The images on the screen shifted once more, as the suffocating vision of 'the dark king' and the Golden Throne gradually faded away.
In its place was a serene and magnificent starry sky, unlike anything seen before.
There were no Warp rifts tearing through reality, no flames of war spreading across the Milky Way, and none of that eternal, despair-inducing darkness.
That was an era known as 'The Past.'
An ancient epoch sixty million years ago, before even the ancestors of humanity were born.
[Before humanity learned to walk upright, before the Aeldari sang their first poems, even before the Chaos Gods awakened from their nightmares... the Milky Way was once peaceful.]
The narrator's voice became ancient and distant, like an elder who had witnessed the dawn of the Universe, telling a myth forgotten by time.
[The Warp then was not the hell filled with madness and malice it is today. Back then, it was known as the 'sea of souls.']
[It was a calm, warm dimension connecting all minds. Like a clear lake, it reflected the vitality of the material Universe.]
In the footage, colorful streams of energy flowed slowly through the Warp, like a gentle aurora.
There were no demons there, only pure ripples of emotion.
[The ones who ruled this galaxy were a race called the 'Old Ones.']
[They were the first intellects, the sowers of life. Mastering the dual mysteries of matter and soul, they traveled freely among the stars using a miracle called the 'Webway.' They were benevolent and wise, dedicated to sowing the seeds of life on barren Planets.]
However, the scene shifted from a vibrant paradise to a desolate, radiation-filled Planet scorched by the harsh light of its star.
[But where there is light, there must be shadow.]
[In a corner of the galaxy, a race called the 'Necron' struggled in agony.]
The audience saw a group of creatures shaped like withered bones with ulcerated skin.
They built grand tombs upon the Earth because, for them, Death was a more enduring existence than life.
[Their home Planet was cursed by a malicious star.]
[Intense radiation penetrated their atmosphere and was etched into their genes.]
[Their lives were short and painful, filled with disease and torment. In this race's culture, the living were merely reserves for the dead, and tombs were more glorious than cities.]
[They were jealous. They were hateful.]
[When they piloted ships full of sorrow out of their home system and encountered the Old Ones, who possessed near-eternal lifespans, this jealousy turned into deep-seated hatred.]
[The Necron begged the Old Ones for the secret of immortality, for a cure to their genetic curse. But the Old Ones... refused.]
[And so, the 'War in Heaven' broke out.]
On the screen, countless Necron fleets launched suicidal charges against the Old Ones.
But this was not a war at all; it was a massacre.
The Old Ones, masters of the Webway and psychic technology, easily drove the Necron back to their radiation-filled cage.
[Despair.]
[Absolute despair.]
[Just as the Necron faced extinction, and as this despair and hatred fermented to the extreme, they discovered another ancient existence at the heart of their star.]
The light on the screen became distorted and blinding.
Deep within the star that had poisoned the Necron for eons, a cluster of greedy consciousnesses feeding on stellar energy was writhing.
[The C'tan.]
[The personification of physical laws, the Vampires of the material Universe. They were ancient and powerful, yet hungry because they lacked physical forms.]
[The Necron forged bodies of living metal for them, welcoming them as gods.]
[And one of them, known as 'The Deceiver,' made a promise to the ruler of the Necron—the Silent King—that could not be refused.]
The screen focused on the Silent King's face, etched with pain and longing.
"As long as you give up this weak flesh and accept the blessing of metal, you shall gain eternal life. You will no longer suffer from radiation, and you will have the power to take revenge on the Old Ones."
[The Silent King agreed.]
The following images sent a chill through the marrow of every viewer across the Worlds.
Massive Bio-transference furnaces were constructed.
Countless Necron lined up, walking into the green flames like the walking dead.
They entered as pained bodies of flesh and blood.
They emerged as cold, silent, soulless metal skeletons.
[This was—Bio-transference.]
[They did indeed gain immortality. But the price... was their souls.]
[Except for a very few high-ranking nobles who retained their self-awareness (though it was also distorted), the vast majority of Necron commoners had their consciousness completely erased during the transformation, becoming cold killing programs that only obeyed Orders.]
[The Necron died. Born from their ashes were—the Necrons.]
In the footage, an endless metal Legion, wielding green Gauss Weapons capable of decomposing matter directly into atoms, launched another attack on the Old Ones under the leadership of the C'tan in their physical shells.
This time, the Old Ones lost.
The C'tan fed on stars, and the Necrons were immortal and indestructible.
The Old Ones' psychic shields were useless against the absolute erasure of physical laws.
[To reverse their defeat, the Old Ones made a decision. A decision that destroyed themselves and the entire future of the Milky Way.]
[They began to frantically use genetic engineering to create races with powerful psychic talents to serve as weapons of war.]
Images flashed by: a group of tall, green giants filled with a desire for combat, born purely for war—those were the ancestors of the Orks, the 'Krork.'
