"It's okay, that's understandable." Fujimaru Rika looked up at the sky diagonally, "When we talked to Priest Decker about this, he reacted much more. ”

I think he had carefully discerned whether I was talking gibberish, and had seriously considered whether or not to shoot me in one go. She added from the bottom of her heart.

The good news is that even with a conservative estimate, Dante, who is more than one rank above Decker in emotional control, clearly doesn't think so; But the bad news is that he doesn't seem to take it very seriously. After a brief moment of surprise, he straightened his countenance: "Your Excellency, this is not something that can be used for casual jokes. ”

“…… Does that sound like I'm kidding? There was no "I was offended" indignation in Fujimaru Rika's tone, but a little more "how could this be" introspection.

She cast her gaze back across the table, staring at the Blood Angel Warlord without fear. She felt the atmosphere around her tense significantly more than before, but she didn't get nervous with it, and even discovered the unnecessary detail that "Mr. Dante's iris is also light amber".

After all, Dante has been in the position of commander of the war for at least 800 years. He knew very well that although the defects of the Holy Blood Angel's Red Thirst were kept a secret by all the warband brothers who were connected to the blood of St. Giles, there was no impermeable wall in the world after all. More than 10,000 years after the warband's formation, the most they could do was to keep the news out of the hierarchy - for the top departments of the empire, such as the Inquisition and the Council of High Lords, this was at best a "secret that was only open to the public on a small scale".

The status of the "Emperor's Choice" certified by the Throne Hall is obviously on the same level as these departments, so he does not dwell on the part "How do you know about 'red thirst'", but gets straight to the point: "You don't understand what it means to us. ”

"Indeed." As if she didn't realize the change in the person's pronoun when the other party addressed herself, Rika Fujimaru admitted without pause, "I'm not a blood angel, so naturally I can only have some indirect experience in this regard based on hearsay and speculation. I must apologize if I have inadvertently offended the sons of St. Giles because of my misunderstanding. But at the same time, I must reiterate: I'm not kidding. ”

Dante's two hearts were thrumming loudly, but he couldn't tell for a moment whether it was anger, consternation, or anticipation. He spoke again, his voice once deeper but silky smooth again husky and cracked: "With all due respect, it sounds illogical to me. Successive Blood Priests have spent 10,000 years on this issue without ever making substantial progress. ”

"Priest Decker made exactly the same opinion." Rika Fujimaru looked down at her plate, "Since he has verified the words I have refuted him and formed a more professional report, I will not repeat here my interdisciplinary views that cannot be explained in one or two sentences." To sum it up in a nutshell, it's a cruel thing to do, and you've all got it wrong for 10,000 years. ”

Dante froze in place, and it took a few seconds to retrieve his thoughts of being blown to the edge of the starfield. After regaining his ability to think, his first reaction was "what if Cobro knew about this", and only then began to try to tell if what Fujimaru Rika said was true:

"What do you mean when you say we're 'doing the wrong thing'?"

Literally. You see Red Thirst as a curse or a disease and want to 'cure' it, but it is more of a blessing written at the bottom of all of your base code. Any attempt to change it will have disastrous consequences, and the right way to do this is to try to live with it and use it to your advantage. ”

This view once again challenges the "common sense" that Dante developed during his long service. He wanted to shout "this can't be", but his intellect told him that if he thought logically according to what Fujimaru Rika said, he would indeed be able to be logically consistent. There is no fatal contradiction in the other party's argument for the time being, and after considering the other party's overly noble status, Dante's rebuttal is intellectually mild and much more circuitous:

"But what about Black Fury?" These two defects in the Holy Blood Angel are like twins, and given that the other party obviously knows about 'Red Thirst', Dante tacitly acquiesces that Fujimaru Rika also knows something about Black Fury, "They are all genetic defects that appear in all the sons of St. Giles, do you want to say that 'Black Fury' is also a 'blessing'?" ”

"Not really." Rika Fujimaru descended very quickly and was more active on this issue than when she talked about red thirst before, "'Black Fury' is indeed a curse. But I didn't talk to Priest Decker about it, because it wasn't a matter of medicine or genetics at the root. ”

"What do you mean by 'not a medical or genetic problem'?"

