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20. Shattering of Aegis
🕑 Added 2024-02-08 14:28:13 +0000 UTCThe arcane barriers rippled as the thunderous roar reverberated through the entirety of the Celestian Enclave before echoing back and flowing through all again. As it did, shockwaves followed, ripping apart the bodies of billions while on the outside a veil of pixelated silver.
This was the last push for the many layers of arcane shields responsible for their self-repairing and adapting capabilities that had long since reached their limits. They combined with the constant strains from the Null Obelisks and Ghostwind, and damage from both C'tan and Necron enough to make the defenses reach their tipping point.
Not only was it the last push but it was one of extreme precision and strength focusing on weak points that had formed but all the while generating untold more. As such the protective layers separating the Celestian Enclave from the outside world cracked, and splintered before every layer simultaneously shattered in a shapeless blast of crystallized light.
It was a spectacle of magnificence and atrociousness never seen before and that will never be seen after. A historical moment that was now forcing the uncountable beings anciently within to bear the full might of the Eternal Empire.
The neverending tide of malevolent green glow fell on the marbled and golden divine architecture causing mayhem and apocalypse. The numerous blessings of the Aeldari Gods were unable to fight against the focused might of Necron weaponry from matter-disintegrating beams to artificial worlds engineered to collapse stars and strip the life of celestial bodies in less than seconds.
Billions died, their bodies turning to sheer nothingness as even the subatomic particles of their bodies broke apart, their souls now unfettered swept away by the ravenous howling void and strident rules of reality. Psychic energy was banished from the air with the air itself now but a lingering beast that craves for the living.
Yet nothing was carved in stone for the battle had only truly begun at this very moment.
Psychic pillars of the purest white and brighter than any stars rose higher and higher, from them trillions of intricately woven cords covered in microscopic dark pentacles were made.
Each thread was the lifeline of a brave Aeldari using his or her mastery over warpcraft and strategy to bring down destruction on hated foes by graceful and precise movement. Or large, powerful, and ferocious Krork by protecting his connection to the gestalt field of his kind, enhancing it to heights never seen before reality even in such a fixed state bending to the will of all.
This seldom was exclusive to the members of the Young Race, all that was beyond the frozen edicts of Realspace was given a sliver of this nigh infinite ocean of the most refined psychic power. Dark runes of energy from alien nature to the Universe protect this flow of energy from being interrupted by the combined effort of the Null Obelisks and Ghostwind.
But if not for the cumulation of blessings notably the one of the Aeldari God of Darkness these fiery silk threads would not have stopped the fatal effects that the destruction of the many shields would have led to.
And as the war raged on between Gods, mortals, and soulless machines two of said latter were advancing within, the battlefield changing as if their mere presence affected it. No, it was as if a higher being was watching over them.
"My, oh my, are my photonic receptors malfunctioning, or aren't you quite the formidable specimen, green skin? It will be a true tragedy if you were to suddenly be part of my private exhibition!", the first Necron Overlord exclaimed as joyfully as a soulless machine could before throwing an innocent-looking black cube at one of the biggest Krork he ever saw in his unlife.
"This is not the time to frolic around in your pointless bumbling insanity Trazyn.", the second Necron Overlord said with derision, his one-eyed gaze observing the harmless-looking cube move across the battlefield from his most hated enemy hand to the back of a fully armored massively muscular mycelium barbarin.
In an instant, the cube changed into a complex machinery that stunned the Krork before generating a controlled black hole that absorbed him in a pocket space leaving behind all but a large hole. The one nearby suffered greatly from it, the unluckiest dying while some simply lost half of their bodies. The latter of the tap case however were fully healed in the next instant and created clouds of spores that sprouted Krork in the thousands nearly instantaneously and fully grown.
"And why might you be following me, my dear Orikan? Does your cold non-existent heart beat in fright at the idea of my tragic demise? Or is it to end me yourself? If so, wouldn't it be more acceptable to do it at another place and time.", the Trazin snarked, summoning his Tesseract Labyrinth back.
He then threw another cube at a smaller Krork and changed perspective to a small dark pyramid hovering above him. It was a device that ranked among the best Necron cameras capable of catching touch, smell, and beyond in detail equal to reality.
He didn't bother to turn his head as multicolored lightings of destruction, and antimatter slugs were displaced in a divergent timeline by the self-proclaimed greatest astromancer in the galaxy he was woefully ignoring by gazing at his new object of collection.