A group of elegant, highly psychic beings capable of harnessing the power of the Warp—those were the 'Aeldari.']
[The Old Ones unleashed powers they could not control.]
[Billions of psychic creatures were thrown into the battlefield. Their anger, pain, fear, and hatred... these intense emotions, like tsunamis, frantically battered the once-calm 'sea of souls.']
The Warp on the screen began to boil violently.
The clear lake water turned into a murky sea of blood.
The gentle aurora became a soul-tearing storm.
[The war lasted for millions of years. Endless Death and the abuse of psychic power completely polluted the Warp.]
[The sea of souls... boiled.]
[Those once-harmless Warp native organisms, nourished by negative emotions, mutated into greedy predators—the prototypes of demons.]
[Terrifying creatures known as 'Enslavers' surged from Warp rifts, controlling Psykers and turning the material Universe into a slaughterhouse.]
[The Old Ones, these great creators, ultimately did not die at the hands of the Necrons, but were swallowed by the Warp backlash they had personally created.]
The screen froze on the burning ruins of the galaxy.
Although the Necrons won the war, they found they had been deceived by the C'tan and had lost their souls.
The Silent King betrayed the C'tan at the final moment, shattering these gods into countless shards and imprisoning them to be used as batteries.
But looking at the shattered galaxy ravaged by Warp storms, and looking at the rising, vibrant Aeldari, the Silent King knew that the era of the Necrons had ended.
[And so, the Silent King ordered: The Great Sleep.]
[All Necrons entered stasis tombs to sleep for sixty million years. Waiting for the Aeldari to decline, waiting for the galaxy to calm, waiting... for the day they would wake again to harvest all living things.]
The footage finally rested on those countless pyramid tombs lying deep underground, flickering with eerie green light.
[This is the truth of why the Warp fell.]
[Not because of a god's curse, but because of a war that spanned the stars. It was the hatred, pain, and abused psychic power of living beings that personally turned heaven... into hell.]
The flames of war from sixty million years ago have long since been extinguished, but the embers they left behind—the boiling Warp, the soulless metal undead, and the shattered yet still screaming C'tan shards within the laws of physics—form the most basic background of this Universe today.
This is no longer just a story about 'war.'
This is a horror story about the 'nature of the Universe.'
For the audience in front of the screen, what suffocated them most was not the Necrons' Gauss Weapons, nor the Old Ones' psychic storms, but the gradually clear yet despairing logical loop.
In this Universe, no matter which direction you flee, what awaits you are predators with their maws wide open.
DC Universe
Dead silence.
A dead silence heavier than ever before weighed down on the Justice League's meeting table.
Even the Flash's fingers, which never seemed to stop moving, were now stiffly resting on the table.
"So..."
Superman, the Son of Krypton with a body of steel and a heart always full of sunshine, now sounded incredibly dry, as if his throat were filled with the dust of his home Planet's explosion.
"...In this Universe, there simply is no'safe' place, is there?"
He looked up, and for the first time, those deep blue eyes revealed a sense of confusion toward 'existence' itself.
"If we look toward the Warp, there are Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch—it is a mental purgatory, home to evil gods who torture souls."
"If we turn around and try to find refuge in physical reality, trying to embrace science and reason..."
Superman pointed at the hideous face of the C'tan on the screen, composed of stellar energy, his finger trembling slightly.
"...There are the C'tan. They are the incarnations of physical laws, the masters of reality. But they... they actually feed on the souls of living beings!"
"The spiritual World wants to corrupt your soul, and the material World wants to devour your soul."
"Is this the truth of that Universe?"
Wonder Woman Diana's voice was filled with grief and indignation; the Lasso of Truth in her hand seemed so powerless now.
"In our World, though the gods may have disputes, and though there may be madmen like Ares."
"But Mother Gaia, Zeus, and even Hades at least maintain the basic Order of the Universe."
"They wouldn't... treat 'eating people' as the fundamental logic of how the Universe operates!"
"It's not just about eating people, Diana."
Batman's voice came from the shadows, low like an echo from a tomb.
The screen in front of him was frantically comparing data between Darkseid and the C'tan, but the conclusions drawn made his heart turn cold.
"What Darkseid wants is the 'anti-life equation'; he wants control, he wants enslavement. That is the logic of a tyrant."
"But these C'tan... and those Chaos Gods... their logic is 'predation'."
Batman stood up, his black cape unfurling behind him, yet it could not shield him from the oncoming chill.
"This is a complete 'dark forest'. No, it's worse than that. In a dark forest, hunters at least hide themselves. But in that Universe, the hunters are the forest itself."
"The Warp is acid, and the material Universe is a meat grinder. Humanity... or rather, all intelligent life, is merely meat scraps caught between these two millstones."
"There is no merciful God, and no one to maintain Order. There is only a pack of hungry sharks fighting over a leaking fish tank."
