Chapter 57 The End of the Era: Priest

"I didn't know you were here, Father." Vito said, but he was still sitting on the bench in the first row. Father Hus held a candle and brought its candlelight closer to the silent candle tray. As the flames approached one by one, the candlelight also lit up. Father Hus lit the candles under the shrine one by one.

He worked slowly and every action could almost be called a prayer. He stared at the burning candles with a calm expression. The candlelight illuminated the wrinkled old face, but even so, the black eyes reflected the candle flames, like the fire of piety burning in his heart.

The candlesticks under the emperor's shrine burned one after another, and the flames gradually dispelled the darkness. The golden statue of the emperor also reflected a dazzling light under the illumination of the flames.

"I didn't expect you to be here, Inquisitor." Hus's old voice said, sweeping the burnt candle debris off the candlestick. The debris fell to the ground, and soon a servo skull flew over and sucked it away in a few seconds, and then the servo skull flew away.

Vito looked at the servo skull that flew into the darkness of the vault, "You can let them help you light the candles, Father." "Yes, but I would rather light the candles here with my own hands on the morning of the Emperor's Ascension Day and bring the light of truth to this dark corner of the galaxy."

Vito smiled and leaned back on the bench. He raised his eyes and looked at the statue in front of him. The statue stood majestically in front of him and pointed at the galaxy. Emperor's Ascension Day? Ha, it seems that another year has passed, and I am one year older, but what difference does it make? Is there really any difference between one year old and a hundred years old?

The priest glanced at the silent Vito with his peripheral vision. He turned around and took out a new ever-burning candle from his robe. He inserted the end of it into the fixed anchor of the candlestick, and then lit a new flame for it himself.

"You are doubting, Inquisitor, you are questioning something." The priest said, without any blame in his tone. Vito knew Father Hus. He was never a priest who would rebuke and admonish others. He was a respected wise man, different from many of his colleagues in the state church.

But this is not strange. There are many similar people on the Infinite Frontier. They are all aliens in the places where they once belonged, but here, on the Inquisitor's ship, they don't look so strange.

Vito sighed and looked up at the starry sky in the skylight above his head. He stared at the endless stardust on it. The brilliant Milky Way passed from above, like a star bridge connecting the corners of some locations.

"Yes, Father." "You are doubting whether mankind still has a future and hope." Hus said, he took a step to light the candlestick on the other side of the shrine. Vito did not look at the priest but continued to look at the starry sky.

"It seems that you heard it. It's not easy. After all, you don't have an implant." Vito said leisurely with one hand on the back of the bench. The priest smiled softly. He used his hand to block one side of the candle to make the flame burn steadily and tenaciously.

"I believe that my life is given by the Emperor. He will also decide when I will go home and when he will call me to the Golden Throne."

Vito lowered his head and looked up at the face of the Emperor. Hus lit all the candles and touched the holy water from the golden holy water pool beside the shrine. He gently sprinkled it on the table of the shrine. The holy water with a little silver light flowed over the milky white marble surface.

"Why do you doubt hope? Inquisitor." Hus said and began to prepare for the next step. He wiped the table with a religious cloth that he had prepared long ago. The holy water began to spread gradually as he wiped it. The milky white marble surface had already shone with a luster. That was not the light of the marble itself, but the reaction of the holy water under the illumination of the candlelight.

These holy waters are of course not just ordinary water. The state religion mixed silver powder into it, or as they call it, holy powder. They believe that mixing silver powder, which symbolizes purity, into holy water can purify the impurities and impurities in it.

Although this sounds stupid, mithril weapons can indeed kill demons. The Grey Knights are generally equipped with mithril power weapons, which can fight against those subspace demons to the greatest extent with their psychic power.

"It's been ten thousand years, Father. For ten thousand years, our people seem to have been getting further and further away from truth, reason and light. I have seen similar moments a long, long time ago."

"You think that mankind has lost the opportunity to pursue the future." Huss said without turning around, but continued to be busy. "You think that after losing the guidance of the Emperor, we have embarked on a dark road, a road without light."

"In fact, when the Emperor still led us, there were many problems that we ignored, or could be ignored. I read it in a book, a very ancient book."

"What did we ignore? Inquisitor." "Human emotions."

Vito said, looking up at the Emperor's statue. That face was no longer the one he knew. Just like what he said before, the stone sculptor exaggerated his appearance too much. Although the Emperor would show the most perfect appearance for that person in the eyes of different people, for Vito, he was not affected by this.

"At that time, we thought that relying on truth, reason and infinite power would enable mankind to embark on the journey. The Emperor thought so, but his great cause made him ignore the emotions of his descendants and their hopes."

"Human emotions are fragile. We are jealous, greedy and craving. Often, evil spirits sneak into people's hearts in this way, even in powerful people, even those who are called demigods."

