The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Arrived?"

One second he was in the bedroom of the Eternal Loyalty, the next Sorylian found himself in another place.

Veronica's teleportation technology is different from all existing human teleportation methods. After passing through a door and walking up a staircase made of vines, Sorylian appeared on an incredibly distant planet.

As the teleportation gate slowly dissipated, dazzling lightning danced around the two of them, eventually vanishing into nothingness.

Sorylian looked up and found himself standing in a ruin, once a magnificent temple, now only silence and decay remained. Looking up, he could only see the dark dome. Based on the faint echoes returning from all around, Sorylian guessed that they should be in an underground cave, so the eerie silence permeating the surroundings was not surprising.

"I am Fonseca, the expedition leader appointed by Lord Doral. Greetings, Your Majesty, and Your Highness."

After the two appeared, a dozen warriors wearing Dark Eldar armor but with the colors and decorations of the Craftworld Eldar immediately knelt on one knee. Sorylian had even met the leader before; he was previously a Dracon under Doral.

Veronica, wearing a light green dress, silver fitted armor, and holding the Heart of Avalon, slightly raised her hand and said softly:

"Rise."

Although her voice was steady, her cheeks were slightly flushed. It turned out that an hour ago, while changing clothes, she couldn't stand Sorylian's teasing and had another round of lovemaking with him.

Afterwards, Sorylian briefly learned about the situation. This planet is called Isha VII. It may seem like a worthless, dead world, suspended alone in the cold and distant depths of a pale star. According to the brief survey conducted by the Adeptus Mechanicus, the planet only has the most basic minerals, but because the planet is far from the star, cold, and isolated, it has no mining value.

Therefore, it is almost a completely forgotten world. In the chaotic Maelstrom region, no one would care about a lonely planet on the distant border.

But such a world is not without visitors.

In the Maelstrom, there is a large group called Treasure Hunters. Their main job is to excavate ancient artifacts, technological relics, and even alien creations. To this end, they will not only delve into the lower levels of hive cities, but also visit desolate planets, and even risk exploring derelict ships drifting out of the Warp.

And what drives them to do this is naturally the Maelstrom's world-renowned black market, where endless demand creates huge profits.

After Fonseca led the team to the Maelstrom, he was initially at a loss. After all, this area is so vast and located in an active Warp zone, finding traces of the Eldar was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but by chance, he discovered an Eldar artifact on the black market.

The artifact was not initially recognized as an Eldar product. If Fonseca hadn't come from Commorragh and seen many artifacts from ancient empires, he wouldn't have recognized it at all.

He immediately realized that it was an artifact from the pre-Imperial era, so he immediately contacted the seller.

However, he did not directly purchase the item, but investigated the seller's identity, a down-on-his-luck antique dealer, and then he kidnapped the unlucky fellow and learned the origin of the item.

The antique dealer's father was also a treasure hunter, belonging to a group. They launched an excavation campaign targeting a world in the Pale Stars. At that time, the group's leader seemed to have received intelligence that there might be an alien ruin on this world.

After several months of effort, they seemed to have really found an alien ruin. It was then that the antique dealer's father secretly hid an artifact on his body, but before they could count the artifacts they found, the team was attacked—

The antique dealer didn't know what happened specifically; his father didn't say until he died. In short, most of the people in the group died. His father and a few others survived and abandoned their original profession. Afterwards, they opened an antique shop and passed the ancient artifact to his son, but unfortunately his son was not good at business, and the antique shop could barely survive, so he had to sell the artifact to get some funds.

Fonseca determined the location of Isha VII according to the planet location given by the antique dealer's father in his memory, but they searched here for a long time and found nothing except this shrine to Lileath, nor did they encounter any kin.

Finally, after trying many methods that were still ineffective, Fonseca had to ask Veronica for instructions, which was also what Doral had told him to do.

"With a shrine and artifacts, it means this was at least once a colony."

After listening to Fonseca's narrative, Veronica stated her deduction.

"But the Scar of Khaine (the Eldar's name for the Maelstrom) is not suitable for colonization. If there really are wild kin here, why can't I sense the World Spirit?"

Sorylian hadn't spoken before, but hearing this, he immediately blurted out a question.

"Can you be sure that it was the Aeldari who killed those treasure hunters back then?"

Fonseca was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

"I can't be sure, Your Highness. After all, those involved at the time are all dead, and we are only judging from the monkey-human antique dealer's words."

"Then perhaps this is really just a ruin. After all, there are only a few ways for the Aeldari to survive. There are no spirit stones here, nor the protection of a World Spirit, and they don't have the conditions of Commorragh residents. It can't be a group of Harlequins, right?"

"We also have this speculation, but we have discovered some huge underground passages with traces of artificial excavation. We suspect that there may be an independent underground space on this world. After we went down the underground passage for a certain distance, there was no road, blocked by a huge rock, possibly some kind of psychic mechanism."

"I see."

Sorylian's face, hidden behind the golden mask, showed no expression. He turned to Veronica beside him.

"You decide."

"Let's go take a look."

The two then walked out of the underground shrine under the guard of this Eldar exploration team. It was indeed as Sorylian thought, a huge underground cave, or rather, the shrine was directly sunk into the ground to create such a cave.

As soon as they came to the surface, all they could see was a desolate gray earth. The planet's sky was a hazy, pale gray, indicating that it had a very thin atmosphere and was not suitable for habitation. Dim stars hung in the sky, and the wind blew intermittently, carrying gravel that hit Sorylian's shining Eldar armor, making a rustling sound.

Afterwards, Fonseca led the team to a Raider gunship. With the help of the gunship's high speed, they spent more than ten minutes reaching the edge of a mountain range on the planet.

On the gray-brown foothills, Sorylian saw a large, blasted-open opening, and the gunship flew directly into it.

"This is where those treasure hunters discovered the ruins."

As the lights around the gunship lit up, Sorylian saw a wide space, scattered with some architectural remains, incomplete pillars, blurry statues, and some high platforms that only had bases left.

Suddenly, he discovered some human skeletons in the architectural ruins. Most of them still maintained their pre-death state, each with their head separated from their body.