Chapter 340: The "Despicable" Orks and the "Noble" Eldar |
The third ascension site outside the Milky Way galaxy.
Li Nuo sat idly in the ritual formation, drowsing.
Just as he dreamed of the Warp crammed full of Paru Boyz, the system interface began flashing wildly with notifications.
[Save File: Blood Raven Boy.]
[Briefing: You have planted a Blood Raven Boy in Calasta to observe the movements of the Imperium of Man.]
[The research team jointly formed by the Terran Research Institute and the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars has once again failed in its mission to reverse-engineer Eldar Webway technology.]
[Land was dejected when he went to report their research progress, but he returned elated.]
[The Blood Raven Boy discovered that Land had drastically altered the experimental parameters and commissioned several components forged in the Eldar style.]
[Upon investigation, it was discovered that Land had somehow obtained a blueprint for Eldar Webway technology.]
[Briefing:]
[Using the Eldar Webway technology blueprint as a reference, Land built a device blending Gothic and Eldar styles. The trial run was a success. Land used it to open a Webway gate!]
Eh? The knife-ears and humies were sharing Webway technology?!
Li Nuo jolted upright, carefully reviewing the save file briefing.
[Briefing:]
[Land conducted several tests on the device, all of which were highly successful. However! During the most recent test, Land modified some parameters, triggering a massive disaster!]
[The device exploded violently, forming a Warp rift over twenty meters long and three meters wide at the blast center. Although Land quickly took emergency measures to contain the tear within an anti-psionic energy barrier, the rift continued to expand at a visible rate!]
[Briefing:]
[The rift's width has reached five meters, and its length has extended to thirty meters! It is on the verge of becoming an uncloseable Warp tear!]
"Hiss—a Warp tear has appeared right under the Golden Throne! Terra is going to be lively now."
The information in the briefing made Li Nuo's heart pound.
Land truly lived up to his title as a Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
If an ordinary Magos tweaked some parameters, the device would break down at worst.
But Land? He just moved his fingers and ripped open an uncloseable Warp tear right beneath the Golden Throne.
Absolutely incredible.
Li Nuo gave Land a mental thumbs-up and prepared to return to his sweet dream.
He closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift, but then opened them again to look at the Waaagh Simulation Interface.
He just remembered something.
The Blood Raven Boy planted to monitor Calasta wasn't dead yet.
He might be able to use this Blood Raven Boy to snatch some of the Imperium of Man's technological data during the confusion.
Assuming, of course, that doing so wouldn't disrupt the formation of his Warp projection.
Li Nuo called Palcador over and said,
"I received a message from Gork and Mork. A Warp tear has appeared in the Shrimp Empire's Webway city. The rift is huge; they can't close it even if they use the Universal Hall. I fink the humies won't have time to bother my ascension ritual for a while. I plan to send a highly mobile fleet over to take advantage of the chaos, grab some researcher humies, and steal some scientific data. What do you think?"
Palcador frowned in thought.
"Boss, I think that's no problem at all. It just so happens that the boss of the Blood Raven Clan, Keluoen, is already inside the Webway monitoring the humies' movements. Why don't you send him?"
"Yeah, okay." Li Nuo waved his hand, dismissing Palcador.
Opening the simulation save file, Li Nuo first possessed Keluoen, issuing him an order to secretly travel to Calasta and prepare to extract the Blood Raven Boy.
Then, Li Nuo switched his consciousness to the Blood Raven Boy monitoring Calasta.
The view before him shifted, revealing a chaotic disaster scene.
The moment Li Nuo opened his eyes, he saw the terrifying Warp tear.
It had a pitch-black outline and a vivid, ever-shifting interior, from which demons swarmed like a tidal wave.
Mortal researchers only had to glance at the demons and the rift before suffering mental collapse and bodily disintegration, exploding into flying chunks of flesh with a wet splatter.
Nearby demons puffed out their chests and inhaled deeply, drawing the souls of the dead into their nostrils with sighs of sheer pleasure.
The cogboys fared slightly better than the mortals.
Their logic circuits helped block a portion of the psychic backlash from the demons, sparing them from dying on the spot.
Even so, as the demons poured out in droves, the cogboys lasted less than half a minute before being torn to pieces and devoured.
Amid the crowd, the brilliant flashes of the golden corn were the most eye-catching.
They moved against the tide, shoving aside fleeing cogboys and mortals as they charged straight into the hideous demons, wildly swinging their halberds.
