Chapter 266 04.0265: "Horatio and the Mastermind"

The lively atmosphere on the ground of Abyss Port also affects the people in the underground world.

Like the underground area in Vegas, it is also bustling with people.

Although certain forces have been promised to exercise armed restraint during this period, the increase in the cost of living essentials to 55% since yesterday has once again sparked people's protests.

"Reduce the fees! Civilians need to survive!"

A young man in work clothes waved a banner and called on the crowd in the most densely populated neighborhood.

During such important festivals, the Empire usually puts stability first. If demonstrations break out, the planetary government will often compromise with them and accept their demands for lower taxes in order to ensure the normal development of the celebrations.

Suddenly, bang! bang! bang!

There was a burst of intensive gunfire at the scene, followed by the screaming and escape of the crowd.

Under the Middle Nest, on the crowded streets, neatly lined up Hive Police received instructions from the Guild Alliance Government and pulled the trigger at the Citizen Militia members wearing red turbans.

The young man in work clothes who was holding the banner fell to the ground with his eyes open. The banner in his hand was first crushed by the panicked crowd, and then trampled into the mud by the combat boots of the Nest City marshals who rushed over with riot batons.

Two citizen army militiamen who were guarding their own secret arsenal saw the Hive Marshals approaching in line.

"How did they find this place?" He poked his companion next to him, and the two pushed open the door and prepared to go in for cover.

The Nest City marshals holding automatic rifles knelt in a row and stood in two rows, pulling the triggers of their guns.

"Ah!" A man was shot in the leg and fell down, and was dragged in by his companions.

The Hive Marshals were in no rush to attack. They called in a fire truck filled with promethium, sprayed the thick and sticky promethium on the building, and then set it on fire.

After a while, heart-wrenching screams were heard from inside the building.

Vegas, the intersection of Middle and Upper Nest Street.

"Where is Grantaire?" Enjolras, Yin Shuyao's cousin, asked the other companions.

"I didn't see it."

"Forget it, let's ignore him for now. The parade convoy is coming, everyone, get ready, we must make the Guild Alliance feel the pressure, this survival necessities will surely make these civilians live?"

"Yes, although we said we would not take the initiative to use force, we must fight back! Otherwise, these guys who live in luxury will just boil the frog in warm water! Sooner or later, something big will happen on the planet."

These aspiring young people are well aware that if they continue to push people like this, when people can no longer survive and fall into chaos, it will be too late.

What they have to do is not only to speak for the people, but also to save the fate of the planet.

Therefore, they deliberately chose the route of the triumphal parade of Brigadier General Peru, who was talked about a lot and had won a great victory on the day of Saint-Gilius Festival and was at the peak of his prestige.

He hoped to win the sympathy of this brigadier general who once again refused to be promoted to major general, who valued honor and was not greedy for fame, and to strive to reduce the tax rate on people's survival necessities.

As five armored Lemanus tanks that were polished to a dazzling shine led the way and as phalanxes of Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy armed forces passed by, the young people of the ABC Friends Club began to sing.

“You can hear this song, coming from the angry chests of the people, it is the voice of the people, a heroic resistance against oppression.

The shock of the heart, accompanied by the beating of the war drum, opens the window of new life and waits for the dawn. "

The young people started singing first.

Then, the residents of Zhongchao, who had heard this song many times, started singing along.

"Would you like to join us and share the hardships with me? On the other side of the barrier, freedom is calling at the end of the world..."

Unlike the usual cheers and prayers, this unfamiliar singing caused the soldiers on parade to become distracted and turn their eyes away to look at the group singing next to them.

Brigadier General Peru in the square formation had a dignified look on his face, and when he heard the song, he couldn't help but look at the people around him.

These Zhongchao civilians were pale and thin, and many of them were naked.

If he had not confirmed during his previous review of the security plan that only citizens with permanent residency in Zhongchao could appear here, it would be easy for people to think that it was the poor people from Xiachao who had come up.

Brigadier General Perroux's tightly pursed lips moved slightly.

Arbitrator Javert, who was in plain clothes disguised as searching and guarding among the crowd to prevent any Necromancer assassins from escaping the net, frowned as he looked at the singing civilians around him.

He noticed the young boys who were leading the singing, and his hands unconsciously placed on the telescopic sticks at his waist.

"Cousin, what are you doing? Go back quickly." Yin Shuyao saw her cousin from a distance and struggled in the dense crowd for a long time before finally squeezing through.

"Little Ou, you should go back soon." After advising his cousin, Enjolras continued singing.

"Something big is happening in Abyssal Port today!"

"I knew something was big."

Yin Shuyao was anxious. She couldn't reveal the secret, but she didn't know how to persuade her cousin to leave.

Suddenly, Enjolras received a message, and his bright eyes suddenly widened.

"What's wrong?" A young man looked at him with a pale face and knew that something had happened.

"The Hive Marshals have attacked the Citizens Army, and it's an all-out assault."
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"I'm sorry, Chief. I hope you can help me this time. This is the agreement between Horatio and I."

"Ah...oh..." Valina, who had been through many battles and had never been so nervous facing the enemy, was just pretending to be calm, but her back was already covered in sweat.

I thought Farida and Horatio were just ordinary friends, but after she came here today and was so frank with them, everyone could tell that there seemed to be something special between them.

