Colchis.
Erebus, the adjutant to the Primarch Lorgar and the future First Chaplain of Colchis, was organizing his personal files in his private residence.
As a priest who had been greatly cared for by the Primarch, Erebus's residence was quite magnificent.
In his study, there was a chandelier composed of various crystal gems, hanging from a magnificent ceiling that had been intricately sculpted by a famous local sculptor of Colchis, and at this moment, it was illuminating him as he organized the mountain of parchment scrolls.
The desk in front of him was made of a unique black wood from Colchis, and on the side was an exquisite, large candlestick, used to light the candles and incense for prayer.
The candlelight flickered gently, reflecting on his face, which was covered in scriptures.
Seeing that everything was in order, Erebus showed a smug smile.
He had not originally been named Erebus.
The one who was truly named Erebus was a polite and devout young man with excellent character and scholarship.
And he was just a good-for-nothing scoundrel. In a murder against the real Erebus, he had stolen his face and identity, and had used the other's name and credit to climb the ranks step by step.
So much so that he had now become an indispensable adjutant to the Primarch Lorgar.
He was extremely proud of this.
What Emperor of Man?
Just a destined loser, a Cursed One!
And the great four gods that he, Erebus, served were the only correct, terrifying power in this universe.
Thinking of this, Erebus quietly took out the parchment scrolls and laudatory documents he had treasured.
Those records had once come from a certain ancient Chaos cult native to Colchis.
A faith in the ancient four gods, native to Colchis, called the Covenant.
This four-god faith had only recently been completely defeated by the religious forces led by Lorgar.
But as one of its believers, he had secretly lurked and had joined Lorgar's camp, becoming the other's most appreciated new priest.
Today, the Emperor of Man had officially descended upon Colchis and was preparing to take away the Primarch Lorgar, to let their missionary cause from now on develop to other planets in space.
And the gods had secretly informed him to take this opportunity to find Lorgar's weakness, and to corrupt him and subvert this empire.
Thinking of the great mission he had been given, and the favor of the four gods he would receive if he could complete the task...
...he almost laughed out loud with joy.
But. Erebus still held back.
"Heh heh."
He didn't laugh.
But Kasjia on his roof did.
"?"
Erebus froze on the spot.
It was a giant in purple-and-gold armor. He had once, when the Emperor had descended on Colchis, seen such a tall, armored warrior at the ceremony.
But in Erebus's impression, this kind of warrior in heavy armor should have moved very slowly.
But to see the other quietly hanging upside down from the ceiling... it was a bit beyond his cognitive range.
Clearly very large, yet abnormally agile.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
Under the tension, Erebus blurted out.
ZHEW—
What answered him was a blade.
In an instant, at a speed that Erebus's naked eye could not distinguish, a neat, monomolecular short knife plunged into his hand, pinning it to the black wooden desk in front of him.
Gushing blood, in an instant, dyed his hand and the wooden table red.
"Hiss..."
Under the pain, Erebus let out a series of gasps.
"Your blood is actually still red. That's a bit rare."
"I'm very curious if your insidious heart still maintains this color."
The other jumped down from the ceiling with extreme lightness and said in a slightly playful tone.
As if a seasoned hunter was toying with his prey.
But the problem was—
Erebus didn't know him at all.
Or rather, today was the first time all of Colchis had welcomed the administration of the Imperium of Man, and also the first time they had seen the military armed forces of the Imperium.
He didn't know a single such tall giant.
"What do you want? I don't know you at all! Why are you hurting me like this!!"
"It doesn't matter if you don't know me. As long as I know you."
The other was not moved by his words at all, but just came forward and kicked him hard.
"Ah!"
The monomolecular blade instantly cut open the flesh of the other's palm under the powerful impact, leaving a neat cut between his index and middle fingers.
And with the fierce kick of the purple-and-gold giant, Erebus was kicked to the other end of the room under the violent impact, and hit the wall on the side hard.
"Waugh!"
He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Under the double impact, Erebus only felt dizzy, and the intestines in his stomach seemed to be twisted together, emitting a sharp pain.
