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

Page 487

This is a small vessel that was converted from a cargo ship into an armed cargo ship. It is clear that the conversion was done in a hurry, and the family crest of the Tees family was hastily drawn on the side of the ship.

Almost as soon as he boarded the ship, Black realized that Hades was not right.

But Hades didn't show anything, just chatted casually with Eugen, who told Hades that his name was Smarthead.

After his casual conversation with Oglin came to an end, Hades turned to look at the seemingly absent-minded Tess. Out of concern for the Inquisition and the State Church, Tess did not allow anyone else to contact Hades and his party.

Through the dim glass, Hades could see the curious or frightened looks on people's faces—but most of them looked to be old or young.

"Madam, is there anything you need to explain?"

Hades asked, not looking at Tess, but his gaze seemed to penetrate the wall and look towards a certain cabin.

Tess took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Hades." She tried her best to calm herself down. "Please forgive my lapse in composure just now."

“I just…” Tiss forced a smile, “Please allow me to say that the first things that came to mind were the Inquisition and the State Church—you can perhaps understand the fear a minor nobleman might have of these institutions.”

“I need to prioritize addressing the trouble you might cause from those institutions, and…”

"Are you really..." Tiss laughed self-deprecatingly, as if he had given up entirely. "My brother used to explain the XIE cult to me all the time."

"In fact, my people and I were driven out by the planet's governor, Mauro, who had just robbed my ship with an inquisitor."

Tess blinked and looked toward the cabin that Hades was looking toward.

"Because my brother was the only nobleman in Aswan who believed in the cult of Pluto,"

"Therefore, Mauro forcibly dumped all the people suffering from the plague of immortality from his escape ship onto my ship."

Tiss took another deep breath, finished speaking, and looked at Hades with a sigh of relief.

"I suppose this is what you wanted me to explain?"

Hades remained silent. The Undying Plague?

What he could sense was more than a hundred abnormally burning souls, whose soul fires seemed about to go out, yet lingered in the subspace, unwilling to dim.

“Father,” Black added promptly, “the Undead—a disease that appeared in the real world after Lord Mortalian led his army to attack the Warp. People cannot truly die. The Death Guard believes this may be evidence that Death is gradually losing its authority over death.”

What does this have to do with the Hades Cult?

As if knowing Hades' question, Blake spoke up.

"The way to put these undead to rest is to use the soulless to summon your grace and put them to sleep. Conventional methods of destroying corpses cannot kill them."

Hades nodded, still staring thoughtfully at the abnormal region of warp space.

“You should have explained these things to me earlier, Tess.”

Tiss's face turned pale. "My lord, I'm so sorry—I was just too nervous, and... your timing was too perfect."

“My...my brother recently contracted the immortal plague.”

She had a fight with her dying brother, Shaw, and cursed her loved one for taking in the undead that Mauro had thrown at them, which resulted in Shaw himself contracting the plague!

She looked into her brother's cloudy eyes and cursed, "If the Hades he believes in really exists, then why doesn't He come to save His believers, instead of letting him fall into a plague?"

After that, Tess sealed off the cabins where the undead were imprisoned, including her brother. She was heartless and let the ghosts imprisoned on earth wail in agony.

She must cut off the source of transmission as much as possible.

Day and night, the howls of those who were not dead but were rotting spread through the pipes, almost driving her mad.

She thought more than once that she should just burn those people to the ground.

But no—this is absolutely not allowed.

Her brother had explained to her more than once that even if she cremated the patients, they would still "not die," their souls would be trapped in the ashes of their corpses and lose the only possibility of "cure."

She must successfully lead her ship out of this star system, find a Hades Cathedral where at least three soulless beings reside, and then bring them to a state of complete peace—including her brother.

This is almost impossible for a lightly armed cargo ship.

Therefore, Tess chose to lead his ships to follow Mauro's fleet, even though it meant that Mauro would likely come back to plunder them again.

But Mauro's judge had a way to avoid the swarm of insects, which was the safest route.

It was precisely because of this that, in order to prevent Mauro from seizing supplies again, Tess was overjoyed after receiving Barry's signal—firstly because Sky Lion was not dead, and secondly because she now needed to strengthen the ship's armament as much as possible.

The righteous Celestial Lions also despise Mauro, the Lord of the Main Nest.

Tiss immediately decided to deviate from the course temporarily, pick up Tian Shi, and then catch up with Mauro's ships.

But... she never expected to see Hades, Hades' son... anything related to the Hades Cult behind Barry.

The first thought that came to Tess's mind upon seeing them was whether they were evil beings disguised as Hades.

No… How could the presence of her brother's prayers, which he prayed for day and night, appear before her so easily? She remembered the prayers that came from the pipes beside her bed day and night, those fragmented words eroding her, driving her to collapse, and finally numbing her.

In the end, Tess's greatest motivation for venturing out of this star system was no longer to live, but to wish for those people to die.

It was also the fear of the unknown. The plague of immortality only appeared after a person "died." Tiss could hardly imagine how devastated she would be if one day she found that her heartbeat had stopped, but she was still alive.

Perhaps she had already been infected.

Is that Hades? Could it be Hades? Or is there a conspiracy, or perhaps a test from the Inquisition—some extreme Inquisitors would burn all the undead to ashes.

Tiss didn't trust them, but she trusted Barry. After a brief inquiry, Tiss confirmed that Barry was clear-headed, loyal to the God-Emperor, and just a little tired.

Teess ruled out the possibility of evil entities and the Inquisition.

But is he Hades?

Tiss was not religious, but her brother often spoke to her about Hades' great deeds—if he really was Hades, why would he need to use a small, noble ship?

