After leaving the room where he was talking with the envoy of the throne, Governor de Ville was ...... in the corridor Man, stopped.

From the appearance alone, it was difficult to call her human: he was clad in a blue-gray cloak, and his broad hood hung down to cover most of his face, but it was still obvious that his silhouette had been visibly distorted. His bird-like beak protruded from the lower edge of his hood, his body was deformedly elongated compared to the past, his back was unnaturally arched, his body leaned forward, his entire ribcage seemed to swell, his shoulder blades bulged out abnormally like a mountain, and his knees bent at an unorthodox angle.

Not to mention the limbs that peeked out from beneath his cloak—those covered in colorful feathers patched together from arcane symbols, and distinctly mutated fingers and claws and skin that didn't resemble humans at all.

But Jesmine Deville didn't back down. She stopped, glanced at the monster in the shadows, looked away, and asked in a very cold voice:

"What's the matter?"

The disgust beyond the limits of what a human can bear is enough for her to make a question sentence a declarative sentence. The one in front of her, although he heard the emotions behind these words, obviously didn't care about them.

"It's nothing, Jessamine, I'm just coming to see you." Raj Hastin, or rather, the thing that had been Raj Hastin, said in a pretended intimacy manner, "I heard that you spoke to the Throne Envoy, and I sincerely hope that the wanton demands of the big men have not embarrassed you too much. ”

"-Come on." Governor Deville sneered, "Don't imitate Raj's tone there, you blue-haired bastard." You only came because I stopped the march in the outer city. ”

The thing's voice immediately became oily and sticky, and its words were filled with uncomfortable whistling and sharp turns.

"Hey...... Jessamine, Jessamine, why don't you believe what I say? Its voice scratched the Governor's consciousness like a sudden sandstorm, "I'm real, just come and see you—see your useless dying throes!" Do you think it's any use to start hindering the ritual now? The Lord of Change has already watched here, and the fate of this place has been threaded towards the result He promised! Do you think that tearing a thread of silk on a huge tapestry will have any decisive effect? Or maybe you're pinning your hopes on the Throne Envoy? Do you think that there is no lie in what she says to you? You're naïve enough to think she didn't find anything, and you can—"

"—that's enough." Governor Deville snapped coldly, "I know I've been guilty of acquiescing to Raj's damn ritual to boost crop yields, and I've never expected myself to be unharmed—"

"-No, you'll be safe!" The thing screamed with joy, as if it were some kind of unpleasant bird, "I'll make sure you're safe, for Zes Chatty is a demon who keeps his word!" Every nine hundred and ninety-nine ordinary souls for thirty years of increased production, Raj Hasting's soul for Jasmine Deville's 'safety'! Zes Chati keeps his word! Hahahahahaha......ha

The Doge opened his mouth to scold, but found himself unable to move: her tongue froze in place, her vocal cords stiffened as stone, and her shell became completely out of her control. Her soul remained well in her body, but her body had betrayed her own will by the spell of the demon Tzeentch.

- Always, always! The demon was able to take control of Deville's body with its wicked spells. She had always been sober, always wanting to correct her mistakes, always wanting to atone for her sins, even thinking of confessing to the emperor and the people whom she had pushed into a desperate situation, and she was willing to burn her soul in the fire - but she could never say the words that should have been said at the right time, and deliver the message that should have been delivered, or curse what should have been cursed, and make herself kill herself......

She couldn't even cry.

"It's funny to think for a moment that you can still struggle, but under the watchful eye of the master of fate, the future has its direction. The sudden appearance of the Throne Envoy was indeed unexpected, but under the guidance of St. Tzeentch, no one else would come to the planet to stir up trouble. Of course, a dull and ignorant person like you, who has no way of glimpsing the branches of fate in the heavens, cannot understand it...... It's late at night, Jassamine. For the sake of your own body, please take an early break. ”

Jessamine Deville was expressionless and didn't say a word. She walked towards her room with the shrill laughter of the Tzeentch demon who had taken over her friend's body.

-----------------

Think calmly, calmly smooth out the current situation, Rika Fujimaru. Now no one can give you a cover in this regard, you have to judge everything calmly and prudently.

The last of the Chaldeans said to himself repeatedly.

Now she's managed to pause the march in the First City, but there's no guarantee — no, it's impossible to stop the ceremony itself. The ritual has progressed to the point where it is only a kick in the door, and no matter how it starts, it is impossible to give it up. Observing who is making small moves to keep the ritual going is also a solution, but at this point in time, even if the mystery is solved......

…… But I've never been good at that.

Rika Fujimaru, who was sitting in a chair, tossed her hair tangled.

Calm down, calm down, look for what you can do, look for your strengths. There are still two days left before the end of the ceremony, but it is also necessary to consider the possibility that the ninth day of the celebration will directly represent the success of the ceremony. It's unclear what the exact effect of this ritual will be, but it will take Chaos almost a hundred years to lay out...... No, you can't think like that, speculating about chaos is dangerous in every sense of the word, and you have to come up with a way to break the game without knowing the other party's purpose.

Advantages, advantages...... The advantage of the enemy is that this is their home turf, even if it is a human, after operating in the local area for so long, it must have accumulated an unshakable force, let alone a Chaos Demon. With such a long period of layout, it should be assumed that they have also hid some subspace portals that can be opened instantaneously in various ways in case things develop into a conflict of arms...... No, maybe not. The Imperial's tax ship doesn't seem to have any special reaction after it docked at Jestar, just going through the most ordinary kind of work, but the "blue gray" is so obvious, and the technical officer himself is seriously ill, it doesn't make sense to say that the officials on the tax collection ship have completely failed to discover the chaotic pollution on this planet - wait a minute, the tax ship!