Like a dog on the side of the road.
Looking at Erebus, who was now lying on the ground, twitching like a wild dog on the side of the road, the helmet of the purple-and-gold giant came close to his face.
Reason?
I'll hit you if I want to. There's no reason.
A good beating upon meeting.
"Get up, Erebus."
Of course, under Kasjia's controlled force, this kick naturally achieved the effect of minimizing damage and maximizing pain.
If Erebus were to die so easily, that would be a bit too cheap for him.
"Friend, you... you need some reason to hit me, right?"
"Friend? My goodness, I'll have to kick you again until you really recognize that I am your enemy."
As Kasjia spoke, he kicked him again in the chest.
Thud.
He hit the wall behind him again, and then bounced back to the ground.
Under the continuous impact, Erebus was dizzy from the chain of impacts.
"F-friend..."
"May God... forgive your sins."
However, it seemed he still hadn't recognized the situation.
Erebus was still pretending to be an extremely devout believer.
"God?"
"Which god are you saying will forgive my sins?"
"Khorne? Tzeentch? Nurgle or Slaanesh?"
Smiling, Kasjia's other foot kicked towards the other's head.
Thud!
The bald head, covered in scriptures, was like a very suitable soccer ball.
It had been tempting Kasjia to go up and give it a good kick.
And then he did.
"Get up, Erebus."
But it was still with controlled force.
If Erebus's head were to fly off just like that, that would be a bit too cheap for him.
"You... you actually!"
"You said their names, you!"
Until this moment, Erebus finally understood the real reason for the other.
His betrayal and allegiance to the four gods had already been known by him.
But—why could this purple-and-gold giant say the true names of the four gods without any influence?
"Me? I can say whatever I want."
"Just like now, to deal with you, I don't need a reason."
"I haven't even finished my modification yet. Hitting you now would be against the rules of martial virtue."
But it was ridiculous. If one had to talk about martial virtue when hitting Erebus, martial virtue itself would come out and hit Erebus with you.
"Get up, Erebus."
The purple-and-gold giant said casually again.
In his hand, a new boltgun had appeared.
"I have a game... or rather, a conjecture that I need you to... verify."
Erebus, the famous great idiot of Warhammer.
If the word "countless crimes" was an exaggeration for others, for him, it was a true description.
You can't finish talking about them. You really can't.
If all of this person's crimes were to be listed, it would take about ten chapters.
Anyway, what can be known is that without this person, the entire universe would become more harmonious and more beautiful.
So he must die.
Even if he had once recommended a billion good books to the Kasjia who was not yet Kasjia (the only good thing he did), this could not exchange for his life.
Kasjia had thought about how to execute Erebus.
Considering that his weapons were all personally forged by Fulgrim with love, if they were to be stained with the blood of a beast, it would be a real disservice to Fulgrim.
In the end, Kasjia had just used a standard-issue monomolecular short knife from the Imperium.
This thing had no machine spirit, so it probably wouldn't feel disgusted by it.
Since we're talking about machine spirits, something with a machine spirit has come now.
Just in time to verify a famous conjecture from the world of Warhammer—the two-bolt-round conjecture.
First, hitting Erebus with both rounds is the two-bolt-round consensus. No one would not do this, so it is temporarily not within the scope of discussion.
What Kasjia wanted to verify now was that if a person had two bolt rounds in his hand, then when he hit Erebus with both of these bolt rounds, would the magazine, due to the machine spirit, produce more bolt rounds?
On the other hand, if Kasjia did not aim at Erebus, would the bolt rounds automatically attach themselves to Erebus's body?
A very interesting conjecture.
Kasjia, holding the boltgun, his eyes were a little fiery.
"Wait! Stop!!!"
Seeing that the other was holding a firearm with murderous intent, Erebus shouted in terror.
Where are the people?
Where are my teammates?
Where are the guards who were guarding my residence?
Why is no one coming to save me?
"Don't even think about it. They've all been knocked down by me."
"But don't worry. For the innocent, I am always merciful."
