Warhammer: I don't want to be a stinky can! ! !

Chapter 673 121. Pluto is above
Many years later, Cardinal John of the Underworld would recall the midnight when he was ordained a cardinal.

In a secret room in the Cathedral of Hades on Terra, the Archbishop of Hades, who still had a Mediterranean hairstyle, handed him his new dog tag, on which the word "Deacon of the Church" was changed to "Cardinal".

"May Hades bless you."

The archbishop spoke earnestly, and he pretended to take the dog tag. At that time, they all believed that Pluto did not exist, but the ceremony still had to be performed.

"John Fabian will live up to Pluto's wishes."

The archbishop then sprinkled liquid mixed with the blood of the soulless on him, and the simple ceremony ended.

But after this ceremony, the highlight that John wanted would come.

The Underworld Cult is the only imperial institution that only appoints the virtuous, regardless of the candidate's origin or family background.

Utilizing the connections of the Hades Cult, the Archbishop organized a small party for him with other important forces in the Hazy Star Region - to facilitate John's future actions in this star region.

Under the dim candlelight, while others were dancing, Archbishop Samuel came to John's side, and John hurriedly toasted the Archbishop.

They chatted for a while, and then the archbishop looked at John with his deep eyes.

"Congratulations, John Fabian."

Samuel said, with a playful smile on his face.
"I have heard about your deeds. You are a smart person. I don't think I need to remind you how to make the Dark Cult great. You know, every few generations there will always be someone with inflexible ideas."

John smiled. He had already started planning how to deal with the local caravans and the Mechanicus. At the same time, he arranged the Silent Ones who he liked to be on duty in the inner bedroom.

"But you have to understand that all your achievements are based on one reality, John - there can be no large-scale chaos in the jurisdiction."

John laughed. Large-scale chaos was impossible, at least not under his command. He asked jokingly,
"What if there is?"

"Then fill it with your life."

John shook his head and continued to test.
"Aren't you afraid that I'll escape first?"

Samuel laughed, too.
"No, you won't - I have seen more bishops who have made more mistakes than you, and none of them chose to leave. If you are unfortunate enough to catch up, you will know why."

"Because... Hades will come to punish me?"

John shook his glass, but the archbishop smiled, raised his glass and left.

They were all pretty happy at the time - after all, they all naively believed that Pluto was a lie.

Until... until that person really showed up.

........................

"Bishop, you are more embarrassed than I thought."

The oil man's merciless sarcasm sounded, and John rolled his eyes.

"I am now alone,"

'The Cardinal said, feeling his heart throb, he had retreated with the Chapter's transports - but everyone else was gone, and the Eldar launched three more air raids afterwards.

"What? Are you here to see the fun?"

"No, I just came to ask you for a Soulless."

"No, they are all dead."

John said, thinking of the Quiet Lady's last departure, she left in such a cool way, leaving him alone for what? To preserve the church's independence? To prevent it from being annexed by the next star region?
"This is really bad news - Bishop, can you exorcise the demon and bless me?"

"Of course you are talking crap, metal lump."

"Then follow me."

The Great Sage Lavie said as she commanded her huge crusaders to pick up John and carry him through the already devastated city.

Almost all the remaining soldiers are here, as well as the civilians on the planet Safia who have not yet had time to evacuate...

John saw them being forced out of the collapsed houses by missiles and huddled among the ruins of the houses. Some of the thin ones even hid in the triangular shadows formed by the huge broken concrete slabs.

The bishop was keenly aware that some of them were already showing signs of corruption.
But through their eyes, John determined that this was an infiltration caused by excessive external spiritual energy, rather than corruption caused by the soul's internal depravity.

He saw the fleshy growths on the child's face.

John struggled.

"I need to exorcise them!"

He shouted, and was silenced again before the Skitarii looked like he was going to physically calm him down.

"Oil man! What do you want me to do?!"

"Bless the little general cannon,"

The Mechanical Sage said,

"The concentration of psychic energy is too high, which interferes with its aiming system. I have blessed it and prayed for it, but it still cannot be improved."

"Haha--you're not pious!"

"Ohm Messiah will make His own decision. Since our Bishop John is pious, then you should come."

The Mechanicus, mortals, and the Legion, as the three-headed hellhound under Hades, have the same faith. In this regard, the Mechanicus does not shy away from using methods from Hades.

They climbed up a section of the city wall that had been blown open by a bomb, and the oil man blocked the gap with abandoned vehicles in the city, but John knew that this place would be breached soon.

