Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 367 Chaos Artifact
Both creations have their own merits and are enough to support the rise and fall of a world.

"Why don't you use nanoweapons to fight back against Madam Kra?" Harlan pressed on Glar's shoulder, voicing his question:

"This extremely powerful old night weapon, if used to fight against the alien invasion, will surely completely purify the pollution. Even if it is not enough to defeat the enemy, it will be enough to perish together with them."

“Because of this.” Gra walked to the third item, a look of confusion creeping onto his face, his eyebrows furrowing, as if he were puzzled by the current situation: “Before entering here, I didn’t even know this thing existed.”

Inside the display case, a magical object floats in the air, slowly rotating.

Eight three-dimensional triangles are bound into a ring by a mysterious force. Each face of the triangle is engraved with an unknown language, while the center is hollow. The triangle rotates inward and rolls as a whole, like an endless Möbius strip.

"After Father realized that Lady Clara had invaded, he summoned all the family members and suddenly killed everyone who had entered the place."

Gela stared at the circle, trying to recall what had happened: "I didn't know the secret room existed at the time, and I was lucky to escape."

“I thought my father had gone mad,” he said, his face still showing lingering fear—the blood of his relatives had stained the carpet, and no one had been spared. “It wasn’t until he injected himself with drugs and turned himself into an idiot that I realized he was keeping a secret.”

"Then Lady Kra's spirit descended and controlled me, using mind reading to obtain information. Knowing that Nur could not be alerted, she reluctantly kept me as a puppet."

“When I was occasionally lucid, I learned about the family’s secret through various clues and hints, which made me want to break free from control.”

“You mean,” Doom observed Grae carefully, knowing he wasn’t lying, yet gleaned crucial information from his description, “that your father, the previous head of the Grae family, wanted to cover up the existence of this item through his death?”

Gela nodded silently, examining the items in the display case: "I don't understand why my father would risk his life to hide it."

Doom circled the display case several times, examining it from multiple angles, but found nothing unusual.

The octagonal ring floated in the air, with no abnormalities visible to the naked eye.

“Is it possible that Mrs. Clara came here because she was looking for it?” Harlan whispered, boldly proposing a hypothesis.

“It’s not impossible.” Doom’s eyes twitched slightly as his gaze swept over Harlan; a warrior’s intuition is exceptionally sharp.

Eight solid triangles are positioned in eight directions, and no matter how the ring rotates, they always flip in a fixed position.

East, West, South, North, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest. The triangle always points in these eight directions, and with each rotation, runes of an unknown language flash once.

Without a doubt, although there are no fluctuations in the power of the subspace, the ring is definitely related to chaos, and perhaps that is Lady Kra's goal.

"How long has your family had it?" Doom asked Gera, then immediately realized he was being redundant.

Before entering the secret chamber, Grae was unaware of the existence of this item, let alone how long it had existed.

“Sir,” Gra responded cautiously, pointing to the bottom of the display case, “Could you please inspect this display case?”

“I believe that my father was determined to die because he knew the secret behind this thing and left clues for his descendants to follow.”

Doom agreed, crouched down, raised his hand to the base of the display case, and used his armor powers to scan the internal structure.

Suddenly, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes. There was indeed something hidden inside the base of the cabinet.

He took the dimensional lightsaber from his waist and activated it, then gently cut through the outer shell of the display case amidst the puzzled gazes of the two men.

When they saw the interior clearly, they were both surprised and at a loss for what to do.

"This this……"

Grae was speechless with shock. He looked back at Harlan, then at Doom, hoping that King Norwick's wisdom would help him understand why.

The base of the display case contains a shielding force field, in which an item, identical to the one on the ring above, is suspended.

“Both are genuine.” Doom projected a scanning beam from his palm, sweeping it across the two rings: “Their atomic arrangement and number of atoms are exactly the same, there is absolutely no difference.”

“On a physical level, such a thing almost doesn’t exist.” He glanced at Harlan, who immediately understood what he meant and tightened his grip.

Does the physical universe not exist? Looking at its eight symbols, Harlan can only think of one conclusion—chaotic creation.

The champion swordsman is ready; if any of his men make the slightest move, he will snap their necks to prevent the chaotic bloodline from wreaking havoc.

