Chapter 912 - 911

"What incredible power.

"Is this the pinnacle of technology? The power to wield godlike authority over the galaxy itself..."

Eden was deeply shaken.

He could sense that the laws of space across several sectors had been altered by the activation of some unknown device.

Even more terrifyingly, the stars within those sectors were growing dim. Suns were being snuffed out as easily as candles, plunging entire regions into absolute darkness.

This was power bordering on the divine!

...

Not long before.

The Tombstone Council Chamber.

The entire chamber was deathly silent. Even Hapthatra the Radiant, who usually never stopped boasting, had fallen quiet.

The war was going badly.

The chaotic battle was spreading. The great Szarekh's tomb legions had become trapped within the war zone, beset on all sides by the armies of countless species.

With the battlefield divided, the tomb legions in each region were forced to fight alone, drastically weakening their overall strength.

The battle lines across dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of sectors were on the verge of collapse.

One Necron dynasty fleet after another had suffered devastating losses. Some were already showing signs of imminent destruction.

"Damn them. Such betrayal and defiance are intolerable!"

The Silent King ground his teeth.

As he watched armies from across the galaxy and the Warp gang up on his tomb legions, he finally lost his composure. Unspeakable humiliation and rage surged within him.

The Sovereign felt as though he had been manipulated and lured into a trap. That was the unmistakable mark of a fool, and it threatened to undermine both his authority and prestige.

Szarekh had already noticed subtle changes in the way his Phaerons and nobles looked at him.

They no longer feared him quite as much as before.

That was something he could never tolerate.

Even worse, the enemy fleets were now hammering the defensive lines around the Xendu System, particularly the Tyranid swarms and Orks.

If the defenses of the system fell, the blackstone nexus veil surrounding its core would be destroyed.

The entire Pariah Nexus would then lose the protection of its barrier.

The resulting backlash from the Warp, followed by the influx of humans, Tyranids, and daemons, would bring about the Necrons' complete defeat and leave them incapable of resisting further.

Szarekh would lose his final bastion and the heart of his territory. He would also lose the largest node of his restoration protocols, making it impossible to repair tomb ships or resurrect Necrons on a massive scale.

If that happened, not only would his ambition of restoring the Necron Empire be shattered, but his very right to rule as Sovereign would be called into question.

In short, it would be a defeat unprecedented in Necron history.

"Savior... and you, Lord of Hope. You have certainly placed me in a humiliating position..."

The Silent King's eyes burned brightly.

For the first time, he regarded humanity's Savior and the Lord of Hope as true threats. They were far more dangerous than the Stormlord, and they had driven him into an impossibly difficult situation.

Szarekh knew he could not afford to lose. Defeat would strip away what remained of his authority and invite even more challengers to rise against him.

The same was true for the Necron Empire as a whole. If the Necrons lost this war, they would never again be able to maintain their former position.

Perhaps they would fracture like the Aeldari, fleeing to distant corners of the galaxy and clinging miserably to existence.

"No. I will never allow that to happen!"

Baleful green flames blazed within the Silent King's eye sockets.

His fury spread through the Dais of Dominion, causing every being in the chamber to tremble in fear.

"Mesophet, activate the Celestial Orrery. We need victories, and we must stop the enemy before they reach the Xendu System."

The Silent King regained his composure.

He knew that he had not yet reached the point of despair. The enemy was not beyond his ability to repel.

The ancient power deployed at this central nexus was sufficient to stop every army arrayed against him, whether they came from the galaxy or the Warp.

A low hum filled the chamber.

An enormous three-dimensional star map fashioned from living metal rose into the air, radiating an aura of unfathomable antiquity.

Countless points of light floated within it, slowly following predetermined paths. They shone in shades of amber and ocher.

Every floating point represented a star. Gently undulating lines of energy flowed between them like the veins of the galaxy itself.

The Silent King approached the Celestial Orrery and studied its ancient patterns. Absolute confidence shone within his eyes.

This was the supreme power at his command, more than sufficient to counter the present threat.

"Pathetic swarm. You dare covet my galaxy?"

The Silent King manipulated the three-dimensional star map and quickly located one of the greatest threats.

Hive Fleet Kraken and the other Tyranid hive fleets appeared within the Orrery as vast patches of writhing shadow, slowly drifting toward the Xendu System.

There was no question that these swarms were among the Necrons' most dangerous enemies, particularly because of the Great Devourer that lurked behind them.

The bio-organic carapaces of these creatures were extraordinarily adaptable. Through evolution, they had developed increasingly effective resistance against Necron gauss weaponry.

They advanced even faster than the humans. After annihilating a Necron dynasty defending an important battle line, they were now threatening the security of the Xendu System itself.

"If the Great Devourer had descended upon this place, perhaps even I would have reason for caution. But mere vanguards such as you are not worthy of facing Szarekh."

The Silent King's voice was perfectly calm.

It echoed through the chamber before traveling through the Celestial Orrery by some unknown means, reaching the targeted sector and regions far beyond it.

Every being that heard his voice felt an inexplicable tremor of dread.

