The white paper sparkles with golden light.
But apart from the emperor's signature, everything else was just blank.
Nothing at all.
What the hell is going on here? Hades frowned, trying to figure out if there was a secret code or ciphertext on it.
When his scrutinizing eyes fell on the emperor's glittering golden signature—
Hades' left eye suddenly began to flicker, and then Hades "saw".
This is a video.
[
A light lit up in the darkness.
The slightly orange-yellow light illuminates a corner, which is a desk. The edges of the solid wood are inlaid with gold carvings, and the light floats slightly on it.
A man was sitting in front of a desk, leaning over and writing something.
The man had long black hair, wore an olive laurel wreath on his head, and was dressed in a simple linen robe with gold buttons at the collar.
It's the emperor.
The emperor put down the pen in his hand and slowly raised his head. Golden flames were dancing in his dark eyes. He stared in the direction of Hades, and Hades realized that he should be looking at him.
"Hello, stranger."
The Emperor spoke calmly.
"You are allowed to know."
The next moment, the only light went out.
ah
Before Hades could react, the dazzling, dry sunlight shone hotly on him, and the sounds of flowing water, frogs croaking, and insects chirping came to his ears.
He was standing beside a big river. There were thatched houses in the village beside the river. Fishermen were paddling in the river. Farther away, some farmers were standing in the fields looking into the distance.
“They’re looking at the clouds.”
The Emperor's voice came from beside Hades. Hades turned around suddenly and saw the Emperor standing beside him, looking at the clouds in the distance.
"Farmers and fishermen living by the Sakarya River know how to look up. They use the shape of the clouds in the sky to predict whether it will be rainy the next day."
There were stars in the emperor's eyes.
“It’s going to rain soon.”
Hades narrowed his eyes and stared at the dry little cloud on the horizon, but he couldn't read anything from a cloud. In his only farming career, there were no normal clouds in Barbaros.
"You can't tell."
The Emperor turned his head and looked at Hades.
In the eyes of the Emperor, the greatest ruler, tyrant, and dictator in human history, lies an unfathomable lake of calm.
Above the lake, white clouds are reflected, and beneath the lake, violent magma is boiling and rolling.
"But you still know it's going to rain tomorrow, a heavy rain."
"You know the raindrops will fall, even if you can't see the clouds. You know what the rainstorm will look like in the end, and you know it will wash away everything in the end."
"But clouds are changing. Any breeze can shape them and change them."
“You can’t shape a cloud, and it won’t remain the same after you leave it.”
The emperor quietly stared at the small cloud in the sky. Under the influence of the wind, it had changed its appearance.
"We can only rely on the rolling tide as much as possible."
“Feeling the wind and seeing the clouds, humans can catch a brief glimpse of the future.”
“The future is changing and evolving. Every wave in the ocean of fate could be the future that is to come.”
"But the storm that belongs to mankind will eventually come."
The next moment, Hades felt himself falling, falling, the stars flew past him rapidly, the stars trembled, and the hazy mist rolled in.
“But humans still haven’t gone far enough.”
The sound continued.
"In the Terra Era, the Technological Era, the Strife Era, until the 30th Millennium, humanity's primary means of long-distance communication and navigation was still through the Warp and the use of psykers."
"The enemies of mankind can cut them off at any time, so that the vague and low-pitched interstellar language will never be received, and the sailing ships will never find their way home."
Finally, Hades stopped in a subspace star field, where bright and illusory nebulae continued to flow and surge.
The pause in the emperor's voice was like a sigh.
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
"Humanity should not struggle to survive in the darkness of ignorance and short-sightedness, nor should it repeat the path of the Eldar. Humanity should hold the power of its own destiny."
"And the Webway is humanity's path, the only fire that humanity can hope to master, the key to isolating humanity's brilliant soul from the Warp of Chaos, allowing long-distance travel to no longer be limited by the technology of the Warp."
"The establishment of the webway requires a huge amount of resources, hundreds of millions of supplies. This is not a miracle that can be built by devoting an entire galaxy to it. It requires an entire race to devote everything they have."
"In order to establish the Webway and consolidate the empire, I launched the Great Crusade."
"At the beginning of the Great Crusade, the pace of time was not so hurried."
“But they’re not going to sit back and do nothing.”
In front of Hades, the waves of the subspace became more and more turbulent, and the water flow began to accelerate obviously, squeezing together in disorder and chaos.
The Emperor's voice was emotionless, cold and heartless.
"Time is running out. The Great Crusade must be accelerated."
"Incompleteness and defects are not reasons to stop. The Legion must complete their mission."
"The rainstorm is coming, and everyone has their necessary mission."
"And you, the outsider."
The emperor changed the subject.
"You have proven your loyalty and ability. I entrust the 14th and the Empire's Soulless to you. Ensure the 14th Legion's Great Crusade and do whatever you can to prepare for the coming rainstorm."
"You must be cautious and low-key, and accumulate a force to target the creatures in the subspace."
“You can try to change your fate, but it is not easy. The accumulation of details is just a trick of the weak. The strong choose to face the final judgment of fate.”
"Finally, I wish you good luck."
]
Hades suddenly opened his eyes. Analyzing this video from the Emperor seemed to be extremely strenuous. He gasped and subconsciously lowered his head to look at the letter.
The flames began to burn, and the Emperor's golden signature quickly disappeared in the fire.
"etc."
Hades gasped and called out to Charon who was about to leave.
"This... is one-way. I need to tell him something."
"My Lord, is it about the future?"
Hades nodded.
"No need."
Charon said calmly,
"My Lord has his own decision. He is currently concentrating on the expedition. The time has not come yet."
ha
Hades had a question mark on his face. Is it not the right time yet
In other words, the Emperor will arrange a meeting with him after this
Seeing that he had nothing to say, Charon left with Hefa.
Soon, Hades received a letter from Malcador.
The general content of the new article was to explain to him what this [Lord of the Order of Silence] was.
Malcador introduced the title to him in a pertinent, objective, detailed and constructive manner, and praised Hades for his achievements at a young age and for earning the title.
Hades read three and a half pages of nonsense praising him, then decisively turned to the back.
By rights, Malcador wrote, Hades should be in charge of most of the Imperium's Soulless.
However, Malcador emphasized the difficulties and key points of transporting the Soulless, as well as the various psychological problems that the Soulless may have on the Death Guard and their impact on training tasks.
Eventually, Malcador came to his conclusion.
The Empire can supply Hades, the Lord of the Order of Silence, with soulless people, but the quantity is limited. If there is any crucial task, Terra will temporarily transfer people.
At the same time, Malcador learned about the Wandering Soul Knights developed by Hades. He immediately said that because the Soulless Ones managed by Hades were all training on Terra, in order to make it more convenient to reinforce Hades in the future, Hades should send at least two Wandering Soul Knights back to Terra for long-term stationing training.
Hades was silent.
He stared at the paper for half the night, but still couldn't figure out how Malcador could have the audacity to write such shameless words.
Hades finally understood.
It turns out that the Emperor and Malcador were working together to paint a rosy picture for him.
Moreover, they neither pointed out the methodology to Hades nor provided him with the materials worthy of the title.
I can’t code anymore, I really can’t code anymore…
Number of updates due 2/15
(End of this chapter)