Gods and Ghosts

Silence.

After the deafening explosion, the world plunged into an instantaneous, absolute, ear-ringing silence.

Li Wei knelt before that collapsed black pedestal, his hands still maintaining a pressing posture.

His fingertips were still smoking, and that Void Collapse had not only burned out the machine's logic gates, but also nearly scorched his nerve endings.

Immediately afterward, the sound returned.

Yet that was no longer the roar of the demon engine, nor the battle cries of the Skitarii.

That was the sound of matter being reorganized.

It was as if billions of invisible, miniature mechanical insects were gnawing, stacking, and reshaping the arrangement of atoms in the air.

Ah... How... crisp...

That voice no longer existed solely in Li Wei's mind.

It reverberated through this massive core hall by vibrating the air, vibrating the floor, and even vibrating everyone's bones.

It was no longer that imprisoned, feeble shadow. It was an entity.

Li Wei lifted his head with difficulty.

He saw that gigantic, mountain-like demon machine disintegrating.

Those pistons still flowing with filthy blood, those demon faces still screaming, all ceased operation the moment they touched the ball of light at the center.

The light dissipated.

A giant stood atop the ruins.

It had a humanoid silhouette, yet stood a full ten meters tall.

Its body was no longer illusory starlight, but a living metal shell instantly reorganized from the surrounding metallic wreckage.

That was a perfect, flowing liquid silver metal, with green lightning coursing across its surface.

It had no facial features, only a mask as deep as a black hole, with a halo composed of pure energy burning atop its head.

Shard of the Void Dragon -- Awakening Form.

It lowered its head slightly, looking at Archmagos Axis who had pinned himself to the ground.

Axis was not yet dead.

His half-human, half-mechanical body had been flattened by gravity, yet he was still struggling, that red electronic eye flashing frantically, filled with terror and disbelief.

"No... This is impossible... I am Vashtorr's elect... I am..."

The C'tan Shard extended a single finger.

Merely a gentle tap.

[Formatting.]

No explosion, no flash of fire.

Axis's body suddenly scattered.

Every screw, every chip, every nerve on his body was instantly disassembled down to the molecular level.

Just like a Lego brick kicked apart by a mischievous child.

Yet he was not entirely dead.

His consciousness was forcibly retained by some power within that unbroken glass brain cylinder.

"You like... machines?" A sort of detached mockery permeated the Star God's voice.

"Then become... the cornerstone."

The glass cylinder containing Axis's brain flew up, embedding directly into the chest of the Star God's new shell, transforming into a battery.

"Aaaaaah--!!!" Axis emitted a final shriek, but this scream was instantly converted into pure electric current to supply the Star God.

This was true technological crushing.

The "demonic possession technology" the Dark Mechanicum took pride in seemed like primitive men playing with fire before the true Machine God (Prototype).

Li Wei watched this scene, feeling a churning sensation in his stomach.

Yet he had no time for nausea.

Because the entire hall began to deform.

The C'tan Shard was not content with merely killing a magos.

It spread its arms, countless bolts of green lightning erupting from within its body, piercing into the walls, floor, and ceiling of this warship.

[Rewriting... protocols...]

[Cleansing... filth...]

Those originally writhing flesh walls and pus-flowing pipes began to rapidly crystallize upon touching the green lightning.

The chaotic flesh was forcibly transformed into cold blackstone.

The demonic roars turned into mechanical hums.

This Chaos warship named Pain was being forcibly rewritten by the Star God, attempting to revert to what it was supposed to be -- or rather, into a Necron-style flying tomb.

"This place is going to collapse!" Li Wei scrambled up, charging toward Atticus who lay collapsed in a pool of blood.

This Space Marine was already unconscious.

His chestplate was completely shattered, and the iron pipe used as a weapon was thrust deep into his abdomen.

Yet he was still alive.

The Astartes superhuman vitality kept him hanging on by a thread.

"Wake up, big guy!" Li Wei slapped Atticus's face, even using his own Void to stimulate the man's nerves.

Atticus drew in a sharp breath, his single eye snapping open, pupils unfocused. "Is the... mission complete?"

"Complete! We let the boss out! Now it's demolishing the house!" Li Wei shouted while trying to haul the hundreds-of-kilograms heavy giant to his feet.

Yet he couldn't budge him at all.

"Elena!" Li Wei yelled back.

The Battle Sister was cowering in a corner, tightly gripping the Medicus Staff, trembling as she stared at the Star God in the air.

"Stop staring! Come help! We need to run for it!"

Elena snapped out of her daze, stumbling over. "How do I help? He's too heavy!"

