Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 376 The Death of the Emperor’s Heir with the True Word

——To sum up——

This is a legendary time.

At the end of the thirtieth millennium, the galaxy was lit up by the flames of the Crusade, and the Emperor's grand vision was spread across the Milky Way in the light of the Torch. Each of the twenty sons of the Lord of Mankind performed their own duties, leading the invincible Space Marines into conquest, spreading the Emperor's faith into every dark corner.

The wings of the eagle protect the world, and countless worlds come to surrender, united under a nobility and honor unprecedented in human history. Times are changing and the world is moving forward. As long as you choose the right stance, a great future is within your reach. The prayers for justice and the belief in peace shine brightly, and there is no haze in the light.

This is the age of enlightenment and dreams.

This is the golden age.

———

A planet in Colchis rotates with a period of seven points and one Terran day. In order to comply with human physiological work and rest habits since ancient times, the local people divided each Colchis day into seven sub-days, and each sub-day was divided into three periods. In this way, the first two sub-periods are divided into For work, the third secondary period is used for rest, which naturally meets people's needs for natural rhythms.

When the memoirist Lloyd Dahl arrived in Colchis, it was the middle of a Colchis day, the first "starting period" of the "morning" period of the first secondary day.

Getting this job made Lloyd a little uneasy. This emotion sprouted in his heart, gently licking the inside of his heart, making him want to retreat.

He couldn't answer the reason. Maybe this was another misjudgment made by his meager psychic talent.

A few years ago, after being personally verified by the Think Tank of the Thousand Dust Sun Legion, he received a certificate that made him laugh or cry. The main idea was that the psychic talent of the Memoir was slightly higher than that of a non-genetically modified Terra crawling on the surface. Beetle, it is recommended that the memento user treat all psychic emotions as the aftereffects of three teras of sleep a day, and take plenty of rest to calm the mind.

In any case, only a handful of people are qualified to write the life of the Primarch, and he should be proud of his luck and ability, and complete this task with great enthusiasm.

What's more, the reputation of Lorgar Aurelion, the True Word Bearer, has spread throughout the galaxy. Among the many worlds that were led by the Word Bearer and brought back completely to the human empire, there is no world that does not praise the great Urizen - it is said that in Colchis The language means the kindness and generosity of the wise.

Muristan was known to be kind to every believer and even non-believer, while Harhabat merely pointed the tip of his flaming spear at the enemies of the Emperor.

"I have received a sacred mission. You know the Raincaller, right?" Lloyd said to the Colchis, using Gothic first. If that didn't work, he would have to use his messed up Cole. The Kith language is coupled with the basic skill of human beings since ancient times, which is to use hands to make gestures. "Lorgar Aurelion, your guide, shepherd, herald of the great?"

In front of him was a group of herdsmen driving animals with four broad hooves suitable for walking on the surface of the sand. They looked at him carefully, and a simple joy quickly appeared on the dark and broad face carved by the wind and sand.

The herdsman wiped his rough palms on the thick linen clothes that protected him from the wind, and performed common courtesy to Royd. His Gothic accent was thick, but his words were fluent and his grammar was clear. He probably learned the corresponding language from an early age. Knowledge and instruction. Along the way, the Colchisians Royd met were almost all drawn from the same mold, welcoming him with similar kindness and tolerance, and piously welcoming him.

This friendliness is of great benefit to the Memoir's work and saves him a lot of trouble. You must know that even if some imperial worlds surrender, the residents themselves are still full of dissatisfaction and even hatred towards the human empire. They questioned the empire's high-sounding deprivation of their original lives, forcing them to join endless wars, and turning them into a handful of food worth mentioning.

Lloyd's compassion told him that they were right, but first he had to complete the work of the Court of Remembrance.

The Colchis were far better. "Love Him, love yourself, and love your neighbor," they said on their lips. "We are all His servants, and there is no difference between us."

Lloyd learned this sentence and passed it on to other Colchians he later met. He quickly gained more favor from the local people, and this easy friendship almost made his heart float to the clouds, intoxicated in a kind of light gentleness and gentleness.

"If you come looking for Urizen," said the herdsman, extending his hand to guide him, "go to the monastery on the mountain and ask the monks to see him. He is a very good man."

