Chapter 241: Calling Out Names in Prayer
Dungeon surveillance room.
Hades sat in silence, the voices from the monitors coming through his headset. Slowly—painfully slowly—he covered his eyes with one hand.
On the other side of the room stood the Death Guard's Undertakers and Astropaths. The Undertakers could still manage to stand at attention without moving, but the elderly Astropaths had curled up against the wall, shivering, as if screaming soundlessly.
Hade hesitated, glancing at Ugo. The Undertakers' Lantern Bearer shot the rookie a sharp glare, warning him not to be too curious.
But even as a mere apprentice Undertaker, Hade could feel it—the psychic atmosphere in the room, flickering and unstable like a faulty light.
And the source of all this was—
Hade stole a glance at the commander in the center of the room. Hades's intense anti-psychic contamination was far too conspicuous.
And… was the commander losing control?
Hade swallowed hard. When the commander had come to find them earlier, his abilities hadn't seemed anywhere near this unstable. So what happened?
Hades sat frozen like a statue, covering his eyes as if unwilling to face reality.
Even after the faint crackle of static in his earpiece faded away, Hades remained in that posture for a long while before letting out a long, silent sigh.
Hade waited anxiously. Something serious must have happened—otherwise, the commander would never be this grim.
For the first time, Hades was experiencing embarrassment so intense that even he couldn't withstand it.
He had locked those two people together and set up the monitor just to see what they'd say to each other in private.
Now, he regretted it.
[Yes. He needs believers..]
[We will let Him know—His path is not a lonely one.]
[This is His will—not mine.]
Countless words, like drawn blades, struck directly at his poor, fragile, helpless heart.
They'd even thought up a preliminary organizational structure. Just who the hell gave them that kind of confidence?
What the hell is this??? This level of over-the-top, exploding-with-chuunibyou nonsense!
A mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat, while complex, tangled emotions buzzed around his head like flies.
To use an unflattering analogy—it was like someone taking a booger you'd just picked out and framing it in gold, praising it as a masterpiece.
Never… never had he been this embarrassed.
No. He needed to calm down. He couldn't waste emotional energy on this.
He took out his command tablet and glanced at his to-do list.
Good. He was calm now.
Hades began to reconstruct the situation from the beginning.
According to the Grave Warden's report, along with the materials seized from Korklan and both of their testimonies, he could at least understand the part about them treating him as some kind of god.
First, there was Magos Korklan. Being a Magos from Mars, it was only natural for him to have an innate tendency toward religion.
Then there was the fact that he really had taken two bites out of a void dragon—so he could understand the Magos's fanaticism.
In truth, there had been signs of this back in Graia already, but it only really began after they witnessed the void-dragon lightning he had unleashed.
After all, in a certain sense, the void dragon was the Omnissiah—so it's not like they were entirely wrong.
And the Imperium had a high tolerance toward the Mechanicus anyway. As long as they didn't cross the line, they could argue their beliefs however they wanted.
The Mechanicus itself was loosely organized; Mars's control over other Forge Worlds wasn't absolute. Everyone operated under the nominal identity of "faithful of the Omnissiah."
There had even been cases where Mars demanded tribute from a Forge World and the latter refused outright.
As for doctrine… well, it was all over the place.
So as long as they didn't touch the red lines of research, no one really cared.
That was why he had only warned them not to go too far or speak too plainly, and placed the Grave Warden as a monitor over them.
He'd never actually received the Graia's prayers himself—
Before meeting Margo, he hadn't even believed he could receive, much less respond to, so-called "prayers."
The Mechanicus had been praying for ages, and he hadn't heard a damn thing.
So aside from keeping an eye on the Mechanicus so the Imperium wouldn't smash them, he hadn't paid much attention to the matter itself.
But now things were different—Hades had realized that prayers could actually be received.
That instantly changed the nature of the whole affair.
It now involved the Warp, and he could not afford to take that lightly.
The first thing he had to confirm was this: what exactly were these "prayers," and why had he not received the prayers from the Graia Mechanicus, yet Margo's prayers had reached him?
Second, he needed to put restraints on those two fanatics. While the matter could end with two gunshots, he knew that blocking was worse than guiding—and even if Korklan and Margo disappeared, as long as his Black Domain existed, as long as the response trait existed, things like this would crop up again sooner or later.
