How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 317 Let's go back in time a little

Baal Prime, astropathic relay station.

The astropathic message that crossed the Great Rift and finally arrived at the Macragge Star Language Relay Station has not yet been sent, but the preparations for the ceremony are ready. For Kaelia, this is undoubtedly a staged success worth celebrating: this is the first practical task she has clearly received from Fujimaru Ritsuka after she boarded the Storm's Edge. Even if the task itself is not too difficult, Kaelia only needs to convey the rules and procedures of the relevant ceremony, and then wait as a mascot pendant for the astropaths in the relay station to complete it by themselves - but at least, she finally did something useful, didn't she?
Of course, as an underage new employee who had been forced to work for Chaldea for less than a year, not everyone agreed with Fujimaru Ritsuka's decision to "let Kaelia try to handle this simple task by herself", no matter how simple the task was in essence. At least in the eyes of Inquisitor Hastings, Kaelia's current state was not a "qualified Inquisitor Acolyte", but a preschooler (in terms of the knowledge he needed to master as an Acolyte). He had obviously followed by her with the mentality of supervising Kaelia's every move during this mission, but unfortunately, not long after, Fujimaru Ritsuka found him some other more important jobs on the Shadow Hammer than babysitting.

Not to mention Hastings, who still has to run around in the affairs of the Inquisition today, some unexpected and urgent accidents have obviously happened to Joscelius, the senior think tank representative of the Blood Angels. He originally came to observe and learn this ceremony, which may have great strategic significance, on behalf of the Chapter, and to understand all the details and principles as much as possible in preparation for the Chapter's think tank department to replicate it. In theory, he should have been there throughout the whole process, but in fact, he only showed up on the first day of contact, applied to copy the scroll that Caelia recorded the steps of the ceremony, and then disappeared - until all preparations were completed and the ceremony was about to begin, he reappeared in the crowd.

Kaelia didn't know why these things happened, but she hadn't realized yet that in other situations, "the person who was carrying out the mission together suddenly disappeared" would also be a very important issue, so these things didn't affect her happiness in completing the mission. Fujimaru Ritsuka, who sat in the main seat with the highest standard of welcoming ceremony on this day, was essentially the initiator of the above problems, so she would not emphasize "these things are worth noting" to spoil the mood.

The main goal today was to send a simple astropathic message across the Great Rift, and the huge choir of more than 500 astropaths present was prepared for this purpose. Such a large number of people occupied an entire large hall under the spire, and the frustrating thing was that the psychic compound phenomenon that could really transmit a astropathic message to the other side of the Great Rift was not stacked up by the number of people - the number of people was only to spread the damage during the ritual and prevent the participants from being burned to ashes by the excessive amount of Emperor's psychic energy.

Although judging from the expressions on the faces of these temporary recruits, they didn't seem to care much about this. However, the Black Ship Alliance could not always come to replenish astropaths for an imperial node that was important politically, economically and militarily, and the busy relay station on Baal had to rely on these diligent gears to continue to operate.

"Come to me, Kaelia." Standing at the leading position of the ceremony, Fujimaru Ritsuka extended his hand to his "apprentice". "Inquisitor Hastings said that your meditation course has been completed. So I think it's time for you to experience the feeling of actively guiding a large spell."

Under his helmet, Joscelius showed a toothache-like expression, but he said nothing. Most of the astropaths who heard this were very respectful, but they couldn't help but have some complaints in their hearts: asking an immature psychic who has just learned how to meditate to try to channel a large spell right away is no different from asking him to commit suicide.

But the affairs between the Imperial Saints were not something that ordinary astropaths could interfere with. The big light bulb with the Emperor's psychic energy inside said to the small light bulb, "Today I want to bring you to shine for the Empire. What does it have to do with them, who have applied some light-absorbing paint and relied on the reflection of the Emperor's psychic energy to barely light up a little firefly in the dark?"

Kaelia then took the lead in the ceremony without anyone stopping her, and at Fujimaru Ritsuka's request, she also held the Sky Eagle Scepter. She was indeed a little nervous, but more out of excitement. Unlike other onlookers, Kaelia actually knew what risks she might face:
For ordinary psykers, the primary risk of trying to call upon large amounts of psychic energy in large-scale rituals comes from the chaos in the Warp. They must first be able to skillfully protect or hide their souls in the Warp that become bright and dazzling due to the stimulation of psychic energy. Only then can they basically ensure that while casting spells, they can prevent Warp creatures from snatching their souls and not blow themselves up into a Warp rift connecting the two sides of the Curtain. For rare psykers like Kaylia who have been brought under the complete control of the Emperor, the only "Warp creature" she needs to worry about in this process is the Emperor - not that this is absolutely safe, the more than 500 astropaths standing below can testify to this issue, but in comparison, compared with other psykers, the risk Kaylia needs to take is very small.

