Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Ash leaned back against the railing.

"Think about the empire decades ago. People under the hive ate corpse starch, nobles treated commoners as expendable resources, planetary distress calls might not arrive for a hundred years, warp travel was lost at any time, and you would go out to fight a war and come back to find your wife had died of old age."

"At that time, an ordinary person lives by faith."

Ash looked at the jubilant crowd in the distance.

"When people can't find hope in reality, they push hope into places they can't see."

"If the emperor of that era suddenly stood up from his throne, it wouldn't be surprising if the whole country went mad, or even if people in ten star sectors collectively cried until they went into shock."

Qianxian nodded thoughtfully.

Ash raised her hand and pointed downwards.

"But look at what's happening now."

"The woman holding the child has a house, her husband has a job, and her child can go to school."

"The young man next to me just returned from a trip to another planet last month."

"Further to the left, those new human students are discussing whether they should take a make-up exam after the three-day holiday."

"From the time they were old enough to understand, their generation had always had open air routes, sufficient supplies, and combat formations that kept the enemy outside the planet."

Ash's lips curled into a slightly wicked smile.

"They certainly respect the emperor. But the most direct happiness in their lives comes from their master."

Qianxian suddenly realized.

"I see."

She looked down and observed the crowd again, this time for a long time, and then a question popped into her head.

"What if the emperor seizes power from his master?"

A kind of excitement, anticipating disaster, had already appeared in Qianxian's eyes.

"Think about it, the Emperor is the master of the human empire. The master now controls so many things in the Seal Holder's Palace, including the army, administration, industry, and the foundational sequence."

"If the Emperor returns and says: 'Lossen, hand over the power.'"

Qianxian clapped her hands together, becoming happier and happier as she talked.

"The master said no."

"The emperor said I am the true emperor."

"My master said that without me, you would be the Corpse King."

"Then Guilliman was caught in the middle, Leon drew his sword, the Imperial Guard and the Battle Orders confronted each other, Mars blocked the supply lines, the Five Hundred Worlds declared martial law, and millions of warships in the sky above Terra were aiming at each other."

Qianxian covered her burning cheeks with both hands, her body twisting like a water snake soaked in honey, completely immersed in an almost suffocating aesthetic frenzy.

"Wow, just thinking about this causal chain... I feel so wonderful it's almost melting me..."

Ash raised her hand and poked her forehead again.

This time, Ash even used a tiny bit of force field, directly slamming Qianxian to the ground, where she crouched down, burying her face in her hands and whimpering.

"Do you think the Emperor is stupid? What the Master holds now is no longer an official position in the traditional sense. Do you really think that if you cross the words 'seal holder' off the document, these things will automatically change hands?"

Qianxian thought about it seriously for a moment.

"It seems not."

"of course not."

Ash looked at her.

"If the emperor were to truly contend for power with his master, the outcome would not even qualify as a civil war."

"The empire will be paralyzed first, and only then will we be able to discuss whether or not war will break out."

She paused for a moment.

"Besides, why would an emperor fight for it?"

"He finally stood up, and now there's someone who has governed the empire even better than during his Great Expedition, solved the pressure on the network, mended the Great Rift, destroyed the Black Legion, and even repaired his original physical body."

Ash scoffed.

"If it were you, would the first thing you do be to fire this person and then approve 10,000 sector food reports every day?"

Qianxian's smile vanished instantly.

"Then I'd rather stay lying here... and let my master keep going until the universe is destroyed."

"So that's what the emperor thought too."

Qianxian remained silent for a few seconds.

Then he revealed an expression that made it clear he was up to no good.

"But I still really want to see them fight."

Ash glanced at her sideways.

"why?"

Qianxian said matter-of-factly, "One is a god that humans have believed in for ten thousand years, and the other is the dual-realm supreme god who now truly rules the empire."

"If a power struggle breaks out, millions of worlds will simultaneously be plunged into loyalty conflicts, fathers and sons will turn against each other, brothers will draw their swords, faiths will collapse, and love will be shattered..."

She took a deep breath, and her cheeks even flushed slightly.

"How much despair, betrayal, anger, desire, and pain must that have involved?"

Qianxian cupped her face in her hands.

"Just thinking about it is so romantic."

Ash stared at her silently for a few seconds.

"You really should be skinned alive by the Lord of Pleasure."

Qianxian instantly regained consciousness.

"Don't mention that name! It's unlucky!"

She subconsciously looked around.

"I belong to the master now."

Ash couldn't find a way to refute it.

The two of them were originally Slaanesh.

Loyalty, shame, and ethics all need to be reinterpreted when applied to them.

At least Ash likes to present herself in a respectable way.

Qianxian didn't even bother with packaging.

She can be moved to tears by a tragedy one second, and the next second she'll start seriously analyzing whether such a tragedy would be even more delicious if it were magnified a billion times.

Qianxian lay there for a while, then suddenly pointed to the square.

Ash.

"Ok?"

"That bishop over there has fainted again; his emotions are really pure."

Qianxian's eyes began to light up.

"Should we go down and talk to him? I have a way to elevate his religious ecstasy to three levels, just by gently touching a nerve..."

"The master won't allow it..."

"This won't do, that won't do, being a compliance expert is so boring."

Qianxian regretfully rested her chin on her hand again, and after a while, asked again.

"Can we go get some fried meat patties?"

Ash glanced at her.

"You're a great demon, you need to eat?"

Qianxian spoke with righteous indignation.

"There are so many people queuing up below."

"I wonder why a fried meat patty would still be so appealing when the emperor returns."

Ash stared at her for a moment, then turned around without a word, and, wearing 10-centimeter-high stilettos, walked straight toward the spiraling stone steps inside the clock tower.

Qianxian was stunned for a moment.

"Where are you going?"

"Buy fried meat patties."

Qianxian immediately laughed like a child, lifted her skirt, and chased after him.

"Wait for me! I want double the hot sauce!!"

Two Slaanesh demons, powerful enough to destroy the mortal world, ran down from the top of the tower in their high heels.

…………

Two months later, in Holy Terra.

A document issued by the Seal Keeper's Office once again shook the entire galaxy.

The drafter of this codified document was Robert Guilliman, the Regent of the Empire.

The last page of the document has two marks side by side.

The first one is the private seal of a human emperor that has not appeared in any official imperial decree for over ten thousand years.

The second one is the dark gold seal of the Seal Keeper's Mansion.

After the imperial seal was affixed, Guilliman personally conducted a final text check before pushing the document in front of Lawson.

"The wording and legal principles are completely closed, with no loopholes."