The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Let's go, let's go, there's nothing more to say."

"Madam Eldar—"

As soon as Eldar issued the eviction order, Sotha felt a pull of power, and then everything before his eyes flashed like light at an extremely fast speed. When he regained his composure, he found himself standing in front of the door of the Lore Master's tea room, the surrounding corridor restored to its original state.

After a moment of silence, he raised his head and was about to knock when the Lore Master's indifferent voice came from inside.

"Come in."

Sotha pushed the door open and walked in. The Lore Master was still sitting on the sofa, the cup of tea belonging to Sotha on the coffee table still steaming.

He did not return to his seat, but stood in front of the door, looking at the Lore Master, and said slowly:

"Lore Master... This is also your plan, isn't it? You knew what the crazy Eldar would say to me. You certainly have the ability to keep her out, but you chose to let her say those things to me. I can't figure out your intentions more and more."

The Lore Master turned the teacup in his hand and said gently:

"I said, everything depends on your own decision."

Sotha chuckled bitterly and slowly walked to the other side of the sofa, plopping down on it.

"Do beings like you all like to play with mortals?"

"I'm long past the time for playing such games."

"Lore Master, you also knew about Li's actions a long time ago, right? But you never reminded me of this person before I met him."

"But before you met him, his stories were just stories to you. And I don't fully understand what he did until you told me these things. I said, I am not omniscient or omnipotent."

Sotha picked up the teacup and took a sip.

"Lore Master, I want to hear the story of this church, the story of the Thunderstone. Since it appears here, it must have extraordinary significance to you."

The Lore Master raised his head and looked at the ceiling.

"This... this is the last church on Terra, or rather, on Earth."

Sotha chuckled upon hearing this.

"The last church? Terra has long been filled with churches."

"Once... very few."

"So what happened to this last church on Earth?"

"The Emperor you speak of unified humanity's cradle. He was determined to launch a conquest of the galaxy, not only to conquer the galaxy, but also to conquer hearts and minds, to conquer faith. He wanted to eliminate all beliefs in the old gods and prevent humanity from worshiping the Ruinous Powers. He started with Terra, banning all religious beliefs. And before he was about to begin the Great Crusade, he heard that in a remote mountain there was still the last church, the last priest. On a stormy night, he put on simple clothes and visited this church called Thunderstone alone. He wanted to prove that he could defeat the fragile so-called faith without force. He wanted the last priest to voluntarily abandon his outdated creed and embrace the new world he was about to create. This was the first battle of the Great Crusade, but the weapons were not swords and bullets, but reason and science. It was a battle he firmly believed he would win."

Sotha suddenly laughed, laughed loudly, almost doubled over with laughter.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that he stopped laughing, shook his head, and stammered out a sentence.

"...All delusions are caused by attachment. Because of attachment, obstacles are formed. Therefore, attachment is due to clinging to existence, and clinging is due to original ignorance. Apart from ignorance, there is no other cause. Therefore, all delusions are attributed to ignorance. This is a passage that Master Ananda once said to me. I am shallow and ignorant and did not understand it. Lore Master, do you understand it?"

The Lore Master did not answer Sotha, but continued his plain narration.

"He came to the church, met the priest who had opposed him, tasted the wine he brewed, and listened to his stories and his faith. Then he used his arguments and language to easily refute the priest's faith. He won, won very... freely. His Great Crusade had a good start. However... when he was about to burn down that last church, the priest refused him. The priest threw off the robe he was wearing and walked into the sea of fire calmly. Originally, he had already calculated everything, he was confident that there would be no changes, but at that moment, he was at a loss for the first time. He didn't know why, he didn't know what went wrong, why the person who had clearly been conquered by him would suddenly change, clearly it was just a blind commoner, clearly the other party didn't understand anything..."

"...At that time, although there were thousands of thoughts in his mind, he couldn't show it, because his warriors were watching him. He could only watch his 'spoils of war' be burned to ashes in a sea of fire. He did destroy the last church on Earth, but he failed to conquer the last priest on Earth, a person he considered the most ignorant and blind. Although he never admitted it, this was the first failure of the Great Crusade. Even when he conquered one star system after another, and even most of the galaxy in the future, he always remembered that in that stormy little church, he failed to conquer a... frustrated priest. Many people rejected him, but none of them left as deep an impression on him as this priest. He felt confused for the first time, and he also doubted for the first time whether he was really, wrong."

After listening, Sotha was silent for a long time, and finally glanced at the small half of the tea in his teacup and sent it into his throat.

"So, Lore Master, is that when you appeared? I suddenly understand your state a little."

Then he sighed deeply.

"Thunderstone, Thunderstone... The Emperor at that time conquered the galaxy, conquered his opponents, but never truly conquered people's hearts. On the contrary, thousands of years later, the Ecclesiarchy conquered people's hearts in his name. What an ironic thing."

The Lore Master still did not show any expression, as if all of this had nothing to do with him.

"Lore Master, I heard from Eldar that the Emperor once used the Phoenix Chalice for divination?"

"Yes, there was such a thing."

"Didn't he have any doubts at the time? After all, this is a relic left by the Eldar god to the Eldar. Didn't he think that the prophecies that appeared inside might be guiding?"

"He thought about it, but he believed that he would not be blinded by false prophecies. He used his own methods to verify the possibility of those prophecies. In addition, at that time, he also found a secret record written by Asuryan, which recorded a lot of useful information, as well as a set of prophetic deduction techniques used in conjunction with the Phoenix Chalice, which could deduce truly infinite futures... He repeatedly verified and confirmed the correctness of this information and methods, but even so, he still had a skeptical attitude towards the prophecies revealed by the Phoenix Chalice, otherwise... there would not have been such a serious series of rebellions. After discussing with his most trusted friends and aides, he decided to take some preventive measures for the future of the Primarchs in order to change the deduced prophecies, but unfortunately, all of this ultimately failed to be realized."

"A secret record?"

"It can be said to be the most informative book I know in the galaxy. Its all-encompassing nature is amazing, and there are even many secrets about the War in Heaven and the Old Ones, as well as core technologies involving the Webway and a wealth of extraordinary knowledge, such as some key methods for creating the Primarchs... It was precisely because of it that that person was able to start his Great Crusade plan and Webway plan. Because of this, he also let go of his vigilance against the Liber Chaotica and focused on studying the solutions recorded in it that could allow the race to get rid of the interference of the Ruinous Powers. But now that I think about it, the sweetest gift is the most vicious trap. Unfortunately, he was too confident at the time. He believed that a fallen god could no longer do anything. He only regarded the Ruinous Powers as his true opponents. If he had completely followed the deductions and plans of the Liber Chaotica, perhaps the result would have been different."

"What is the name of that secret record? Does it still exist?"

"Translated into human language, its name should be Liber Chaotica. At the final moment of the Great Heresy, he felt that leaving this thing behind would have endless troubles, so he destroyed this masterpiece before going to the Vengeful Spirit."