The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"The Night Maze is an unmarked secret location, you were wise not to mention it directly to the Fabricator-General."

As Li spoke in a hoarse voice, a holographic map appeared in the projection device on his palm, illuminating the dim interior of the shuttle.

Just as Soshjan's fleet left Terra and arrived in Mars orbit, Li came to him with the relic of the Ymga Monolith.

The atmosphere of the reunion was a bit awkward because Soshjan had already met the Vanus, and Li had obviously been representing the Vanus to test him before. Of course, this didn't mean that what he said was false. At least from what Soshjan had seen and heard during this time, what Li said should be mostly true, but this still couldn't avoid the strange feeling when the two met again.

Fortunately, Li was not a procrastinator. He had already taken the thing out from Saturn. What surprised Soshjan was that it was just a strange nonagon, only the size of a fist, with a symbol he didn't recognize engraved on each side. It was neither human nor Aeldari, and seemed different from the Necrons, like a combination of countless spirals and rings.

As for what it specifically did or what it was for, Li couldn't say. Soshjan would probably have to figure it out himself.

After delivering the thing, Li also said that he was the one who would lead Soshjan to the Night Maze.

Finally, he praised Soshjan for not acting rashly. Originally, Soshjan had planned to ask the Fabricator-General about the Night Maze, but he changed his mind before meeting him, mainly because he recalled that this place seemed to have never been seen on the terrain map when he went to Mars before. It was likely a very hidden or secret place. Asking about this kind of place rashly might make the Fabricator-General suspicious.

After meeting Li, the other party confirmed his guess. The Night Maze was a secret among Mars' secrets, involving ancient secrets of Mars. Once Soshjan said it, even Li would find it difficult to deal with.

Even going to this place could not alarm anyone.

Fortunately, although Soshjan had arrived, the Fabricator-General was slower, and it would take at least 20 hours to arrive from Terra. Soshjan could use this time difference.

So he acted directly, taking a shuttle with stealth signal capabilities straight to the Night Maze. He had to deal with this matter before the Fabricator-General returned to Mars.

Time was still relatively tight.

"The Night Maze is located between the Tharsis Plateau and the Valles Marineris, hidden beneath the broken rift terrain."

Li's face, wrapped in bandages, looked a bit eerie in the ghostly green light of the hologram, like a mummy awakened from an ancient tomb. At the same time, he used his dry fingers to draw a red line on the map.

"Its characteristics are, first, its depth. The deepest part of the deep canyon there is as much as six kilometers, formed by fault movements in ancient times. Second, it is complex. Below the canyon is a grid-like maze terrain, and there are complex magnetic fields. Some Mechanicus monks have tried to build foundries nearby, but none have lasted long, suffering from technical problems, thus creating the rumor that this place is unfriendly to machine spirits."

"Actually, it's because there's a C'tan down there."

Hearing Soshjan's words, Li shrugged.

"You know it too, so I won't explain it. After we get down, we still have a distance to walk."

The shuttle had now reached the stratosphere near Mars and was descending rapidly. Its black fuselage contained shielding technology to prevent detection devices from discovering it. After all, Mars could be said to be the most densely packed place with Imperial technology devices. It would be difficult to avoid the ubiquitous detection without taking out something real.

When the altitude dropped to 5000 meters, one of the shuttle's portholes opened, and the Tharsis Montes appeared on the horizon, as if the ground suddenly rose to form a series of steep cliffs, and then descended to the vast land of the plateau.

The distant forge complexes occupied the end of the horizon, but as Li said, the Mechanicus seemed to fear this cursed land like a tiger, and even the most thirsty for expanding their domain dared not carry out any construction in the northern end of the plateau, making the entire area extremely empty and desolate.

Soon, Soshjan saw that the mountains suddenly sank at the end of the plateau, as if some kind of huge collapse had formed a series of labyrinthine deep valleys, cliffs, and sunless gorges.

The shuttle gradually lowered its altitude, and soon the outside of the window was a darkness, as if falling from the sky into a deep sea.

"Li, how much do you know about the Aeldari?"

As the shuttle slowly descended, Soshjan, standing in the dim cabin, suddenly asked in a low voice.

Hearing his question, Li blinked his purple eyes and replied:

"I know some, but not too much."

"Do you know how the Dark Flame Chalice that the Adeptus Custodes sent to me came to be?"

Li was silent for a moment, then slowly responded.

"Father found it when exploring the ruins of the City of Wonders."

"What is the City of Wonders?"

"It is the hidden Webway entrance on Terra, a magnificent ancient Aeldari Webway city, whose scale is no less than that of Commorragh. It was the starting point and key to Father's great Webway Project, and also the ending of shattered dreams."

"Wait-"

Soshjan immediately grasped the key point.

"How is Terra connected to an ancient Aeldari Webway city?"

"I don't know. I wasn't even born when Father discovered the City of Wonders. Mother said these things in her spare time. Father also specially organized a team to explore it, including Mother, Malcador, and two other people, but Mother never said their names. The Dark Flame Chalice was discovered there. This thing was also stored with Mother for a period of time and was used in some difficult battles. There were also some other things, but most of them should now be sealed in the Dark Cells."

Soshjan thought for a while and continued to ask:

"Thanks for the explanation. Back to the Aeldari, have you met any Aeldari?"

Li tilted his head slightly, looked at Soshjan, and his eyes were a little strange.

Then he blurted out.

"In terms of personal aesthetics, I actually prefer fuller, bigger-chested types."

Soshjan's expression was very awkward, and he quickly explained:

"Uh, no, that's not what I meant. I, cough cough, well, I'll just say it straight. Did the Emperor have contact with the Aeldari in the past? After all, the Webway is a technology mastered by the Aeldari. How did the Emperor learn about it and how did he learn to use and even build it?"