Zerath immediately laid bare everything that had happened in the Khalifa System: how that golden figure had destroyed the Obelisk, how he had ignored the confinement of the Transdimensional Folding Matrix, how he had burned Zerath's body to ashes with golden flames, and the chilling words he had spoken at the end.
Szarekh slowly rose to his feet. That simple movement sent the atmosphere throughout the Throne Room plunging to freezing point.
"If he truly is a C'tan," Szarekh said, his voice cold as ice, "then why would he help humanity? The C'tan have always scorned the company of flesh-and-blood races."
"I don't know!" Zerath said anxiously. "But that's precisely what's so terrifying! A newborn C'tan we know nothing about, one that defies every established rule! If we let him keep growing..."
He did not finish, but his meaning was already clear.
Szarekh remained silent for a long time.
Then he raised a hand and swept it through the air.
"Mobilize the fleet. Prepare my flagship, the Song of Oblivion. And..."
He paused, his voice turning even colder:
"Awaken three World Engines."
Zerath drew in a sharp breath.
The World Engines were the Necron race's most powerful weapons of war. Each was a hollowed-out planet converted into a war fortress, with enough firepower to destroy a star.
The Silent King was getting serious.
"Your Majesty, do you intend to..."
"I will go to Kalifa myself. If that thing truly is a C'tan, then it must be utterly destroyed before it reaches its full strength."
The Khalifa System, aboard the battleship Hammer of God.
Commander Marlan, Inquisitor Kalia, Sister Evreel, Magos Marcus, and several Chapter company captains sat around a round table. Liu Zhipeng sat at its head, his face unreadable.
"Saint," Maran asked respectfully, "according to our scans, there are