"'Black Fury' is almost entirely caused by occult factors." Rika Fujimaru even put down the utensils and began to explain the problem, which was at least ninety percent in her area of expertise, "In this universe, any 'heinous murder' can give birth to a demon in the reverberations of the subspace. We all know that at the end of that great rebellion 10,000 years ago, St. Giles died after confronting Horus. His death was supposed to be molded into an entity in the subspace, but for some unknown reason, it didn't happen - the echoes of his death were instead projected onto all of his genetic offspring along the bloodline connection, even across time. This is the nature of Black Fury. ”

Dante, stunned, was speechless for a moment, so the undisturbed Fujimaru Rika continued to add after a slight pause:

"So in the final analysis, although the 'black rage' episode does produce symptoms physically, we want to completely solve this 'occult' problem. Only the same 'occult' means can be used. There are two quick ways to think of this: first, because the curse is transmitted through the 'blood connection', then for the author who is trapped in the dark rage, it is only necessary to cut off this occult connection.

"If it's just one or two people, it's actually operationally feasible, but obviously there are a lot of hidden dangers. First, those who are thus 'healed' can no longer be called 'sons of St. Giles' in any sense of the word, and secondly, the curse of the Black Wrath itself is equally distributed among all the warriors who rely on the genetic fragments of St. Giles to become Astarte. If those who have already had the wrath of the wrath are massively separated from this apportionment, the intensity of the curse shared by the others will increase significantly - i.e., the wrath will be more likely to hit on the rest. ”

There is no need for Rika Fujimaru to say anything more, Dante, who is completely a layman, can figure it out based on this information alone, this is a plan that cannot be implemented. No matter how to "sever the connection of the blood in the occult", if this continues, either there will be no more "sons of St. Giles" in the empire, or all Astartes with the blood of the radiant angel will fall into the dark rage. He didn't continue to think deeply about what would become of Black Fury after losing his curse target. The previous part was absolutely unacceptable to him.

And Mephiston. Although the chief think tank of the Holy Blood Angel is powerful, and he is the first person in history to successfully "control" the Black Fury by the warband and all the sub-groups combined, this "heroic deed" that happened to him also made him a time bomb for all the sons of St. Giles. If, as Rika Fujimaru said, "let Mephiston's share of the curse increase in strength", even if it was just a little, or "let Mephiston get out of the curse first", Dante didn't dare to bet on what would happen after that.

Even their chief think tank seems to have stabilized a lot after the success of the original casting operation.

"There's another way, which is to find a way to eliminate the anger at the root." Rika Fujimaru, who continues to talk eloquently, uses the slightly strange verb "cancel" here, "Since 'Black Fury' was born because of the death of St. Giles, as long as it is allowed to have a paradox in the most basic conditions for its creation, it will naturally be weakened." ”

That sounds even more fantastical. Because it was so ridiculous, Dante, who gradually calmed down, even laughed at the self who tried to think "what to do" in the first moment: "But that's impossible. Do you mean that in your opinion, there is no hope of a cure for 'Black Fury'? ”

"I didn't say that." Rika Fujimaru shrugged her shoulders, "If 'Method 1' is not feasible, try 'Method 2' - 'Black Fury' is a curse caused by the death of St. Giles, and the dead cannot be resurrected, so this curse will be established across time through the echoes of subspace after St. Giles' death." The normal logic is this. ”

Rika Fujimaru presciently rubbed back in her chair and leaned back on it before she spoke:

"— but what if I can re-prove that 'St. Giles lived after he died'?"

This time, Dante's hands slammed into the table with a thud, and all the cups and saucers trembled. He jerked to his feet in front of his seat, nearly knocking over the heavy marble seat behind him. The height of the primordial Star Marine, who was about three meters tall, even from a long table away, had a terrifying sense of oppression, and the angry, thunderous voice of the leader of the Holy Blood Angel War exploded in the empty banquet hall:

"Your Excellency, I must warn you that this is not something that can be easily joked about!"

"I didn't."

Rika Fujimaru, who did not move under the support of the back of the chair, just returned a calm but determined gaze:

"You see, 'only the wrong name, not the wrong nickname.'" They call me the 'Imperial Saint' instead of the 'Torch Engineer', so my 'Saint' must have something unusual in gold, right? ”

(End of chapter)

.