Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 308 Training and Temptation, Persistence in Self-Existence

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

A stage built with souls as sacrifices was slowly kicked off, and the dojo where two extraordinary beings debated each other with their will and actions also began.

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

There are two existences, one person and one devil, and at the moment when the game is established, its soul has already been caught in the eternal but fleeting chess game under the double witness of the evil god and the emperor.

first generation.

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

As the son of the governor, he was born with a good life, and he was the youngest among many brothers, allowing him to fully enjoy the love of his parents without worrying about the future.

But he is not a character who is willing to be the queen.

The glory of the family comes from the dedication of the ancestors, and the responsibility of the blood makes him understand the meaning and price of nobility.

He was not physically strong, but still made clear to his father his desire to become an Astartes at the age when he began his education.

The parents who doted on him certainly didn't want their youngest son to bear the price, but under his insistence, his father still took great pains to hire a veteran who was lucky enough to survive the elimination of the losers.

This soldier of special origin will be responsible for his training in combat skills, serving as his mentor to develop his body and skills.

In this way, he started a completely different growth path from his elder brothers, and a journey of practice to the starry sky began.

The constant baptism of will in cold and heat could not make him retreat, but his physical weakness stopped him from moving forward.Years of training made Calvin so strong that he was far from passing the selection that was known for its harshness.

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

Calvin ultimately failed.

After going through layers of difficult selection, after being picked up from this planet by the airship belonging to the emperor's angels, they arrived at their palace flying in the starry sky.

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

The reason for his failure is simply because of the natural rejection of his own genes and superhuman organs.

The severe rejection reaction has been struggling endlessly in his immune system since the first organ was not implanted.

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

Wide-scale organ failure and disintegration at the genetic level were about to get out of control, and the withdrawal of tranquilizers made him wake up from a deep sleep with severe pain.

"You failed." The pharmacist told him the news of his imminent death through the thick glass of the life support cabin.

As he was dying, he could clearly feel the regretful gaze from the pharmacist, and he could also vaguely detect a trace of ridicule from the expression of 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 mouthful of bloody air in his lungs, and immediately lost his last sense of this body.

On one side of the chessboard, Calvin's soul has cracked fragments and falls, and the size of the demon on the other side of the chessboard grows correspondingly.

Second world.

It was still that unknown planet, but Calvin's identity became the governor's eldest son.

He also has the ideal of yearning for the starry sky, but because of the continuation of the family, he must give up his vision of becoming an Astartes and become a qualified governor of the empire.

Since he was sensible, he has set strict demands on himself according to military standards. In the past ten years of growth, he has become tenacious, unyielding, 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, destroying the defense system of his planet within a few days.

Calvin led the only remaining defense force on the surface of the planet to fight against the orcs, and was finally 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 held a huge power axe, looking down at Calvin who was dying on the ground and asked.

Like all dying people, the memory of this life flashed across Calvin's eyes when he heard these words.

"No!" he replied.

And the sound of the orc slashing at his head with a battle ax is the last memory in his life...

third generation.

Calvin became the second son of the family. He was naturally emotional and studious, especially good at handling government affairs.

When he was young, playing with his brothers, he vowed to become a qualified governor.

But after he grew up, he realized that it was the glory that belonged to his elder brother, and he gradually became silent, but he did not forget his childhood ideal.

But the relationship with his elder brother finally made him turn to the direction of theology to pour his energy that he had nowhere to rest.

He eventually finished his theological studies before the Sector Bishop aged, and became an honorable Imperial Priest.

Under the arrangement of his teacher and his parents, he embarked on 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, so as to serve the Emperor and the Empire.

But who knows, this difference is actually an eternal separation between man and nature.

The hugeness of the empire made the news of the disaster slow to spread, and he realized that the family no longer existed, and he was disheartened after a while. Since then, he has become one of the countless silent scribes in the Terra Theological Seminary.

In his old age, he had no marriage and naturally no heirs. Before the end of his life, he donated all his property to the poor people of the empire.

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

"Do you regret it?" The priest of the state religion who had been silent all this time suddenly asked, which made Calvin, who had finished reciting the emperor's oracle, feel a little dazed.

He recalled his short and simple life, and finally, while lamenting the impermanence of fate, he also became more determined in his original vision.

"No! I won't regret it!"

He resolutely uttered his last voice, and with the priest gradually revealing his unwilling expression, he closed his tired eyes permanently...

The reincarnation continued again and again, but Calvin's answer remained unchanged.

When the devil first saw the rift in Calvin's soul, he also had a little bit of pride and joy.

But in the process of those debris being disintegrated and discarded, the golden essence of Calvin's divine soul gradually became more pure and dazzling under the training of reincarnation.

Seeing that the place of reincarnation that he had carefully prepared gradually turned into an aid to Calvin's spiritual cultivation, the demon, who felt that the situation was out of control, began to forcibly interfere with Calvin's reincarnation fate in it.

