The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Having dealt with the cannibal leader, Talos turned and watched Sablin rescue the people locked in cages one by one. → Men and women greeted these giant angels with tears, some rejoicing in their survival, others weeping over the pale corpses.

Little Donovan was reunited with his sister, who was only a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with unhealed wounds on her shoulders and thighs, already festering with pus.

But her condition was already considered relatively good; some had already been 'enjoyed.' The cannibals would first cut off their hands or legs to enjoy, but to maintain the freshness of the food, they didn't kill them immediately, but these people couldn't survive for long due to excessive blood loss.

Afterward, led by Donovan, Talos and the others arrived at the only 'peaceful' place in this area, a refugee camp.

This was a camp hidden in a block's church. Perhaps in their most desperate moment, these abandoned people tried to seek aid from the Master of Mankind, hoping to receive His assistance, but the Emperor's icon remained silent—

And would always remain silent.

But though He was silent, He had messengers to speak for Him.

The priests claimed to be, the enforcers claimed to be, and the rulers of the hive repeatedly emphasized that they were.

But everyone knew that only one type of person could fully speak for the Emperor, and those were His angels of death.

As Talos walked into this dilapidated refugee camp, he felt an expectant silence. The only light here came from the nearly burnt-out small candles. Many eyes watched him from the shadows, the sound of panting echoed in his ears, and the low moans of the dying. Then—

He smelled a faint odor of corpses. Judging from the bones in the corners, the people here clearly weren't surviving solely by scavenging. It could only be said that at this point, maintaining even the most basic civilization had become a luxury. →

At this moment, Sablin suddenly left the group. He walked straight to the side of the church's front hall, in front of a tattered tent shrouded in darkness. When he lifted the rag-like curtain, he saw a ragged, emaciated woman with shriveled breasts cradling a baby whose entire body was already purplish-blue. The woman had cut open her hand, letting the blood drip onto the baby's lips, those chapped lips still gently humming an unknown lullaby.

The woman didn't seem to notice the presence of a giant. Sablin squatted down and whispered:

"He's already dead. Stop it, or you'll lose your life too."

The woman seemed to be jolted by electricity, suddenly hugging the dead infant tightly, dragging her body backward with difficulty, looking at the giant close at hand with horror.

Sablin took off his helmet, his pitch-black eyes particularly bright in the darkness. He reached out to the woman.

"You've been saved. There won't be any more—"

The woman suddenly screamed, propping herself up against the wall, staggering away, but fell to the ground after only a few steps due to weakness. Even so, she held the dead infant tightly to her chest, curling up into a ball and emitting heartbreaking sobs. →

"Ah————!"

Sablin suddenly roared, slamming his fist on the ground, causing cracks to appear in the entire marble-paved floor, scaring the refugees into hiding back in the darkness.

He turned his head, looking at the Emperor's statue towering in the church's giant niche, where the candlelight was brightest. He could see some food piled around the lectern in front of the statue, from ration bars to moldy bread, in varying amounts.

Sablin, known for his calm and composure, seemed to go berserk, walking to the lectern and kicking it over, then grabbing a handful of food and holding it in the air.

"Rather, rather starve to death! You're all going to give your life-saving things to a stone! Ah! It's just a stone!"

Suddenly, a commotion arose in the shadows. A faint light shone from afar, and he could see them escorting a bearded priest, his fanatical moans echoing in the church.

"Hail!"

The old priest shouted almost deliriously.

"Greetings to the Emperor's angel!"

In the last few steps, he insisted on walking himself, staggering and trying his best to kneel before him, his eyes flashing with joyful tears, as if the torment and pain of this time had finally been rewarded.

"Thank the Emperor! Praise the Emperor! We have passed this test! We have been saved!"

Sablin looked down at the other party. Everyone was ragged, everyone was covered in dust, but this priest was still quite radiant, and there were no traces of hunger.

He smiled, revealing his pale teeth, like a midnight ghost.

"It seems you're eating very well, and still have the strength to kneel."

"Uh—"

The priest was stunned for a moment, raised his head slightly, saw the food that Sablin was holding in his fist, and then whispered:

"That... that is a symbol of the believers' piety, it is for the Emperor's—"

Sablin picked him up.

"I guess the Emperor must really want to hear your screams right now."

At this moment, a hand grasped his wrist.

"Enough, killing him won't quell your anger, and it won't do any good. Don't let anger consume your reason."

The hand's strength was great, forcibly pressing Sablin's arm down. Seeing that it was Kasati, he released his hand and let the priest fall.

"Get up."

Talos's voice was very calm, with an irresistible force. The priest seemed to be frozen by an invisible force, and then slowly stood up.

"Tell me the truth, what exactly happened."

Soon, an astonishing fact was spat out from the priest's trembling lips.

The matter was actually quite simple. Due to the siege of Angstrom, the hive cities around it that relied on the forge world to provide promethium (as mentioned earlier, the Goliath-class factory ship was the main means of providing promethium to the hive cities) immediately encountered an energy crisis. But if it were just this, it wouldn't have led to a terrible disaster. The problem was that the food supply throughout the Great Whirlpool had already been highly strained before this. Angstrom was not only the largest promethium producer in the Great Whirlpool, but also the largest synthetic food manufacturer. Although the overall production share didn't seem high, its trade share was extremely high.

Other hive cities also had their own food production and processing industries and promethium refining industries, but overall, they were basically just barely self-sufficient. In other words, even a few percentage point fluctuations in the trade market would immediately produce feedback. At the same time, the hive cities had to bear another obligation—

The Expeditionary Force's war tax.

This was an extremely large expense. Due to the continuation of the war, the previous conscription plan had been expanded three times, reaching a scale of two billion. The food, clothing, and supplies for these soldiers all had to be borne by the worlds of the Great Whirlpool, as well as a large number of logistics personnel serving the Expeditionary Force. Half a year after the military scrip was issued, its scope had far exceeded its original limited range. When Ryza's supplies couldn't be supplied in time, the Expeditionary Force's logistics department would use various means to force a large number of nobles and hive city rulers to hand over much of their wealth to support the expeditionary cause, and these would immediately be passed on to the civilians.

For example, this hive city had collected nine rounds of war tax in one year.

This made the hive city unprecedentedly tense. When food prices rose to an unacceptable level, riots occurred, and some people even began attacking promethium storage plants and food processing plants, which further fueled a terrible disaster—the occurrence of famine.