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

He paused, and seemed to have some specific political reasons to explain. However, considering the relationship between the two parties present, Lanmarok still swallowed a large part of the middle part and jumped directly to the conclusion: "At least, we are all here to understand the truth of this matter, in order to prevent possible misunderstandings from damaging the diplomatic relations between the parallel institutions of the empire and causing unnecessary conflicts."

Joachim nodded. He was still unhappy about Chaldea, or rather, the Dark Angels' subtle behavior of conducting an investigation in advance. But he had to admit that the other party was right.

The investigation went on smoothly, with both parties not very happy but still able to maintain rational restraint. Lanmaroc led John Heselius and his party to the tower that the archbishop had planned for him in the church, and continued to discuss the details of the case while climbing the spiral staircase:

"Did any eyewitness mention the color of the flame?" Jorge Luis asked a very detailed question.

Lanmarok paused: "Is this important?"

Successfully questioning the other party brought Joscelius a little bit of "turning the tables", but this was not the point. "If the fire was caused by psychic phenomena, this is indeed an important detail that laymen can easily overlook." The Blood Angels think tank said, "We may have to question the servants who witnessed the scene, or use some psychic means to extract their accurate memories at the time."

"Okay." Lanmarok's voice sounded a little annoyed, but these emotions were not directed at Jorge Luis. "The witnesses are currently under our supervision, and your needs can be met at any time. So now, let's take a look at the scene first, in case there are really any evil creatures in the subspace that use this incident to sneak into reality."

"That's impossible." Realizing that he was facing a complete layman, Jorge Celius had to use all his patience to explain the problem. "It's not the first day that Archbishop Trolipo arrived in Baal and met with His Excellency Fujimaru Ritsuka. They also had long and close contact in public. I believe that no evil tricks in the warp space could have lurked in front of this saint for a long time until yesterday. Even if we don't mention the talented people around her, she was just standing there, which was equivalent to purifying the surrounding space."

"Or maybe, it just happened last night?" Lanmalok made some other unfounded guesses, "The Archbishop requested to have a secret talk with his confidant, but he was actually performing some heretical ritual, and then something went wrong..."

"This guess is better than the previous one. At least it makes sense logically." From Heselius' tone, it was clear that he did not believe this guess. "But the question is, why did the archbishop do this? Where did he get the knowledge? You know, it is not easy to set up an effective psychic ritual. It is almost impossible for two mortals who are not psychics to succeed within twenty minutes - unless something has already set its sights on them and happened to decide to take action on a whim during the ritual."

"That sounds like a possibility." Layman Lan Malok heard the mocking tone at the end of the sentence, but couldn't figure out why it existed.

"Now that Master Fujimaru Ritsuka is around this person and we have to meet him every one or two days for official business?" Joscelius asked back, "Our enemies in the chaos are indeed trying their best to get involved in reality, but they are not desperate for this matter. You know, even if they are the Immortals, they will indeed be 'dead' if they are caught by Master Saint."

Some time has passed since the Emperor's Dream arrived at Baal, and the person in the above topic, after appearing at the ball, had already spread his feat of killing demons on the spot with a piece of paper and a pen, at least in the think tank department of the Blood Angels.

If Heselius did not continue to think deeply about this issue, because they finally arrived at their destination. The scene of the incident was a large compartment on the top of the tower. It was originally planned to be used to store holy relics, but this church with little history was not qualified to store holy relics, so it had been vacant. After the archbishop arrived, this large compartment was requisitioned because of its excellent security system. Under Trolipo's order, his servants turned this empty warehouse into a bedroom that matched the archbishop's status and style within a few hours - of course, now that the incident has occurred, this room has been sealed as the scene of the incident.

In order to preserve holy objects or protect the safety of important people, the adamantine gate still dutifully blocked uninvited guests from the space behind it today. When Lanmalok, who currently controls the modified access key, arrived with the Blood Angels think tanks, he was somewhat surprised to find a mortal priest dressed as an ascetic monk standing at the door.

