Warhammer: Don't Call Me the God of All Machines

Chapter 828 The Creator's Benevolence
The goodwill shown by the ancient saint named Quah undoubtedly exceeded Roxi's expectations.

You have to understand that the entire galaxy is currently in chaos, with the Ancient Saints' faction and the Star Gods' faction doing everything they can to attack each other.

At this tense juncture, the sudden appearance of a group of time travelers from the future seems to be rife with conspiracy.

If Rosie were in this situation, her most likely choice would be to immediately send people to arrest him and bring him under control first.

Prior to this, all of Lothie's impressions and understanding of the Old Ones came from descriptions of other races: the Eldar, the Orcs, the Necromancers, and clues left behind by certain races that had long since perished.

In their descriptions, the Ancient Saints were undoubtedly the most powerful, generous, benevolent, and wise beings of the ancient galactic era.

It was the ancient sages who first established an incredible advanced civilization, and it was they who sowed the life they created in the desolate galaxy to make it lively and prosperous.

This is a fact acknowledged not only by the Eldar and Orcs, but also by the Necromancers, who were once enemies of the Old Ones.

The Ancient Saints not only had profound research in genetic engineering, but each of them was an extremely powerful psychic. Even the Ancient Spirits seemed so cute and harmless in the face of these creators.

They also built the most advanced faster-than-light mobility system—the Interdimensional Network. Relying on these safe highways, all members of the Ancient Saints faction can easily travel between stars.

But this race, which was so close to being gods, completely disappeared after the arrival of humankind, leaving no trace of its existence.

Loxi took a deep breath, slowly walked up to the ancient saint, and bowed in the manner of a newcomer paying homage to a pioneer.

Although humans have little interaction with the ancient saints, they should naturally approach such a powerful and benevolent race with reverence.

"Don't you find it strange that we detected something amiss as soon as you arrived in our timeline, and sent Lance and the others to look for you?"

"Don't worry, I will answer your questions slowly. We still have time."

He smiled and then led Rosie and the others around the palace, showing them around.

Only then did Rosie realize that the ancient saint's wide robes were suspended in mid-air, and he seemed to have been in a floating meditation posture, moving entirely by his own psychic energy.

Qua led Rosie and the others to a room that looked like a meditation room, and then waved his hand, and a strange drink that Rosie had never seen before appeared on the table.

"please."

The robes worn by the ancient saint seemed to have their own consciousness, and rolled up two hems that resembled hands.

"This ancient saint... is really lazy." Luo Xi thought to himself as he saw this scene.

This is simply taking the principle of "staying still if you can avoid it" to the extreme.

Loshi used her psionic powers to examine the beverage, which looked like tea, and only drank it after confirming that there was nothing wrong with it.

The ancient saint also used his spiritual power to lift a cup of tea or beverage and sipped it slightly.

"That's because our war with the Catan and the Necromancers has reached a fever pitch."

“We are not only clashing in the real universe, but our struggle is also taking place simultaneously on the timelines of the past and the future.”

"Both of our factions possess mature and stable abilities to predict the future. The Necromancers and Catan can observe the future using purely physical means, while we use the power of the warp to make predictions."

Upon hearing this, Rosie also realized the complexity of the matter.

Prophecy can provide a significant information advantage. When the difference in hard power is not significant, the side that has the power to make prophecies can almost crush the side that cannot.

Space Marines, for example, often have prophecies and divinations performed by the Psionic Intelligence Bureau before the start of a war, in order to gain the upper hand as much as possible.

If the enemy knows your troop deployment, strategic plans, weaknesses and disadvantages, how can you fight a war?

The collision of two forces capable of predicting each other has escalated the variables of the problem to a point where they are impossible to distinguish.

I foresee your future, and you foresee my future future; we are like nested dolls, each trying to predict the other's future, making the situation incredibly chaotic.

Furthermore, their prophecies are not as unreliable as those of the Adarin people that Loxi knew; given the right conditions, they can prophesy indefinitely.

"The moment you appeared, our spacetime monitoring system detected abnormal fluctuations in time, which is why I predicted your appearance."

"I initially thought it was those space undead launching another attack across the timeline, but I never imagined you were travelers from the future."

