The Emperor’s Angel of Death

“I never thought that human memories could be stored in bottles.”

Soshiyang looked at Erda's face.

“Thinking about it, when the gods watch our lives, they must feel as intoxicated as if they were sipping a glass of the purest wine.”

“I wouldn’t dare call myself a god.”

Erda smiled, picked up a piece of candy from the golden plate held by a doll, and handed it to Soshiyang.

Soshiyang took it, hesitated for a moment, and then put it in his mouth.

In the next moment, an indescribable sweetness spread in his mouth, or rather, this taste was not sweetness, but “joy.” It was as if he saw Veronica smiling and handing him a swaddling cloth, and when he took it, he saw a cute little face sleeping in the swaddling cloth, the feeling of that moment.

The candy was small, and the taste disappeared quickly.

Erda looked at the subtle expression on Soshiyang's face and nodded.

“Very good, you can feel the taste of happiness. You are much better than that old dog donkey. Don't listen to his nonsense about a third choice. Do you think he would really sacrifice himself for the sake of the children? He's just testing! Ever since I met him, he has been very fond of testing others, even testing human nature.”

As she spoke, she handed over another piece, but Soshiyang waved his hand.

“Enough, thank you, Lady Erda. This is a very rare taste, but many people, even Primarchs, have never tasted this flavor from birth to death. I feel ashamed.”

Hearing this, Erda withdrew her hand, and the smile on her face gradually faded.

“You said you had questions to ask me earlier.”

“Yes, I have countless questions to ask. The stars in the galaxy have shone and extinguished countless times, and I have just as many questions to ask, but I know that time may not allow it, so I only have the most important things to ask.”

“What is it?”

“First, did Lee really harm the warriors of the Eleventh Legion? Is he colluding with the Necrons? And do you know about these things?”

Erda did not answer him, but simply raised her hand and swept around.

“Look here, Soshiyang, this place seems so spacious, so empty. This was originally the place I prepared for him, for them. I would accompany the children here through their most vulnerable period, until they had more independent thoughts and became the people they willingly wanted to be... But now this is just an empty nest, which is almost a curse for a mother. I know I wasn't a good mother, I regretted it, and I was angry about it. When Erebus found me, I realized I should do something, at least I can continue to protect them in another form, which can be regarded as my redemption.”

After listening, Soshiyang was silent for a moment, and then said in a slightly angry voice:

“So, you know, right? You know what Lee did, but you chose to condone it.”

“He won't hurt you, and he won't hurt the people around you. He just has his own ideas, which is no big deal.”

At this moment, Soshiyang suddenly remembered what Elena had once said to him—those who have become beings of the Warp cannot be understood with common sense and logic. Their actions are not entirely based on reality, and their essence is what determines their behavior.

At this time, Erda seemed to be completely incomprehensible with common sense. She seemed gentle, but she had a suffocating stubbornness.

“He did such a thing, and you think it's no big deal!?”

“Has Lee done anything to hurt you?”

“Those warriors of the Eleventh Legion left behind——”

Erda waved her hand gently.

“Just some Space Marines, they aren't even your subordinates, and you don't even know them.”

Soshiyang was a little speechless, but he really couldn't say that Lee had done anything bad to him.

But he also saw that Erda had an unreasonable tolerance for Lee, which was a mother's completely unreasonable doting on her child.

Erda's current source of power is likely to be infinite motherhood, while also carrying endless indifference to all beings, which is a kind of almost selfish love.

“Lady Erda, do you feel indebted to Lee?”

Hearing this, Erda was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, and took a dirty, bandage-covered humanoid doll from a nearby toy.

“From the moment he was born, I and... Solomon regarded him as an experiment, just a tool, but he still trusted us, respected us, and loved us. I could see that he desperately wanted to be recognized by Solomon, but as a warrior, he was far from Solomon's expectations, and even his best skill was painting rather than killing... Solomon threw him aside like garbage, and let him take the sanitation team to hunt down the mutated creatures abandoned in the sewers under the laboratory. He said nothing and stayed in the sewers for twenty years... Until I became pregnant with Xerxes, Solomon summoned him back from the sewers at my request and asked him to guard me. During the time when Solomon and I parted ways, he stayed with me and never left. He may not be the strongest child, but he must be the kindest and gentlest, so I believe he must have his own reasons for doing anything, and you should trust him too.”

If it were before, Soshiyang might have believed Erda's words, but after knowing that Erda was not a "person" at all, Soshiyang heard more from it.

“No disrespect, Lady Erda, but Lee is actually just a substitute you use to fill the void in your heart after throwing away your children.”

Erda narrowed her eyes, but the hand holding the doll gradually tightened.

“Do you really love him that much? If, if Xerxes was still here, would you really treat both of them as your children equally? I guess... probably not, Lee's final outcome is likely to be returning to the sewers.”

Saying that, Soshiyang suddenly looked up and laughed.

“Hahaha! Kindness! Gentleness! Lady Erda, do you know what? If I were Lee, I would only be in unbearable pain! I would only hate! I would only be angry!”

When he lowered his head, his expression was only one of glaring anger.

“Lady Erda, believe me, Lee is not what you think he is... I might have hated him before, but now I just pity him. If it were me, my brothers would all be demigods, all have immortal lives, all have the power to shatter the sun, moon, and stars, they are supported by all people, have thousands of troops under their command, and share a huge empire with the Emperor, but I myself am just garbage in the sewers, a rat that can't see the light, a failure in the eyes of my father and mother. Believe me, madam, I would hate every one of you, every one of you.”

Soshiyang's words made Erda very angry. Not only did her face turn pale, but a certain force was also growing madly, and even the surrounding dolls were so frightened that they cried out.

“Soshiyang!”

In front of Soshiyang, Erda's body began to grow rapidly, appearing in a semi-transparent ghost form. Layers of spun threads and gauze robes covered her body and floated around, and her face changed countless times in an instant, sometimes a black woman, like a statue carved from obsidian, dignified due to the accumulation of a long life, sometimes like a girl, overflowing with infinite beauty and the fire of life, her slender limbs wielding a sickle that shone in the blood moon, and sometimes turning into an old woman, her skin as rough as withered olives, her body like twisted tree roots, and her thick-knuckled fingers freezing everything they grasped.

But no matter what form she took, her abdomen was bulging, as if it was gestating a baby that would never be born.