Warhammer 40: My Fiancée Fulgrim

Page 461

No matter what you say or what conditions you offer, it will never be accepted!

The High Lords Council, the Inquisition, the Imperial Guard, and the Order of Silence all expressed their dissatisfaction with the Sun Lord's unauthorized decision.

what?

You're saying the Eldar will gift them some of their network technology and warp shield field technology, and that it's already been equipped on the human expeditionary fleet?!

Hey, it's a misunderstanding!

That's all a misunderstanding!

It's a complete misunderstanding!

Those who plunder humanity, enslave and persecute humankind are the Dark Spirits, the Evil Spirits!

They are fallen, non-human individuals among the Eldar, just like Space Marines are the Emperor's angels while Chaos Space Marines are nothing. Although they are both Eldar, the Ark Eldar are essentially human relatives, a kind of demi-human!

Compared to purebred humans, they're just a bit thinner and have slightly pointed ears!

According to the Empire’s existing skull measurement methods, the Eldar are not even demi-humans; they are simply humans!

They are our long-lost relatives in the Milky Way!

......

Time slowly passed by.

During this period, the human empire enjoyed a rare moment of relative peace.

After Nurgle and Khorne were defeated one after another, the Chaos Realm is now facing a reshuffle, and the remaining two are not evil gods who are good at direct combat, so for the time being, they are not a great threat.

After the Orcish Empire was wiped out by the human expeditionary force, it never recovered. Although there are still some scattered Orcish fleets raiding the galaxy, the Space Marine Chapters can currently handle this level of piracy.

The greatest threat comes from the endless Zerg hive fleets emanating from the northern part of the galaxy.

Most Space Marines were deployed to the northern galaxy to defend against a massive Hive fleet invasion—despite a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of the Imperial fleet compared to the past, they were still no match for the overwhelming Hive forces...

This would require the intervention of a renowned pharmacist from the Phoenix's Sons—no, not Melusin, but another one.

Aqua Duna

If we could obtain his "deworming medicine" and put it into the digestive tract of the insect hive fleet, the insect hive fleet would collapse on the spot without a fight.

Even the insect swarm, which possesses super evolutionary abilities and has evolved invincible detoxification and anti-toxicity capabilities, still has no way to withstand her casual attack!

Aqua's potion is simply too powerful.

For this reason, the Ark worlds other than Iyndon are willing to exchange various rare items for some "solid potions" from her.

"Don't be sad, Aqua. Look, your cooking skills have achieved the effect you expected, haven't they?" As she spoke, Melusin gently placed a piece of Elven cheese in front of her in the laboratory.

As a token of exchange used by the Eldar, this piece of cheese, worth the equivalent of several Eldar city-states' worth of cheese, was thus presented to the Phoenix Children's table as a form of trade for Aqua's delicacies.

Aqua cooking = Spirit Clan cheese = gourmet food!

Wow... that's quite a roundabout way to go...

"Would you like to try a bite?"

"Forget it."

As for the Titanium Empire...

Who?

No concern.jpg

During this period, the warp protection force field technology provided by the Eldar was produced on a small scale and deployed on some merchant ships and transport vessels, operating more safely and smoothly than expected.

The great sage of the Cult of Mechanics, Caul, seemed very interested in this and began his research.

Meanwhile, the original forging technology is being fully implemented in every Astartes Chapter within the Imperium of Man.

Although many chapter leaders had doubts about this improved technology before the original forging, believing that these recruits had not been influenced by chapter culture, were very unorthodox, and were no different from Ultramarines.

But once you actually get your hands on the original recruits and witness their combat power, or after personally modifying them, that initial resistance will quickly turn into genuine appreciation.

As for the Eldar's promised network technology, after Kasgar helped the entire Iyndon Ark restore the Soulstones and remove the curse, they conducted teaching experiments with human scientists in the secret chamber in front of the lunar network portal.

At this rate, humanity will soon be able to truly master the use of the Web Portal!

The human empire has finally ushered in a brief period of peace.

Until new messages came from several star sectors that had been out of contact for a long time.

"Vandil—the High Lord who had been missing for a long time—is stirring up a storm within the Imperial Church."

