bookbashuk Page 558
Page 558
This may also be related to Mortarion's previous efforts and Booz's efforts.
Although the Cult of the Underworld has also taken root in the Storm Starfield, their pragmatic beliefs make them appear rather restrained... Perhaps they don't care at all what Hades looks like, only whether the blessing can still be used after Hades' return.
After the bishop was sent to inquire whether Hades needed to change his doctrines and whether Hades could reside permanently in the Storm Starfield—and received negative answers to both—the Storm Starfield fell silent.
After the Death Guard entered the warp, the Storm Sector was in a semi-production state. Hades couldn't just abandon Terra, these two troublemakers, so he had to manage it through the Death Guard's agents stationed in Terra.
While it's called management, it's really just helping to check for any other emergencies. The Pale Lord's contingency plan is very detailed, which saves Hades a lot of time.
Sometimes, sitting at his desk, looking at the documents Mortalian wrote a thousand years ago, Hades would sigh and wonder when Mortalian had become so... worldly-wise in matters of state.
May the Pale Lord return soon.
Hades remained silent. Soon, soon—that was the only answer Vox would give him when he asked.
Time in the warp is illogical; it can be fast or slow. The battle in the garden may have already ended, and the Pale Lord may be about to leave.
Hades scratched his head.
Overthinking is no good. Fortunately, he was born with white hair. Caught between two people who couldn't get along, Hades deliberately put aside political matters—let them fight it out.
In the past few months, Hades has primarily focused on managing and integrating the mechanical teachings.
Fortunately, both Neos and Macardo had a somewhat instinctive aversion to the Mechanicus, and both tacitly accepted Hades' direct control.
To date, Hades has the unconditional support of twenty-one large forging worlds, including Mars, Grei, Faus, and Mint—the sages are willing to give everything for Hades.
This is the foundation that Faos and Deathguard laid for him in the Mechanicus movement.
The knowledge taught in mechanics must be integrated.
Hades knew this well. In this world, many sages could produce extremely outrageous and unique technologies, but if they were not used on a large scale... even the most powerful technologies would disappear into the stars.
In fact, ten thousand years ago, the sages of the past had a network for sharing information, but with the obsolescence of electronic codes and the influence of chaos... this era was quickly abandoned by the self-enclosed sages of today.
The first step in the technological explosion is information sharing.
To establish an academic platform that breaks down the boundaries of time and space—since Hades and Neos can guarantee the purity of knowledge, there is nothing to hesitate about.
After consulting with the Lord of Humanity, Hades created Nirvana II, modeled after Nirvana I, but with lower intelligence and a thicker firewall. The Emperor's psionic powers prohibited interference with Nirvana II.
However, every year, Unit 1 and Unit 2 will undergo synchronous updates and information exchange. After that, if Unit 1 is found to be reliable, Hades may consider making Unit 2 more intelligent and more... psionic.
Compared to the abhorrent intelligence, Unit 2 is more like an advanced version of the Thinker, only retaining the data of Unit 1 and not simulating a personality.
After all, if it's just about sharing and transmitting knowledge, there's no need to go overboard with advanced technology.
But in the Emperor's words, it was like the technology of the Necromancers in space.
Hades tapped his head; perhaps the Emperor was right.
One hundred days after he berated the wise men at Kirkland Hills, Hades set foot on this red earth.
It was a routine meeting, but on a larger and more grand scale; it was the first time Hades had ever witnessed a welcoming ceremony that spanned an entire continent.
To coordinate with Kirkland, Hades had no choice but to unleash the Star God Lightning and Void Dragon Metal within the clouds that the sages had released beforehand—Mars was once again hit by a metal rain.
He need not say more; others will naturally defend him.
Hades had nothing to say about it; everyone except him thought it was a good idea for him to keep quiet.
On this topic, everyone put aside their differences and reached a consensus.
999.M41, uniting the Twenty-One Forges the World, Pluto signed the "Athens Call" on Mars.
Using the Nirvana II - Academy of Athens, located on Mars, as its data center, all twenty-one sages who forged the world uploaded all their research results to the cloud.
Hades knew that while it was said to be all, the sages would certainly have some secrets hidden away, but this step was enough.
Or perhaps... In the private room above the main hall, Hades lowered his eyes and looked at the slightly fanatical sages, some of whom even hugged each other and cried—every sage knew what this meant.
As for credibility guarantees... the credibility of the [Athens Academy] comes from Hades and the twenty-one casting worlds that have genuinely joined.
