The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3256: Warlock Titans

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This magnificent temple stood in the shadow of the central spire of the Arkworld, a composite structure tens of thousands of meters high located at the very center of the Ark's main ridge. It was the most important structure, appearing as an elegant spire, housing plasma generators and a vast number of soul stones incomprehensible to human technology, surrounded by confinement field generators that occasionally discharged raw plasma into the vacuum.

For the past ten thousand years, it had continued to function, barely, without any support or regular maintenance, a testament to Aeldari craftsmanship and technology, even with its soul stones now empty.

The Titan Temple stood directly beneath it, its gleaming dome elegantly towering over the surrounding buildings, the entire complex enveloped by an amber-colored, bubble-like protective field that even daemons had failed to penetrate.

Looking at Anaris kneeling before him, Solzhenitsyn raised his hand.

"Rise, open this place."

"Yes."

Anaris stood up and strode towards a unique polyhedral statue, whereupon Solzhenitsyn faintly heard a blurred chanting sound as it recited a secret incantation in an otherworldly voice.

A few seconds later, the statue unfolded, transforming into a one-eyed hand, the symbol of the Goddess of Fate.

Then the force field slowly dissipated, and Anaris turned around.

"Your Highness, it is open."

"Go."

Entering the archway of the Titan Temple, the first thing that caught the eye was a statue of a half-naked Aeldari woman hammering an anvil. Although facial details and the like were blurred, Solzhenitsyn could guess who it was.

Titans, as the largest ground war machines of the Aeldari, naturally worshiped the Aeldari God of Crafting.

Bypassing the statue, one arrived at a huge circular plaza, so vast that it could accommodate a small warship. Around the edge of the plaza were many devices and contraptions, which Solzhenitsyn guessed were for the daily training of Titan pilots.

Surrounding the plaza were many bubble-like or triangular buildings. Anaris told Solzhenitsyn that these were various functional areas and buildings for storing Titans. Solzhenitsyn then instructed the Custodes to spread out and inspect them, before following Anaris into the main hall of the Titan Temple, the largest building.

The gate of this building alone was over a hundred meters high. Upon entering, a magnificent scene unfolded. On either side of the wide main road stood towering Phantom Titans, the largest Titan model possessed by the Arkworld Aeldari. The Royal Court also had them, but they were rarely used.

Because Aeldari vehicles were generally highly flexible, even though Titans walking on two legs were also very fast, they were still very incompatible with the Aeldari's common tactics, making them a rather awkward superweapon.

Moreover, unlike human Titans, Aeldari Titans did not stack firepower to an exaggerated extent. They only had main weapons on their arms, usually a large pulse cannon plus a large warp cannon or a melee weapon, along with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. Although the main cannon carried by a Phantom Titan was larger than the main weapon of an Aeldari heavy tank, the problem was that the materials required for a Titan and the demands on the pilot were far greater than for two tanks. This led to a rather awkward situation: although their power was still enormous, it was somewhat unworthy of their positioning.

And because they were relatively troublesome to manufacture, even Arkworlds possessing these large Titans would rarely deploy them. These massive war machines were reserved for the most important battles. In other words, they would only be deployed in fierce battles when the Arkworld itself was threatened, because at that time, hit-and-run raids could no longer cope with the invading enemy.

In other words, the Arkworld Aeldari actually used Phantom Titans as a kind of doomsday weapon, but when the time came for extremely desperate and dangerous situations, could these machines really turn the tide?

One could only say that it was probably more of a psychological comfort.

In addition, the requirements for Phantom Titan pilots were also perversely high, completely unlike the Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus, where pilots could be trained in batches. The Aeldari's search for Titan pilots was entirely a game of luck, which also limited most of its deployment opportunities.

Therefore, even though there was a pile of Phantom Titans here, Solzhenitsyn did not feel any sense of gain. To be honest, moving them back would only gather dust in the warehouse.

The passage was located at the height of the Titan's chest, meaning that most of the building was actually below the passage. There were spiral staircases on both floors leading downwards. The interior, as always, highlighted the Aeldari's elegant style, even the warehouse storing the war engines. During this time, Solzhenitsyn also saw the bas-reliefs on those huge spiritbone pillars, depicting the Titans fighting against various enemies, including the crude machines of the Orks, the God-Machines of the human empire, many unidentifiable races, and even daemons.

As he was about to reach the end, Solzhenitsyn stopped, because two unique Titans stood here.

"Are these Warlock Titans?"

Their external contours were almost identical to those of the Phantom Titans, but the head was a black mirror, and the focus was on a unique needle-shaped crystal weapon on their left arm.

Solzhenitsyn had heard of this thing, but it had never appeared or been manufactured in the Royal Court. Warlock Titans, also a variant of the Phantom Titan, differed from the latter in that the soul stone in the spiritbone core housed the soul of a powerful seer or war-witch. They were powerful psykers in life, and even more so after death. Moreover, their vast psychic energy could be concentrated and amplified through the Titan's spiritbone structure, releasing psychic power far exceeding that of the living. This powerful psychic ability, combined with the Titan's agility and defense, meant that the Warlock Titan represented the pinnacle of the Aeldari Titan. It was somewhat similar to what Solzhenitsyn had heard about the Doomseekers.

Although the appearance was almost identical to that of the Phantom Titan, the positioning of the two was completely different. Warlock Titans also possessed the precognitive abilities of the seer's soul, allowing them to attack enemies at the most advantageous time and place. They could serve as a temporary battlefield command node, and could also unleash psychic warcries to eliminate psychic attacks suffered by friendly forces. This powerful psychic power could also be used to defend themselves, but most importantly, it was the most powerful weapon in the hands of the Aeldari against opponents of the level of Greater Daemons, especially their left-handed psychic spears. This weapon was originally used in the Imperial Age to pacify dangerous animals on strange planets for domestication, simply put, it was a kind of animal husbandry tool, but under the blessing of vast psychic energy, it could also cause devastating damage to creatures of the Warp.

This kind of thing had no substitute. It was just that no seers or war-witches had died since the establishment of the Royal Court, and other Arkworlds could not possibly hand over such important soul stones to outsiders. Warlock Titans were already rare, and only a handful of Arkworlds possessed them. The Royal Court could not easily dispatch them, so Solzhenitsyn had never seen a real object until now.

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