Amidst the cheers of the crowd, another fanatic defined as a Chaos heretic was dragged onto the scaffold.
Like the woman before him, he was bound to a metal pillar.
The burnt stench in the air terrified the fanatic. He had witnessed the woman's death with his own eyes, and now it was his turn.
I am not a servant of Chaos, I have been wronged. My piety toward the Emperor surpasses everyone's, you cannot treat me like this.
"Then why did you brutally murder those people? Why did you slit their throats and smear their blood across your face?"
The chaplain sternly demanded.
"I did this to redeem the souls of the faithless, so they could ascend to the Emperor's realm," the fanatic shouted.
"Absurd. You merely used the Emperor's name to slaughter the humanity He loves indiscriminately. You shameful Chaos traitor, in the name of the Divine Emperor, I sentence you for your crimes. Heretic, you shall be put to death." The chaplain's skull hammer struck the trial table, shouting the verdict.
The chaplain's judgment drove the crowd into an even greater frenzy, shouting things like executing him.
Such fanatical trials were not isolated incidents.
They were happening everywhere on Espandor.
Bonfires, hangings, beheadings.
People executed the fanatics judged to be minions of Chaos, making them pay the price for their past horrific actions.
Some people also questioned whether the Primarch's actions were correct.
After all, those executed were all fanatics, and their piety was plain for all to see.
This caused doubt to arise in the hearts of some people, and they even began to doubt the Primarch.
Guilliman shattered these doubts with a single sentence and sent those who questioned him to the pyre as well.
"The Ecclesiarchy has gone wrong. Those heretics lurk among us, fooling the ignorant among you, much like Valius, the heretic once praised as a saint who caused the deaths of thirty loyal Chapters. They disguise themselves as the Emperor's messengers, fooling and deceiving us. They appear pious, but in truth, they are meant to lead us down the wrong path."
No one could deny Valius's crimes; this shameful heretic had caused the deaths of over twenty thousand Space Marines.
Guilliman's words made the swaying believers firmly believe that heretics were hiding within the Ecclesiarchy.
The storm of vetting thus became even harsher and more terrifying.
Those radical chaplains and believers all faced severe scrutiny. Their books were burned, and some were even condemned as heretics and executed publicly.
To end the madness and extremism of the Ecclesiarchy, Guilliman forged another kind of madness.
Believers yearning for redemption and repentance sent hundreds of thousands of people to the pyres in a single day.
Seeing that the situation was about to spiral out of control, Guilliman had to issue another order.
He demanded that people target only those heretics unwilling to repent, and excessive strikes were forbidden.
They must always remember the Emperor's mercy.
Radicals were certainly detestable, but some of them had also been misled.
They needed to be redeemed, not eliminated.
Fortunately, Guilliman's orders arrived in time; otherwise, the entire planet would have smelled like roasted meat.
While the believers were vetting those so-called heretics, Guilliman was not sitting idle.
He had the bishops bring over the Ecclesiarchy's current scriptures to revise them anew, defining the radical arguments and dogmas as heresy in the Emperor's name, and banning a large number of books, forbidding believers from reading them.
The libraries open to the public were only allowed to keep books containing the thoughts of the moderate faction and the redemptionist faction.
Guilliman also signed new command documents for the bishops, instructing them to go to various worlds, spread the distorted ideology of the revised Ecclesiarchy, and purge those fanatics who had lost their minds and committed cruel acts in the Emperor's name.
Any believer who refused to obey the revised scriptures would be sentenced as a minion of Chaos.
These shameful traitors would be hunted down by the new Ecclesiarchy and Guilliman.
Guilliman stayed on Espandor for three weeks, solidifying his status as the Emperor's sole spokesman and confirming the new Ecclesiarchy's scriptures and core ideology.
A massive number of fanatics were purged, and Guilliman forcibly bent the extremist ideology of the Ecclesiarchy on the world of Espandor back onto the right path.
Having finished dealing with matters on Espandor, Guilliman returned to the Macragge's Honour.
He could not linger on a single planet for long; other places still needed his salvation.
To solidify his achievements, he demanded that the bishops report to him at regular intervals regarding the progress of their proselytizing, as well as which worlds were uncooperative and required him to mobilize armies to purge the heretics.
