Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 280 Metaphor
"Avida is dead."

"he died."

"My best brother, my subordinate, he died there."

In the White Knight's library, Qin Xia and Avida sat opposite each other.

The two sat at the tea table where Avida Asar and Qin Xia had sat before.

The fireplace burned with wood, emitting a warm glow and making the sound of burning wood crackling.

Avida held the teacup filled with boiling hot tea, staring at the tea in the cup with a dull look. Looking at the tea with a leaf floating in it after it was poured out from the teapot, Avida felt like this lonely tea leaf.

The tea leaves float in the tea water which looks a bit cloudy.

It was as if he, Avida, was floating in the dark truth he had just learned.

"So you are Asar." Qin Xia said without much surprise.

Avida nodded.

"At that time, Avida's soul was damaged, and my flesh and blood mutated to the point where I could not survive."

"He used a witchcraft ritual to exchange bodies with me. His soul entered my body that was severely mutated, and my soul entered his body."

"Anyway, now I can only survive as Avida."

Avida told Qin Xia about his experiences in the subspace without reservation.

Including when he was still Asar, he saw those terrifying demons in his mutated body, waiting to capture and torture his soul.

This also includes soul swapping.

"You are Avida." Qin Xia lowered his voice. "This is what Avida wanted. He didn't swap bodies with you out of guilt for screwing up everything. He just wanted you to survive and help you survive, just like you helped him survive."

“These things cannot be told to others.”

"The Empire is still wary of psychics and witchcraft like us. Your Fifteenth Legion just hasn't waited for the Empire to deal with it yet. If the Empire knows that you used witchcraft to replace your body..."

"You will be the first to be eliminated."

Qin Xia warned Avida very seriously.

At the moment of the soul exchange, the latter also heard this warning from his best friend.

This conversation was based on complete trust in each other. If Avida did not completely trust Qin Xia, he would not have told him about the soul swap.

After the warning, Qin Xia fell into deep thought.

"Now only the body of Avida is Avida, and the soul is Asar."

Qin Xia summed it up in his mind.

"I used to think that Arvida was one of the future founding Grand Masters of the Grey Knights. He was not wary of the Warp simply because he still needed time to grow..."

"If we look at it from the perspective of the soul, Asar is the future Grand Master of the Creation. It's just that he and Avida exchanged souls, and he survived as Avida."

Qin Xia felt that this matter was so complicated that it was hard to describe.

Things change, that's how it is.

"Will Avida still be tortured by demons?"

"I mean, the soul of Avida..."

Avida suddenly raised his head and asked a very crucial question that he had just remembered.

Qin Xia thought about it and shook his head: "Under normal circumstances, he will definitely be sent into the demon realm by the so-called subspace elves he signed a contract with. He will be unable to live and unable to die. This is the sad fate of a soul that falls into the hands of the devil."

"But fortunately you are lucky and decisive."

"On the one hand, you were saved, and your soul did not completely fall into the devil's hands after the injection of the potion."

"On the other hand, you personally destroyed your original body and the soul of Avida in your original body. You gave him a release. If you had hesitated even a little, Avida's soul would have suffered something you could not imagine."

After explaining, Qin Xia wanted to say a few words of comfort.

But Avida did not need consolation. He had reviewed what had happened before and could think that the decision he made at that time was the best one.

"Feel sorry."

Avida suddenly spoke.

"We didn't understand the dangers of the warp before, and we treated those terrible demons as trustworthy guardian spirits."

"Now I can finally understand what you said at that time."

Avida really regretted it.

Perhaps if they had listened to Qin Xia's advice at that time, the result would have been different.

At the same time, Avida was in pain.

The entire Fifteenth Legion, whether it was the Primarch or the warriors, were obsessed with the in-depth exploration of the Warp.

Only a few people have not signed a contract with demons as if they were elves.

Avida now realizes his mistakes and how ridiculous the Fifteenth Legion's obsession with the Warp is. He wants to persuade his brothers to stop, but because he was once addicted to the Warp, he knows very well that it will be useless if he really persuades them.

The feeling of knowing everything but having no influence and having to watch everything slide into the abyss... Avida scratched his hair in pain, his handsome features twisted, and he looked haggard like a mortal who had suffered from the hardships of life.

"Magnus once told a fable."

In Qin Xia's silence, Avida's bloodshot eyes turned upward, and his gaze was cast at Qin Xia through the gaps between his five fingers that were tightly grasping his hair.

Calling the Primarch by his name made Qin Xia realize that Avida did not recognize the Primarch of the Fifteenth Legion.

After a pause, Avida continued.

"Some prisoners have been imprisoned in caves since birth. They cannot turn their heads and are forced to look forward. Their only source of light is the fire behind them. The fire casts shadows in their eyes, making them think that shadows are the only real things."

"When people or animals passed by outside the cave, their shadows would be cast into the cave, and the prisoners would then classify and name the shadows they saw." "One day a prisoner broke free, walked outside the cave and saw everything, the sun, real people and objects... and realized that shadows were just projections."

"The freed prisoner returned to the cave and told his companions everything. Then, because what he said subverted their understanding, he was ridiculed and even attacked."

Hearing this, Qin Xia frowned slightly.

The story Avida tells is Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.”

Magnus told this kind of story to tell others that he, Magnus, was the freed prisoner in the story. He walked out of the cave called the real universe and saw a more real and grand truth.

