"Psionics, sorcery, dark magic," Motarian slowly spat out three words as an opening statement.

There was a hoarseness in his voice out of nowhere, few people had ever heard of him, and most of the people in the amphitheater were more familiar with what he looked like when he was wearing a respirator.

They didn't expect that the Lord of Death would one day sound so quiet.

"The words don't matter at all, they don't matter, they're all essentially the same thing. They are evil forces that humans should not control, or even touch. ”

"I have seen the world collapse and scorch the earth, and ordinary people reduced to food or slaves to be slaughtered. If you, like me, choose to go back to the roots, you may even find that the cause of such serious consequences may just be a whim of a country witch doctor. ”

"Or maybe an untrained psyker comes into contact with something in their unintentional sleep, or maybe it's a wizard family's knowledge that has been passed down for generations and it's always going to go wrong, and it's always going to turn one world after another into flames."

"I know my words may sound a bit extreme, but you might as well think about that horrible old night, what caused it? What is it that has caused this horror to sweep across the galaxy, causing humanity to be scattered and suffer all day long? ”

"I'm against it!"

Magnus shouted in his box, and the Crimson King couldn't stand the accusation after all.

His voice was amplified by psionic energy, becoming louder and out of step with Motarion's quietness.

"You claim that psionic energy and its users are evil, Motarian, but what about the navigators and the Star Whisperers? How do you explain that? Could it be that you want to say that they are also the culprits of the destruction of the world? ”

"I-"

"—The Emperor himself canonized them, gave them names and powers!" Magnus overwhelmed Motarian with a louder voice, interrupting what he was about to say.

"The accusations you make are simply outdated clichés, and this is the time for humanity to conquer the sea of stars, Motarian! You still have superstitions, and your numerology is as ridiculous as what you say! ”

Motarian narrowed his eyes and turned to look at Machado. The Palm Sealer bowed his head calmly, and then struck the ground with his scepter, his eyes gleaming with gold.

"You're going to get a chance to speak, Magnus. It's a meeting where everyone can speak their minds and express their opinions. But you should let Motarian finish, you interrupted him, trying to overpower him with volume—volume doesn't determine whether the words are right or not, now sit down and let your brother finish his speech. ”

Magnus looked angrily at the Palm Print, but did not do so.

"You're a psyker too, Machado!" The Crimson King asked in a low voice. "Are you willing to listen to him slander us like this?"

"The light of my psionic energy is only as bright as the Lord of Humanity Blade points to." The Palm Seal replied slowly and coldly. "If the Emperor decides that psionic energy needs to be controlled, then I will no longer use it. If the Emperor thinks psionic energy can still help the cause of the Empire, then I will continue to use it sparingly. ”

"But Motarian is just slandering!"

"If so, wouldn't your father know?" The Palm Seal shook his head and struck the ground with his scepter again. "Now be quiet and let Motarian finish his speech."

Magnus finally did as he was told, frowning, anger fleeting, and looking at the only pedestal with a puzzled look on his face. But the Golden King, who sat on the throne, did not look at him, and his face remained blurred.

The Lord of Death glanced at the Crimson King and spoke again solemnly and earnestly, this time, uninterrupted.

"Continuing with what I'm saying, yes, my affirmation is that psionic and witchcraft is a forbidden force, but that's the point."

He shook his head again, restrained, and his tone remained gentle.

"Take, for example, the Magnus mention, the Navigators and the Starwhisperers, who have been trained over many years to use their powers for the benefit of the general public. If it weren't for them, the two worlds wouldn't even be able to communicate with each other, and how could the expeditionary fleet cross the sea of stars? ”

"The Great Expedition has come to this point, and it is inseparable from them. But what does this have to do with my allegations? Navigators and Starwhisperers are able to use psionic energy to have a positive impact because of their moderation! Anyone knows how rigorous their training is, doesn't it? ”

His voice finally became agitated, and Ruth smiled with satisfaction, and whispered to the Chagatai beside him, "This is the effect of wine, brother, can you imagine Motarian saying so many things in one breath?" ”

The khan clasped his hands, leaned against the pillar of the box, and nodded to him expressionlessly: "It is indeed good wine." ”

"Really? How do I feel like you're just fooling me."

Khan smiled and shook his head. On the observation deck, the Lord of Death continued, as if he was about to breathe out his thoughts on psionic affairs over the years, speaking faster and more densely, almost like a cannon.

"And the country witch doctors, wild psykers, and witchcraft families I mentioned will become careerists with dangerous powers in their hands due to various coincidences, and they will eventually use psionic energy to cause disasters and terror, because they don't know how to fear at all!"

"They will use psionic energy without restraint until the world is destroyed, and they will bring everyone together with the burial."

Motarian looked at Magnus with a dead eye, biting the words awe, destruction, and burial in particular.

The Crimson King glared back.

