novelnext Page 294
Page 294
hiss.......
Something's not quite right!
This was far too dull for a ceremony similar to Ulanno.
Even Magnus's brain noticed something was wrong.
Boom!
Suddenly, the bronze gate behind him slammed shut with a dull thud.
A moment of darkness engulfed Magnus.
Now, all he can feel is the golden light shooting straight towards him.
What...what did you do?
Magnus looked around, somewhat bewildered.
Finally, his gaze fell on the high platform at the very front.
The source of this golden light, the golden giant with a claw in one hand and a sword in the other, was now looking coldly at Magnus, who was being led forward by Fugrim and Saint Gilles.
"The trial begins."
Chapter 183 The Judgment of Nicaea
Tap, tap.
As the scepter struck the granite floor, an elderly man in black robes stepped forward, meeting Magnus's bewildered gaze.
Magic-Wearing Macado, Imperial Chancellor, Psionicist.
He was also the host of this Nicaea conference.
"Friends, we have gathered here today on Nicaea to discuss a problem that has troubled us since the founding of the Empire."
In front of the countless dark-skinned imperial bureaucrats and Astartes warriors, Macardo examined his speech, frowning and squinting as if inspecting the somewhat illegible parchment.
“Now let’s get straight to the point,” Macado said. “This gathering will discuss the problem of witchcraft within the Empire. Gentlemen, we are here to address the think tank crisis.”
It's rather comical that a top-tier wizard is presiding over this meeting in front of another top-tier wizard whose appearance is so obscured that it's impossible to even make out his features.
If the Emperor hadn't previously revealed his intentions to those Astartes and Primarchs, who would have dared to step forward and say a word against it?
Within this circular theater, Makado's voice echoed continuously.
"and many more!"
"What exactly is the purpose of this meeting? Aren't our think tanks functioning very well?"
Seeing the intense anger emanating from the Emperor, Magnus felt a chill run down his spine.
His intuition told him that this was not a simple meeting, but a trial for him, Magnus.
Standing in the center of the circular stage, he finally understood what the emperor meant by the trial.
This is a trial for him, Magnus!
—He finally noticed that.
But no one paid any attention to him.
Or rather, what Magnus actually thought is no longer important.
"The problem with think tanks has been bothering us for a long time: some insist that witchcraft is the greatest threat we face in our galactic domination, while others disagree and believe that the accusations are driven by fear and ignorance."
"As the Great Expedition progressed, the clash between these two ideas became increasingly intense."
"The great journey we have embarked on is of paramount importance and must not be threatened by internal strife."
As the Imperial Chancellor, Macardo has been using various means to prevent discord within the Great Crusade.
However, the act of choosing to believe in the Weaver of Fate Carlos and regarding him as the Empire's double-headed eagle is indeed quite appalling.
There's no way to save it now, even if we wanted to.
"So, who would like to be the first to speak?"
Makado took the parchment from his hand and looked around the rotunda.
"I'll do it!"
A flickering light emanated from one of the private rooms at the front.
The alias dissipated, and only then could Magnus see the other's true appearance—thick, bluish-gray wolf pelts covered a gray armor resembling thunderclouds. And on the head was a howling wolf's head pelt.
Rune Priests of the Space Wolves Legion step into the amphitheater.
......
“I am Oshelvodmaker of the Space Wolves. I fought alongside the Thousand Sons on Shrike. I fought them side by side in battle, and everything they did shocked and disgusted me!”
“I declare them to be a group of dark sorcerers, each of them a wizard who is skilled in witchcraft and abuses unclean magic.”
"I swear by the name of the son of Lemanrus, everything I have said is true."
Unlike rune priests who wield the power of nature, these thousand-child guys have clearly fallen completely!
Hopeless!
Faced with the rune priest's accusations, Magnus confidently raised his head, dismissing them with disdain.
What era are we living in?
People today are smart enough not to be manipulated by the superstitions and fears of magic held by the space wolves.
But when he looked around, the sight of the entire dark crowd of onlookers nodding slightly and glaring at him made Magnus somewhat uneasy.
Could it be...
In fact, the majority of the human empire were wary and distrustful of psionic energy, and Magnus, as a pioneer, was in the minority.
—That’s not actually the case.
People simply don't trust Magnus, not psychic powers.
Don't confuse the two.
Macardo stood on the edge of the platform, tapping the ground with his cane. All eyes were on him.
“You’ve made terrible accusations against your Brotherhood, Rune Priest,” Macardo said. “Is there anyone who supports your claims?”
Yes, I am.
Amidst the hushed gasps and whispers of the crowd, the mask was removed from another private room, and a lanky giant clad in olive-green armor emerged.
Mortalian.
Magnus's brother was not surprised that this man was here.
Mortalian would certainly support the rune priest's claim, even though the power he used was merely a manifestation of psionic energy.
As the previous person returned to their seat, Mortalian walked toward the center of the amphitheater.
Whether intentional or unintentional, the Lord of Death took exactly twenty-eight steps from stepping out of the box to entering the center of the theater to begin his speech.
Multiples of seven.
Even the Pale King, who absolutely despises the existence of psychic energy, seems to be guided by numerology, and he always accepts his strange laws in an obsessive way, insisting that they are science.
Rune Priest, Numerology...
How many more psionic users, disguised as psychic users, will stand up and criticize him at this time?