Grah also sensed the change in atmosphere. King Norwick and his warriors had clearly noticed something and knew the origin of the ancestral artifact. He straightened his back, daring not to make any movement lest he attract a thunderous killing intent!
"I see." Doom lowered his head and looked down, discovering written records beneath the base, learning about the hazy past of the Chaos Artifact.

Even the ancestors of the Gra family did not know their exact origins.

The pioneers of the past discovered the remains of an alien race called the "Giant Apes" in the western part of the Milky Way, which is now the Pacific Sector.

An alien species established a powerful civilization with a vast territory, but for some unknown reason, they left, leaving behind desolate ruins.

The pioneer fleet descended to the planet's surface and discovered two alien artifacts left behind in the alien race's shrine.

Both alien artifacts have names: the ring is called the "Ring of Chaos," and the other dagger is called the "Blade of Nemesis."

The ancestors of the Grac family chose the Ring of Chaos, while another group chose the Blade of Nemesis.

The true purpose of the Chaos Ring is unknown, but its known purpose is that it can point out the destination in the warp simply by the user holding it and imagining it.

The Nemesis Blade, on the other hand, allows the wielder to speak the name of the assassination target, establishing a causal relationship. The weapon then uses the target's genes to create an absolutely deadly virus.

Because the two artifacts had different functions, the exploration fleet parted ways, each carrying its own artifact away.

The Grall family continued their voyage, using the Chaos Ring to explore the galactic frontier, but during one voyage they were attacked by some strange species and eventually came to a stop on Grall's main planet.

Another group disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only one name—Interes.

After reading the remaining text, Doom's mind raced, and he constructed a model of the truth in his mental space.

The Grac family, having obtained the Ring of Chaos, sought to travel to the outer void guided by the artifact. However, their excessive use of its power attracted the attention of a powerful being of chaos, who manifested from the void and attacked the fleet.

Knowing that the attack was caused by an alien artifact, the Gra family dared not use it again and stopped at the edge of the galaxy, permanently sealing the Chaos Ring.

"Let him go." The whole story is clear now, and Doom's decision to have Harlan release Gra should be respected.

“Your father was a good man,” he told Gella. “He was a great man, wise and brave, who saw through Mrs. Clara’s evil plan and chose to seal the secret with his life.”

"I've confirmed that Lady Clara came for this reason. If the artifact falls into the hands of the Xenomorphs, it will have extremely terrible consequences."

Lady Clara was born with a natural talent for psychic powers. With the help of a magical artifact that guided her, she was able to roam freely across the vast world and wreak havoc on the dining hall known as the "Galaxy".

Feeling the large hand leave his shoulder, Gela's eyes turned bloodshot, and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. He nodded heavily.

My doubts vanished in an instant, and I realized how great my father was.

"Please, Great King, avenge our family!" he cried out as he knelt down, his voice filled with grief and blood, his heart filled with unquenchable hatred.

Harlan grabbed him by the back of the neck, and Grae was forced to kneel down, showing the descendants of a meritorious official the utmost respect.

"Rest assured, Lady Krall will pay the price." Doom nodded to him, his majestic voice solemn, making a kingly promise.

"I'll deal with this first." He turned to look at the Chaos Artifact, pondering how to handle it.

After receiving the promise, Gra fell silent and was led by Harlan to the door of the secret chamber to prevent the Chaos Artifact from causing contamination.

Seeing them move away, Doom pierced through the binding force field with both hands and grasped the two Chaos Rings respectively.

The written records clearly state that the ring was originally a single entity, radiating a powerful force. After being attacked, the ancestor Grah decided to destroy it, but accidentally separated it and then fell into silence.

Doom took the ring out of the display case with both hands and let it float in his palms. He guessed that it was not dormant, but rather had crashed because it had not received any further instructions.

His eyes narrowed, and he raised the ring with both hands facing each other, slowly squeezing it towards the center to restore the artifact to its original form.

As he drew closer, a repulsive force emanated from his palm, and Doom could clearly see purple lightning bolts shooting out from the surface of the ring.

The rings attract each other, and the triangles align and flip, yet they always resist merging, and the repulsive force grows stronger and stronger.

He exerted force with both arms, squeezing the ring towards the center—in an instant, purple lightning flashed, repulsive force surged, and the triangle violently flipped as it aligned, yet it always resisted the final fusion.

(End of this chapter)