Armour

"We can't just wait here to die!"

"Go to the Undercity!"

"Go to the Undercity for what?! The planetary defense forces deployed there already lost contact with us!"

"Why did they lose contact? Hundreds of thousands of soldiers just vanished? Those butchers didn't even go to the Undercity..."

"Traitors! They're traitors!"

The nobles roared at each other.

The Governor finally realized she had nowhere left to turn.

Rumors about the traitors had been circulating for a while, along with a prophecy about them.

[The Emperor closes his eyes and does not save the world; Lu Jin opens his eyes and seeks to kill all life]

It wasn't that no one cared, or no one did anything; the planetary defense forces had all been deployed to the Undercity. What could be done if they couldn't suppress them?

The Governor felt only despair.

She looked up at the statue of the God-Emperor, its eyes closed.

Perhaps it was out of guilt; a hundred years ago, the Governor had established a rule—any statue of the God-Emperor that appeared in this world must have its eyes closed.

The Emperor had not brought punishment upon this world, even if the nobles had become a little decadent...

But who would have thought that a hundred years later, something more terrifying than divine punishment would emerge?

This was an accident.

The Governor felt that everything was an accident.

The Inquisitor designed the Fierce Angels, but the plan failed, and the Inquisitor fled. That was an accident.

Originally, only the local nobles were involved in the Inquisitor's plan on Manros, but now a rebel force had appeared, cutting off their retreat from the spires to below the hive city.

This was also an accident.

The Governor increasingly felt she shouldn't have listened to that Inquisitor... Manros, a place wavering between the Imperium and the Red Corsairs, choosing to help one side against the other was a major taboo.

Everyone fell silent, just like the Governor, because they didn't know what else to say, or if their words would even be remembered as their last.

In the dead silence, a gunshot broke it.

Shouts and gunfire suddenly erupted outside the cathedral.

Everyone tensed up, frozen in fear.

Were the rebels fighting the guards outside?

Were they slaves?

Or were they the Fierce Angels brought by Lu Jin?

The answer came quickly.

A moment later, the cathedral doors were pushed open, and a ragged man stood outside holding a Molotov cocktail, his stomach bleeding from a gunshot wound.

Behind the man, slaves and guards could be seen fighting each other... at least, there were no Space Marines.

"For... for..." the man gasped, clutching his wound, so weak his words were fragmented, "For ten thousand years... ten thousand years... all the tormented... of Manros..."

He threw the Molotov cocktail into the cathedral and then closed the doors.

Gunfire erupted outside, and then a bullet hole appeared in the cathedral doors.

The man had clearly been killed, but in such chaos, no one would notice what was happening at the cathedral.

Amidst gasps, flames spread throughout the cathedral.

Everyone was engulfed by the flames within a few breaths, thick smoke billowed, and the air grew scorching hot.

Some people dripped urine onto their clothes to cover their noses, some lay on the ground, and some simply screamed as they were consumed by the flames.

Until someone shouted.

"The fire isn't reaching the God-Emperor statue!"

The Governor heard the shout and looked at the God-Emperor statue. Seeing that it was true, she immediately ran towards it.

The survivors all did the same.

The Governor stood beneath the statue, watching the flames... For some reason, the fire simply wouldn't burn towards the statue.

"Praise the God-Emperor! Praise the God-Emperor!"

People wept with gratitude.

The Governor also murmured words of praise, looking up at the God-Emperor statue.

The statue was no longer with its eyes closed; its golden pupils gazed down at everyone below.

The Governor blinked again, and as before, the statue's eyes were closed. It must have been a hallucination.

The sounds of fighting outside continued unabated.

Although the flames only surrounded the statue and no longer spread, no one knew what the fate of everyone would be.

"Ah!!!"

A scream pierced the Governor's ears, and she looked over.

A man kneeling at the foot of the God-Emperor's statue, praying to it, looked as if he had seen a ghost. He screamed and retreated, accidentally stepping into the fire, screaming as he died.

More people were drawn by this bizarre situation and all looked towards the statue.

The Governor also looked.

There was indeed a statue... but it wasn't the God-Emperor's statue!

The marble and gold were gone, replaced by brass.

A chainsword axe, a Power Hammer... strong arms wielding these two heavy weapons, a terrifyingly robust body, and their owner, Lu Jin.

The statue's two weapons were held crosswise in front of it, with screaming, wailing dead people at its feet.

Its expression was fiercer than any portrait the lowlifes had ever hung!

"Die!!!!!"

The brass statue roared.

This roar drowned out all gasps.

Everyone, including the Governor, fled in the opposite direction in panic, unwilling to look back even as they ran into the flames.

The Governor didn't feel herself burning; she was driven by instinct into the flames, and then realized everything around her had changed.

There was no smooth marble floor. Looking down, there were only mountains of skulls.

Looking around, there were other people accompanying her.

But besides these former comrades, there were also crimson Daemons, holding swords or chains that were almost melted by fire, sticking out their tongues and laughing maniacally as they charged.

