The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Driven by curiosity, Soshjan even took a gunboat tour of the ruined Malan'tai, which gave him a deeper understanding of the place. In many of the areas where Eldar had been massacred, strange spiritbone forests had sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Each bizarre bone tree was hung with an unclaimed soul stone. The Eldar believed these were cursed areas, where souls who died were exceptionally aggressive in their pain and anger, and even after they were gone, their emotions still lingered.

If it were to be rebuilt, this was something that had to be 'eradicated'.

Besides this, most of the internal transportation pipes of the Craftworld had ruptured, and some areas had been sealed off by healed spiritbone, like scars growing over wounds. This was also the most unique aspect of spiritbone: even without supporting energy, it would still slowly self-grow and heal.

Arriving at the residential areas, all that could be seen were ruins. The former residences of Malan'tai's inhabitants had mostly been burned into desolate plains. Before the Norn Queen tore the Craftworld apart, they had already suffered severe damage. The Naga Hive Fleet had killed nearly half of the residents. The psychic shock brought about by so many deaths was immense, which was why the Malan'tai seers were completely unaware of the Norn Queen's invasion later on.

The gunboat sped past the scorched remains of palaces and parks, the deep twilight enveloping these places that should have been beautiful and romantic. Ghostly light shone from the cracks in various structures. This place was once magnificent and bright, bustling with people and traffic, but now it was just a tomb.

The death throes of the Naga Hive Fleet were terrifying. The scars of Tyranid bio-weapon attacks were everywhere, and there were even skeletons of many giant beasts scattered around. In some places, the ground had been destroyed, exposing the bottommost spiritbone core. The Bonesingers would probably need to work for many years to restore it, although time was a vague concept for the Eldar.

However, it wasn't all bad news. At least neither the Daemons nor the Orks who occupied the Craftworld were very interested in Eldar artifacts, so most of the Craftworld's property was relatively intact, especially the armory. Because it was well hidden, the Orks didn't find it. They weren't interested in the Eldar's 'delicate' weapons. On the other hand, less than a million Orks seemed like a lot, but for a Craftworld as large as Malan'tai, it wasn't particularly many, especially since only a small number of surface areas were occupied by the Orks after the transportation system completely stopped. Perhaps they were afraid of the 'supernatural' phenomena related to the Eldar souls, or, as it's commonly known, afraid of ghosts, the Orks didn't dare to delve too deeply into the core areas of the Malan'tai Craftworld. (An interesting fact: Ork Boyz aren't afraid of Daemons, but they are surprisingly afraid of ghosts.)

So, the armory of Malan'tai still had a large number of weapons and equipment, and a small number of vehicles, such as War Walker walkers and Hornet attack craft. After all, most of Malan'tai's heavy vehicles were destroyed in the battle with the Naga Hive Fleet. However, Soshjan wasn't too concerned about equipment, because Eldar weapon production was completely different from that of humans. If needed, the Bonesingers could quickly create the weapons they knew, without factories or any equipment. As long as there were enough Bonesingers, there would be enough equipment. The Eldar always lacked personnel, not equipment.

In addition, the residential and storage areas also contained a large amount of wealth. Perhaps the Orks completely couldn't understand the value of these things. Except for a small portion that was destroyed, most of them were still in complete sealed condition. These surviving Malan'tai residents could only claim a portion, and the rest would all go into the coffers of the Royal Court.

Most importantly, there was the Malan'tai Reliquary, which contained the most important ancient weapons and holy relics of the Craftworld. When the surviving Malan'tai residents returned to the Craftworld before, they only had time to take a small portion, most of which they couldn't take away themselves, and had no place to store them. Many of them were very precious ancient weapons, things that had existed since the creation of Malan'tai. In addition, there were three huge Phantom Titans. Perhaps the destruction of the Craftworld was too sudden, which led to them not being used before their home was destroyed. Even the souls inside were annihilated, leaving only empty shells, but even so, as the largest Titans of the Craftworld, they were still precious.

In addition, the most special thing in the Reliquary was thirty sets of Shadow Spectres armor and a set of Shadow Spectres Exarch armor. In fact, Soshjan was very surprised when he first saw this mysterious armor, because as far as he knew, Shadow Spectres were extremely rare among the Eldar Paths, even rarer than the Dark Reapers Path, and almost as rare as the vanished Shining Spears Path.

And these two Paths also had a common characteristic, which was that both Phoenix Lords had disappeared.

However, Soshjan heard Doral say that the Shadow Spectres' Phoenix Lord, Irillith, had been reborn, but this was only limited to certain rumors. He had never formally appeared in public to this day.

The Shadow Spectres' positioning is a bit similar to that of the Dark Reapers, both are long-range snipers, but the two have very different combat styles. Shadow Spectres snipe enemy targets from hidden areas. They are positioned as highly mobile anti-armor infantry, specializing in attacking enemy vehicles from hidden places at ultra-long ranges. Their standard equipment is the prism rifle, an ultra-long-range high-power anti-vehicle weapon, and they are also equipped with jump packs, which allow them to hunt those marked targets at incredible angles, or suddenly appear in the air and unleash devastating firepower. When they snipe enemies in the air, they look like a blurred, pale ghost.

This tactic allows them to avoid enemy retaliation when attacking, and the shimmer field they carry can also prevent enemy sensors from locking on, and even within visual range, it can interfere with the Necrons' visual devices.

A Shadow Spectres squad usually consists of three to five people, not including the Exarch, but when the squad members concentrate their firepower to form an anti-armor laser called the Ghost Beam, the Exarch needs to locate and initiate the attack.

Malan'tai's possession of Shadow Spectres armor and weapons shows that there was once a Shadow Spectres Shrine in this world, but perhaps because the Phoenix Lord had been missing for a long time and the Exarch had died, this Path was completely extinct in Malan'tai, leaving only the armor and weapons of the former warriors, just like the Eldar's constantly dwindling population and destiny.

It is said that the Shadow Spectres represent the aspect of Khaine the Bloody-Handed as the eternal warrior, meaning that even death cannot prevent the fulfillment of responsibility, and the Dark Reapers also claim to represent an aspect of Khaine the Bloody-Handed, namely the Destroyer's Visage.

Therefore, when inspecting the Shadow Spectres armor and weapons, Soshjan jokingly asked Doral a question.

"Both have the same long-range sniping positioning. If Shadow Spectres and Dark Reapers warriors were to duel, who would be stronger?"