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

Page 527

Kirkland said fluently, “King is stubborn because he has never seen you perform miracles. I have witnessed every one of your feats, so I forgive King’s ignorance.”

If King were to see a dark giant, holding an inextinguishable flame in one hand and tattered metal silk in the other, his worldview would be shaken.

If Jin had been pulled from the brink of death twice by the gods, he would understand what gods are.

Hades sighed.

Can I convince you?

Kirkland shook his head.

“I regret to inform you, my lord, but on this one issue, I cannot back down—I have stood firm for ten thousand years.”

Hades looked at Kirkland meaningfully. Kirkland had made his bottom line clear. For the sake of the god in his heart, the believers had stood firm for ten thousand years, and the first thing the "god" did upon returning was to try to shatter the believers' faith.

Hades was silent for a moment. He looked up at his sculpture. The black stone sculpture was oppressive and solemn. Even he himself, sitting under the statue of Hades, looked so small.

"What is the difference between man and God, Kirkland?"

Hades asked,

"Gods can do things that humans cannot."

"..."

Hades sighed again.

"If I were God, could I change humanity's standards of judgment and place myself within the human realm?"

"Of course you can do that."

Hades was forced into silence. He realized that arguing with a grumpy old man who had been debating for ten thousand years was an absurd thing that would only make him unhappy.

Next, he should bring Kim over, provide substantial evidence during Kim's debate, and encourage him.

"Then I will change the category of humanity,"

Hades said, "I am a man, the Emperor is a man... Mortarion is a man too!"

Kirkland paused,

“I accept your first two points, sir, but I expect you to make your arguments after you have met Lord Mortalian.”

"...Otherwise, there would be far too many beings that need to be called human."

Hadeston sensed something was wrong. Since waking up, he had never seen a sculpture or portrait of Mortalian. He still hoped that Mortalian would at least have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

In the original work, the Primarchs who ascend to the Dark Templar or awaken their warp nature are depicted in rather abstract forms.

Do you have a portrait of Mortarian?

Hades suddenly asked, and Kirkland shook his head.

“This is top secret within the Death Guard, Hades,” Kirkland scratched his head. “I’ve seen the Pale Lord a few times, but his face was always shrouded in mist.”

"But my intuition tells me that the true face of the Pale Lord is not something that humans can appreciate."

Hades felt an even greater sense of unease.

But then he remembered Mortarion, the Ascended Demon, from the original story—and he thought Mortarion's pieces were quite cool.

No matter how ugly, it can't be more unacceptable after awakening its true nature than after ascending to demonhood.

Besides, as long as Mortalian is comfortable, appearance is just a mundane thing to the Primarch.

"We'll see when the time comes,"

Hades said,

"I wish he would jump out now and scare me."

Instead of no news at all, is the message Karas sent reliable? Does he really not need to help?

But since Karas had said so, Hades decided to put aside his thoughts on the matter for the time being.

Although he still doesn't quite trust Karas Typhon, Karas has led the Death Guard to prosperity for ten thousand years, so Hades can probably entrust him with that trust.

Hades plans to go directly to Barbaros to see what's going on with the Death Guards.

Faced with Hades' answer, Kirkland paused, seemingly speechless. Hades noticed a twitch in the corner of Kirkland's eye.

Kirkland let out a rare sigh.

"I hope the Pale Lord will not startle you."

“But you can rest assured,” Kirkland continued, “Phoss has worked with the Death Guard for a long time, and the Death Guard’s development has been largely successful since you left. You can trust them and accept their loyalty.”

Hades nodded, as if Kirkland's words had stirred up a memory, but then—

"Let's not talk about whether I'm a man or a god, Kirkland."

Hades said seriously,

“I do not wish to see worlds fighting each other before me because of so-called codified doctrines.”

Kirkland wholeheartedly agreed.

“We know, sir, that we will not vent our anger on our disloyal kin until the enemy is defeated.”

