Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

The seven miserable souls are the natural chips and pawns in the gamble between Mephisto and Calvin. Counting Calvin and the devil himself, they just form the basis of the holy number "9" that symbolizes the extreme change of Tzeentch.

A stage built with souls as sacrifices slowly kicked off, and the dojo where two extraordinary beings used their will and behavior to debate each other began.

This is the fall that the devil prepared for Calvin, and it is also the place of promotion that the devil prepared for himself.

There are two beings, one person and one demon. The moment the bet was established, his soul was already caught in an eternity-long but fleeting chess game under the double witness of the evil god and the emperor.

First life.

Calvin wakes up in an unknown world after having all his memories sealed.

As the son of a governor, he was born with a privileged life. Being the youngest among many brothers, he could fully enjoy the favor of his parents without having to worry about the future.

But he is not a character who is willing to be inferior to others.

The glory of the family comes from the sacrifices of his ancestors, and the responsibility of his bloodline made him understand the meaning and price of nobility.

He was not physically strong, but when the time came to begin his education, he made it clear to his father that he wished to become an Astartes.

Of course his doting parents did not want their young son to bear this price, but at his insistence, his father still went to great lengths to invite a veteran who was lucky enough to survive the elimination of the losers.

This soldier with a special origin will be responsible for the training of his combat skills and serve as his mentor to cultivate his body and skills.

In this way, he began a growth path that was completely different from that of his brothers, and a spiritual journey to the stars began.

The constant baptism of will in the cold and heat could not make him retreat, but his physical weakness blocked his progress. Years of training have made Calvin strong enough to pass the notoriously harsh selection process.

However, limited by his mediocre qualifications, whether he can pass the more dangerous transformation surgery later requires the favor of a thing called "luck".

Calvin ultimately failed.

After passing the difficult selection process, they were picked up from the planet by an airship belonging to the Emperor's Angels and arrived at their palace soaring in the starry sky.

His failure was due to genetic surgical transformation after passing the selection. It was not due to lack of talent or lack of physical development.

The reason for his failure was simply the innate rejection of his own genes and Superman's organs.

Violent rejection reactions have been struggling throughout his body's immune system since the first organ was implanted.

Pharmacists also tried drugs and other interventions, but when a third organ was implanted in the first stage of surgery, the redundancy his body could allow finally came to an end.

Extensive organ failure and genetic disintegration were about to go out of control. The withdrawal of sedatives caused him to be awakened from a deep sleep by severe pain.

"You failed." The pharmacist informed him of his impending death through the thick glass of the life-sustaining cabin.

In his dying moments, he could clearly feel the regretful gaze from the pharmacist, and he could also vaguely detect a hint of teasing from the expression on that familiar face.

"Do you regret it? You could have had a better life experience." The pharmacist asked.

"No!" Calvin struggled to spit out the last breath of blood-foamed air from his lungs, and then lost the last sense of this body.

There are burst fragments falling from Calvin's soul on one side of the chessboard, and the demon's size on the other side of the chessboard grows accordingly.

Second life.

It's still that unknown planet, but Calvin's identity has become the eldest son of the governor.

He also has the ideal of longing for the stars, but because of the continuation of his family, he must give up his vision of becoming an Astartes and become a qualified Imperial Governor.

Since he was sensible, he has set strict demands on himself according to military standards. Over the course of more than ten years, he has become tenacious, optimistic and cheerful. In the eyes of everyone, he is a qualified leader and commander, and naturally he is also a qualified successor in the eyes of his father.

But the disaster still came. The alien invasion was like thunder, and the orcs were like endless green waves, completely destroying the defense system of his planet in a few days.

Calvin led the remaining defense forces on the planet's surface to fight against the orcs, and was eventually besieged and killed in an unknown corner of the hive city.

"Do you regret it?" The orc warlord who knocked him down with his own hands asked while holding a huge power ax and looking down at Calvin who was lying on the ground dying.