The man was wearing a long robe that looked gray because it was not dyed. The only thing that could be called "ornament" on his body was a cloth belt. He was barefoot, and his exposed skin was covered with rough cracks and calluses - in line with the appearance of an ascetic monk of the state religion. After he saw this group of Astartes, he naturally showed a kind of awe and fear that often appeared in mortals who faced the Emperor's Angels for the first time. However, unlike what most people would do, this ascetic monk did not choose to avoid them. Instead, he came forward with an expression of fearlessness and knelt directly in front of this group of space warriors, and saluted according to religious etiquette:

"My Lords, please forgive me for offending you." The man said tremblingly, "But no matter what happened to His Excellency Archbishop Trolipo, he is the Pope of the sub-sector. The Ecclesiarchate must also know what happened to this... Archbishop, so that it can make a fair judgment on his affairs after his death. I know that I am incompetent and too humble to even think about asking you, but I still have to ask you to let me see the place where the Archbishop died, so that I can make a true record of this matter based on the facts I saw with my own eyes."

Being interrupted like this, Heselius was a little angry, but he really had no reason to be angry. First of all, as a Space Marine, it was unnecessary for him to be angry at a mortal who was thrown out to take on this mission that was obviously far from a "good job" after obviously failing in the quarrel between the priests; secondly, as a Blood Angel, he could understand the persistence of the State Church itself as an institution that suffered direct losses in finding the truth in this matter. In any case, under the premise of following the teachings of Sanguinius, the Blood Angels think tank should not embarrass a mortal - but the Dark Angels obviously did not have similar concerns:

"If someone had dared to speak like this in front of me in the past, he would have died the moment he finished speaking." Lanmarok sighed and murmured, "You look unfamiliar. Wasn't it Reverend Goldana who was supposed to represent the state religion as a witness?"

"Reverend Goldana suddenly developed a fever half an hour ago." Out of natural nervousness when facing Astartes, or natural nervousness when facing the threat of death, the man leaned down even more, almost sticking himself to the ground. His tone was trembling, but his words were fluent: "According to the instructions of the adults, the church has isolated those who may be sick. Reverend Goldana was unable to show up in time, so he temporarily ordered me to replace him."

Ruheselius glanced at Lanmarok inexplicably: "You ordered the quarantine of those who might be sick?"

Lanmarok shrugged. "I admit that some things that might cause disease did leave a deep impression on me some time ago. But that's not the problem here."

"First of all, there is no 'Reverend Goldana' who has agreed with me on this matter." The Dark Angel Fire Wing Grand Master coldly exposed the other party's lie, "Secondly, there is no such person as 'Reverend Goldana' in the local clergy of the Baal Cathedral, nor in the entourage brought by Archbishop Trolipo. Yes, this period of time is enough for me to remember the names and information of all these people. So, once again-"

"Your face is not in any of the above records." Lanmarok looked down at the man's body that was shaking more and more violently, and said ruthlessly, "I won't ask you who you are or how you got in. But you still have to tell me, who do you work for?"

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 326: You Still Have to Turn Your Back When Answering the Phone

Having said that, it was obviously useless to continue struggling to perform as a "state religion ascetic". The uninvited guest lying on the ground stopped his fake trembling and obviously wanted to jump up from his current position close to the ground - this position was too dangerous, just like being slaughtered.

As a fully armed Astartes, Lanmalok, who was fully confident in his own strength, didn't really care about the other party's current posture. Anyway, if he really wanted to kill the other party, it wouldn't take more than two seconds. But out of the caution that a Dark Angel Fire Wing Grand Master should have, he quickly physically interrupted the other party's action of getting up, and put the muzzle of the grenade gun close to the other party's head as a deterrent:

"You'd better understand this: I'm still allowing you to answer questions alive because I think there may be room for mediation in this matter." He said this to the "ascetic monk" who was half-lying and half-kneeling on the ground, and at the same time he was on guard against the other party suddenly taking something out of the belt that didn't seem to hide anything. "Of course, you may be a spy sent by some hostile force, or a saboteur with some ulterior motives. In this case, you will certainly not escape death. But there is another possibility that you are working for some other department in the empire. In this way, you can go back alive to report to your master and tell them that the next time they try to intervene in an incident that has nothing to do with them, they should at least learn to make a formal application through official channels. Now tell me, which one are you?"

The fake priest's face quickly lost its fake trepidation. Even in the face of such a clear death threat, he did not panic, but responded with a mocking sneer: "Like you said, in order to survive, I will of course answer that I serve a certain lord in the empire. I'm sorry I can't tell you the title and name of that lord - would you believe such an answer?"