"You lift his feet! I'll take the upper body!" Li Wei gritted his teeth, dredging up the Necron knowledge regarding human mechanics and Power Armor leverage principles from his mind.

"Jettison the power pack on his back! That's dead weight! Quick!"

Elena hurriedly dismantled the heavy backpack behind Atticus.

Together, the two of them finally hoisted the half-dead giant.

"Which way do we run?" Elena cried out. "Everything is changing! The roads are gone!"

Indeed.

The surrounding scenery shifted like a nightmare.

The floor turned into flowing metallic liquid, and black obelisks grew from the walls.

Those Skitarii who were not entirely dead were being swallowed by the floor, turning into reliefs upon the wall.

Li Wei looked up at the Star God in the air.

"Hey! Big lightbulb!" Li Wei roared at the top of his lungs.

"The deal! Don't forget the deal!"

"I let you out! Send us home!!"

The C'tan Shard turned its head.

That featureless black-hole mask gazed down at Li Wei.

Its movements paused for a fraction of a second.

In its logic, mortals were mere ants.

Yet this ant... was different.

He was Void.

He was the variable that ended the time loop.

He was the key.

More importantly, this ant's brain contained knowledge belonging to its own era.

[...Contract... valid...]

The Star God raised its hand.

A beam of green light shot toward a corner of the hall.

The wall there melted instantly, revealing a pitch-black opening.

Deep within the opening, a small shuttle wrapped in Necron energy was faintly visible.

That had originally been Axis's private escape pod, now directly formatted and reorganized by the Star God.

[...Begone...]

A single word.

Simple and brutal.

"Thanks!" Li Wei wasted no breath.

Supporting Atticus and dragging Elena, he sprinted toward that opening.

Yet this ship did not want to let them go.

Or rather, another will within this ship had awakened.

Pain was a demon engine.

Although its core had been suppressed by the Star God, thousands of demonic souls still resided within its hull.

Especially the ship's Machine Spirit -- a violent, frenzied specter completely corrupted by Khorne.

It felt pain.

Its body was turning to stone, its energy being plundered.

It was struggling in its death throes.

"Roar!!!" A muffled roar came from deep beneath the floorboards.

Just as Li Wei and the others were a dozen meters away from the escape pod.

The floor suddenly split open.

It didn't reveal the structure below, but instead split open into a massive maw.

That was a mouth composed of steel and teeth, spewing red flames.

Countless crimson flesh tentacles extended from the mouth, instantly wrapping around Atticus's legs and Elena's waist.

"Ah!!" Elena screamed as she was dragged toward that gaping maw.

Though Atticus struggled fiercely, he was too heavily injured, his body dragging a bloody trail across the ground.

"Damn it!" The ship was using its final vitality in an attempt to devour these intruders.

"Stay... to be buried..." Painful human faces surfaced on the walls, uttering curse-like whispers.

"Bury your grandpa!"

He gazed at the two people about to be dragged into the mouth.

Then he glanced back at the distant Star God, who was entirely focused on reshaping the warship and couldn't care less about this side.

"Can't count on that aloof bastard."

Li Wei took a deep breath.

He spun around, though he didn't run to pull them free.

He rushed toward a still-pulsating biological nerve bundle beside that split floor-maw.

That was the ship's pain nerve.

"Atticus! Hang in there!" Li Wei shouted.

He wrapped his arms around that thick, slippery nerve bundle.

Full power release: Void infusion.

This time, he was not merely shielding.

He was treating his own brain -- that anti-logic database packed with Necron knowledge and the absolute negation of the Warp -- like a virus, forcibly injecting it into the demonic ship's neural system.

"Taste this! The Necron antivirus software!"

Hum--!!!

When the Pariah trait blended with the Necron anti-Warp data and injected into the demon's body, a marvelous chemical reaction occurred. That was not merely nausea.

That was logical collapse.

Demons existed based on emotion and chaos.

While Necron data was based on absolute rationality and order.

When the two collided within Li Wei as the medium, it was like pouring ice water into boiling oil.

"No!!! What is this?! What is this?!!" The entire ship emitted a shrill scream.

The maw on the floor began to twitch violently, as if tasting the most bitter poison in the world.

Those tentacles whipped about frantically, releasing their prey and instead turning to tear at their own bodies.

"Run!!" Li Wei felt warm liquid stream from his nostrils (brain overload), but he had no time to wipe it.

He lunged over, hauled Elena up, and kicked Atticus (though he couldn't budge him).

"Get up! Run if you're not dead!"

Atticus let out a beast-like roar,

supporting his body with his single arm, and driven by survival instinct, followed the two of them as they charged toward the escape pod.

