Chapter 148 Destination and Ethics, the Meaning of Terra

The Soul Redeemer left the planet.

But before that, the recovery work of the ground forces delayed it for a full fourteen hours.

For nearly a whole day, it and the warship transport airship that arrived later were working hard to recover the surface equipment.

After all, apart from personnel and some equipment that needed to be delivered with the army, most of the equipment and supplies were released through short positions, and the time spent on recovery was much longer than the time of release.

The ground troops were different from when they went, and only occupied a small part of the transportation capacity.

Only a few of the personal belongings of the soldiers who died in the battle were allowed to be brought back, so that they could be filed and archived when they returned to the mother planet, and handed over to their relatives far away in batches according to procedures.

If they had, if they were still alive.

Their bodies that died in the battle were collected, and after being incinerated, their ashes were kept at the entrance of the Webway ruins, under the temporary stone tablet built to commemorate this battle. Their names will also be engraved on this stone tablet representing their courage and dedication.

The initial list of soldiers was easy to obtain. After all, this group of people had been trained on Titan II for more than several years before departure, and the Soul Redeemer had relatively complete information about them.

What was difficult to deal with was the specific verification work, because they were facing the demons of Khorne, and most of the dead did not have complete bodies for identification.

The veterans of the officer corps obviously did not encounter this situation for the first time, and they gave a simple and feasible suggestion:

"Method of elimination."

That's right. Except for the unlucky ones who disappeared on the battlefield, those who boarded the return journey alive were excluded, and the remaining list was the list of the dead.

The specific identification work seemed to be a waste of time and unnecessary.

Anyway, they could not be buried alone. Anyway, they were used to crowded soldiers' dormitories when they were alive, and they would not refuse to mix with their comrades after death.

Mixed together in every sense.

Calvin sat in his dormitory suite, reviewing the gains and losses of this battle alone in a quiet environment.

After he handed over his authority, no one came to bother him about the complicated administrative affairs:

If there was really an undecided decision or something that required his presence due to diplomatic standards, Jin would come to him.

Yes, that's right. Jin, who was used as a tool to communicate with the real envoy of the Imperial Guard, Nicholas, has been determined to be unable to return to Terra to serve his real master for the time being.

He and the other five Imperial Guards, arranged by the Tower of Hegemony, became a special existence around Calvin that was more monitored than guarded.

A guard of honor? A guard? A disciplinary enforcement force?

All of them, or none of them. Anyway, Calvin had never heard of any Primarch who could be successfully arrested by a team of Imperial Guards...

But accidents are accidents, and troubles are troubles. Calvin was extremely disgusted with this unplanned existence.

"This is the treatment that every Primarch and special person in the Empire has."

That's what Captain Nicholas explained to Calvin. He himself will return to Calvin again after completing his short mission and returning to Terra to report on his duties.

This was also the condition for Calvin to get the warlord-level psychic, the Titan Declaration of Truth, without spending a penny.

"So I have to say thank you?"

Calvin wanted to answer like this when he heard Nicholas' explanation.

But as long as he imagined the Declaration of Truth waiting on the surface for the large transport barge dedicated to Titans to recover it, the lonely figure like a child, he decided to endure it.

After all, no matter how complete the supply of armaments on Titan is, the technical sergeants on the micro-casting world would never think that one day they would need to serve a complete warlord-level Titan.

This ability is definitely beyond the knowledge range of an Astartes technical sergeant. With their short hundred years of training in the Mechanicus, it is impossible for them to have the opportunity to access such top-secret information.

Mars has a very strict view of the knowledge of these Mechanic incarnations. Since the existence of Titans, this core knowledge has been tightly held in the hands of the Titan Order. Even the Casting General can only understand it, and has no right to spread it.

But the Guards are different. They represent the power of the Throne Court and can bypass these links and directly mobilize the priests of the Omen Order who are still dormant.

Anyway, if their drivers cannot be replenished for a day, these priests will have nothing to do for a day.

It is also one of the unshirkable responsibilities of the Throne Court to make these units that have fallen into dormancy due to excessive personnel loss busy again, isn't it?

After making compromises, this part of the matter has come to fruition. Putting it aside for the time being, Calvin began to check the benefits of his soul in the spiritual world.

Compared with ordinary mortals or demons, the emotions of Alpha-level psychics are many times stronger.

But compared with the existence of the Great Demon, the former's importance has to retreat a little. There is no other reason, because the Great Demon, an existence that the gods directly participated in creating, is born with relevant fragments of authority in its soul.

This distorted fragment is the source of the individual and core charm of the Great Demon as one of the thousands of incarnations of the gods, with thousands of faces.

It makes the Great Demon clear about his mission from the moment he is born. While sharing one aspect of the gods' diamond-like authority, he also exercises the morality and justice represented by this aspect.

Perhaps they have different identities and rankings, and the completeness and size of the fragments they contain are also different; but there is no doubt that the presence or absence of such fragments is the only difference between the great demon and the ordinary demon.

But not every great demon has fragments, because not every great demon is a "real" existence.

They seem to be no different from those "real", but they may just be a projection of a destructive power blessed by the gods in time.

The relationship between demons is so chaotic and disordered. The outside world has no way of knowing their complex relationship, and mortals who try to study them always find that they are the ones who are deceived...

Calvin does not study this. He just tastes every harvest from the perspective of a predator with his unique "taste".

Just like opening a blind box, if you open too many fake ones, you can always open the real one; if you eat too many projections, the information of the projection owner-the real name will sooner or later be mastered by Calvin.

This is also the origin of the real name of the demon recorded in the Demon Canon.