Swaths of demons fell in bursts of golden light, but the freshly cleared areas were quickly overwhelmed by more demons.
"Retreat to the Golden Gate! His Majesty's psionic energy barrier is there to protect you!"
Valdor, Commander of the Adeptus Custodes, shouted as he fought.
Two cogboys stumbled past Valdor, their mechanical arms clutching instruments and data. One slipped, spilling everything onto the floor.
Before they could crouch down to pick up the items, Valdor grabbed them both with his left hand and hurled them toward the rear without a word:
"What time do you think it is?! You're still clinging to this damned data?!"
"No!!! Those are the original blueprints for the anti-psionic energy barrier!!"
"Put me down! I must take those originals with me! This is the greatest blessing of the Omnissiah!"
The cogboys hollered as they flew through the air.
Valdor snorted heavily. He swung his halberd, cleaving three demons in two, but just as he prepared to bend down and retrieve the blueprints for the cogboys, a green silhouette darted past.
The figure beat him to it, snatching up the original blueprints from the ground. His left hand wore a highly iconic red glove.
It was a Blood Raven Boy from the Palu Empire—the exact kind who relished picking locks and slinking through the shadows!
"Damn Palu Orks! Put those blueprints down!"
Valdor roared and gave chase. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the expanding Warp rift. His body jolted as fury shot straight to his head:
"Damn! Palu! Orks!!!!!!!!
"So it was you playing tricks all along!!!!!
"Why did you do this?! Why destroy our device?! Why open a Warp rift here!!!!
"Just to create an opportunity for your damned transmigrator boss to achieve godhood, you actually committed such a heinous crime!!!!!
"I won't let you get away with this!!!!"
Li Nuo slowed his pace, glancing back at Valdor, whose eyes were practically splitting with rage. He knew the man had misunderstood a few things.
By the logic of the fisherman profiting while the snipe and clam fought, if the Palu Orks formed a blood feud with the Imperium of Man over the rift, the biggest beneficiary would be chaos.
Therefore, the Warp rift triggered by the device explosion was highly likely a scheme plotted by chaos.
Such a simple truth, yet the dignified Commander of the Adeptus Custodes couldn't wrap his head around it?
His brain must be short-circuiting.
Li Nuo couldn't be bothered to explain.
He raised his crimson left hand and flipped the oncoming Valdor the universal gesture of contempt.
"Ork, you dare humiliate me?! I'll kill you!!!"
Valdor seethed with rage, thrusting his halberd forward fiercely.
Li Nuo activated the Vibration Technique, condensing the air into a hammer and striking his own body.
With a sharp crack, Li Nuo launched himself sideways. At the same moment, the halberd missed its mark and smashed heavily into the ground.
Valdor tried to give chase but was surrounded by several towering demons.
By the time he slaughtered them and scanned his surroundings, there was no trace of the Blood Raven Boy.
"Palu Orks! I will personally kill your boss! I will avenge the humans who died so tragically today!!"
Valdor roared until his voice grew hoarse, brandishing his halberd as he plunged into the chaotic melee with the surrounding demons.
Li Nuo activated optical invisibility and Mork's Quiet. Standing high up on a brick of condensed air, he watched coldly.
He shifted his gaze from Valdor to another corner of the scene.
There, dozens of heavy Combat Servitors were escorting an anti-gravity vehicle away. The person on the vehicle was none other than the culprit of this catastrophic accident, Magos Land.
Land had lost his usual flair. His eyes were completely unfocused, and he relied entirely on his magnetic boots and the Axe of the Omnissiah to keep upright.
He stared blankly at the massive rift, muttering to himself, "How could this happen? Why did this happen? I merely adjusted the parameters of the nano-cavities. How could it trigger such a massive disaster?!
"I've run so many experiments here using these exact parameters! Why did it rip open a Warp tear this time?! Why! Why did this happen!! Ahhh!"
Land's voice grew louder and louder until it broke into a shrill wail.
"Why... why did this happen! Why!!"
"Land! Land! Come here quickly!" Valdor, startled by Land's screams, fought fiercely in his direction to extract the Magos of the Mechanicus.
At that moment, the Warp rift suddenly expanded.
Its length instantly shot up to a hundred meters, and its width grew to over twenty meters.
More than a dozen demons, as large as small hills, shoved and squeezed their way out in a frenzy.
These demons resembled giants built from piles of rotting flesh. Thick cannon barrels were concealed within massive pustules on their backs.
