However, just when Erebas was about to start thinking about what kind of holy words he would tell his subordinates later, the appearances of those messengers of the gods who looked wrong flashed through the mind of the Dark Apostle again like lightning, causing this scum who was already half a frightened bird to involuntarily reach for another switch - the gods are moody, what if... what if... what if the test given to him by the gods is much more difficult than he imagined?
"boom!!!!"
Just as the Dark Apostle was brainstorming, a shockwave reached Erebas, and the terrifying sound of a door being blown open also reached his ears, followed by the continuous sound of Astartes power armor boots hitting the metal ground. Without looking anymore, Erebas already knew that something he thought was impossible had actually happened, and he could no longer trust anyone in this world. If he wanted to survive, his only choice was...
“Sizzle, sizzle—”
However, the dark apostle realized this a little too late. When he pulled down the switch that could seal the secret room with the thick adamantine door and open another secret passage, the sound of metal being burned echoed clearly in the secret room. Erebus, who was already captured by fear, looked in the direction of the sound and found that a big hole had been cut in the thick wall in that direction. A gray knight was holding a war blade and striding towards him from the hole in the burned wall.
“——You, you are…”
"I am the messenger who brought you the judgment. Although I really want to execute you right here, there are too many judgments waiting for you. Therefore, I regret that you can still stay alive for a moment."
Diego reached out his hand and grabbed Erebus' body, lifting him up like a chicken. Knowing that his end was imminent, Erebus screamed and tried to escape from the Grey Knights' Grand Master. Erebus screamed and prayed to his gods for strength, but...
Only silence remains.
Only silence remains.
35. Erebus must die! - The end of Erebus
Trance, trance...
Thousands of nothingness lingered in my mind, thousands of words were spoken in my ears, countless images were shattered in front of my eyes, and the incomplete memory made it impossible for me to recall everything about myself...
who am I?
Where am I?
what am i doing?
Am I still alive? Wait? What does it mean to be alive? Why am I even thinking about this?
Gods...ah, what are gods? Can they help me? Why do I need the help of gods? I begged so much! Gods! All gods! I...what am I thinking?
"Wake up, you big scum. Stop pretending to be dizzy. Open your eyes and face your fate."
In the increasing chaos
As thoughts continued to pour out, continuously tearing apart the body and soul of the thing called 'Erebas', the elegant and graceful voice of the Dark Lady gently tore open the curtain between reality and illusion, like a rose vine with countless poisonous thorns, easily cutting through the unpredictable energy wind of the High Heaven, accurately locking onto the soul of Erebas who was escaping from reality in an 'autistic' way in this ocean - after entangling it at lightning speed, Erebas' consciousness returned to reality with a scream that was completely impossible for a mortal to make, and successfully recalled his current situation.
He was captured! Captured by a Grey Knight! And, taken by that Grey Knight to the ruins of his own temple! And then, and then...?
Tethered to an oversized imperial double-headed eagle emblem by chains and nails inscribed with the Emperor's Word, and worse, Erebus stared blankly at the audience watching him, even forgetting the excruciating pain in his body for a moment - Gods above! What did he see?
He saw the Grey Knights coexisting peacefully with the messengers of the Four Gods, he saw the Astartes who stayed in the rotten empire arm in arm with the warriors under the command of the Great Predator, he saw the Eldar aliens whispering with their absolute enemy, the Slaanesh Daemon, he saw that there were even Tau watching him! - Wait! The Blood Warrior with one arm exposed over there looked slightly different from what he remembered, but wasn't that Kahn? How did he find the world he was in? And who was the green-robed warrior standing next to him holding a power long sword that the White Scarred Astartes liked to use the most? Why did he feel an indescribable sense of oppression from him!
"You...what are you going to do? Kill me if you want to, don't...don't waste time - my death will not be in vain, the Four Noble Paths will avenge me! You will all be destroyed and eliminated at the last moment!"
