The Longest Short Bus. Chapter 53 (Patreon)

Canoness Helena Alstodes was a grizzled woman with an ocular implant and half of her face being streaks of scar tissue as she had been obviously put through the fucking ringer, to say the least as she was also missing an arm as well.

But even the grizzled old Canoness kneeled at the sight of the Custodian's and the holy arms and armaments I brought. "Sister's please have a detachment of your forces escort the arms and armor to their vaults." 

I looked over to the Canoness and said firmly. "Canoness, I believe my generosity deserves a real meeting with the Cardinal wouldn't you agree?"

The Canoness didn't look up from her kneeling position. She merely said calmly. "Yes my Lord. I will call her now if you allow me the right to stand in the face of the Emperor's glory."

My lips twitched and I said more easily. "Yes, go ahead. I do not plan to stay here too long."

Canoness Helena Alstodes dipped her head in agreement with her looking with pure religious zeal at my assembled group not to mention the arms and armor that several of my own Sister's were escorting with the natives towards a safe resting place for them.

The Canoness, went to a servitor and I hid my disgust as I could see that the servitor was literally a walking Vox machine as she pulled a large phone-like device from under the robes that covered much of his body.

'Fucking savages... Just kill the bastards, there is no damned need to turn people into toaster ovens.' I thought in disgust as I watched the Canoness carry a quick hushed conversation through the Vox machine.

Finally she hung up the Vox call and said firmly. "My lord, Cardinal Avignus has agreed to meet you within the Holy Temple Center." 

I nodded with the Canoness then called a host of vehicles that would carry us away from the landing zone and then towards the Holy Temple where the majority of the higher-ranked priests and upper-ranked 'retired' sisters resided and endlessly prayed.

'The amount of faith energy a single Shrine world makes... I can't help but wonder how the God Emperor hasn't truly ascended as a god of sorts. As there has to be more faith energy then there were hentai space elves when Slaanesh was born.' I mused as I could literally feel the extraordinary faith energy covering the planet.

And I idly considered setting up another temple/ritual room where I could drain that faith energy to enchant some more powerful. Really extremely powerful weapons or to enhance my core as a Traveler to make myself more powerful.

Though setting up such a church within the view of the Ecclesiarchy was going to be a pain in the ass to say the least. You can only get so much work done in a reasonable amount of time when a dozen people literally come in every minute and fall to their knees to pray in the half-finished church.

'Wait... Couldn't I use the connection of the Emperor's flames and his believers to make a conduit prophecy spell? Maybe I could use it to find Jagatai Khan and Vulcan, they are better Primach's then Robot Girlyman and that ass Lionel Johnson.' I mused to myself though I realized rather quickly that fucking about with a Primarch was a good way to get killed.

As I knew whatever had the Primarchs all tied up, was going to be a major pain in the ass to get them freed from.

Then another thought struck me as I gave short answers to the Canonness happily explaining the history of the large statues that depicted saints and saintesses. However I noticed that the Ogryn's were happily listening to the short stories.

'What if... Like I made a copy of the Emperor's sword or something extremely important to human history. So I could trade the perfect Fulgrim clone from Trazyn the Infinite?

I pushed the random thoughts aside as we entered the fucking massive main church of Avignor and I couldn't help a small flicker of my inner light as the air was just... So charged with faith energy.

"It's a wonderful church. I can feel his gaze upon us in here." I spoke as the Custodian's formed a triangle formation around me as they no longer needed to escort the holy arms and armor anymore.

We were led into a massive prayer hall and I held in a reaction as the meeting room was literally a rug and several pillows that was laid out in front of a massive statue of the God-Emperor looking down imperiously at his feet... At the people sitting on the rug below him.

Cardinal Avignus was also clearly a 'retired' Sister of Battle. And by that, I meant that she had lost all four of her legs and even her eyes in the line of duty though she only had augments for her eyes and her hands as she sat on a pillow that was clearly part of the wheelchair that a Sister of Battle was behind.

But besides the Cardinal, there was a small entourage of a dozen male priests with various augments, and I noticed that several had signs of battle damage from serving on the front line... Probably Guardsmen who survived their tours of duty and decided to spend the rest of their lives worshipping the God Emperor.

The Cardinal's red ocular implants glowed as she focused on me, and she said bluntly. "What are you taking from Avignore and why are you taking it?" 

I was actually rather surprised at how she wasn't kneeling at the sight of the Custodian's but I decided to speak bluntly as well. "I am going on a crusade to kill one of the worst Traitor Space Marines, Erebus. I gifted those blessed armor and weapons as recompense for the Sister's of Battle I will be taking to my crusade that is ordained by the Emperor of Mankind."

The Cardinal gave me a long look, seemingly trying to see how full of shit I was. But then she looked at the three Custodian's who were gazing at her and the entourage calmly with their Guardian Spear's at rest.

She then said calmly. "How many sisters are you 'taking' on this crusade of yours young champion." 

"A thousand initiates preferably. As you have noticed I have a strong core of Sister's already who can teach and guide them further. But I need more sister's who will not falter in the gaze of the Great Enemy as we enter the Eye of Terror." I answered perfunctorily.

The cardinal simply nodded and said calmly. "Very well. Normally such a detachment would be sent on a crusade with the Black Templar's or another worthy crusade... But your crusade is a just one. As I have read the old scriptures and I assume this... Erebus is a Word Bearer?" 

And her calm attitude was shattered as she all but spat the name, Word Bearer with sheer hatred and vitriol that most certainly marked her as a pious Sister of Battle. 

I nodded and said with my own disgust. "Erebus is just below the True Evil of the Word Bearer's. Killing him will do a good deal of harm to one of the larger Chaos warbands to say nothing of the glory and vengeance that will be earned from slaying such an old evil." 

The Cardinal was silent for a moment before she said coldly. "Good, I will send several companies to your ship and your own Sister's can sort out which sisters will join your crusade. Make sure to burn this Erebus's corpse in holy oil though." 

With that, the Cardinal shifted slightly and I realized this conversation was over as she was likely a very busy woman to say nothing of wanting to go pray for several hours after saying the accursed name of the Word Bearers.