Evan sat upright on the raised platform, wearing a white helmet. A Power Sword and a Bolter lay to his left, and a psyker stood to his right. Like a Primarch, Evan surveyed his warriors. No one could see his expression. There was only endless silence.
The psykers below the platform were ready. They had been invited from various families and organizations to help Evan conduct the test.
The candidates sat in their assigned places. The noble children from the Upper Hive quickly crossed their legs and began meditating, while those from the Mid Hive and Underhive looked lost. After some hesitation, they could only copy the others.
Of course, some had absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do. Most were children from the Underhive. They simply slouched where they sat, occasionally opening their eyes to glance at the people beside them.
Xiao Lan was merely resting his eyes after eating and drinking his fill. When the previous round of "rest" ended, he had been eating "lunch." The moment the sealed iron door opened, he realized that his days of sleeping and eating his fill were about to end. He promptly wolfed down nearly half the week's food ration delivered that morning. Now his stomach was round and bulging, and his pockets still held the food blocks he had not finished.
As the great bell tolled again, the psykers unleashed their powers together, sending Psyker Power assaults into the candidates' minds through the Amplifier Array.
White electrical light flashed continuously along the linear apparatus. Every boy's head began to ache as though it would split apart. The opening stage tested only their resistance to the Warp. Tests of loyalty would come in the middle and later stages.
Blue Psyker Power began to flow into the apparatus. The Greater Psyker serving under the Astra Militarum general had intervened. His entire body was shrouded in black robes, with only one white-gloved hand exposed as it gripped the Amplifier Array.
He would protect the boys, swiftly cutting off the white Psyker Power whenever they could no longer endure it. Otherwise, the immense power could scorch their brains.
As time passed, every boy's brain came under tremendous pressure. Some bled from every opening in their faces but gritted their teeth and held on. Blood trickling from another boy's mouth was baked dry by the Psyker Power, leaving black scorch marks on his lips before he lost consciousness completely. Blue Psyker Power enveloped him and disconnected him from the Amplifier Array. Above other boys' heads, white light flickered as though they might explode at any moment.
Each time someone was carried away, the Psyker Power pressure on everyone else increased. Some candidates' hair had already caught fire, yet they bit down on their lips and refused to make a sound.
Enke's friend Frosa was also carried out, almost all her eyebrows burned away. Though she did not yet know it, she would never need to worry about her future again. Making it to the third round and failing a test of innate talent such as Warp resistance was enough to earn Frosa the favor of many factions.
As time passed, more than nine hundred candidates had been carried away.
Evan swept his hand through the air, and more than half the psykers stopped emitting white psyker power. All the boys breathed a sigh of relief. But those psykers each selected a target and began their eerie whispers.
William was the first to be singled out by a psyker.
Powerful Psyker Power immediately invaded William's mind, and scenes from his past gradually appeared before his eyes.
In a beautiful garden, snow-white prisms supported a Gothic pavilion. Precious white jade from ancient Terra had been fashioned into an exquisite table. Little William sat inside the pavilion, with a Hololithic Projection device on the table displaying arcane knowledge.
Little William was distracted and had no desire to study.
The beautiful woman who suddenly appeared behind him gave William a fright.
"Mother, I..."
"Little William, you're daydreaming again. You are the future Grand Duke William. You must master this knowledge so you can lead the William Family to even greater glory."
"Mother, I don't want to study. It's so boring. Aren't things fine just the way they are? Why do we have to keep thinking about..."
"Silly child, at our level, standing still means falling behind. Countless people are watching our position with hungry eyes. We have no choice. Unless we move forward, the bottomless abyss behind us will swallow us without leaving so much as a scrap of bone."
Little William continued staring blankly at the hololithic device before him, unwilling and unhappy.
Eerie whispers drifted out of the void.
"Why must you bear this burden? Look at the children of the Franklin family next door. Every one of them plays without a care. Their parents use their money and influence to make their children happy. And you? You merely waste your days in front of one hololithic device after another."
"But... my parents want what's best for me. They still care about me."
"What's best for you? Wake up. They only care about the William Family. They only care about power and money. If you can't gain or preserve that power, they'll discard you without a second thought."
"They don't care about you at all. They don't care."
The scenes shifted rapidly. His mother berated Little William for failing to master a lesson. Then came his father, who rarely returned home and was always in a hurry. Whenever he did come home, Little William would eagerly rush toward him, but his father always gave him a detached embrace before promising him next time, next time, and next time again.
"No. I am the eldest son of the William Family. I should shoulder these responsibilities."
"Exactly. Because you're the William Family's eldest son. If you weren't, who would care about you? Who would spare you a thought? Without your status, you're just a little boy no one loves."
The scene shifted to a major holiday when the entire family gathered in celebration. As the William Family's eldest son, Little William performed all manner of polished social rituals. Members of the branch families constantly praised his exemplary conduct. No one noticed the profound reluctance and exhaustion in his eyes.
