Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1041 09.1040: 'Dark Heresy'

"..."

Faced with Horatio's sharp gaze, Sister Ageta's eyes wavered for a moment.

She seemed to be racking her brains trying to figure out how to explain that supernatural horror in language that mortals could understand.

"At that time...some very extreme situations did occur. Looking back now, everything about it seems eerie."

Before Ajeta could speak, Yadwiga answered first. Her expression became unusually solemn, as if she had returned to that day of blood and fire, and her voice also became low.

"The situation at the beginning of the 'Great Revolution' was chaotic. Countless bloodshed took place in various places. These conflicts were largely due to long-accumulated class contradictions and the huge panic caused by the defeat in the defensive front. The angry people needed an outlet and someone to be held accountable for the defeat."

She paused, struggling to find the words to describe that painful memory.

"When the tide of the Great Revolution finally overwhelmed the defenses of the noble private armies, the old nobles began to flee in panic, and national assemblies were established in various capital cities."

It was then that some rational voices began to emerge. A representative in the parliament suggested that the purpose of the revolution was not indiscriminate slaughter without any limits. We should not send all the imperial nobles and anti-oath clergy to the guillotine, but only punish those who deserve punishment for their dereliction of duty.

Otherwise, indiscriminate slaughter will only lead to anarchic chaos and provide fertile ground for the corruption of chaos and the emergence of heretical ideas.

The proposals submitted by these representatives were ultimately adopted by vote.

The public's anger gradually subsided with the initial victory.

In order to save their lives and quell the riots, many nobles and anti-oath clergy who had not had time to escape Sintira agreed to compromise after reaching an agreement.

They gave up resistance, accepted asylum, and were temporarily placed under house arrest by us in several estates jointly guarded by military reform troops and the National Guard.

At the time, this was intended to protect their personal safety, preventing them from being lynched by angry mobs simply because of their titles or because they refused to swear an oath to the new regime.

The National Assembly declared to everyone that the newly established Revolutionary Tribunal would publicly try those who were responsible for the defeat, as well as those who had committed massacres to suppress the people during the Great Revolution.

The final verdict proved this point. Aside from a few heinous criminals who incurred widespread public resentment and were sent to the guillotine, most nobles and clergy were merely exempted from further punishment after paying hefty fines or being dismissed from their posts. They accepted this outcome of paying to avoid further trouble.

Just when everyone thought things were settling down and a new order was about to be established… tragedy struck.

A hint of uncontrollable sorrow clouded Jadwiga's voice.

"On that day, a strange total solar eclipse suddenly occurred in the sky above Sintira. Darkness enveloped the earth, and the crowds that had calmed down began to stir again with the darkness."

Unidentified individuals were spreading rumors at various gathering places and memorial squares, claiming that the sanctuary nobles and anti-oath clergy were gathering at the manor, preparing to launch a bloody riot to kill all the commoners.

"What happened next, was it that the commoners gathered together to behead those nobles and anti-oath clergy?" Horatio asked. His mind was already conjuring up the classic scene of bloody purges fueled by panic and rumors.

“It was worse than that.” Jadwiga’s voice grew heavier, the memory clearly a nightmare she didn’t want to revisit. “Some members of the armed National Guard who were supposed to maintain order joined them in the incitement and became part of the mob.”

"They first attacked a manor that was guarded by our military reform troops."

The estate was inhabited by refusing-oath clergy, nobles, and their families who had been preliminarily screened by the Revolutionary Tribunal and deemed innocent.

Our original plan was to escort them safely home once order was fully restored.

The crowd surrounded the manor. The reformist officer on duty went outside to try and disperse the angry mob, but he was killed on the spot, his head severed and stuck high on a scythe, which the mob then paraded around holding it.

“By the Emperor,” Horatio said in a low voice, “such anger is far too irrational.”

He now finally understood why Yadvig's face looked so grim.

"Yes. It was also on that occasion that I experienced firsthand how those citizens who were fighting alongside you and pursuing your ideals just the day before could turn into enemies who wanted to kill you in the blink of an eye."

A flicker of pain and confusion crossed Yadwiga's eyes. "Under the instigation of those agitators, they have completely lost their reason and judgment. They are completely convinced that they are performing a great patriotic act, without realizing at all the cruel massacre and crime they are committing."

They forgot that those they considered enemies were also citizens of the empire.