Like all dying people, when Calvin heard these words, the memory of this life flashed across his eyes like lightning.

"No!" he replied.

And the sound of the orc swinging his battle ax at his head was the last memory in his life...

The third life.

Calvin became the second son of the family. He was born with rich emotions, sensitive and studious, and was especially good at handling government affairs.

As a child, while playing with his brothers, he vowed to become a qualified governor.

But as he grew older, he realized that it was the glory that belonged to his elder brother. As he gradually became silent, he did not forget his childhood ideal.

But the relationship with his brother eventually led him to devote his unplaced energy in the direction of theology.

He eventually completed his theological studies before the Sector Bishop grew old and became a glorious Imperial Chaplain.

Under the arrangement of his teacher and parents, he boarded a spaceship to study in Terra on the eve of the orc invasion.

He dreamed that he could use another direction to help his brother continue the family's glory and career, thereby serving the Emperor and the Empire.

But who would have known that this separation would actually be an eternal separation between heaven and man.

The vastness of the empire made it slow for the bad news of the disaster to be conveyed. Only belatedly did he realize that his family no longer existed. He was disheartened and became one of the countless silent scribes in the Terra Theological Seminary.

As an old man, he never married and naturally had no children. Before the end of his life, he donated all his property to the poor people in the empire.

In a chapel in the slums of Terra, he performed his last mass and anointing with the help of an unknown priest.

"Do you regret it?" The state priest who had been silent all this time suddenly asked, leaving Calvin in a daze after reciting the emperor's holy words.

He recalled his short and simple life, and finally lamented the impermanence of fate while strengthening his original vision.

"No! I won't regret it!"

He uttered his last voice firmly, and when the priest gradually showed his unwillingness, he closed his tired eyes permanently...

The reincarnations continued again and again, but the answer from Calvin never changed.

When the devil first saw the crack in Calvin's soul, he felt a little proud and secretly happy.

But in the process of those fragments being disintegrated and discarded, the golden essence of Calvin's divine soul gradually became purer and dazzling under the refinement of reincarnation.

Seeing that the place of reincarnation he had carefully prepared gradually turned into a boost for Calvin's soul cultivation, the demon, who felt that the situation was out of control, began to forcibly interfere with Calvin's destiny of reincarnation in it.

A more tortuous and unfortunate fate became a lingering haze for Calvin in the world after that. But no matter how the devil manipulated fate, Calvin in this world always maintained his original intention and never wavered in the direction of evil.

The holy number of "nine" eventually became the total number of reincarnations that Calvin could achieve despite the devil's helplessness.

And the devil himself was bound by his own customized game rules after Calvin completed his ninth reincarnation, and became a bargaining chip placed on the scale in the bet of this game.

"No! This is absolutely impossible!" The great demon Mephisto howled at the top of his lungs.

On the seat opposite the chessboard in front of him, Calvin's golden soul was exuding the brilliant brilliance of humanity and divinity in a purer and taller posture.

At this point in the gambling game, the outcome of both sides is clear.

But the devil at the end of his rope obviously doesn't respect the rules enough. He also wants to use the vague definition of numbers in the rules to make more struggles.

"The game is not over yet! Let's continue!" The devil still tried to struggle, but the balance above the chess game had begun to tilt.

The eyes of the Emperor's icon suddenly lit up in the real space, and the black light representing His divine will formed the power of judgment and judgment in the subspace.

At the moment when the devil tried to rewrite the rules, this silent holy existence finally woke up and began to perform the supervisory duty of witnessing the bet.

"It's funny..."

An equally powerful force appeared out of thin air, rushing towards the top of the chess game from the depths of subspace.

The Emperor's mighty power became particularly active after sensing this power, and took the lead in sending protection to Calvin's soul.

But unexpectedly, the target of this force was not Calvin himself.

After it appeared, it descended directly towards the mad demon, and at the moment when the emperor's power had no time to react, it took the lead and annihilated Mephisto's soul.

