40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 485 3. Special Identity
"Hand him over, Pastor, I know the investigator is in there." One man said.

He looked quite old, with a bald head, wearing a piece of stitched leather armor, and carrying a trench shotgun he got from somewhere.

Behind him were twenty other people, which was already considered a large gang, and everyone was armed with a gun. They stood behind the bald man with serious expressions. No one crossed him or tried to speak up for him after he spoke.

They all had shaved heads and wore the same stitched armor and dark, thick-soled boots. This kind of boots is not a bargain in the hive city, and many people are even willing to sell what little they have for a pair of good shoes.
Tujia slowly withdrew his gaze from the gap in the side door.

"I repeat, I need my gun," he told Gore. "These people are obviously well-trained, and there must be financial support behind these well-trained people. This means that these people will never stop until they achieve their goals."

Moreover, they are obviously not the same as those idiots who were chasing me just now. Tujia added silently in his heart.

But this time, Gore ignored him. The Nestor stood up straight with a pale face and left the side door. His movements suddenly became stiff.

"What on earth did you do?" She looked at Tujia and asked in disbelief. "You've only been here in Litatra for less than a day, and yet you're able to provoke this bastard Graham? Do you know who he works for?"

"A certain noble?" Tujia guessed cautiously.

Gore gave him the answer with a dry smile.

He raised his gun, pointed it into the sky and fired. The fire was gushing out and the sound of gunfire was heard far away in the dark night, but the night was still silent and no other sounds appeared.

Tujia covered the wound on his abdomen and began to look outside the church through the gap in the side door again.

Very good. Tujia sighed. A simple investigative mission quickly developed into a horrific conspiracy by a nobleman to murder the investigator in less than twenty hours.
No, maybe not necessarily murder, maybe just trying to take him away, torture him, and imprison him.

Under the dim light of the street lamp, he saw some black figures that almost blended into the night. His heart sank immediately - it was obvious that the noble was the latter.

The mission he received from his superiors was just a routine inspection. Generally speaking, the investigators responsible for such missions would be stationed on a certain planet and send back information regularly.

At this moment, the pastor standing outside the church door asked the same question. He even slowly raised his hands to show that he meant no harm.

"I'm afraid so," Graham said. "I don't want to do it either, but-"

Why could a routine inspection develop into this situation?
"but why?"

"He has nothing to do with you, does he? He's just a bureaucrat's lackey who wants to go to Litatra to dominate. I'm not asking you to kill him, or to lie or cheat or anything else. matter."

but why?
Tujia frowned incomprehensibly.

Moreover, such positions will only be assigned to those important world-worthy individuals who deserve such treatment. Not every planet belonging to the Empire deserves this kind of attention.

Graham sighed.

"—If you insist on letting us do it, we will."

"Listen, Pastor, put your hands down." He shook his head. "I don't want to make things difficult for you. This matter is an order from above."

"Are you going to trespass into the Emperor's church?" the priest asked, still calm and with his hands raised in the air.

"So, Pastor, if you have to stop us, I'm afraid we will have to do something irrational."

"In the same way, pastor, I have never lied to you, nor will I kill anyone in front of you, let alone do anything to you. I will neither hurt you nor ask you to violate any doctrine. So, why don't you Leave it to me? That would be good for everyone."

"You can probably see these brothers behind me. We are all devout believers in the God-Emperor, and there is absolutely no way we would do anything to His priests. But after all, we need to eat, and the God-Emperor has never given us a bite of food. eat."

However, no matter which nobleman chooses, his or her behavior is no different from treason. Anyone who has the guts to do such a thing is either a fool or a capable and ambitious conspirator.

The twenty people led by Graham were just a 'delegation' sent out for negotiation. The real large force may have already tightly surrounded the church.

When it comes to those ordinary worlds, many times, the Ministry of Justice doesn't even bother to pay attention to them. It can be regarded as quite 'lucky' if a patrol round can get one of these planets once every thirty years.

Graham reasoned patiently and changed his posture to stand, the muzzle of the gun still pointed at the sky, but his expression became serious.

"Actually, there are, and they are two doctrines." The pastor replied slowly.

"Which two?"

"First, protect the innocent." The pastor put down his hand. "Secondly, today is Sunday and you have been bothering me for a long time."

Graham frowned, suddenly smiled, and lowered his gun.

"Ah, I see," he said slowly. "You're trying to be clever, aren't you? The God-Emperor's Sunday is obviously yesterday, do you think I'm a fool? Also, do you actually think that the investigator is an innocent person?"

"Yes," said the priest.

He turned around and walked towards the side door in front of them. Gor and Tujia quickly moved out of the way and hid in the darkness. There was a creak, and the side door was pushed open. The pastor came back calmly, and Graham's shouts were also heard.

"I'll give you the last five minutes!" He seemed a little angry. "Did you hear that, Pastor? Last five minutes!"

The priest closed the door gently.

He looked at Tujia.

"Mr. Investigator, are you proud of your work?"

Tujia was stunned for a moment. He originally thought that this strange priest would ask something else, but he still answered, and he answered very seriously: "No."

"Do you like your job?" the pastor asked, walking back into the church.

The candlelight flickered, and the emperor's statues had their eyes closed and faces filled with compassion, looking sacred and calming in the candlelight. The pastor's footsteps echoed calmly and calmly. He walked all the way back to the pulpit, and then he got Tujia's answer.

"No, I don't like it either," Tujia replied cautiously.

"So, why do you keep doing this job?" the pastor asked again.