"We can always find some way to verify it." Lanmarok read the readings of the auspicious instrument in the helmet and said without emotion, "Although some of the transformation surgeries you have undergone can cleverly cover up your true emotions in terms of physiological monitoring, I think it is a reasonable assumption that your pain nerves have not been completely removed during these surgeries. You may not know that I have some relatively "special" cousins ​​working for Chaldea. They are very good at using some unique ways to get the truth out of a person's mouth."

"No need to go to so much trouble." Ruo Heselius decided to increase his presence. "This information can be confirmed with psychic power."

As he spoke, a Blood Angel recorder walked out from behind him, following the hint of Joscelius' body language. Anyone with a little knowledge could tell his basic position in the chapter from his azure armor, the staff in his hand, and the psychic hood. And the fake priest's knowledge was obviously more than "a little". He understood what he was going to encounter in an instant, and immediately - this time, most likely sincerely - screamed in fear:

"No! You can't do this!" He tried to struggle to get up from the ground again, but was once again held down by Lanmarok. This did not stop the mortal from continuing to struggle, even though he almost broke his bones: "You have no right to read my memory! I am, I am-"

The fake pastor didn't say what he was in the end. At the moment when a certain word was about to come out of his mouth, he twitched violently, as if he was suddenly "possessed" by something and interrupted the sentence. At the same time, he ignored the human instinct to survive and smashed his head hard towards the ground.

There was a loud bang that made people's teeth ache, but if Heselius did not see the scene of "white and red scattered all over the ground from the skull", the fake priest did not succeed in hitting his head on the dark and smooth Baal marble. The loud noise that seemed to contain some metal collision sounds came from Lanmalok's leg armor and the fake priest's belly: at the moment when the latter was about to hit the ground with his head to commit suicide, the dark angel kicked him in time but also mercilessly, kicking the poor mortal off the ground and rolling three meters away. He obviously lost consciousness under the heavy blow.

"He's still alive." Joscelius came to this conclusion after a simple observation, but there was still a hint of surprise in his tone.

"He has some mechanical modifications in his abdominal cavity." Master Fire Wing knocked on his helmet, as if to show off the sophisticated functions of the auspicious instrument installed in it. "That belt is unusual. It should have some interference force field, which makes it difficult for me to see the specific structure. But since he installed some iron internal organs for himself, I don't need to be so delicate."

"You react very quickly." Joscelius praised reluctantly. This was an objective fact that he had to accept: he could argue that he did not react immediately when the other party showed abnormality because at that moment, his instinctive reaction was to confirm whether this abnormality contained psychic power or evil control. But the fact was that he did not react immediately to deal with this unexpected situation, while Lanmarok did. No matter how reluctant he was, he had to admit it.

In response to the praise from his allies, Lanmarok showed appropriate humility: "It's just that I've seen it a lot in the past. This is how the trigger commands in some brainwashing programs behave when they are activated."

This humility did not make Joscelius feel any better, even though he was more aware of the other party's correctness through this statement - rather, it made him feel even more angry because of this.

"What should we do now?" He asked unhappily, "My suggestion is to just make him disappear. In fact, all the questions you asked him before seem redundant."

"In the past, I thought so too." Lanmarok shrugged. "But now that I work for the Chaldean Bureau, I have to follow Chaldean principles. I will have him under control, and to be honest, I have some guesses about where he came from... The current political environment in Baal is too complicated, so we'd better act conservatively and cautiously."

Joscelius felt that he was being pointed at, so he was unhappy and wanted to say something. But before he could make a sound, another dark angel emerged from the darkness and interrupted his thoughts with his presence. Obviously, Lanmarok had called for support through the internal communication before he said this.

As the uninvited guest was slowly dragged away, Joscelius finally spoke with dissatisfaction: "This is a very inefficient way of dealing with the situation, and it may also bring endless troubles."

"But there is also a chance that we can avoid some trouble." Lanmarok replied, "Most importantly, Chaldea has the luxury of resources to allow us to handle these incidents in this inefficient way, and we are confident that we have the ability to do it well."

If Heselius simply wrote his dissatisfaction on his face, but they did not continue to discuss this topic. The episode brought by this uninvited guest should not interfere with their actual mission here. In this not-so-relaxed silence, Lanmarok walked forward and opened the adamantine door in front of them with a special encrypted identification code, allowing the crime scene behind it to truly appear in the eyes of the investigation team.

-

When Hastings received another communication from Lanmalok, he deliberately pinched the communication bead and sighed loudly to ensure that the other party could accurately receive his current emotions through the sound.

