Chapter 33: The Holy Bell Tolls, The Rain Is Coming
With the departure of Calvin and the Gray Knights around him, the grand military parade has also come to an end.
The huge torrent of faith on Ophelia 7 finally went from peak to trough after the emotions of tens of billions of people were fully released.
The devotees on the viewing platform stood up slowly after their tears ran away, and told each other the details they experienced during prayer.
This time the prayer to the emperor was so different. With the blessing of Calvin, the oversized "signal amplifier" of faith, the unprecedented emotional resonance of the crowd and the feedback they received after praying wholeheartedly were the clearest experiences in their lives. The same is true for other populations on the planet. Under the leadership of devout believers, they have broken through themselves and presented themselves to the God-Emperor of faith like never before;
After Calvin's filtering, the dark side of desires and emotions in their hearts were swept away.
This potential impact on people's hearts is so obvious that the already extremely low crime rate in the entire Ophelia galaxy will be almost zero in the next ten years.
Taking this as the starting point and stretching back hundreds of years, the birth rate of the population in the Ophelia sector and the population health index of the entire galaxy, under Calvin's large-scale spiritual coordination, have results that are unbelievable to the empire's top brass.
Data growth curve.
The judges of the three major monasteries therefore paid attention to the end point here. After conducting hundreds of investigations, they finally came to the conclusion:
The source of all these events comes from the grand ceremony held by Lord Terra when he visited Ophelia in the 39th year of the Imperial Calendar.
The Emperor gave generous rewards to the piety of the Imperial citizens here, and the per capita spiritual quality and stability of the entire sector have been greatly enhanced.
Even the psychics born here in the next few hundred years will have unique mental stability ratings.
But these are secrets that belong only to the Inquisition. Outsiders have no way of knowing, and it is impossible to figure out the context of these things.
The long-term impact is still continuing, but in terms of the impact within a hundred years, the Imperial subjects in the entire sector and the middle and lower-level members of the Imperial State Church all miss the experience of spontaneous large-scale prayers at this military parade. p>
As the instigator of all this, Calvin, Lord of Terra, was naturally remembered in their hearts.
As the economic development of the Orps sector became more and more smooth, and its support to the entire Storm Star Territory became more and more important, the name of Calvin's Ashbringer also followed the merchant ships and a group of troops.
A conscripted astral legion resounded on the battlefield throughout the Storm Star Territory.
The Ophelia sector reacted particularly enthusiastically to the spread of this holy name. They remembered that grand celebration and the decades of wonderful development in the sector that began at that time.
The fanatical belief in the Emperor and the incomparable reverence for the saints who descended from him have allowed the name of Saint Calvin, the Ember Emissary, to be prominent in the star field again. This has spread from top to bottom to the entire star field again.
Root this name with practical significance into the memory of the entire star field.
The military parade array has already passed through the City of Divine Grace. After the last wave of Astartes belonging to the Minotaur Chapter boarded the transport ship and returned to space, Calvin and the Gray Knights under his command also
Outside the city of Grace, they met up with the state priests who were at the forefront of the queue.
Led by Cardinal Jane Harrington, this team, together with the Gray Knights, boarded an airship prepared by the Ecclesiastical Church and specially used to transport dignitaries within the atmosphere.
Saratan, the supreme administrator, failed to wait for Calvin's arrival in the St. Gregory's Hall, which was reserved for guests, as scheduled.
He was standing in a church dedicated to storing holy relics. The surrounding area was littered with stasis field parts and fragments, and he was listening to the report of the priest next to him with an ugly expression.
"That's it, right?"
Saratan raised his hand with a huge ruby ring and pointed to the center of the ruins. In the middle of the ruins that spread out in waves, a golden clock several feet high and embedded with gorgeous gems was being silenced.
placed on a high platform.
"Yes, that's it. At the climax of the ground celebration just now, it rang at the same time as the bells on the surface.
Its sound carries obvious psychic power, and its stasis force field cannot suppress its abnormal movements.
The surrounding relic boxes were also damaged, but fortunately the relics inside were intact..."
The priest in charge of the guard answered Saratan's inquiry in a low voice, and raised the data pad containing the data in his hands. This unexpected disaster came too suddenly, without any warning. When he arrived at the scene
I looked at the mess here, and could only report it after the disaster.
"Hmm..." Saratan waved his hand to give up, and the priest took the data pad back knowingly and stood behind him.
It’s not the fault of Saratan’s impatience, but this clock of unknown origin has its own magical function.
Because its name is kept secret, no one outside the state church knows it. However, as the supreme administrator, Saratan was strongly reminded by the previous Holy See to value this bell when he first took over.
Everything is abnormal.
This exquisite clock came from the previous Supreme Holy See and was accidentally presented as a gift when he was out preaching.
It is known that the priests who dedicated it did not know its origin. They first discovered the holy bell on the ruins of a church in the wilderness when they were out preaching.
Its machine strings are firmly welded from a visible angle, and the specific structure under its shell cannot be detected because of the integrated shell.
The first priests did not pay much attention to it. When they dedicated it to the Supreme Holy See, they treated it as a normal relic and handed it over.
But its alien appearance, soon after the Holy See obtained it, successfully saved the fate of the Holy See himself and the entire planet.
Or was it the bell that suddenly and spontaneously rang in an unattended late night on the way back from the Holy See’s mission?
The previous Holy See, who was only wearing a nightgown, heard the sound and rushed over to witness its strange appearance. Its deep voice contained obvious spiritual fluctuations. The Holy See was enlightened by its revelation and knew in advance the coming of the Chaos invasion.
.
At that time, the Holy See did not hesitate and immediately launched a call for help and recruitment from the surrounding imperial armed forces.
And when the Astartes Chapters and the Astra Militarum in these garrison satellite areas rushed there, as expected, a subspace storm with a Chaos Fleet immediately surrounded the star area.
The war finally achieved a gratifying victory with the Empire's armed forces at a small cost.
After destroying Chaos and expelling it back to the subspace, the Holy See who returned to Ophelia 7 was naturally full of awe and curiosity about the Holy Bell.
A large number of scholars and priests were transferred to his side, searching for the origin of this holy bell in the vast sea of books in the City of Divine Grace.
But they failed in the end, because no matter the similar holy object in the classics, it could not cope with the clock in front of them. An Inquisition theology scholar who was visiting for exchanges gave the most likely possibility.
After carefully observing the holy bell, he told the Holy See at that time that this was not the true body of the holy object, but a real holy object with the power of the emperor. After being thrown into an unknown space,
Projection in the real universe.
After that, he paid special attention to this sacred bell. After returning to Ophelia Star 7, he personally delivered it to the hall where the sacred objects were hidden, and ordered a dedicated person to guard it.
In the next hundred years, the clock rarely rang again, but without exception, as long as the bell rang, it would definitely mean the coming of disaster.
It was nearly 200 years ago that Saratan received the scepter representing the Supreme Holy See and the seal of World Cardinal No. 7 of Ofelia from the hands of his predecessor.
In these 200 years, this sacred bell has never sounded. Even the joint rebellion of hundreds of billions of people in several star regions adjacent to the Pacific Star Territory failed to disturb this sacred relic.
He originally thought that he would never hear anything about it again throughout his entire teaching career.
But now, with the loss of the weapons of the Heavenly Punishment Stand and the arrival of the Supreme Lord Judge Calvin, major events unprecedented for the state religion in a century are taking place on the land of Ophelia.
He looked at the dazzling golden bell in silence, and couldn't help but feel a kind of depression in his heart that the storm was about to come.