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

Chapter 338: Information gap is fatal, both for the cultists and for Chaldea
It is worth noting that, although the issue of the state religion had to be resolved, it was only a secondary task for Chaldea. For Fujimaru Ritsuka, she had other important and urgent matters that came before these accidents that did not cause any actual damage, so she was not the one who took over and dealt with this matter.

After all, whether it is the case investigation team composed of a Lord Inquisitor and half of the Grey Knights Brotherhood, or the Iron Hands who came in a battle barge to support the Second Astronomical Torch project, or introducing Debbie, a real-time full-map hacker, to the Dark Angels on the Lion's Mane who are looking for Dragon Forest Star, they are obviously more valuable in communication than a group of followers of the state religion who have nominally lost their boss.

So, 36 hours later, when Mills finally received the news of the "Summon from Chaldea" that he had been waiting for, he immediately realized that things did not develop as he expected:
First of all, the person who was going to talk to him in the Baal Cathedral was obviously not Fujimaru Ritsuka himself, because the standards for the various preparations required to "welcome the saint" had not been passed on to this still simple church along with the news. And - with the saint's worth of money, if she wanted to meet Mills, an ordinary and unknown Anglican priest, she should have someone bring Mills to her directly, no matter what, there was no reason for her to come in person.

Secondly, the wording of the notice itself was also very harsh. Although all the followers who had followed Archbishop Trolipo were now guilty of the crime, and their low status meant that others did not need to be friendly to them, the harsh words used in the notice still seemed too harsh, and even revealed a warning. The clergy of the state church were all educated without exception, and they naturally had to be familiar with grammar in addition to scriptures. As a supporter of Slaanesh, Mills was naturally an expert in this regard, so he was able to appreciate the various subtle meanings in it.

Unfortunately, although he realized that "some problems exist", he did not understand why things had come to this point - the asymmetry in intelligence was fatal, and he had not yet discovered that he had been making inferences based on a wrong premise from the beginning, so the whole process of the matter had nothing to do with his predictions.

Just as Fujimaru Ritsuka confessed to the counterintuitive fact not long ago: if Chaos wants to interfere with her, it would be easier to do it in the real universe than in the warp; similarly, it would be easier for a cultist who has not received too many blessings and looks not much different from a pious citizen of the Empire to get in front of her than a powerful wizard or demon. If there is really a god in the warp who is leading this matter, his strategy is correct, but he ignores one point: although Mills in the Empire is so powerful that he can establish a heretical sect that worships the Lord of Pleasure within the state religion, this "power" is still within the scope of mortals.

In other words, he was miserable and had no idea what he had provoked or what he had to face.

But in this unreasonable universe, there is also a widely accepted theory: ignorance is bliss. So when Debit Zem Voyd, representing Chaldea, appeared in front of him alone, the ignorant Mills fortunately did not recognize him.

The disguised priest only felt that the other party was a cold and unfriendly messenger, and it was obvious that he had no good intentions. This made him think that his ominous premonition had come true, but he did not fall into temporary madness because of some knowledge that had been widely circulated among the Unliving in the Slaanesh camp.

Mills thought that the other party chose to come alone without his followers because he was very confident in his overall strength or because he had some other purpose. In this case, it seemed possible to get rid of the other party with words alone, but Mills still thought that he had to start considering the means of force in advance to save his life - there was no sign of transformation on the messenger, only a chain saw sword hung on his waist with a belt, but it should not be assumed that he only had this melee weapon. Mills was not the kind of priest who was powerless, but at present, everyone's weapons had been taken away by the Space Marines guarding the church, so all he could do was find a direction to escape.

Before he planned his escape route in case of emergency, Debit had skipped all the pleasantries, including exchanging names, and went straight to the point: "Although I belong to Chaldea in name, I am here today only out of my own interest."

This slightly ambiguous statement gave Mills a glimmer of hope: "You mean...?"

Unfortunately, this glimmer of hope did not last long. Because Debit gave a confusing explanation: "Chaldea's attitude towards this matter is to handle it coldly, intending to hand over the entire incident to the state religion that arrived here in a few days. From the overall perspective of "solving the incident", this is undoubtedly the best solution. Therefore, the reason why I appear here is just to represent myself and enforce the meaningless concealment regulations. I want to know some interesting details in this matter: Who specifically handled the shipment of the box of "gifts" that you sent to Chaldea?"