"I have just come from that way, my friend," replied Lloyd. "Yurizen was not there, and the monks and priests said that the Truth-Word Bearers were in the midst of a great council and had no time to return to Colchis. The Empire's Responsibility is more important than book history, isn’t it?”

In addition, the monks of the Word Bearers were kind enough to provide him with a file that he could refer to at will, which contained the life experiences that Lorgar was willing to make public, as well as his personal philosophy, including expansions of the sacred scriptures that accompanied his birth. A printed copy, as well as a portion of his own "Book of Lorgar".

But Lloyd's professionalism made him willing to walk out of the monastery, step into the depths of the flying yellow sand, and personally explore the true spirit of Colchis.

The herdsman did not doubt his words at all. He smiled, just like he had been taught to smile all his life, and said: "For the future of mankind, this is the path that Yuri had obtained in the world. We all have our own path. If we follow the guidance of the path, we will enter eternal peace."

Lloyd smiled back, because during the long journey in the yellow sand, his heart beat strongly in his chest, allowing him to deeply understand the feeling of being alive in the world. He was good at reading these delicate and vivid signs in life, and he knew that this talent came from psychic power. It was also because of this that made him stand out among many memoirists.

Fortunately, it was early in the morning of a Colchis day. If it was during the main period of the long noon, that is, the middle of a Colchis day, when the star was in the middle of the sky, a long walk in the yellow sand would be enough to kill him.

"We all have our own path," Lloyd tried to re-express this sentence in his rough Colchis language, but the herdsman did not seem happier because of this. It seemed that he had wasted his energy learning so many cuneiform characters in vain. The memoirist switched back to Gothic, "Yuri landed near here, right? I want to see where he was born."

--

When we arrived at the place where Lorgar Aurelion was born, it was already the rest period of the second sub-day "Morning". Lloyd slept well in the locals' tent. The campfire burning in the center of the camp kept making steady crackling sounds and exuded a faint and soothing smell of incense, which made him dreamless all night.

The priests have been maintaining the continuity of the campfire, blowing air at the right time to replenish oxygen at the bottom of the woodpile, and adding combustibles and spices to it, as well as prayers written on papyrus by the locals.

Flames occupy an unusual proportion in the local religious culture of Colchis, which is much more obvious than within the Word Bearers, and even more easily detected than the various planets that believe in the Word Bearers' doctrines that Lloyd has passed along the way. Lloyd was curious about what caused this gap.

He wrapped his clothes tightly and sorted out a string of bird bone amulets given to him by the locals. The tribe gave him a simple breakfast of scones, a small dish of honey produced by honey spiders, and a can of pasteurized milk of mammals. Lloyd sat in the shade of the tent, eating today's breakfast while silently wishing that he could survive the fast for the next month - assuming he could survive until the next month, he would follow the local customs.

"May our journey end by the water." The elder of the tribe sat down on the mat with him and said the ancient prayer in the desert. If it were placed in Terran language, this sentence probably means "hello."

"May our harvest double under the sun." Lloyd continued the second half of the sentence, and the elder smiled kindly, and the wrinkles on his face that naturally formed over time piled up like a mysterious spell.

"I heard that you came to listen to Lorgar's story," the elder said slowly, and the wind and sand slowly walked close to the ground in the unobstructed place. "Yes, it was in this sandy land that the wise Yurizen descended upon us. Lorgar, this is the language of the desert, meaning Rainmaker."

"I want to record how he was born, my friend," Lloyd said.

The elder shook his head: "No one alive has ever witnessed the birth of the Rainmaker, my friend. The Excommunicated killed them all, and the Excommunicated themselves have been completely excommunicated."

"I saw a little in the Word Bearers' files, but it's not enough. 'He is both a curse and redemption', the files only say this, I can't take such a manuscript to hand in." Lloyd said distressedly, he usually wouldn't say so many sincere words, Colchis's charm made him open his heart.

"Okay," the elder thought, his eyes were far away, as if he could penetrate the sky in front of him. He pondered, immersed in those distant memories, and then he stood up: "Come with me, friend. I'll take you to see the ruins."

After the morning comes the long noon, and the starlight at this time has begun to show its power. Lloyd licked his upper palate with his tongue thirstily, hoping that his lips and teeth would become more moist. His heart was pounding, and he was a little tired.

