Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 714 (15) A living saint can indeed bring enlightenment to people, but what if the other person is not a human?

"Will you still be the God-Emperor's champion this time, Sigismund?"

What is this development?
I admit that for a moment I thought it would be impolite to see Perturabo and Celestine fight, but I didn't expect her to actually ask me to make a decision right away.

It is another decision that seems to be "have to be made".

Sigismund's brows unconsciously frowned. This scene seemed familiar, and Celestine's brilliance seemed to shine directly into his heart, making him merge with her thoughts.

The Living Saint Qile also asked him to make a choice, and the consequences of his last choice now seem to be worthy of the people he wanted to protect.

Become a sharp sword, a tool, fight for the future of the human empire, so be willing to abandon all pity, fear and regret, release all your strength, because without those unnecessary emotions, you can wield the fastest and sharpest sword in the world.

——But after he thought his responsibility ended with his death, he regretted it.

He realized this clearly the first moment he woke up from death.

He was indeed worthy of his oath and loyalty, but he abandoned Sigismund and Dorn.

Although in hindsight it seemed that everything he did on Terra was quite successful, as Keele told him with a mysterious pale smile of sadness and tenderness, "He needs you."

But this him is not what Sigismund thought, this him... is not Dorn.

Part of him was satisfied, but another part of him disappeared when he grasped the black sword.

The sound of the wind blowing through the tattered camp tents on the Innonus Plateau when he was a child passed by his ears again, turning into the sound of the tarpaulin fluttering in the strong wind behind Rog Dorn on the Square of Heroes.

The statues of the nine traitorous primarchs were covered with tarps and wrapped with ropes, and his father stood in front of the pedestal of Konrad Curze's statue, looking down at him condescendingly.

The figure of the Eighth Primarch made a clawed gesture behind Dorn, and the shadow of the statue engulfed the Primarch's face and the expression on his face.

He could not see his father's face. But his desire for his father's love surpassed everything else at that moment.

Perhaps there were some parts of the future that Qile revealed to him that touched the part of him that wanted to use his talents, and made him reject the future of drifting alone in space, dying, being forgotten and nameless; but the other part, in the deeper and more secret place in his heart, was the orphan hunted by the Corpse King Gang on the Innonus Plateau, the child who protected the lives of other orphans because of his talent for fighting and the responsibility he took on because of death.

He was just a talented eight-year-old boy.

If - if at that time -

If my father was there...

In the end, he chose to stay in Terra, stay with Dorn, and face the desperate and burning future with his father after the revelation given to him by Qile.

He wanted to protect his father.

Sigismund could not deny that the choice he made under this wish led to the extreme pain that made him want to abandon all emotions and care for his own life and just obey orders to become a sharp blade: he lied to Dorn because of the future that Keele showed him, but in the end Dorn said that he betrayed his trust.

"You don't even have the right to give me your responsibility and life in front of me! Because I am no longer your father!" He remembered everything. His airway, which no longer needed to breathe, felt suffocated. The tide of pain almost made him collapse to the ground. His ears, which no longer had flesh and blood, heard dizzying tinnitus.

Strong human emotions returned to him for the first time in ten thousand years since he was no longer mortal.

The time around him stopped flowing because of the desire, regret and unexpressed love that had accumulated over tens of thousands of years.

The boy, with silver artificial tears flowing from his metal eye sockets, fell to his knees and cried for himself for the first time in ten thousand years.

Inside the sanctuary, Saint Celestine and her light were also frozen in stillness.

--------

After a moment, Sigismund stood up, realizing that time would soon resume flowing nearby, and he reached out to tidy himself up.

The strange thought in the matrix resurfaced in his mind at this time, igniting his thoughts: So at that point in time, Euphrates Keele was able to show the most determined and powerful warriors among the Astartes, such as Garro and him -

Is it right to be able to have an immersive and mind-shaking illusion of the future, to make time stop while talking, and to incite thousands or even millions of believers to sacrifice themselves for her words and beliefs?

Is this something a mortal can do? Today, when the state religion has become the religion of the empire and has permeated the entire empire, future generations can certainly call it a miracle of saints, but if we look at it from the perspective of those who experienced it at the time...

A woman who was just a mortal recorder and had not undergone any strengthening or transformation, began to preach with just her mouth and a book at that time. Even when many people did not realize it, her followers had infiltrated the prison deep in the palace and even among the Sigillite's own agents. Sigismund knew that she could still talk and meet people freely in Malcador's prison later.

The most important thing is that although He "could not speak" at that time, He was still alive and "was in Terra."

The Grand Marshal of the Custodes and the Sigillite are both alive, also in the Sol System, and both apparently know at least as much about the Warp as many Primarchs and Astartes do.

So, is she really just a mortal recorder with no psychic powers?

Is she...really who she thinks she is?

In a flash, Sigismund suddenly realized more details that he had not had time to think about before because of the imminent pressure of war and the betrayal of his cousin's army.

Euphrates Keeler played a much bigger role in the entire Siege of Terra than anyone realizes, but she did a good job of covering up other problems with her status as a living saint.

She was like a golden thread smeared with ink, secretly stringing together many pearls that would influence the direction of fate in tunnels, prisons, dilapidated sanctuaries and cabins on tracks.

As far as Sigismund himself knew, these also included Caryl Sindermann, Nathaniel Garro, Gavial Loken and others.

So, if she seemed to be asking him to do nothing, but merely showing him a vision of the future and graciously leaving the choice to Sigismund himself, what she actually wanted was for Donne to angrily declare that Sigismund "was no longer his son, and his future would have nothing to do with him"...?
It doesn’t matter if anyone hears it or not, as long as Dorn says it himself!
But why...? Is he really worth all the trouble? Or is this how prophets and the hand of God act in religion and the occult?
The truth behind the fog seemed to be right before his eyes, but he still felt that there was something he had not grasped.

Time resumed its flow.

"Will you still be the God-Emperor's champion this time, Sigismund?"

(End of this chapter)