Although he was already flustered by what he had witnessed, Erebus still mustered up his little courage and started shouting loudly - however, before the Dark Apostle could finish his harsh words, the descended body of the Lich Zhang swung the power sword on his neck, causing this traitor among traitors to swallow all the subsequent words.
"The last moment? You should first consider how you are going to survive the soul trial I am about to give you."
Amidst a bell-like laughter, a sword flew up from the Dark Lady's incarnation and pierced into Erebus' heart, causing the Dark Apostle to scream again, a scream that even Slaanesh might have praised.
“Gah——!”
The extreme pain stirred the power of the High Heaven to an extreme degree. Driven by the supernatural force, Erebas suddenly felt that his soul had once again left his body and floated towards a small house. On the door of the house, the empire's double-headed eagle logo was extremely eye-catching.
“No…No! My soul doesn’t want to go there!!! Messenger of Paradise! Why are you doing this to me! Do you know that you are stepping into a taboo!!”
——Having already guessed how his soul would be treated in that room according to the style of the Great Demon of Slaanesh, Erebas, who was so frightened that his soul was completely lost, howled wildly while trying desperately to concentrate his attention, trying to guide the power of the High Heaven to escape from the grasp of the Dark Lady. However, when the smell of the best incense commonly used by the Imperial Church entangled Erebas' soul, all his resistance was ineffective.
"Gah???"
The scent of incense made his eyes blurry, and the next moment, the Dark Apostle found that his soul had been firmly bound to an interrogation chair. Everything he saw was a holy relic of the state religion. The most terrifying thing was that on the table opposite the interrogation chair, there was a copy of "The Word of the Emperor"!
"Quack! Don't torture me like this! I...I beg to die, beg to die! No! Don't open that book! Don't let me read the words on it!"
As the pages of the Holy Scripture in front of him slowly turned, Erebus howled three times, thinking that he would be forced to read the words on it - but to his relief, the Holy Scripture stopped at a certain page after turning a few pages and did not move anymore.
"call......"
Feeling that he had 'escaped a disaster', Erebas just let out a long breath when he saw the words on the pages of the Holy Words opened in front of him suddenly jump. Amid the low sound of birds singing, a Tzeentch demon - the one he had seen before - walked out of the Holy Words leisurely, and suddenly brought its head with pupils burning with golden flames in front of him and just stared at him!
"Honorable Apostle of the Lord of Change, you..."
"Erebus, do you know your sin? Do you know that your actions have violated His ways?"
Golden flames continuously poured out from the mouth of the Great Demon Tzeentch, and then transformed into various runes swirling around Erebus. He had never expected that the messenger of the 'Power of Destruction' who came here would actually be the Dark Apostle who was holding him accountable. His throat was stuck and he didn't know what to say.
"You don't know, of course you don't know, you destroyed the greatest hope, you destroyed
You have caused the most interesting and huge change in the galaxy. You have caused the whole world to fall into a destined spiral! - Do you think that your sword is the will of the vast ocean? That is just what you think! "
"No... Messenger of the Supreme Eagle, please listen to my explanation..."
If Erebus felt horrified when he was held accountable just now, now all he felt was panic. Why did this messenger of the heavens actually blame him for his actions against Horus? Didn't he do this to spread the righteousness of the Supreme Heaven better in the world?
"You have never understood what tolerance is - others treated you with sincerity, but you chose to repay them with swords and lies, Erebus, you betrayed all your family members."
The golden flames leaped, and the Great Unclean One, who should perhaps be called the 'Great Clean One', also appeared in the courtroom, and his slow words were full of disappointment towards Erebas - in the sad tone of this 'Great Demon of Nurgle', Erebas's sight passed through the time curtain of the Warp, he saw his past, saw every betrayal he had made, and even saw how he 'stole' the name Erebas in the beginning!
"Messenger of the loving Father, I, I......"
Having never expected that the messenger from the Decaying Heaven would also accuse him, Erebas, feeling dizzy, hurriedly cut off his half-sentenced defense to the Great Demon of Tzeentch and tried his best to dig out words in his mind. As a result, before he could say another word, the body of the third 'Great Demon of Chaos' had already appeared in this small room.