They passed by those golden tents and the dry grass balls rolling on the sand until they were far away from the current site of the camp. The elder was still strong and much healthier than Lloyd who had been doing paperwork for many years. He stopped at the top of a sand dune with a normal face.

Lloyd was panting and looked at the pit under the sand dune curiously.

"What is this?" He only saw quicksand.

"This is the burial place of the Van Mogai tribe. All of Yurizen's first fosterers died here." The elder said calmly, "All of this is recorded in our holy books, in the water language that was circulated among preachers and merchants at that time. "On that day, the excommunicated person who was once called the True Word took Yurizen away from the tribe and killed all the Van Mogai tribe with arrows, projectiles, muskets, javelins, stone ropes, swords, and mallets. Those who failed to die on the spot or escaped at that time had their arms tied behind their backs and thrown into the sand pit until the rest period was over, and their bodies were buried by the sand and dust. " Lloyd was shocked, "No wonder this excommunicated person was executed, he killed the family of the original body..." The elder suddenly cast a stern look: "Don't try to guess the wise with narrow hatred, and consider your words carefully, Memoir Envoy!" This was the first time Lloyd was reprimanded by the Colchians, and the elder's anger caught him off guard.

Well, he was prepared from the beginning. A world of religious fanaticism always has various hidden precepts that are difficult to understand. These rules are lurking in their inherent thinking concepts. They are so basic that it is unimaginable that they need to be proposed separately. Naturally, there is no way to warn.

"I apologize to the wise man and hope he can forgive me for my shallowness." Lloyd made a prayer gesture to express a formal confession. At the same time, he opened his heart to the sand and received the remaining collective thoughts. Emotional moment.

All that was so long ago now, and even though the resentment of being massacred should be strong and piercing, his meager psychic talent still could barely capture anything other than the sound of the wind. He was more focused, calm, and immersed in a meditative state of mind. Suddenly, a face engraved in the dying memory of the tribe flashed through his mind.

Those were violet eyes, belonging to a young child. They stare, perhaps curiously, but only with glances. They are unhurried, quiet and profound, and seem to have touched the guidance of fate prematurely, so that the innocence of children has turned into a kind of silent cruelty. Those strange eyes were so bright that they seemed to be on fire.

Lloyd took a step back suddenly, his heart beating like a drum. If his perception was correct, Lorgar Aurelion calmly watched his first family die with that look in his eyes.

He did not understand that this was not the work of a Primarch, nor was it the nature of a benevolent Truth-Speaker.

Treat your psychic powers as gibbering when you are delirious. The think tank of the Sun of Thousand Dusts warned him not to care about their deceptions and to believe in what you see and hear in the real universe. Lloyd kept using these repeated words to comfort himself, even though he knew in his heart that he was using ineffective comfort to accommodate his own panic.

Beside him, the elder knelt down devoutly towards the sand pit where hundreds of corpses were buried, and sang a light tune with his old voice.

"He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. He went through countless hardships and twice suffered the humiliation of paganism. He had to face lies until he found belonging. He is our Shepherd and takes us with him Get on the road..."

——

Royd Dahl still spent more time in Colchis than he originally estimated.

He followed the path that Lorgar Aurelion had walked, visiting every mark left by the True Speaker on this ancient world. The locals said that he embarked on a pilgrimage, and Lloyd spoke skillfully. Agreed, but disagreed in my heart. He simply wanted to better complete his work as an Memoir and fulfill the mission given to him by Terra.

In any case this meant that he had to fast with the Colchians and learn more about their local customs. The life of Colchis has a powerful yet subtle power of expansion, which domesticates an outsider as a herd domesticates a lone sheep.

Sometimes the Memoir wakes up in the morning, sleepy and dazed. The temperature in the room is freezing, but he is sweating coldly and wrapped in sweat, like a baby reborn in the water. He escapes this state of confusion by silently reciting Imperial truths and praising the Emperor.

Lloyd opened his eyes and felt a sore neck and discomfort in his cervical spine. According to the Colchis calendar, it was the last of the seven minor days, the High Night, and he woke up on time at the junction of the primordial period and the major period.

The dim light swayed through the curtains and spilled into the room. It seemed that some voices were singing. They should be the choir of Colchis. They were still using Gothic, but the distance was too far and he could not hear the pure chorus clearly. specific content.

