The White Glove Plan

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, another fanatic labeled a heretic of Chaos was dragged onto the judgment platform.

Like the woman before him, he was bound to a metal pillar.

The stench of charred flesh in the air filled the fanatic with terror; he had witnessed the woman's death with his own eyes, and now, it was his turn.

"I am no follower of Chaos, I have been framed! My devotion to the Emperor exceeds that of all others; you cannot treat me this way!"

"Then why did you slaughter those people? Why did you slit their throats and smear their blood upon your face?"

The priest demanded sternly.

"I did it to redeem the souls of the faithless, so they might ascend to the Emperor's realm!" the fanatic shrieked.

"Absurd! You merely used the Emperor's name to wantonly murder the humanity He loves. You shameful traitor of Chaos, in the name of the Divine Emperor, I sentence you for your crimes. Heretic, you are condemned to death!" The priest's Skull Hammer struck the judgment table as he shouted the verdict.

The priest's judgment whipped the crowd into an even greater frenzy, all of them chanting for his execution.

Such fanatical trials were not isolated incidents.

They were happening everywhere on Espandor.

Burnings at the stake, hangings, beheadings.

The people executed those branded as minions of Chaos, forcing them to pay the price for their horrific deeds.

Some began to question whether the Primarch's methods were correct.

After all, those being executed were fanatics whose piety was plain for all to see.

This sowed confusion in the hearts of some, leading them to even doubt the Primarch.

Guilliman shattered these doubts with a single statement, and sent those who questioned him to the pyre as well.

"The Ecclesiarchy has gone astray. Those heretics lurk among us, fooling you in your ignorance, just like Valius, the heretic once hailed as a Saint who caused the deaths of thirty loyalist Chapters. They disguise themselves as the Emperor's messengers, fooling and deceiving us. They appear pious, but in truth, they lead us down the wrong path."

No one could deny the crimes of Valius; that shameful heretic had caused the deaths of over twenty thousand Space Marines.

Guilliman's words convinced the wavering believers that heretics were indeed hiding within the Ecclesiarchy.

The storm of purges became even more severe and terrifying as a result.

Radical priests and believers faced harsh scrutiny; their books were burned, and some were even declared heretics and executed in public.

To end the madness and extremism of the Ecclesiarchy, Guilliman birthed a different kind of madness.

Believers, desperate for redemption and penance, sent hundreds of thousands to the pyre in a single day.

Seeing that the situation was spiraling out of control, Guilliman was forced to issue another order.

He demanded that the people target only those heretics who refused to repent, forbidding excessive violence.

They were to remember the Emperor's mercy at all times.

While the radicals were detestable, some had merely been misled.

They were to be redeemed, not annihilated.

It was fortunate that Guilliman's order arrived in time, or the entire planet would have smelled of roasted meat.

While the believers scrutinized the so-called "heretics," Guilliman did not remain idle.

He had the bishops bring forth the current scriptures of the Ecclesiarchy to be revised, defining the arguments and dogmas of the radicals as heresy in the Emperor's name, and declaring a vast number of books forbidden, prohibiting the faithful from reading them.

Public libraries were permitted to keep only the texts of the Moderate and Redemptionist factions.

Guilliman also signed new mandates for the bishops, requiring them to travel to every planet to spread the revised, corrected teachings of the Ecclesiarchy and to purge those fanatics who had lost their reason and committed cruel acts in the Emperor's name.

Any believer who refused to submit to the revised scriptures would be declared a minion of Chaos.

These shameful traitors would be hunted down by the new Ecclesiarchy and Guilliman himself.

Guilliman stayed on Espandor for three weeks, solidifying his status as the sole mouthpiece of the Emperor and confirming the scriptures and core tenets of the new Ecclesiarchy.

A vast number of fanatics were purged, and the extreme ideology of the Ecclesiarchy on Espandor was forcibly corrected by Guilliman.

Having dealt with the affairs of Espandor, Guilliman returned to the Macragge's Honour.

He could not remain on one planet for long; other places required his salvation.

To consolidate his achievements, he required the bishops to report their missionary progress to him periodically, as well as which worlds were uncooperative and required him to mobilize the military to purge the heretics.

