Warhammer: I don’t want to be a can of worms! ! !

Chapter 593 42. Hades Cult

Under the huge sculpture of Pluto, the two people sat opposite each other.

"As long as you give the order."

Kirkland said, "At least three hundred and seven forging worlds will immediately surround you as the chief representative of glory."

The corners of Hades's mouth twitched under his mask, but his gaze remained unchanged.

"What is the difference between this and my current position in the Mechanicus?"

"There's no real difference, but you can legitimately command these forge worlds."

Kirkland said calmly, but Hades always felt as if there was rolling lava flowing under the sage's words.

"You know, although we all belong to the glory of the great God of All Machines, the relations between the various forging worlds are not friendly - each forging world has its own faction."

"With the help of the Death Guard, Faos, Graai, and Miint formed a confederacy and reached an alliance with the remaining seventeen forging worlds."

Hades blinked, and the huge sculpture cast a shadow, covering him and Kirkland,

"Let me guess - you twenty forging worlds also went to war with each other?"

This question came from Hades' intuition.

Because he had just witnessed a crowd of sages fighting because they wanted to seize the opportunity to talk to him.

Kirkland remained calm and said, "Yes, but please rest assured that the academic dispute between us is correct, legal, and to the satisfaction of all parties, and will never slow down the progress of scientific research."

Hades wanted to say, is it true? He didn't believe it.

Although the scientific research results of the sages are very touching and worthy of praise and awards, these mechanical sages are also outstanding in terms of not being human beings.

It is worth guarding against.

For example, just now, the bold sage rushed over and tried to grab a piece of Hades' armor - but in front of the black-faced Hades and Kirkland, his answer was that Pluto's thing has the special effect of strong luck. .

Therefore, he hoped to take a fragment back and enshrine it in the Array of Thinkers.

This is a scientific superstition based on theological tradition.

Faced with the sudden appearance of the sage, Hades finally personally gave him a small metal sculpture.

Then Hades realized something was wrong.

Because the next second he sent the metal sculpture out, he heard the roar of countless engines.

A sea of ​​scarlet satin rushed toward him.

Don't come here!

"Wait a minute!!!"

As a last resort, Hades had to activate the Black Domain Quiet Field.

It was really a hearty experience to watch, and Hades was sweating in his heart.

But in the end, under Kirkland's death gaze, Hades still completed the reception and gift-giving of the sages one by one. He never thought that the ability of the void dragon would be so useful in pinching gifts from the void.

Hades blinked and looked at Kirkland, who was talking seriously in front of him.

"Then why do you still have an academic war when the Death Guard is cooperating?"

"To demonstrate whether you are a god or a human being."

Kirkland followed suit, staring at Hades,

“Great academic ideas always need to be communicated with each other before they can be perfectly presented to the world.”

Hades recalled what he had been told earlier, and it sounded like Kirkland and King had a fight, and King won, allowing him to defend his shaky citizenship.

The sculpture of Pluto that enveloped them stood silently. It was the last stubbornness of Faos and Kirkland. It was not the sculpture of Pluto from Jin's faction. It squatted on the ground and stretched out its hand towards the believers.

Instead, it stood, the sculpture stretched out its hand, held the sickle, and pointed high at the vast nebula in the stargazing ceiling.

As He raised his arms, what hung down were layers of black robes. The slipping legs of the sculpture were like thick curtains, cleverly blocking the weird starlight from the starry sky.

And now, Hades and Kirkland are sitting in the shadows.

At first, Hades felt a little uncomfortable, but after seeing the numerous decorations and sculptures about him on the ship No. 21, Hades became numb.

Sickle, black robe, black light, three-headed dog, various mottos, running black stone equipment...

He felt as if he was walking on a huge ship decorated with various Pluto peripherals.

Of course Hades wanted to tear them down, but when he thought that it would be a waste of time and money, and that Kirkland would probably find another way to commemorate him, Hades had to swallow his critical words.

What's more, this is an additional product of the Pluto Religion. As long as the Pluto Religion exists, these creations will continue to appear.

