Segmentum Tempestus The Veiled Region,
Selaaca – Tomb World of Maynarkh Dynasty
942.M33
Xun'bakyr, the Mother of Oblivion
For aeons, she had known only emptiness and darkness, reminding her of the terrible power of their greatest master, half-asleep.
Her consciousness, finally free from the control of their Star Gods, hovered on the very edge between waking and dreaming. But one thing remained—an unquenchable hunger—driving her to madness.
The curse that lay upon her and her entire dynasty, cast with his dying breath by Llandu'gor the Flayer when they vanquished him. Their former master's vengeance was unimaginably cruel.
From then on, they were destined to feel the same hunger that had haunted their masters. A thirst for flesh, a thirst for life and the energy of the living. This insatiable craving would drive them to the darkest corners of their minds, compelling them to seek out the every essence of vitality.
In the eyes of their kin, they had become no better than savage beasts to be eliminated, and only the grace of the Silent King, their glorious lord, enabled them to survive.
Not only had he prepared a place for them to enter the Great Sleep beyond the reach and knowledge of the other Dynasties, but he had also shown them great trust, entrusting them with one of the two greatest Shards of the one they called the Breath of the Void.
When the time for awakening came, she would finally exact her vengeance on those fools who had planned to destroy her and her dynasty. Her fury would fall upon them and all that stood in their way.
When the time came...
Time...
Suddenly, she began to hear sounds, something that shouldn't exist here. Nothing but her inner voice. However, the sound grew louder, and after a moment, she felt something she hadn't expected.
She was being forcibly awakened, something that could only happen in three circumstances. Either the planet was threatened with destruction, or the wards guarding their tombs had been breached, and the Triarch Praetorians left behind by the Silent King had been annihilated.
The third possibility, however, was the worst, and it meant that the imprisoned Shard of Mag'ladroth had broken free.
Her slumbering mind was completely awakened to this terrifying thought. When her eyes, made of living metal like the rest of her, opened, she saw a vast hall—a chamber stretching for hundreds of metres in every direction.
It was completely empty and filled with darkness, illuminated only by green energy nodes that crisscrossed its walls like veins. The pulsing light cast eerie shadows, revealing the contours of forgotten machinery that lay dormant.
The lid of her sarcophagus-throne creaked open, suggesting her sleep might have been longer than she had expected. Her race's technology didn't creak, or at least it shouldn't, despite the passage of time.
Now she could see why she had been awakened. On the one hand, she felt relief that Shard hadn't been the cause, but on the other, she felt fury, thinking of the intruders who had not only defeated the Praetorians but had apparently breached most of the defences in the southern part of the planet before being detected.
She reached for a small console located at one of the armrests of her throne, tapping out commands that would immediately begin the awakening of her army.
Thousands of holes, roughly 1.5 metres in diameter, opened up in the chamber's floor at once. Metal tubes began to extend, and from them emerged her guards.
Immortals armed with powerful weapons, heavily armoured Lychguards, and the agile and fast Skorpekh Destroyers. The elite of her army, even among similar units within her own army.
As if on cue, they all turned toward her, awaiting the order.
"Some fools have decided to desecrate our sacred resting place. Find them and eliminate them."
She then sat back in her throne, gazing at the screens that had sprung up before her, showing her images of what was happening in various parts of the complex that stretched beneath the entire planet.
"Time to find our intruders."
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Segmentum Tempestus The Veiled Region,
Selaaca – Tomb World of Maynarkh Dynasty
942.M33
Sanguinius
The countless corridors and chambers of the Tomb World of Necrons were such a maze that it made him dizzy, and if it weren't for the Seeker's voice accompanying him, he would have been lost long ago.
Normally, he would have needed months to find his way back, and an ordinary human, even an Astartes, would likely never have found what he was looking for or the exit.
The fact that this entire complex had survived undetected by both Aeldari and humans for tens of millions of years only confirmed the exceptional technological advancement of these machines.
"When you reach the end of this corridor, turn right," the Seeker's voice echoed in his head. "And then you'll find a shaft leading down to the left. Jump into it, and it will take you almost two kilometres down."
"Good. The more time I spend here, the longer we risk detection. Manipulating reality around me isn't easy; sooner or later I'll make a mistake," Sanguinius replied, then flew down the shaft.