But "very small" does not mean "nothing". Before starting the ceremony, Fujimaru Ritsuka still reminded her repeatedly, not feeling very reassured, that she must maintain a good meditative state, must protect her self-awareness, and must not fall into the complex and terrifying information flow of the subspace. The ceremony itself was guided by Fujimaru Ritsuka and the transcendental astropaths at the relay station. If Kaylia felt that she could not hold on, she could choose to evacuate midway. There was no need for her to risk her life for such a "feeling of the atmosphere".

This statement aroused Caelia's rebellious psychology, and the young person, who was still ignorant of the world, was determined to stand the whole scene. Although she had successfully channeled the Emperor's psychic spells unconsciously during her time in Parmenio, Caelia had not yet realized why she had no memory or impression of these things, whether it was purifying water sources, expelling Nurgle demons or war engines. In the end, it was others who told her that she had done such a thing.

When the ceremony began, and the "song" of the Astropathic Choir and the harmonious resonance of psychic energy vibrated in the air, Caelia took the initiative to unlock the magic seal that separated the psychic resonance between herself and the Emperor according to the method taught to her by Asclepius. Just like when she had just awakened her abilities on Parmenio, another wonderful world slowly unfolded in her perception like a whisper:

A sense beyond the dimensions of form, sound, color, taste, and touch revealed a more magnificent perspective to her. She "saw" how the ripples of energy operated in the air with the singing of the choir, and she "heard" the thoughts of everyone around her except Fujimaru Ritsuka, and "smelled" their excited emotions. The knowledge that did not belong to her guided her behavior like an instinct. When Kaylia had just begun to explore but had not yet realized it, the answer had already been written in her mind and told her what to do at this time.

This kind of detached perspective and sense of control that is almost omnipotent often make people fall into a false desire for power. Many psychics with excellent qualifications often step by step onto a path of no return because of this. But Kaylia is humble enough. Even before she received orthodox education, she can clearly feel that these powers do not belong to her, but another great being with superb skills in the distant void is trying to use her hand to act. In the past, she was not obsessed with this, and today she is only humble. In her heart, she silently thanked the Emperor who worked hard for mankind and gave her these abilities and knowledge that did not belong to her. Then, according to Fujimaru Ritsuka's instructions, she focused her attention on the Sky Eagle Scepter.

Due to the nature of astropathic language, the steps for coding, encryption and protection in this ceremony were very brief. Everyone knew that the focus of this ceremony was not on these steps. Five minutes after the ceremony began, Kaylia began to notice that Fujimaru Ritsuka was increasing the psychic output in the leading position, preparing to lead all the astropaths present to gradually break away from their physical consciousness, collectively pass through the Great Rift, and complete a psychic focus on the Macragge astropathic relay station. This is certainly a noteworthy stage, so Kaylia also let her consciousness perch on it, ready to experience the perspective of the astropaths embracing the void. For Kaylia, getting close to the psychic energy guided by Fujimaru Ritsuka on the Skyhawk Scepter is like getting close to a warm stove in winter, or soaking in the comfortable hot water in the bathtub. But she soon realized that this was not a relaxing and pleasant experience for everyone. Even though, apart from herself, the only people who were clinging to this gathered psychic energy were a few transcendental astropaths who led the choir, Kellya could still easily read the painful and tenacious background in their souls.

Before she realized what this meant, her perspective had been rapidly raised as the ceremony progressed. For a moment, she seemed to be looking down at herself and Fujimaru Ritsuka holding the Skyhawk Scepter together in the hall of the relay station, but in the blink of an eye, Baal's three-star system almost became a small dot in her perspective. Everything happened very quickly, but the miraculous thing was that Kaelia did not lose any information in this "very fast" process that almost exceeded the limit of human reaction: from the patches and cracks on the roof of the Star Language Relay Station caused by repeated repairs, to the many ships that were either docked or traveling in the airport, and even the twinkling of the stars under the fleet and the devout prayers of a loyal priest in front of the shrine, all of these things were noticed by Kaelia in detail.

