Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 876

The chemistry guy said, cursing, as he ripped off the Hades statue from his neck.

"So what if he's praying to his damn emperor? I'll just pray to him!"

So they stood in the narrow passageway of the cabin, a very small rectangular room. On the north wall hung a statue of Hades, and on the south wall hung a statue of the God Emperor. So they silently turned their backs to the statue of Hades, knelt down before the statue of the God Emperor, and began to pray along with the prayers broadcast over the loudspeaker.

At this very moment, similar scenes are unfolding on countless warships adrift in the nearby star system: exhausted people kneel on the ground, their clothes stained with dried blood, similar words echoing through the broadcasts, people lower their heads, close their eyes, and silently recite the prayers broadcast over the air.

They may not fully understand the meaning of the prayer, or why they were being told to do it—but they were certainly exhausted, and people wanted the war to end as soon as possible.

So they became devout.

Perhaps it wasn't truly for the emperor and the empire, but for themselves.

..............................

+Fuck the Emperor!!! +

Mortarion's heart-wrenching roar echoed through the greyish realm, his compound eyes blazing with fury as the Primarch stared intently at the sky above, where the Nether Sea was churning.

I fucking killed him!!!

The Pale King roared, spitting venom from his mouth onto the ground with a hissing sound.

Beside him, the golden light shone even brighter as Guilliman wearily rubbed his temples, then looked up, his blue eyes gazing anxiously at the sky.

Forgive my bluntness, but I think the Emperor will only be happier by your actions—after all, he does intend for you and me to kill him.

+***！ ********！ **！ ！ ！ ！ +

He spewed out extremely vicious words, and Mortarian seemed to be physically about to explode with rage. Although he also had a "contingency plan for Hades going out of control," that was only after Hades defeated the Outer Ones to see if Hades had truly gone out of control.

Moreover, strictly speaking, this is a notification rather than an order; the plan has already begun in areas where the two original candidates could not currently manage.

Wait, where did the other me go?

Mortarian narrowed his eyes; he couldn't let him cause trouble.

Guilliman blinked innocently, realizing something was terribly wrong. If he revealed the whereabouts of the chief rebel, Mortalian would likely spiral further out of control.

He was taken away by Luo Jia.

Killieman decided to downplay the issue.

+To complete the Emperor's other plans—I think he'll reunite with Leon. +

+Leon? Leon Johnson? +

Mortarian's voice suddenly rose.

+You mean, all these years, the lion has been hidden away by the emperor?

I think it might be like that, just like Luojia.

Guilliman's intense gaze dimmed, and he gave a self-deprecating smile.

He may still need to have Primarchs he can trust—you see, neither you nor I trust him, and he doesn't trust us that much either.

Mortarian laughed—it's always like this, that damned old geezer, they get tricked by that old thing again and again, but they keep going back to him, there's nothing they can do, because they don't see as much as the Emperor, nor do they see as far as the Emperor, and besides, others will always have a little bit of selfishness, but the Emperor's selfishness doesn't stop him from pushing Horus out.

The more you understand the emperor, the more you hate him, and the less you can do anything about him—because he never seeks personal gain and would even willingly offer himself up.

If the Primarch could be angered to death, Mortalian would probably be unconscious by now.

He simply stared at the sinking darkness on the horizon, at the illusory fate reflected in the mirror—Motalian secretly vowed in his heart that this time, he would make sure that old Deng met his end here.

This might be a happy ending for the Emperor, and for everyone, and Mortarian felt a determination creeping up his spine.

But before that, they need to witness a tragedy, a scene that Mortarian is not happy to see.

Despite the Primarch's repeated explanations that if Hades were allowed to completely devour the Outer Ones, then Hades, who would evolve into the Supreme Star God, would become a completely different being, and the original Hades would also completely disappear.

So he simply raised his head silently, amidst the meteor shower of countless fragments of the outer beings, awaiting the judgment from the empire—a judgment that was almost tantamount to betrayal.

........................

[Base 095]

[Coordinates received, first confirmation, XX.UHFR.873V; second confirmation, XX.UHFR.873V; third confirmation, XX.UHFR.873V, confirmation complete, transmission permitted.]

[Permission granted.]

[Countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, Launch!!!]

Hundreds of stars shone brightly in the Milky Way.

Chapter 878 [320] The Sage's View of History, That Distant Him

The light was as white as day.

Hundreds of starlight beams pierced the Milky Way, like pure silk threads cutting through the vast starry sky. Although compared to the colossal weapons launched by the Necromancers in space, the hundreds of light spears launched by the humans still had some noise at their edges.

But it's enough to light up a whole starry sky.

One after another, humans clad in red robes and with bodies made of metal raised their arms high, their longbows drawn taut like rainbows. On the wild land, on the smooth deck, those huge, clumsy man-made structures raised their heads, gazing at the starry sky along with these tiny people.

[095 Launch successful, target attainment success rate 75.1%.]

[127 Launch successful, target attainment success rate 41.9%.]

[005 Launch successful, target attainment success rate 89.1%]

The mechanical eyes reflected the gods they thought about and prayed to day and night. At this moment, the dark sea was as black as ink, just as the saying in the "Say of the God of the Underworld" says, "Darkness helps people to think and reflects the true wisdom of the wise."