It is part of the manifestation of the contract between the evil god Tzeentch among the many authorities. The emergence of this power is also a manifestation of the numerous contradictions between Tzeentch's own will and authority.

Instead of trying to continue breaking the rules, this force put the power and soul left behind by the clean-cut Demon in the balance.

His respect for the rules after his appearance allowed the bet to continue. Under this action, the Emperor's Elephant had no reason to personally enforce the rules and returned to cold silence.

And that's not the end of everything.

The side of the scale representing Calvin was falling heavily. At the moment when the bet was about to end, this force took Mephisto's place and sent a question to Calvin who had just escaped from the chess game, catching him off guard. The problem:

"Hero of mankind, your determination shocks me. Your character is worthy of praise.

As another witness to this bet, I hereby invite you: Are you willing to enjoy the glory of the gods?

Or let me put it more clearly, are you willing to become a member of the gods? "

——

Become a god?

This idea appeared in Calvin's mind, and it was not without its temptation. After all, it represents transcendence, and represents his life form entering a higher dimension.

But almost as soon as this thought appeared, Calvin was keenly aware of the heavy price behind this seemingly generous gift.

"Can I still retain my will?"

Calvin looked at the person in front of him and asked this question involving the most core interests under the witness of the emperor.

As expected, this being was silent in the face of Calvin's questioning to the core.

It is not that it does not want to deceive, but it cannot and dare not hide anything under the witness of the Emperor.

Granting Calvin, who already possesses the essence of divine soul, the upgrade to become His subordinate god is only good for Him and not bad.

But what He wants is a ready-made helper rather than a new enemy. This kind of grant naturally carries the constraints of genealogical nature. How can it be possible to allow Calvin to have a completely independent will?

"Can I still guarantee absolute rationality and maintain absolute independent thinking?"

Calvin asked again, and the answer he got was a silent denial.

He smiled, and the so-called temptation to become a god also dissipated in his mind like smoke.

If he cannot have his own will, then what kind of god is he?

If he cannot retain absolute rationality and independent thinking, then after becoming a god, is he still himself? I am afraid it is just a manifestation of the countless wills of the gods.

"Then this god, it doesn't matter if it doesn't work." He looked at the existence in front of him and gave his answer.

"You know how rare this opportunity is... The projection of the evil god stared at Calvin without any more advice.

But in countless timelines, the same question has the same answer in different contexts.

"Well, excuse me..." The projection disappeared after saying this, as if it had never been there.

He could not interfere any more, because the Emperor's will was watching from the side.

Being able to have such close contact with Calvin, now thinking about it, it is not so much a tacit understanding based on abiding by the rules as it is the Emperor's absolute confidence in this special soul.

The balance of the bet finally slipped, and everything that the demon Mephisto had was obtained by Calvin at this moment.

The chess game and the illusion turned into ashes after losing the support of power, and disintegrated and dissipated little by little in front of Calvin. And Calvin's soul returned to the body and fell towards the direction of reality.

This special duel and dialogue finally came to an end. Calvin, whose consciousness returned to reality, slowly opened his eyes and knelt on one knee. He looked at the still silent holy image in front of him, then turned his head to look at the place beside him.

The place where the great demon Mephisto used to be was no longer there, and only the ashes on the ground proved its existence.

The blasphemy and pollution created by the evil demons in the Hall of the Emperor of the Faith burned spontaneously when Calvin saw it.

The souls of the seven victims under the holy image had disappeared, and the remaining bodies were also reduced to ashes in the flames.

The psychic crystal coating of thousands of weapons of the Heavenly Punishment Field that had been polluted by the evil demons, the pollution of the demons had also disappeared;

These weapons made of special materials that could carry psychic energy were restored to their original blank state without any energy imprint.

The celebration on the surface was still going on, and the hymns praising the Emperor were so loud that the breeze in the corridors outside the hall was singing.

Calvin stood up slowly, took one last look at the hall in front of him, and then left this place that was once full of sin and blasphemy with the same firm steps as when he came.

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