Chapter 130 Wage Slave?

The duel between Big E and the Silent King, Szarekh, dragged on a bit longer.

Szarekh himself didn’t have overwhelmingly high base stats; he heavily relied on his gear. Aside from the Scepter of Eternal Glory in his hands, he could summon his personal throne, using it to launch all sorts of terrifying attacks and even siphon power directly from the bound shard of the Burning One.

However, Big E was a guy who could literally manifest miniature suns with his bare hands. There was zero chance he was going to lose to Szarekh.

After a fierce clash that ended with Big E completely trashing Szarekh’s throne, the Silent King was clearly fighting a losing battle. In the end, Big E caught an opening, conjured a massive psychic hand to grab the mechanical overlord, and ruthlessly piledrived him into the deck. After slamming him hard enough to scramble his logic circuits and strip away his ability to fight back, Big E locked him down with psychic chains, taking him prisoner.

Vane looked down at the immobilized Szarekh and shook his head, his face a mask of profound disappointment. “You lost already? I didn’t even get to go all out. You really owe me an apology for ruining the fun.”

Szarekh glared at Vane, so furious he practically blew a gasket. This guy’s trash talk was absolutely infuriating. It was bad enough that he won, but he actually had to rub salt in the wound? Utterly shameless.

“Esteemed Traveler, please, hand him over to me,” Trazyn sidled up next to Vane. “Let him become a centerpiece collection on Solemnace, an exhibit for future generations to study our history.”

“Trazyn, you traitor!” Szarekh struggled violently, glaring murderously at the curator. This damned bastard actually wanted to turn him into a museum exhibit!

“Yeah, he’s definitely going on display. You hold onto him for now,” Vane said, beaming at Trazyn.

I’ll just let Trazyn act as a temporary storage unit for the Triarch. When the time is right, I’ll just bag Trazyn and his entire gallery in one clean sweep and move it all.

“I will guard them with my life,” Trazyn said, genuinely overjoyed. The Triarch, led by Szarekh himself, was easily one of the most valuable acquisitions in the entire galaxy.

“No…” Szarekh roared in raw fury.

Just the thought of being stuffed in a display case for random tourists to point and gawk at was unbearable. He’d much rather die than suffer that kind of utter humiliation.

Too bad for him, he didn’t get a vote. Trazyn whipped out another Tesseract Labyrinth and sucked Szarekh right inside, trapping him until he was ready to be permanently installed in the gallery.

With the entire Triarch captured, the remaining Necron commanders completely lost their chain of command and devolved into chaos. Vane sent Trazyn out to broadcast a surrender demand, successfully convincing a chunk of the Necron generals to stand down. As for the stubborn ones, they were ruthlessly exterminated, joining the burning debris in the void.

After dealing with the Silent King, Vane originally planned to ride the momentum and go straight after the Stormlord. Instead, he got some great news.

When Imotekh the Stormlord heard that the Imperium was launching an all-out assault on Szarekh’s Pariah Nexus, he hypocritically showed up to “help”—fully intending to kick Szarekh while he was down and poach more supporters. Instead, he ended up running headfirst into Lion El’Jonson. The two sides locked horns in a massive battle, which ultimately ended with the Lion capturing the Stormlord and securing total victory.

Without the Silent King or the Stormlord, the remaining Necron dynasties quickly fell into complete, leaderless anarchy.

Vane had Trazyn prop up Ahotekh and two other young Necrontyr to form the new Triarch. They broadcasted a galactic call to arms, urging any dynasty that was sick of war, wanted peace, and actually cared about the future of their race to join them.

After enduring endless wars, sleeping for sixty million years, and watching their subjects lose their minds and devolve into mindless metal puppets, many Phaerons were deeply moved. Hearing Trazyn’s promise of a future and seeing three new Triarch members with pure, flesh-and-blood Necrontyr DNA, they rushed to defect and support Ahotekh’s regime.

Shortly after, Ahotekh represented the entire Necron race and officially signed a peace treaty with the Imperium of Man, bringing the war to an end.

Naturally, some hardcore Phaerons viewed the new Triarch as nothing more than Imperial puppets and swore they would never bow. The fate of those guys went without saying—they were promptly tag-teamed and wiped out by the combined forces of the Imperium, the new Triarch, and the Aeldari.

With the Necrons officially becoming vassals of the Imperium, collecting C’tan shards became basically a walk in the park.