The voice on the Star Language Communication device suddenly became unusually hoarse.

"They...no, us."

"We are all centaur gold rings!"

Chapter 283 What bad things did Kaska do?

The Imperial Cult's growth rate far exceeded what Casca and others had imagined.

At the same time that the Orcish Empire invaded Holy Terra, and Kasgar returned while Highlord Vandir fled, almost all eyes in the Human Empire were focused on the great war between the Orcish Empire and the Human Empire. No one would choose to spend a lot of effort to bring back the escaped Highlord at this time.

In response, Guilliman simply assigned a presiding judge as the person in charge to search for Van Diehl in his last exile area in hopes of bringing him to justice.

But the final result seemed quite unexpected.

"Our presiding judge also chose to join the Imperial Church. Judging from the communications he circulated during the investigation, it seems that he understands that this entire Imperial Church has been coerced by Van Diehl."

"But later, his replies became extremely patronizing of the emperor, to the point that he eventually became almost the most thorough believer in the imperial cult."

As she spoke, Loriman showed Casca the secret letter in her hand—it was covered with densely packed centaur gold rings, and in some places, there were even phrases like "I love the Emperor, and the Emperor loves me."

"This is unusual."

Loriman becomes extremely serious during work hours, as if the overworked primordial body that has been working overtime for seven thousand years has taken over her body as if by inertia: "From the beginning, I had already anticipated that Van Diehl would definitely use the Imperial Cult to his advantage, so I specially arranged for a warrior who advocates the truth of the Empire to be in charge."

"According to my investigation, his adherence to the truth of the Empire is the most tenacious presence in the Inquisition—if such a conscientious member of the Inquisition could be influenced by the other party to become a fanatical follower of the Imperial Cult... it is hard to imagine just how large and fanatical a religious group they have gathered now."

"We may have overlooked the threat of the expansion of the Imperial Church during this period."

The galaxy is teeming with all sorts of monsters and demons, with orcs, chaos, the Black Legion, space necromancers, and the Zerg hive fleet all displaying their extraordinary abilities.

These Imperial cultists, who are constantly growing in the shadows, will be dealt with at a very, very low priority.

While Casca and his allies focused almost all their energy on dealing with the ever-growing threats of the Zerg, Orcs, and Chaos in the galaxy, in a remote region they paid little attention to, a small group of Imperial forces had gradually evolved into a hidden danger that needed to be dealt with.

Although nominally the Imperial Church remains loyal to the human empire, and its subjects are even more devout and loyal to the emperor than the general populace of the empire—in the process of the Imperial Church's spread, many of the emperor's followers have donated all their wealth to build magnificent shrines for the emperor.

While they are indeed very fanatical, there doesn't seem to be enough reason for the current human empire to capture them.

"The reason... having the name [Vandil] is more than enough."

The name [Vandil] is far more familiar to Casgar than to Guilliman is now.

"Judging from their current movements, it seems that after they have developed a sufficient number of followers, they are preparing to return to the human empire by their own means."

The Imperial Cult is still expanding.

After Van Diehl became the Pope of the state religion, when he began to promote the Imperial Religion within the Empire using some extremely forceful means, it was even more difficult to abolish them, given the spontaneous reverence that the people had held for human emperors for thousands of years.

Furthermore, it seems that during the expansion, Van Diehl, as the Pope of the State Church, made a new demand of them—the Imperial Church must become the State Church of the Human Empire, and the Pope of the State Church will also be a member of the High Lords Council.

"Now that the Imperial Cult has amassed enormous wealth, it is not only able to form its own fanatical armed force, but its assets can also be used for further propagation and to bribe Imperial officials."

A large number of nobles, wandering merchants, planetary governors, and sector governors were drawn to the doctrines of the Imperial Church and chose to dedicate everything they had to the church in exchange for sufficient membership and to continue to assist the Imperial Church in its ongoing expansion.

"This is difficult to handle, so I chose to come to you now to resolve this matter."

As for Loriman, all other matters could be properly handled thanks to her governance experience.

But the expansion of the Imperial Church was different.

