It was a long, long time ago, when the Emperor was not yet the Emperor.
He often, with his many Perpetual friends, brought enlightenment to those who were lost and in distress, and taught them wisdom and methods.
After this, he would leave, hoping that the rest of the people he had taught could, with the wisdom he had taught them, lead humanity to a brighter future.
He believed that after people had walked out of the dark age of ignorance, they would no longer need him to interfere so frequently.
But the development of things did not seem to be as smooth as he had expected.
Wisdom gives birth to worship,
Worship strengthens into faith;
Faith condenses into consensus,
Consensus evolves into religion.
And then he found that his dark history was being spread everywhere in the name of God.
Some things he had never even done were all blamed on him, to make the converted accept it!
Invisibly, he had gained many incarnations that he had not originally had.
And brothers.
"Why keep him as—"
And apocrypha.
The kind of apocrypha that is both wild and historical.
This was a small problem.
As a Perpetual, he had long since not valued these outside rumors.
Alright, he still valued them a little.
However, compared to the harm caused by the religious conflicts and hatred that his followers had, in the name of their faith, condemned, attacked, and even warred and slaughtered each other, it was far more sad for him than to be slandered.
It was always like this.
He wanted to enlighten humanity, to enlighten every person to master their own destiny.
With scientific and rational thinking, to advance towards the distant sea of stars.
But people always hoped for a powerful and infallible god to point out everything for them and to lead everything.
And after losing the support of God, because of fear, because of power, or simply because of hatred, the believers, in the name of his teachings of leading people to good, did foolish and crazy things.
No matter how many times, there was no change.
He had never been able to change anything.
Even in the most successful Old Night.
He had thought that humanity, with such a high level of technology, would never return to that kind of benighted state.
But when the all-sweeping Warp storm came again, everything returned to its primitive state.
And even with the support of high technology, the harm caused by people's madness was even more terrifying.
The more he wanted to help people, the deeper the religious conflicts and hatred that resulted in the end.
This is reality, he thought.
Even the most powerful individual, under the surging tide of time, could never lead humanity to the light.
Disheartened, he knew this inevitable end.
From then on, he lived in seclusion, unwilling to participate in disputes anymore.
Until—
In the very end,
the old friend who had once given him the kindling of fire came to him again.
Back to the present.
The Bucephalus, hovering over Colchis.
He looked at Lorgar, who continued to kneel before him, prostrate and unwilling to lift his head.
Although every gene-primarch had inherited his characteristics to a certain extent...
...but he had absolutely never been so foolish!
Never!
He turned his back, somewhat unwilling to see the other's face, which was full of piety and scriptures.
The Emperor: "..."
So why do we even look alike?
"I do not need you to believe in my wisdom, Lorgar."
"Your piety will only lead to blindness, and blindness is the cause of all evil."
"To start wars in the name of religion, to slaughter the innocent, and to cause countless suffering and death."
And by the way, the words he had used to refute countless fanatics were once again thrown at the other.
"I will teach my people to be pious and to do good."
"With God and my guidance, the tragedies of the past will surely not happen again."
"You said 'will not happen again,' didn't you?"
The Emperor seemed to have caught the loophole he had been waiting for in the other's words.
I was waiting for you to say that!
"Kasjia, bring the person you captured up."
The gilded door of the private room where the Emperor and Lorgar were alone on the Bucephalus instantly opened.
An Astartes in magnificent purple-and-gold armor, dragging a large coffin with a chain, seemed to have been waiting outside the door for a long time.
"Yes!"
A hint of an imperceptible smile climbed onto the face of the Emperor of Mankind.
Actually, as a member of the Emperor's Children, the honor guard was also a compulsory course.
When the Emperor's Children had not yet officially participated in the Great Crusade as a legion, apart from studying on Terra and at the Mechanicum outpost at the foot of the Ural Mountains, Kasjia had generally followed the remaining Third Legion honor guard with the Emperor to one planet after another, to welcome one returning primarch after another.