Within the Cult of Mechanics, knowledge is money, and the more knowledge one possesses, the higher one's rank as a sage tends to be.
Hades did not directly break this point by placing knowledge entirely at the level of "priceless." Terra's internal affairs were already chaotic enough, and he did not want to face the Mechanicus's massive disruption.
The rule of the Academy of Athens is exchange. Knowledge is categorized by the Academy into seven levels. Sages who join the Academy can exchange any knowledge of their own level for free, based on their rank in the world they are in.
After that, if you want to acquire more knowledge, you can upload the knowledge you have to exchange. Uncategorized technologies or knowledge that improves upon existing technologies will be judged as "valuable" and further classified for exchange.
Hades himself also contributed many papers to the Academy. Apart from those on war, which required knowledge exchange, the rest were free.
Within the Academy of Athens, besides the knowledge that needs to be exchanged, there is also completely free knowledge. This includes resources such as agricultural world transformation, basic medical care, large shipbuilding production lines, environmental modification, and bulletproof bows—all of which can be directly acquired.
But the prerequisite is still joining the Academy of Athens.
In addition, sages who frequently upload high-quality, high-tech content will be evaluated by the academy and upgraded. There are seven levels in total, and sages who are willing to share their knowledge for free will gain experience points faster.
Hades also set up a forum for the sages to chat and gossip. The first document Hades uploaded to the forum was the "Mars Technology Sergeant's Guide".
Hades could hardly have imagined that he would see the outrageous and abstract things he wrote ten thousand years later, but in fact, this "book" that has been passed down through generations and filled an entire bookshelf has indeed survived.
On the day of the ceremony, when knowledge was presented by various worlds, it was entrusted by the technical soldiers of the Iron Hand and the Fist of the Empire to be delivered to Hades.
Following the two legions' technical sergeants are the technical sergeants of most of the Empire's legions and warbands.
On the red carpet, under the gaze of the wise men, the warriors who had unexpectedly entered walked in, the colorful sea rippling with a metallic luster. The technical sergeants, who were not very popular in most legions or warbands, announced their joining the Academy of Athens.
At some unknown point in time, the Death Guard's technical sergeant revealed the true identity of "H" to the apprentices on Mars—Pluto.
Hades was stunned.
This was an unexpected surprise.
He originally intended to deal with the sages first, and then extend his reach to the legion...
But the willow planted unintentionally ten thousand years ago has now grown into a vast ocean. Ten thousand years ago, when Hades was grinding his teeth and scribbling on the biological sage's thesis materials, he never imagined this scene would unfold today.
Hades was both amused and exasperated. He had thought the Legion would be the Emperor's core base, but now it seemed... that wasn't entirely true.
The first edition of this "book" was almost entirely scrapped, leaving only a blurry line drawing. Hades casually modified it and used the line drawing of a puppy as the logo for the "Athens Academy - Forum" section.
Perhaps the overall style doesn't match the style of The Academy of Athens, but Hades was happy with it.
Thus, the Academy of Athens was officially established. Since the information and communication problem was still unresolved, the Forging World, which possessed the Bullet Bow, served as the hub. Each Forging World housed a copy template of all the information of the Academy of Athens, acting as a regional server.
……
As an aside, the central hub of the Academy of Athens on Mars was located in the underground cavern where the Emperor once imprisoned the Void Dragon. Now it is completely empty—the dragon was brutally beaten by Angron and Mortarion, and then Mortarion took the dragon away.
Hades found a piece of paper in the center of the former battlefield.
I'm waiting for you to come back, my good brother.
The handwriting looks like it's Anglon's.
……
He will retrieve the Primarchs.
……
Within the coverage area of the regional server, sages can connect to the Academy of Athens using their own devices.
Each standard Terra month, the Athens Academy branches would use bullets to conduct fully physical information transmission, coordinating updates between the branches and the central authority—like a large truck carrying memory modules.
The highest-ranking sage in the world who possesses the ability to manufacture bullets has the right to access all information, but is also responsible for verifying the authenticity of knowledge—the Academy of Athens also has some automatic verification capabilities.
Hades met with these sages one-on-one. As sages who withstood the pressure to build the bullet bow during the psychic rebellion, or as descendants or apprentices of the sages of that time, their loyalty seemed quite reliable.
Hades established the framework and became the supreme administrator of the system. After ensuring that no problems arose, Hades returned to Terra to watch the Lord of Man bicker with Macardo, leaving the sages to their own devices.
This system needs to operate independently; he can't keep watching it all the time.
