Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 247 Strategy Against the Star God

"Your Excellency Judge Chen Xi, may I ask what brings you here?" Caul's deep, mechanical voice echoed in the reception room of the Forging Ark.

The great sage of the Cult of Machines was leaning on his forging axe, gazing at Chen Xi. Due to the excessive mechanical modifications that had made his body so enormous, he could no longer sit down.

Several servo skulls floated around him, and countless pieces of information and data were interacting with Kaul through these servo skulls.

Clearly, this great sage was still busy even while receiving guests.

"For this expedition, Your Excellency the Great Sage." Seeing this, Chen Xi got straight to the point, knowing full well that his fellow tech enthusiasts disliked pointless waste of time: "Great Sage, how much do you know about the alien civilization of the Space Necromancers?"

He looked up and stared at Caul's eye, which looked like it was original, his gaze sharp and full of pressure.

"They were once a technologically advanced and glorious race, but now it seems that all that remains of them are ruins and sleeping tombs." Kaul's answer was standard and his voice, transmitted through the loudspeaker, revealed no emotional fluctuation.

This answer largely aligns with the Empire's mainstream view of space necromancers, while also staying within necessary limits.

After all, Chen Xi was an inquisitor. Although Kaul, as a high-ranking member of the Cult of the Machine God, was not afraid of the authority of the Inquisition, it was better to avoid trouble in some matters.

At this moment, Kaur also set aside one of his many thoughts to deal specifically with Chen Xi's problem, carefully considering his intentions.

However, Chen Xi was clearly not there to spout off obvious platitudes to Kaul; he went straight to Kaul and asked, "Does the Great Sage know about the Star God?"

Caul's red robe trembled slightly, and a hint of confusion flashed in his mechanical eyes.

He paused for a moment, seemingly searching his vast database, before finally shaking his head: "Star God? Some kind of heretical belief? My database contains almost no records of that term."

"They can be said to be the faith of the space necromancers, but they are not just faith." Chen Xi revealed the existence and essence of the Star Gods to Kaur: "According to my investigation and research, the Star Gods were a super life form that once existed. They used to feed on stars and possessed incredible power, even comparable to that of gods."

Kaul's prosthetic eye flickered slightly as he focused his gaze on Chen Xi, indicating that he was listening attentively to the matter.

Chen Xi continued, "They can warp spacetime, reshape matter, turn a planet into dust in an instant, and create life from nothingness."

"To arbitrarily distort the laws of physics and elevate a race's technology to an incomprehensible level," Chen Xi's voice turned grave. "These seemingly unbelievable things are all the great powers once possessed by the Star Gods."

At this point, Chen Xi solemnly said to Kaul, "The predecessors of the Space Necromancers, the Fearful Ones, were able to grow from a weak, nearly extinct race into a vast empire spanning the entire galaxy precisely because they obtained the power of the Star God."

However, Chen Xi then changed the subject, revealing a result that even Kaul hadn't expected: "But it was also because of their faith in the Star God that the entire Fearless Civilization was ultimately destroyed. The current Space Necromancers are merely the Fearless's attempt to achieve immortality." A brief silence fell over the laboratory, with only the hum of the machines echoing in the air.

Kaul's mechanical prosthetic eye flashed with a cold blue light, and the servers and cooling system on his body emitted a faint hum that only occurs when running at high speed. Clearly, what Chen Xi said had aroused the great sage's great attention and interest.

Kaul has realized that a secret buried deep in the annals of history is now slowly being unveiled.

His logic processor was working at high speed, trying to compare the information provided by Chen Xi with the ancient database of the Mechanicus, but the records about the "Star God" were almost blank.

“If these Star Gods really exist…” Caul’s voice was low and hoarse, with a mechanical, electronic quality: “Then where are they now?”

His tone revealed a rare thirst for knowledge. Although he maintained the composure befitting a great sage, Chen Xi could sense the subtle change in his attitude.

Chen Xi's words did indeed pique his interest. Although Kaul couldn't understand why Chen Xi would mention such an ancient and mysterious existence at this moment, as a sage of the Mechanicus sect who sought knowledge, he instinctively craved more information.

Even if it involves heretical doctrines or some kind of forbidden knowledge that the empire deliberately erased.

"They were torn apart by the Necromancers, in a physical sense." Chen Xi didn't mince words and went straight to the point of his visit to Kaul today: "About 60 million years ago, the Necromancers, led by the Star Gods, launched a massive war against beings known as the Ancient Saints, tearing the entire galaxy apart."

Towards the end of the war, the Star Gods defeated the Ancient Saints at a great cost, which left them weakened as well.

Meanwhile, the space necromancers, having fallen silent, turned against the star gods who controlled them. Some star gods were killed, while others escaped the galaxy. However, most of the star gods were torn into countless fragments by the space necromancers and imprisoned in a device called the Hyperdimensional Cube.

As the Star God fragments are imprisoned, they continuously damage the cells that hold them. However, these cells, which were designed by the Necromancers of Space to imprison the Star God fragments, can continuously extract the infinite energy contained within them to power their tomb world.

Of course, this energy will also be used to repair the hyperdimensional cube itself, which is constantly being destroyed by the fragments of the Star God, thus ensuring that the Star God will never be released.

At this point, Chen Xi paused briefly before saying to Kaul, "However, when the Necromancers are at a disadvantage on the battlefield, or when their defeat is irreversible, they will also release these prisoners onto the battlefield to destroy the Necromancers' enemies with the incredible power of the Star God Fragments."

"So, does this Necropolis we're facing have any Star God fragments?" Kaul asked the question Chen Xi most wanted to hear.

“I’m not sure, but it’s not impossible that they possess a fragment of the Star God,” Chen Xi replied, while also making a request: “Therefore, I hope that Your Excellency the Great Sage can prepare a sufficiently sturdy restraint device, so that we won’t be helpless if we encounter this thing on the battlefield.”

(End of this chapter)