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

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"My Lord's reply to me was that there was no need to worry. This being does not have any particular malice towards humanity. On the contrary, in the struggle against Chaos, its stance is the same as ours."

"even……"

Beneath the hood, Macardo's gaze sharpened.

"The Lord of Humanity had foreseen this long ago."

"But you'll need to ask him about the specifics yourself."

Hades blinked, wanting to ask more, but he was driven away by Makado with his scepter, which had turned into a stick. After realizing that Hades had a simple moral code—meaning he wouldn't hit an old man—this usually cautious and gentle old man became...morally despicable.

Even so, Makado still believed that Hades's psychological attacks on him far outweighed the damage he had done to Hades.

To the old man's relief, all this torment was about to end. As a series of surgeries drew to a close (due to Hades's absurd resistance to various drugs, they had to increase the dosage, which extended the operation time considerably), this damned man could finally go and bother others with his damned problems.

Before that, they needed to go to Mars, and... the Lord of Humanity left Macardo with another daunting task...

On the Martian wasteland, the shuttle carrying the two kicked up a cloud of dust. This unnoticed Martian journey began at the Technical Sergeant Base—designated by Hades, a place they had to go to.

Just like last time, Macardo leaned against the window, dozing off. But this time, under his cloak, a heavy copy of the Book of Words lay peacefully in the old man's arms.

If one wishes to enlighten religion, there is no better occasion than Mars.

But clearly, Macardo did not want to do it himself.

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Endurance

"My lord, Hades is unaware of his power. Too much humanity still binds him. But this is also his choice, and all we must do is obey."

In the dimly lit and empty room, Mortarian raised an eyebrow, staring at the Kirkland sage standing before him.

Those words, of course, came from Kirkland's electronic speaker.

Mortarion leaned back in his chair rather casually. Having just finished speaking with Horus, the Primarch had no intention of continuing his hypocritical act on the Endurance's territory.

Although his hypocrisy earned him a lot of points in Horus's eyes—since Mortarian wrote those two letters, he no longer shied away from using hypocritical language; before that, he simply didn't want to, but that didn't mean he wouldn't.

Hades directly leads you; is this how he lets you run rampant?

"That's not the case, sir."

Kirkland bowed his head obediently, the black stone pendant swaying with his movement, shimmering with a faint light.

Mortarian narrowed his eyes dangerously.

This reminded Mortarion of his conversation with the sage on Mars, where the great sage hadn't shown such confidence in front of the Primarch.

Then give me one reason why you're being too brave.

“You are not the same as Lord Hades. I don’t think you are averse to these things.”

Mortarian thought to himself indifferently, though part of his mind was still immersed in the memory of exchanging pleasantries with Horus.

[...Do you think I'm very tolerant?]

"That's not what I meant, sir."

Kirkland bowed again.

"I am merely showing you our resolve toward Lord Hades. We obey His commands and will not distort or fabricate them."

The reply was neither humble nor arrogant, quite interesting. Mortarian suddenly became interested and looked at Kirkland, recalling which step had led the sage to become what he was today.

"Kirkland," the Lord of Death spoke in a hoarse voice, a subtle sense of oppression filling the room.

Why do you believe he is a god?

Why did you choose to believe in him?

Mortalian watched as the indicator light on Kirkland's face flashed intensely, seemingly a sign of heightened emotion. The Lord of Death remembered Hades saying something, but he was clearly preoccupied with something more important at the time.

"My lord, please forgive my intrusion."

Kirkland emitted a crisp electronic buzzing sound.

"The first question is not the point. We will get bogged down in endless debates about definitions and concepts, while the real meaning lies in the believer's own choice. We believe in Him; that is our choice, and it has nothing to do with Him."

[Does believing in him have nothing to do with him?]

Kirkland nodded deeply, while Mortarian frowned.

This is very much like the behavior of some madmen or fools. Mortarian certainly knew that some people would be extremely fanatical about other things—sometimes even willing to pay for it with their lives.

These fanaticisms can also cause them to ignore certain logic, or rather, they may treat their faith as a matter of personal gain rather than worldly money or power.

But... as I said before, Mortarion doesn't care about this.

The Primarch was well aware that there were many people like this: those who worshipped the Emperor, the Primarch, or a certain warrior with outstanding achievements. The Empire was never short of such people.

But the Hades Cult, by simply leveraging Hades' personal image, has developed a complete system...

Hades himself even opposed and suppressed them.

Mortarian stared silently at Kirkland. In the past, he might have missed this detail and simply labeled the sage as a "madman."

Kirkland is definitely hiding something from Mortarion; there's definitely more to the story.

Is Kirkland lowering his guard against them?

The Lord of Death recalled... he remembered that day, Hades's secret conversation with those madmen in the interrogation room...

He remembered that the lamplighter, Ugo, was also present at the time.

Why would Hades invite psychics to his place if it were simply a matter of religious belief?

Mortarian's face darkened, and he opened the channel.

【Ugo, come here now.】

Yes, code

Chapter 304 There's not much to say, let's put on the yellow robe!

"Lord Hades, it's been a long time."

Hades blinked, staring at the sage before him in deep thought.

He remembered... Jin didn't look like this.