"What happened again?" He carefully controlled his tone, making sure that his irritability fully permeated into every word.

In the past, he would not dare to speak to an Astartes who held a certain leadership position in the Chapter (Legion) in this way. But on the Storm's Edge, Fujimaru Ritsuka had obviously made some bad moves in various matters. After the sense of distance caused by the objective differences between Space Marines and mortals was dispelled by her in various strange ways, Hastings found that he and the Fire Wing Grand Master who had captured him on board were actually quite talkative.

By the way, there is one thing he doesn't want to admit: Sevatar is the one who deserves the most credit in the above incident.

"It's just a small matter that needs the time of the Inquisitor who handles most of our paperwork." Lanmalok praised the other party in a half-hearted way over the communication. "Is the new Inquisitor near you?"

Hastings knew it was no good. But even so, he still had to do what he had to do: "Technically, yes, but in reality, I'm currently undergoing a series of psychic tests from the Grey Knights, so I can't communicate with her for the time being."

"You were wearing a communication device during the inspection?" Lanmarok said with a hint of deliberate fussiness in his words. "They are so unprofessional."

"Just a reminder, you should praise me here for being very professional in convincing them to allow me to communicate with the ground through the Shadow Hammer during the inspection." Hastings gritted his teeth, "So what's the matter?"

"It's because you didn't do things cleanly from beginning to end." Lan Malok blamed the other party for no reason. "When you meet Inquisitor Marlan, ask her if she has sent any spies to the ground of Bal Prime. One just ran into me and wanted to participate in the investigation of the Archbishop. I locked him up. If she says no, I will deal with him myself."

Hastings instinctively wanted to refute: Lord Inquisitor Marlan had just entered the Baal system, how could he have time to do anything. Then he realized that for a Lord Inquisitor, "just this little time" might be enough for them to do a lot of things - otherwise, why would they be able to add the title of "Lord" in front of their title of "Inquisitor"?

Then, he took another second to realize that the other party's information source could only be himself, and realized that he had to accept Lan Malok's evaluation of "doing things from beginning to end". But before he could respond to the other party's request, Lan Malok had already hung up the call.

-

Joscelius and the recorder he brought with him walked around in the room where Archbishop Trolipo had stayed. Lanmaroc quietly stuck himself by the door, as if to say "I have already investigated before, so I won't bother you now." No one realized that he had actually turned on the silent mode of the power armor and was secretly sending a message to the orbit.

According to the Dark Angel's assurance, the traces in the room were exactly the same as when he first saw the scene - but unfortunately, before the incident was reported outside the church, the panicked priests and servants of the state church had already physically destroyed most of the traces. The soft long-haired carpet on the floor of the room, which was in line with the noble status of an archbishop, was of course easy to leave traces, but even the Fire Wing Grand Master could only restore a chaotic firefighting operation from the chaotic footprints and dried water marks, scattered sand, or other fire-fighting chemical residues.

Of course, there were some signs that were too unreasonable, which was why even Lanmaroc, who knew nothing about psychic power, made the judgment that "psychic power must exist in this matter" after a simple observation of the messy scene: the long-haired carpet under their feet, which was theoretically very flammable, did not burn to ashes along with its owner's spontaneous combustion. And at the time of the fire, Archbishop Trolipo was obviously standing on it - the black mark of a human figure left on the carpet was evidence, but obviously, only the part of the carpet that had direct contact with the burning archbishop was burned. The long fibers on the carpet, which were only ten centimeters away from the burn marks, seemed as if nothing had happened, and still maintained a soft touch and bright color.

In addition, there was a small round table overturned near the scene, which was supposed to be used as a temporary bar. No one knew whether it overturned at the time of the incident or was knocked over when the servants came in to put out the fire. Judging from the scattered objects around it - thanks again to the long-haired carpet - there was originally a bottle of wine on it (the bottle was still intact, but the contents had been spilled after it fell to the ground, leaving a few abstract wine-red lines on the nearby carpet), two crystal wine glasses (which fit the situation that the archbishop invited his confidants to have a private talk), an ordinary pen and a parchment with a brief memo (all of which were alternative plans for the next few days, nothing too noteworthy), and a small box with a small capacity (probably stepped on during the time when people came and went, but there seemed to be nothing inside). The above things also appeared to be very clean, mainly meaning that there was no sign of fire on the surface.