Kua's patient explanations dispelled much of the doubt in Rosie's mind.

It must be said that although it was the first time the two sides had met, Gu Sheng gave people a very comfortable feeling, as if they were chatting with a wise elder.

It is extremely difficult to deceive Rosie's intuition.

Seeing how easygoing the other person was, Luo Xi no longer suppressed her questions.

"Since you have such a clear ability to observe the future, you should know what the future holds when we appear."

Loxi lowered his voice slightly.

"You have failed. The Necromancers and the Star Gods have won the war, and you losers have been wiped out."

"Sixty million years later, the Ancient Saints seemed to have never existed. The Ancient Orcs transformed into the Orcs, and the Ancient Spirits completely fell into ruin after the birth of the Prince of Joy."

Gusanqua remained calm, seemingly unfazed by the genocide Roxi had mentioned.

"Yes, we know, but you're only talking about a possible future."

"The timeline is never singular; it's like a tree that constantly extends its branches. In our predictions, we did indeed fail in most of the timelines, but there were also a few where we defeated our nemesis."

"We also know that prophecy is not the same as reality; it is only a possibility. If we fail to predict the future, are we just going to surrender now and offer our necks to them to wield their butcher's knives?"

"Knowing is one thing, doing is another. If you do it, there is a slight chance of success, but if you don't do it, there is absolutely no chance of success."

"Fate is never completely fixed."

Kua's explanation made Rosie feel enlightened.

The depth of thought displayed by this ancient sage is truly admirable.

Rosie savored the drink given to her by Kua. As soon as it entered her mouth, it melted into her body. Rosie immediately noticed that her control over her psionic energy seemed to have been strengthened slightly.

Although it is very small, Roche is certain that it does exist.

“Psionic power is the foundation of our strength, so honing our control over psionic power is also a very important ability,” Kua said.

“I can feel the powerful force in your soul, even more powerful than my psychic energy.”

The ancient sage expressed admiration without a trace of jealousy.

“Even within my own race, there are few who can surpass you.”

“You possess a certain divinity, which, if I’m not mistaken, seems to be related to mechanics, matter, creation, and invention.”

“But your power is not just pure psychic energy. I also sensed the presence of the Void Dragon Mag Radros. This terrifying star god killed many of our brethren, and I will never forget his aura.”

A trace of sadness appeared on Kua's face, as if he were recalling something that he couldn't let go of.

"It seems that many things have indeed happened in the future that are beyond our imagination, even Marg Radros has gotten involved with psionics."

While Rosie and Qua were talking to each other, the others listened patiently, unconsciously minimizing their presence.

Taracin, in particular, reacted as if facing a formidable enemy when he saw the ancient Sanquah; it was a reaction ingrained in the necromantic instincts of space.

The fragment of the Overlord controlled by Danteok also reacted similarly; it could hardly suppress its urge to attack, but it was firmly intercepted by Danteok's will.

Rosie told Quah why she and her group had traveled from the future to the present.

The ancient saint simply moved his position and slowly floated in front of Peturabo.

"So, your body was damaged by the Hrud's entropy energy rays?"

Que looked at Peturabo and suddenly revealed a somewhat unrestrained smile.

"I never imagined that the Hrud people we created would survive into your time."

"The Adaling, the Kork Orcs, the Hruds, and the Space Apes, among other races, were all born from our genetic engineering technology."

Upon hearing Kua's self-narration, Peturabo and Danteok, who was standing to the side, immediately widened their eyes.

I see, I see. That explains why those damned Hruds are so troublesome.

These aliens, capable of using entropy energy rays to accelerate or reverse time, were among the most formidable enemies the Iron Warriors encountered during the Great Crusade.

At the time, the Mechanicus made many analyses of the origin of the Hruds, and some sages even suspected that these ugly aliens might be humans who would undergo great changes in the future.

However, compared to that somewhat absurd explanation, the claim that the Hruds were creatures they created is far more credible.

Quah finally raised his hand and then unleashed his psychic power on Peturabo.

Under the personal intervention of this ancient sage, the Primarch immediately felt the inexplicable feeling that had been lingering within him vanish completely.

“I have already removed the damage caused by the Hruds, but there are still some scars on your body. You should know what that means.”

