It is difficult to find words in the human vocabulary to describe what Theresa saw at this moment.
Things like that shouldn't exist in the real universe.
Instead, they should be forever spurned in an unknown dark corner.
Mankind's worst nightmares could hardly compare to what Theresa was seeing.
Monsters are slightly taller than normal humans.
The lower body is a pair of slender legs like cones, long and perfect in shape, wearing black stockings that are seductive to masculine people.
The only drawback was that the skin had been peeled off and blood was leaking out of it.
On his feet he wore a pair of red boots with iron spikes, as bright as blood. It was unclear whether they were stained with blood or were naturally that bright red.
The sharp edges of the boots scraped against the legs with every step.
The skin on the upper body had also been peeled off.
There are malicious eyes and whispering mouths in the wriggling flesh and blood, and the whole body is full of them, which makes people feel claustrophobic.
Inside the mouth is a tubular tongue and densely packed sharp teeth.
What's even more terrifying is that it has a thorn-shaped cross on its back, and its arms and torso are bound with wires with razor blades, and the sharp blades cut directly into its body.
Bright red blood flowed from the tortured body and dripped onto the ground.
That distorted, weird, elongated face showed pleasure and satisfaction.
It was immersed in the pain of torturing itself, and it let out a strange and terrifying laugh.
Behind the monster was a scene that looked like hell.
The prayer room was filled with naked bodies.
They were flayed and imprisoned on thorn crosses.
The corpse was still writhing in agony, as if its soul was trapped inside and unable to be freed.
"You will enjoy happiness in the kingdom of the gods until the moment of the destruction of the universe." The monster walked step by step towards these warriors who claimed to be just and fighting for the future of mankind, and said in human language: "This is your reward, mortals."
Theresa was speechless and she screamed uncontrollably.
Fear made her tears flow uncontrollably.
She wanted to turn around and run away.
But her brain could no longer control her legs, and every cell in her body struggled to break free from the brain's control in fear.
The same is true for Teresa's former comrades.
They were all paralyzed with fear.
Their survival instinct made them flee quickly, but their legs were no longer under their control.
"What a wonderful thing this is." The man next to him said with a faint smile on his face, "Revel until the end of time in sweet indulgence, no pain, only joy."
"No!" Theresa looked at the man. She was ignorant and thought that he was an upright and kind fellow traveler. But when the truth was revealed, the struggle he talked about was nothing but lies.
He is the messenger of those monsters.
The truth about the gods is so terrifying.
Even just a glimpse of it is enough to drive ordinary people crazy.
How ridiculous are the remarks of those ignorant scholars.
They pride themselves on being rational, believing that the Empire's harsh laws and hostility toward Chaos are means for the rulers to maintain their rule.
They talked big and demanded that the Empire produce evidence of Chaos persecuting humanity.
The less brutal pictures were despised by them.
I want video, I want recording, I want to see it with my own eyes.
Theresa realized at that moment how lucky those guys were to be executed by the Empire.
If they were to fall into the hands of the chaos they had been obsessed with, the sound of their screams would probably be enough to make them lose their hearing.
The man looked at Theresa's frightened expression, shook his head, and said in a mocking tone: "You once believed that humans and gods should coexist in harmony, didn't you? Why are you resisting now? Don't you long for the truth?"
Theresa trembled and said, "This is not what I hoped. How could it be a messenger of God? It's just a monster."
"Your shortsightedness makes me sad, Theresa," the man said. "These are divine manifestations. Don't look at them with the old-fashioned human perspective."
The monster, born from the most terrifying nightmare, extended tentacles from its body, wrapped around Theresa and the others, and slowly dragged them into the prayer room.
The thorn crosses inside have not been filled yet, and it needs these mortals who long for the glory and protection of the gods to fill each cross and please the great prince of pleasure with their screams and cries.
The tentacles were so powerful that no matter how Teresa and the others struggled, it was useless.
Someone grabbed the ground with their claws, and nothing changed except for leaving a trail of blood.
The door slowly closed, blocking out the screams of Theresa and the others.
The man shook his head and turned away.
Theresa will not die.
She would understand what pleasure is and enjoy it in the torture that destroyed her soul and body.
Of course, this will take hundreds of years to experience.
The demons are very patient with this.
Time is of no consequence to these eternal creatures of the Warp.
What matters most is making these souls scream.
... ... ..
... ... ... ... ... ..
The welcome ceremony was prepared early.
The people were eagerly awaiting the return of the Imperial Regent.
The members of the honor guard gazed at the starry sky, waiting for the Glorious Queen, the ship belonging to the Imperial Regent.
The air port has been cleared.
The avenue was paved with flowers.
The priests, with their large numbers of followers, wait for the signal for the Imperial Regent to set foot on Terra, and they will sing loudly the moment they do.
The salute has been filled.
A massive fleet of warships hovered in Terra's low-Earth orbit, adding a majestic military presence to the Imperial Regent's ceremony.
The Guards had already lined up at the palace gates, awaiting the Primarch's return.
It had been a long time since Guilliman left.
