Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The luster of the wings changed from dazzling white gold to a dull pale yellow.

Her flight altitude is decreasing.

The tiny amount of energy that the emperor had infused was nearly exhausted after nearly four hours of continuous release.

Vera's consciousness gradually withdrew from that strange "lighthouse state".

She began to feel her body getting tired.

It was as if her soul had been burned like a lamp wick for four hours. Although the Emperor's power protected the wick itself from destruction, the prolonged high-load conduction brought her spirit to the brink of collapse.

The golden wings vanished.

Vera's body lost all supernatural support.

She fell straight down from a height of 15 meters.

Lawson's metal wings folded abruptly, and he swooped down at freefall speed.

He caught Vera two seconds before she hit the ground.

The living metal automatically formed a soft, cushioned layer on the inside of his arm, preventing the hard terracotta armor from causing secondary damage to Vera.

Vera fell into a coma.

Her face was as pale as paper, but there was a slight smile on her lips.

In her last moments before losing consciousness, she heard the thunderous shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" from the crowd.

Lawson landed smoothly.

The metal wings slowly retracted, liquefying back into a living metal coating that returned to the surface of the armor.

Katarina rushed forward and took Vera from her.

The red-haired nun's single eye was filled with tears; this was the first time Lawson had ever seen her cry.

Will she be alright?

"It's just psychic exhaustion," Lawson said. "Let her sleep."

During the four hours that Vera purified the three hives, all the footage was faithfully recorded by the remaining surveillance equipment throughout the hives and by 8 non-combatant assassins.

At Lawson's behest, the tech team's assassins edited these images into a 20-minute holographic documentary.

The image quality varies greatly, with some images coming from high-definition surveillance cameras, some from the naked eye of non-combatants, and even some from shaky footage taken by civilians using primitive communication devices.

But it is precisely this raw, unadorned authenticity that gives it its overwhelming power to move the viewer.

The holographic documentary was played continuously for 24 hours through the restored emergency broadcast system and the giant holographic projection screen in the Spire area, looping across all three Nests.

From the nobles of the Spire district to the scavengers in the depths, everyone witnessed that scene:

A saint with golden wings and a giant with silver wings soar side by side beneath the sky of the Nest City.

The saint's radiance dispelled the curse, and the giant guided her to every corner in need of salvation.

The impact of this image is nuclear-level.

For the common people at the bottom of the empire, those who lived their entire lives in darkness, ate corpse starch, and were regarded as expendable by the nobles, this was not a holographic documentary.

This is a miracle they witnessed with their own eyes.

They personally experienced the pain of the curse, and also the warmth of being healed by the holy light.

The emperor sent angels and saints.

This level of faith-based cohesion surpasses the effects that any political propaganda, military victory, or material reward can achieve.

It directly touches upon the deepest instincts of the human soul: reverence for the divine and gratitude for being saved.

The 120 billion people of the three nest cities became Lawson's most solid base after that day.

It wasn't because he had many assassins or powered armor, but because he brought a saint.

In the political context of the empire, this means one thing.

He possessed something more powerful than any military force: legitimacy.

The day after the miracle occurred.

Lawson began to take action.

The list that Vespera gave him—more than 70% of the hive nobles, high-ranking members of the three major guilds, senior judges of the Ministry of Justice, and mid-to-high-ranking officers of the PDF—had now become a butcher's knife aimed at the entire planet's power structure.

Lawson did not arrest people one by one.

He did something even more efficient and terrifying.

He convened an "emergency security meeting" in the Governor's Palace hall.

Attendees included: noble representatives from the three hive cities, high-ranking officials from the three major guilds, all senior judges from the Ministry of Justice, and all officers of the rank of lieutenant general and above from the PDF. The total number exceeded 400.

They are a tiny group of people at the very top of the power pyramid on this planet.

Lawson stood on the highest platform in the hall.

The Tiger King armor gleamed with a cold metallic sheen under the fluorescent lights.

Behind him stood Katarina and the nun squad (Vera was absent due to being in a coma), as well as 12 fully armed White Tiger armors.