"That is none of your concern, half-witted kleptomaniac. I do as I desire, your presence is only but a tragic unforeseen consequence. A minor error. A faulty numeral. An insignificant mistake within my vast computation, no more no less.", the Diviner dismissed the fair accusation, and despite his lack of facial expression, the sneer could be physically felt in his mechanized voice.
However, his singular eye gleamed a brighter green as he felt a tingling sensation at the back of his neck from none other than the Devil himself. A creature to which he had potentially sworn eternal servitude for a promise he was barely certain would be kept.
It was a message from a simple but complete code language devised between them for ease of communication, it was a little invisible tug on the ripple of time. And it told him one thing.
'RETREAT
And that is what he did. His capabilities to predict the future were greatly impaired from the birth of the last Aeldari God and only worsened here. And even if he was to be at his full capabilities there was far too much happening at once between being far above him. In the end, he was but one Necron Overlord.
"I wonder where sha-what!? You dare!", Trazin screeched in outrage as a long mechanical tail swopped under his legs before yanking him backward up into the air like a primitive snare trap on a tree.
Yet the screech and flowery curses of outrage from the impulsive collector came to a cold deadly end of stupefaction with a sprinkle of bonafide dread. From where he once stood and was happily advancing the ground split open and from it burst out a massive tentacle of white fiery death.
Neither stood still watching this spectacle unfold. In a comparatively measly flash of green light, both phased away transmitting themselves back in their respective cruisers and dodging a beam of light that would have thoroughly erased them from existence.
They were not the targets however and the ever-growing column of fire was followed by thousands more of varying dimensions, each bursting from the outer layer of the Celestian Enclave burning all to cinder in the wrath of Asuryan all that wasn't under his divine protection.
Destruction followed in the firmament as the endless tide of malevolent green and cold grey was bathed in the most potent flame since the dawn of creation. Cruisers and artificial worlds by the tens and hundreds of thousands no matter their defense were burned into nonexistence. All within not having retreated suffering a similar fate.
The Fundamental Laws themselves melted upon the lightest of contact, yet the fire quickly weakened the deeper it went until nothing but harmless embers remained.
"Oh, how much I weep! Oh unfortunate, why does it not continue within our defense? Why must it cease before the grand final? It was magnificent! Flamboyant I say! A masterful piece of art! And with the chant of Mag'ladroth! Such is the ephemeral beauty of devastation!", the Burning One intoned in contradicting jubilant joy and intense dismay at the sight of the pillars extinguished and unable to progress deeper.
Her speech remained unimpeded by the thousands of slashes aimed at her cut through everything behind as she elegantly dodged with almost no fault before reciprocating on the Aeldari God of Violence. From untold incisions of her making fiery bronze blood spilled out of his armored flesh, individually insignificant wounds but rapidly accumulating. And Morai-Heg's help greatly reduced the moment of the shields shattering.
This was an unpleasant fate shared among all of her brethren, all losing virtually half of their offensive potential even amid the numerous protection and failsafe in places that stopped obsolescence from claiming them.
"SILENCE YOU JABBERING WENCH!", Khaine boomed in seething wrath, the world exploding outward. So strong was his anger that it shook all in his vicinity. Indiscriminately destroying cruisers, killing, and shattering friends and foes alike.
He cared not however as he called for his Consort to reverse the time of his injuries to a more acceptable state the full might of his twin brother. All petty squabble and infantile rivalry were gone for it had no place on the battlefield.
"Anger! Why such a st-", Nyadra'zatha was not allowed to finish her comment for hundreds of rays of crackling white fire shot in her direction from the surrounding blazing columns.
Her body exploded in a much dimmer flame to evade, or at the very least try to do so as incomprehensible piercing shrieks of hysterical misery and wanton delight escaped her. Her voice distorted with an ever-rising crescendo until it all became silent only to be broken by a weak maddened feminine giggle.
"This was a most exceptional intercourse but I fear I must depart God of War.", she murmured close to his ear, her dainty flaming hand covered in deep cracks cupping his right cheek softly and burning through it till the bones showed.
The next instant she evaporated in smokey after image and Khaine howled in righteous fury as the realization that the Star God had slipped from his grasp downed on him. His only solace was the three voices of Morai-Hag calming him down before both warped to the closest C'tan, Iash'uddra the Endless Swarm.
The sight that greeted them was one lacking in their target, the Necron Goddess of Pestilence absent with only devastation behind, spanning the equivalent of star systems in the lower end of the spectrum.