Many of those who saw him last time had succumbed to the power of time, grown old, or even completed their life journey.
The Milky Way is so vast.
An expedition could easily last a century or two, and ordinary people simply could not bear the passage of such a long time.
Guilliman's speed is quite fast.
But it still took him a long time to pull the entire empire back from the abyss of destruction and establish a new order so that human civilization could develop healthily.
Guilliman's ship, the Macragge's Glory, is currently heading towards Terra. If nothing unexpected happens, he will set foot on Terra's land today.
However, Guilliman did not attach much importance to this grand ceremony.
The ceremony is only to give ordinary people hope and let them know that human civilization has never been defeated.
At this time, Guilliman was in the secret meeting room.
Kaul was reporting to him on various construction achievements.
Everything that was envisioned in Macragge in the past has now been realized or is on the way to being realized.
Many reforms and plans have been put on the right track and have been put on the table for implementation.
Rogal Dorn is repairing the webway left behind by the Eldar and the Old Ones in the Beta Garmon system.
When they reached the abandoned Eldar cities, Guilliman instructed Dorn to build fortresses for humans.
Make it as solid as possible.
We need to build high walls so that we can keep out the wolves and tigers of the Warp and the minions of the gods.
The current webway plan is mainly focused on repairing abandoned webways.
When the number of webways controlled is large enough to meet the needs of the empire, we will find a way to build new webways.
This risk factor is the lowest.
Even if a crisis occurs, it can be remedied in time with the help of the elves.
After all, the fall of the Eldar Empire in the past also led to the invasion of the Eldar Webway, but they survived that crisis safely and have rich experience.
There will be no situation where the gap can only be plugged by the former emperor sitting on the Golden Throne.
What we want is stability.
Taking the fast, ruthless and accurate route will not work.
We must proceed steadily and manage the basics well.
Strive to be the one who laughs last, not the one who laughs the loudest.
The empire's military-industrial reform has also been fully launched.
In the past, Terra and Mars were allies, and their common loyalty was to the Emperor.
With the Emperor no longer speaking, the Mechanicum has gained a great deal of autonomy.
They have the right to choose not to obey Terra's orders.
The procedure for the imperial troops to obtain new equipment is very complicated.
It is not uncommon for it to take hundreds of years from application to formal production and delivery to the troops for installation.
This speed is too inefficient to deal with the endless threats in the universe.
After the military-industrial reform, the original alliance relationship was redefined.
Many departments related to technology, armaments, and industrial products will give some management quotas to the Mechanicus, and the Forge World will be incorporated into the Empire's management system, connecting demand and production, optimizing the complicated procedures for equipment installation, and improving administrative efficiency.
In addition, the de-originalization genetic engineering, the Lighthouse Project, and the Alien Universe Project have all been launched.
Guilliman read the data transmitted to his database, examining the completion coefficient of each plan, with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Apart from anything else, the current level of education in the empire alone made him feel very good.
Ultramar's education rate has reached 98 percent.
This popularization means completing basic subjects, being able to recognize and understand documents written in the empire's common language, having a certain understanding of the universe, and being able to master and operate smart devices.
Other areas are a little slower.
But the progress is also very gratifying.
Given a little more time, we can achieve universal basic education.
Learn more scientific knowledge and firmly follow the line of imperial materialism.
Spend less time studying the monsters in the subspace.
We must strictly enforce ideological education for the new generation of the empire, reduce stupidity and ignorance, let people know the dangers of surrendering to chaos, and thus get them on the right track.
The rectification of the media was also relatively successful. The empire established several general media organizations to guide public opinion.
Publicize the dangers of organizations and cults that serve chaos.
My daily job is to publicize the various harms brought by chaos. Even the discord between the couple next door is caused by chaos.
Previously, a group of scholars criticized the empire's manipulation of public opinion, believing that the empire would use any means to fool the people.
Of course, this group of people were directly ordered to be investigated by the Imperial Prime Minister.
A number of academic organizations with vested interests were also pulled out.
The natural fate of these people was to be sent to the Punishment Battalion and become mechanical servants.
The court has been deployed quite a few times during this period.
If there is evil, eliminate evil; if there is no evil, eliminate evil.
The Empire now operates as an authoritarian democracy.
The governor of the interior of the planet is elected by the local residents.
Guilliman was very relaxed on this point and let them choose whoever they thought could represent their interests.
In a sense, the functions of today's planet governors are completely different from those of previous planet governors.
The empire's military, economy, and industry are all in the hands of Terra.
The function of the current planetary governor is to convey the demands of the planet's residents to the Empire. His power has been weakened a lot compared to the past. Moreover, there is the Imperial Inquisition as a supervisory body, which greatly reduces the phenomenon of power collusion.
The tithes for each planet have also been overhauled.
In the past, the Imperial Taxation Department would simply and crudely send out tax ships to collect taxes.
Nowadays, trade organizations such as the Imperial Chamber of Commerce are used to carry out implicit collection.
It weakened people's aversion to imperial taxation.
At the same time, commercial economic means are used to levy more taxes on wealthy planets and less taxes on poor planets, and resources are allocated to support the development of backward planets.
