The Past.
Holy Terra, the Church of the Thunderstone.
A stormy midnight.
Father Uriah stood alone, holding a flickering candle in his withered, old hand, trembling with him in the cold wind.
In the center of the church's altar was a broken bronze pocket watch.
The glass on its surface was shattered. Even though the exquisite hands were intact, it no longer moved, and had stopped at the moment before 12 o'clock.
This clock had been stolen by Father Uriah from a palace that had collected thousands of clocks, before he had converted to the teachings of God.
At that time, he remembered the curse of the craftsman behind him—
This clock had its own extraordinary power.
It was silently counting down to the end of the world. Only when the last moment of humanity arrived would it ring.
Apart from that, the interior of the church was quite simple: a long, narrow hall ran through it, with old wooden pews lined up on both sides of the hall, and a flight of stairs at the north and south ends leading to the upper floor.
Once, this church had been filled with a constant stream of believers.
In the endless wars, under the melee of warlords all over the world, desperate humans had gathered here.
They had prayed for an omnipotent god to save them from the mud of despair and misfortune.
But now, there was no need to pray anymore.
The land of Terra, which had been deeply divided and ravaged by war, had been unified.
A new ruler had defeated all the previous warlords, dictators, and tyrants, and had ended the wars that had raged on this land for countless centuries.
When God had already descended upon the world, people no longer needed God's salvation.
And the Church of the Thunderstone was thus ridiculed and abandoned.
Only he, Father Uriah, was left, guarding this place in the storm.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared.
The stained-glass window was instantly illuminated by a brief light. The image of a knight in golden armor slaying a silver dragon, even after countless years of wind and frost, still showed his lifelike heroism.
The old wooden door opened.
This last church on Holy Terra welcomed its last guest.
An uninvited guest.
A tall figure in a scarlet cloak and a hood appeared at the door of the Church of the Thunderstone.
His face could not be seen in the shadow of the hood, but in the next instant, he took off his hood, revealing his scarred, plain face.
"Welcome to the Church of the Thunderstone. I am Father Uriah Olathaire, and I am about to begin the midnight service. Would you like to join?"
"No need."
Hearing the word "service," a faint hint of disgust flashed across his face for a moment.
Especially when he saw the large stained-glass window of the golden-armored knight slaying the silver dragon.
"I am here only to talk to you."
"Oh?"
"Are you seeking confession, or enlightenment?"
"No."
"I want to know, when the whole world has given up its faith in gods and divinity because of the progress of science and reason, what makes you hold on here?"
"This view... is a bit too cynical."
The priest said with a bitter smile.
Uriah could feel the martial power and disgust contained in the tall man before him.
"This is the last church on Terra," he said.
"A place like this will soon become a thing of the past. I want to leave an impression before it all disappears."
"Not going to leave a souvenir?"
Father Uriah sat face to face with him at the large, red wooden table in the vestry and poured him a glass of light red wine.
"After all, there are murals and works of art from a thousand years ago preserved here. It is not common to find things of this age that have survived the wars."
The priest was very calm and did not feel alarmed or angry at his words.
God had already revealed to him and had foreseen the arrival of this day.
"No. The Emperor will have no mercy for this," he said.
"You must have heard of the Emperor and his crusade. He wants to eliminate all forms of religion and belief in the supernatural, and his army will come here."
"I know."
"But you are still here."
"I am always here. Because—I believe in my God. The power of faith makes me fear nothing."
"That is an ignorant idea."
He did not show much courtesy to the priest.
"Many times. I have seen many times mad religious leaders and believers. They all say the same thing."
"But I will not. God will guide our faith to lead people to good."
"To lead people to good. It is always the same beginning."
"But they all end up in the same way."
He said, shrugging his shoulders, as if he had long anticipated the priest's defense.
"To start wars in the name of religion, to slaughter the innocent, and to cause countless suffering and death."
"Believe me, Uriah. The history of religion is a series of terrifying and bloody histories. Just look at what humanity has done in the name of their gods for thousands and tens of thousands of years..."
"...spot after spot... are all bloodstains."
"Do you know that in ancient times, someone started a war in the name of religion? They burned cities, killed people, to 'purify' the filth of this city. And after doing all of this, he could shamelessly say in the name of religion that this was a just judgment given by God."
As he spoke, he became more and more excited, and stood up and paced back and forth in the small vestry.
"And a hundred years after this event, in another region, another saint declared war on a sect of his own church. They also conquered and killed all the prisoners, and even the pursuit of those who had escaped the siege led to the establishment of an organization called the Inquisition."
"This is a terrifying, completely hysterical organization of religious fanatics!"
He said, his face full of deep resentment.
"Its agents can freely stretch, burn, pierce, and break their victims on demonic instruments of torture, forcing them to admit that they are heretics and to identify other guilty people!"
As he spoke, as if he was empathizing with all the innocent victims, he sat down with a face full of pain and sighed.
"I don't want to see the same thing happen again and again."
"Enough!" Uriah could no longer tolerate his words.
"These damn madmen have nothing to do with me! I am different from them! I have personally received a revelation from God!"
"A revelation from God? That excuse has been used to death, Uriah."
"No! I really have!"
He refuted with all his might.
"On the battlefield of Gaduare."
"Gaduare?"
His face stiffened significantly for a moment.
"That's right, on Gaduare. It's a long story..."
The priest told him how he had, under the impulse of the moment, joined the rebel army, and how he had been easily defeated by the Thunder Warriors on the battlefield.
And just when the young priest thought he was about to die, a huge golden phantom had saved him from the crisis and had healed all his wounds.
—That was the miracle he had encountered.
A true, real miracle.
"This..."
He hesitated for a moment and scratched the top of his head.
It seemed he was thinking about how to refute this.
