Vash'tor's Soul Forge

Dragonwood Star arrived, tearing apart the continuity of spacetime. This mechanical planet, shaped after the former Caliban and fused with three Old Ones Artifacts—the Ouroboros, the Tuchukha Engine, and the Heart of Plague—roared within the Material Universe. Factories thundered through its metal jungles like rolling stormclouds, furnace fires surged like bait for the sun, and hammering, forging, tread-clanking, and the wails of countless daemon workers fused with production lines echoed throughout.

The surrounding Warp also churned with waves as Dragonwood Star appeared. Lost ships that had fallen into the Warp and become interlocked with one another emerged.

Every one of those vessels resembled the wildest, most disorderly mechanical creations, revealing the pure instinctive vicious creativity of the Warp. They were creations of the Domains of Vicious Artistry itself, using ships that had perished in the Warp as raw materials.

Then, within Dragonwood Star, an invisible will rose and fell as electric sparks, transmitting itself to those derelict ships. In an instant, the wrecks came under Vash'tor's control, becoming Doomsday Arks that sailed toward the massive rocky planet.

Vash'tor considered this his advantage.

Zhou Yun indeed occupied more of the Domains of Vicious Artistry, but he was not extreme enough, not twisted enough. He understood too little of the darkest, most chaotic, most frenzied powers within Vicious Artistry.

Vash'tor, however, could wield those powers, manifesting the most vicious creations in the Material Universe and sending them to strike at Zhou Yun.

Standing atop the cresting waves of the Warp tide, Zhou Yun continued to rise without changing expression. His will linked to the Master Control Protocol, and with a single thought, the Necron fleet hanging in the Dua'at System became extensions of his fingertips. Emerald lightning poured forth and collided with Vash'tor's Necron forces.

The two of them used fleets as