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Chapter 85: It is Time to Use My Wisdom!
🕑 Added 2025-08-12 13:43:47 +0000 UTCChapter 85: It is Time to Use My Wisdom!
As the Empyrean roiled, the countless emotions swirling around "The Seeker" began to surge, like a floodgate slowly opening.
The Warp-influence that had clung to the Computation Cogitatorum was stripped away as the souls scattered, and countless pieces of corrupted information were flung in all directions, carried along by the souls.
The commanders were directly confronted with a torrent of information. Countless visions flashed through their minds.
Khorne calculated the outcomes of a thousand battlefields. Tzeentch peered into a hazy, unknowable future. Slaanesh savored the exquisitely concentrated agony. Nurgle used it to calculate the spread of his plagues, expanding his garden with new members.
Using this massive machine in the material universe, They were all trying to get what They wanted, on this planet, and across the galaxy. They were all trying to get more.
Everything except the answer "The Seeker" wanted.
"Noβ"
The head, separated from the body, flared with a four-colored light. A shriek from the soul erupted from its still-gaping mouth, and then its consciousness fell into eternal darkness.
"The Seeker," the core of the ritual, was annihilated in the despair of his shattered illusions.
But Arthur had no time to ponder whether such a quick death was too good for the man. His expression was grim as he watched the headless body, which was now being battered by four-colored light, countless cracks appearing on its surface.
The destruction of the ritual's core meant that the ritual would now enter its next phase.
The opening of the Rift!
The emotions of a trillion souls pushed back the approaching Shadow. Even the predator from beyond the galaxy could not, at this moment, shake the Warp-influence that had taken hold of the entire star system.
This planet would be dragged, whole, into the Warp.
This conclusion drove the Great Devourer into an even greater frenzy.
In the void of space, aside from the Hive Ships and bio-vessels, the remaining millions of Tyranid craft madly plunged into the atmosphere, ignoring the fire of the joint fleet and crashing directly into the Forge-World. They were like hunters, starved for three days and three nights in the wilderness, desperately lunging for a cart of food that was about to be dumped into a cesspit.
"This is..." Aglaia pressed a hand to her forehead. For mortals, in the face of such an information torrent, even thinking became extremely difficult. And she was certain that if not for an unseen power protecting them, the moment those blasphemous visions had entered their minds, their mortal bodies would have all exploded into Chaos Spawn.
"A Warp Rift."
Her ears were filled with agonized groans. A terrifying torrent of souls converged. When she looked up, at the center of the Chaos ritual, a four-colored, eight-pointed star was forming.
They were too late. The sacrificial ritual for the Warp Rift had already been completed. "The Seeker's" so-called bargaining had just been a way for the Four Gods to rack up interest.
Now, all of them, these outsiders, were trapped here.
So be it, Aglaia thought, her grip tightening on the black hole grenade, a piece of forbidden technology, in her hand. Her actions had been too slow. The old bastard had already gathered the population, had used six Dark Eldar Kabals and himself as the core of the ritual. The Four Gods had been watching this place from the very beginning. Her efforts had been in vain...
On the planet, a giant hole appeared in the sky, which was covered in a massive cloud of smog. A vortex of clouds was slowly turning. The magnificent, terrible power made the hands of the observers in the fleet tremble.
What... what is that?
[Warp influence detected. Disengage from xenos fleet. Maintain distance.]
[Activate Gellar Field generators. Seal the bridge. Retain electronic viewports.]
The fleet's leaders, listening to the reports from their vox-systems, quickly issued orders. As they were still regrouping their fleets, the vortex began to spin faster and faster, sucking away countless tons of smog, forming a massive gray spot that was impossible to describe in words. It was thousands of kilometers in diameter. When the eight chasms that had formed within the vortex linked together, the fleet admirals shot up from their command thrones as if electrocuted.
"Quickly! Tell the lords to evacuate!"
Watching the shadow being torn open, seeing countless, varied portals begin to appear across the planet like puddles after a rainstorm, the Four Gods all reached out, wanting the rift in the Empyrean to swallow this world.
The situation was far more dire than expected.
The Four Gods, it seemed, had no intention of giving the transmigrators a chance to trade pieces. They intended to swallow the entire board.
Was it all pre-ordained?
Could the transmigrators' efforts not change the outcome?
"Arthur!"
As the rift expanded to the height of a man, Ramesses grabbed the Inquisitor, who was about to charge in and self-detonate, and shouted, "Go in!"
He didn't explain why, and his partner didn't intend to listen.
"..."
The black knight didn't even look back. He swung his sword, cutting down the countless claws that were already reaching into the material world, and then, still able to move freely in the torrent of souls, he leapt directly into the rift.
"Ramesses!" Romulus, who had been watching the battlefield, didn't even have time to react before he saw his friend disappear.
"You have the right to be angry, but please, trust me," Ramesses said, a bright light shining in his golden eyes. He had been watching the state of the Warp the entire time.
"This ritual cannot be stopped under normal circumstances. But Arthur can do it. His special trait can sever the pathways of souls, which will jam the ritual's progress. After that, if the Four Gods want to influence reality, they will have to open another channel."