Hades tapped the table. “If you’re talking about people like King who have different beliefs from yours, you can’t describe that as disloyalty.”

“I understand, my Lord.”

Kirkland spoke up, and it was clear he wasn't entirely convinced.

...That's the problem with religions. Because of differences in thought, even people from the same origin will attack each other.

In particular, although each of the various foundry worlds believes in the Cult of Mechanics and their political frameworks are built upon religious guidance, they actually operate independently, making unity virtually impossible.

The only way to command them and unite the different forging worlds, besides self-interest... is...

……Belief.

It seems Hades will have to repeat the tricks that the Emperor played back then.

Hades pondered, although he still resisted being described as a god, after contacting Buz and having the Son of the Underworld transmit a doctrine to him, Hades found that the doctrine written by Buz and Jin Yihang... was acceptable to him.

In short, aside from some necessary rituals for expelling subspace contamination;

The Church of Hades advocates simplicity and does not have anything like atonement money (it also encourages donations, but not by binding sin with loyalty; instead, it exists in the form of cooperating with the local Mechanicus to purchase knowledge or simply by donating money).

The kneeling bow is not recommended; instead, the eagle bow is used.

What astonished Hades even more was that the Cult of Hades even emphasized that belief was optional, and even allowed people to join the cult for their own benefit (to expel warp contamination from their families; to avoid being contaminated themselves; or simply to cultivate relationships with local oil enthusiasts or Death Guardians).

To put it simply, it's very secular.

However, if you go deeper into the cult, the selection criteria for becoming an internal member of the Hades Cult become extremely stringent.

First, believers who wish to delve deeper need to join the church for study (these believers are usually those who have truly faced warp contamination and, through their own wisdom and the blessing of Hades, defeated it).

Before participating in the training, they will be examined for their character—for the Hades Cult, believers must have a moral bottom line and be extremely clear-headed.

The concept of "enlightenment" here refers to a problem similar to the train dilemma, where believers must choose the option that saves the most people.

Furthermore, they will face the choice of when to give up themselves. Believers must consider their own value and should exchange their value for more value at the moment when the benefit is maximized—rather than hastily sacrificing themselves just to save people.

At the same time, those who feel too guilty after the assessment will be eliminated.

The Cult of Hades needs someone as benevolent yet ruthless as Hades himself.

Next, believers who pass the initial assessment will be required to memorize the "Hymn of Meditation".

This book is divided into seven parts: Benevolence, Awakening, Subduing the Dragon, Stealing Fire, Salvation, Dark Descent, and Return.

Hades quickly skimmed through the book. Most of the stories consisted of short tales or moral lessons summarized in a few sentences. Each story was interconnected, serving as a link between different parts of the narrative.

Although the book is well-written, it would have been better if the protagonist wasn't him.

Hades felt a chill run down his spine.

Benevolence speaks of some of the views of the Hades cult, telling from the perspective of "Hades himself" that humanity needs to save and help each other in order to overcome evils such as the subspace—while emphasizing why "Hades" is said to be benevolent, because as long as the ritual is done correctly, He will bless both saints and sinners.

Hades couldn't refute this point; the Dark Realm was indeed like that—whoever cast their soul into the Dark Realm would be "blessed."

This was not Hades's subjective mercy, but rather the believers imposing their own subjective views on objective facts.

Qiwei is Hades' story on Barbaros, where he is described as an "ordinary person" who befriends Primarchs through his intelligence and virtue and single-handedly eliminates evil.

The story of the dragon, Hades' tale on Mars, contains metaphors that make Hades uneasy—dragons… void dragons…

However, the book compares knowledge to a dragon, mentioning it only briefly.

This part... is perhaps meant for those who can understand it.

The story of stealing fire connects Hades' creation of Phos with the killing of a false god called "The Obstruction of Truth".

The story of salvation, from the perfect city to the Great Vortex, from Nicaea to Cadia, tells how Hades retrieved the Primarchs and his years of serving the Emperor.