But now, these believers have turned their knives and guns on Hades, the god they pray to every day.

One after another, beams of light pierced the vast starry sky, as thin and long as the spears pointed out by the ancients, randomly thrusting towards the mammoths trudging across the wasteland.

However, not all sages were saddened or unable to accept this action—a considerable number of sages from both the psychic and anti-psychic domains were dancing with joy, the arcs of electricity surging through the engine nearly puncturing the chip, and whatever happened next would become material for their future papers—enough to write for a thousand years.

It can't be said that they only just realized they were betraying their "gods." From the very beginning of the plan's proposal and drafting, the sages clearly understood what they were doing and that they were participating in a project that could potentially bring down the gods.

But as Hades said, "Gods can bleed, gods can be incomplete, gods can die."

They realized their mission thousands of years ago at their desks, experimental platforms, and factories, and thousands of years later, their hard work is finally being used—how could they not be excited?

They were tense and excited, worried that Hades had really fallen, yet also concerned that their research and development would be useless.

So they did nothing but raise their heads, just like the first primitive people tens of thousands of years ago who raised their heads to look up at the stars. These sages who had spent their lives pursuing knowledge raised their heads and stared at the stars that had once given them the courage to venture into the dark wasteland.

There, the Underworld was still wrestling with the Starfire, completely unaware of the betrayal lurking behind it. To the Underworld King, who had already fallen into devouring, greed, and chaos, those weapons that combined the wisdom and resources of billions of humans were nothing more than that.

The first "light spear" came from Base 043. The slightly dim spear lost its power when it reached the star field next to the surging Black Sea and dimmed among the meteorites.

There was no other way. Base 043 was closest to the battleground of the Star Gods, and the warriors and sages stationed there were working under immense pressure from the Star Gods. Base 167, which was even closer to the battleground, lost contact at 8:32 AM, and initial observations indicated that it had been destroyed. Base 079 was also unable to launch successfully because the aftershocks of the Star Gods' attack interfered with the Third Law.

Jin-306 labeled all the light spears in his sight, anticipating that the light from Base 077 would be the first to concentrate on the Underworld Sea—and sure enough, the bright spear pierced straight into the Σ zone of the Underworld Sea, like a needle stabbing into the seawater.

It disappeared in an instant, like a small pebble thrown into the sea.

III. II. I.

Jin counted silently in his mind. He felt his fuel pump tremble with each tick of the counter. He stared intently at the small corner, waiting.

zero.

call--

Like a tiny white flower blooming in the dark sea, covered by a highly effective white fuel, it instantly began to expand.

Kim thought he should be relieved, but he didn't feel good at all. He was still holding his breath, feeling a dull ache in his chest, and he almost cried—if he had eyes and tear glands.

Beside the Great Sage King, who stood there dumbfounded, Kirkland was trembling like a leaf. If King had glanced at him, he would have immediately suspected that Kirkland was already in turmoil. But King did not. Both Great Sages stared wide-eyed at the sky.

There, the kid from Mars is now roaring.

Is it anger or pain from being betrayed?

More and more spears of light arrived at their destination. The thin lines fell into the Dark Sea, initially inconspicuous, but after a few breaths they bloomed into white flowers, like oiled brushes dipped into water, causing bizarre and colorful films to bloom on the surface.

But that's not a thin film.

Jin-306 knew that point perfectly well; it was a pure hole, piercing through the darkness, an absolute hole.

The plan to restrict Hades was initially proposed by Mortarion, the Primarch of the Deathguard. However, instead of pointing out a research direction for him, the Primarch handed the draft plan to Jin-306. In contrast to the Primarch's subsequent complete indifference to the plan, Mortarion generously approved an unimaginable amount of funding for it.

The Primarch has only one limitation—the plan must be kept secret and must be carried out by people trusted by the Gold Exchange.

Over the next century, King-306 implemented this plan in the various mechanical worlds of his "Pluto as Man" faction. Tens of thousands of sages debated the plan, trying to find a theoretical way to restrain Pluto.

The sages spent 105 years trying to prove in theory that they could restrain Hades through some kind of technology.

With the project stalled, Kim-306 had no choice but to broaden the pool of candidates. After several rounds of evaluation, a sage from the "Pluto as God" faction was added to the project. Later, priests from the state religion and the Hades religion also joined the project.

In the end, in the secret society of Kim-306, in various unnoticed corners, the technical sergeants of each legion will also appear. Most of these technical sergeants are unknown in their own legions and never attract attention—their brothers will not know what mission they are carrying out—selected from Mars and named with top secret.

Finally, the person who proposed the initial theory for the current plan to restrain Hades was someone no one expected—a high priest of the state religion, the Divine Emperor, who, together with a technical sergeant of the Salamanders, put forward a theoretical hypothesis.

They found a "thin film" that is insoluble in both the physical world and subspace.

Netway.

Although Hades proved in the battle of Slaanesh's fall that his power could break through the Web of Paths, it still required sufficient strength and energy. In general tests, Hades did not directly devour the Web of Paths like it did in devouring the Warp, but rather existed in a state of incompatible isolation.

