The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"This isn't an accusation, because there's a logic involved here. If you want to obtain powerful Chaos weapons, you need to be powerful enough yourselves, because these things are usually owned or they choose their own masters. But you haven't focused on strengthening yourselves, so you're always chasing after things of a lower caliber."

Before the other party could speak, Sorskyan raised his hand.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not being sarcastic. I just want you to understand that instead of wasting effort collecting unstable and dangerous things, you should find ways to strengthen the Chapter itself. Isn't one more warship better than one more demon-possessed sword? Your Chapter has so many Librarians, prepare more psychic weapons, some modified armor and Terminators. Look at the Grey Knights, they're not weak even without Chaos weapons. After joining the Covenant of Sorrow, you have more righteous paths to take. There's no need to go down those crooked paths again. The Covenant has support from the Adeptus Mechanicus, with many advanced public facilities. We're all battle-brothers, anything can be said openly."

After listening to Sorskyan's words, Artukus fell into a brief silence, and it was clear that there were relatively large fluctuations in his heart.

After a long while, the Chapter Master sighed and said:

"You're right, maybe we've focused too much on external forces and neglected our own strength."

"Just the two of us here, is it convenient to talk about what exactly happened to the Sin Eaters back then?"

Hearing Sorskyan mention the name Sin Eaters, Artukus's expression changed. Sorskyan immediately spoke to appease him:

"Don't worry, I didn't specifically investigate your Chapter. It's just that not long ago, a distinguished guest from Yellow Spring VIII happened to visit our Chapter Monastery and inadvertently mentioned that your Chapter had dealt with this derelict ship for Yellow Spring VIII. It seems that your Chapter's collection of Chaos weapons also started from that time, so..."

After pondering for a moment, Artukus slowly said:

"Radical Inquisitor de Malqué discovered that the derelict ship contained an entire warband composed of corrupted Thousand Sons and other Chaos Space Marines, led by a Tzeentch Chaos Champion known as 'The Breaker'. He planned to use the derelict ship to attract Yellow Spring VIII's attention, and then find a way to steal an alien relic from Yellow Spring VIII's vaults. So the Inquisitor ordered a cruiser to paralyze the derelict ship as soon as it entered the Yellow Spring system, and coordinated with our Librarian Decario and his Terminator squad to board the Sin Eater. But the Chaos Champion wielding the demon weapon was extremely powerful. The demon weapon he held could easily cut through Terminator armor. Even the Librarian's Terminator armor and power sword were cut open. Decario had to retaliate with his fists, tearing off the Chaos Champion's sword along with his hand. Despite being seriously injured and unarmed, The Breaker still used his psychic powers to knock Decario to the ground and kill four Terminator warriors. Decario grabbed the nearest weapon and attacked the Chaos Champion, severing his head from his neck. When he came back to his senses, he realized that the weapon he had grabbed was the Chaos Champion's demon weapon. Subsequently, Decario introduced de Malqué to me. He told me that Chaos weapons are a powerful tool that the Imperium can use to counter Chaos, and should not be destroyed directly as per the Standard Template Construct."

Sorskyan blinked.

"And you just accepted that?"

"I, I believed Decario's judgment, and as one of the sentinel Chapters watching over the Eye of Terror, our most common enemy in the past was the traitors of Chaos. Each time we dealt with an invasion, we had to pay a considerable price. Maybe this was indeed a solution."

Sorskyan rubbed his forehead.

"Alright, these are all things of the past, and there's no point in talking about them anymore. Right now, we need to deal with the Inquisition's trouble first."

"The Fourth Company was indeed—"

"What the truth is doesn't matter anymore. No one can produce evidence of what happened back then. Besides, the Inquisition has never made decisions based on evidence. They're coming for the Covenant of Sorrow now."

"Then what do you plan to do...?"

"Self-justification is useless now. The only way is—"

Sorskyan narrowed his eyes and whispered those two words.

"Counter-sue!"

"Counter-sue?"

Artukus frowned. His warrior's brain couldn't understand Sorskyan's subtext, so Sorskyan could only explain further:

"You go from being the accused to the accuser, and in turn accuse Alexei Koche."

"Ah? Accuse him of what?"

"Treason."

"Ah???"

Although he hated Alexei Koche, Artukus had never thought that this famous Exclusionist Inquisitor would betray the Imperium, so his eyes widened instinctively, but Sorskyan just smiled slightly.

"This is the only way we can resolve the conflict without directly confronting the Inquisition."

"But—"

Finally, Artukus realized what Sorskyan was referring to, which shocked him even more than when he first saw the demon weapon.

But looking into Sorskyan's eyes, he knew he had no choice, because this was the only way to clear the Chapter's name.

"What should I do?"

"I've sent people to find one of Alexei's hidden strongholds, a luxurious monastery estate located in the Quat hive city, which is permanently guarded by several Inquisitorial followers disguised as monks. When the time comes, I will send people to arrest them, and then... your Chapter will put all those things that are difficult to deal with inside. After everything is ready, we will stage a 'caught red-handed' scenario, and brand Alexei as a Chaos traitor. This derelict ship operation was a conspiracy he colluded with demons to harm the Relictors Chapter, but was ultimately seen through and backfired, receiving the fate that all traitors deserve."

In fact, Sorskyan also had a subtext here. Although Artukus didn't understand it at first, after noticing the stern look in the other party's eyes, he realized that Sorskyan could save the Relictors Chapter, but the Relictors Chapter also had to clean up their own mess and completely abandon those Chaos weapons.

This was an advice and also a warning.

If the Relictors Chapter didn't listen, then the fate that all traitors deserved wasn't just referring to Alexei.

In the past, if anyone dared to threaten him so blatantly, Artukus would definitely be furious, but now he only felt cold sweat pouring down, and couldn't muster any thoughts of disobedience.

"The Inquisition will investigate this, I'm afraid it won't be easy to fool them."

"The truth doesn't matter, and I don't intend to really turn Alexei into a traitor. What's a saying? Some things are best not investigated too much, what if something is found? The Inquisition is more afraid of being investigated than any faction. Few of them have clean asses. Besides, the ones who initiated this attack are mainly the Exclusionist Inquisitors. Are they not afraid of this handle being seized by Inquisitors from other factions? To deal with the Inquisition, the best way is to use their factional contradictions. Don't they all boast that they are heroes who distinguish right from wrong and punish evil? Then let heroes investigate heroes, and let good men investigate good men!"