Standing on the deck of the Macragge's Honour, Guilliman gazed at the shrinking planet of Espandor and sighed, "How fickle the world is. I was the one who burned Monarchia, and now, I am the one who calls himself the sole mouthpiece of the Divine Emperor."

It was fortunate that Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers, could not escape the Warp, or he surely would have vomited blood upon hearing Guilliman's words.

The XVII Legion, the Word Bearers, were the first missionaries of the Imperium, and Lorgar himself had written the Lectitio Divinitatus to preach the divinity of the Emperor.

During the early and middle stages of the Great Crusade, the Word Bearers could be said to be the most loyal legion to the Emperor.

They preached on every world they conquered, ensuring these worlds remained pious toward the Emperor.

The most ironic point was that when the Word Bearers later turned traitor, the worlds they had once conquered became the Emperor's most loyal defenders.

Traitors often had to pay an extremely heavy price to conquer these worlds.

During the Great Crusade, in order to promote the Emperor's divinity, the Word Bearers had built a perfect city of faith.

Monarchia was filled with statues of the Emperor, poems praising Him, and all manner of scriptures.

This act thoroughly infuriated the Emperor, a staunch supporter of atheism.

To teach Lorgar a lesson, the Emperor dispatched the XIII Legion—the Ultramarines led by Guilliman—to erase Monarchia from existence using orbital bombardment.

Furthermore, the Emperor used his immense psychic power to force Lorgar and the hundred thousand warriors of the Word Bearers to kneel before him, Guilliman, and the Imperial Regent Malcador.

Following this incident, the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines became bitter enemies, leading to the subsequent Battle of Calth, where the Word Bearers took their revenge by slaughtering two hundred thousand Space Marines of the XIII Legion, not to mention countless ordinary soldiers and civilians.

Who could have imagined that after ten thousand years of change, the Emperor would be confined to the Golden Throne, the traitor Primarchs would be hiding in the Warp, and the loyalist Primarchs would be either dead or missing?

As the only Primarch currently active in the Imperium, Guilliman has become the most legitimate mouthpiece for the Emperor, transforming into the very embodiment of the Emperor's divinity.

One must say, fate is truly ironic.

"My Lord, will this course of action not cause problems? Religious schisms are extremely prone to inciting war."

Sicarius looked at his liege, asking with a hint of trepidation.

"There will likely be some unrest, but the problems should be manageable. If this cancer that is the Ecclesiarchy is to be treated, there will inevitably be growing pains," Guilliman said in a low voice, keeping his tone hushed to ensure it would not spread.

These were words he could only share with absolute confidants like Sicarius.

If they were to leak, it would undoubtedly cause a massive catastrophe.

As the mouthpiece of the Emperor, declaring the Ecclesiarchy a cancer would surely cause countless believers to collapse, triggering a massive upheaval across the Imperium.

"If you dislike the Ecclesiarchy, my Lord, why not set about dismantling it?" Phicris asked, puzzled.

"The roots of the Ecclesiarchy have already burrowed into every sector of the Imperium; to forcibly excise it would cause the already precarious Imperium to shatter instantly," Guilliman explained. "We must take it slowly. By the way, relay an order to Captain Brecht: have him adjust our course. We are heading to Thalassa Prime."

"My Lord, why go there? We have not received any distress signals from Thalassa Prime; that world should be operating normally. The power of the Inquisition is formidable enough that Daemons dare not enter their fortress worlds lightly."

"I am not going there to provide support, but rather to make contact with the Inquisitors," Guilliman said. "I have a plan that requires their assistance. Of course, I may not find the right people immediately, but I can at least gauge the current state of the Inquisition and screen for suitable candidates to work for me."

Guilliman had not forgotten his need for a White Glove.

He needed to find a few Inquisitors from the Radical Faction and have them help him develop a few daemon spies.

The requirements were not high; he just needed a general understanding of the Chaos Gods' movements. Otherwise, remaining completely in the dark and waiting for the enemy to strike was far too passive.

Lorgar: You are amazing, you are so high and mighty. Back then, you burned Monarchia, called my beliefs trash, and made Father force me to kneel and admit my faults. Now, you shamelessly call yourself the mouthpiece of the Emperor and use my own words to hoodwink those bishops. As a Primarch, can you have any shame at all?