[O devout believer! Your worst act is to choose a mercenary as your master. Your daily piety of preaching with holy water is worthless in His eyes.
Your most fortunate act is to choose the Philistine as your Lord, who knows your fleshly desires, a little loyalty, and gives you clean water, a place to stay, and a job to earn bread.
—A manuscript from Jin-306
[Damn it! How dare you call yourself pious! Don't pray to Him with your greed, do you think He is a vending machine? ! God is ignorant and kind, close to humans and imitates them, but this is not an excuse for you to deceive Him in exchange for gold coins!
Don't apply to find Him before you completely let go of your damn greed! If I detect a little greed in your thinking engine, you will get more than ten lashes!]
—An archived recording from the Kirkland Data Block
[Uh, relax... What do you want? ]
—Hades
—————
Sometimes, Hades just doesn't want to get to the bottom of things.
Seriously thinking about the moral ethics and humanities of this cesspool world will only force yourself into a dead end. Giving up thinking is the best option, although this does not mean that Hades has abandoned his human race and turned to the greenskins.
Well, greenskin might be a good choice.
Neos, he Hades doesn't do - waaaaagh - ahem, no.
Hades took a deep breath. The rustling sound of the gears in his ears made him feel a little anxious. After finishing the fifth table of desserts, the full Primarch felt sleepy for a rare time, so Angron lay down again to rest. He had been kept in the dark by Hades and had no idea what was happening outside.
Outside this room, the ocean of radio waves was almost exploding with noise.
The ships of the Mechanicum were quietly surrounding the World Eaters' ship, the Glorious Queen, and out of respect for the Forge World of Salem's victory in the war, the World Eaters acquiesced to the Magos's move to approach slowly.
The sage had been waiting for him.
After the first drop of blood fell out of piety, the topic that Hades had always been unwilling to face and avoided was finally placed in front of him -
He had to respond to a belief that shouldn't exist.
Hades' current position is not that of a general who rewards the brave, posthumously honors the dead, and comforts the soldiers with material and power. This is not like what he was like in the Death Guard.
He is now considered a deity.
Although people's performance in these two aspects is so similar, for example, a brave general will have soldiers who are willing to follow him through life and death, the essence of the two is ultimately different.
Generally speaking, some secular believers pray to the gods just to try to fulfill their own little wishes - Hades understands such people, and he even hopes that there will be more of them, because this only requires Hades to establish a complete reward and punishment system.
But it is obvious that most believers, at least the sages who are waiting for Hades now, are not.
This is true faith, the awareness that if one hears the truth in the morning, one is willing to die in the evening. In the bloated religious education of the Mechanicus, they have become beings who are willing to decisively sacrifice their lives for the God of All Machines in their minds.
Hades swallowed silently. In a way, this matter was terrifying. People who had never met him were willing to sacrifice their lives for a being that appeared occasionally in mythology. This enthusiasm made Hades tremble.
The Emperor has been doing a terrible thing. He planted the seeds of religion on Mars and allowed it to grow into a terrifying giant over time. This was not because the Emperor had a bad taste. His purpose was to preserve the spark of technology, and at the same time, this spark would not need his care during the turbulent years.
Then, when the Emperor needed the fire, he descended on Mars and asked for support and supplies in the name of the God - the Emperor did provide supplies to Mars, but without the name of Om Messiah, his cooperation with the Magi would have been much more difficult.
In other words, for the great cause of mankind, the Emperor personally trained a group of fanatical sages who were willing to sacrifice for their beliefs. He exchanged their weapons and supplies in the name of faith, and he was very familiar with this matter.
This is a necessary sacrifice.
Hades could already imagine what the Emperor would say if he asked him about this matter.
Hades was the next person to be burned at the stake by the Emperor, but... in fact, it was those fallen believers who really pushed Hades to the stake.
Hades respects every drop of blood, and no drop of blood should be shed in vain. As long as Hades has the ability, he will try his best to satisfy everyone's whisper before death, but if their wish is to see the illusory gods in their hearts that should not exist...
Hades gestured to the servitor expressionlessly to open the door, and he strode out.
Then give them a dream, even if the price is a lie they are destined to bear.
———————
In the long and narrow corridor, darkness surged and engulfed everything, and burning green arcs lit up.
Crisp, cold and heavy footsteps were heard, metal colliding with metal.
At the end of the corridor, the forbidden halberds jointly raised by the Sisters of Silence and the Imperial Guards were slowly lowered.
However, the sages who had been clamoring and pushing each other just now did not take the step forward they had longed for. They slowly put down their limbs that were hitting each other, and the crowded crowd slowly moved back, consciously standing in a certain order.
In the fight just now, the World-Eater, who was pushed to the back by the sages, let out a few strange roars, but no one paid any attention to him. He could only see these sages, who only left him the back of their heads, nervously adjusting their robes.