To be fair, Lanmalok himself could not find any other clues from this thing - he had certainly tried. But on this issue, the think tanks in the Blood Angels Chapter obviously had different opinions. Joheselius and his two assistants looked around the room for a while, and obviously found some clues that Lanmalok had not found. Then they gathered together and stood in a triangle near the black mark left by Trolipo, muttering some spells.

Lanmarok could not understand, nor could he feel any special changes, but he could still see the blue light radiating from the psychic hoods of several think tanks, and realized that something was going on in a dimension he could not perceive. After the contact with Hastings ended, he continued to wait patiently for a few minutes until the blue light under the psychic hoods of the think tanks disappeared. Joscelius also sighed in exhaustion, and then asked cautiously:

"Did you learn anything through the spell?"

"No." Joscelius' voice was a little frustrated, but more of a calm "that's as it should be." "But here, 'no discovery' itself is also a discovery: we tried to review the scene when Archbishop Trolipo died in this room through the warp, but the investigation was unnaturally hindered."

Lan Malok seemed to understand a little, but because he knew nothing about psychic powers, he didn't dare to draw a conclusion directly: "...So?"

"We must go and see the bodies," said Joscelius. "The body of Archbishop Trolipo, and that of the Confessor Comte. I trust you have preserved them well, have you not?"

Now it was Lanmalok's turn. He felt a little unhappy about his ability being questioned after hearing this question.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 327: I don’t recommend that you scare yourself

"Allow me to ask you one more question: Have you sent anyone to the Cathedral of Baal?" Hastings, who had finally managed to escape from the inspection of the Grey Knights, said to Inquisitor Marlan.

Such a detailed examination was not pleasant, even for a psychic inquisitor who had been accustomed to enduring all kinds of pain since his youth. Hastings felt that his entire soul had been turned upside down, and his thoughts seemed to have been completely scattered and then hastily gathered together again, with a bit of intermittent confusion. His head was splitting, and his internal organs were churning - obviously, the Grey Knight had no intention of being polite to him. If he had not done quite a few enhancements on himself in the first half of his life, which allowed him to stay as awake as possible in extreme situations where ordinary people would lose consciousness, he would probably have fainted by now.

However, his poor physical condition did not hinder his sharpness in his work. Even though Marlan was an experienced Lord Inquisitor, Hastings still caught a tiny sign through his psychic senses the moment he finished speaking: an emotional fluctuation as slight as a breath that could be easily ignored. This was enough for him, and he had enough confidence to make further additions before the other party opened his mouth to give an answer:

"If you do, you'd better answer 'yes'. That way, you can still recover the agents you sent out in a relatively intact condition."

Hastings admitted that after such an incident, he was somewhat resentful, so his words were naturally aggressive. Even Marlan, the Lord Inquisitor who would first consider the strategy of peace and tranquility when dealing with the current situation, felt unhappy when faced with such words.

"Is this a threat?" She raised her brows, causing the wrinkles on her forehead to pile up like waves.

"It depends on how you interpret it." Hastings said unhappily. This tone was probably to cover up his current weak state as much as possible. "Since the agent is still alive and has not been investigated yet, but has been detained, you can get him back under your command with just one word. I suggest you understand this as a gesture of goodwill - if the agent who unfortunately ran into Chaldea is indeed working under your command."

"Then I will answer 'yes'." Malan replied unhappily. After all, it takes a lot of resources and time to train a useful spy agent. As a lord judge, she is indeed qualified to waste these precious consumables like mud and sand in the mission, but she will not choose to give up when she can simply recycle one of them.

Of course, a more ruthless Inquisitor would choose to burn their brains remotely to prevent possible enemies from reading any information from the corpses that would be detrimental to themselves or their missions. But Malan was not inclined to such a ruthless approach. On her own ship, she was already prestigious enough, so she preferred to base her rule over her subordinates on love and loyalty rather than fear and coercion.

"But I still don't think this is a 'goodwill gesture'." The Lord Inquisitor said, "You should know that if the one who went through this was one of our colleagues with a worse temper, the person in question might have regarded this as a provocation."

"Then I have to express my regret for the overly self-centered and arrogant temperament of this virtual 'colleague' you created." Hastings shrugged, "You also know what we usually do when we catch uninvited intruders. Considering that your agent is still in a relatively intact state, I think this fully demonstrates how much 'leniency' Chaldea has for the parallel departments of the Empire that are also loyal to the Emperor."