Tachika Fujimaru stood up from her chair with a sigh of relief.

The taxes of the agricultural world are undoubtedly deducted from food, but the food grown on such a planet – no, the grain that has been cultivated and unreasonably increased for nearly 100 years with uncertified technology – cannot be safe and pollution-free! Why did the people on the tax ship have no reaction to this......

What will happen to this fleet after it leaves port, how much of the imperial world will be supplied by that food, just by roughly imagining these things, Rika Fujimaru felt a chill down her spine.

What to do, to ...... No, the taxing fleet is still two days away from departing, and things may turn around......

She forced herself to calm down, but she could only barely start thinking again. In order to alleviate her anxiety that she had nowhere to vent, she had to start meaninglessly circling in an acre and a third of the land in front of her.

Advantage...... Our advantages...... We have little advantage. Perhaps under normal circumstances, when there is a real conflict, we can easily get out of the situation, but if we scale up the events that need to be intervened to the scale of the entire planet, we will not have an advantage in terms of numbers or firepower. Although, according to the Emperor, the same is true in this side of the world, any large-scale ritual needs to have a symbolic "core" that would be halted if it were destroyed. At present, it seems that the "core" of this ritual is undoubtedly the "ancient relics" of the Great Expedition period that were dug up, but it is also necessary to consider whether the act of destroying it will cause a subspace wave to affect the real universe, or even open a subspace rift on this planet......

Wait a minute, that's right.

Rika Fujimaru suddenly remembered the yin and yang prophecies that Conrad Coates had told her:

"You're a little too 'golden' for people to see, but I can see the fate of other people. I've seen the battle barges of the Dark Angels chase Sevita to this planet, and I've seen the mystics orbiting the whole world without saying a word. I saw the land burning, the houses crumbling, and the inhabitants not sparing, but the destruction was still too late. They can't erase the hole where the poison is really causing poison, and the poison has already surged beyond the galaxy - what does it matter? Anyway, in this shattered empire, this kind of thing has long been commonplace. My advice is for us to leave immediately, or we will have to live and die meaninglessly with this remote and barren planet. ”

- Judging from the current situation, whether the ritual succeeds or fails, the people on this planet will probably only have the ending of "no one is spared", and again, it will cause at least a lot of subspace pollution here. The so-called "truly toxic gap" may be understood as a newly unfolding subspace rift, and the "flux of poison beyond the galaxy" may refer to the contaminated grain collected in the taxed fleet...... Considering that Conrad's prophecy was certain to die, let's just assume that this was inevitable—where was the dark angel?

And, if I also think that the planet really didn't need to be destroyed with an extinction order to avoid even more damage, why is it only the Dark Angels who have yet to come that are being bombarded in orbit?

-----------------

Daes Chati walked slowly down the modest corridors of the Doge's Palace.

It didn't really like it all along: too plain, too regular, too dull, too boring. But it doesn't matter, in two days, the entire planet will be part of Tzeentch's Demon Domain. At that time, as a meritorious person who has added territory to the Lord of Change, it certainly has the right to decorate this place as it pleases.

Zes Chati walked happily down the austere corridors of the Doge's Palace, its distorted skin wriggling and recasting as it went, gradually changing back to Raj Hastin's original appearance.

It was going to go to the room that the Doge had arranged for the Throne Envoy to get rid of the instability that it had missed for a while. For this reason, it thinks it is better not to present itself...... Too obvious. Even if it's a Tzeentch demon, it still needs a little time to cast its spells after all.

With only two days left, its plan was about to be completely successful, and the small change didn't affect its mood. In fact, it sees this as a superfluous branch of St. Tzeentch's plan for him when he is in a happy mood that he is not aware of, and it sees it as a glorious reward for the Lord of Change.

It's just that change, while good, has the potential to affect greater outcomes. When acting explicitly for a purpose, even Tzeentch demons have to cut their love for it.

It hadn't met the Throne Envoy yet, but it didn't feel that there was anything wrong with its strategy. It doesn't think it's invincible in battle, and it doesn't think it's a big deal to wipe it out without anyone knowing: it's normal for the Throne Envoy to be elusive, not to mention that the planet and the important officials on the tax collector have become its marionettes. Perhaps the envoy himself would have hidden some relics that reported his survival, but the team investigating the matter would not have been able to reach Jestal within two days.

Everything will go as planned by the architects of fate, and nothing else will come to the planet to interfere with the ritual for the next two days. It had almost seen a smooth road unfold in front of it—

— until it opened the door to its destination and found that the room was empty.

Daes Chati was puzzled by the future he had not foreseen. But after casting a few "simple" spells, it was able to determine that the Throne Envoy's departure was not due to the revelation of his intentions, but rather to some unimportant coincidence.

It reassured, it felt pleasant, it felt like it was still being watched by Tzeentch. Since this is the meaning of the Lord of All Changes, it is not a problem to let her go like this. In the last two days of the ceremony, she couldn't make any waves.

It praises its master. The future it sees is still what it had planned. It left without realizing anything. It didn't notice at all that, apart from the Supreme Eagle that weaved destiny, there was a giant golden hand that slightly stirred the ripples of destiny here.

-----------------

Meanwhile, Rika Fujimaru, who was in the cafeteria on the Storm Border, was interrupted by a plate of sandwiches brought to her; Farther into the void, a battle barge that had been lost for a long time leapt out of Mandeville Point, marked by a markings on its hull indicating that it was the "Lionmane" belonging to the Dark Angel.

After a brief pause to sort things out, the ship didn't hesitate to start its engines at full speed toward their nearest Imperial world, Jestar.