They are now completely trapped, struggling and unwilling to die -

As long as the main urban area with the highest population density has not been captured, the Chaos Ritual will not be completely successful.

The Dark Cult once taught John,
If Chaos wants to completely corrupt a planet, then they must have the natives of this planet. Only the souls of humans who have grown up on this planet for generations will be connected to the essence of the planet, and only through them can the corruption of the planet be completed.

This is why the Underworld became a group that focused on evacuating civilians, because they knew that everyone's soul would bring power to their enemies.

Of course, there are also people in the church who do this simply to practice kindness.

John tilted his head, the battlefield in the distance reflected in his pupils. He saw the corpses of Imperial Titans like a hill, as well as the corpses of humans, densely packed together. The red robes of the Crusaders mixed with their blood, staining the ground red.

...Fortunately, he is not a bloodthirsty person in Chaos.

John remembered this infernal joke at an inopportune moment.

The good news is that the Mechanicus' army is similar to that of the Cult of Hades. Their loyalty to Hades protects their souls from the erosion of Chaos, so such a large number of deaths will not increase the opponent's strength.

But what really made him despair was the endless mixed army of the Eldar and Slaanesh in the distance, as well as the elegant and slender killing Titans of the alien race...

This was far beyond the Chaos force deployment that the Bishop had originally imagined. Chaos had become completely impatient - after John and the defenders had dragged on the battle long enough, He wanted to taste the planet immediately.

John's scalp tingled.

“It looks like He is in a hurry.”

The great sage Ravi said,

"You need to hurry up too, Bishop."

John sneered.
"One, two, three, four... I saw at least four of those weird things, but only two rounds of ammunition now?"

"Destroying one is victory, Bishop. You are more pessimistic than I am."

John smiled bitterly, stumbled out of the Crusader's arms, and limped to the side of the Archsage, in front of the strange device.

On the platform of the city wall, the battering ram-like thing carried by four tracks was waiting for him. John took out the last bottle of mixed powder of the Soulless and Black Stone from his pocket and began to bless the Little General Cannon.

The Great Sage Lavie and the temporary commander of the Dusk Rebels stood beside him. They were silent for the time being. The only sound was the final struggle of the Skitarii, Knights, and Mechas far away from the city wall.

It was they who delayed the long-range firepower of the Eldar and prevented it from pouring into the city.

There were also the sobbing cries of civilians in the city.

But... the artillery fire will not come.

John smeared the ashes on the small general cannon. For the first time, he recited His real name so devoutly.

The Cardinal knew, he knew it all too well, that Chaos only wanted the living.

He thought, his guards had all left him, and he had one last thing to do, he had to delay the coming of corruption as much as possible, he had to go down into the city and try to prevent these souls from falling. John wanted to make these souls leave as decently as possible.

He knew very well that Chaos only wanted the living.

John stretched out his right hand, wiped away his tears with his fingertips mixed with blood and dust, and wrote the prayer on the small general cannon again.

"The Lord of the Underworld is merciful. When he saw the souls of the world sinking into the sea of ​​suffering, he said, 'I want everyone to sleep in my realm,' regardless of whether you are rich or poor, old or young, innocent or sinful."

Of course he knew what Archbishop Samuel meant.

Afterwards, John discussed this matter with other cardinals. The Archbishop's words were obviously ridiculous. There might not be true believers of the God-Emperor within the state religion, not to mention the Hades Cult, which was known for its flexibility.

Without a sufficiently mature punishment and supervision mechanism, and with the emperor far away, how could the archbishop possibly ensure that these cardinals fulfill their teachings and hinder the invasion of chaos as much as possible when it comes?
But after that, John learned a truth that gave him nightmares for seven days after he returned.

It turns out that he was not an exception. It turns out that he was complacent and thought that the truth behind covering up the past had long been known.

The truth is simple -

Before they entered the Cult of the Underworld, each cardinal had experienced being imprisoned and abused by Chaos.

After the blessing, John stepped back, holding the remaining half bottle of ashes, and nodded calmly towards the sage.

"I am no longer of any use. Can I go and bless the people now?"

"Good luck."

The sage immediately hurried up to check the general cannon, and the temporary regiment commander also immediately stepped forward to discuss countermeasures with the sage.

John limped down the city wall. The armed forces of the Hades Cult could not be said to be the strongest. On the front battlefield, the Hades Cult was the most struggling team.

They are usually used for early warning and to exorcise demons for the public.