As long as there is a record of being killed, even if it is not the original body, it will inevitably leak part of its real name.

The difference is that the way he dealt with it was different from other Grey Knights. Calvin would not choose to expel them, but to eat them directly...

The remnants of the demons and psychic echoes made him more complete, and the fragments of the Great Demon's twisted authority - the real name - were also waiting for him to savor them carefully.

He thought so, but the originally expected pleasant single meal time was interrupted unexpectedly. After he saw the three Grey Knights who died in the battle in the spiritual world... "!!! Emperor's toilet! Why are you here?"

Calvin looked at the three people standing at the gate of the city-state in his spiritual world, and he felt bad!

Isn't it agreed that the soul will return to the throne? What's the matter with returning to me?

"You are here? So this land and this city-state belong to your property?"

Fell observed the surroundings with interest, and was not surprised by the sudden appearance of Calvin.

Albright and Natalio behind him were also the same. They looked at the crowds at the roadside of the city gate with interest.

The souls of the mortals around them did not seem to be surprised by the three new existences. They seemed to be busy with their lives as if nothing had happened.

"We don't know the specific situation, but it should be related to the seed you gave us."

After seeing enough details of the crowd, Fel explained to Calvin.

"At that time, we did have several choices, either to perish, or to respond to the distant call; either to be taken away by the devil as a trophy, or to get close to you. Because of the seed, we think the last one will feel better."

"So you came to me?"

Calvin still found it hard to accept. This was definitely not in his plan, nor was it his original intention to build this place.

He never intended to interfere too much in the arrangements of these comrades.

But the accident happened just like that. When he did not take the initiative to use the power of salvation, these comrades who had been assimilated by his spiritual energy had tickets to come here after death.

This can be regarded as an accident, but Calvin knew that there must be some details that he overlooked.

What exactly is it? He turned around a few times and scratched his head in distress.

It can only be a soul! It can only be a soul!

In fact, without much thought, Calvin already understood:

So the psychic seeds he gave, while assimilating psychic energy, naturally also affected the souls of these Grey Knights?

Logically speaking, there is indeed no problem, since psychic energy is the external manifestation of soul in this universe, that is, aura.

Then the change in the state of psychic energy should have been a byproduct of the change of aura, but Calvin has always misunderstood this and naively put the cause and effect together.

Then the question is, if these three people are like this, what about the other Grey Knights?

When they meet the end of their fate at some point in the future, will they also be pulled to this land because of his unexpected intervention?

Then should he be more cautious about giving out psychic seeds in the future?

After all, once this seed is given, it is equivalent to the other party signing a contract to sell him from birth to death.

And as the party giving it, does he also have the obligation to bear the corresponding responsibilities?

Does he have this ability?

Can he bear the other party's hope?

Can he guarantee that he will not die in a certain battlefield?

If Calvin dies in battle at some point, what will happen to these warriors who depend on him?

This problem is still small now, and is limited to the Honor Guard.

But as long as Calvin thinks of the gene seeds that will be sent back from Mars, his headache becomes even worse.

The essential issues of the soul's destination involved in faith, and the ethical issues of rights and obligations of commitment and commitment, are all perceived by Calvin under this divergent thinking.

He found distressed that he had to bear far more responsibilities than he imagined. Death is the end of life in the eyes of others, but for him, it may just be the beginning of trouble...

He told his distress to the three comrades, and the three of them looked more solemn as he told them.

In the end, it was the oldest Alblad who spoke up and provided Calvin with their opinions:

"There are actually two things. The first thing is the responsibility you mentioned. You don't need to worry about it at all."

He turned and looked at the people who were still living peacefully and said:

"Because the premise of our coming here is to agree with your ideals and beliefs, then when sacrifice is inevitable, we also have the awareness of being with you. We are like this, and the future Grey Knights should also be like this."

"What about the second thing?" Calvin decided to listen to him.

"As for the second thing..."

Alblad looked at the other two people. The three people who were in a state of soul communication instantly completed the communication, and then looked at Calvin who was confused:

"I say, child, since you were born (becoming a Grey Knight), you have been traveling back and forth between Titan and various battlefields. Decades have passed. Don't you really think that you are missing some links that have not been completed?"

"Me? What links can I be missing?" Calvin was even more confused.

"You are missing a father! I mean, to this day, you, the Primarch of the Grey Knights' genetic template, have not yet gone to Terra to meet His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Ah! That's true. But what does this have to do with my current problem?"

"Go see Him!" Natalio said, looking deeply in the direction of Terra in the distance.

"Go see Him, the source of all of us and this empire. If you have the opportunity, it's best to talk to Him, and he will give you a legal ruling. After that, no matter what the result is, you no longer need to worry about this ethical issue yourself."

After hearing these words, Calvin was silent. He also looked in the direction of Terra, thinking about the hidden meaning of the words of the Imperial Guard envoy he met in the adjutant position:

Lord Trajan, the commander of the Imperial Guard, is eagerly looking forward to your arrival. As long as you are free, please come...

Is it really only Trajan who is looking forward to his arrival?

Or he himself did not want to see the source of everything, the existence that took him in, was it really the sacred emperor?

What does the emperor mean to him, a visitor from another world?

He has always been reluctant to think about this question, and in a sense, he has been avoiding the existence of the problem.

But today, it seems that this problem can no longer be delayed.

In any case, he has a reason to go to Terra once.

It is shameful to escape, but since escaping can no longer delay the problem, he must not hide here and not face it.

Calvin took a deep breath, at least at the moment he knew his next purpose.

He needs to go to Terra to see that sacred existence, he needs to go to Terra to see the place where all the stories began.

Two in one, please vote.