Even the advancing swarms that blotted out the stars came to a halt, their collective consciousness touched by a flicker of confusion.

The Silent King raised one lean yet immensely powerful metal hand and slowly reached into the Celestial Orrery.

In an instant, the entire device roared to life.

Countless energy channels blazed within it, their light spreading throughout the chamber. Thick conduits ran beneath the ancient blackstone floor and extended into unseen regions, seemingly binding the celestial forces of the surrounding territory together.

The lights representing the stars grew brighter.

The Silent King pinched one of the stars within the region occupied by the Tyranids, holding it between his fingers as though it were a physical bead.

As he applied pressure, its once-steady radiance visibly faded.

Then it went out completely, like a candle flame snuffed between two fingers.

A violent chain reaction erupted immediately afterward.

Waves of light spread across the surrounding region, accompanied by the soundless sensation of something shattering.

In the void, a star system that had once been illuminated by its sun was instantly swallowed by boundless darkness.

It was as if the star itself had been brutally extinguished.

The vessels of Hive Fleet Kraken, which had been ravenously consuming planets and producing more Tyranid organisms, suddenly fell silent.

A moment later, the entire swarm erupted into frantic chaos.

The Tyranids abandoned everything and fled toward the edge of the system.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The next instant, the entire star system lit up.

The sun was compressed to an impossible degree before violently erupting. The resulting power swept across the entire system.

It was a spatial catastrophe of terrifying magnitude.

Superheated particles spread in every direction while the surrounding void fractured into pieces.

Hive Fleet Kraken was struck by a tremendous shock wave, a veritable tsunami surging through the void.

One bio-ship after another thrashed wildly amid the chaotic gravity. Their organic armor was torn apart and incinerated, leaving the vessels lifeless.

The smaller Tyranid organisms had no time to react before they were reduced to ash.

The once-immense Hive Fleet Kraken, vast enough to blot out the stars, was visibly dying. There was no possibility of escape. The screeches of the swarm and the agonized cries of its bio-ships were drowned beneath collapsing space and raging particle storms.

One after another, they were destroyed by the stellar power that had first been compressed and then suddenly unleashed.

This was the same monstrous swarm that had ignited the Second Tyrannic War, destroyed countless worlds, and inflicted grievous losses upon both the Imperium and the Aeldari.

Yet before this spatial catastrophe, it was utterly helpless.

In the end, only Kraken's primary hive ship and several battered bio-ships survived. Even they were barely clinging to life.

Screech!

The hive ship, dozens of kilometers long, slowly rolled over with a mournful cry until its belly faced upward. It no longer seemed to possess the strength to move.

It was completely bewildered. Its terror and hunger had both given way to baffled dread.

What the hell had just happened?!

In truth, the Kraken hive ship had been tricked into coming here by the Savior.

Using an enormous number of artificially bred Genestealers, he had created a psychic beacon and broadcast a fraudulent message to the Tyranid swarms throughout the galaxy:

Super-abundant feast. Come quickly!

Hive Fleet Kraken and several other hive fleets had received the deceptive signal. Ravenous with hunger, they had rushed into the war zone.

Not long after arriving, before they had even figured out what was happening, the Silent King struck them with overwhelming force.

It was one of the greatest scams in galactic history. These terrifying Tyranid swarms had been conned so thoroughly that they had practically lost the pants they had never been wearing.

The experience had even left a psychological scar within the consciousness of several hive ships.

"This is the fate of all who defy the Sovereign! No one in this galaxy can challenge the great Szarekh!"

Hapthatra the Radiant offered his praise.

The Silent King did not care how these swarms had arrived.

He only knew that they threatened the Xendu System.

That alone was intolerable.

No being in the galaxy would be permitted to bare its fangs, wave its claws, and parade its power before him.

Unfortunately, the sector occupied by the Lord of Hope lay beyond the Celestial Orrery's effective range. Nor could the device be easily redeployed without compromising the protection of the blackstone network's central nexus.

Otherwise, Szarekh would have ignored the potential losses to the Necron Empire and attacked his opponent directly.

After dealing with the nearest Tyranid swarm, the Silent King turned his attention to the Ork fleet charging toward the Xendu System.

Disgust and contempt flashed through his eyes.

"Green refuse. Nothing more than the degenerated remnants of the Old Ones' creations. They should never have been allowed to remain in this galaxy."

The Orks had originated as the Old Ones' ultimate weapon against the Necrons and the C'tan.

They had once inflicted tremendous damage upon both races, grievously wounding their forces.

After tens of millions of years, however, those green-skinned warriors had long since degenerated and no longer posed the same threat.

Even so, the Necrons still loathed the ugly green fungal organisms and regarded them as a cancer upon the galaxy.

Whenever the Necrons encountered Orks, they responded in only one way: total extermination, leaving behind not even the smallest trace of organized resistance.

The Silent King once again used the Celestial Orrery to crush a star.

The devastating shock waves and particle storms of the ensuing spatial catastrophe swept through the system occupied by the Ork fleet.

The effect was annihilating.

