"Then I see no reason not to interfere with with carrying them out," says Cam.

"Ugh," says the Important Cultist. "Why?"

"Because a lot of people have died today, entirely too many, and while if you absolutely have to kill people your choice of targets is not bad, I doubt very much that you absolutely have to kill people."

"...Are you or are you not the same entity who brought about the collapse of our civilization in the first place?"

"Yes," sighs Cam. "Yes, I am. Your civilization was rigged to explode as soon as it met someone it couldn't kill, and it can't kill me."

"Well," says the cultist, "if you want to promote a new order that isn't interested in exterminating filth creatures, go away and leave us alone. If you want to destroy us too, I suppose I can't stop you."

"I don't want to destroy you but under the circumstances I can't trust you, so leaving you alone will have to wait until I know more about what you're up to."

"What do you propose to do, then?"

"I want to learn more about what you want to do, if it's not 'destroy filth creatures'. And I would like you to stop killing people. Maybe they're all so obsessed with purity that they'll kill themselves, but if you help them that seems like it risks bycatch of some who do not in fact want to die."

"Many who demonstrated the ability to function in the new system were spared," says the cultist. "If you will not accept reasoning on theological grounds, consider the practical. Who's to say that if the purity-keepers were all spared, they would not conspire to arrange a counter-revolution?"

"So you don't think you can hold order under conditions where organized dissent exists?"

"Perhaps you can't tell, but we are holding order!"

"Of course you are. This planet compares very favorably to the black holes. But you don't seem to think you could keep doing it if you didn't kill the purity-keepers?"

"Eliminating them reduces the risk of instability."

"Are you going to keep killing people if they don't like how you run things?"

"Of course not! The prophecies only call for sacrifices in the initial transition."

"Please just tell me what the prophecies say. This conversation will go faster that way."

"In the realm of public action the prophecies direct that we must sacrifice the purity-keepers on the first day. After that, their former functions will be taken over by related institutions or abandoned as unimportant. Their contribution to maintaining public health was more ceremonial than practical anyway."

"...It's the first day of our rule, which we know because we observe that we have taken over the planet?"

"So you were just being opportunistic and your prophecies don't mention me at all?"

"I am uninterested in discussing theology with you."

"Then why are you the representative?"

"Why do you expect to discuss theology with the representative?"

"Well, a theological interest group seems to have taken over the planet," Cam points out.