The more tortuous and unfortunate fate became the lingering haze on Calvin in the future world.But no matter how the devil manipulates fate, Calvin in this world has always maintained his original intention and has not wavered in the direction of evil.

The holy number "nine" finally became the total number of reincarnations under Calvin's original intention in the helplessness of the devil.

After Calvin completed his ninth reincarnation, the devil himself was bound by the rules of the game he customized, and became a bargaining chip placed on the balance in the game's bet.

"No! This is absolutely impossible!" the Great Demon Mephisto howled hoarsely.

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 game, the outcome of the two sides is already clear.

But the devil at the end of the road obviously didn't have enough respect for the rules, and it wanted to use the vague definition of numbers in the rules to try to make more struggles.

"The game is not over yet! Let's continue!" The demon still tried to struggle, but the balance above the chessboard had already 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 warp.

At the moment when the devil tried to rewrite the rules, this sacred existence, which had been silent all along, finally woke up and began to perform the supervisory duty of witnessing the bet.

"I'm laughing..."

An equally powerful force appeared out of thin air, rushing from the depths of the subspace to the top of the chessboard.

The mighty power of the emperor became extremely active after feeling this force, and took the lead in sending protection to Calvin's soul.

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

After it appeared, it landed directly towards the mad demon. At the moment when the power of the emperor had no time to react, it took the first step to annihilate Mephisto's soul.

It is a part of the contract among the many powers of the evil god Tzeentch.The emergence of this force is also a manifestation of the contradiction between Tzeentch's own countless will and authority.

This force did not try to continue to violate the rules, but put the power and soul left by the clean and tidy big devil on the balance.

His respect for the rules after his appearance allowed the continuation of the bet, and the emperor's icon had no reason to personally enforce the rules under such actions, and returned to the cold silence.

And it's not the end of everything.

The side of the balance representing Calvin was falling heavily, and at the moment when the bet was about to be completed, this force replaced Mephisto's position, and sent a message to Calvin who had just escaped from the chess game, which caught him off guard. The problem:

"Hero of mankind, I am shocked by your steadfastness, and your qualities are worthy of praise.

As another witness of this bet, I hereby invite you: Are you willing to enjoy the glory of the gods?
Or let me make it clearer, are you willing to be a member of the gods? "
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Become a god?

This idea appeared in Calvin's mind, and it was not without temptation.After all, that represents detachment, and represents that his life form has entered a higher dimension from now on.

But almost at the moment when this idea appeared, Calvin was keenly aware of the heavy price behind this seemingly generous gift.

"Can I still retain my will?"

Calvin looked at the existence in front of him, and under the witness of the emperor, he asked this question that involved the most core interests.

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

It's not that it doesn't want to deceive, but it can't and dare not hide anything under the witness of the emperor.

Granting Calvin, who already possesses the essence of a divine soul, to be promoted and become his subordinate god, there are only advantages and no disadvantages for him.

But what He wants is a ready-made helper rather than a new enemy. This kind of bestowment naturally has genealogical constraints. How could it be possible for 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 negative.

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

If he can't have his own will, what kind of god has he become?
If he cannot retain absolute rationality and independent thinking, is he still himself after becoming a god?I'm afraid it's just a manifestation of the countless will of the gods.

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

"You know how rare this opportunity is... The evil god's projection stared at Calvin without any further advice.

But in countless timelines, the same questions have yielded the same answers in different contexts.

"So, excuse me..." After saying this, the projection disappeared in place, as if it had never been there before.

He cannot intervene any further, for the Emperor's Will is watching.

Being able to have such close contact with Calvin, now I think it is not so much the tacit understanding between the two parties based on obeying the rules, but rather the emperor's absolute confidence in this special soul.

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

After losing their power and support, the chess game and illusion turned into fly ash, and disintegrated and dissipated little by little in front of Calvin.And Calvin's soul returned to his body and landed in the direction of reality.

This special duel and dialogue finally came to an end. Calvin, whose consciousness had returned to reality, slowly opened his eyes, kept kneeling on one knee and looked at the still silent holy elephant in front of him, then turned his head to look at the Location.

The place where the great demon Mephisto once was, now there is no such figure, only a trace of ashes left to prove its existence.

The blasphemy and pollution originally created by the demons in the Imperial Palace spontaneously burned when Calvin saw it.

The souls of the seven victims under the icon have disappeared, and the remaining bodies have also been reduced to ashes in the flames.

On the psychic crystal plating of thousands of Heavenly Punishment weapons that have been polluted by demons, the pollution of demons has disappeared without a trace;
These weapons of special materials that can carry psionic energy have thus returned to their original blank state without any energy imprint.

The celebrations on the surface continued, and the hymns sung to the Emperor were so loud that even the breeze sang in the corridors outside the hall.

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

　Update ticket.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)