Mills was a little confused: "I don't understand..."

The question was not "where did it come from?" but "who handled it when it was given out." This was a question Mills had never thought of before, and the confusion and panic on his face seemed more real: "Is there something wrong with the gift itself?"

Debbie did not respond immediately, but took a step forward, approached Mills, and stared at the latter's face carefully for a few seconds. Mills was very confused about this, not knowing what this move, which was neither a requirement of etiquette nor a negotiation technique, was doing - until Debbie made a conclusion that had no cause and effect in the conversation:

"I see. You are qualified. Although it is not impossible in theory, this is the first time I have seen it here."

"What qualifications?" Mills asked in panic, but Debbie did not continue. He just took a step back, put some distance between them again, and repeated his original question.

The latter finally realized Mills's magician qualification in the close contact just now - the presence or absence of pseudo-nerves (magic circuits) that are innate, can convert his own vitality into magic power and store it, and also serve as a channel to connect the world (base). Although the magician family will stabilize and promote this trait through various means in the process of development and inheritance, in the final analysis, for humans, this qualification is nothing more than a harmless mutation caused by gene mutation. Even in Debit's original world, people whose families have nothing to do with magic can occasionally find "first-generation magicians" with corresponding qualifications, but for those who do not study magic, they will most likely never discover this in their lifetime.

In this world where psychic energy can be directly extracted from the subspace by relying on the soul, the "great source" in a broad sense is almost inexhaustible and readily available to psychics. On this basis, the inefficient method of converting one's own vitality into mysterious fuel is almost unused, and it seems very natural - although it is not known whether the human race has never discovered that there are such special individuals among them, or whether the inheritance has been gradually cut off in the course of history due to the harsh conditions for casting spells.

Mills was disturbed by this incoherent conclusion, but he also realized that he was unlikely to get any further explanation. So he followed the other party's repeated question and answered that he personally took the box of Catalin white wine from the archbishop's inventory, and after a preliminary inspection, he handed it over to the Leacock brothers to be sent to the Blood Angels Fortress Monastery - that being said, what the Leacock brothers did was just to move the box out of the church gate, and the Space Marines outside the church were actually responsible for delivering and transporting these gifts.

Debbie nodded thoughtfully and asked, "Did you look under the lining of the box when you checked it?"

"Are you here to make fun of me?" This brief conversation was filled with too many questions or conclusions that Mills could not understand, which finally made him unable to control his anger. "This is a gift for a noble! The only important thing is the quality and sealing of the wine! Why would I care about a box that only the servants will see? Would a saint go to the wine cellar to take the wine out of the box himself?"

"Yes." Debbie nodded as a matter of course. This word and his few body language appeared so quickly that two seconds later, the shocked Mills even thought he was hallucinating because of too much pressure - because two seconds later, Debbie had already advanced the content of the conversation in an instant:
"'Brother Leacock', I remember. Then I have another question for you:" He said in a tone that was so calm that it was frightening, without any warning, "Tzeentch or Slaanesh?"

Mills was sure that his mind went blank for a moment, and then he screamed completely uncontrollably: "What??!!"

"Your true belief." Debbie acted as if he did not understand the other party's emotions on this issue at all, and explained his question very patiently. "I have only the most superficial understanding of necromancy, so you'd better tell me now: what do you truly believe in? Tzeentch or Slaanesh? Or the so-called 'Four Righteous Paths' of the Four Gods?"

Regardless of Mills' true stance, he was fully qualified to scream here: the followers of the state religion would accuse Debbie of questioning his faith and challenge him to a duel to the death; the supporters of Chaos would angrily denounce the other party's contemptuous attitude of calling the name of God directly, and then either laugh at him for being ignorant of the world, or feel terrified because they guessed that the other party had the confidence to do so. For Mills, his emotional reaction was only halfway through - "How dare you call the name of my perfect master directly?!" The anger of having his faith offended easily overwhelmed Mills' acting skills and desire to survive, causing him to unconsciously reveal a flaw, "Prince of Bliss -"

"boom".