And in the eyes of those outside the Governor and her group, the situation was entirely different.

When guards finally broke down the door, they saw only a God-Emperor statue with its eyes closed, while everyone else was rolling in the flames.

Then he was pierced through the chest by a crude longsword.

Many things happened on Manros that day.

When order finally returned to this world, people would visit and record them.

Then the recorders would learn of the supernatural events... how portraits' eyes opened, how Lu Jin appeared on battlefields across the land, leading rebel forces to shatter one defensive line after another, how people praying at home to portraits, silently reciting past grievances and the names of their enemies, would see their enemies appear at the feet of Lu Jin in the portrait...

Whether all of this was true or false, real or illusory, only the dead could say for sure.

It all felt like a dream, like an illusion.

Only one thing was certain.

Lu Jin, foretold in prophecy, had arrived on Manros, cleansing the hatred that shrouded the planet.

He, who would later be known as the Lord of Retribution, severed the past with a chainsword axe on this day, and shattered the perpetual abuse and enslavement on this planet with a Power Hammer.

Twenty-two solar hours later.

The hive spire had become a ruin.

The rebel forces, who had encircled the cathedral from all directions, converged here.

Lu Jin was no faster than any rebel army; he had only just arrived at the cathedral. However, since the slaves had already cleared the church, leaving no one for him to execute, he could only stand on the ruins and consider what to do next.

Kao and fifteen Fierce Angels stood scattered around Lu Jin, carrying chainsword axes and holding Bolters in one hand.

They faced the rebel forces, vigilant towards these locals out of basic cautionary doctrine.

Even though they could see protective talismans, commonly found on ships, carved onto the vehicles or banners of these rebels.

"Is it all over?"

Lu Jin suddenly asked.

Several rebel generals exchanged information, then stepped forward and nodded at Lu Jin: "It's all over."

Lu Jin looked at them.

The generals gradually lowered their heads and knelt on one knee.

Then the rebel forces lowered their heads and knelt on one knee.

The slaves watching from further back did the same.

"Were you facing that Governor?" Lu Jin asked, pointing his warhammer forward, "If not, you may rise."

The people slowly stood up.

Lu Jin descended from the ruins.

The rebel generals followed behind the "symbol" of their shared consensus and belief.

Someone walked up to Lu Jin and reported: "Some slaves are unwilling to execute their masters."

Lu Jin looked ahead.

A group of slaves surrounded a few lavishly dressed nobles, their backs to their masters and faces turned toward the rebels.

"Why aren't they all dead," Lu Jin stopped and asked the slaves.

"They treated us well, unlike other nobles," a slave replied.

Lu Jin wasn't surprised.

Humans were strange creatures; there were always a few oddballs in any group.

Where there was ultimate good, there was also ultimate evil, and vice versa.

"Then they won't die, as long as they behave," Lu Jin stopped looking at the slaves and walked straight into the church.

He entered the church for no particular reason, just a sudden urge.

Looking at the statue of the Emperor, Lu Jin recalled everyone he had met and everything he had experienced since Little Damian's time, and suddenly felt a surge of emotion.

This Emperor statue was different from the statues elsewhere on Manros; its eyes were open.

Perhaps it was because it was confined here that its eyes were open, Lu Jin thought.

The statue looked down upon everyone, including Lu Jin, its gilded eyeballs reflecting the sunlight in their sockets.

"We will help you establish order."

Lu Jin turned to face the rebel leaders.

He would see things through to the end, just as he hadn't simply rescued the Fierce Angels survivors and left.

Because he knew that merely killing and fighting couldn't save people; if he truly cared about some individuals, he had to take responsibility to the very end.

"Don't speak of what happened here. Pay your tithes normally, and the Imperium won't consider this a rebellion," Lu Jin said. "Let this uprising be vaguely defined as a transfer of power."

The rebels nodded one after another.

At this moment, an old slave stepped forward. "Sirs, I know of a secret within this church. Something is buried underground."

He then called some people over and went to the back of the church.

A moment later, some dusty components were carried out by people and brought into the church.

Lu Jin realized they were parts of Ironclad Terminator Armour.

This must be what Huron was looking for, but it looked very plain. Apart from the red paint on the limbs, there were no decorations related to the "Red Butcher."

There were none of the ornate artifacts or decorations.

But it was better than nothing.

"If any of you will be the leader of the new order," Lu Jin scanned the rebel leaders, "can you give me this armor?"

"It is not worthy of you," a one-eyed, disfigured rebel leader stepped forward. "But we will make it worthy of you. We will make it shine brilliantly, like the equipment a savior of Manros should possess..."

Lu Jin nodded in agreement.

Then he suddenly thought...

Outside and inside the Maelstrom were two different worlds, their timelines even out of sync.

Did this mean that the armor modified by the people of Manros was the armor in the image Huron had given him?

Was that armor not in the present, but in the future?