The Emperor’s Angel of Death

“Doomsday Howl… This is impossible, even if you are truly the Phoenix King, you shouldn't possess the power of Kaela Mensha Khaine. You are not his follower, and historically, there has been no…”

“History is in the past, you are now standing in the dawn of a new era.”

Sotha collected the Doomsday Howl and stared at the Archon.

“Now I want to ask you a question, do you think what stands before you is a human or an Aeldari?”

“I… I don't know… I feel like this isn't power that should exist in this world.”

“Then, if I tell you that my material form is neither human nor Aeldari, but my thoughts and spirit are still human, what would you choose?”

Aniraya did not answer immediately, but lowered her head and pondered for a moment, then raised her head and said after a long while:

“What do you want me to do?”

“Charon has already said it, maintain the status quo.”

“I don't understand, if you have such power, you can completely control everything.”

“Ha, aren't I controlling everything now? I just don't want Commorragh to know what happened here.”

“Commorragh…”

Aniraya suddenly understood.

“So your real target is Commorragh, the Shadow Nexus is just a stepping stone to the Eternal Kingdom.”

After speaking, she closed her eyes, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly said:

“Okay, I promise you, the Withered Blade will act as if nothing happened, but I hope to get a promise.”

“What?”

“I will no longer serve any person or organization. When your goal is completed, let me leave. I will not take anything away, nor will I appear in the sight of the Eternal Kingdom again.”

“Oh? Why are you so negative? Don't you want to… defeat Lelith Hesperax?”

“That's my business, great Phoenix King, you wouldn't want to pry into the privacy of a common woman, would you?”

“Bold!”

Charon immediately shouted.

“You——”

Sotha silenced Charon with a gesture, then nodded.

“That's not a problem, but I'm still curious, aren't you a follower of Kaela Mensha Khaine? Didn't you see the power of Kaela Mensha Khaine?”

“Important, and not important. I can die for Kaela Mensha Khaine, and I can live for myself.”

“Then let's leave it at that, maybe your thoughts will change in the future.”

With that said, Sotha's figure slowly disappeared in place, and the Phoenix Guard also turned and left. Charon quickly picked up the two heads on the path, glared at Aniraya, and ran away quickly, leaving the Archon alone in her arena, silent.

“Among the three control consoles, one is completely damaged, and one has been violently modified and had psychic equipment added, making it difficult to use normally, so the only one left is this one, but it is affected by strong radiation. The formation of this area comes from a meteorite impact that caused some energy storage equipment to fail. Originally, it could repair itself, but it ultimately failed to do so due to interference.”

In a huge hall with a unique technological style but covered in rust, two figures stood. The hall had an inverted triangular structure, was over eight hundred meters long, and had three floors. The two figures were on the top floor. Around them, one could still see the wreckage of many strange machines hanging on the walls. Various devices were damaged to some extent. The anti-gravity plates connecting the upper, middle, and lower floors had also all collapsed on the ground and on the railings. Only a faint green light could illuminate this dark metal tomb. There was also a little white light coming from a snowy display screen.

“Although it chose to erase its self-awareness, the central cluster of the control system has continued to work to some extent over the years, and maintains the main functions of the sphere, such as the control of the fusion core. However, it cannot autonomously form a systematic work path, only activating the system where and when needed, and only activating a certain area for a period of time until the task is completed. Originally, it could more fully restore control of the sphere, but to do this, it needs to inject fresh fuel into the fusion core, and the Aeldari have cut off all connections between the Gravity Maw and the core.”

“So you have now taken over Gellan's system?”

“Partially. Its damage is more severe than I expected, which in a sense reduces the difficulty of control.”

“What is the overall situation now?”

“Only 43.1% of the equipment and systems are functioning normally. In addition, only 11.9% of the various automated machines are still active at the standard level. 10.2% of the core components are permanently damaged. The reserve of reproduction materials is only 4.1% of the standard capacity, and the circulating energy intensity is only 13.3% of the standard.”

“Sounds terrible. Can it still move on its own?”

“It is not recommended to do so at present, because Gellan's current defense capabilities are very poor. Due to various damages, the defensive weapons are less than one-tenth of the normal level. If it enters the galaxy now, it will be a living target. Anything that discovers it can attack it. Instead, the defense network established by the Aeldari effectively protects it.”

“In other words, we must first fully revive its system, and then carry out self-repair, until it can meet the conditions for space travel?”

“Yes, that is the best option.”

“But its self-repair requires a lot of energy and raw materials. I have seen that Gravity Maw, and the amount required must be extremely huge. There are not many natural celestial bodies in the Webway for it to devour.”

“I am just offering suggestions, the specific execution is up to you.”

“Hmm… It seems that it will not be easy to move this planet away. Well, before solving Commorragh, we need to maintain the status quo of the Shadow Nexus. There is no hurry to take it away, but there should be a way to transport some planetary fragments here. Besides these, do you have anything else to tell me?”

“Yes, there are many inexplicable creatures inside Gellan now. The Dark Aeldari are very lax in their management of it, and they don't care about any race. They have formed many settlements on the surface of the planet. There are many humans, and there are others, Genestealers, even Greenskins… These things can be dealt with by Gellan's self-cleaning system, but perhaps you have other ideas.”

“Are you talking about the Shadow Arteries and the Outer Regions? Charon introduced these places to me, and I was also very surprised. Instead of plundering the slaves right in front of them, those Kabals like to hunt in remote places. However, this is also related to their habits. The residents of Commorragh always like to settle on high towers, and easily ignore the lower levels, resulting in the development of such a place similar to a underhive under the Shadow Nexus. Let's not deal with it now, after all, it's a mixed bag, and things are easy to spread. Let's focus on internal maintenance first, and completely isolate the core area from the outside, and then gradually repair it from the inside out.”

“This plan is feasible, then, you can restart it.”

Sotha stepped forward, a mechanical platform slowly unfolded, revealing an insertion port. He took out the golden wafer and carefully inserted it into it.

Along with a burst of mechanical humming and static noise, all the usable lighting equipment in the dark control room began to light up one by one, and the snowy screen also began to change…