"You have no courage at all, you don't know what glory is!!"
The roar of the bloodthirsty demon shook the entire interrogation room. The Khorne demon holding a golden sword walked out of the surging golden waves. The turbulent subspace energy behind him frantically narrated the scene of Erebas killing Angertai with despicable means. Staring at the eyes of the incarnation of anger that were overflowing with anger, Erebas lost the courage to defend himself. His upper and lower teeth - or what should be teeth - were colliding wildly, and his soul unconsciously shrank down, as if he wanted to curl up in this judgment chair.
"Ah, ah, ah - so, look at you, you keep talking about the Four Noble Paths, but you have never walked on the right path - Erebus, you have never loved God, and you have not pushed your faith to the 'extreme'. How can you be worthy of walking on the right path, how can you be worthy of calling yourself a messenger? You are just a false believer. In your eyes, the gods of the warp are just tools for you to achieve your ambitions - tell me, should someone like you suffer the most terrible punishment from God? Should you endure eternal torture?"
The last "Great Demon", the incarnation of the Dark Lady, had been leaning against the wall to "watch the show". When he felt that the script was almost ready, he twisted his waist in a very Slaanesh Great Demon posture, and walked slowly to Erebas, whose soul had been bombarded with words by the first three Chaos Great Demons and showed an unstable aura. He stretched out a hand, gently lifted the chin of his spirit, and forced this great rebel to look at him - suddenly, Erebas felt that his soul was attracted by the unfathomable thing reflected in the Dark Lady's eyes, and all his past deeds were completely transformed into a picture scroll, which was played back and forth in his mind continuously!
"I...I am pious...I...I..."
Even though his memory of being 'awakened' by this Slaanesh Daemon had clearly 'pointed out' that he was a false believer, a person who wanted to use the power of the Chaos Gods to achieve his own ambitions under the banner of the Four Right Paths, Erebas, who did not want to face 'divine punishment', decided to put up a last-ditch fight. Naturally, his words were met with the rumbling laughter of the four great demons present.
“Divine punishment!!”
The Tzeentch Daemon screamed sharply, and the sound tore at Erebus's spirit.
"God's punishment."
The Great Daemon of Nurgle spoke compassionately, and his voice shook Erebus's will.
"God's punishment."
The Great Daemon of Khorne roared angrily, and the sound destroyed Erebus's luck.
"Divine punishment? - But before that, you have to endure some punishment in reality - That's right! Let everyone present here strike you once, okay? Don't worry! The target of divine punishment is your soul. As long as your body is still alive before your soul is punished, you are not dead, and I have plenty of ways to keep you alive!"
The Dark Lady, who spoke last and summarized everything, flicked her fingers, causing the Word of the Emperor on the table to fly up and hit Erebas' face. The sacred text was imprinted on Erebas' soul without reservation. Erebas screamed loudly, but found that his consciousness had returned to reality - the position of the blood flowing from his body had not even changed. Was what he just experienced an illusion?
Of course, in an instant, Erebus's unrealistic fantasy was shattered by the voice of the Dark Lady.
"Come on, the real execution of Erebus has officially begun. Considering that Erebus's endurance has an upper limit, all units are only allowed to cut or shoot Erebus once. Sister Political Commissar, your Kahn chess piece goes first? It's best to use some Yin force! Lich Zhang, you want to use your current chess piece to cut him twice more? Sure! Just don't make any moves with your other chess pieces!"
————————————————The dividing line of subspace—
-------------------
regret.
Very sorry.
Endless regret.
When Erebus' life was finally 'mercifully' ended by Diego's holy sword, the rebel found that his soul had fallen into the gate of a magnificent palace. At the gate of the palace, the four Chaos Demons who had just judged him were 'leisurely' waiting for his arrival - the moment they saw their soul stand up, the four demons collectively laughed wildly, and then swaggered into the palace gate.