If he ignored it, these whispered words would eventually explode into something bigger. He had the energy to deal with it now, but what about when the Horus Heresy came?
Better to gather it together, regulate it, and keep it under control—then decide what to do when the time was right.
After all, from what little he'd learned, prayer could remove debuffs.
He might personally find it distasteful, but if it was truly a beneficial and harmless action…
Well, if the other side prayed, it wasn't as if a piece of him would fall off.
Finally, he needed to be clear on the limits and consequences of his actions. After all, in this "patch" of history, the favored child was still the Imperial Truth.
The purpose of the Imperial Truth was to protect ignorant humanity from Warp corruption, while also suppressing the sources of Warp power.
The Emperor had banned religion because when enough people prayed to something, it could actually create a god in the Warp—
—or forcibly apotheosize something that already existed.
If enough people believed, it became real.
If the believers thought their god was a tyrant, then even if he hadn't been one at first, the baptism of faith's power would eventually push him in that direction.
This was what he feared. Still, judging from his own Warp projection, it was highly unlikely that faith-power could reshape him—it would probably just get swallowed whole.
At most, he needed to worry about not letting too much faith-power gather, or he'd grow too fast, break his restraints, and… well, that'd be the end of him.
This wasn't something he had to worry about in the short term. There were only two of them—being conservative, even if you added another hundred or so possible believers, it still wouldn't match the psychic energy from eating a single Rangda lord.
So the Warp influence from the faith itself was minimal. The only real concern was the Imperium's attitude—
—that is, in case it was discovered.
He knew that as long as he didn't pull off any miraculous stunts, neither the Imperium nor the Emperor would care much; they'd just turn a blind eye.
From Mars's Omnissiah cult, to Lorgar's worship of the God-Emperor, Sanguinius's faith on Baal, and Russ's All-Father worship—only the Word Bearers had gotten too rowdy, and been hammered for it.
Other religions, so long as they stayed within reasonable bounds, were generally ignored.
He thought it over—at his current level and scale, it's more like a child's game than a religion… yeah, probably no one would even notice.
His brainstorming gradually formed into a plan.
With a sigh, he stood up, casually ignoring the Astropaths, who looked close to collapse.
"Bring those two in."
He once again shut out the bizarre phrases echoing in his mind—[His path is not a lonely one.][This is His will—not mine.]—
In the interrogation room, Hades sat silently in the central seat. The boundary between light and dark was stark, and the commander sat wholly in shadow, with only the red glow of his left eye piercing the darkness.
Margo and Korklan sat obediently in the interrogation chairs, waiting for Hades to speak.
A cold, emotionless voice rang out.
"…I'll say this one last time—I am not a god, no matter what you think."
"But—"
"If you swear to be completely loyal to me, to hide nothing from me, and to carry out my orders without distortion or reinterpretation…"
"…then I will allow you to keep your own beliefs, and I will assign you certain specific tasks."
Hades's expression didn't change as he watched the two exchange a glance, excitement barely contained in their eyes.
"Lord Hades, Lord of the Underworld—we await your will."
Margo swallowed, then solemnly spoke her vow. Though there was no gesture or ritual to accompany her words, leaving her feeling a faint emptiness, her rational mind told her it was only fitting—
Hades was not one who favored pomp and luxury.
"I, Margo, swear to be completely loyal to Hades, to hide not a single thing from you, and to obey your orders in full."
Korklan repeated the same vow, his mechanical voice devoid of emotion.
From the darkness, Hades did not move.
"I expect you to uphold the oath you've made. If you betray it… the Scythe's judgment is never absent."
"Punishment that never fails, my lord—it would be our honor."
Hearing the words of his so-called believers, the "god" offered no comment.
"Good. Now… I need you to pray."
?!
This startled both Margo and Korklan, who had thought themselves ready to accept anything.
Hades handed over a piece of parchment—apparently torn from somewhere in the forge, still stained with machine oil.
The two of them looked at it. On it were only a few short lines—prayers.
For Hades.
For the Omnissiah.
For the Death Guard.
For Death.
In the name of the Hades, Lord of the Underworld.
