The Tomb

[Stasis pulse detonation in: 00:00:15]

Li Wei felt as though his lungs were about to explode.

The metallic scraping of the green swarm at his back sounded like a thousand nail clippers raking across glass.

That emerald beam hissed past his scalp, reducing a stone pillar ahead to ash.

"Faster! Faster!" Li Wei stared at the massive black obelisk ahead.

It resembled a black blade thrusting straight into the heavens, its surface covered in intricate, flowing lines of green light.

At the base of the obelisk stood a triangular entrance, pitch-black within.

[00:00:05]

The auspex emitted its final, frantic alarm.

Static in the air began to snap and crackle violently, an oppressive, suffocating dryness instantly enveloping the wasteland.

Li Wei spent his remaining strength, lunging desperately toward the dark entrance.

Simultaneously, the swarm behind him halted.

The scarabs did not pursue, instead burrowing instantly into the ground as if sensing something terrifying.

Hum—!!!

An invisible, pale-white wave centered on the subterranean tomb core swept instantly across the entire badlands.

Still airborne, Li Wei felt his back slammed hard as if by a searing-hot giant hand.

He tumbled into the entrance of the obelisk.

At that instant, he heard an acid-churning crunch from behind.

It was the sound of moisture in the air, structural water in the rocks, and even microscopic organisms being instantly stripped, dehydrated, and stowed in stasis.

If he had been a second slower, he would have already become a desiccated corpse at the threshold.

"Hah... hah..." Li Wei sprawled on the cold black stone floor, gasping heavily.

There was no sense of dry, dead stillness in here.

Though cold, the air was humid, carrying a faint hint of... incense?

Incense?

In a damn place like this?

Li Wei snapped to alertness, gripping his broken sword tighter.

He raised his head, and by the dim light of the auspex screen, made out the environment inside.

It was a massive hexagonal hall.

The walls were covered in complex Necron glyphs, emitting a faint green glow.

In the corner of the hall, a makeshift single tent had actually been pitched.

A feeble fire burned in front of the tent (sustained by some kind of solid fuel), with a small pot set over it, simmering something.

That incense-like scent drifted from a portable censer nearby.

Someone was here! And they were alive!

"Who's there?" Li Wei demanded sharply, his body tense.

The tent flap stirred.

A figure slowly stepped out.

When Li Wei saw the person clearly, he froze.

It was a woman.

A woman who felt entirely out of place in this world of skeletons and machinery.

She wore a pristine white robe, its hem embroidered with black lily heraldry—the uniform of the Order Hospitaller's non-combatant echelon.

She wore no helmet, revealing a pale, delicate face.

Her hair was silver-white (not from age, but rather some form of pigment deficiency), cut very short, making her look both capable and frail.

Her eyes were a warm amber, but right now they were filled with terror.

In her hand she held not a bolter, but a medicus staff inscribed with scriptures.

A sister from the Order Hospitaller.

"You are... human?" The woman's voice was soft and trembling.

Looking at Li Wei, who was covered in dirt, holding a broken sword, and resembling a savage, she instinctively clutched the aquila pendant at her chest.

"I am human." Li Wei slowly stood, raising his empty left hand to signal no malice. "I am... a survivor who escaped from a wrecked ship."

He took a step forward.

"Don't be afraid, I just want to find a place to take shelter."

Yet, as he drew closer.

The female nun's expression changed instantly.

Her initially terrified look abruptly shifted into a profound, visceral revulsion.

She covered her mouth, her body swaying as if suddenly motion-sick, and steadied herself against a nearby pillar.

"Don't... don't come closer..." Her voice carried a sob, that aversion so intense that the way she looked at Li Wei was as if she were gazing upon a festering corpse.

"This feeling... emptiness... coldness..." The nun trembled as she retreated. "You're a... Soulless?"

Li Wei offered a bitter smile.

Figures, this cursed constitution was a social poison everywhere he went.

Especially to faithful battle-sisters, this sensation of "lacking a soul" was practically a blasphemy against their beliefs.

"Yes." Li Wei stopped in his tracks, standing in place. "But I mean no harm.

You know how the pulse outside is; go out there and you die."

The nun took several deep breaths, fighting to quell the churning nausea within her.

She was an Order Hospitaller.

Her oath was to "heal the Emperor's subjects," not to "judge."

Though Li Wei's presence made her instinctively want to vomit, her doctrine told her this was still a life—and a human struggling in desperation.

