The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Followers, are you referring to those traitors?"

Looking at the three Grand Inquisitors, Soshjan spread his hands with an innocent expression.

"Dead. They resisted stubbornly. Fortunately, we captured one in the end, but he was severely injured and had to be transferred to the ship for treatment. We obtained very important information from him."

At this moment, Artaeus raised a data-slate. After lighting it up, a young man, covered in blood, with a bruised face, and constantly spitting out blood, said intermittently:

"I am Neil Jacobson... Follower of Inquisitor... Alexei Koh... I confess... Alexei Koh is a traitor... For many years... Secretly collecting Chaos artifacts..."

Amand reacted instantly, violently drawing the warhammer from his waist and activating it. At the same time, the torch behind him flared up with a bright flame.

"How dare you! You actually did something like this!"

The next second, he felt a slight chill on his neck. A sword was placed against his neck at some point, followed by an indifferent voice.

"Watch who you're talking to. This is the last warning."

Robin, who had sheathed his sword, walked to the side. Amand narrowed his eyes, looking at Soshjan.

"This is betrayal, this is a crime! You're framing an Inquisitor in front of us! You're insulting our intelligence! I will report this to Terra, even if it costs me my life!"

Soshjan still maintained his calm demeanor, slowly saying:

"What is framing?"

He raised his hand, pointing around.

"Doesn't this manor belong to Alexei Koh?"

Then he pointed to the person on the data-slate.

"Isn't this person Alexei Koh's follower?"

Finally, he pointed to the Chaos weapons.

"These things... can't be his fitness equipment, right?"

Soshjan spread his hands.

"We have witnesses and evidence. Since you believe this is a frame-up, then it's simple. I will hold a public inquiry at Victory Scar, inviting all the Chapters in the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, Forge Worlds, including representatives from the Departmento Munitorum and the Department of Justice. Ah, let's all take a look together, study it, and see if this is a frame-up, or if... even with ironclad evidence, someone still wants to overturn the case?"

Artaeus also immediately followed up, saying:

"In addition, I want to report Alexei Koh as a Chaos heretic. Our Fourth Company Librarians have confirmed that this operation was entirely a trap. That demon was summoned by him, just to harm us warriors loyal to the Emperor!"

Amand's shoulders trembled with anger, his face turned livid. He drew the warhammer from his waist, pointing it at Artaeus's nose.

"You group of traitors who collect heretical weapons are actually turning black into white! These things are clearly—"

But at this moment, a hand pressed down on his arm. Hanivar stepped forward, his expression calm, and said:

"Chapter Master Soshjan, doing this benefits no one. If Alexei Koh is truly a traitor, the Inquisition headquarters on Terra will definitely send someone to investigate... Such clumsy tricks cannot deceive any experienced Inquisitor."

"Then let them investigate. Maybe they can really find something? After all, we're not professionals."

The Inquisitor looked up at Soshjan's face, sighed softly after a long time, and said:

"Your performance surprises and worries me greatly. The duty of the Adeptus Astartes is to be pure warriors, but you act more like a cunning politician. This is already an overreach in ideology."

"When the Emperor still walked among us, we could be simple warriors, but now, in this distant Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, He is far from us. We can only rely on ourselves, otherwise we will be eaten to the bone by monsters wielding legal clauses and various rules as weapons."

"Do you think it's reasonable for the Adeptus Astartes to be completely free from supervision? Is it reasonable for you, who already possess such great violence, to continue to expand your own power?"

"Of course not. No one should be free from supervision, because such unlimited privilege easily breeds unlimited sin. What do you think? But since the Inquisition can choose to supervise itself, why can't the Adeptus Astartes also supervise themselves, and need others to do it for them? You know, the Inquisition initially had only twelve members. What about now? Twelve thousand? One hundred and twenty thousand? Or one point two billion? I don't think anyone in the Inquisition can say for sure how many Inquisitors there are. And what about the Adeptus Astartes? In the past ten thousand years, have the Adeptus Astartes increased or decreased? I believe you all know in your hearts that the Adeptus Astartes still have to undergo nineteen extremely dangerous transformation surgeries, passing through the heavy death barriers set by the gene-seed, to possess the 'great violence' you speak of. And to become an Inquisitor, haha, I'm sorry, no one knows your internal processes. Everything you do is up to you. So please, esteemed Inquisitor, tell me, in the past ten thousand years, has the infinitely expanding Inquisition been a white blood cell or a tumor?"

Delia, who had been half-closed her eyes, also opened her eyes at this time, revealing her unique pale golden eyes, and said gently:

"This is very dangerous Great Astartes-ism."

"If a group of people just want to protect themselves, and that's an ideology, then the Imperium is full of ideologies. Of course, maybe for many people, ideology and business are just synonyms."

"So you admit that you are forging evidence to slander Alexei Koh!"

Soshjan looked at this Amand, as if confirming whether the other party was really stupid or pretending.

Soon, he was sure that this guy was pretending to be stupid. Although he shouted the loudest, this revealed his fear.

Which also explains one thing, this guy is the least clean among the three.

"If the three of you have nothing else, we will seal off the scene and take away the evidence."

"You—"

"Chapter Master Soshjan, what do you want?"

Facing Hanivar's inquiry, Soshjan replied easily:

"I don't want anything. Seeing how busy the Inquisition has been recently, we have no choice but to take time out of our busy schedules to handle this heretical case ourselves."

"Why not let us handle it?"

"Everyone... aren't you busy investigating the Relictors Chapter? Everyone is busy with their own things, and we won't interfere with each other."

Hanivar stroked his chin, then scanned the surrounding Chaos weapons, saying meaningfully:

"This matter is not urgent. We can prioritize dealing with these things first. After all, these heretical objects are very dangerous. You have no experience. If you accidentally lose one, it could cause a catastrophe."

Saying this, he looked at the two beside him.

"What do you think?"

Delia nodded.

"Containing these dangerous heretical weapons is the top priority. Other things... can be put on hold first."

Amand snorted heavily, then said:

"As the Emperor wills!"

Then he added another sentence.

"So, is that all there is?"

Obviously, his reckless and impulsive exterior was a disguise. His mind had already seen through the essence of this "investigation." Facing his question, Artaeus also answered very simply.

"It's all here. We... only found these things."

"Hmph, a dog can't change its eating habits. Don't let me catch you relapsing."

Hanivar's attention was always on Soshjan personally. He came from the Amalathian faction, which is relatively common and conservative within the Puritan faction. This faction believes that the Emperor has a grand plan and is unfolding in the way it should, so they focus on maintaining the status quo and strongly oppose change. They are not too concerned about threats such as aliens and witchcraft, but are more actively ensuring harmony within the vast Imperial organization, so that any confrontation and disharmony is handled and kept to a minimum.