The entire fleet was destroyed amid a chorus of roaring and screaming, leaving behind nothing but molten heaps of worthless scrap.

The Silent King did not stop.

One star. Two stars. Ten stars.

He used the Celestial Orrery to unleash a succession of apocalyptic strikes, destroying the enemies in system after system.

Tyranids, Orks, the Stormlord's legions, and the armies of Chaos Daemons all suffered devastating blows.

Even though the Savior had warned the Imperial forces to maintain their distance from the Xendu System, one large fleet was still caught by the collateral shock waves and suffered considerable losses.

More than a dozen regions surrounding the Xendu System burned violently before sinking into absolute darkness.

They became black, frozen abysses filled with spatial turbulence.

All warmth had been stripped from them. Even ordinary navigation was now immensely difficult and fraught with danger.

The Silent King had gone on a rampage!

The galaxy's many powers finally remembered why the Sovereign was so terrifying.

This was a deterrent on a scale far beyond individual martial strength. It was comparable to a cosmic disaster.

They desperately ordered their fleets to retreat, no longer daring to approach the Xendu System.

This was true of Necron fleets and those of every other species. Even the daemons were withdrawing.

They dragged away an Exalted Bloodthirster that had only just crawled out of one of the devastated systems, its body still smoking.

The creature had taken the blast head-on at close range.

Its condition was poor.

In fact, it looked dead.

Before long, several Phaerons sent pulse transmissions to the Dais of Dominion, requesting permission to appear before the Silent King.

There was no question that Szarekh's merciless display of power had restored his authority.

Afterward, he contacted the Stormlord and offered him new terms in hopes of securing a ceasefire and alliance.

Given the current situation, he had no choice but to join forces with Imotekh. Only then could he withdraw his armies from the war zone and reorganize them to withstand the enemy's encirclement.

Judging by the military strength available to both sides, it was their only path to victory.

...

The Lord of Hope's tomb flagship.

The Dome.

"Now that is terrifying!"

Eden stared at the images transmitted from the front lines and drew a sharp breath that did not technically exist.

The Silent King's trump card was truly overwhelming. Even though Eden had mentally prepared himself, what he had witnessed still shocked him.

This was the accumulated might of an ancient race that had once ruled the galaxy.

If Szarekh had deployed this thing earlier and used it against the Imperium's most prosperous regions, there would have been nothing Eden could do to stop him.

It was the galactic equivalent of an impossibly powerful nuclear weapon.

"New God, that is... the Celestial Orrery, the supreme doomsday weapon controlled by the Silent King."

Beside him, Nemesor Zahndrekh stared at the extinguished regions displayed across the sensor array's star map. His voice trembled slightly.

Even he regarded such power with awe.

The Celestial Orrery's capabilities had already surpassed the apparent limits of physical law. It could indirectly manipulate the fundamental forces of the cosmos.

Zahndrekh was not alone. The other Phaerons and Overlords also revealed expressions of dread.

The Silent King commanded the power of destruction itself. He was not an opponent who could be challenged lightly.

"Everyone, this merely proves that Szarekh has been driven into a corner and forced to reveal his trump card.

"No weapon is omnipotent. If it were, he would never have fled the galaxy in the first place."

Eden noticed the fear spreading among the Phaerons and Overlords, so he spoke to restore their morale.

Although he was worried, he would not shy away from battle because of this.

If the Celestial Orrery were truly omnipotent, the Silent King would have conquered the entire galaxy long ago.

Why would he have gone to such lengths to construct the blackstone network?

Based on the data gathered so far, the Orrery's effective range was limited. It could not arbitrarily strike any target across the sea of stars, and the conditions required for its deployment appeared equally restrictive.

Those were its weaknesses.

Even so, with the Xendu System protected by a defensive weapon such as the Celestial Orrery, breaking through would not be easy.

Fortunately, Eden had long anticipated the possibility of spatial weapons being deployed by the Necrons. He had already ordered the Machine Goddess and several other entities to conduct research in that field.

Now that the Celestial Orrery had been activated, reconnaissance outposts throughout the region had collected detailed data on its operation.

Perhaps they could quickly devise a countermeasure.

If not, Eden would have no choice but to blockade the system and continuously launch modified cyclonic torpedoes into it from extreme range.

Then he would see how long the Silent King could keep defending himself.

"No matter what happens, the horn signaling the final battle has already sounded," Eden thought.

After using the Celestial Orrery to unleash such overwhelming attacks, the Silent King would undoubtedly intensify his efforts to win over the other Phaerons, organize their forces, and break out of the encirclement.

Now that Eden knew the true nature of the Xendu System's ultimate defense, he needed to launch the final battle as quickly as possible.

He could not give Szarekh the opportunity to organize his forces.

Of course, launching a decisive battle still carried a small degree of risk. No one knew whether the Silent King had secretly hidden an even more powerful treasure.

"I refuse to believe that bastard is better at hiding trump cards than I am. Besides, my contingency plan is already in motion..."

Eden drew a deep breath and issued new orders to both the Imperium and the Necron dynasties under his command.

The final battle was about to begin!

(End of Chapter)