However, this time, Kasjia had brought a big gift.
He calmly stepped forward and opened the psionic-sealing coffin.
That Erebus just rolled out of the coffin.
"Erebus? Father, what is the meaning of this?"
Lorgar quickly recognized who the person who had been brought in was.
Isn't this one of his most appreciated disciples, Erebus?
"You—"
Just as he was released from the seal, Erebus arched his body and was about to get up, and was about to make a move.
And then he met the eyes of the Emperor of Mankind, also known as the Cursed One.
Erebus: "..."
He obediently prostrated himself.
"This is the blasphemous books and documents I found while investigating Erebus's residence. Please have a look, Lord Emperor."
Kasjia chuckled inwardly and handed the scarlet book, which had a human face stretched on its cover, and several parchments to the Emperor.
"This is the video and audio recording I took while infiltrating. Please have a look, Lord Lorgar."
And then, he handed the miniature 3D playback device, which showed the blasphemous publications that Erebus had read and organized in his residence, to Lorgar at the side.
Looking at the blasphemous publications that Erebus was reading and organizing in the miniature 3D playback device before him, Lorgar's face instantly turned pale.
Actually, Kasjia had also wanted to expose Kor Phaeron, that old bastard.
But unfortunately, this old dog was truly cunning.
While Kasjia was dealing with Erebus, this thing had already received the news and had destroyed the Chaos-worshipping things in advance.
The search for Kor Phaeron this time had been fruitless.
Furthermore, with his transcendent status as the Primarch's adoptive father, a Space Marine of Kasjia's level, without finding any evidence, was not in a good position to make a move on him directly.
But to be able to remove one Erebus was already a great gain for Kasjia.
Now, he was more interested in seeing what kind of punishment the Emperor would give to Lorgar after knowing that the disciple beside Lorgar was a Chaos spy.
Hee hee, this is what I want to see!
"?!"
A strong, golden psionic wave exploded the moment the Emperor took the books and read them.
And that blasphemous book, in that instant, ignited with a golden flame and was quickly burned to nothingness.
He was angry.
The Emperor was rarely angry.
Under the washing of this golden wave, Lorgar, who had been fiercely debating with the Emperor, did not dare to say a word at this moment.
As for Erebus, who was prostrate on the ground...
...what this guy was thinking in his heart at this moment was unknown, but it seemed he was about to face the Emperor's wrath.
"This is what you confidently assured me 'will not happen again'?"
To be honest, the Emperor had expected that a blind religious believer would be infiltrated by the power of Chaos.
But to be infiltrated to this extent so quickly, even before joining the Great Crusade, was something he had never imagined.
"Do you have anything else to defend yourself with, Lorgar?"
"Or did you not put me in your eyes from the beginning, and this was all your own arrangement?"
"No... I'm not... it was Erebus, he—"
Lorgar hurriedly tried to explain, but the overly strong evidence made him only tremble and his words were incoherent.
"This proves your blindness, doesn't it? And you should thank this Kasjia. He saved you from the whirlpool of blindness before you had fallen into the abyss."
Crack!
An unimaginable force directly crushed Lorgar's knees.
Thud!
Under the suppression of the psionic power, he immediately knelt down in the direction of Kasjia.
Kasjia: "?"
Wait, why is this coming at me?
He was just about to return the gesture by kneeling in the same way, but the moment his knees were about to bend, another powerful psionic force maintained his standing position.
It was the Emperor.
He had acted again.
"Reflect on your actions."
"And your religion, which will surely be led astray by evil men."
"Think about the necessity of the existence of religion, and only stand up when you truly understand my intentions."
As he spoke, the Emperor looked at Erebus at the side without changing his expression.
He gently used the power of psionics to put him back in the coffin.
"The expeditionary fleet of the Third Legion is currently short of manpower. From now on, all the soldiers of your legion will be under his, the commander of the Emperor's Children, Kasjia Sherlock's, full command."
"You will be his adjutant and will be under his supervision, until the day you understand why religion hinders the development of mankind."