Kua looked at Perturabo and Dorn with admiration. To be honest, the biochemical modifications on these two Primarchs didn't shock the Old Saints too much.

After all, their ancient saints were most skilled at using genetic engineering technology for biochemical modification. They were even able to create many different powerful races from scratch, which alone far surpassed that of humans.

What surprised him was that Peturabo displayed a perfect balance between the essence of the subspace and the physical body.

Quah saw such beings arising in the warp in future prophecies; they might be referred to as warp minor gods.

Some sub-gods of the warp are born from the worship and faith of life in the real universe, while others are born naturally from the sea of ​​souls.

The ability of humans to cram the essence of a sub-god from the warp into a flesh-and-blood body inspired Qua.

"Our emperors created the Primarchs, Dorne and Perturabo being among them."

Lothie used psionic powers to reveal some information about the Emperor, and Quah, upon seeing the Emperor's projection in the warp, displayed a loss of composure for the first time.

"So it was him, the cold sun that appeared from the depths of the subspace."

"He exists now, but he has never woken up."

Kua's voice became somewhat shrill, even attracting the attention of the ancient spirits and orc guards on guard outside the palace.

"Everything is fine here, you don't need to panic."

"Everyone, get out of here. These are not enemies."

Quetz asked Lance, and the guards then withdrew from the palace again.

Kua wiped the sweat from his forehead with his robe and then continued.

"So you are descendants of that cold sun, no wonder you are so outrageous."

"He's actually your leader?"

Rosie was not surprised by the omniscience displayed by the ancient saints.

If people can foresee the future across vast time dimensions, it's not surprising that they know of the existence of emperors.

Once the gods of the warp are born, they will immediately spread across the timeline.

Therefore, although the four Chaos Gods had not yet awakened at this point in time, they already existed in the subspace, and the Ancient Saints discovered traces of their existence from the seemingly calm depths of the Sea of ​​Souls.

"As more and more death echoes accumulate in the warp, those beings known as warp demons are appearing more and more frequently."

"These variables are disrupting the operation of our camp. After all, the warp is the capital we rely on and a necessary means for us to deal with those Catan."

He sighed, but quickly cheered up again.

"Seeing you means that our struggle has most likely failed, and we cannot stop the spread of chaos, but your appearance also means that we are not alone on our path." "Although our two races have never met, or even coexisted in the same time period, it doesn't matter."

The ancient saint turned his gaze to the alloy coffin behind Loxi and the others.

With a slight tremor of his sleeve, a surge of spiritual energy disintegrated the alloy coffin, revealing the remains of a Kork orc inside.

"I imagine this Kork orc must have caused you a lot of trouble."

"He was an accident, sleeping from our time and awakening in yours. His confusion inevitably drove him to do some irrational things."

Que pulled the remains of Kork before him, and then summoned a Kork orc general to collect and bury them.

"As his creator, I am sorry for the harm our creation has caused to our allies who are also fighting against chaos."

Lothie was not offended by the Old Ones' act of taking away the remains of the Kork orcs.

If we were to go into detail about this matter, it wouldn't have anything to do with praise.

It was Tarasin's collecting desires that led him to hide this ancient orc and keep it in his museum, which ultimately resulted in Kork's escape and the ghoul star disaster.

Tarachin felt embarrassed at this moment, and he stepped out from behind Dorn.

In front of Kwa, Tarasin behaved with unusual solemnity and respect, devoid of his usual playful demeanor.

“Tarasin, the overlord of the Nihirak dynasty, has met the Creator.”

Quah snatched the Staff of Transference Annihilation from Tarasin's hand, examined it closely, and then returned it.

“These belong to my people. I never expected them to end up in your hands.”

“This is my spoils of war,” Tarasin replied.

Kua wasn't angry. He looked at the spark on Tarasin's chest and said, "Since you obtained it through your own abilities, it's naturally yours. I'm not going to tear you apart over a psionic weapon."

“I’m just surprised that your race, whose souls were eaten by the Katan, can one day have souls again.”

"Although these are not your original souls, they are flowers that have grown anew on the original ruins."

Upon seeing this, Loxi's heart stirred slightly, as he had been wanting to ask the Ancient Saint about other universes.