Black Descendants, a collection of short stories documenting Hades' opening of the Black Domain. Hades realized that Kirkland must have provided a lot of material for this story.

Finally, there is the Advent, which explains why Hades will return and what the believers must do to bring him back.

Hades flipped through the pages and found some old sayings that encouraged people to strive for goodness and self-discipline.

After the believers memorized the "Hymn of the Underworld," they would study knowledge about the subspace under the guidance of the Church of Hades.

This kind of training will weed out a lot of people, and some may even die during the training. Generally, large Hades churches will have a team of soulless people to ensure the survival rate of believers.

Then comes learning how to better expel the warp, which not only teaches the use of some Blackrock weapons, but also how to use the doctrines of the God-Emperor from the state religion to expel demons.

Finally, there are miscellaneous tasks related to improving personal abilities, such as coordinating with the Soulless Squad, coordinating with the Mechanical Sage Army, coordinating with the Death Guard, appeasing the masses, appeasing the corrupted, and how to deceive the demon (?)...

But the strangest thing is that the examination of these believers did not include an assessment of their piety towards Hades; it was all based on their own understanding after being taught the "Hymn to Hades".

……

Hades quite liked this, but that didn't stop him from being deeply shocked after watching it.

If he were a person from this period, he might also have believed in the Hades cult, purely for self-preservation.

Moreover, this aligns with Hades's principle of using whatever is available, disseminating methods for preventing subspace contamination to the greatest extent possible.

Hades thought to himself that he might have to thank those who spread the cult of Hades in this regard.

Hades stared thoughtfully at Kirkland.

The situation in the Mechanicus differs somewhat from the cult of the Underworld spread by the Empire. Sages who join the cult almost all have to go through a rigorous selection process (same as above, but the part about expelling the warp has been changed to how to make knowledge purer), which means that every sage is essentially an insider of the Underworld.

However, for the sages, the selection criteria for joining the cult are not difficult. Becoming a sage naturally distinguishes them from ordinary citizens of the empire. What is difficult for others may not be difficult for them.

It benefits from the fact that the triggering conditions are low and there is no penalty for triggering failure.

The sages' occasional faith in and prayers to Hades can genuinely reduce the interference of the subspace with their experiments.

This is almost a guaranteed way to make a fortune.

It was this subtle benefit that, in a world where the Hades Cult was not actively proselytizing, managed to amass billions of mechanical sage followers for Hades.

This is the fundamental logic behind why the Ming Cult has developed so rapidly.

However, this also explains why the Underworld Cult is loosely organized, with no direct leadership among its members.

Before Hades' return, the only person who could be asked to unite the cult of Hades for assistance was the commander of the Death Guard Legion—and he had to be a highly respected commander of the Death Guard Legion with outstanding contributions, in order to command the many followers of the cult of Hades.

And now...

Starlight streamed down from the ceiling of the stargazing arena, yet it did not stain a single foot beneath Hades' robes.

"Anyone who believes in... Hades... or the Emperor, and who still has a conscience... is someone we can unite with."

Hades said quietly.

Surrounded by alien races and with the Warp eyeing them covetously, as Kirkland said, now is indeed not a time for division based on differing beliefs.

Depending on personal preference, Hades would probably just yell, "I'm not a god, don't believe in any of that nonsense!"

But faced with reality and logic, Hades followed pragmatism and decided to try it out first!

After all, this is an objective fact, and he has no way to directly change other people's subjective opinions or overthrow a religion that has developed for thousands of years on his own.

Moreover... since the believers are already willing to believe in him (albeit in an image that has been embellished seven hundred times), Hades should at least try to save the world!

To shirk one's responsibilities and to hoard one's strength is cowardice!

Hades had already planned it out: first, finish this battle, develop the empire, and once humanity is self-sufficient, if people still insist on the existence of gods, he will pin that label on the emperor and then run away!

Of course... Hades will also share the burden of matters of faith with the Lord of Humanity.