"And Colchis must be destroyed."
This point was beyond doubt.
An ancient planet where the faith of the four gods had been spread for a long time was very likely to have already been infiltrated by Chaos.
To destroy it was the most reasonable action.
At least it was countless times better than burning the perfect city later on.
"All of this will also be completed by the Third Legion."
"?"
The Emperor issued his command.
At the same time, he did not give Kasjia any chance to refuse.
No, buddy?
Old Man Gold, what are you doing?
I was just helping you out. Why are you retaliating against me like this!
What if Lorgar goes dark in the future? Won't the Battle of Calth be aimed at us?!
Looking at Lorgar, who was kneeling in front of him, and who was only a head shorter than him even when kneeling, Kasjia felt a wave of bitterness in his heart.
Me?
Commanding the Primarch of the Word Bearers?
Seriously?
But it seemed that this was the final directive issued by the Emperor.
After he had finished speaking, he turned his back, and with a flick of his scarlet cape, he quickly left.
This is bad!
This guy, Old Man Gold, has thrown all the things he doesn't want to deal with to me!
Is this your scheme?
To not have to deal with a religious leader like Lorgar, you'd rather hand him over to a common Space Marine to lead?
Old Man Gold, you bastard...
...you're so despicable!
As for why this guy Old Man Gold hated religion so much?
A possible conjecture suddenly flashed in Kasjia's mind.
Could it be that the reason the Emperor hated religion so much was actually similar to the Warp entity that he himself had worshipped out of existence—the spirit of the Sagittarius golden ring?
This group of people had taken his dark history and had treated it as a great achievement, and the result was that they had directly worshipped it into the Warp?
Like when he had originally gone to Mars to kill the mischievous Void Dragon, and the people below had kept bowing to him piously, and had worshipped him until he was shining with a golden light?
Making him now glow with a lethal amount of golden light all over his body, and his body had also become very large!
There were even some places where he couldn't even squeeze through the door and had to transform!
And then the embarrassed and angry Old Man Gold had decided to erase his dark history and was preparing to eliminate all religious beliefs.
Reasonable.
Not only reasonable, but it all adds up.
But now, how could Kasjia manage Lorgar and his army of Word Bearers?
Thinking that there were hundreds of thousands of Astartes and a Primarch waiting for his management, Kasjia's head suddenly started to hurt.
This is... how am I supposed to manage this...
Not long after.
The Pride of the Emperor, the Apothecary's private laboratory.
The test subjects that had been lacking in Melusine's laboratory since the Byzas trip were finally replenished today.
The new material was personally delivered by Commander Kasjia.
It was said to be a young priest from Colchis, named Erebus.
And Kasjia had also specially instructed that this guy was contaminated with some unclean power, and that he had to be very careful when doing experiments.
But the good thing was that there was no need to talk about ethics or anything with this guy.
He could be dealt with at will.
This was a convenient thing.
"Lycaeon, give me the knife."
Thinking of this, Melusine commanded the servitor beside her, preparing to first dismember this newly acquired thing.
But the moment the scalpel cut open the skin, the other's body suddenly healed itself.
"Hahaha, the dark gods have given me new power!"
He shouted.
"I will not feel pain now, nor will I have suffering!"
"Come on! Apothecary, join the embrace of the dark gods with me!"
"Not interested."
Melusine didn't care about the other's words at all.
For a scientist, she didn't care about any kind of father or blessing.
She just wanted to solve a new puzzle.
Then is there any way to eliminate the unclean power carried by this guy?
This situation seemed to have appeared before.
Melusine recalled the golden light wave that had instantly healed everyone and had successfully driven out the Psychneuein when she had participated in the biology lecture on Prospero.
She had been there at that time, and she had seen with her own eyes how that unknown, mysterious power had worked.
She needed to verify this.
Melusine, after a moment of contemplation, chose to put goggles on the test subject.
Erebus: "..."
Erebus: "What do you mean, Sagittarius Golden Ring?"
....
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