He stood up and wiped the cold sweat on his body with a towel. The Colchis were not stingy and provided him with many luxuries, such as prayer turbans made of soft dyed wool, crystal readers, lamps with complete circuits, and other items.

Of course, there is also the indispensable holy book, or printed copy of the Book of the Holy Book, whatever you want to call it. The books that accompanied Lorgar Aurelion's birth were named in different ways in different dialects of Colchis. In High Gothic, their final name was the Bible.

"In the morning you will see His glory, for He hears your murmurs against Him. [1] I dedicate this day to You. Please guide me every step so that my words and deeds may glorify You." Lloyd said from Talking to himself, he got up and sorted out his manuscript. “May your name be praised.”

After leaving Van Mogai's tribe, Lorgar followed the caravan of the excommunicated people, walking through the sandy plains and preaching based on celestial signs and divination. The excommunicated man led Lorgar in reading the Bible, first with the former teaching the latter, and then quickly with the latter teaching the former. Lorgar faced the excommunicated people with a calm attitude, without showing any arrogance.

"There is no difference in status among all those who serve," Lorgar said. "We are all His servants."

But the Primarch silently dominated all within his reach.

Every secondary day, Lorgar grew taller than the previous one, with smooth muscle lines drawing out and growing from the body that was once a child.

He was thirsty for knowledge, learning all the written and oral accounts he could from books and Colchis' reality, talking with slaves in the caravans, as well as with the natives and believers of the areas through which his missionary processions passed. He inquired about the customs, culture, urban distribution and various songs of Colchis. Whenever he encountered rebellious words and heretical remarks that did not conform to the meaning of the scriptures, he did not immediately become angry, but created some extended fables and stories. , leading others to believe his words.

From his colleagues, Lloyd knew that the primarchs would basically go through this stage. The pioneers and messengers he created all inherently knew how to give the people around them the wisdom and strength they needed, so that no matter what they faced, Regardless of challenges, we can remain peaceful and joyful, demonstrate the love and grace we have been given, see people as He sees them, and act with His hands.

The Memoir happily records these stories and fills his notes with bits and pieces of Lorgar's life, feeling that he is on the right path. Sometimes, when he stopped by the road that Lorgar had walked, he would suddenly feel that his mind was infinitely close to the Primarch himself. A moment of enlightenment illuminated his tiny heart and grasped it. It wasn't until he began to suffer from hypoxia.

In a corner of his mind, Lloyd determined that he must submit a psychic report and apply for a comprehensive physical examination after returning to rule out the influence of Colchis on him. But his mind was also questioning his dogma - was it wrong to worship the Emperor alongside Lorgar Aurelion?

In addition, Lloyd discovered that Lorgar would be whipped by those who were excommunicated and never resisted. He seemed to understand this matter, and was not sure whether the Primarch regarded it as a lesson he had given him, and was willing to accept it through the hands of others. If it were any other Primarch who was punished, Lloyd couldn't help but think uneasily that the punisher might not survive the next minute.

Oasis, religious order, ruins, yellow sand, missionaries, nomads, caravans... these words kept alternating in Lloyd's notes, and then military words began to appear. During that time, the scriptures that Lorgar believed in finally came into conflict with the ancient local beliefs of Colchis that have now been completely obliterated. The Primarch calmly announced that he would fight the heretics, and the Excommunicated delivered letters for him.

"I beg you, I urge you, as His emissaries, to set out to drive the heretics from our homes and bring our aid into the hands of those who will also worship Him," Lorgar Aurelion declared. . "I have seen two giants coming to Colchis, one as pearl and the other as gold. He is coming soon."

After that, a large-scale conquest was spawned by Lorgar Aurelion himself, and finally came to the head of every Colchisian. This was the "Battle of the Holy Era" at Colchis.

The holy war army carried out massacres on a city scale, and a third of the Colchians were killed. Due to good post-war management, no epidemic broke out and there was no longer any resistance. Everything ended neatly and impeccably.

The mementoman felt relieved as he wrote that Lorgar had cleared out all the hostile factions. He realized that his pleasure and the Lord's teachings were one, and he was grateful for the Lord's love and tolerance for him. At the same time, he also understood why there was no one who was unconvinced wherever the Word Bearers went, because the heretics were punished as they deserved.