Hades had just finished having fun at the Tech Sergeant Base, enjoying the spotlight and the arrival of a big shot. Before he could even get enough, Makado took Hades to Lava City without stopping.

In a corner of the vast city, before Hades could react, Makado disappeared into a huge building, and when he came out a moment later, the old man gestured for Hades to go inside.

Hades entered the building with a puzzled expression—

At this moment, standing respectfully before Hades was a colossal beast of iron and steel. Compared to its original slender and agile physique, the current King was even larger than the transformed Hades.

Layers upon layers of scarlet silk are covered with shimmering black beads, and gold threads weave hymns that sing praises of divine mercy. On the towering steel frame, candlelight and wax are quietly burning.

In the darkness, Hades caught a glimpse of Charon and the Black Mage.

Hades blinked again. Perhaps his silence was too deafening, because the golden electronic screen extended down, revealing a familiar emoticon smiley face to Hades.

":) Lord Pluto?"

Hades swallowed hard. Even if the Great Sage Kirkland came today, he still had to kowtow to King.

"Jin... what are you now?"

A laughing emoticon lit up on the screen.

"Thanks to Lord Makado's guidance, I have found my place among the many Martian sects, so that I can better serve the Empire and the Om Messiah."

King bowed deeply, like a giant beast lowering its head before Hades.

"For Hades—"

"stop!!!"

Hades got goosebumps; he was thinking bad things, especially when he recalled Makado's earlier words...

"First of all, I'm not a god. Secondly, Kim, I don't remember you being this kind of person? You've learned this trick from Kirkland too?!"

Jin looked at Hades and remained silent for a moment.

Then, he practically held the screen to Hades' ear, and a faint crackling sound filled Hades's ear.

"Lord Hades, I believe you are not a god."

Hades' left eyelid twitched; this was even stranger than Kirkland calling him a god to his face.

"I started following you when you first arrived on Mars. Before that, you were more like a human being than anyone I had ever met—sorry, that might be ambiguous, I just meant to say that you are a human being, and if I were to define what a human being is, I would faithfully use your behavioral records in the database as the definition."

When Hades got close to Jin's screen, he could see a small dog chasing its tail in a simple line drawing on one side of Jin's screen.

"but,"

The symbols on the screen were jumping around, and the smiley face seemed increasingly eerie and creepy the more you looked at it.

"Lord Hades, Lord Hades, this era, this race, needs a place where faith can be placed, a place where emotions can be put—and only a perfect person can undertake this mission."

King's whispers echoed in Hades' ears like the devil's temptation.

Words lingered on Hades' tongue as he began to ponder the matter: Macardo knew about the Hades followers, which meant the Empire and the Emperor knew about it.

And Macardo also helped King establish a foothold on Mars...

……No way?

Hades belatedly realized... that he himself seemed to be about to be draped in a yellow robe and roasted over a fire.

Can he refuse?

Hades was sweating profusely inside. As a true-blue Earthling, although he knew that Warhammer was different from his original world and that the concepts of warp and gods did exist, he could accept that fact.

But that doesn't mean he can accept a bunch of people going crazy at him. Take the current Martian cult, for example. The sages who deeply believe in it actually make special servants for prayer. Just thinking about those servants with empty eyes muttering his name, Hades, makes him...

Or look at the cases in the original work, where emperors become gods... and those ignorant and blindly faithful believers who seek inner peace through asceticism...

Hades' examples may be too extreme, but the combination of religion and warhammers obviously increases the probability of extremism.

Moreover, Hades himself doesn't want to debut as a god (?) and then lose his privacy, and people will make up all sorts of strange rumors about him, throwing all sorts of things at him.

Hades' mind was racing; clearly, the Empire wouldn't care about his personal likes or dislikes, as long as their interests aligned...

Hades swallowed hard.

“Jin, if it’s just what you just said, that humanity needs a place to reside for faith… then perhaps there is someone far more perfect than me, and he has already begun to do so.”

Jin stared silently at Hades, a prosthetic limb slowly emerging from under his red robe, revealing a thick, gold-threaded copy of the "Sacred Words."

Jin presented the "Sacred Words" to Hades, who could clearly see Luo Jia's signature on it.

"Lord Hades, the God Emperor alone is not enough. Your blessings to humanity are not the same."

Wait...?! The God Emperor?!

Hades is devastated. He's starting to doubt if he's really in the 30k range, or if he's actually in the more advanced 40k range. Or is this some kind of pilot zone, a test server?

Hades hadn't seen Charon and Blackfa there, he would have seriously suspected that King had sided with the Word Bearers.

So what about the Perfect City next? Does the Emperor have to admit that he is a god?

After all that, Hades felt a chill run down his spine as he thought, "Could the Emperor be the final boss?!"

He doesn't want to look at these pseudo-meridians!

Even though Hades was internally complaining about how the script was completely different from the one he had received, he outwardly maintained a composed demeanor.

"Jin, you just said... God Emperor?"

The giant screen extended back, and he bowed deeply to Hades once more.

"Although I have never met that great man, I think he must have been someone who was not in control of his own destiny, yet carried the burdens of many people."

"...Yes, the God-Emperor is also human, and the Om Messiah is human—whichever one it is."

Jin said calmly.

Hades stared at King, and he muttered something under his breath…

"Then why..."

But the sentence quickly dwindled until it disappeared.