After all the bound shards were released, the ones who were willing to drop their murderous tendencies, accept peace, and work for the Imperium were naturally allowed to live. As for the ones who refused—like the Nightbringer—well, that guy was a certified homicidal maniac. The second he got let out, he tried to enslave humanity and demanded an all-you-can-eat buffet of flesh and souls to quench his thirst.

Vane didn’t hesitate. He permanently deleted the Nightbringer, erasing every last trace of its existence so it would never get the chance to respawn.

—

The Koronus Expanse. Aboard the Hand of Glory, the flagship of the Von Valancius Rogue Trader dynasty.

Vane and Big E, having traveled all the way out here, finally tracked down the very last C’tan shard. This particular shard had been acquired by the Von Valancius dynasty, who actually went ahead and merged it with the ship’s Machine Spirit. The result was a brand-new, hybridized C’tan named Nomos.

“You’ve got two options,” Vane said, looking at the newborn C’tan, Nomos, and the current head of the dynasty, Rogue Trader Theodora Von Valancius. “Work for the Imperium, or get vaporized.”

Theodora looked at Big E, who was completely surrounded by his towering Custodes, and then glanced at the literal squad of C’tan gods standing behind him who had already sworn loyalty to the Imperium. Her legs almost gave out from sheer terror.

“The Von Valancius dynasty will forever remain loyal to the Master of Mankind and the Imperium! And so will Nomos! Its loyalty to the Imperium is as true as the Holy Terra!”

“Nomos holds absolute loyalty to the Imperium,” the C’tan added.

Even if it usually acted all high and mighty around normal mortals, right now, it had no choice but to bow its head and pledge allegiance to Big E and Vane. If it even breathed a word about wanting freedom, it knew it would get shredded in the next millisecond.

“Good,” Vane nodded in satisfaction before tacking on, “We’ve always been huge advocates for free choice.”

“Since you willingly chose to be loyal to the Imperium, from now on, be a good little wage sla—” Vane caught his slip of the tongue just in time, “—be a highly productive C’tan for the Imperium.”

With Nomos locking in its loyalty, a system prompt popped up in Vane’s vision.

[System Announcement] Main Quest Completed: Defeat the Necrons and the C’tan.

You have successfully defeated the Silent King Szarekh and the Stormlord Imotekh, establishing a new Triarch.

You have destroyed all C’tan that refused to submit and successfully recruited the remaining shards to serve the Imperium.

Rewards Issued: Game Progression +10%. Title Unlocked: [Terminator of the Old Era]

“Perfect. Another quest in the bag,” Vane muttered. “Now the only thing left on the checklist is taking care of the four Chaos Gods.”

Vane turned his head to Big E. “Hey old man, you want to get out of the house and see the world?”

“See the world?” Big E looked a bit thrown off. “What world?”

“Another universe, obviously,” Vane deadpanned. “After hanging out this whole time, I realized I’m severely lacking a highly qualified corporate wage slave.”

“Wage slave? wait… go to another universe?” Big E gestured vaguely.

“Yep,” Vane nodded.

I’ve got to kidnap some people back to the MC universe. Playing single-player is way too boring. First, I’ll kidnap Big E. Then, I’ll abduct the Primarchs, and after that, I’ll just snatch up whoever else looks useful. Once I’ve got enough manpower, I’ll finally have a crew to run the museum, the mega-mall, the Desire Grand Prix, and all my other side projects.

“Sure, I’m in,” Big E replied, actually looking a little excited. “I wouldn’t mind seeing what other universes look like.”

“It’s a deal then. When the time comes, I’ll take you on a little field trip and show you the wonders of the multiverse.”

“Now that the Necron threat is handled, your rebellious kids are still out there causing a mess. It’s time we permanently fix the problems they’re causing,” Vane seamlessly pivoted back to his main quest line.

“Those traitors are deeply tied to the Chaos Gods. Taking them down isn’t going to be a walk in the park,” Big E pointed out.

“It’s fine, we’ll just wipe out the four Chaos Gods at the same time,” Vane said casually. “We’ll clear up a few minor bugs here in the Koronus Expanse, then head back, rally the armies, and figure out how to gank the Chaos Gods.”

“What minor bugs in Koronus?” Big E asked.

“For starters, we’re going to blow up the Tyrant Star.”