Then he returned to the real universe and told others what he had seen, but was attacked and ridiculed...

The Imperium has been hostile to psykers since its inception.

Special forces such as the Think Tank are merely composed of individuals in some legions who have awakened their psychic talents, rather than being approved professional psychic combat forces.

The reason why the Empire has not yet begun to ban the use of psychic power is simply because there is no time to deal with this matter for the time being, or it is still in the planning stage. As soon as the planning is completed, the use of psychic power will be banned.

Sooner or later the empire will persecute those who have truly seen the world.

This is Magnus's logic.

He felt that he had seen the world, and those who opposed psionics or kept saying that the warp was dangerous were just bumpkins in the caves who had no idea what was real.

Arvida told this fable not to support Magnus, but he wanted to express Magnus's thinking logic.

"I also have a fable." Qin Xia said.

Arvida put her hands down and listened carefully.

“It’s called the cosmetic metaphor.”

"This metaphor is not brilliant. I am not a master of philosophy, nor am I a civilized debater who can participate in a debate where cursing is not allowed, but it is the most appropriate one that I could think of at the first moment."

Qin Xia stood up from his chair and paced as he spoke.

"The Prospero people value knowledge, and they migrated directly from Terra, so they must have a lot of information about Terra's ancient times."

"Then there should also be knowledge about the development of human technology."

“For example, humans once abused radioactive elements, believing that they were magical and had all kinds of amazing effects.”

"At that stage, some cosmetics companies added radioactive elements into their products and claimed that the cosmetics they produced could magically make people look younger, energetic every day, and have smoother skin."

"Then cosmetics with added radioactive elements became hot sellers. During this period, people kept raising doubts, claiming that the latest research showed that radioactive elements were extremely harmful to the human body, but the news was suppressed by the cosmetics companies."

As he spoke, Qin Xia returned to his seat, picked up three teacups, and stacked them together from top to bottom.

Under Avida's gaze, Qin Xia pointed to the teacup on top.

"When cosmetics companies added radioactive elements to cosmetics, they probably didn't know about the hazards. But as humans studied radioactive elements, they found out. But in order to make money, they chose to conceal it or hired people to do public relations."

Qin Xia pointed to the teacup at the bottom.

"These are the users who gradually found themselves losing their teeth and hair while using the cosmetics, until eventually their bones were glowing... The radioactive elements were destroying their bodies."

Hearing this, Avida was able to guess something.

There are three teacups stacked together, and the top cup represents demons, those disgusting things that deceive humans.

The teacup at the bottom represents someone who has been unlucky.

Like my best friend...

Avida looked at the teacup between the upper and lower cups.

"It." Qin Xia pointed to the teacup in the middle. "It is those people who were attracted by the magical radioactive elements when the atomic theory was born. They were immersed in the fantasy of atomic punk, focusing only on the magical aspects of radioactive elements and ignoring their hazards. They especially want to try related products, such as the cosmetics I mentioned."

"The difference between these people and those who are already down on their luck is that they are on the road to down on their luck, happily stepping into danger until they find themselves completely screwed and it is too late, with no cure or treatment."

Qin Xia placed the teacup on the table: "These are demons, evil creatures in the subspace. They just want to deceive you and make a profit."

Qin Xia picked up the teacup at the bottom and placed it on the table: "These are people who have been unlucky, such as your best friend, who was killed by flesh and blood mutation in the 15th Legion."

Finally, Qin Xia picked up the cup in the middle: "This is the situation of those who have not yet reached the end of their rope. This is also the situation of your Primarch Magnus. He holds naive illusions and thinks that he has discovered something incredible. The only thing he knows about the warp is that he doesn't know the warp yet. He has nothing but courage and falls into the trap and cannot extricate himself."

"It's like a person who first started using radioactive cosmetics and found that he felt more energetic and his skin was more radiant, but he didn't realize that this was just a sign before his body was completely destroyed by the radioactive elements. Every sign that he now thinks is a good change is a sign that he will be doomed in the future."

After hearing this, Avida nodded in agreement. He also realized it.

The only difference between Magnus and those who have already been unlucky in the Legion is that Magnus has not been unlucky yet.

The reason why there was no bad luck was because those demons wanted to play the long game and catch the big fish.

"So what should I do?" Avida asked.

This is what confused him the most.

It is not difficult to explain the truth after everyone has reached a common understanding. What is difficult is what an individual member of the 15th Legion should do next.

"You have seen the devil, and I have also caught that devil." Qin Xia said slowly, "When the time comes, I hope you can stand up and accuse Magnus. Your testimony plus the evidence I have caught will be enough to make Magnus get the punishment he deserves."

"Will the 15th Legion be excommunicated by the Empire?" Arvida asked immediately. He was afraid that if he stood up and accused the legion and the primarch of their actions, the 15th Legion would be destroyed by the Empire.

Qin Xia immediately responded: "If people like you can unite and accuse Magnus and the Legion of some of their actions, the Fifteenth Legion will still be preserved. This is a political necessity."

Arvida lowered his head. The only way he could think of to unite others was to find those who had begun to mutate, or those who were skeptical of the Legion's actions... It wasn't that there were no people in the Legion who opposed Magnus, but there were too few.

"I understand your feelings. You don't want the legion to be destroyed."

Qin Xia continued.

He took a deep breath and spoke his reminder to Avida in a sighing voice.

"But the 15th Legion has already stepped on the accelerator on the road to destruction."

(End of this chapter)