They could neither attack directly like they did with the Xenomorphs, nor could they simply let things go unchecked—even though they were now on the Golden Throne, Guilliman and Casgar both understood that ignorance and fanaticism would plunge the entire human empire into an abyss of madness.

Thousands of years ago, Regent Guilliman also advocated suppressing the ignorant and fanatical Imperial Cult and promoting the truth of the Empire, but the situation then seems to be different from today.

"There were no centaur gold rings or anything like that back then, and the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Empire at that time... I'm not bragging, but I think their standard of living was no different from that of the current world of Alteramar 500."

"Casca, what are your plans?"

Loriman chose to pass this problem on to the Sun Lord, Casgar.

Even though they have declared Van Diehl a traitor, for him, who controls a large amount of Imperial Church resources and has been elected as the Pope of the Imperial Church, direct arrest seems to be the most credible means at present.

Although it may cause opposition from some believers, this approach is the only way to completely suppress the outbreak of cholera to the smallest possible extent.

"Or, should we just send the Assassins to assassinate Van Diehl?"

"No. Guilliman."

“I don’t think it’s a wise decision to take direct action against him now—especially since we don’t know who the real culprit is.”

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"There's more to this unusual rise of the Imperial Cult than meets the eye—Vandil may not be the real culprit."

It would have been impossible for Van Diehl, an ordinary man, to have developed so rapidly.

He wielded great power as the High Lord of the Interior, yet he still failed to develop the Imperial Church and use it as political capital.

However, after being declared a traitor by the Sun Lord, he was able to gather countless believers in his homeland, the Holy Land, allowing the Imperial Cult to expand at an extraordinary speed.

"Doesn't this situation seem familiar to you?"

"You mean... Luojia?"

Loliman rubbed her chin like a little adult.

"It may not be, but I already have some guesses in my mind."

"To be precise, we need to have a thorough understanding of the enemy we are about to face in order to launch the battle correctly."

"Casgar said."

He seemed to have sensed the true identity of the mastermind, and now all he needed was a suitable opportunity to completely expose the other party's disguise in front of all the fanatics, let them know that they had been misled by the evil creatures of the warp, and thus repent.

Otherwise, the human empire may very well face another protracted and devastating civil war.

"Guilliman. Besides that, have those members of the Imperial Cult taken any other actions?"

"Other actions..."

According to the investigation results of the missing judge, everything the Imperial Church is doing is within reasonable limits and has not exceeded them.

If there's anything unusual... it's that they're currently searching for or acquiring ancient relics throughout the galaxy—these days, the wealthy are using vulgar money to exchange for tokens that contain the power of saints, which is actually a reasonable request.

"I see."

Kasga seemed to suddenly understand something and said.

"No, it's not necessarily just Luo Jia; even the bizarre god of subspace changes—Tzeentch—is involved."

“I can’t even believe that one of those fanatical believers might shout at the Weaver of Fates, Carlos, ‘That’s the Imperial Double-Headed Eagle!’”

Casca suddenly remembered the stupid things that a red-skinned Oglin idiot had done.

Casca has seen this kind of idiot once before, hurry up and take it away!

Killing Van Diehl isn't actually that difficult. With several Primarch-level combatants returning one after another, it's practically impossible for anyone to stop their advance.

However, it would be naive to think that killing Van Diehl means the end of the matter.

In the future, even more fanatical popes of the state religion will emerge, thus instigating internal strife among the followers of the Imperial Church.

“Tzeentch… If this chaotic creature is indeed involved in Van Dill’s plans and has already infiltrated the Imperial Church, it would be a huge challenge for us.”

"But—how exactly did you manage to see the big picture from such small details, and discover the real culprit lurking in the shadows with so little information?"

Loriman was amazed that Casca was able to discover the real culprit so quickly.

Unexpectedly, her brother-in-law is not only as powerful as many Primarchs, but also surpasses her in intelligence, being the first to discover the key to the problem from a few words!

"Uh......"

“I consulted Mortalian before I came here—he said it was Tzeentch who did it.”

(Motalian: The result is always nine. Do you have any clue about that?)

"..."