All that remained was hidden among pillars of psychic flames, they were Isha, Kurnous, Lileath, and Cegorach with varying degrees of injury in the process of healing at far a lower rate than it should. A broken horn and skull, an amputated wing, half of a lower jaw missing, and a mask eaten by acid, to name only a few.
"Where is Hoopa?", he demanded, his eyes barely hiding the disappointment he held toward them for both their weakness and their failure, his irritation rising further. If not for his Consort he might have snapped and murdered one of those four.
"They do not-", the right head of Morai-Heg began and the left one followed, "-have the answer-", the middle one finished, "-to this inquiry."
"You called?", the melodic voice of the Archdjinni of the Rings followed the second as he appeared from one of his golden rings. His body was riddled with thin scars in the midst of falling off. A Necrodermis spike of the Necron God of Famine was used as a vulgar dental stick between his fangs, put in evidence by a wide smile below his black beak-like nose.
A smile of pure joy and anticipation, and only one knew why it was the case and he had sworn to himself to never speak of it. The Laughing God was many things, many of which were great and terrible but a liar to his closest confident he was not.
Promises made even alone will be respected till they cease to exist or they are revoked. Though the fanged smirk did not hide the conflicting emotions in the eyes and psychic presence at their dilapidated sight and that Cegorach was not alone in noticing it yet he stayed the only one to fully understand.
'Can a slave be a betrayer of his masters if loyalty never was there? Or to his fellow slaves? I wonder… In all cases! What a spectacular final this promises to be. Hmm, what should I call it? The Great Fall? The Hoopa Heresy? I wonder...', the Great Harlequin thought mirthfully as a small chuckle escaped the cracks of his mask.
"Llandu'gor fled as well. Cowardly beasts all of them.", Hoopa announced the news, and his most violent brethren nearly exploded if not for the lifted clawed finger and the fact the end of the fight would have been one-sided in the current situation.
"But I must admit that he did not go unscathed, or complete for that matter.", he added the next microsecond, disposing of his 'toothpick' by tossing it into a portal that led to the Well of Eternity. Its mere opening caused varying degrees of discomfort within his audience.
Khaine had not the chance to speak again that glowing dark fumes were emitted by Hoopa's rapidly growing and bulking up form. His six hands snapped open and his rings enlarged as they simultaneously were coated by darkness.
Then they all were teleported in the center of six of the Phoenix King's greatest and brightest fire columns. The darkness fireproofed them letting them grow in diameter until each broke beyond the white flame forming six massive golden hoops.
With another snap of fingers, the rings flashed and each lit up absorbing the potent psychic flames in themselves. The next moment six perfect copies of those gold rings appeared in the Necron force backlines, and from them, white flames covered by thin nets of black pentacle burst out where they never could reach before.
Destruction fell upon the back lines of the Silver Tide. Entire crownworlds disappeared with their respective dynasty, artificial planets rich in Null Obelisks unable to cope with the sudden attack from within their core's most vulnerable layer and entire portions of Dolmen Gates cut to ribbon shutting down thousands of portals from the Ghostwind.
A thunderous primordial roar resounded from deep within, its power far outstriping the first, all but the strongest were blurred away into fundamental particles. Simultaneously all six columns in the far distance fizzled out as a muffled hiss of pain escaped from Hoopa's lips. His six wrists now oozing with his viscous ebony black blood while pristine rings regrew from his healing flesh.
His six rings had shattered in a shower of gore, fold, and black blood by the action of thousands of silvery scales. Each akin to a barbed needle covered in the most potent nullification field he ever felt, each with energy rivaling stars, their speed and power bending reality itself.
This was enough to dig in the golden rings and expel all the hyper-condensed null fields within before being eaten by the darkness. Thereby halting the portals through a negative and chaotic feedback loop that resulted in the present reaction.
'Ingenious Mag'ladroth, very ingenious… But now I know where you are, and that hurt you quite a lot didn't it?', Hoopa analyzed an excited smile growing as the awaited time approached, all the while he ignored the surprised expression of the ones around him.
The darkness around his form exploded outward overpowering the surrounding pillars of white fire forcing his brethren to back off. They observed in great confusion as he used a ring from his horns before flying through the invoked portal.
His presence disappeared from their senses a scant few instant later leading to greater confusion, barring Cegorach even if he didn't know what was brewing in the Archdjinni's head. However, all could draw one conclusion. Hoopa, the key to their victory had gone deeply within the enemy lines, alone without any reason or warning.