The purple-and-gold giant, perhaps, was taking pleasure in his despair.
"No! Don't!!!"
"I... I am Erebus! Lorgar's disciple! If you kill me, Lorgar will not let you off easily!"
"That's good too. Two birds with one stone."
Kasjia was not worried that Lorgar would trouble him for this.
After all, this stupid Erebus had even helped him, Kasjia, to sort out the materials of his allegiance to the four gods.
How thoughtful.
At that time, he would just throw it in Lorgar's face and let him see the evidence of his first disciple secretly blaspheming the gods.
At that time, let alone Lorgar judging Kasjia, it would be a great mercy if Kasjia didn't judge Lorgar.
"Have you thought it through?"
Facing Erebus's fierce but cowardly threat, Kasjia was still calmly ejecting the ammunition from the boltgun in his hand.
"See? Now there are only two rounds left."
Kasjia gestured with the boltgun in his hand.
"Do you want to take a bet?"
"Two rounds of bullets, how many will end up hitting you?"
"..."
"What's wrong, silent? Or are you preparing to defend yourself for secretly colluding with the four gods' faith and secretly calling the Emperor a Cursed One?"
Of course not!
Erebus's eyes showed a vicious glint.
At this moment, a white frost condensed on his back where he was lying.
It was a powerful psionic power!
He could still make one last struggle!
Psionic teleportation!
As Erebus's signature trick, he often used this move to escape after stealing a kill.
Although he had not yet undergone Space Marine modification, and his internal psionic power was not sufficient...
...but it was enough to escape this room while the other was not paying attention and was thinking of torturing him!
Erebus was confident that as long as he could find Lorgar on Colchis, who had not yet left, there was still a chance to negotiate.
As long as he could complete the teleportation!
But unfortunately, he couldn't.
"Hmph, trying to escape?"
However, this was useless against the long-prepared Kasjia.
He had raised a Warp-fire in advance, which enveloped the entire room.
The teleportation psionic power that had just condensed suddenly disappeared in this strange flame.
"Teleport? Why aren't you teleporting?"
Kasjia's tone was full of mockery.
A sliver of despair flashed through Erebus's mind.
"You're not teleporting, so I'm going to shoot, okay?"
BANG!
Without giving him time to react, from the black muzzle, a bolt round was fired directly at Erebus.
A bolt round passed straight through his thigh, or rather, his former thigh, leaving a huge, bloody hole with broken flesh and bone fragments embedded in it.
And a large splash of blood bloomed in front of the desk.
A sharp, miserable scream from Erebus instantly filled the entire room.
"That's not enough."
"For the people you sacrificed to Slaanesh, your little scream is not even a fraction of theirs."
"Second shot."
BANG!
Another bolt round, accompanied by Erebus's strong, miserable scream, also turned his still-intact other leg into a bloody mist.
"And now for the third shot."
Kasjia aimed at little Erebus.
This made him so scared that his hair stood on end.
He pulled the trigger.
It's gone. It's over.
Tsk.
Even though the machine spirit at this moment really wanted to fire another shot.
But the one who spoke of the Imperial Truth really had no way to make another bullet for Kasjia.
It was really a great pity.
"Hahahahahahaha."
Kasjia laughed.
"Hahaha..."
Erebus, who had lost too much blood, his face was a little pale. At this moment, all he could do was to laugh along with Kasjia.
"Friend... I passed the test... can you... can you let me go?"
Erebus's desire to survive was very strong.
He would not miss any opportunity to live.
Whether it was facing Kasjia or Khârn.
"Test?"
Kasjia almost wanted to laugh at this sentence.
When did he ever say this was a test?
And when did he ever say that you could go after taking two shots?
"Erebus, how can you have no experimental spirit?"
Kasjia approached the other with displeasure and wagged his index finger.
"How can one time determine the result of an experiment? To get a high-feasibility conclusion, we naturally have to experiment a few more times."
SMACK!
Kasjia smashed the butt of the boltgun heavily on the other's nose.
And then, in Erebus's desperate eyes, he took out a new weapon.
"This time, let's try the pistol."
....
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