"They launched a frenzied attack on the manor. We had no idea this would happen; there was only one platoon of defenders there."

Faced with the onslaught of tens of thousands of angry people, the manor gates were quickly breached, and all the guards... were killed.

"The incited crowd stormed into the manor, and like mad dogs, they dragged the unarmed nobles and anti-oath clergy out of their rooms and executed them on the spot after a hasty and childish 'trial' process."

This completely contradicts the spirit of fair law that they once pursued. Throughout the massacre, they acted as both judges and executioners, firmly believing themselves to be embodiments of justice and showing no remorse for committing a crime.

They sang and danced around the corpses, watching with near-carnival revelry as they slaughtered the nobles. They believed their actions were righteous, that the massacre a just and honorable one.

"When I arrived with my team, I witnessed a horrific tragedy that I will never forget: a noblewoman was being tortured and murdered by a group of people."

She was stabbed in the head with a knife, and then her forehead was slashed open, blood gushing out from the wound and soaking her gorgeous dress.

The mob was unwilling to let her die peacefully, so they began an even more brutal act...

They tore open the woman's clothes with bayonets, then began to bite and gnaw at her body! The excruciating pain jolted the poor, unconscious woman back to consciousness…

“I think this is heresy,” Horatio said coldly, analyzing Jadvig’s words. “I even suspect that there is a corrupting influence of chaos at play.”

He instinctively looked at Sister Arabella.

As the ship's doctrinal expert, Arabella declared in a solemn, almost legalistic voice: "Any unauthorized cannibalism is heresy. Regardless of the motive, it shall be punished by burning at the stake."

"That wasn't all... When I tried to rush forward to stop this atrocity, the angry mob killed her right in front of me. They didn't even spare the woman's body, dismembering her with swords, cutting off all her limbs, ripping her open, and leaving her in a pile of unrecognizable human remains."

By the Divine Emperor, I swear that what we seek is absolutely not this kind of bloody, disorderly, indiscriminate slaughter!

Such despicable acts have tarnished our lofty ideals!

When they turned around and pointed their blood-stained knives and guns at me, I felt a sense of unfamiliarity I had never experienced before.

"And in the end? You're still standing here, unharmed."

"My brother Jean led the grenadier troops through the other gate of the manor."

Someone in the crowd fired at him, but fortunately he was not hit. However, a grenadier who was with him was unfortunately shot and killed.

At that moment, none of us hesitated anymore.

I raised my saber and gave the order to fire.

“You did the right thing,” Horatio said calmly. “There is a difference between citizens and mobs. Those people are no longer the same people who bravely resisted tyranny with you. They overthrew tyranny, and then became the new ‘tyranny’.”

"This event was later recorded in Sintila's history books as the 'September Massacre'."

Thousands of defiance clergy, nobles, and their families were brutally murdered.

This tragedy shocked the entire elite class of Sintira.

Some people with ulterior motives have used this incident to launch a massive attack on our military reform faction in the political arena.

Ultimately, when the matter was brought before Sector Governor Marius Hax upon his return to Sintira, we, the Military Reformers, bore full responsibility for the incident.

"The losses suffered by the nobles were compensated again after Governor Marius Hax returned."

The National Assembly was declared an illegal organization by the Governor of the Star District and ordered to be banned and dissolved. In its place, a newly established 'Three Estates' was formed, dominated by the nobility and clergy.

While ordinary citizens ostensibly gained the right to participate in political life, as 'third-class citizens,' the actual political operation was still controlled by the upper class.

The republic exists in name only. This is the current state of Sintira as you see it today.

"Comos".

Just as Jadvig's narration came to an end and the air fell into a deathly silence, Sister Ageta, whose brow had been furrowed the whole time, suddenly uttered a title in an almost whispered voice.

[Comos?]
Horatio was unfamiliar with the name; even as a time traveler, he had never seen the word in any imperial archives.

“That ‘black sun radiating a purple halo’,” Sister Ageta slowly raised her head, her gaze seemingly piercing through the sky, staring at some indescribable, terrifying mystery. “In some sealed ancient documents, it is called ‘Comos.’ In the Inquisition’s archives, it is called ‘Tyrant Star.’

She paused for a moment, then uttered the last title in an extremely solemn tone.

"And our state religion calls it—'Dark Heresy'."

(End of this chapter)