“Ah….Ah?Ah!!!”
——Seeing the actions of these great demons, and then seeing the burning double-headed eagle above the palace gate, Erebus, who felt that he understood everything, ignored the pain that seeped into his soul, dragged his steps, staggered to the gate, and chanted the words in the Emperor's Holy Record loudly - However, as soon as he opened his mouth, the turbulent wind of the warp blew him up, making the dark apostle speechless, and sent Erebus straight into something that looked like a coffin!
“Gah!!!!”
When the lid of this coffin-like thing was closed, Erebus's screams resounded throughout the golden palace - pain! Endless pain! Endless torture! The pain was hundreds of millions of times more terrible than the pain of being cut into pieces and still having a breath left! In less than a moment, the soul of this great sinner was drowned! Such pain made Erebus's soul unconsciously begin to break, but this thing used unknown means to tightly bind the soul of the dark apostle, allowing him to endure it all soberly.
"Erebus, I hereby sentence you to bear all the sins and sufferings caused by you. Feel it well. In this vast galaxy, there are billions of sorrows, billions of pains, billions of despairs caused by you. They are all coming to you."
- In the endless surge of pain, Erebas heard 'Him''s' voice, heard His voice that sentenced him to 'divine punishment'. He wanted to ask Him for forgiveness, however, all the suffering he had caused had dragged his soul into the ocean of pain - golden flames rose up, 'welding' Erebas's 'coffin' firmly to the floor of the palace gate, leaving it to be trampled by thousands of loyal souls.
Eternal torture and no redemption.
—————————————Strange dividing line————————————————————
"It has been confirmed that the captain of the Ship of the Holy Word that can completely destroy the demons is the Grey Knight Grand Master Cardo Diego? Change its identification code to a friendly force - also, try to determine the pattern of the Ship of the Holy Word appearing in the real world, we often need its support."
Robert Guilliman, the Imperial Regent, who was no longer surprised by certain things, was calmly giving orders.
36. Erebus Must Die! - Extra Chapter: What the Video Brings
Broken limbs were scattered everywhere.
The still warm blood flows slowly in the soil.
Heads piled up in the image of some deeply sacrilegious ritual.
And the tall man standing among these things, with one arm bare and tightly holding his battle axe, is the powerful existence that created this massacre.
——Khorne's chief chosen champion, the betrayer 'Karn'.
"Strange, why did I feel a little relieved just now?"
However, unlike in the past, after completing this tribute to the Blood God Khorne, the Chosen One of Khorne did not immediately rush to the next battlefield, but stood there in confusion, frowning. In the monotonous massacre just now, Kahn inexplicably felt a sense of security of unknown origin at a certain moment. At the same time, the Blood Son in his hand suddenly became excited, and easily cut off the weapon of a Blood God warrior who had fought with him for two rounds, and then cut open the power armor on his body that was obviously blessed by the Blood God with the remaining force. This change confused Kahn, and made him want to take a break involuntarily to find the source of this feeling.
"Kahn, my people have received a very interesting message, maybe you should take a look at it."
However, just as Kahn used his great willpower to suppress this thought, the voice of his partner this time - a World Eater veteran from the Great Crusade who had chopped off a small warband with his sword in the Eye of Terror - suddenly rang in his earphone, causing the Blood God champion to frown - Interesting? For the followers of the Blood God, this word should have been lost in the vast ocean of turmoil long ago!
"You'd be interested, Kahn."
As if aware of the significance of his old comrade's silence in response to his words, the World Eater veteran spoke once more.
"Row."
The betrayer thought for a few seconds, turned and walked towards the aircraft, and at the same time made up his mind that if his 'old brother' was simply playing a boring joke on him or wanted to set a trap for him, then he would not mind sacrificing his entire warband to the Blood God Khorne - a few minutes later, the Blood God champion who frightened most of the beings in the Eye of Terror stepped into the cabin of the bloody ship of his partner this time.
"Show me what you're talking about."