Hades also had complicated feelings about the Pluto Religion. On the one hand, he did not want to be praised and mythologized by people, but on the other hand, this was indeed the fastest and most convenient way to connect to his dark realm.

For those who need the black realm to expel subspace pollution, Hades naturally cannot force them to pray to him because of his own likes and dislikes.

"……I am human."

Hades said helplessly, "Perhaps my performance may be slightly different from your normal perception of human beings - but I am sure the difference is not big."

Kirkland stared at Hades wearing a metal mask,

"I understand, my lord."

"but……"

Kirkland said smoothly, "The reason why Jin is stubborn is because he has never seen you perform miracles. Every feat you perform is witnessed by me, so I forgive Jin's ignorance."

If Jin saw a dark giant holding an eternal flame in one hand and broken metal satin in the other, his outlook on life would also be impacted.

If Jin had been twice pulled from death by gods, he would also understand what gods are,

Hades sighed,

"Can I convince you?"

Kirkland shook his head.

"Unfortunately, my lord, this is the only issue on which I cannot give in - for which I have persisted for ten thousand years."

Hades looked at Kirkland meaningfully. Kirkland had already made clear his bottom line. For the gods in his heart, believers had been holding on for thousands of years, and the first thing the "gods" did when they came back was to try to crush the believers' faith.

Hades was silent for a moment. He raised his head and looked at his sculpture. The black stone sculpture was oppressive and solemn. Even he himself, sitting under the statue of Pluto, was so small.

"What's the difference between man and god, Kirkland?"

Hades asked,

“Gods can do things that humans cannot.”

"..."

Hades sighed again,

"If I were a god, could I modify human judgment standards and put me in the human realm?"

"Of course you can."

Hades was forced into silence. He realized that arguing with a motorist who had been debating scriptures for ten thousand years was an extremely ridiculous thing and could only make him unhappy.

Next, he should bring Jin over, provide substantive evidence and cheer Jin during his debate.

"Then I change the category of human beings,"

Hades said, "I am a man, the Emperor is a man... and Mortarion is a man!"

Kirkland paused.

"I accept your first two claims, my lord, but I would like you to make your argument after meeting Lord Mortarion,"

"...Otherwise, there would be too many existences that need to be called human beings."

Hardiston felt bad. After he woke up, he had never seen a sculpture or portrait of Mortarion. He still hoped that Mortarion would at least maintain the appearance of two eyes, a nose and a mouth.

In the original work, the Primarch who ascends to the devil or awakens his own subspace essence looks relatively abstract.

"Do you have a portrait of Mortarion?"

Hades asked suddenly, and Kirkland shook his head;

"This is the top secret in the Death Guard, Hades," Kirkland scratched his hair, "I have seen the Pale Lord several times, but the mist shrouded his face."

"But my intuition tells me that the true face of the Pale Lord is not something that humans can appreciate."

Hades felt even worse.

But he remembered the demonized Mortarion in the original book - he thought the demonized Mortarion's chess piece was still very handsome.

No matter how ugly you are, it will still be harder to accept after awakening your true nature than after becoming a demon.

Besides, as long as Mortarion himself felt comfortable, to the primarch, appearance was merely vulgar.

"We'll find out when the time comes,"

Hades said,

"I wish he would jump out and scare me now."

Instead of not believing it, is the news from Karas true? Don't you really need his help?

But since Karas said this, Hades put aside his thoughts in this regard for the time being.

Although he still doesn't trust Karas Typhon very much, but for ten thousand years, Karas has led the Death Guard to flourish, so Hades can probably entrust this trust.

Hades planned to go directly to Barbarus to take a look and ask the Death Guards what was going on.

Facing Hades's answer, Kirkland paused unspeakably. Hades saw the corners of Kirkland's eyes twitching.

Kirkland let out a rare sigh;

"I hope the Pale Lord won't surprise you."

"But you can rest assured," Kirkland continued, "Faos has cooperated with the Death Guard for a long time. After you left, the development of the Death Guard has generally not had any omissions. You can trust them and accept the loyalty they offer. ”

Hades nodded, as if being recalled by Kirkland's words, but then——

"Don't bring up the subject of whether I am a human or a god yet, Kirkland."