"Uriah."
He opened his mouth.
"Are you afraid of death?"
"No. I have already died once on the battlefield of Gaduare. As for now, my life belongs to my God."
"Really?"
"But in that case, why do you not feel joy for them when you come into contact with the dying?"
"After all, if an eternal paradise is waiting for the other on the other side, why is there no joyful expectation? Could it be that, deep down, they do not believe it is true?"
This was his final revenge on those stubborn religious believers.
"Shut up!"
Father Uriah was completely enraged by him. He turned his back to the shrine and did not look at him. "I will no longer listen to your arrogant words. If you have said enough, if you have humiliated me enough, then go!"
"The game is over!"
"Yes," he replied.
"The game is over."
Behind Uriah, a golden light appeared.
It was a tall, magnificent figure in golden armor, and a dazzling, strong light emanated from his body.
He was the noble paragon of humanity.
Uriah realized that he had seen this divine face before.
On the former battlefield of Gaduare.
"You... you are God, and also the Emperor of Man?"
"I am not a god, Uriah."
The tall, golden giant shook his head.
"Now, do you know that what you have done is all meaningless?"
"You... you are the Emperor... this, this is impossible..."
The priest bent down and kept repeating under his breath.
Uriah felt as if a piece of his heart was missing.
"Now, it is time to leave."
Flames completely engulfed the entire Church of the Thunderstone.
The golden-armored warrior from behind the Emperor had ignited this last church with the flamer in his hand.
"We will rush to the stars, and it will be your future duty to preach the Imperial Truth for the people."
He patted the other's shoulder with satisfaction. Under his holy, golden light, Father Uriah's heart seemed to have lost its sadness at this moment.
"This will be our step into a new world. To welcome a rational and scientific era where we will realize all our dreams."
"No... no, Emperor," Uriah retorted stubbornly.
"Since you believe that humanity will be as rational as you expect and will no longer need the guidance of God."
"Then why did you try to persuade me and burn down this last church, leaving no trace?"
"Since you believe that humanity will from now on uphold reason and science, they will naturally laugh at and spit on religion. But why did you still have to erase and cover up all traces of the existence of religion?"
"Could it be that, deep down, you also believe that humanity will in the future once again seek the comfort of God and pray for the coming of God?"
"Could it be that, deep down, you also do not believe that you can lead people to a new world?"
"I—"
"No need to explain, Emperor! There is no place for me in the new world. Today, let me leave with my God!"
Towards the dark hole under the flames, Father Uriah laughed loudly and walked back into the flames.
This was the priest's equal revenge on him for exposing God's lie.
He had exposed him.
"I believe I can lead them."
This should have been a very simple and powerful sentence.
But at this moment, he, who was always eloquent, was silent.
"God!!!"
Colchis.
This was the word that the Primarch Lorgar had said when he had finally seen the Emperor in the real world and not in the spiritual world for the first time.
The moment he had descended upon Colchis before everyone, the Primarch Lorgar had fallen to his knees before him without any hesitation.
The pious one's whole body was covered with incense and oil, and the words praising the Master of Mankind, written in golden ink, covered his entire body.
Including his shiny bald head.
"God—"
A mountain-like, tsunami-like, dense crowd of pious and loyal believers, they all knelt down with the Primarch in the direction of this golden-armored giant.
Colchis was also an extremely remote planet. On the planet, there had once been various ancient beliefs and more religious wars that had occurred with them.
But after the Primarch Lorgar had descended upon the world, he had been picked up by an old priest named Kor Phaeron, and had been raised in beatings and scoldings.
Finally, Lorgar, who had gradually possessed the power of a Primarch, had successfully become the religious leader of the planet, and had continuously developed and expanded the idea of worshipping the Emperor.
"Get up, my child."
"I am not a god."
Looking at the kneeling Primarch below and his loyal followers of the Emperor-worshipping cult that he had cultivated...
...he was silent for a moment, and then defended himself by saying that he was not a god.
And it was clear that such pale words were not enough to convince people.
Are you kidding me? A five-meter-tall, super-large golden-armored giant appears in the world, and he still insists that he is not a god?
But Lorgar would naturally not go against the will of God on the spot. He stood up as requested.
"They are your siblings."
After the Emperor had finished speaking, under the huge wings, an elegant woman in golden armor, holding a brilliant golden long spear, was approaching the crowd, waving the pure white wings behind her.
Wow, there's even an angel!
If it were just the Emperor descending alone, one could still stubbornly say that he was just a powerful human individual. Just as Lorgar could grow to be over 3 meters tall, it was just that he had inherited his superhuman height.
But to have an angel appear behind him...
...this supporting facility is a bit too complete, isn't it?
"I am not a god. It's just that she does indeed have wings comparable to an angel."
God seemed a little stubborn.
This was Lorgar's first perception of God.
Since... since God is also stubborn, it means that being stubborn is actually a correct thing.
Lorgar had an epiphany.
"God!!!"
He also, learning from the other, began to be stubborn.
The dawn before the unification of Terra.
The ruins of the Church of the Thunderstone.
When the east had just begun to brighten, and the flames had already burned this last church to a ruin...
...the hands of the broken clock, which in Uriah's mouth symbolized the end of the world, began to move under the burning of the flames.
All the hands pointed to twelve o'clock.
Everything was about to come to an end... or was it?
No.
Tick, tock.
Twelve o'clock and one second.
The clock continued to move.
Like all the clocks in the world, with the rolling torrent of time, it moved forward without stopping.
Going round and round, one round after another.
After all, all clocks are counting down to the end of the world.
Aren't they?
The protagonist did not appear in this chapter because he had something more important to do.
What is it? It's really hard to guess!
Do you have any clue, Erebus?
....
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