After striding to the bridge, Kahn didn't say much and went straight to the war gang.
The leader asked for what he mentioned. The World Eaters veteran, who knew Khârn's temper, didn't waste any words. He walked to a data board and tapped the projection button a few times. Soon, a face that Khârn could not forget even after thousands of years of bloody battles in the Eye of Khorne appeared on the screen. Although distorted, the face was still clear, and it continued to howl silently.
"Erebus, it seems that you have obtained information about him. I admit that this information has indeed aroused my interest. Where is he?"
After confirming that the Erebas on the screen was indeed Erebas, Kahn unconsciously stroked his exposed left arm with his hand, his tone extremely calm - however, everyone in the bridge could easily understand the tremendous anger surging in the calm tone of the Blood God's chief champion warrior.
"He died, and died miserably."
The World Eaters veteran who served as the warband leader pressed a few more buttons, allowing Kahn to see the subsequent fate of Erebus in front of him. When he saw on the screen that Erebus was actually "greeted" by almost all the founding groups, and there was a Slaanesh Daemon next to him who was maliciously healing Erebus's wounds to prevent him from dying so soon, Kahn almost raised his own blood son because the video was too ridiculous. However, after the moment of absurdity passed, Kahn realized that this video was real, absolutely true!
"So, this is why you're so excited, Bloodson? So, so!"
He stared at the screen as a certain Khorne warrior walked out of the crowd with his left arm exposed and holding a battle axe. Although his appearance was completely different from his own, he could feel the bellicosity and bloodthirstiness of the warrior even through the screen. He chopped the battle axe heavily on Erebus' chest, causing the disgusting creature to bleed everywhere. Kahn suddenly understood something in his heart and burst into laughter. The laughter that echoed in the bridge lasted for about a minute. The Chief Champion of the Blood God, who had finally controlled his emotions, reached out and patted the leader of the World Eaters wargang standing next to him. The tone of voice was one that Kahn had not used for God knows how long, a tone that expressed appreciation for someone.
"Not bad, not bad! Very good, brother!"
"Kahn, are you satisfied with what I showed you?"
The Blood God Champion's unexpected gesture of goodwill made the old soldier's heart tremble. He couldn't help but worry whether Kahn was going to do something big - Kahn actually smiled so happily, and greeted him as if he were a brother? This was not his style at all!
But...he soon discovered that his worries were completely unnecessary.
"I am very pleased with this news, brother. So, after this battle, except for the necessary heads, all the spoils will belong to you. How about that?"
"??Kahn?"
Hearing that Kahn not only showed his goodwill to him, but also offered to share a lot of benefits from the spoils he would get in the next battle, the World Eater veteran was even more stunned - he knew that Kahn would not lie, and the Blood God's chief champion always used his battle axe to get what he wanted. However, he only showed him the video of Erebus's death. Given Kahn's personality, while he was satisfied with Erebus's death, he should also regret that he could not personally chop Erebus with an axe. Why did it seem that Kahn did not have such regrets now?
"Don't be surprised. I'm in a very good mood now. Let's go! Let's continue to offer gifts to the Blood God - skull to skull throne, blood to the Blood God!"
——————————————Word Bearers Station————————————————————————
"Erebus is dead!"
"How did you die?"
"He died miserably. It seemed that he wanted to transform a very special planet into a world dedicated to the Four Righteous Paths, but he was killed on that planet!"
“Is this video real?”
"Incredible, incredible, how did these servants of the false emperor sneak into the Eye of Terror without being discovered by us - but this video is indeed real!"
"These Corpse King dogs must have already joined at least one righteous path, otherwise it is hard to explain why they completely ignored the actions of the Elysian Heaven messenger - wait, is there a greyhound of the Throne Corpse in there?"
".....Strange, why didn't the Greyhound of the Throne Corpse fight with the messenger of the Supreme God? Could it be that this Greyhound has also embarked on the right path? But it doesn't make sense! This kind of thing has never happened before!"