Then he squatted down and began to hammer a stone slab under the pulpit with his hands.

His strength grew stronger each time, and the dull sound echoed throughout the church, hitting the statue of the emperor, the imperial double-headed eagle flag and the long stone pillars, and gradually turned into a distorted echo. It sounds extremely weird.

Graham was still shouting outside. "Why do you care, pastor?" Tujia asked, already somewhat confused as to what the pastor was doing.

"Because people like you are rare." The priest replied, still concentrating on tapping the unusually hard stone slab.

"Me? Who am I?"

"First of all, you don't kill innocent people indiscriminately."

"I've killed some."

"And they are not innocent. There is no blood on your hands, I can tell. At the same time, you are not greedy for money. Your clothes are very cheap, and the most expensive tweed hat does not exceed forty." Imperial Coin.”

"You like to eat cheap candies, maybe out of compensation for your childhood? Moreover, this is the highest degree of compensation you can bear."

"The most expensive thing you have is the modified Catahan MK3 revolver provided by the Ministry of Justice. You have maintained it very well, but it is also very old. The most important thing is that you have no control over it. No worries.”

"Mr. Investigator, you actually don't care about the Ministry of Justice's guidelines. You do everything based on your own principles. There is no need to refute, you and I both know that what I am telling is the truth."

The pastor slowly stood up, holding a long, dusty black box in his hand. He blew away the dust and placed it on the pulpit. With a soft click, the box was opened by him.

Tujia was silent for a while, looked back at Gore, who was completely confused about the situation, and then answered the pastor.

"Who are you? My colleague?"

The pastor looked up, smiled and said, "No, I don't work for the legal department."

He walked out of the pulpit with a black booklet and two shiny fixed knives in his hands. As if by magic, the two knives quietly disappeared into his cuffs without a trace.

Tujia tensed his muscles, waiting for him to approach, but no attack came. The priest just thrust the black booklet into his hand and patted him on the shoulder.

"That's right, Mr. Investigator. I stayed in Litatra for eleven years, and every day during these eleven years, I worked only for the Emperor. Only at midnight did I do this. A special kind of worship and sermon.”

"You are the second person to attend such a sermon in eleven years. Ms. Gore's father was the first, but he was killed in a street attack, and you"

The pastor narrowed his eyes, stretched out his hand, and slowly opened the booklet. Tujia held it up and glanced down, and a bloody sharp blade burst into his eyes like that.

"You have great potential," the priest said quietly. "When you have nothing to do, you can read this book. By the way, have you heard a sentence, Mr. Investigator?"

"You are trying to recruit an investigator to join a cult, Pastor." Tujia raised his head and looked at him. "Do you know what the law says about this kind of thing?"

"Avengers are everywhere, and avengers are hard to find." The pastor replied nonchalantly and finished his sentence.

Tujia looked at him seriously.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You will know," said the priest.

He went to the side door and left the church through it. The door was still ajar and not closed.

Tujia watched him leave, full of questions. Hive City native Gore stood beside him blankly, his face full of confusion, looking like a low-level servitor with a problem with his thinking circuit.

Tujia ignored her. He was full of hesitation. He wanted to go back behind the ajar side door and observe the outside world through the gap left by it. However, for some reason, he did not do so after all.

A chill that came from nowhere was deeply buried in his heart.

This chill is not fear, but it is far worse than fear. It was what kept Tujia from going to the side door, and it was also what made Gore's body slowly tremble.

The hive man spoke slowly: "I——"

——And she couldn't finish her sentence.

Outside the church, a terrible noise suddenly came. Gunshots, roars and screams mixed together to form a noisy piece of music.

Tujia immediately dropped the booklet in his hand. He originally wanted to turn around and walk to the side door to check the situation. However, before he could turn his head, he heard a loud slamming of the door.

Then came the wind, a wind so cold that it was incomprehensible.

It extinguished the burning candle and took away the body heat of Tujia and Gore. It is so unreasonable, like a supernatural existence. However, Tujia was not sure whether it was or not. This time, his gifted nose didn't detect that special odor.

But he did smell blood.

A very strong, terrible smell of blood.

Tujia slowly raised his head and looked at the statue behind the pulpit. It is about six meters high, which is not very tall, but it is more than enough for this small church. It has reached the stained glass on the ceiling.

But it's not a statue of the Emperor, at least not yet. It is a strange figure wearing a hood and holding a sharp knife. Tujia couldn't see the ghost's face clearly, but he could clearly see the huge amount of blood pouring out from the statue's eyes.

It looked down upon him, shedding tears of blood.

Tujia trembled and clenched his fists, but suddenly he saw the ghost's empty eyes clearly.
He saw a black fragment, stuck between the flowing blood, shining.
-
【795.M31】

[Our plan has finally reached this point, old friend. I'm sorry it took me so long to do this. I don’t know how long you have endured in the darkness, and I don’t know how long you will endure it. I don’t have the answer]

[But we will succeed. Gods don’t need armor, only humans need it to protect themselves. Can you hear me, Khalil Lohars? Protect yourself in the dark. 】

【We will find you. 】

—The Diary of an Unknown Man, used to preserve humanity.

"In 795.M31, Holy Terra was attacked by demons. The Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists fought off them. In the same year, the brilliance of the Star Torch weakened again."

“This year is known as the Year of Disaster, not only because of the attack on Terra and the wavering of the Star Torch’s light, but also because of the dark, burning rain of fire that passed through the sky but disappeared without a trace. "

——"The Secret History of the Empire"

(End of this chapter)