A feeling of extreme resentment grew in Magnus's heart.
Seeing that his brother's anger was still burning fiercely, Mortalian did not feel much guilt.
He seemed to be enjoying his brother's discontent and resentment, bowing briefly to the emperor before beginning his speech.
"The problem of wizards has plagued the human empire since ancient times."
Mortalian spoke at length, his hoarse voice like the dry hiss of hot wind sweeping across the sand dunes.
“I have witnessed the devastation that unbound witchcraft can cause: the world turned to scorched earth, the common people enslaved, and vile beasts poisoning all things. Witchcraft can destroy planets, and those who abuse it are those who are arrogant and covet the dark corners they should not touch.”
As he said this, he met Magnus's extremely defiant gaze.
"We all know the horrors of the Ancient Night, but I want to ask a simple question: What triggered that cataclysm that swept across the entire galaxy? It was the psionicists. Uncontrolled psionicists. The threat they posed..."
As someone who had meticulously prepared his speech well in advance, Motalian's speech was passionate and full of his own style.
He bitterly denounced how, since the Dark Ages, psionicists have abused witchcraft for their own selfish desires, recklessly venturing into extreme situations without regard for the dangers, causing immense harm to the human empire.
Seemingly to avoid negatively impacting the Star Court and Navigator families, who were equally crucial in the voting, he deliberately distinguished between "having to use psionic energy" and "abusing psionic energy in pursuit of power."
The criticism is directed at wicked wizards like Magnus who indiscriminately unleash magic.
He then recounted his experiences fighting the sorcerous aliens—monsters summoned by an alien sorcerer named Kayor. No power comes without a price, and with each victory, the Death Guards gradually discovered the cost of sorcery.
In the heart of every city they conquered, the Death Guards discovered a massive structure known as the Blood Temple.
It was a slaughterhouse filled with bones and death, a place that even the most steadfast Death Guardians found disgusting.
After each Blood Temple was destroyed, the power of those sorcerer aliens gradually weakened.
“They had no intention of surrendering, and thus fought to the last man, annihilated for a group of rulers who could not relinquish their power and witchcraft. To this day, Cayor’s memory still makes me tremble.”
"The glorious achievements of the Thousand Sons are known to all. I once led my warriors to fight alongside the sons of Magnus, and we forged a deep friendship and trust. My words are not born of hatred, but from my brotherly affection for Magnus."
“I cannot stand idly by and watch his obsession lead him astray, dragging him and his legions into the cursed abyss.”
"That's all I wanted to say."
Mortalian said
......
But soon, Magnus could sense just how strong Mortalian's last words about "brotherhood" were.
Three hours after the rune priests and Mortalian, countless imperial bureaucrats stepped forward to give speeches, raising one accusation or another.
Some of this is quite reasonable, a point even Magnus himself acknowledged.
After all, he had also resorted to some less-than-honorable means in his pursuit of knowledge and truth.
But some of it was utter nonsense—those stubborn, dogmatic, superstitious, and outdated people, according to Magnus, these mortals didn’t even have the right to speak on stage, but they still came forward one after another to give long speeches. They insisted that Magnus was a heretic, a sorcerer, a blood mage, a troublemaker, someone who disliked the centaur's gold ring, and a virgin sacrificer.
Faced with such serious and biased accusations, it is now time for Magnus to refute them.
“In your words, I seem to be accused of being an unpardonable sinner.”
"But if any of us could go back to the ancient days of Terra, people would surely condemn you with the same accusations, believing that the technology we possess is evil magic and the truth I hold is heresy."
Magnus walked away from behind the podium, circling the amphitheater like a preacher giving a lecture.
"For example, the people who once lived on Terra believed that the ancient Earth was a flat plane with oceans cascading down its sides. Can you imagine anything more absurd? Today we all know that planets are spheres."
“Long afterward, religious scholars still claimed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun, moon and stars revolved around it. Those who dared to question this foolish idea were condemned as heretics and put on trial, either forced to abandon this thought or burned at the stake.”
"And now we know our place in the galaxy."
“The deepest pursuits often breed the most deadly hatred,” he continued, his expression sincere. “Falsehoods are not only ugly, but they also pollute the minds of those who listen. Imagine what knowledge we will have a thousand years from now, and then carefully examine our actions in the present.”
"Knowledge is the food of the soul. No knowledge is illegitimate, as long as every seeker of truth can master what he has learned."
"If I have any fault, it is my pursuit of knowledge."
Then Magnus told everyone present a story, a—uh…
Okay, it's Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
(Honestly, these authors are really careless. They've used this plot point so many times. They used it on Peturabo, then on Magnus.)
In short, there were three frogs in a well. One of them jumped out of the well and discovered that the real world was not only the size of the well opening. So it excitedly went back and reported the news to its other two companions.
But the two companions remained unmoved—they lived underground, so what did it matter if the outside world was really that vast? They only wished their lives would remain unchanged.
In this story, he compares himself to someone who dares to go out and explore, to highlight his greatness in wanting to broaden people's horizons and help them understand the truth.
But he clearly suffered the same fate—distrusted and regarded as a heretic by the people in the well, yet he still would not give up bringing light to everyone.
He said it very well.
If the light he spoke of wasn't the Weaver of Fates, Carlos, then Kasgar might actually have been fooled by him.