"Tarasin's ability to regain his soul is inextricably linked to an artifact I obtained from another universe called the 'Spark.'"

"The Spark is a sacred object of Cybertron. According to legend, it is the spark of Primordial Lord, the creator of Cybertron, and possesses many magical powers."

"The AllSpark has incredible power, especially for some mechanical life forms."

When Kua heard the name of Yuanshi Tianzun, a glint of light flashed in his reptilian vertical pupils.

Loshi immediately realized that these ancient saints must have also traveled to other universes through inter-universe channels.

They are even more likely to go further than I have.

“Yes, our race has indeed reached other universes,” Kua admitted. “I have also heard of the Primordial Celestial Lord you mentioned.”

"They were all members of a group called the gods, the Primordial Celestial Lord and the Cosmic Emperor. When we arrived in that universe, they were fighting each other, so we quietly left."

"We dislike war, especially war with the rulers of different universes."

"Different universes exert different levels of suppression on psionic energy, so the power we can wield also varies. We will not initiate war unless absolutely necessary."

"What we love is creation, especially drawing inspiration from different native life forms in different universes to create our own race."

"The Eldar you see are actually inspired by a multiverse."

Loxi immediately understood.

Ever since he stepped out of the Well of Eternity, he has been wondering if he is the first person to leave the Warhammer universe from there.

In retrospect, he was certainly not the first, but perhaps the first human.

"There is more information about the multiverse that I do not know, and that is not my concern."

“Although you may see us as a single race, we are actually more like a community connected by shared interests and hobbies.”

“We no longer have any pressure to survive, so there is absolutely no need for us to come together in a large-scale cluster.”

"We have no concept of country or nation."

"Some ancient sages liked to create life, so these ancient sages came together; some ancient sages liked to explore the unknown, so they were more enthusiastic about leaving this primordial universe and going on adventures to the unknown multiverse."

"As for me... you can consider me the first type. Strictly speaking, the Hruds are my creations, and they worship me as a god."

Kua laughed rather unrestrainedly.

"In fact, we Ancient Saints are not gods. Compared to us, the Cattans, who symbolize the rules of the universe, and the Chaos Gods who are still sleeping in the Warp, are the ones who deserve the title of gods."

"God is not a good adjective. Those who become gods will forget their original selves and be controlled and driven by the power and divine position they hold."

"Whether God is the essence or God's authority is the essence is a question that none of us have the answer to."

Loxi was surprised to find that the ancient saint's attitude toward the gods seemed strikingly similar to that of the emperor.

They all harbored considerable hostility and disdain towards the so-called God.

"Listen to me first, there's something I've always wondered about." When Tarasin saw that Kua was no longer paying attention to him, he immediately realized that this ancient saint actually harbored resentment towards him.

This is not only because he is the overlord of the space necromancers, but probably more because the Staff of Annihilation in his hand belongs to some ancient saint.

Although the other party didn't say much, they showed their attitude through their actions.

Kua reluctantly turned around to face Tarasin.

"What I want to ask is, when our people asked you for help to solve the problems of short lifespan and genetic diseases, were you really powerless to do so?"

"Or is it that you simply despise our race and only want us to fend for ourselves in suffering?"

"An answer! I just want an answer!"

Tarachin was tense when he asked the question; he was preoccupied with the answer.

In fact, the conflict between those who fear death and the ancient saints did not exist from the beginning.

When the Fearful Ones left their home planet, they encountered the Ancients who were spreading life throughout the galaxy.

These extremely short-lived and fragile creatures greatly envied the ancient saints' powerful strength and long lifespan, and they begged the ancient saints to help them solve the incurable disease that plagued their race.

However, the ancient saints did not hesitate to reject the requests of the fearful dead and banished their messengers from their palaces.

This is why the fearful of death harbored a deep hatred for the ancient saints' unwillingness to share the secret of immortality. They even vented their own suffering and curses on the ancient saints.

However, due to the vast difference in strength, they suppressed their hatred.

As the later Fearful Ones expanded their territory across the galaxy, and their various dynasties began to consider independence and division, the Silent King directly provoked a war against the Old Ones to avoid civil war.

