The lights inside the evacuated Sword of the Void began to flicker faintly.
Vast amounts of energy surged along the cables toward the Antimatter Energy Core inside the ship.
Shutting down the energy core required an immense amount of energy. Only by disrupting the balance of matter annihilation and producing enough normal matter to halt further antimatter generation could the shutdown procedure run properly, rather than suddenly collapsing into a Black Hole that swallowed the entire ship.
With the correct procedures followed, the Sword of the Void briefly came to a complete standstill.
The gravity controllers, deprived of power, immediately resumed operation after switching to another energy source.
Once it was confirmed that the ship would not collapse and disintegrate on its own, reconstruction began.
The accompanying Mechanicus fleet sprang into action.
The industrial ships began reconfiguring their structures, building quantum printing devices as large as they could.
Apart from maintaining the power supply, the remaining ships also had to help dismantle the entire Sword of the Void.
With Vulkan aboard, the Spear of Titans left the busy fleet behind and slipped alone into a Warp Route, beginning its return voyage toward Segmentum Solar.
Unlike the Sword of the Void, whose armament consisted primarily of force weapons, the Spear of Titans possessed ample destructive power even without an escort fleet.
Yet certain beings in the Warp did not want to see the Lord of Drakes return.
Compared with the other Primarchs,
Vulkan was far too kind.
His sons were full of humanity and compassion. That was good for the Imperium's mortals, but decidedly unsuitable for the forces of Chaos intent on wreaking havoc.
The Imperium must not unite. Those so-called Emperor's Demigods had to remain riddled with conflict, or dividing up the faithful would become difficult.
Tzeentch liked ever-changing destinies,