Hive City, middle level, 11-03-99 maintenance area.
Padilla and his group left from the secret passage reserved by the church, and then walked through the complex buildings of the hive.
After passing several pipelines and maintenance passages that had been abandoned for who knows how long, they finally arrived near the archives.
Woo...
From the broken and dirty pipeline circuit, the whistle of the distant rail train could be heard.
Domestic waste all over the floor has been piled up here for who knows how long, and its original appearance is no longer visible.
Sulla, who put on his helmet early and turned on the air filtration, walked at the front of the team.
The occasional sewage falling from the top of his head disturbed the already highly vigilant nerves of this Astartes warrior.
"stop!"
Sura stopped suddenly, raised his hand and made a general fighting gesture towards the back.
In the middle of the team, the Astartes at the end even raised their weapons and started fire duty in tacit agreement.
Selvi quickly caught up behind her, adjusting to the knee-deep sewage beneath her feet while frowning to avoid the filth falling from the sky.
"Is there anything going on?" Selvi asked, and Sula looked at her and then looked at the center of the team behind her.
There, Mirius and another Battle Sister closely guarded their leader.
But this man who was still quarreling with Sulla in the church had his eyes tightly closed at this moment.
The lively appearance just now was obviously just an illusion. After being temporarily separated from the battle, this man who was favored by the emperor was paying the price for the extraordinary performance he had shown before.
She was in a very bad state, especially after leaving the church.
High fever is just a symptom they can see, and so are the moans of pain.
On the spiritual level and even in the realm that is even more untouchable by mortals, the inhuman torture she faced has just begun.
Her soul was burning, and her eyes were filled with incomprehensible fantasies.
The whale song that penetrates the void, the distorted scream that is not human, the shadow that is so huge that it exceeds the limit of understanding, the truth that is enough to completely collapse a mortal...
Things that were terrifying enough, even the mere concept of the existence of things, to destroy Padilla's soul, broke into her cognition uninvited.
And even though she had instinctively closed off all her senses, those "things" were still relentless, squeezing and tearing at her soul.
But she did not die, or in other words, as early as countless time units smaller than an instant, she was already looking forward to death to end this torture.
But the black power wrapped outside her soul still firmly gathered her torn pieces, and then reorganized them again...
This was the man's perspective, Padilla knew;
It is also proof that He is the Lord of mankind, and Padilla also knows it.
The source of this torture comes from the power that constantly resurrects her;
The root of this kind of terror is that at a certain moment, she mistakenly thought that her faith was pious enough, so she dared to take on the power from the emperor...
The name of the Emperor allows him to shoulder the "concept" of the entire human race, standing at the height closest to the gods as a mortal.
And what Padilla feels now is only one ten thousandth of the pain he has endured every day during the thousands of years he has been sitting on the Golden Throne of Terra, when facing countless non-human beings in the supreme sky...
Living saint?
Is this really a blessing or an honor?
Perhaps before truly becoming the carrier of this glory, Padilla did have unrealistic delusions on countless quiet nights.
But when she did get a glimpse into the Emperor's perspective,
Share “His” power,
Become His apostle,
While walking on earth in “His” name.
Only then did she learn about the epic and magnificent story behind it that was recorded in the scriptures by the imperial state religion.
Those characters with names bear such a heavy power.
No, she doesn't know.
Padilla's mind was confused by the reversal of time and space, and a moment of rationality allowed her to deny her own inference.
The pain I am experiencing now is the result of being refracted and filtered by that "silver moon".
Without it, he would have burnt himself out and returned to the throne just after releasing the emperor's wrath.
But it was it that allowed his soul to survive in the flames that burned everything, and then gradually reborn in unimaginable pain...
But those real "saints" who were active in the history of the empire were not as "lucky" as she was.
Presumably after completing the Emperor's mission, they can dissipate without worries, right?
"Um...Silver Moon?"
A certain key concept was captured in her thoughts, and the power of this "concept" allowed her to feel bone-chilling coldness amidst the endless heat and distortion.
After being briefly awake, Padilla subconsciously wanted to "open" her eyes.
But the darkness that was gradually enveloping her and the gravity of her body in reality finally made her fall helplessly, and kept falling...
"Five people are too spread out. He can kill at most three at the same time." Sura simply explained the situation to Miris, but Miris had already taken off his sword.
"Hey...hey...calm...calm down!"
Sulla stretched out her hand to hold down Selvi, who was about to make an attack, but the other party obviously misunderstood.
"Then what are you waiting for? Let me go up..."
"Silence!" Sulla felt a huge sense of confusion and didn't know how to explain it for a moment.
The prerequisite for "killing" what he said before is to quietly and quickly assassinate in a latent state.
And this kind of "technical work" is obviously beyond the understanding of the battle nun in front of me.
Your Majesty! I miss home...
I shouldn't even think about coming to this damn place!
Although people at home have many rules, at least they are on a communication channel.
And these battle nuns in front of her... well, Sulla complained inwardly while turning her gaze to the middle of the team.
He originally thought that Padilla was already a model of poor communication, but after these few conversations with Miris, he suddenly realized that that woman was actually the most reasonable person among the group of battle nuns!
The throne is on you! Let her wake up quickly...
Sulla, who was at the front of the team, was still trying to explain to Miris, but in the arms of the battle nun whose broken arm was reattached, Padilla had quietly woken up.
This mortal who inherited the power of the emperor was using her weak hands to push away the water bottle that her comrades were feeding to her mouth. She struggled to move her dry and cracked lips, and in the weakest voice, she spat out what she wanted to say.