It is now very difficult to find strong dimensions and spaces in this world that do not react with or easily dissolve into the Netherworld.

The Net Dao clearly meets this condition; it will not actively merge with the Underworld and will only shatter when the Underworld exerts its force.

When this proposal was presented to Kim-306, the idea, put forward by two people who were not favored by anyone, immediately exploded like a small firework in Kim's mind engine—the Great Sage seemed to subconsciously understand that this was what they had been looking for all along.

After that, although papers in other fields remained popular, the mainstream recognition scheme for this program became the online platform.

For this project, King specifically sought cooperation with the Imperial Guard, who provided the project with all of the Emperor's research on the Internet. The Emperor, having obtained the Tuchucha Engine, had already pieced together most of the puzzle, while the knowledge left behind by Hades solved another small part. However, the final puzzle still needed to be pieced together by the Sages.

Fifty-seven years after the Webpath was proposed, after the salamander soldier who proposed it died at the hands of the Nurgle archdeacon "Baldur," and after the priest had his head ripped off by a maddened demon during an exorcism, a sage from the "Plutonian Faction" of the Edge Forging world completed the initial establishment of the Webpath through information shared by Gold.

Humans have successfully replicated version 1.0 of the network channel, forming a closed, hollow network channel in a space of less than ten cubic meters, which collapsed after five milliseconds.

Since then, generations of sages and technical warriors have devoted themselves to updating and iterating this technology, until the version now used on the battlefield, which can deploy a network in a very short time to envelop and isolate a part of the underworld.

According to the data and descriptions provided by the Primarch Mortalian, the Underworld would gradually wither away over time after separating from the Hades' main body. After destroying several high-intensity Black Stones left behind by the Hades before they fell into slumber, the Sages found a catalyst to accelerate the shrinkage of the Underworld.

Specific rays, specific temperatures, specific dimensions.

But not enough.

Finally, the sages turned their attention back to the warp and psionic energy. After a series of experiments, calculations, and modeling, they found the Dark Domain* psionic energy calculation formula.

The formula calculates the ratio of dark energy to psionic energy at which the dark energy will devour the psionic energy, or vice versa.

Finally, the prototype of this series of weapons appeared. First, a closed network the size of a star was used to wrap and isolate the dark domain, creating the best conditions for the dark domain to shrink within the closed network. Then, psionic bombs were released to devour the dark domain.

The only downside is that this consumes a lot of psionic energy.

This is why the Word Bearers ask people to pray—the God-Emperor, who has slowly ascended to the position of Dark Lord, does not need people to pray, but these weapons do.

After Hades' resurrection, these data were not entered into the Academy of Athens, but were held by these sages alone—for some reason, Jin banished the sages who were in charge of these technologies to the Forging World on the edge of the Empire.

The Great Sage knew that this technology had extremely strong limitations and could only restrict Hades—because the specific environment inside the Web of Deities did not adapt well to the other Star Gods.

Therefore, he sent those sages far away. King didn't know why, but what was he thinking when he followed Hades, who had just woken up, countless times?

So Kim subsequently resigned and went on a long journey.

It wasn't a real trip; he was visiting the sages he had released, while also following the research vessel that was digging up the graveyards of the undead in space—Gold-306 on board would collect the knowledge as soon as the fleet discovered a better way to restrain the Star Gods.

This is the whole truth, a long, tedious, and boring story made up of countless believers who betrayed God.

Hades himself always knew about this, and Hades had a vague feeling that something was going on—but he never asked about the truth.

He always smiled, a gentle smile, an encouraging smile, a weary smile, a bitter smile. He never got angry with the sages and researchers, but earnestly pointed out their problems and encouraged them. He would even give the sages, who didn't even have a digestive system, a handful of cookies before they left. This was the awakened Hades—another side that was only directed at the sages and technical soldiers.

Jin really wanted to cry.

But he couldn't cry at all. He had long since lost his eyeballs. His eyeballs, along with his severed head, had turned into a pool of biomass fertilizer on Mars ten thousand years ago, which was replaced by a tablet computer screen.

The dim electronic screen now resembles a smudged inkpad, with white flowers reflected in the starry sky, one after another.

This is the Cult of Mechanics, His right-hand man, His most capable and silent eldest son. The wise man does not speak, but under His leadership, he builds one cornerstone after another for the empire. Their battlefields are mostly in laboratories, at desks, and in workshops, where they use red robes instead of heavy armor, machines instead of flesh, and machine oil to replace blood. They interpret Hades' teachings between 0 and 1.

This is also the Cult of Mechanics, who raise their guns against their own gods—far more decisive, ruthless, and cold-blooded than the more hesitant Emperors, Primarchs, Legions, Hades, and Astral Army.

But they did not betray him; they followed the teachings of Hades. On the path chosen by Hades, the Mechanicus went the furthest and was the most correct.

They are personally bringing down a god—even if mortal power is insufficient to completely pull Him down from His pedestal, it is enough to leave Him covered in blood.

As he walked this path step by step, did Hades know that he himself had taught these sages everything? Perhaps he did, and would he be angry about it?