The scene within the Golden Throne hall was so heavy it seemed time itself had frozen.
Kesha's military salute, Liang Bing's solemnity, and He Xi's bow were the three Hilling Queens' purest respect for the sacrifice before them, one that had surpassed all limits.
Guilliman, Sanguinius, Horus, and Trajan watched silently, their hearts filled with complicated emotions.
After the brief solemnity, He Xi and Liang Bing began the task of their visit, examining the immense and complex Golden Throne.
Their fingers moved through the air as invisible sensory fields penetrated every energy node, circuit, and psychic conduit within the device.
Second by second, the two Queens' brows furrowed tighter.
Guilliman's heart sank with them, and he could not help asking, "Your Majesties, how is it? Can that C'tan shard... be used?"
He Xi was the first to withdraw her senses. A hint of helplessness and gravity filled her silver eyes. "Lord Regent, I'm afraid not. The essence of this throne is both a psychic life-support system and a Warp stabilizer."
Liang Bing, unusually rigorous in a scholar's manner, added, "That's right! What this throne's core draws upon is not physical energy at all! What it devours is 'souls'..."
She pointed to the twisted, agonized energy patterns around the throne, which seemed to be screaming soundlessly. "And it absorbs them in an extremely brutal manner! It inflicts unbearable pain upon those being drained. It's hard to imagine that he sat on it for more than ten thousand years!!!"
After carefully analyzing the energy circuits and the energy conversion process, He Xi delivered her final judgment. "The throne's core belongs to a psychic system, while the C'tan represents the ultimate energy of the physical universe. There is fundamentally no room for conversion between the two. If used by force, the best possible