parasitic machine that had caused countless tragedies and sparked numerous brutal conflicts. He was just in time to see the final, murky electronic signal flash across its cable-like blood vessels before it completely and permanently died out.
From the cracks in Angron's shattered skull, clusters of flames flickered and emerged, burning all the way down to the spikes lining his spine.
Angron felt a profound sense of violation, a deep yet hollow sense of wrongness. Something had been taken away. Something had been ripped right out from the deepest recesses of his mind.
Emptiness.
However, there was no pain. Even the blinding anger faded from his heart along with it.
For the very first time, the burning rage in Angron's eyes extinguished. He lay blankly at the bottom of the crater, staring up at the sky. His gaze was unfamiliar and clear; the mind that had been constantly, agonizingly chattering at him had finally quieted down.
Angron could finally hear clearly what his own heart truly desired. What battle? What slaughter? If everything were normal, he, Angron, just wanted to be a normal person capable of feeling basic human emotions like joy, sorrow, and happiness.
Angron began to think calmly.
Khorne, on the other hand, became absolutely furious.
Upon the Brass Throne, as Khorne—who had been thoroughly enjoying the show—noticed Angron's anger fading, His expression drastically changed.
Where did that good boy with the Butcher's Nails go? What He wanted was endless killing and fighting, not calm thinking!
"Put it back!"
Although the Butcher's Nails had been extracted and Angron had regained some sanity, he was still trapped within his fallen, daemonic body.
Deep within that body, his master's will roared, urging him to quickly slaughter the Zeke standing before him and reclaim the Butcher's Nails.
Angron's hand raised uncontrollably. His five fingers curled into a claw, reaching straight for Zeke's throat.
Then, he stopped.
He used his own willpower to resist his master's command. Only after losing the Butcher's Nails did he realize for the first time what kind of miserable, agonizing life he had been living. He absolutely did not want to reinstall those abhorrent Nails.
But how could the will of Khorne be something a single Primarch could contend with?
Angron realized in terror that his body was beginning to dissolve. Khorne intended to kill him directly so that he would respawn from the Warp. Naturally, an Angron resurrected in that manner would carry the Butcher's Nails once again.
If Zeke knew what Khorne was thinking, he would have definitely mocked Him.
Organs removed by the Chest Cavity Opener don't necessarily grow back.
Standing not far away, Lion El'Jonson could hardly conceal the sheer shock on his face.
He looked at Angron, whose eyes held no anger but only a serene tranquility, suddenly feeling that this was all too absurd to be real.
It was one thing for him to regain his youth, but now even the hopelessly corrupted Angron had been turned into this quiet, well-behaved demeanor.
Dr. Zeke truly had miraculous healing hands.
Zeke pulled out a Poké Ball, placed it in front of Angron, and offered him an alternative choice.
Zeke laid out his conditions, his gaze sincere.
"You can do what you want to do, but sometimes, I will need you to fight for me. As long as you agree to my condition, I can't promise you everything, but at the very least, I can free you from the agony of the Butcher's Nails."
That was enough.
Hearing the words "free you from the Butcher's Nails," Angron didn't care about anything else.
He stared at the small red-and-white ball in front of him. "What must I do?"
"Touch it."
"Alright."
Fighting against Khorne's pressure, which threatened to tear his very soul apart, Angron actively reached out and touched the Poké Ball.
The red light enveloped him. The Poké Ball wobbled, and finally, the center turned green, indicating a successful capture.
In the void, Khorne suddenly discovered that His connection with Angron had been completely severed. He had just been poached!
"No!" Khorne snatched up the giant axe resting beside the Brass Throne and furiously cleaved the ground before Him to vent His rage.
To think He had previously mocked Tzeentch for being unable to keep an eye on His subordinate, Magnus. Now it was His turn.
In the war-torn battlefield, Zeke raised the Poké Ball high into the air. "I finally caught... Angron!"
He threw the Poké Ball, releasing the newly captured Angron.
While expressing utter disgust at Angron's fallen daemonic body, Zeke handed him a Golden Apple and a bucket of Milk, restoring him to his original, normal appearance.
The final trace of Angron's connection to Khorne was completely and thoroughly severed by the purification of the Milk and Golden Apple.
The fires of war burned in the distance, dyeing half the sky the color of rust.
Without the Butcher's Nails, Angron became a gladiator again. He sat quietly on a tilted rock, his hand resting calmly on the hilt of his sword.
This brother, with his unfamiliar appearance and unfamiliar personality, aroused the Lion's vigilance.
"Angron," the Lion's voice carried a probing, cautious tone.
Angron turned around. His eyes looked at the Lion, his gaze shifting from the Lion's face to his sword, and then back again.
"Lion," he said. "Long time no see."
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