She bit her lip, forcing herself to look up and meet Li Wei's eyes, which filled her with dread.

"My name is Elena," she said softly. "I am the accompanying medical officer for the Undying Flame expedition."

"This... is safe. At least for now."

She pointed to an open space near the campfire, the corner furthest from her.

"You can sit there. But please... please don't get too close to me. I'm begging you."

Li Wei nodded, put away his broken sword, and walked over to sit in that corner.

"Thanks, Sister Elena."

Five or six meters of distance separated the two of them.

Between them lay the feeble glow of the fire.

Li Wei watched the woman.

She was beautiful, with a scholarly and sanctified kind of beauty.

Yet in this environment, that beauty appeared so fragile, resembling a tiny white flower blooming upon a grave.

Her hands were wrapped in bandages, still faintly seeping blood.

It seemed her survival had come at no small cost.

"Are everyone outside dead?" Li Wei asked.

Elena's gaze dimmed; she lowered her head to look at the script-covered staff in her hands.

"Yes. The pulse came too fast."

"When the Magos was studying this obelisk, he triggered the defense mechanism. Only I... was recording data beneath the glyphs at the time, and the obelisk's field protected me."

"I've been trapped here for three days." Elena's voice carried a trace of despair. "Every few hours, the pulse erupts. I can't get out. The food is running out, too."

Li Wei fell silent.

He took out the half-flask of murky "disinfectant" from his pack and shook it. "I still have some water here. Even though it tastes awful."

Elena looked up at him.

It was a complex expression.

As a normal person, she detested Li Wei (physically).

Yet as a survivor trapped in a desperate place and isolated for three days, Li Wei's appearance—even as a repulsive Soulless—also brought her a faint, inexplicable sense of security.

After all, in this world filled with Necron monsters, a living fellow human was still better than those cold skeletons.

"Thank you. But I still have some." Elena refused.

Hesitating, she scooped a spoonful of hot soup from the pot (actually just boiled nutrient blocks) and poured it into a metal cup.

She wanted to hand it to Li Wei.

Yet as she walked toward Li Wei with the cup, the oppressive weight of that "soul black hole" made every step feel like walking against a gale.

Her hands shook, her face growing whiter by the moment.

When she was still two meters away from Li Wei, she could no longer bear it, forced to halt, place the cup on the ground, and quickly retreat back to the campfire like someone fleeing.

"Sorry..." Elena lowered her head in shame. "I... I can't control my physical reaction."

Li Wei walked over and picked up the cup from the floor.

Hot. Though the taste still resembled dirt, the warmth finally brought a trace of sensation back to his chilled body.

"It's fine." Li Wei took a sip of the hot soup, looking at the woman in the distance who was curled up, terrified yet still sharing her food with him. "In a cursed place like this, being able to keep that kind of 'kindness'..."

Li Wei smiled, though the smile carried a hint of bitterness.

"You're more 'human' than anyone I've ever met."

Right at that moment.

The entire obelisk violently shuddered.

Not a pulse. It was a tremor originating from underground.

Rumble... The floor in the center of the hall cracked open.

A massive, black metal platform slowly rose.

And resting upon the platform lay a three-meter-tall giant body forged from living metal.

It was not decrepit like the scarabs outside.

Golden veins coursed across its body, and it gripped a warscythe radiating a terrifying green glow in its hands.

A Necron Lord.

It had awakened.

Elena let out a short shriek, her medicus staff dropping to the floor.

"It... it's awake! The Magos said this obelisk was its sarcophagus!"

The giant metallic skeleton slowly sat up.

Its electronic eyes, burning with green flame, swept first over the cowering Elena.

Then, it turned its head to look at Li Wei, who was still drinking soup.

"Life... signal..."

"Intruders... purge..."

The Necron Lord uttered a hoarse voice, resembling the opening of an ancient tomb.

Li Wei set down the cup.

He glanced at the "gentle beauty" teammate who had already collapsed onto the ground in terror.

Then he looked back at the boss drawing its warscythe.

"Just drank a bowl of her soup." Li Wei sighed, picked up his broken sword, and stepped in front of Elena.

"Looks like I'll have to pay for this meal with my flesh."

He turned his head, flashed a provocative look at the towering Necron Lord, and unleashed his void field at full output.

"Hey, old pile of bones."

"Can you see me?"