There Are No Gods in This World

The priest looked vicious. He widened his eyes and raised the dagger high.

The crowd below the altar showed fear and anger.

Some of them were restless, but in the end, none dared resist.

The terror of the vampires had long been deeply rooted in their hearts.

They feared that any resistance now would bring bloody reprisals later.

Some turned away, unable to bear watching any longer.

"In the name of God, die."

The priest shouted in a shrill voice.

"There are no gods in this world. The so-called God of Blood is nothing more than a monster."

A voice interrupted the priest's movement.

The surrounding people all revealed incredulous expressions.

Who would dare utter such blasphemy in a place like this? Did they have a death wish?

The priest froze.

His body trembled with rage.

He turned toward the source of the voice.

He wanted to find that damned blasphemer.

The next second, he witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Clad in golden armor and shrouded in radiance, the Emperor walked through the crowd toward the sacrificial platform.

The crowd instinctively made way for him.

The people along the path watched him with shock, astonishment, and confusion.

If there truly was a god in this world, then the figure before them was undoubtedly a real one.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" the priest shouted, inwardly panicked.

"You know nothing of God. How dare you question His existence?"

"There are no gods in this world," said the Emperor. "The God of Blood you speak of is merely a monster adorned in lies."

The priest pointed at the Emperor and shouted at the guards standing nearby.

"Seize this damned heretic."

"Execute him! He must be executed!"

The armored vampire soldiers rushed forward in a swarm, holding spears and swords.

Waldo and the Adeptus Custodes behind him activated their halberds, while the Gene Engines within their bodies switched into combat mode.

"How dare you show disrespect to our lord?"

Moving with incredible speed, they charged the vampire soldiers and unleashed indescribable destructive force.

Their heavy halberds crackled with bright arcs of electricity, razor-sharp and as weighty as mountains.

A mere swing carried astonishing destructive power.

The vampire soldiers, armed with crude weapons, were cleaved apart like ants.

Within mere seconds, broken flesh and blood lay scattered across the square.

Those formidable vampire warriors were completely wiped out in only a few breaths.

The dagger-wielding priest revealed a terrified expression.

He turned and tried to flee.

But the next second, Waldo lifted him up as easily as one would grab a chick.

"Who exactly are you?" The priest's body trembled with fear.

The Emperor looked at him coldly. "I am the one who will judge you, follower of a False God."

"Do you know who I am? I am a regional priest of the Scarlet Church."

"If you dare lay hands on me, you will be challenging the entire church, challenging the God of Blood."

"Oh, wow. You still dare threaten people at a time like this?" Raven flapped his wings and landed beside Waldo, sizing up the outwardly fierce but inwardly cowardly man.

"Let's make a cross, Big Guy. Roast him until he sizzles and see whether his god will save him."

Ignoring Raven's malicious whisper, the Emperor gave Waldo an order.

"Execute him."

The priest's eyes widened, unable to believe what he had heard.

The next second, his head flew into the air, then hit the ground and rolled several times.

"The priest is dead! The Scarlet Church will never let us go."

"The whole town will definitely be slaughtered. We're doomed."

"Run! The vampire army will be here soon. Maybe we'll have a chance if we escape into the wilderness."

The vampires' bloodiness and cruelty had long sunk deep into everyone's hearts.

Seeing the priest dead, the people felt no joy. Instead, they were so terrified that they wanted to flee.

Even escaping into the wilderness and keeping company with those terrifying monsters was better than facing the vampires' wrath.

"You need not be afraid."

The Emperor spoke, his voice rich and magnetic.

His body shone, and brilliant radiance illuminated the dim world like the sun.

"I am the ruler of the Human Empire, your savior."

That holy image gave the people, who had been about to turn and flee in terror, a glimmer of hope.

They did not completely believe the Emperor, but at least they stopped trying to run.

They did not flee into the wilderness in blind panic and cause needless casualties.

"Big Guy, aren't you afraid they'll see you as a new god?"

Raven asked curiously.

"To destroy faith in False Gods, one must display an image more exalted and sacred than theirs."

"If I walked among them as an ordinary man, these people would never believe my words. They would only think I was a Tyrant."

When the Emperor replied to Raven through thought, his tone carried helplessness.

He was a firm atheist.

Yet humanity had suffered deeply from the Warp.

The cancer of religious faith had long become inextricably bound to humanity's fate.

To destroy faith and spread scientific truth, he had to present himself in a miraculous form.

He also knew that continuing to maintain this appearance would surely inspire a new wave of worship.

But this was already the best solution he could think of.

If faith were truly so easy to eradicate, humanity's history would not have seen so many wars.

He could not possibly kill everyone with beliefs.

"All right, Big Guy. Your grasp of human nature truly is unmatched."

Thinking of all the contrarians he had encountered, Raven came to understand the Emperor's approach somewhat.

It was not that the Emperor wanted to maintain that glittering golden image.

He simply had no choice.

The vampire ruler of the town soon received word of the priest's miserable death.

Furious, he rushed over with his soldiers.

He intended to let these damned humans know who truly ruled this world.

Vampires possessed strength and speed far beyond those of humans.

After being injured, they could even use blood to recover.

To ordinary humans, vampires were invincible nightmares.

But before the Adeptus Custodes implanted with Imperial Engines, these vampire soldiers were no different from weeds by the roadside.

One swing of a halberd was enough to reap them in droves.

There was not the slightest suspense in this battle.

The vampire soldiers charged forward shouting all manner of slogans, only to be slaughtered to the last by the Adeptus Custodes.

Mutilated limbs were scattered throughout the town.

The air was filled with the smell of blood.

The town's ruler turned and fled in terror, intending to use his wings to escape into the sky.

After flying several hundred meters into the air, he was pierced and brought down by the halberd Waldo hurled.

After hitting the ground, the pursuing Adeptus Custodes chopped him into dozens of pieces, leaving him thoroughly dead.

The woman and her companions were rescued.

Their clothes were ragged and their eyes weary, yet they possessed an unyielding will.

After questioning them, the Emperor's group learned that they were resistance fighters.

The woman who had shouted "Long live humanity" earlier was named Lucina, a Cursed One.

Her parents had also been members of the resistance, and they had died at the hands of vampires years ago.

"A Cursed One? An Untouchable?"

Raven could directly see Lucina's soul.

It was a black hole, endlessly devouring the surrounding aether and soul energy.

The Emperor asked Lucina, "What happened on this planet? Why do those Mutants rule over you?"

Lucina revealed a trace of sorrow.

"It all began in the early days of the Age of Strife."

"Humanity's own hypocrisy nearly drove this civilization to extinction."

PS: Some readers complained that this was a problematic point, but the Sisters of Silence need to be established, so they need a bit of a buff.

After all, the Sisters of Silence hold a very high status. They are the Emperor's right hand, and if they were not loyal to humanity, they could not attain such a position.

I looked into the information. The Sisters of Silence were founded much later than the Adeptus Custodes, only during the Great Crusade.

I revised Perdita's Calamity and made it the birthplace of the Sisters of Silence. I'm preparing to equip them with Silence Engines.

There is only one chapter left to wrap up Perdita's main storyline, so there is no need to worry about it dragging on.

Thanks to Five Elements Delusional Demon Realm, Mihoyo's lead artist art puppet, and reader 20230109223956143 for their donations.