Hades said seriously,

"I don't want the forging worlds to fight against each other because of the so-called codified doctrines in front of me."

Kirkland devoutly agreed,

"We know, my lord, that as long as there are no enemies from abroad, we will not throw our anger at our disloyal brethren."

Hades knocked on the table, "If you are talking about Jin and others who have different beliefs from yours, you cannot describe them as disloyal."

"I know, my lord."

Kirkland spoke, and it was obvious that he was not convinced.

... This is the problem with religion. Because of ideological differences, people will fight against each other even if they have the same origin.

Especially in the forging worlds, although they all believe in the Mechanicus, and their political frameworks are built based on religious guidance, in fact they all play their own roles, and it is almost impossible to unite.

To be able to command them and unite the different forging worlds, apart from profit... there is only one way left...

……Belief.

It looked like Hades would have to pull off the same trick that the Emperor had played back then.

Hades thought about it. Although he still resisted being described as a god, after contacting Buz and asking Mingzi to pass on a teaching to him, Hades discovered that the teaching written by Buz and Jin... He can still accept it.

In short, minus some of the rituals necessary to expel warp contamination;

The Cult of Pluto advocates simplicity in everything, and there is no such thing as atonement (it also advocates donating money, but it does not bind sin and loyalty. Instead, it cooperates with the local Mechanicus in the form of purchasing knowledge/or simply Donate money);

Kneeling and worshiping are not recommended, and the Sky Eagle ceremony is used instead.

What makes Hades even more stunned is that Pluto's religion even focuses on believers who believe or not, and even allows people to believe in the religion for their own benefit (e.g. to expel subspace pollution for their family; to worry about being contaminated; or simply to gain connections with local oil guys and death guards). )

To sum it up simply, it is very secular.

But if you go deeper and want to become an insider of the Pluto Sect, the screening conditions become very strict.

First of all, believers who want to go further need to join the church to study (this group of believers usually has truly faced the subspace pollution, and relied on their own intelligence and the blessing of Hades to defeat the subspace pollution.)

Before participating in the study, their character will be examined - for the Pluto religion, believers must have a moral bottom line and be extremely sober.

Sobriety here refers to something like the train puzzle, where believers must choose which one will save the most people.

In addition, they will also face the option of when to give up. Believers must consider their own value and should exchange their own value for more value at the moment when their interests are maximized - not just to save others. , a hasty sacrifice.

At the same time, after the assessment, those who feel too guilty will be removed.

The Cult of Pluto needs a being who is as benevolent as Pluto.

Next, believers who pass the preliminary assessment will be required to memorize "Song of the Ming Dynasty".

This book is divided into seven parts, namely Benevolence, Rise, Conquering the Dragon, Stealing Fire, Salvation, Darkness and Return.

Hades glanced at the book hastily. Most of the book contained principles or short stories composed of a few sentences. They were very short, and the short stories in each article could be connected together to connect the past and the future.

Although the content of the book is well written, it would be nice if the protagonist was not him.

Hades's scalp was numb at the sight.

Benevolence talks about some views of the Pluto religion. From the perspective of "Pluto himself", it tells how humans need to save themselves and help each other in order to defeat evils such as subspace - and at the same time emphasizes why "Pluto" is said to be kind, because as long as the rituals are done correctly , whether a saint or a sinner, He sends blessings together.

Hades couldn't refute this. The Black Realm is really like this. Whoever puts his soul into the Black Realm will be "blessed".

But this is not the subjective kindness of Hades, but the believers applying their own subjectivity to the objective facts.

Qiwei is the story of Hades on Barbarus. At that time, he was described as an "ordinary person", but he relied on his intelligence and morality to befriend the original body and eliminate evil alone.

Fulong, the story of Hades on Mars. The metaphor of this part of the story made Hades feel something was wrong. The dragon... the void dragon...

But the book compares knowledge to a dragon and passes it by in one stroke.

This part... may be for those who can understand.