So, Motarian immediately turned his head and spoke aloud to the space wolf who was still in the field.

"So, going back to the words of Oschel Waldmaker, did he accuse the Fifteenth Legion because the Thousand Sons used psionic energy and magic to fight? Was it because he felt there was something wrong with such a victory? Priest Rune, is that what your words mean? ”

The Rune Priest, who was still standing in the wooden pulpit, replied in a loud voice: "Not so, my lord! My accusation is because I have witnessed the abuse of the Thousand Sons! ”

"Yes, abuse"

Mortarian finally sneered, Magnus looked at him in disgust, and whispered to someone beside him in his box, "Look at his appearance as a messenger of justice, Azek, he has probably begun to enjoy accusing us like this." ”

The griffin, known as Azek, stood upright, unsure of what to do with his original form.

"That doesn't sound like a painful word, doesn't it, folks?" Motarian raised his arms and shouted. "So, let me tell you about the consequences of misusing psionic powers!"

"My legion and I fought on a planet called Cayol, and we tried to bring a group of humans who were still in a barbarian society to the Empire, and they didn't have any advanced technology, but my legion fought on the surface of Cayol for six months."

"How can they do that? The answer is simple, because they abuse psionic energy and witchcraft! ”

"This power permeates every aspect of their primitive social structure from top to bottom, and even a child may know how to make a fire to light a stove, but it's not a good thing!"

"The forests and wilderness of the Cayoral people are full of disgusting monsters and monsters, which only appear at night, and are covered with the stench of witchcraft! If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have had to fight so hard. But that's just the beginning, as almost all of the Cayors are wizards. ”

"They can summon thunder and lightning, pave the earth with flames, manipulate others, and tear mountains apart. Think about it, guys, is this power free? Can they be taken and used at no cost? ”

Conrad Coates nodded solemnly and gestured to Corax, "Do you know that I told him this?" ”

"What?" Raven looked at him quizzically.

"Just kidding." The Lord of the Night grinned. "I just think it sounds familiar, as if someone once said it. I miss it, the price, Koraks, the price. ”

“.”

Corus Colax was silent, and even silently walked away a few seconds later. Coetze glanced at him and reached out disapprovingly to pull him back.

"The gun still needs to bear the recoil, and the person who wields the sword needs to feel the cruelty of the blade of the sword cutting into the flesh with both hands, and such a power does not cost anything? I don't believe in such things, so I found the answer in the Cayol city! ”

"The price, they have already paid."

Motarian stopped his voice to foreshadow what he was going to say next. He looked around coldly, his gaze swept every box and steps of the amphitheater, except for Magnus's box.

After a few seconds, he spoke again.

"In every city of the Cayoral people there is a building called a temple, which is full of bones, and countless civilians who have been brutally tortured are crying out in the alternating sinking of life and death for the sorcerers. This is the price they pay for using witchcraft, and what about Chiko? ”

"Rumors of the fifteenth Legion's use of witchcraft are by no means unfounded, and Oschel Waldmaker's accusations are not slanderous. Like him, I have fought alongside the warriors of Magnus, and I have seen the sons of a thousand use sorcery to summon lightning and flame, denting the ground and collapsing the mountains."

"The spells they use are exactly the same as those of the Cayol. That's what I'm worried about, guys. ”

Motarian closed his eyes and sighed softly, his voice already softened.

"My words today are not to accuse the Thousand Sons of sacrifice to gain power, as the Cayoral did, or to accuse Magnus of condoning such barbarism, which may not have yet happened, but only to say that any power has its price, and that the use of psionic energy must be tempered."

"That's all I have to say, and I conclude my statement."

He opened his eyes, turned around, and bowed shallowly to the emperor. The latter raised his hand in response. The light surged, and a pair of shining golden eyes loomed, full of approval.

There was silence in the amphitheater, no one responded to the words of the Lord of Death, and people listened in silence. Some of the strange glances had been turned to Magnus, and the Crimson King clenched his fists unbearably, gasping for a low breath as he surrounded the lion guards.

Motarian actually hurt him far less than the emperor's response, and that raising his hand was the reason why he was now suffering from breathless symptoms.

His mind gradually sank into a terrible suspicion, and his emotions gradually collapsed: Why? Father? You actually agree with him?

"Next." In the center of the amphitheater, the person holding the seal raised his scepter and struck the ground. "Who's going to speak?"

——

Angel Tay felt that he was dying, that he should be dying, but he wasn't.

It's a rather self-contradictory statement, enough to confuse anyone. But he had been walking in the darkness for a long, long time, and he could barely remember anything but his right hand and clutching at a shadow.

He walked, his mouth parched, naked, and there was nothing left in the darkness except for his bleeding footprints.

Until a touch of golden light comes on.

Until a man appeared in front of him.

"Wu'er." The man called to him sadly. "You have to wake up, you're being reduced to a puppet."

Updated.

(End of chapter)