They leaned forward, planted their arms on the ground, and aimed their cannons at every corner of the battlefield.
A cyclotron-like hum similar to a Gauss force field rang out as multicolored Warp energies pooled within the barrels.
Over a dozen psionic energy beams, easily five meters wide, shot out. Like plows, they dragged from one side of the battlefield to the other. Wherever they passed, absolute devastation remained; no one survived. Only wreckage emitting black smoke and a foul stench stubbornly burned on the ground.
"What kind of demons are these?" Li Nuo frowned, his expression turning solemn.
The Palu Orks had slaughtered at least a hundred billion demons to date, but this was the first time he had seen demons with this kind of configuration.
He might have called them chaos Titans, but their bodies weren't metallic, nor did they bear any Gothic elements.
He might have called them psionic constructs, yet the giant cannons on their backs showed obvious traits of biological weaponry.
They were total aberrations. As expected, the Warp really did hold every weird thing imaginable.
Li Nuo steadied his mind, carefully dodging the bombardment from the heavy psionic energy cannons while keeping a close eye on Land.
He had used Malcador's gene fragments to create a Malcador Boy, which was Palcador.
By the same logic, Land's gene fragments should be able to create a Land Boy.
Li Nuo had already come up with a name for this Land Boy: Pader.
Li Nuo found the right moment and, taking advantage of Land losing his balance due to the vehicle's turbulence, triggered his Vibration Technique.
A muffled thud echoed.
Land was sent flying by the hammer of air, while his magnetic boots remained firmly planted on the anti-gravity vehicle's driver's seat.
Li Nuo lunged forward, catching Land in midair and using his optical invisibility force field and Mork's Quiet to conceal his presence.
This set of movements was as smooth as flowing water. Coupled with the sheer chaos of the battlefield, Valdor, despite being Commander of the Adeptus Custodes, failed to keep track of Land's whereabouts.
By the time he finally charged over to the anti-gravity vehicle, shoved the obstructing heavy Combat Servitors aside, and looked up, Land was completely gone.
"Where did Land go?!" Valdor roared at the servitors around him.
The original dozen or so Combat Servitors had suffered heavy casualties; now only three remained.
They looked at each other in utter bewilderment.
One of the servitors seemed to recall something and raised a hand, pointing at the control panel on the driver's seat.
There was a signal locator there.
Valdor slammed the button without a second thought.
Beep, beep, beep—
The pinging sound came from a pile of bodies not far away. Valdor sprinted over like a bolt of lightning and finally found Land sprawled on the ground.
Perhaps the previous explosion's shockwave had been too intense, and combined with his sheer agitation and sweaty feet, the Magos had simply been violently tossed from his boots.
Fortunately, other than a few superficial scrapes and being unconscious, he was largely unharmed.
Valdor hoisted Land onto his back, hopped into the anti-gravity vehicle, and accelerated toward the Golden Gate.
A beam from a heavy psionic cannon landed just ahead and to their side with a boom. The fierce shockwave flipped the vehicle, sending Valdor and Land tumbling to the ground in a pathetic heap.
The demons behind them caught up, finishing off the Combat Servitors in a few swift strikes before closing in around Valdor with savage grins.
This pack of demons possessed extraordinary power.
With wings sprouting from their backs, their bodies bore a mix of red, blue, purple, and green. They were clearly blessed by multiple chaos Gods and chaos Undivided. A mere exhale from them could set the ground ablaze or cause rotting pustules to erupt.
Almost as soon as he locked eyes with them, countless ethereal, whispering voices bubbled up in Valdor's mind. Needles of pain pricked him all over his body.
"Damn it..." Valdor shook his head violently to scatter the strange sensations in his mind. Looking up, he saw a broad axe blade plunging straight toward his face, making his hair stand on end.
The crash of metal striking metal rang out. Valdor barely managed to block the enemy's axe with his halberd, his right arm exploding with numbness.
Before he could shift his stance, three more deadly weapons struck from his left, right, and directly above.
In this critical moment, several streaks of silver light rapidly closed in. The leader raised a hand and fired bolts of lightning.
With a series of cracks and a deafening rumble, the encirclement was blown open by the lightning.
Elina's voice rang out from outside:
"Valdor, hurry! Come to me!"
Excellent!
The Eldar were here to help!
An ancient, noble race like this was far more reliable than those filthy, despicable Orks!
With no time to think, Valdor immediately broke through the gap with Land, rushing to regroup with Elina and the others.
