"What's going on?"
Yvraine appeared composed, showing no trace of emotion on her elegant features.
"The Hrud Collective Leader and the Kroot War Shaper have equipped Warp Apertures and are attacking the Steel Legion's Grand Bastion. Unknown xenos have forcibly transformed Terra's wildlife into members of their race and are rapidly approaching the Imperial sector."
Taldeer quickly explained the current situation, her eyes full of curiosity, yet constantly flickering between the two of them.
"What's Guilliman's response?"
Yvraine tapped her fingertips lightly on the table. Cegorach's actions were faster than she had expected.
The other side clearly didn't want to give them more preparation time. But in some sense, the faster Cegorach acted, the more it might align with Kei's intentions.
"Celestine passed your words directly to Guilliman. He replied that he'll head to the Sol System to hold the line within three hours."
Taldeer spoke as she stepped into the game room. She was just about to see if there were more "clues" from Kei's side. But Yvraine, who had already realized what her sister was up to, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the room.
She had already given Guilliman enough hints.
If that calculating primarch still couldn't catch on, then he deserved whatever happened to him.
"Wait~ Don't pull me! Can't I have a private conversation with the Dimensional Demon God?"
Taldeer stumbled a bit, clearly unwilling in her heart.
Knowing her sister well, the stronger the reaction, the more suspicious it was!
"No, I'm afraid you'll go throw yourself at him tonight."
Yvraine's tone and expression didn't change at all.
Relying on her superior psychic power over Taldeer, she forcibly dragged her back into the game room.
"Who's trying to seduce him, mmpf…!"
Before Taldeer could finish her sentence, Yvraine sealed her mouth shut with psychic energy.
The game room door closed once again.
Where Yvraine had tapped her finger on the table earlier, a faint psychic glow now pulsed. The glow shifted, quickly forming two lines of text: "To the Dimensional Demon God: Pure devotion may stir instinctual desire, but base desire cannot move the heart of an Eldar. If you wish to conquer the Emissary of Ynnead, use more refined tactics."
"What does that even mean…" Kei rubbed his forehead, his expression complex.
Although the earlier misunderstandings made things look bad, from the outside, it all seemed like a clumsy cover-up. But Yvraine had been Emissary of Ynnead for millennia.
Experience, intelligence, cunning, she lacked none of it.
There was no way she didn't realize that he hadn't deliberately used the concept of seduction to shake her mind.
Under normal circumstances, to avoid awkwardness in future cooperation, even if she noticed it wasn't "love" but another concept at play, Yvraine would've ignored it, pretended nothing happened.
But she left a direct, provocative message…
A provocation?
Why?
Was she trying to test his own weaknesses too?
He watched as the lines of text faded from the table and looked once more toward the Primordial Realm, at the floating Mature Women Special Attack planet near the Star of Charm.
The older the target, the stronger the effect. Although it was a conceptual power, at its core, it involved the forces of the mind and soul.
I really have to use this carefully. If I accidentally charm some ancient Eldar who needs a wraithbone cane to walk, that would be… unfortunate.
He wiped his face, gathered himself, and rose from his seat. He stepped out of the game room.
---
The moment the Grand Bastion was attacked, Lelith, for Greyfax's sake, used the Torture-class Raider's warp computing power to send the Steel Legion back.
The Chapter Master, on the other hand, took Celestine to the edge of the Imperial sector, preparing to resist the xenos attack.
The young Phoenix Lords who had previously been sitting in the main hall were now, under Yvraine's command, heading toward the western hemisphere of Terra to guard against possible attacks.
Since they had obtained the right to promote their Path in the western hemisphere of Terra, according to the rules among cosmic powers, the western hemisphere now belonged to a civilization under the Eldar survival path!
Yvraine would never allow anyone to launch an invasion against a civilization under the survival path!
One psychic projection after another hovered around the living room.
Yvraine and Taldeer now stared solemnly at one particular projection, all signs of their previous ease and casualness gone from their faces.
Vect, Drazhar, various Drukhari Archons, xenos mercenaries...
The former Supreme Overlord of Commorragh, Cegorach's elite fighters, cosmic mercenaries—plus the bizarre alien creatures.
Such a vast force... If this had happened before Kei arrived, it might have been enough to easily wipe out even a powerful civilization with a main deity!
"Warp Apertures, Reality Tears, Enhanced Wraithbone Bodies..."
He glanced at the projection and instantly judged: these guys had nearly all undergone some form of upgrade.
Compared to their strength in the original lore, they were likely a whole tier stronger.
And it's not just them. The Black Library can faintly detect Cegorach's presence using the Eldar network, but it can't pinpoint his exact location.
Yvraine raised her hand and waved it in front of her. A star map filled with densely packed red dots appeared in the living room.
Using the psychic beacons distributed throughout most of the known galaxy, the Black Library could detect the majority of signals across space.
Cegorach's presence frequently appeared around Vect's fleet, but they simply couldn't lock onto his exact position.
This also meant they couldn't use targeted psychic strikes against him.
"How long until they enter the Sol System?"
Kei cast a glance at Vect, who was being all arrogant, chatting with his subordinates about which Eldar soul would be the most exquisite, then turned away in disgust to look at another projection.
Aboard the Grand Bastion, the Steel Legion, still in its early stages of growth, was currently getting brutally beaten by the Hrud Leader and the Kroot War Shaper, both equipped with Warp Apertures.
Their current capabilities were not enough to withstand the direct assaults of the Warp Apertures.
Lelith stood nearby, watching unhurriedly.
Clearly, she was waiting for the moment Greyfax couldn't hold on anymore before stepping in to help.
After her Soulfire Matrix merged Warp and Anti-Warp energies, its core computational power had far surpassed even the most advanced version of Cegorach's reality manipulation.
Whether it was the Hrud Leader or the Kroot War Shaper, to her current self, they were nothing worth mentioning.
At the edge of the Imperial sector:
Celestine and the Chapter Master were already in communication with the new xenos beings, those bizarre alien creatures created by forcibly transforming wildlife.
It was clear that these newly-formed aliens didn't actually want to go to war with Terra.
They were merely under the control of higher lifeforms and had no choice but to be here.
So, both sides were now in a standoff.
"Three minutes. What do you plan to do?"
Yvraine turned to Kei, her expression still tense.
Cegorach's current moves were no longer just a matter of speed.
This was a clear show of intent for an all-out war, meaning Cegorach likely believed he now possessed theoretical means to defeat Kei head-on.
Even the simultaneous explosion of a supernova and warp tear hadn't fazed Kei.
Yvraine could more or less guess the kind of methods Cegorach might try, but she had no way to counter them directly.
The Arena of the Gods.
Kei looked at the psychic projections of the approaching fleet and smiled brightly.
Since Cegorach was so eager to send his people to die, he had no reason not to oblige. He'd crush the Warhammer timeline in one strike.
The reward he'd get should definitely be even better than the final prize from unifying the Naruto world, which had been [Star Devourer].
---
---
Story completed at Chapter 298!