Malan instinctively wanted to refute, but when she opened her mouth, she realized that what the other party said was indeed irrefutable - if it were her, even if she didn't immediately execute the insect that sneaked in, she would immediately drag the other party to the torture room to investigate. Therefore, she uttered some meaningless mutters unwillingly, and then reluctantly said: "Maybe so."

"Thank you for understanding this." Hastings said expressionlessly, "Please allow me to contact the ground briefly about this. And I have absolutely no objection to your investigation in such a perfunctory manner."

As a lord judge who has been active around Terra for a long time, Malan certainly understood that the other party was expressing his "strong opinion". However, considering that the two positions were reversed and she put herself in his shoes, Malan also believed that she would be angry, so she would not have any unnecessary thoughts about this already restrained emotional expression.

This flexible way of thinking from other people's perspectives and relatively stable emotional response may be the reason why she was selected and asked to take on this task. She sighed and acquiesced to the other party's contact with the Shadow Hammer, which was still under his control, to send the information to the ground - although originally, Hastings's words were not essentially a request, but a notification. Malan observed the latter performing these operations with an inquiring look until they were finished, and then asked:

"If I understand correctly, does this mean that Chaldea has exercised restraint in matters involving the Inquisition, or not just the Inquisition, but all other parallel institutions of the Empire?"

Hastings used all his strength to drive his brain, which was almost turned into mush by the Grey Knight's psychic energy, and briefly analyzed the other party's intention in asking this question. Because of his poor condition, he failed to successfully grasp the other party's thoughts in the first time, and could only give a stable answer as much as possible: "As the mistress of Chaldea, although I know this is impossible, Fujimaru Ritsuka still hopes to complete her mission without disturbing the local and parallel organizations as much as possible."

Malan was noncommittal: "But judging from the current reality, she doesn't seem to be very successful."

"The roof doesn't move, and the rain will always fall on it." Hastings refuted with an Ultramar proverb, "If Wilchak or you can be less curious and stop stretching your hands so long, and let Chaldea do their job quietly, then we can all save a lot of trouble."

"You should understand your duty. You are also an inquisitor, Lord Hastings." Marlan pointed out, "Our duty is to doubt everything and eliminate all people, things and objects that may pose a threat to the empire in a simple and efficient way. Trust is a luxury poison to us. The only one we can trust is ourselves."

"But sometimes, we may find that the knowledge, common sense, rules and logic we have spent our entire lives building will collapse in an instant, and we can't even trust our own experience." Hastings smiled bitterly, "I sincerely hope that you will not experience such a decisive moment, but in my opinion, from the moment you approached Chaldea, or Fujimaru Ritsuka, voluntarily or forcibly, you have been on the countdown to this end."

He paused, then added, "It's the same with Brother Captain Stern. In fact, perhaps he completely changed his mind earlier than you did."

Malan cast a suspicious look: "It sounds like you suffered a great blow during your time in Chaldea."

"That's true, but it was a 'good' blow." Hastings understood what the other party wanted to point out and said, "The series of events I went through did almost ruin all my experience, but... at least now it seems that the results of these things are not bad, so it's still easy to accept."

After all, it is almost impossible for any psychic to survive after facing the Lord of Change directly, even a small projection. This was not the first "unreasonable" thing Hastings encountered after boarding the Storm's Edge, but it was undoubtedly the most shocking one.

Its impact in terms of "irrationality" was so strong that even the Grey Knights refused to believe its authenticity.

-

This was not the first time that Lanmalok had watched a psychic ritual at close range, but the sight still amazed him.

The psychic rituals led by the Blood Angels were significantly different from those led by Fujimaru Ritsuka. Lanmarok was not sure whether this was due to the different schools or the different functions that needed to be achieved. His intuitive feeling was that, judging only by the preparations beforehand, the Blood Angels were obviously more fancy in this stage.

After Lanmarok led them to the temporary morgue, Joscelius and the two recorders he brought with him immediately became a chief priest and two assistant priests. After a brief instruction, the two recorders took out small items such as animal bones, incense burners, chalks, and candles from their pockets, drew a simple diagram at the designated location, and laid out the style of a simple altar. The smoke from the incense burner slowly drifted out, and Lanmarok smelled a smell similar to blood. The analysis equipment on the power armor reported to him that these drifting spices contained a certain amount of hallucinogenic ingredients.