There, however, a surprise awaited him in the form of 13 massive Necrons, armed to the teeth, their greenish-glowing eyes gazing impassively at him, aiming heavy antimatter cannons.
"You have entered the Grand Tomb of the Maynarkh Dynasty. You will be exterminated," one of them spoke, and their weapons glowed with accumulating antimatter.
Sanguinius watched them as if in slow motion, his mind processing his own thoughts at lightning speed. He also deliberately slowed time around him, making his opponents seem almost frozen in time.
"These are the Triarch Praetorians you mentioned?" he asked Seekar in their telepathic connection. "Those who are supposed to be comparable in strength to the Custodes? ... Hmh. Honestly, they don't look like them, but their weapons give off a rather nasty feel."
"Don't underestimate them." Seeker scolded, though his voice sounded rather pleased. "Their weapons can even hurt you if you're careless. However, the fact that the Silent King placed so many of them here means the Shard is here."
Sanguinius needed no further reason to act. He added his incredible speed to the already slowed time.
Moving towards them, he hurled a bolt of lightning at them, increasing the pressure around them. However, their technology once again demonstrated its advanced capabilities. For even with time slowed, their shields activated, absorbing not only the lightning but also resisting the immense pressure pressing against their bodies.
Sanguinius's fist, enveloped in psychic energy, struck the shield of one of the Praetorians with enough force to topple a Greater Daemon, yet the shield protecting Necron held.
However, following the first blow, Sanguinius delivered a second blow, shattering the shield and striking his opponent's head in a weakened manner, but he was too weak to destroy it with a thick layer of living metal.
Knowing all too well that defeated Necrons usually respawned in their chambers, before delivering a third blow, he enveloped his fist in the Void, like an obsidian, light-absorbing gauntlet.
The melee attack disintegrated the Praetorian, and seeing the Void's effectiveness, he expelled it like a wave of darkness that spread around, engulfing the remaining Praetorians. Sanguinius could almost hear their silent screams as both their bodies and their energy were consumed in the clash with the infinite.
As quickly as the Void had erupted from his body, it returned, and Sanguinius gripped it in his iron grip.
He looked around the small chamber, unremarkable except for the traces of missing wall fragments where the Void had touched them.
"Where now?" he asked his guide.
"Now that you've been detected, there's no room for sneaking. Fight your way straight down for the next several kilometres. I'll tell you when to stop," the Seeker replied, so Sanguinius did as he was told.
He placed his hands on the ground, then focused a massive amount of psychic energy into them, then released it, forming a pillar that rapidly tore through the levels of the complex, destroying floors, ceilings, and any barriers in its path.
After a dozen or so seconds, all that remained was a hole several metres in diameter, stretching as deep as only Sanguinius's demigodly eyes could see.
Without hesitation, he dived headfirst into the abyss, wings folded like a bird of prey. Even falling at this tremendous speed, he saw more and more Necrons appear on each floor of the corridors and chamber he was flying through, more and more with each passing moment.
"When I tell you 'now', you will stop and move to the 9 o'clock position," he heard the Seeker's voice, to which he simply sent a mental signal of agreement.
"Now," at the sound of the designated password, Sanguinius braked in a split second and hovered in midair in one of the corridors, which had two branches, one towards the 9 o'clock position, the other towards the 1 o'clock position.
So he set off as the Seeker had instructed, then burst through a massive reinforced door as if made of paper, bursting into a massive chamber, seemingly miles long, filled with all sorts of devices and pipes and cables running to them.
Only a moment later did he realise where he was and what these machines were. These were the chambers where Necron soldiers lay dormant. There must have been millions of them in this chamber alone. Hundreds of rows vanishing into the distance.
They didn't seem to awaken, but as if on cue, not all, but tens of thousands of them began to open, followed by more and more.
Without hesitation, he flew to the other side of the chamber, covering several kilometres in a second, but there awaited him a welcome from the elite units of those pesky machines.
However, a moment later, access to most of his psychic powers was restricted as he felt the Null Field Matrices activate in vast numbers within this massive hall.
Could he force his way through them, perhaps? But he risked damaging the very fabric of his body, which required psychic energy to sustain it.
Clearly, the time had come to test his control of the Void to its full potential at his current strength. So he allowed the Void to coat his fists, feet, and the fringes of his wing feathers, then launched himself at the Necrons with a fury Angron would envy.
Everything started going wrong for him, and he felt that this was only the beginning of his troubles.