The sages, on the other hand, automatically upgraded their business to include a new service: packaging a bunch of free knowledge and low-level knowledge into small STCs and selling them directly to worlds with lower levels of technological civilization, or to marginal planets that the sages could not easily reach.
This perfectly aligns with Hades's stereotypes about sages.
After three months of trial operation, Hades, who had grown tired of watching Neos and Makado sabotage each other on Terra, came to Mars, connected to the central hub, and prepared to check the results.
The Academy of Athens spread very quickly and rapidly—after all, joining meant getting free knowledge, which almost hit the sages' weak spot.
Freeloading is an innate instinct of every mechanical sage.
Within these three months, thirteen casting worlds have already submitted draft proposals to begin constructing the [Quantity Bullet Bow]. Hades has ordered that the first fourteen casting worlds to possess the quantity bullet bow will become the next batch of branch nodes for the [Athens Academy].
As for why it's fourteen, it's a suitable number derived from precise calculations, perhaps influenced by a little numerology, but not much.
This is also Hades's open scheme. The Star Language Court, the Navigator Family, and the Star Torch Court are currently being thrown into chaos by the Gray Knights.
As it turned out, Hades was too merciful; the Grey Knights were far more ruthless in their killing of these psionicists.
He initially said he didn't want to get involved... but once he was given the power, Hades realized he was still willing to wield his sword.
He even needs to give the Grey Knights a talking-to and tell them not to go too far in exploiting the resources.
However, Hades didn't need to worry too much about this. He only needed to release Magnus, and Magnus would automatically awaken some conscience in his children from ten thousand years in the future—telling them that psionicists should help each other and not kill innocent people indiscriminately.
This way, Hades can go on to do other things.
Hades approved the sages' applications for bullet bows while taking a sip of wine, and then approved the information transmission request from the [Athens Academy].
"?!!!"
"What?! Ugh—cough cough cough cough—"
Hades sprayed out Barbaros's secret little wine, clearly the data accumulated over the past three months was a bit too much—so much that he was momentarily stuck.
Yay, it's gone!
Chapter 617 A Game of Chess
The fog is thick.
His slender helmet boots sank into the mud, the mist rising and falling with his breath. The forest was quiet, and the insects that had been buzzing and scurrying about fell to the ground with a soft thud.
He walked silently.
The garden is crumbling, its power seized by an artificially created Grim Reaper, whose wings droop and death descends upon it.
He... was wrong.
He could not completely replace Nurgle, nor could he completely kill Him. The Corrupted One dwells in the High Heaven, and he could not kill a garden.
Even so… Mortarion sighed deeply, his skeletal hands reaching up to the fungi that grew from the gaps in his armor, resembling green clumps, and then tossing them to the ground.
The emerald green fungi quickly withered and died in the white mist, and the green-skinned roar in the distance also shrank; they were about to leave.
There isn't much time left for him.
The Pale Lord walked alone in this silent forest.
He passed by the corpses of the dead Eldar and heard faint sobs, cries like a stream flowing gently through the forest.
The forest was still shrouded in a deathly fog.
Mortarian walked upstream along the stream.
New shoots sprout anew from the withered grass, their tender green color unlike the filthy hue of the grass. The shadows of the trees are sparse, and sunlight spills onto the clearings in the thickets, where white roses are in full bloom.
Elsa was there, the life goddess of the Elven race, draped in a white veil, kneeling among the Elsa rose bushes, her wrists and ankles still bound by shackles. She was sobbing, her last children tightly embracing her tall and voluptuous body.
Mortarian walked over without hesitation, and wherever he stepped, the pure white roses immediately withered.
"So you didn't come out," Death said calmly, brandishing his scythe, its twisted blade bristling with sharp, poisonous barbs. "But instead, you continue to weep here."
I'm sorry.
Aisha wiped her eyes, and glistening tears slid down her cheeks. Mortarion watched with amusement as the Eldar around Aisha nervously gripped their swords.
He severely injured my feet, making it impossible for me to continue.
It's okay.
Mortarian said that Aisha had entered the optimal attack range, and the light of the Mother of Life resisting his desolate mist only made the Eldar seem even more determined.
You won't need them soon.
The scythe swirls! A black wind suddenly cleaves towards Aisha!
The elite Eldar gathered around Aisha had no time to react. In an instant, the whirlwind whipped up by the Lord of Death's wings flipped them over, sending them flying like blades of grass!
clang--! ! !
A long, metallic clang rang out, and Elsa, who had been crying just moments before, suddenly stood still, her hands gripping the chains tightly. The rotting chains were taut, just in time to stop Death's scythe.