John's fingers trembled unconsciously as he thought of the past.

The story is simple, his parents were Chaos believers and used their own children as sacrifices.

That day it was his sister's turn. John's sister gave John the wire she had hidden and her escape map - telling him to find a completely dark building, and then she was dragged away by her parents.

He finally did it. After hiking in the wilderness for two days and two nights, he found the dark building. The Hades priest discovered him and immediately contacted the Silent Ones to handle the incident.

In the end, he was the only one who survived. He saw his sister who had completely fallen into the ways of Nurgle. Finally, he asked the priest whether his sister had found peace.
The pastor answered in the affirmative.

After this, he did not become a useless person because of the blow. Instead, he joined the Underworld Cult and began to study further.

On the one hand, fear drives him to want his own Silent Guard, on the other hand, as he studies in the Cult of the Dark, he begins to realize that he can prevent similar tragedies.

But John did not say all this, he protected himself with his enterprising spirit and greed, as success became more and more within his grasp, John followed the Underworld Cult's [Land Expansion Movement], he deliberately chose a star field far away from his hometown, vowing to get rid of the unbearable past and not let himself be dragged down by the past.

After this, he had his own army of Silent Warriors. He rested on his success and only needed to ensure that there was no Chaos in his jurisdiction - the rest of the power was his to pick.

but……

……

"You know, John, I'm surprised too - I thought no one knew I was a Chaos slave gladiator for a while."

Another cardinal smiled with a sad look on his face.
"Maybe that's why it's us - we've witnessed the brutality of Chaos, we could have fallen countless times, but we still survived and are full of fighting spirit - what does this have to do with Pluto? We know in our hearts that he is just an excuse, a switch for a certain spell."

"This is the real secret of how the Dark Cult works."

The cardinal said, laughing at himself,

"Those who have truly experienced the brutality of Chaos...those who are truly compassionate...cannot stand by and watch others suffer, because we have all prayed for someone to save us, right?"

……

John took a deep breath and walked slowly to a wailing pauper whose mouth had begun to crack.

He poured out some of the ashes,
"Don't be afraid, I'm helping you."

John said, start praying, save as many people as possible... It's better than doing nothing, and it's also just delaying time.

"The Lord of the Underworld said, 'When you are uneasy, praise my name.'"

……

"There is no Pluto..."

John said slowly,
"There are no followers of Hades in the Hades Cult, but we share the same faith."

Another of his colleagues laughed.

"Perhaps Hades is some kind of collective will of the Hades Cult. Didn't you notice, John? Even though you and I both talk about business - in the end - hahahaha!"

The cardinal came up to John and winked slyly.

"I think you breathed a sigh of relief when you were given the power to dispatch the Silent Ones, because... so did I."

John's eye twitched imperceptibly.
"I have another question, how did you escape in the first place?"

The person opposite him paused for a moment.
"A senior in our team sacrificed his life to get me out - don't laugh, he was almost killed by Chaos corruption at the time, so I think he was so kind."

He got it.

John thought, damn the Cult of the Underworld, this is the Chaos Victims Alliance.

……

The bishop gently closed the deceased's eyes; his injuries were such that he could not be saved.

The blood from his broken leg was still flowing all the way. The eyes of some of the people there terrified him, as if he saw his former self.

boom! boom! boom!
The city wall was lost. John heard the roars of the people on the wall somewhat numbly. He just bent down and clenched the hand of the little boy, whose head had already started to sprout horns.

John said hoarsely,

"Say it with me - praise Hades."

"Praise be to Hades."

This sentence made the boy feel a little uncomfortable, and tears seemed to begin to well up in his eyes, but he knew John was saving him, so he continued to recite.

"Praise be to Hades."

"Praise be to Hades."

"Uncle - does Pluto really exist?"

John's hands trembled for a moment. At the other end of the street, a corner of the Slaanesh horse neighed and appeared, but was knocked against the wall again by the rushing warriors of the chapter.

Does he really exist?

Although people were saying that he was back, and even his superiors said they had seen the man with their own eyes, John had never seen him. This might be another lie - it was definitely a lie, gods did not exist, and he was a person who believed with his own eyes.

"he……"

John trembled and said,
"Hades exists - but we are enough. He is very busy. Children, read after me and praise Hades."

"Praise be to Hades."

"..."

silence.

John suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, his ears were dizzy, and then he raised his head and subconsciously looked up into the sky.

Something appeared there.

It's Pluto.

"Fuck."

John said.

(End of this chapter)