Faith Is Poison, Drinking Poison to Quench Thirst

"My friend, our plan had ultimately failed.

The Webway Project had been ruined by Magnus's folly. We could no longer rely on that great miracle created by the Old Ones to escape the corruption of the Warp."

"Faith had always been a trump card I had been unwilling to use, yet had always kept in reserve."

"Whether the Imperial Truth or the Imperial Creed, both were merely means. The purpose was to maximize humanity's interests."

Malcador recalled the Emperor's instructions to him before He ascended the Golden Throne. It had been a secret shared only between them.

Not even the primarchs knew of the Emperor's contingency plan.

Because the person originally best suited for it had completely betrayed the Imperium.

Lorgar Aurelian had originally been a primarch created by the Emperor for this backup plan of faith.

"During the Great Crusade, the Emperor led vast legions and brought every human world cursed by war under His banner, fulfilling humanity's fundamental need for 'security.'"

"Those worlds had fallen into the dark years after the Age of Strife, harassed by xenos races, human raiders and pirates, and Warp creatures.

The weak worlds had long since perished, while those that remained merely struggled on."

"At such a time, the Emperor's appearance undoubtedly gave them a pillar they could rely on. That was why humanity united so completely."

Malcador could not help but let out a long sigh. Just as he had said, the times had changed.

This did not merely mean that the Emperor had ascended the Golden Throne and could no longer personally guide humanity's future path.

It also meant that the galactic order had changed, and humanity's most fundamental needs had changed.

Although the Great Crusade had ended, a military campaign spanning the entire galaxy and possessing such immense scale carried