The Mistake of Arrogance

Where exactly the trap laid by The Deceiver led, Orikan had no way of calculating from the limited information before him. He could only remain in the gap between relative flows of time, watching the situation change from a higher vantage point, much as he used the technique of temporarily converting his body into energy to make deeper predictions about the movements of the stars.

A trace of the operational programs of countless Blackstone towers was triggered, and the disturbance gradually amplified amid the energy released by those towers.

The released energy did not linger at the edge of the rift. Instead, it drifted deeper into the Warp. Through the fine cracks in the Webway walls, that energy acted upon the legacy of the Old Ones.

The energy made no distinction between the states of the Webway. Both the sections already shattered and those still capable of functioning became targets for its stitching.

Then the Webway tightened and compressed inward. Its smaller branches were the first to be forcibly fused together by the energy, followed by the broader major passages that could accommodate vehicles and ships.

Orikan's feelings were complicated. He suddenly felt that the Necrontyr's attitude toward dealing with the Eye of Terror had been far too careless. Leaving only himself and Trazyn fully responsible for the Blackstone Array around the Eye of Terror did not seem like a reliable decision.

But when he carefully considered the Necrontyr's circumstances, Orikan could not muster much resentment or regret.

The extragalactic Tyranid swarm had drawn most of the dynasties' attention. Every awakened dynasty needed to contribute a portion of its strength to the extragalactic defenses. Yet even so, Tyranid swarms still broke through those defenses and entered the Milky Way to sow chaos.

While Cadia was being ravaged by Chaos, Baal—the