They pinned their hopes of preventing racial division on the threat of a more powerful external enemy.

This war could perhaps be called the First War of Heaven.

Kua looked into Tarasin's eyes and then spoke slowly.

"I think you already know the answer, don't you?"

"Your home planet's star emits a ray containing death energy, which will cause your genes to mutate rapidly and make irreparable mistakes."

"Your star is poisonous, and the Star God Nightbringers dwell within it, which is why every individual of your race is incredibly short-lived and fragile."

"The ancient sages who received your envoys saw this. We had neither the ability to break the curse of the Nightbringers nor the desire to get involved in the trouble, so we refused you."

Tarasim gripped the Staff of Annihilation tightly. He could understand the Old Ones' concerns, but he could not accept the tragic fate of his race.

“You are pathetic, I admit it.” Kua’s voice turned cold. “But that is not a reason for you to release those Katans. You gave the Star Gods a body that could walk freely by using the skin of the undead, which gave those stellar vampires even more freedom.”

"Because of your selfishness, war broke out completely. Countless intelligent beings died in agony. The screams of their dying souls disrupted the normal operation of the warp, eventually causing the power of chaos to slowly grow stronger."

"I think I have made myself clear enough. You—the Death-fearers, or rather, the Space Necromancers—bear an undeniable responsibility for the galaxy's current bird-like state!"

This was the first time Luo Xi had ever seen Kua angry. From the moment he met this ancient saint, Kua had always been gentle, refined, and composed.

Tarasim, holding his scepter, sat down to one side and stopped arguing with Quwa.

The Necromancers of space did kill many Old Ones, but almost none of their captives were alive.

Therefore, even Tarachin had no idea what these arch-enemies were really thinking.

Now that he had personally questioned Kua and received an answer, the thorn in his heart finally showed signs of loosening.

"Are we the ones who are wrong? We didn't have a choice either," Tarasin thought to himself.

"Alright, forget about the unpleasantness from earlier." Quah softened again, but Tarasin was no longer in his sight.

"I know you came to this point in time only to resolve the problem of the existence of the Primarch."

"Their time anchor was faulty, causing them to wander around on the timeline. The problem has now been largely resolved."

Before you leave, I would like to give you a few gifts.

Just as Kua was about to ask what the gift was, his expression suddenly changed.

"The enemies are here. It seems we'll have to talk later."

The somewhat overweight ancient saint, who was floating in the air, immediately took his leave and returned to his command post.

Qua did not refuse Rosie's request to follow, so driven by curiosity, they entered the command post.

Before Loxi stood many ancient spirits and ancient beastmen, their numbers were vast, and they appeared to be the most composed.

Through the holographic projection in the command center, Loxi saw a large number of warships belonging to the Necromancers suddenly appear in the galaxy.

Its distinctive features—a jet-black living metallic material paired with a green, eerie energy glow—make it virtually impossible to mistake the creation of the Necromancer from space.

The crescent-shaped Doomsday Scythe suddenly appeared inside the galaxy, and its inertialess engine enabled it to move at speeds exceeding the speed of light.

The Lone Wolf-class and Elegy-class frigates are positioned at the outermost edge of the Necromancer fleet, often serving only as fast-moving cannon fodder.

More large space necromancer warships appeared densely within the star system, like NPCs spawned by the system.

If human warships are flying churches, then these space undead warships are flying graves.

Among the many shroud-class, sickle-class cruisers and Ishizuka-class battleships, the most eye-catching is the colossal structure known as the World Engine.

Danteok had witnessed the terrifying power of these world engines on the battlefield of the western front of the galaxy.

They could even easily eliminate multiple Ork battle planets, albeit at a certain cost.

The world engine is surrounded by a giant living metal orbit, and the intense green light emitted from inside outlines the surface with the unique symbols of countless space necromancers.

As soon as the World Engine entered the interior of the galaxy, it began to fight against the ubiquitous psionic energy there in order to reduce the environmental advantage of the Ancient Saints.

The space necromancers are incredibly fast; the powerful performance of their inertial-free engines makes them far more maneuverable than imagined.

Kua didn't care about this; he simply calmly instructed the orc generals around him to prepare for war.

(End of this chapter)