Even though she was confident that she would not be knocked down by this disturbance, the Dark Angel silently switched the armor's air circulation system to internal circulation. Fujimaru Ritsuka also lit incense during the large-scale ceremony that she had to lead, but she admitted that it was just an atmosphere group that didn't matter whether it was there or not. The reason she did that was just because she felt that smelling that scent would make her feel calmer and therefore easier to concentrate.

But now, Lanmalok strongly suspected that the smoke had a real meaning in the rituals of the Blood Angels Librarians here.

One of the recorders removed the gauntlet for Jorgeselius, while another held the incense burner so that the smoke from it could cover the space above the charred head of Trolipo. The chief priest, the Librarian, muttered something, holding a ritual knife in one hand, and while emitting blue psychic light from his eyes again, he stabbed his other hand, which had taken off the gauntlet, and let his blood drip next to the corpse.

The wound he inflicted on himself naturally and quickly formed blood scabs after the knife was pulled out, but the blood that left his body, contrary to the physiological characteristics of Astartes, maintained quite good fluidity for dozens of seconds. They did not quickly form blood clots in mid-air, but fell to the ground in liquid form under the careful guidance of psychic energy, smearing a red line - then, accompanied by the low chanting of Joselius, something happened.

Something did happen, but Lanmarok was not sure what happened. This might be because he lacked relevant knowledge, or it might be because he was relatively insensitive to things behind the curtain that could not be measured with common sense. He only felt that the temperature around him dropped significantly, heard some vague and strange noises that seemed to come from far away, and saw the smoke from the incense burner began to flow like a long snake in an absolutely unnatural way, as if it was twisted into some strange, but unclear pattern. Apart from that, he did not feel anything else.

But for Joscelius, this was obviously not the case. The old Librarian took a while to break free from the trance brought by psychic energy. He shuddered, exhaled slowly, and then said hoarsely: "Shock, pain, betrayal, regret."

He paused for a moment before explaining these words that popped out of thin air: "The Archbishop's death was obviously also interfered with by psychic energy. Even though I tried to read his last echoes from the warp before his death with a ritual, I could only roughly read these deepest emotions."

The two recorders did not question this conclusion, but Lanmalok, as a layman, was different - to be honest, he was a little disappointed.

"Is this all we can know?" He struggled to ask from the perspective of a person who only knew how to use materialistic methods to investigate. "To be honest, just knowing what the archbishop was thinking before he died is not much help to us."

"Psychic power is a very delicate subject!" Ruo Heselius did not like being questioned, especially by a layman. "There are many vague hints and omens, which require more information to verify each other! I don't have so much time to explain them one by one to someone who doesn't even know how to maintain respect."

Lanmalok was of course very unhappy to be criticized like this, but in order to allow the investigation to continue, he chose to stand there angrily and remain silent. He watched as Joscelius and his assistants changed positions and performed the previous ritual again in front of the body of "Confessor" Conte - this time, even Lanmalok, who had almost no inspiration for the warp, clearly saw the difference between the two rituals:

The smoke from the incense burner gathered into a clear human shape above Kong Tai's body, and began to move on its own. Lanmarok stared at it for a while and realized that the little man who was almost just pacing in circles was actually reproducing Kong Tai's actions in the recent period before his death.

Perhaps this is what this ritual should be like. At least after a few minutes, after finishing it smoothly, Joscelius let out a sigh of exhaustion and satisfaction. Lanmarok deduced from this that no matter what the result was, at least he was sure to find something in this ritual.

"How is it?" The Dark Angel asked shamelessly, earning an unhappy glance from the Blood Angels Librarian under his psychic hood. But perhaps because the success of the second ritual brought him back to a good mood, Joscelius decided to explain:

"The death of 'Confessor' Conte was entirely of his own will." He said the answer that the echo of the warp told him. "After returning to the room, he felt shocked and terrified, but most importantly, he questioned his own beliefs. From the subjective point of view of the person involved, he was loyal to the Emperor from beginning to end, but in the last moments of his life, he began to question whether his loyalty was real and whether he had been used by others. The seeds of doubt grew rapidly in his heart, and in a short moment they became branches and leaves. So, he finally made the decision to hang himself, so as to prevent his possibly impure beliefs from causing greater damage - even if this was against the doctrine of the state religion."