Stealing Fire connects the story of Hades' establishment of Phaos and the killing of a false god named [Hindering Truth].

Salvation, from the Perfect City to the Maelstrom, from Nicaea to Cadia, tells the story of how Hades fished for the original body and the years he spent working as a slave under the Emperor.

Black Fall, some short stories recording Hades' opening of the Black Domain. Hades could tell that Kirkland must have provided a lot of material in this piece.

Finally, there is the return, which tells why Pluto will come back and what believers should do so that Pluto can come back.

Hades flipped through some old sayings that advised people to strive for good and self-restraint.

After those believers memorize the "Song of Hades", they will learn knowledge about subspace under the auspices of the Church of Hades.

Learning in this area will screen out many people, and even people may die during the learning process. Generally, large Pluto churches will have a team of soulless people to ensure the survival rate of believers.

Then there is learning how to better expel the subspace, not only teaching the use of some black stone weapons, but also teaching how to use the God-Emperor teachings in the state religion to expel demons.

Finally, there are miscellaneous things to improve personal abilities, coordination with the Soulless Squad, coordination with the Mechanical Magus troops, coordination with the Death Guard, appeasing the masses, appeasing the tainted, how to deceive the devil (?)...

But the most bizarre thing is that the content of the examination of these believers does not include an examination of the piety of Hades. It is purely based on one's own enlightenment after teaching "Song of Hades".

…

Hades quite liked this, but that didn't stop him from being shocked after reading it.

If he were a person of this time period, he might also believe in the Pluto religion, just to save his life.

Moreover, this is also in line with Hades's view of using whatever is available, spreading the method of how to block subspace pollution to the greatest extent possible.

Hades murmured in his heart that in this regard, he might have to thank those who spread Pluto's religion.

Hades stared at Kirkland thoughtfully;

The situation here in the Mechanicus is slightly different from the Hades spread by the empire. Almost all sages who join the religion have to go through strict screening conditions (same as above, but the part about expelling the subspace has become how to make the knowledge purer) , which is equivalent to every sage being an insider of the Hades Sect.

But for the sages, the screening conditions for joining the religion are not difficult. To become a sage is naturally different from the ordinary people in the empire. Things that are difficult for others may not be difficult for them.

Thanks to the low trigger conditions, there is no penalty for trigger failure.

The sages have nothing to do but believe in Pluto and pray to Pluto. This can really reduce the interference of subspace on experiments.

This is almost a huge benefit.

It is this small benefit that has forced Hades to accumulate hundreds of millions of mechanical sage followers in the forging world where the Pluto Sect has not actively preached.

This is also the fundamental logic behind why Hades can develop so rapidly.

But this is also the reason why the Ming sect is loose and has no direct leadership over each other.

Before Hades returns, the only person who can ask the Hades to unite and help is the leader of the Death Guard - and he must be a highly respected leader of the Death Guard who has made outstanding contributions before he can command many followers of the Hades.

And now...

Starlight drips from the stargazing ceiling, but it doesn't stain the underside of Pluto's robe at all.

"Anyone who believes in... Hades... or the Emperor, and still has a conscience... can be united."

Hades whispered,

Foreign races are surrounding us, and the subspace is eyeing us. As Kirkland said, this is indeed not a time to be divided because of different beliefs.

According to personal preference, Hades would have shouted, "I'm not a god, don't believe what Lao Shizi teaches,"

But in the face of reality and logic, Hades follows pragmatism and uses one wave first before talking about it!

After all, this is an objective fact, and he cannot directly reverse other people's subjective opinions and directly overthrow a religion that has developed for thousands of years on his own.

What's more...since the believers are already willing to believe in him (even though it is an image that has been beautified seven hundred times), Hades must try to save the world no matter what!

To run away from responsibility and not to use your strength is to be cowardly!

Hades has already thought about finishing this wave first and developing the empire. After humans can become self-reliant, if people still insist on the existence of gods, he will put this hat on the emperor's head and run away!

Of course... Hades will also help the Lord of Mankind to share those matters of faith.

Hades added silently in his mind.