If things ended there, this might be classified as a "tiring but interesting enough" experience - but it didn't end there. Kaylia's perspective continued to rise as the ritual progressed. Even if she didn't rely solely on her so-called "qualifications" to use psychic powers, this kind of meticulous perspective, once expanded to a size larger than a galaxy, would still be a huge burden on the will of a single human being.

What's more, in this galaxy, the things that one inevitably sees from this perspective are often not very pleasing to the eye.

Kellya "saw" the Imperial merchant ships being looted by Chaos warbands, "saw" the Imperial world struggling to survive under the ravages of the green-skinned aliens, "saw" the Astra Militarum troops using themselves as shields to stop the advance of the Hive Fleet and launching desperate attacks, "saw" the weak civilians who were trapped under the rubble of the war ruins with nowhere to go and could only wait to die. She "saw" countless people, countless disasters, countless deaths in the same moment, and these people who died in the disasters all called out the same name in their hearts:
"Emperor".

Those metaphysical voices seemed to have gathered into a tsunami that towered into the sky, crashing down on Kaylia. They also seemed to have turned into thousands of tiny needles that kept piercing into the depths of her soul, wanting to tear her apart. At this moment, Kaylia remembered the instructions given by Fujimaru Ritsuka before the ceremony began, and she once again gathered and strengthened her cognition of "herself" during meditation to prevent her soul from being torn apart by this uninterrupted wave. She instinctively made her consciousness cling tightly to Fujimaru Ritsuka's side. The joy caused by the extraordinary experience of psychic energy had disappeared, and she only hoped that the ceremony would end quickly.

Under the latter's protection, the cries to the Emperor did seem to have lessened, but this did not seem to be a perfect solution to the current situation. After the painful cries mixed with hatred faded, the vast void itself revealed its true appearance in Kaylia's consciousness. It has always been there, never absent, but it is just too empty and too vast. Anyone who realizes that the vastness of the void exceeds human reason will naturally feel unprecedented insignificance and loneliness - although Kaylia was relatively calm because she knew that at least this time she was not facing it alone, she was indeed waiting for the end of the ceremony in agony.

In a few seconds, her vision crossed the huge rift that hid the tragic scene under the colorful lights - she couldn't see this part clearly, and didn't know whether it was good or bad - and arrived at the other half of the Ultramarine that was separated by the warp crack that spanned the galaxy. She didn't know how it was done, but Macragge, which was floating in the air like a blue-green gem, was like an iron bead attracted by a magnet, and in the blink of an eye, it came to her eyes.

And as she tried to see this sacred world she had never been to but wanted to go to, a feeling she couldn't quite understand came over her. This planet was blessed. She realized it in an instant. But it was also cursed - it would be struck again in the near future, but Macragge would survive, she always would -

A series of violent hallucinations attacked Kaylia's mind at this moment. She could feel that she saw something very detailed, but she failed to remember anything. Those fleeting omens slipped through her fingers like flowing water. When her consciousness returned again, she found herself kneeling on the ground of the Baal Star Language Relay Station, leaning over and barely supporting herself with her hands, retching violently.

"I don't mean to be bad, but you are a little too strong this time." The ceremony seemed to have ended. Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice was a little tired, but still very steady, as if this was not a challenge worth mentioning to her. "I told you before the start, if you feel you can't hold on, just quit immediately. The view of overlooking the Milky Way is a bit beyond your current level."

After the remaining physiological reaction in Kaelia faded away, she barely grasped the hand that Fujimaru Ritsuka extended to her and climbed up from the ground again. The ceremony was over, and the weak but excited hymns echoed in everyone's ears. There were no deaths among the astropaths gathered in the hall, but most of them were in a state of physical depression, not much better than Kaelia. She was not embarrassed in this environment, but she still noticed the clock on the side in a trance: five hours and thirty-seven minutes had passed since the ceremony began.

In Kaelia's opinion, the ritual lasted only a dozen minutes. But she didn't need to think too much about psychic matters. It was common for the ritual itself to disrupt the practitioner's sense of time, so Kaelia didn't dwell on it too much. She just straightened her breathing again, and then asked her theoretical mentor, the hostess of Chaldea, "What did I see during the ritual?"

"I don't know how your senses process these issues. It seems that everyone is different in this regard." Fujimaru Ritsuka has no habit of hiding knowledge. "I can't tell you exactly what you saw during the ceremony. I can only tell you that from the beginning of the step of focusing psychic energy, we are observing the entire empire from the perspective of the Emperor."

(End of this chapter)