[God Emperor, what have I done...]
But now, she could only keep silent about what happened between her and Horatio to others. I believe that the hateful boy would not dare to tell anyone. "Okay, Military Supervisor Hood. I will take you to the ship of the Discipline Squadron." Valina sighed softly, sounding a little lost, and implying guilt that Farida did not understand, but her face was still full of military perseverance.

"Thank you so much, Sergeant." Farida saluted Valina.

Valina returned the salute with a more respectful one.
-
"Inquisitor Adlatia, have you found anything over there? The communication signal seems to be very poor in here." Ravenno's portrait appeared on the witch hunter inquisitor's holographic communicator.

"His black ship is too quiet... Strange, William Carter should be nearby." The witch-hunter tightened the plasma pistol in his hand.

The Pure Angel Battle Sisters around were searching their surroundings with the built-in combat auspicious instruments in their helmets.

"I didn't see his Inquisitors, I didn't see him, I didn't see anyone... Just dead silence."

hum-

Suddenly, a dark cloud appeared above her head. The cloud grew thicker and thicker, and finally covered the heads of several people.

Adlatia's witch hunter instinctively sensed something was wrong and she yelled, "Watch out! Get out of the way immediately!"

So the pure angel immediately jumped to the side.

A combat sister accidentally collided with the Inquisitor. With a crackling sound, a thunder-like surge of psychic energy struck down and landed on the sister's shoulder armor.

She screamed in pain, and her entire arm turned to ashes. The accompanying medical sister hurriedly bandaged her wound and stopped the bleeding.

When the clouds dispersed and the other battle sisters resumed their fighting stance, they were surprised to find a group of tall Space Marines appeared around them.

Each of these warriors was dressed in blue armor and held a strange scimitar in their hands, which was different from the ones used by the Imperial Space Marines.

"Thousand Sons... Red Letter Warriors?!!" Inquisitor Adratia looked at these heretics and traitors who suddenly appeared, and was extremely surprised, gritting her teeth and saying hatefully.
-
The young saint stood on a carriage and was heading to the sixth church after receiving a blessing from the cheering crowd and nuns in the fifth church.

It was an Anglican church. The main body of the building was in Romanesque style and the decoration was magnificent. The magnificent walls and tiles were carefully maintained, and the gold carvings and silver buildings were generously displayed. From a distance, it looked magnificent and majestic.

The horse-drawn chariot slowly stopped and the saint jumped off.

Walking on the red carpet and heading towards the pulpit, all the civilians participating in the ceremony knelt down along the way, eager to be closer to the saint and pray devoutly.

"Yes, yes, that's it, that's it..."

In the dark, several pairs of cold eyes were staring at the saints walking on the broad road.

"Very well, go to hell. Son of Darkness..."

They used manipulation techniques.

The saint was still striding forward, but the guards and believers around him remained motionless.

"What's going on...why aren't they moving?" The dark shadows became nervous.

He didn't know that all the imperial troops participating in the ceremony had taken pills made from the ashes of tens of thousands of sacrificed psychics the day before.

Later, the Sisters of the Holy Rose discovered that when the ashes were ground into powder again, added to the aromatherapy, and inhaled through the air, they could more effectively destroy the structure of the nanoworms.

When the shadows realized something was wrong and were about to run back trembling, suddenly, several figures wearing exactly the same clothes as the saints, with laurel wreaths on their heads and Saint-Gilius masks on their faces appeared around them, and surrounded them as if the person on the red carpet had used some kind of clone spell.

The identities of these dark shadows were finally revealed; they were all clergymen of the state religion and their servants.

The men wearing Sanguinius masks rushed forward and violently knocked them to the ground.

The clergy tried to resist with their staffs, but were beaten even more fiercely in return.

Among them, a man dressed as a gentleman and wearing a top hat was crawling on the ground trembling.

“Ugh…uh…Ah! Ah! Ah!!”

"Who is your high priest? What did he do before?" The masked Horatio asked, grabbing the gentleman's hair with such force that he almost made his already hairless head bald.

"Barani! His name is Barani! He used to be the director of the PW-LS-21 orphanage! Hey! Hey! Hey! Loosen up! Loosen up! Hair, my hair!"

Horatio was familiar with the orphanage and the name Barany.

That was the orphanage he entered after falling into the lower nest.

He also clearly remembered that these guys who managed the orphanage embezzled the materials allocated to the orphans by the empire and then resold them to the Xiachao gangs. They accumulated a lot of wealth, controlled the supply of many scarce materials, and gained the support and recognition of the gangs.

Barani is the director of the orphanage, and he has thus become an extremely powerful underground pope.

In Xiachao, he calls the shots, and all the Xiachao gangs have to pay him protection fees. Any gang leader who wants to take the top position must obtain his "divine right of kingship."

His tyranny had caused resistance from some gangs, but soon any gang that disobeyed his orders would be destroyed in a very short time by his followers and gangs that were loyal to him, and his members would be publicly burned at the stake as heretics.

From then on, few people dared to challenge Dean Barany's authority.

The orphanage director also forced the orphans to steal and pickpocket, and forced them to go to the killing grounds to collect valuables during gang fights, risking being shot.

In the past, I almost had my organs sold to other gangs because I failed to meet the "performance targets" he set.

He also loved sadomasochism and led an extremely dissolute and immoral life.

Eventually, he used the wealth he had earned as the dean of an orphanage in Xiachao to successfully bribe the cardinal of the state church. From then on, he rose through the ranks, from a priest all the way to the position of diocesan bishop, a meteoric rise.

"So, he is Baranyi, and you are...?"

(End of this chapter)