The Outsider

The C'tan were rules themselves. Some rules were simple and solid, as clear and visible as stone, but there were also C'tan who commanded abstract rules, whose forms and ability to wield power were exceedingly difficult to describe.

Even the Necrontyr, who had dealt with the C'tan for a very long time, did not dare claim they had fully comprehended all the C'tan's powers.

The Void Dragon commanded the concept of "physical machinery."

The Nightbringer commanded the concept of "physical death."

The Deceiver commanded the concept of "physical probability."

But they had already been shattered, with not even one hundred-millionth of their power remaining. However glorious they had once been, they were now just as miserable, fleeing everywhere under the Necrontyr's pursuit.

But the C'tan sealed within the enormous mechanical sphere before them was not one of their shattered kin. It was the only intact C'tan left in the entire Milky Way—The Outsider.

This C'tan commanded the conceptual power of "observation and definition."

Although the Observer also possessed the power of observation, it was vastly different from that of the Outsider.

The Outsider's gaze was definitive. Within his sight, there was no uncertain state where life and death coexisted.

The Necrontyr had once used the certainty of the Outsider's gaze to wage war against the Old Ones.

The Silent King recalled the past. In the early stages of the war, the Old Ones used their tools for developing the universe to create cosmic barriers and great walls, increasing the speed of light and establishing enormous defensive lines stretching ten thousand light-years.

At that time, the Necrontyr had yet to undergo mechanical ascension, and slumbering in stasis tombs aboard starships remained their primary means of travel.

The effects of increasing the speed of light were immense. The speed of light was