What is there to sort out? The clothes worn by most of the sages are more like a few tattered strips of cloth than red robes.
The footsteps are getting closer.
The great sage who took the lead shouted out praises to Om Messiah. His distorted tone was extremely penetrating, and the ocean of praise began to rise and fall.
Amidst the shouts, the engines started to rumble, the sounds of metal hitting the floor echoed again and again, and people knelt down, bowed their heads, and showed their loyalty to the gods—
Even though they have proved their loyalty with blood, everyone still trembles and lowers their heads as much as possible. They are still terrified. In front of the true god, no one is perfect.
The footsteps stopped.
Then there was a long silence, which gave the crowd the illusion that they heard the sigh of Om Messiah.
A corner of his robe swayed uneasily.
“No need to kneel.”
The voice sounded steady and without any doubt.
"Stand up, so that you can better approach the truth."
It was really strange, the believers who would sacrifice their lives without hesitation if they saw a flash of lightning in the god's hand, hesitated when the god asked them to stand up.
Probably because the latter implies disobedience.
"You have proved yourself, you don't have to kneel."
Finally, there was the sound of metal and chain, and the sea of rags began to rise.
The believers silently wait for the instructions from God, whether it is praise or criticism, joy or sorrow, the power is in His hands, not among them.
Hades wanted to sigh in his heart, but he finally held it back.
What did the Emperor do in the face of this? Would he live up to these looks, even if they were not wise, or even foolish
What should he say to them? What should he give them
As sacrifices and brave and fearless people, Hades should grant the sages as much knowledge and wealth as possible. As long as they are willing, Hades will bestow wisdom on them and show them the way forward.
But they want more than that, they are more greedy, but also less lustful. Hades cannot use worldly values to measure these sages who grew up in a religious atmosphere. Specifically, they need Hades to inspire them spiritually and religiously.
In the darkness, Hades opened his mouth. He remembered the prayers he had memorized in the church on Mars. He spoke quickly and lightly, as if the language would corrode his tongue.
"People from Salem, your courage is proved by your never-stopping gears, your loyalty is proved by your never-drying blood, and the fire of wisdom in the depths of your souls delights me - so, what reward do you want? As long as I can give it, I will not hesitate."
Even if they wanted nothing, Hades would gather supplies for this forging world. As early as the moment the war ended, Hades had already thought about what to give these sages. A large amount of supplies and necessary technology would be enough for them to settle and rule the Maelstrom star field. Now all Hades asked for was an extra gift of gratitude.
Although Hades only has the title of Lord of the Order of Silence now, he can later exchange supplies by beating Malcador (and being beaten by Malcador).
To some extent, the sages of this Forge World were the saviors of Hades and the World Devourers, but now the positions of both sides have been reversed, which makes Hades feel uncomfortable, but this is indeed what the sages want to see.
All Hades could hear was the roar of the Sage's engine in the front row, which sounded like it was about to overload due to the high temperature.
The sages in front of him were silent. They were silent for a long time, so long that the World Eater behind them swayed slightly.
They... what do they want
The leading great sage Heisen was silent. He was not the leader of these sages, but their real great sage had already led the Titans to death after shouting "For Om Messiah". In the rank list, the sages above Heisen were already buried under the snow.
So he naturally got the status he had always dreamed of, which countless people had fought for but could not get. Although there were three other people who survived at the same level as him (the sages' pushing and shoving just now was also for this matter), Heisen, who was the closest to the center of the battlefield among them, won in the end.
So what do they want
Heisen found that they didn't seem to have considered this issue. They were just pushing and shoving to see Ohm Messiah. At the end of the war, when the silver-white rain of miracles slid into the metal body, the most shocking emotion in their hearts was that they had experienced a war of gods.
People stood on the ruins happily savoring their victory and recalling the magnificent scene they had seen earlier. This was probably the most magnificent scene most of them had ever seen in their lives.
The dead were also extremely happy, for they died in the holy war, in the land closest to the truth. There is no death more valuable than sacrificing one's life for the God of All Things, not to mention that before they died they truly received the tears and gifts from Om Messiah.
If it weren't for the scar on his left shoulder that was covered with silver tears, Heisen thought he would be jealous of the deceased.
So what do they want
Heisen realized with horror that he had been silent for too long, but he really had not found the answer to this question. For both him and Salem, fighting alongside Om Messiah was the limit of their imagination.
If you ask a devout believer what his biggest dream in life is, he will say that he hopes to see his god with his own eyes.
So... what comes after this
Heisen slowly fed electricity into the microphone, lifted his tattered robe as gracefully as possible, and bowed.
"… We ask for nothing more, my Lord."
His sincere voice reached Hades' ears. The King of Hell looked down at the sage who was slowly bowing and did not speak for a long time.
No more today, 3.4k words, great!
Thanks to the two leaders of 15035983891!!! Thank you!!! I am working hard on coding!
(End of this chapter)