Hus's eyes reflected the flames of the candlelight. He nodded slightly to confirm the words of the Inquisitor, "That's right. Chaos's slander sneaks into people's hearts in this way, and the seeds of jealousy will also bear bitter fruit."

"How many people in the Empire are not like this now? Look at those bureaucrats, even on Terra, no, especially on Terra." Vito said disdainfully, "I wanted to kill them several times, kill all these parasites."

"Why didn't you do that, Inquisitor." Hus didn't seem to care about Vito's betrayal of "killing" the Terra High Lord Council. He didn't seem to care about this sentence at all, but was doing his own preparations wholeheartedly.

Vito smiled bitterly and rubbed his head. "What's the point of killing them? Who will replace them? The Grand Master of Assassins, Wangerich, tried it. He assassinated all the high lords and took power. At first, everything went smoothly, and the bad politics were cleared up, but what was the result after the Beast War?"

"This is the limit of mankind, the limit of a single individual, and the lack of correct guidance as a group will eventually become the broken situation of the high lords, which is far from the original purpose of establishing them."

"The Emperor sits on the Golden Throne, all the Primarchs are missing, or in other words, no one can come back to lead mankind, and Guilliman is still sleeping in the static position."

Of course, there are also the Guards, the group of golden armored guards who could have intervened in all this, and they could have intervened and interfered with everything in the Empire at any time and anywhere to prevent all this from sliding into the abyss of destruction. They can do it, they did it at the end of the Age of Apostasy.

They led the Space Marines into the palace and persuaded the Sisters of Battle to kill the traitors. They could have continued, but they didn't. Constantine had vowed to be a protector rather than a ruler. It seemed that the current Guards had continued the collective oath they had made.

As the protector of mankind, not the ruler.

Vito smiled, and the smile was slightly ironic. He was often so contradictory. Sometimes he was extremely realistic and uncomfortable, but sometimes he had outrageous ideals. He showed an incomprehensible contradictory thought. He didn't believe in humans, but he believed in humans.

Ha, well, this is also their collective problem.

"Can you? Inquisitor." Hus asked, Vito's expression froze for a moment but he did nothing and said nothing.

"You have solved and cleansed many planets of traitors, heretics and incompetent leaders, and then you also chose reliable people to take their place. The Emperor's Eye already knows that you can do it. Inquisitor, why don't you do it?"

"I promised my friend that I would be a guardian, not a ruler." Vito said softly, and Huss shook his head slightly. He smoothed and tidied the origin paper.

"No, Inquisitor, although you want to abide by the oath in your heart and not interfere in the earthly affairs of mankind as a guardian, you still interfere with all this. You are contradictory. What you think and think in your heart are all contradictory."

"Inquisitor, although you say that humans have no hope and light, you still believe in your heart that light and hope still exist in humans. That's why you interfere and help different worlds."

Huss hung a new prayer note on the shrine. The prayer note seemed to come from a sailor. Huss helped it to present it to the Emperor and prayed that he would help this believer.

"If you hadn't believed, you wouldn't have been a judge, you wouldn't have come again, and we wouldn't have met." Huss's old voice said word by word, so resounding, even though his voice was not loud.

Vito lowered his head in silence, thinking, thinking, thinking about what Huss said, do doubt and belief coexist?

Huss stroked the prayer note, silently reciting the sacred words in the chanting in his heart, his old fingers gently slid across the parchment, slightly but very softly.

"What would your friend hope for you? Doubt or belief?" Huss asked, Vito looked up at the Emperor's statue, his face was illuminated by the strong candlelight, and the starlight sprinkled on his forehead, like a bright light from heaven.

"Trust my own judgment." "So, do you believe in yourself?"

Vito did not speak. Hus turned around. He slowly walked to Vito's side and looked at the profile of the Inquisitor. Hus's hands were inserted into the sleeves of his long robe. The white robe fell to the ground and spread like a silver waterfall.

"Who are you?" Hus asked. Vito was silent for a moment, "Inquisitor."

"What is an Inquisitor?"

"The guardian of mankind."

"What is the guardian of mankind?"

"Watch the night and explore the light."

"What is your duty?"

"Eliminate heresy, eliminate aliens, and bring light back to the empire."

Hus raised his head slightly, and his long sleeves floated with slight movements. "Who are you?" "Vito Constantine." "What does Vito Constantine do?" "Protect mankind and bring back light."

Vito stood up and looked at Hus with a smile, "You remind me of an old friend." "Who?" "Sinderman."

As Vito said this, he walked towards the grand gate of the gate, but he was stopped by Huss after just a few steps. He turned his head and looked at Huss not far away.

The priest looked at the Inquisitor, and he turned to look at the statue of the Emperor. The fire and starlight had illuminated the grand statue together.

"This year's Emperor's Ascension Day, I hope you will say the blessing, Inquisitor Vito."

He smiled, then waved his hand and walked towards the gate.

"I will."