What? Threw It Away Before It Was Used Up?

The Necrons of the Nikzashi Dynasty ultimately decided to use a Deceiver Shard of Mephet'ran to ambush this newly risen emissary of the Emperor.

When Lin En's fleet passed the deep-space fold where the Nikzashi Dynasty lay hidden, the Megalith King released the Deceiver's C'tan Shard.

They had spared no expense.

It was the Deceiver in his complete form who had once beguiled the Silent King and the Necrontyr with the lie of immortality, tricking them into accepting Biotransference, abandoning flesh, and becoming Necrons of Living Metal.

When the Necrons descended upon the C'tan to shatter them, the Deceiver had foreseen the danger and deliberately scattered his essence into countless shards.

Some of those shards were captured and imprisoned by the Necron Dynasties, becoming weapons for the Necrons to wield.

C'tan Shards were among the ultimate weapons in the Necrons' possession. They were not deployed lightly.

Each shard was an amalgam of a small portion of the Deceiver's consciousness and energy.

Though a shard was far weaker than his complete form at its peak, it still wielded genuine C'tan Power. It could warp reality, create flawless illusions, and beguile minds.

Lin En's fleet detected nothing as it passed the deep-space fold where the Nikzashi Dynasty lay hidden.

The narrow gravitational fold lay between two unstable nebular remnants. Imperial routes rarely passed through here.

Everything looked ordinary.

The fleet sailed around the fold's outer edge without encountering any resistance.

All was calm.

They had no idea that a vast Necron Tomb World lay on the far side of that deep-space fold.

Layers of Gauss Fields unlocked, and gates of Living Metal slid open.

The C'tan Shard hovered inside a Blackstone cage. Blurred faces, smiling mouths, starlight, and crystalline facets shifted endlessly across its surface.

"Go."

A crack opened in the Blackstone