There is still a final cloud hanging over his biography. Lloyd still didn't understand how the excommunicated person finally offended Lorgar Aurelion to the point of being expelled and executed. He did not die because of the tribe that killed Van Mogai back then. It was an execution for a heretic. To show mercy would be to deceive the Lord. He is Lorgar's most sincere servant, taking care of him when he is still young and delivering instructions to him when he grows up.

Lloyd fearfully tried to figure out the Primarch's mood as a mortal. He felt the ripples of emotions aroused in his heart along the way, constructing the scene of the last scene of that year. He vaguely touched some corners, and he felt a certain cold disappointment, but nothing else.

He needed to go to the Temple of Colchis, Lloyd thought, that was the place where the excommunicated people died, and no one was denied access, provided that they applied a Colchis Day in advance. There were too many pilgrims there.

He had written most of Lorgar Aurelion's story, and now only this final chapter was left before he would leave, return to Terra to report on his duties, and begin revising his manuscript. If there is a chance in the future, he will return to Colchis. Likewise, for no apparent reason, he resisted the day when he would actually go to the Temple of Colchis.

"Move," Lloyd said to himself. It took him nearly a full Colchisian day to put the manuscript together, and then he needed to rest for a few days and make appointments.

Afterwards, he would visit the Temple of Colchis during the onset of Cold Fall, the sixth secondary day. Nothing better awaited him.

——

The interior of the Colchis Temple was filled with a surging flow of people, making Lloyd feel like a piece of woolen cloth being squeezed back and forth by the believers. As the crowd flowed in accordance with the will of the Lord, he entered from the front hall and walked through a In the corridor of religious paintings, the dark light in the cold weather is refracted by the colored windows into several clear colors, draped on his coat and turban as bright red as dried blood. The clear children's voice of hymns echoed in the distance, soothing the hearts of believers.

Above them, the symbol of burning books hung high, which was once occupied by the old religion of Colchis, but now belongs only to the Word Bearers.

After walking out of the corridor, they entered a place similar to a circular square. The believers could only visit in the corridors around the square and could not step into the square.

In the center of the square stood a statue of the Emperor. The priest said that it was the holy statue that Yuri had erected for the Lord who was about to come in the prophecy. The last excommunicated knelt in front of the holy statue and was executed.

"Fire, and stone." The priest said with a smile.

There was no trace left there, except for a few words from the priest. Lloyd nodded to the priest, still worried. This was not enough to fill the last part of his book. He could not use these shallow words to end his account of the first half of the life of the Word Bearers. This would make the human empire misjudge the heart of the Word Bearers and misread his will.

When there were too many believers, even with the help of hymns, Lloyd could not enter a state of meditative perception in the surging crowd.

"In the name of the Lord, I am the Memoirist of the Human Empire," Lloyd said to the priest, "I have come to record the death of the excommunicated. I request to stay an extra night after the show." The priest smiled and approved his request, "Thanks to the gracious hand of God, he arrived in the Holy City on the first day of May. [2]" The Memoirist stayed until the evening, and the light of the stars became dimmer. He went against the crowd and could not wait to return to the center of the temple, looking at the statue of the Emperor's mercy from afar. He calmed down and felt the environment silently, his heart pounding. Now he had a puzzle in front of him, and he could only feel the edge of part of the answer. Perhaps he had to use some more absolute methods, but that would violate the rules of the temple. The sound of the hymn became purer and clearer, injecting vitality into his heart like clear water. He silently asked the statue: Do you allow it? When he asked this question, his actions no longer had a choice. He knew he had to do it, he had to go. Lloyd stepped out of the corridor and into the square, kneeling in front of the statue and praying silently. A quality that could not be imitated by any other emotion was awakening from his body, accompanied by the sound of his heartbeat, which seemed to come from the echoes of the outside world's hymns, and from the memories of decades ago in his heart that did not belong to him, buried deep in this area, eager to reappear and be excavated.

In the past... among you...

Lloyd let his mind drift away, and in return heard a clear voice. It belonged to Lorgar Aurelion, who stood under the statue of the Emperor, and the voice floated from top to bottom.