If he were truly the one who could destroy stars with a single hand, why would he need to rely on a simple ship?

If he wasn't, and was just a conman, Tess would detonate the bomb on the shuttle immediately; she couldn't allow a dangerous element to return to her ship.

But Tess eventually compromised.

It was simply because Hades displayed that pitch-black tide.

The moment Tess saw the dark waters, she made her own decision.

Whether he was Hades or some kind of saint from the Hades cult—she would believe it the way he said—as long as he could save the immortals.

Her thoughts drifted to her brother, and Tess shuddered again.

She almost covered her face and wept—Tess asked herself, did she dare to open the door that she had tightly shut and sealed for a month?

How will she face those...living corpses?

Okay, I couldn't resist writing another chapter. That's all for today. I'm going to sleep now.

Chapter 560 Chapel

Standing before the sealed gate, Hades turned to look at Tess, who was wearing a protective suit, and nodded.

With a hiss, a blast of cold air shot out, and the tightly sealed door opened. Hades stepped inside, followed by Blake, who was wearing the helmet Hades had recreated.

Blake closed the door behind him. They were now in the isolation zone. There was another door before the patient area.

A soft, chanting-like sound came from in front of them, and Blake muttered something under his breath.

"……so much."

Then he knocked on the first door he had closed, signaling the crew to open the second door.

Hades didn't turn his head; he stared intently at the slowly opening next door. "More?"

Blake nodded.

“Father, as far as I know, the Immortal Disease only occurs sporadically—often only one or two cases occur in several star regions.”

Hades was silent for a moment. "You mean, there's something wrong with the authority of death, meaning something might have happened to Mortalian?"

Blake quickly shook his head.

“I don’t know, Father, and—”

He drawled, “This isn’t necessarily an incurable disease; other diseases may also present with similar symptoms.”

Hades stepped forward. "We'll find out soon enough."

The door creaked open.

Hades' eyes widened.

The room was a long, narrow hall, clearly a religious site. The walls and ceiling were painted black, a dark and oppressive darkness that seemed to be about to collapse. Some broken lights protruded from the walls, like treetops in the night.

Countless makeshift hospital beds were placed in the hall, lined up along the wall. In the low temperature, filthy pus condensed on the tattered sheets, and human figures could barely be seen under the thin fabric.

Facing them directly, at the very end of the hall, a figure that would immediately catch the eye of anyone entering, was a dark-skinned statue crouching almost to kneel, its stone-carved cloak hanging heavily down as if it were real cloth.

The cloak's shadow, no matter the angle from which it was viewed, perfectly obscured the figure's face.

The crouching figure stretches out its hand directly in front, as if inviting a visitor.

In front of the knee he had lowered, a giant dog sat proudly, its head pointing straight ahead, a handful of wheat in its mouth.

This is...his own...

Right in front of more than a hundred hospital beds...

As if confirming Hades's conjecture, Black, who was behind him, took a few steps forward and solemnly knelt on one knee before the statue of Hades.

"Praise be to you."

Hades looked at Blake's movements as if he had performed them thousands of times, and turned his head in surprise, watching him get up.

Realizing Hades's astonishment, Blake explained softly, "I'm sorry, Father, I just instinctively..."

Hades waved his hand, making a shushing gesture.

Blackton paused, realizing that Hades' attention wasn't on the church itself, but on the people lying there.

"Explain these things to me later." Hades' eyes swept across the church, his gaze falling on the statue and the cluster of candles piled up in the corner, frozen into tears.

Black instantly understood Hades' meaning. He felt ashamed of his subconscious act of bowing to the statue of Hades—but this conditioned reflex was deeply ingrained in his instincts.

Hades walked quietly to the nearest bed and saw a corpse, its half-rotten body frozen in frost.

To prevent these people from continuing to decompose on their own, Tess poured large amounts of liquid nitrogen into the chapel.

Hades carefully lifted the sheet that was stuck to the body. He was sure that the "person" was still alive. After receiving a stimulus, the person on the bed tried to move.

Black stepped forward, and the son of Hades examined the patient closely, even reaching out to part the congealed flesh—Hades saw the muscles trying to twitch.

He was trying to make a sound, or trying to be aware of what was being said in the outside world, but his senses and vocal cords were so damaged that he could only slowly try to control his limbs, making his muscles contract and then relax.

Finally, Blake nodded.

"It is an incurable disease, my father."

"Grant him peace, Hades."

The next moment, the person on the bed stopped struggling weakly.

Hades laid down a thin sheet of blanket to cover the corpse's face, then moved on to the next bed.

……

Hades wanted Blake to confirm with him whether it was the Immortal Disease.

At the same time, he was also using his dark domain perception to try to find some anomalies.

……

They slowly approached the enormous sculpture, and the faint groans of the patients faded away with each step they took.

Some of them had almost rotted into a pile of mud, leaving only a skeleton covered in flesh and blood. Others were still intact, but almost all of them had gone mad. When Hades and his group approached them, they were either muttering to themselves or staring blankly at the ceiling, without any reaction.

A few people weakly thanked them, but Black looked at Hades, who merely nodded slightly before granting them death.

Finally, they came to the bed closest to the idol. Unlike the other standard hospital beds, this bed had an extra blanket sewn with the word "Wood" on it.

It was Tess's brother, Shore, who was also the only Hades priest in Aswan. According to Tess, her brother Shore was too kind and devout—therefore he took in the patients.

Shaw was also the last person to contract the disease, and after him, Tess immediately sealed off the area.

According to Tiss, she used to be able to hear her brother's prayers day and night—but one day, her brother stopped talking.

Blake stepped forward and slowly pulled back the blanket covering Shaw's face.