He pressed the button on the holographic projector.

Vespera's list appeared in huge three-dimensional text in the hall.

Name, position, type of corruption, chain of evidence—each item is supported by cross-validation data from the Ministry of Justice database.

280 out of 400 people saw their names on the list.

The air in the hall froze.

Some people were deathly pale.

Some people reached for the concealed weapons at their waists.

Some people tried to move towards the exit, only to find that each exit in the hall was guarded by two expressionless platoon-level assassins.

Lawson's voice was like the clanging of metal: "Those on the list, stand up."

No one moved.

Lawson raised the volume of his mask speaker by 20%. This time it was an ultimatum.

"I'll say it again. People on the list, stand up. You have three seconds. If you're still sitting after three seconds, I'll assume you've chosen to resist. And the price of resistance..."

He glanced at Katarina.

The red-haired nun raised her explosive gun and aimed it at the center of the hall.

"It means it will be carried out on the spot."

Three seconds later.

About 230 people on the list stood up one after another.

They were fearful, angry, and resentful.

But faced with 12 White Tiger Armors and a nun captain who was a living saint, no one dared to gamble.

About 50 people remained standing.

Ten of them are truly innocent; they are on the list but the evidence against them is not conclusive enough, and they believe they have been wronged.

The other 40 people made a move.

The vice president of Nest City No. 2 suddenly overturned the table in front of him and pulled out a miniature thermoplastic pistol from his sleeve.

This weapon was small enough to be concealed in a sleeve, yet powerful enough to vaporize a person's head at close range. He aimed and fired at the nearest White Tiger Armor.

The molten beam struck the White Tiger Armor's breastplate.

The living metal coating instantly densifies at the contact point, dispersing and absorbing the thermal energy, leaving not even a dent.

Baihu Jiajia raised his hand three times and fired a burst of bullets from his pistol.

The vice president's upper body was shattered into a bloody mist by the explosion of the 0.75 caliber reactive bomb.

Meanwhile, at least seven incidents of resistance broke out throughout the hall.

A military industry director detonated a miniature plasma grenade hidden under his seat.

A Justice Department judge attempted to launch a psychological attack on Lawson using a psionic trinket.

Three PDF officers simultaneously drew their sabers and rushed toward the nearest exit.

These acts of resistance were like kindergarten squabbling in front of Baihujia.

Jia Wu used his power shield to knock the plasma grenade away. The grenade exploded in mid-air, and the shockwave was blocked by the suicide soldiers' giant shields, so it did not affect any innocent people present.

The judge's psionic attack hit Lawson like a bubble hitting a steel wall, failing to even trigger an alarm in the swarm's mind.

Katarina stepped forward, her chainsaw cleaving the judge's head in two from top to bottom, accompanied by the nun's signature roar: "Your Majesty the Emperor!"

The three officers were shot down by laser guns fired by the assassins at the door after they had run less than five steps.

The entire rebellion, from its inception to its complete suppression, took less than eight seconds.

Those who remained in the hall, whether guilty or innocent, all realized one fact:

This person possesses absolute violence and uses it without hesitation.

Lawson did not give any speech after that. He simply issued an instruction:

"Arbitrator. Take away everyone on the list. Interrogate them one by one. The guilty shall be handed over to the nuns for execution. The innocent shall be released on the spot."

Grand Marshal Thorne of the Ministry of Justice immediately stood up.

Over the next 72 hours, Thorne will demonstrate the astonishing efficiency of a top imperial bureaucrat in ensuring he doesn't get on the list.

The cleaning has begun.

All three nests are operating in sync.

Arbitrators' riot armored vehicles, "escorted" by suicide squads, traversed every street and alley of the Spire district and Central Nest.

The gates of the mansions of the noble families named on the list were blown open by explosive guns, and their private guards were disarmed by assassins within three seconds.

The most dramatic moment of the entire process takes place in the Spire district of Hive City 1: the residence of Ulrik von Heil, the high priest of the Corpse Guild.