He buried his head lower, and his eyes were a painful red, and the flames licked his eye sockets, creating circles of charred burns. He knelt on the pile of wood, and the pain below his knees was unbearable. The fibers of his clothes were embedded in the skin torn by the whip, hooking his blood vessels like thorns. The heat rolled off his skin, then turned to cold, the blood burned dry, the blood turned into an untouchable gifted painting.

Children sang, young people sang, old people sang, and in the corridors around them, the faithful sang the same holy song, so joyful, so united in mind.

There were false prophets among the people, and many will follow their deeds, and the truth will be slandered because of them... [3]

He knelt in the fire, knowing that this was not reality. But his mind was dazed, intoxicated by the pure joy of the collective resonance. There was a message here, it would have meaning, and it was hidden here, waiting for him to find it.

They are greedy and want to make profit from you with fabricated words. Their punishment has not been delayed since ancient times...

Lloyd was immersed in the chant, overwhelmed by the pure cleansing. He couldn't help but call on the Emperor, and the burning pain that followed was exactly the same as the touch that echoed in his memory. He wanted more, and he got more. Something hard kept hitting his body, which was in great pain from the fire, tearing his skin and breaking his bones. The people who sang hymns gently shook him and threw stones at him. Every blow was a confession.

Even when the angels sinned, God did not spare them, but threw them into hell, handed them over to the dark pit to await judgment...

God did not spare the ancient generations, and sentenced Sodom and Gomorrah, overthrowing the two cities and burning them to ashes as a warning to the ungodly in later generations...

"You who hold the truth, your heart is still the heart of pagans. You know the way of the righteous, but you still forsake the holy command that was passed on to you. You have fabricated lies about four gods, and they are still in your heart, like unhealed wounds, waiting to ooze pus."

Lorgar Aurelion declared calmly, adding a piece of kindling to the pile of wood, followed by spices and prayers written on papyrus by the Colchians. For countless Colchisian years thereafter, the fires kept by the priests in the desert were imitations of today's fires, burning on the bones of pagans, covering the smell with spices, in homage to the fire of the execution of the last true speaker.

"The Lord is not slow, as some think, but He is patient with you, not wanting that any should perish or burn, but that all should come to repentance."

These people are wells without water, mists driven by the wind, and there is a black darkness reserved for them...

The hymns became more joyful and louder, not only the believers, but also the statues carved in the corridors, the saints painted on the walls opened their mouths, and holy harmonies came from the stained glass.

"Kor Phaeron, you will definitely die today," Lorgar declared.

Lloyd was guilty and panicked. How dare the once false bearer of truth disregard the Lord's mercy and not repent in the end? Is his death enough to wash away his stain?

In a trance, he heard his mouth speaking in a wailing, I don't, the false bearer of truth said, I believe in the Lord, I have long left the four false gods behind, I will not fall, I will not betray...

But these words only exist in his heart, his flesh and blood and sins stripped by the flames do not need him to say a word.

Lloyd endured the pain of burning his body and told the false bearer of truth that if he was really pious, he would not die in the flames. He was still defending himself, which was evidence of insincerity. He rebuked him on behalf of Lorgar Aurelion, and found joy in pain, feeling that he had never been so close to the heart of the bearer of truth.

In the reverberating aftermath, on the edge of life and death, Lloyd heard a rumbling sound piercing his eardrums. A pearly white figure walked quickly and stopped at the edge of the crowd, with a horrified tone in her words: "What are you doing, brother?"

Lorgar Aurelion was not surprised by the arrival of the newcomer.

He stood under the holy image, the light of the blazing fire illuminated the scriptures on his golden skin, outlining a kind and friendly smile.

"I believe in the Lord of Mankind and reject all evil. I accept Him as my Savior. I believe in Him, the Almighty Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Communion of Saints, I believe in the forgiveness of sins, I believe in the resurrection of the body, and I believe in eternal life. Dear brother, I am very happy to meet you."

A cluster of flames touched Lloyd's crouching back, touched his wet face, and wiped away a drop of falling blood and tears.

——

"Good friends died, and we celebrated for them. Although their death was painful, we knew for sure that they were free from potential bad things and would no longer be threatened by hunger, war, disease, poverty, slavery, disaster, betrayal, and the corruption of unbelief in this life."-"The Book of Lorgar"