The cooperation between the Inquisitors and the State Church became increasingly close.
Any religion not belonging to the Emperor is outlawed and prohibited by law.
The organizers were tried in public or even executed directly.
Such cleaning behavior effectively reduces the incidence of chaos invasion.
Without the fanatics opening the door for the demons, it would be very difficult for the demons to enter the physical universe.
Through multiple measures, except for those worlds that are still on the edge of the Great Rift and are still plagued by demons, other worlds can basically remain stable.
"Everything is done well." After reading the data, Guilliman looked at Cawl and smiled.
Cawl was not moved at all by Guilliman's praise.
In him, the human sensibility had already largely disappeared along with his flesh and blood.
The remaining emotions, like the necessary flesh and blood, are just remnants of the past.
One of Kaul's mechanical tentacle slid in the air, and the projection interface appeared with his movement.
A huge, magnificent mechanical building appeared in front of Guilliman.
"Now, our most important thing is to create a device to control the subspace firewall. The relevant parts are already being produced, and we just need to assemble them."
Guilliman took a few seconds to read through the huge amount of design drawings and data.
The giant mechanical equipment, which is as tall as the Himalayas, is merely the console of the subspace firewall.
On top of the mechanical device, Cawl had thoughtfully designed a throne for Guilliman.
To channel his powers into protecting the Warp Firewall.
In the subspace, will is king.
The firewall is to forge human will into a wall to block the harm of the evil gods of the subspace.
Many high-ranking officials of the Empire know that the lighthouses built throughout the Empire today, in addition to being able to guide the direction and coordinates of warp-space ships, also have another function, which is to leverage the power of the Emperor through faith, providing a powerful weapon for various regions to fight against demons.
However, known only to Guilliman and Cawl, these beacons served a hidden purpose.
That is the node that acts as a subspace firewall.
These lighthouses can radiate Guilliman's will to various planets, and then unite the will of mankind to establish a subspace firewall, forming a subspace regional network independent of the realm of the gods.
Only those who are deemed capable of resisting external dangers can cross the regional network and travel in the larger subspace.
The mechanical device that Cawl showed Guilliman was the master control switch and also the machine that conveyed Guilliman's will.
This plan is the most secretive.
They pushed forward the plan under the guise of the Lighthouse Project, which was originally a secret. It could be said that they had several layers of cover. Not only did the enemy not know about it, but the entire empire was kept in the dark by the two.
With this thing, the human empire can be truly unified.
The previous unity was only physical.
This machine can unify every soul in the entire human civilization, and in that case, it will have enough power to protect itself.
"Can we have a different design?" Guilliman asked, looking at Cawl. "It doesn't have to be designed like a throne."
The last person who sat on the throne hasn’t come down yet!
Now you want me to sit again
"This is the design that best suits your status, sir. Don't you want to stand on the machine to maintain the firewall? Although you don't need to guard this machine all the time, sometimes it takes a long time to debug. If there is no throne, you have to stand on it, which looks stupid and not in line with your status." Cawl said: "You don't need to worry about what happened to the Emperor in the past. This mechanical device has an emergency mode, and its task is only to allow your will to control the entire firewall and lead people's will to fight against the terrible tide of the warp. If an unavoidable crisis occurs, the priority task of this machine is also to ensure your safety."
"I know." Guilliman said calmly, "That's not what I'm worried about. Such an important device, designed as a throne, and I sit on it, those opponents will definitely have other ideas."
Guilliman thought he should try a different one.
Sitting on the throne, I always feel a little uneasy.
Change to something else.
Cawl froze for a moment, staring at Guilliman, not sure if he was testing him or if he truly was unaware.
The Grand Marshal of the Custodes publicly stated that the Custodes, under the Emperor's orders, would receive Primaris upgrades and embrace a new era.
For this reason, the voices of the entire Empire supporting the Primarch have completely overwhelmed the previous royalists.
Isn't this obvious
All that’s left is to find a good day to ascend the throne.
The one at the top even delivered his own Custodes to Guilliman, but he just didn't jump up and shout, "Make way."
After thinking for a moment, Cawl thought that this might be the Primarch being too thoughtful.
He was concerned that he had not officially ascended the throne and was afraid that others would have opinions about it, which would affect the stability of the empire.
"The design of the throne is indispensable. Any other design would not be suitable for your status. Moreover, even if it is just to debug the machine, sir, you may still have to handle government affairs. As for other people's opinions, I suggest that the regent should not worry about it. Your status is already determined, and those people cannot change anything."
Kaur rarely chose a tactful tone.
Guilliman looked at the throne design at the top and thought for a long time. Indeed, there was no other design that could suit his status.
Designing it as a sleeping cabin is a bit too exaggerated for his image.
If you stand, you will stand for days and look like a fool.
It’s designed as a throne, just sit on it.
It is mighty and domineering, and it can also show his majesty.
This is truly the best design.
"Okay, let's design it this way." Guilliman finally chose to compromise.
But this is only temporary.
As long as we get the third-stage knowledge database, we can use the advanced knowledge in it and redesign it.