Standing on the deck of the Macragge's Honour, Guilliman gazed into the distance at the shrinking planet of Espandor, and could not help exclaiming, "How unpredictable the ways of the world are. I was the one who burned the City of Faith, and now I am also the one who claims to be the Divine Emperor's sole spokesman."
Fortunately, Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers, could not get out of the Warp, or else hearing Guilliman say this would surely make him vomit blood in anger.
The seventeenth Legion, the Word Bearers, were the earliest imperial missionaries, and Lorgar even wrote the Lectitio Divinitatus to preach the divinity of the Emperor.
During the early and middle stages of the Great Crusade, the Word Bearers Legion could be said to be the most loyal Legion to the Emperor.
Every world they conquered underwent proselytizing to ensure those worlds' piety toward the Emperor.
The most ironic point was that later, when the Word Bearers rebelled, the worlds they had once conquered became the Emperor's most loyal defenders.
Traitors often had to pay an extremely heavy price to conquer those worlds.
During the Great Crusade, to exalt the divinity of the Emperor, the Word Bearers forged a flawless City of Faith.
The City of Faith was filled everywhere with sculptures of the Emperor, poems praising Him, and various scriptures.
This act completely angered the Emperor, a firm supporter of atheism.
To teach Lorgar a lesson, the Emperor dispatched the XIII Legion—the Ultramarines Legion led by Guilliman—and used His orbital bombardment to wipe the City of Faith from existence.
Moreover, He used His powerful psychic might to force Lorgar and the hundred thousand soldiers of the Word Bearers Legion to kneel before Him, Guilliman, and Imperial Regent Malcador.
After this incident, the Word Bearers and Ultramarines grew estranged, and during the subsequent Battle of Calth, the Word Bearers retaliated against the Ultramarines, killing two hundred thousand XIII Legion Space Marines, with countless other ordinary soldiers and civilians.
Who could have imagined that after ten thousand years of vicissitudes, the Emperor would sit upon the Golden Throne, the traitor Primarchs would hide in the Warp, and the loyal Primarchs would be dead or missing.
As the only currently active Primarch in the Imperium, Guilliman became the most rightful spokesman of the Emperor, transforming overnight into the representative of the Emperor's divinity.
One must say it is the caprice of fate.
"My Lord, will doing this cause problems?? Religious divisions are extremely prone to sparking wars."
Sicarius looked at his liege, asking with some trepidation.
"There will probably be some turmoil, but the problems should not be too big. To cure the cancer that is the Ecclesiarchy, growing pains are inevitable," Guilliman said softly, keeping his voice very low to ensure it would not spread outside.
Such words were things he could only say to absolute confidants like Sicarius.
If word got out, it would undoubtedly cause a massive disaster.
As the Emperor's spokesman, calling the Ecclesiarchy a cancer would surely cause countless believers to break down, inciting massive turmoil within the Imperium.
"If My Lord dislikes the Ecclesiarchy, why not set about dismantling it?" Phicris asked with puzzlement.
"The roots of the Ecclesiarchy have already penetrated every domain of the Imperium. To forcibly uproot it would cause the already precarious Imperium to shatter instantly," Guilliman explained. "We can only take it slow. Right now, transmit an order to Captain Brecht, have him correct our course, and we shall head to Thalassa Prime."
"My Lord, why are we going there?? We haven't received any distress signals from Thalassa Prime, and that world should still be operating normally. The power of the Inquisition is still quite formidable; daemons dare not casually enter their fortress-worlds."
"I am not going to provide support, but rather to make contact with the Inquisitors," Guilliman said. "I have a project that I need them to help me realize. Of course, I might not find the right people, but I can first understand the current state of the Inquisition and screen some suitable candidates to work for me."
Guilliman had not forgotten that he needed a white glove.
He had to find a few radical Inquisitors to help him develop a few daemon spies.
The requirements were not high: at least have a rough understanding of the Chaos Gods' movements, because always being blind and waiting for the other party to cause trouble was far too passive.
Lorgar: You're amazing, you're noble. Back then you burned the City of Faith, cursed my stuff as garbage, and made old man force me to kneel and apologize. Now you so righteously claim to be the Emperor's spokesman, and use my words to dupe those bishops—as a Primarch, have you no shame??
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