The three of them tumbled into the reshaped shuttle.

The cabin door slammed shut with a heavy clang.

"Launch!!" Li Wei lunged toward the console. The operational interface had already transformed into Necron green runes. Yet he could read it. Because this was originally the stuff inside his head.

He slammed his hand down hard on the pulsing green-lit launch key.

Boom! The engines of the shuttle squirted green ion flame.

It was like a green bullet, shattering the already brittle hull plating and charging out of this mutating warship.

The shuttle plunged into the boundless space.

Through the porthole, Li Wei saw the huge Pain.

It was undergoing some kind of incredible change.

Half of the hull had already turned into a black pyramid shape, exuding a green light.

The other half was still a bloated flesh warship, burning with red fire. The two were frantically devouring and tearing at each other.

And in the center of the warship, that giant of light was slowly rising.

It didn't seem to intend to keep this ship.

It was merely using this ship as a temporary springboard, or... a bomb.

The Star God raised a hand. Clenching its fist toward the void.

[Compression.]

The entire huge battleship, along with the tens of thousands of Skitarii, slaves, and demons inside, collapsed inward in an instant.

Just like a piece of paper being crumpled into a ball.

The steel behemoth of dozens of kilometers was compressed into a high-density sphere with a diameter of only a few hundred meters.

Boom!!! The sphere exploded.

That wasn't an explosion of fire.

That was an outburst of gravity waves.

A visible ripple swept across this star sector, completely shattering the surrounding asteroid belt.

"It's over..." Elena slumped against the porthole, watching that dissipating radiance, her body still trembling.

"That god... where did it go?"

"It went home. Or went to find its brothers." Li Wei slumped in the pilot's seat, feeling his entire body drained.

"Never mind it. Anyway, a monster of that magnitude isn't something we can worry about."

He turned his head, looking at Atticus sitting in the copilot's seat.

This Space Marine's condition was very bad.

There was a huge penetrating wound on his abdomen, which had been pierced by tentacles.

The wound had already turned black, that was demon toxin.

Yet he still sat straight, that single eye staring at Li Wei.

"Mortal." Atticus's voice was weak, but still majestic.

"You saved me. The Iron Hands owe you a favor."

"Yet you used... alien technology. As well as blasphemous power."

"So?" Li Wei looked at him, his gaze calm. "Are you going to execute me now? For the Emperor?"

Atticus was silent for a moment. He glanced at his mutilated body, and then glanced at Li Wei who was operating the Necron ship.

"No." Atticus shook his head.

"If the Emperor wanted you to die, you would have already died."

"Since you are alive, it means your existence... conforms to a certain logic."

"Besides..." The giant pointed at Li Wei's head. "The thing in your brain is more important than my life. I am going to take you back to the Chapter Monastery. The Iron Father will be interested in you."

"Ha, jumping from one laboratory to another?" Li Wei smiled bitterly. "Suit yourself. As long as you don't slice me into pieces."

He turned his head, looking at Elena.

"What about you, Sister? Are you still going to purify me?"

Elena was holding a crude first-aid kit, bandaging Atticus's wound.

Hearing Li Wei's words, she raised her head.

Her gaze was very complex.

Fear had lessened, confusion had increased.

Having witnessed the indifference of the Necron, the madness of Chaos, and the divine power of the Star God, her originally indestructible faith seemed to have developed a trace of a crack.

Or rather, it had become more... pragmatic.

"You saved me." Elena said softly.

"In this universe where there are only monsters, only you... have never changed."

"You are a Soulless, yet you are more human... than those things with souls."

She lowered her head, continuing to tend to the wound.

"I will pray for you. Regardless of whether the Emperor hears it or not."

Li Wei smiled and didn't speak.

He turned around, looking at the star map on the console.

The Necron's navigation system was very advanced.

It had already automatically calculated the closest safe route.

Destination: Medusa—the homeworld of the Iron Hands.

"Looks like we're going to a planet full of oil and gears." Li Wei set the route.

"Let's hope the food there is a bit better than corpsestarch."

The shuttle turned into a green streak of light, disappearing into the Warp jump point.

Behind them lay that expanse of stellar ruins still burning.

And deep within Li Wei's mind, that Necron database had not vanished.

It was still quietly operating in the corner, like a dormant seed.

[Target star sector detected: Medusa.]

[Retrieving relevant data...]

Li Wei fiercely slapped his own head.

"Shut up! Stop spoiling things!"

"Let me be an idiot who knows nothing for even a minute... even for just a minute..."

He curled up in his seat, and amid the buzzing of the spaceship's engines, he finally fell into a deep sleep.