"See? They only want to turn you into what they want. No one cares whether you're tired or willing. No one even cares whether you're still yourself."
After that, no matter how the scenes changed, Little William remained silent.
Another psyker approached Xiao Lan. This peculiar Underhive boy had held the psyker's attention for quite some time.
Xiao Lan had just endured an excruciating headache, but he had gritted his teeth and held on. He had no way back. If he wanted to preserve such an "abundant" daily life, he had to persevere.
One moment, he was celebrating the easing pain in his head. The next, the world spun around him, and he was back in the Underhive.
Xiao Lan curled up in a corner, with two burly men beside him.
"You little thief with a death wish. You dared steal your master Na Rong's wallet? Tired of living, are you?"
The two men kicked Xiao Lan's body with all their strength, as though kicking a dead dog.
"You little bastard, beep-beep-you sewer rat even the Lord Emperor despises."
"Boss, I think he's about to die."
One man stopped kicking, but the other kept going.
"So what if we kick him to death? Who would care about a little bastard like this?"
He delivered several more angry kicks. Only after Xiao Lan stopped moving entirely did the two men leave.
A long time later, Xiao Lan slowly stirred. What he had protected so fiercely against his chest was a half-eaten block of corpse starch.
After recovering their wallets, people instinctively checked the money inside, rather than the other items that had shared the same pocket.
"I have... something to eat."
Xiao Lan took a small bite of the corpse starch block. Blood stained what remained.
"You're just an Underhive wretch who'll never eat his fill in his entire life. Why come here to suffer?"
The scenes Xiao Lan had experienced were cut apart, then inflicted simultaneously on different parts of his body.
The agonizing headache from the strongest moment of the Psyker Power assault returned.
The skin on both his feet was rubbed raw and covered in blood blisters-the pain he had suffered in the desert.
His stomach was ravenously hungry-the pain he had so often endured in the Underhive, now worse than ever.
Both his hands were broken, as they had been when Underhive gangsters beat him.
A hideous scar appeared on his thigh, where someone's pet Crocodile Hound had bitten him while he was searching for food in the Underhive.
Xiao Lan trembled uncontrollably. Pain that would normally have knocked him unconscious long ago now remained unbearably vivid.
The scene changed again.
Xiao Lan hid happily in a corner, unwrapping the Protein Bar he had just obtained. A pair of large hands reached out from the darkness and snatched it away.
"You haven't paid enough tribute today. Confiscated."
"Food..." Xiao Lan reached for it. A heavy foot answered him.
"I said it's confiscated. You dare grab it back? You're asking for a beating."
A flurry of punches and kicks overwhelmed Xiao Lan's small body, leaving him collapsed in a pool of blood.
"You'll always be a worthless wretch at the bottom, born to suffer. You'll spend your entire life starving." The sinister voice sounded from the void again.
But the moment Xiao Lan heard the word "starving," his entire body stopped trembling.
"As long as I can eat my fill, I'm not afraid of any of this..."
"Hahaha! You lowly little bastard, a food-begging wretch anyone can trample. Does it matter whether you're afraid? It will keep happening to you forever anyway."
"As long as I can eat my fill, I can endure anything. Eat my fill, eat my fill..."
It was as though Xiao Lan had not heard the grotesque whispers at all. He simply kept talking to himself.
"What are you..."
"Eat my fill. I need to eat my fill. I've eaten my fill before. I once ate my fill."
"That was just luck, dragging around a body people had beaten like a dog..."
"I've eaten my fill before. I want to eat my fill."
Suddenly, Xiao Lan straightened his hunched, cross-legged body. His features, twisted together in pain, relaxed completely. Without warning, his tightly shut eyes opened and fixed on the raised platform. They shone brilliantly with blue-white psychic light.
"I've eaten my fill before. He let me eat my fill. He can let me eat my fill!"
"He gave me enough to eat. I'll follow him to the ends of the world."
Countless prayers to the Emperor had never brought him food. But fighting for the man up there could!
Evan sat on the platform, his left hand already gripping his Power Sword. The great golden blade had been activated, and a faint golden glow wreathed it.
The psyker withdrew his interference and raised a hand to indicate that Xiao Lan had passed.
Evan jumped down from the platform and walked through the testing grounds.
Professional medical staff lifted the poor, unconscious child onto a medical transport vehicle. Fully wrapped food blocks and bars rustled out of his pockets and fell to the ground.
Evan called for the medics to stop. He picked up the fallen packages of food and gently placed them in the boy's hands.
"This is his food. Keep it safe for him."
Evan had not been born and raised in this world. He came from another era, from another great nation whose first words of greeting were, "Have you eaten?"
He would always feel compassion for those begging for food to survive.
Evan did not return to the platform. With his Power Sword in his left hand, he continued walking through the testing grounds.
"According to my calculations, the probability that this is the test is 100%, and the probability that you are an illusion is 100%."