A loud bang interrupted Mills's impassioned speech. A cloud of blood exploded at the head of the cultist who disguised himself as a priest of the state religion. The control center disappeared under the bomb, causing the rest of his body to sway in place like a bag of rice that was not stable, and finally fell to the ground with a thud. Facing this scene, Debbie still had no expression on his face. He just took a step to the side to get out of the way of the other party's fall, and then looked up at the skylight high up:
"You're welcome." Sevatar's voice, amplified by the power armor helmet, began to reflect under the dome of the church. The designed building structure made it possible for Debbie to hear this small sound clearly. "By the way, I recorded all your conversations and will send them to the young lady's desk later."

The appearance of this Space Marine was not what Debbie expected, but he remained calm when accepting his existence and the fact that Tang Chu helped him. "I wanted to leave his body intact as much as possible. After all, a non-psychic magician is a rare specimen here."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The Night Lord said insincerely, "Look at the bright side, at least he only lost half of his skull and brain--"

He didn't finish the sentence because his enhanced hearing immediately caught a sound that shouldn't have continued:
The voice of Mills, who should have been dead without a doubt.

"…What on earth…went wrong…" the still intact part of him whispered.

——It was not the last words uttered by a ghost in resentment, nor was it the resonance caused by intense emotions in the subspace. "Mills", whose brain had been blown away by a bomb, was still speaking in the physical sense with his vocal cords and mouth connected to his torso.

For Sevatar now, this scenario may be closer to a horror story than the previous two.

Debbie seemed to accept this well. He only showed a little surprise at the first moment, and then he immediately seemed to understand something, squatted down, and began to perform some incomprehensible examinations on this "still talking corpse" - he even tried to have a conversation with it:

"Can you still hear me?" he asked, but "Mills" did not respond to the question and just kept repeating his own words intermittently.

"What is this?" Sevatar asked near the skylight high up. He had originally planned to go down after firing the shot and solving the problem, but now this horrifying scene made him stand there hesitantly, not moving. "Is his soul still tied to the body and hasn't left?"

"He is just 'not dead'." Debit said calmly, "His brain has indeed been scattered, so he can't hear or understand the new information input. But for a magus, magic circuits can also be used as auxiliary organs for thinking. He should have unconsciously used this before being hit, and used magic circuits to continue thinking about this problem. After the brain was destroyed, these thoughts in the magic circuits were reflected as residual thoughts in the remaining body."

"…like the mind control implants that the Mechanic Priests have outside their brains?" Sevatar felt a little better after getting a definite answer to this question, but only a little. "You mean, every 'magician' has something like this? So they can't die even if their brains fly away?"

"Theoretically, not. At least Fujimaru and I will die after our brains are damaged." While answering this question, Debbie took out a knife from his coat and began to violently remove the clothes covering Mills. "I will explain the details later. I need to confirm the condition of his body surface now."

It is not uncommon for magi to possess extraordinary vitality, but that is usually not because there is anything unusual about the magi themselves, but because the magic crests inherited from their families are parasitic on their bodies. These "organs" strongly refuse to die, forcing their owners to maintain their lives even after being seriously injured until the crests are removed.

For Debit and Fujimaru Ritsuka, they don't have any family to inherit, and naturally they don't have the magic seal, which is more like a curse than a family wish - and this should be the same for Mills. There is not even a magic inheritance in this universe, so how can there be a magic seal?

——But Debbie saw it: in the center of Mills' back, a bright red Command Seal, which was almost identical to the emblem of Slaanesh, was placed there; but although it had the same bright red color as the Command Seal, it seemed to have an evil activity of its own, beating in place with a rhythm like a heartbeat.

"Things seem to be worse than we originally thought." The moment he realized what this thing was, Debit immediately said, and asked Sevatar above, "Can you contact Fujimaru right now?"

Sevatar did not respond to the other party's question immediately, but asked back: "What's wrong?"

Debit ignored this implicit provocation and directly understood this sentence as "yes", and instructed: "Tell her that the error in judgment is not a 'Command Seal', but a 'Great Command Seal' (Sirius Light) - even a 'Great Command Seal' that the person does not have control over."

While saying these words, he had decisively stabbed "Mills" in the back, piercing his heart, and immediately pulled out the single-molecule combat knife from the wound. He didn't care about the blood splashing on his body and face, and continued to try to dig out the bright red divine emblem that was beating like a heart outside his body directly.

“And apologize to her.” He added, “Just tell her I screwed up.”

Before the confused Sevatar could react, the Great Command Spell that was about to be dug out of the still living body had already emitted a brilliant and dazzling light like Sirius.

(End of this chapter)