"In layman's terms, the floodgate is blocked. If they want to let the water in, they have to either build a new floodgate or clear the blockage. And the amount of power a floodgate can release at one time is limited."
"But I can't contact him!" Romulus was about to explode with anger. Was the Warp a place a person could just go into? One man against who knows how many Greater Daemons?
"You won't be able to contact me soon either," Ramesses replied quickly. "Listen, the flow of time between the Warp and realspace is different, but I can interfere with it to a certain extent. A brief moment in there could be several days on the outside. We won't be in danger for long."
"Arthur has jammed the ritual. I will do my best to redirect the areas where the Four Gods project their power into reality, to make them fight the Tyranids. You guys have to hold the line. Imperial reinforcements are on the way. If you win, remember to come and get us."
"Trust in my professional ability. My own special nature allows me to study the unknown in the safest possible way. The wisdom I possess is far more accurate than the wisdom humanity has gained through millennia of sacrifice and conjecture."
"Now, it is time to use it!"
THUMPβ
A muffled sound. The souls that had been gathered by the Chaos ritual, about to be thrown into the Empyrean, seemed to hit something and scattered. The rift, which had expanded to about three meters, finally stopped growing.
The members of the Inquisition and the Nemesis Chapter were finally able to stand up against the torrent.
Ramesses casually created a sarcophagus, ignited the daemon within it, and, mimicking the function of a Gellar Field generator, stabilized the reality around them.
"I need a group of people to guard this place. Stop any daemon that tries to restart the ritual. Protect this sarcophagus. Its reality-stabilizing function will last for three months."
Ramesses then created several more rifts. A number of heavy vehicles filled the large, empty space of the Computation Cogitatorum, to be used by the defenders.
Aglaia looked around. The Sisters of the Bloody Rose and the warriors of the Nemesis Chapter all looked at her. The Sisters and the Astartes simultaneously gripped their weapons, their posture clearly saying, 'If you dare to make me stay, I will vaporize you.'
"...I swear on the honor of my name, which has been passed down from ancient myth, that I will take on this duty." Aglaia finally suppressed her own desire to charge into a glorious battle and accepted Ramesses's order.
"Good." Ramesses nodded, then strode towards the rift. To be honest, he didn't know what he was thinking. Faced with such a dire situation, instead of running away, he was going all-in with his partner's life. Just like Arthur, when he wanted to do something, he just did it.
Ramesses shook his head. Meaning and all that was unimportant. They would fight against the great tide, against Chaos, and they would win. They would raise the first middle finger to this dark universe. Although they did not know what the future held, although they had flaws, made mistakes, had limits... they were the only people in this galaxy he trusted. That was enough.
The sorcerer was all-in. He stepped directly into the rift.
He believed his partner would win, just as he believed in himself.
"???"
Romulus looked at the backs of the Sisters and the Space Marines, who were now shouting "Vengeance!" He didn't know where Ramesses got his confidence. The only one who truly understood what the Thousand Son was thinking, Arthur, was already offline.
After confirming that he could no longer get a response from either of his partners, Romulus slammed his fist on the table.
Will they be able to hold on? How dangerous is this operation? What exactly does 'jamming the ritual' mean? A series of questions popped up in his mind. He felt a sense of regret. He really felt he should have made Ramesses write him a manual on Warp-knowledge, to save him from this anxiety.
"Control yourself," Karna said, comforting him. "Since they intend to buy us a chance, if we fail, then we will truly be dishonoring their sacrifice."
"I know." Romulus nodded. He then switched his comms channel to Cawl's.
"Archmagos, has the computational power of the Mechanicus Temple been restored?"
"It has," Cawl's reply came back instantly.
"Give me three months."
The vortex in the sky was still gathering, but it seemed to be blocked by something. It was only slowly turning. The power of the Empyrean could not descend.
"Three months?" Romulus looked at the Tyranid ships crashing into the Forge-World and let out a bitter smile. He felt that the situation was no longer under his control.
But what could he say? They were already in it, so they might as well do their best.
"All units, the assault team has destroyed the Chaos ritual, but the war is not over. Quickly, scout the movements of the Hive Fleet and the daemons. Consolidate your defensive lines. It is our duty and our honor to protect the property of Mankind." Romulus's speech was quickly transmitted through the vox-system to every person's ears.
"Now, let us do our duty."
"Yes, my Lord." The hundred-plus people in the command center stood up and saluted in unison, then sat down and threw themselves into their busy work.
Romulus watched as everyone's morale soared, but he felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He looked at the great vortex in the sky, then at the two disconnected icons on his comms channel, his eyes filled with helplessness.
The Four Gods' ritual had been interrupted, but the Tyranids had gained biomass. A one-sided outcome had been averted, but the intensity of the war would likely double.
Being a hero was not easy.
Collecting the information sent back by the scouts, Romulus simulated the battlefield situation in his mind, striving for the best possible outcome.
"I really hope this planet can hold out."
Karna, seeing that his partner was back in his element, turned and went to the front line, intending to use his own presence to give the others the will to fight.
They each had their own ideas, but no one had said anything about giving upβ
Perhaps it was for this very reason that this journey, which was destined to be anything but mundane, had chosen them.
(End of Chapter)