"Are you always so confident in your calculations? Have you considered the possibility that you calculated wrong?"
No matter how the scenes changed or how the words tried to tempt him, Enke remained motionless, his eyes tightly shut. His composure seemed to say, "Let him be strong; the breeze still brushes the hills. Let him rage; the moon still shines upon the river."
The psyker raised a hand to indicate that Enke had passed.
Little William's illusion continued. Each sentence stabbed like a knife into the depths of his heart.
"You're merely a sacrifice to preserve the William Family's honor. Who cares about you as a person? They only care whether you can win honors to enhance the family's prestige."
The psyker tried to change the scene again and continue battering Little William.
But he discovered that he could no longer control the changing scenes. Now, an elderly man with an ancient, imposing air sat in the center of a great hall, holding the young William in his arms. The boy kicked his little feet freely, clamoring for Old William to tell him a story.
Old William told him again and again how their ancestor had fought beside the great Space Marines. This was the glory that flowed through the ancient family's blood.
Behind him, on the wall at the very center of the hall, hung an enormous painting of their ancestor following towering Astartes into battle, fighting valiantly.
"They want me to become a grand duke of exceptional vision and ability. They want me to bring the family endless status and wealth. They want me and my descendants to carry on the line for generation after generation."
"Yes, exactly. In their eyes, you're just a..." Before the eerie whisper could finish, Little William interrupted it.
"But there is someone else. He wants me to bring the family supreme glory. He wants me to surpass our ancestors under the Emperor's guidance."
"Exactly. In his eyes, aren't you also..." The eerie voice sounded somewhat angry. It kept being interrupted.
"As it happens, that's what I want too."
"No. You're just a little boy who doesn't want to study..."
"No. I'm no longer a little boy. I'm a man. A man of the William Family."
"For hundreds upon hundreds of years, the William Family has produced politicians, merchants, soldiers, and even criminals. But never a spineless coward."
"I am a man of the William Family! I am a man of the Imperium! I am a man with courage! For the Emperor!"
The psyker withdrew his power and raised a hand to indicate a pass.
Blood streamed all over Little William's... no, now William's body. An emergency hemostatic agent was quickly injected into him. William opened his eyes slightly and saw the towering Chapter Master of the Space Marines give him a small nod.
Many candidates were carried away by the medical staff. Some had passed. Others had fallen.
Perhaps other psykers could undo these effects, but lasting damage would certainly remain.
There were few people left in the selection hall now. Some seemed to be wavering, leaving the psykers unsure whether to pass candidates who had endured for so long.
Seated "below" Evan's gaze was the desert hunter's son who had been the first to arrive during the desert selection. His faith in the Emperor did not seem entirely pure, for his people also worshipped Neisero, whom they called the god of the desert and the hunt.
Beside him was the boy who had offered Evan some Sand Mushrooms after reaching the finish line during the desert selection. The child appeared to be a merchant's son, struggling to choose when faced with the temptation of money.
As time ticked by, the final candidate eventually collapsed. One could say that he had almost passed the test. Almost.
Evan watched the surrounding psykers withdraw their powers and signal to him. The faint golden light of the Power Sword in his hand gradually faded.
The incident involving Chaos whispers in Grand Duke William's home had put Evan on high alert. The barrier between the Warp and reality was already exceedingly thin. With so many psykers gathered here, it paid to guard against even the slightest possibility of disaster.
That was why he had brought out several relics. Fortunately, nothing had happened.
Grand Duke William's household was always efficient. After all, so long as the money was right, the construction crews would swing their sledgehammers hard enough to make them smoke.
In just thirty days, the enormous statue of the Emperor had been erected in the rear courtyard. Grand Duke William paid a considerable sum to have a psyker "consecrate" and bless it.
The broken piece of white jade was enshrined beneath the family's relic to commemorate that exceptionally dangerous crisis.
Now, firsthand news arrived on Grand Duke William's desk. Young Master William had successfully survived the third round of selection, joining the final list of 211 outstanding candidates.
Grand Duke William immediately roused his sleeping wife and brought her before the Emperor Statue to pray.
After their prayers, he left his wife tossing and turning in bed, too excited to sleep. Taking a bottle of fine wine, Grand Duke William traveled to the family's ancestral cemetery that very night.
Medals hung one after another from stands before the gravestones. Old Grand Duke William's grave stood at the outermost edge of the cemetery. The current Grand Duke William sat before the gravestone, pouring cup after cup of wine for the departed.
"Father, my son-yes, the eldest grandson you held in your arms and told stories to-has made something of himself. He may well fulfill, or even surpass, your expectations. Please watch over him from beyond."
"Ancestors of every generation of the William Family, please protect my son. He is about to make history for our family."
"O Emperor, please look kindly upon your people, who have remained loyal to you for generations."
Under the medical staff's attentive care, the 211 fortunate candidates who passed the third round were safe and well. The final test was about to begin.
Before you continue