In the name of the Omnissiah, Hades, Lord of the Underworld
…
Margo blinked in surprise.
"My lord, this is…?"
Hades looked at her.
"At least for me, religion doesn't need a veil of mystery."
"Well? How is it?"
Hades turned toward Ugo. The Lantern Bearer stood with eyes closed, sensing the fluctuations of the Warp, psychic sparks flickering around him. Hade stood by his side, assisting in this deep psychic dive.
"Commander, please wait a little longer."
Hades gave his silent consent. He turned back, looking through the one-way glass into the room where the two were praying.
Faint murmurs came through his headset; aside from him, no one else could hear the sound from the interrogation room.
In truth, there was no need for a psyker—Hades himself could feel that those prayers were aimed directly at him.
As for why Ugo alone was doing this—the Astropaths had been far too terrified, begging Hades to let them return.
These people, already worn down to near collapse by their usual duties, could no longer endure the pain of standing beside Hades.
Am I really that scary?
Hades thought helplessly.
"My lord, our senses are fully immersed in the Warp—your projection is too—"
The Astropath stopped mid-sentence, shrinking back and lowering his head.
What could Hades do? Knowing that his Warp projection was ugly enough to frighten people, he could only let them go.
According to Ugo's explanation, Hades's projection in the Warp really was a mass of deep, shadowy black, with a hazy golden light surrounding it.
"Then it's not that scary, right?" Hades asked.
"It's not just that," Ugo replied.
"Sight is only the shallowest metaphor. Immersed in the Warp, a psyker's senses are far richer and sharper than the five senses could ever be."
And in those senses, Hades possessed a projection that no psyker wished to look at directly.
He could feel that even Ugo was forcing himself to suppress his revulsion—because at first, Ugo and Hade had opened their Warp vision together. But Hade had instantly—well, he swallowed it back down.
Hades decided to pretend he hadn't seen anything.
Sensing something, he turned around and continued waiting for Ugo.
Ugo opened his eyes. The sudden shift from the Warp to the physical world left him slightly disoriented, while Hades, clearly patient, waited for the Lantern Bearer to readjust.
"How is it?"
A flicker passed through Ugo's deep-set eyes. He feared Hades, but skillfully kept the fear under control.
Hades knew he was searching for the right words.
"Lord Hades, there were indeed faint sparks approaching you—during the first, fifth, and sixth recitations."
Hades nodded and had him check which they were:
For Hades.
In the name of the Hades, Lord of the Underworld.
In the name of the Omnissiah, Hades, Lord of the Underworld
All of them contained Hades's own name.
He blinked. That matched his hypothesis.
Since he himself possessed no so-called "divine authority," only the words tied directly to Hades reached him.
In other words—it had to be named explicitly, as Hades, or it wouldn't work.
When mortals think, if they dwell on slaughter and bloodshed, that power goes to Khorne; if they feel rage… well, the Warp gods don't require you to name them directly.
In fact, most of the time, the Four Chaos Gods receive faith power from vague emotions and concepts alone.
The Emperor of Mankind in the source material, for example, only needs his followers' thoughts to satisfy "humanity" or "for humanity" to gain their faith power.
It seemed he was fundamentally different from these Warp entities.
That explained why the Adeptus Mechanicus's earlier prayers failed—they likely hadn't said "Hades" (and Hades would never have let them). They had invoked only "the Omnissiah," so naturally, he felt nothing.
Now he knew—it had to be name-specific.
From the experiment, it also seemed that when the name was invoked alongside other concepts or emotions, the power still came to him—though perhaps with interference.
"Ugo, can you describe more precisely? Were these sparks different in any way?"
Ugo thought briefly before speaking.
"The first psychic flame plunged directly into your black domain. But the fifth and sixth were slightly slower—and it was more like… you consumed them."
Hades considered this. So, faith power mixed with other concepts might resist being drawn to him?
In that case, the result might depend on the believer's level of devotion and how they understood that concept.
Not that he needed this nuance right now—just knowing it required them to pray his name was enough.
Hades spoke again.
"Ugo, could you place some psychic control spells on those two?"
The Lantern Bearer gave him a startled look.
"My lord, you mean to…?"
Hades smiled.
"It's just an experiment."
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