The heroes of the Justice League fell into silence.
They were used to fighting supervillains and used to saving the World.
But if the 'World' itself is the source of malice, and if the 'laws of physics' themselves exist only as stomach acid to digest you, then how do you save it?
And to whom could you even cry for help?
"Heh..."
A cold laugh with a heavy, raspy voice broke the heroes' contemplation.
John, the rogue mage who dared to deceive even Hell, was leaning in the corner, playing with that lighter that always seemed to bring misfortune.
"Click."
The flame flickered up, illuminating his face, which was etched with mockery and deep-seated fear.
"You bunch of spandex-wearing Boy Scouts have finally understood a tiny bit of the surface."
Constantine blew out a smoke ring, the smoke twisting in the air as if influenced by that dark Universe.
"But that's not even the worst of it, boys."
He walked to the conference table and tapped the starry sky on the screen with a cigarette-clutching finger.
"Think about it with your pathetic common sense of magic. The Warp corresponds to souls; that's the turf of those four bastards. The material Universe corresponds to matter; that's the turf of those glowing Vampires—the C'tan."
"Seems full, doesn't it? It looks like a perfect, albeit disgusting, closed-loop ecosystem, right?"
Constantine took a sharp drag of his cigarette, his eyes becoming exceptionally piercing—the look of a gambler revealing his hole cards, a look he only showed when facing the most terrifying demon lords.
"Wrong! Dead wrong!"
"I've spent so many years messing around in Hell that I've learned one truth: when a mess looks like it's reached its absolute limit, when it's so rotten it can't get any worse, it usually means... there's an even bigger bucket of shit being dumped on top of it, and you just haven't seen it yet."
He pointed to the seemingly empty edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.
"Think about it. Those four Lokis are busy playing a Battle Royale in the Warp, while these C'tan are busy having a buffet in reality. They've turned this Milky Way Galaxy into something like a blood-soaked slaughterhouse."
"With such a massive commotion... such a thick scent of blood... do you think the things in other parts of this Universe, the real things wandering in the deep darkness, won't smell it?"
Constantine's voice dropped low, carrying a hair-raising sense of prophecy.
"I know the nature of that Universe all too well. It will never just prepare two cups of poisoned wine for you. It wants nothing more than to block off all your paths."
"Since the Warp has Loki and reality has the C'tan... then what about outside the Warp and reality? What about in the void beyond the Milky Way Galaxy?"
"If physical rules can be malicious, and if spiritual energy can be malicious... then what about 'biological instinct'? What about 'evolution' itself?"
Constantine shivered; he seemed to see, through the screen, some kind of unstoppable shadow approaching the Milky Way Galaxy—a pure hunger he had never encountered even in his countless nightmares.
"Believe me, Bats. This Universe definitely contains more than just the things we're seeing right now."
"There's definitely something else. Something more primal, more pure, completely irrational—something even Loki and the C'tan find troublesome."
"For example... a cosmic-level locust that exists only to 'eat'?"
"In this godforsaken place, nothing is impossible, as long as it's desperate enough and disgusting enough."
Constantine stubbed out his cigarette, grinding it hard into the table as if it were some kind of insect.
"That World is truly invincible. If Hell had rankings, that place would definitely be the VIP supreme suite. Even Lucifer would have to offer a smoke if he went there."
Marvel Universe
Tony, the Iron Man who stood among gods with a mortal body, was currently slumped in his chair.
Jarvis's holographic projection flickered frantically around him, attempting to analyze the energy composition of the 'C'tan', but every attempt ended in a red 'Unknown Error'.
"This isn't scientific... this is completely unscientific..."
Tony muttered to himself. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey, only to find his hands shaking so much he couldn't even unscrew the cap.
"Physical rules... they are the foundation of the Universe."
"Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong and weak nuclear forces... they should be neutral! They should be cold, objective tools that anyone can use!"
"That is my confidence as 'Iron Man'! As long as I master the formulas, as long as I build the reactor, I can harness these forces!"
Tony suddenly smashed the wine bottle onto the floor, the sound of shattering glass echoing through the lab.
"But that Universe tells me... physical rules are sentient?"
"And they're fucking malicious?!"
He pointed at the C'tan on the screen that was devouring a star, his eyes filled with the fear of being betrayed.
"Imagine, Steve. When you swing your shield, Aerodynamics wants to kill you."
"When you fire a gun, the Gunpowder chemical reaction wants to eat your soul."
"When you rely on Gravity to stand on the ground, Gravity itself is tasting you like a dessert."
"This isn't us fighting bad guys. This is us fighting 'existence' itself!"
"If even objective laws become enemies that want to kill you... then what are scientists?"
"We aren't exploring the truth; we are... we are performing an autopsy on a demon, and the demon is still awake!"
Beside him, Dr. Banner took off his glasses. His face, which usually bore an air of gentleness and timidity, was now filled with despair.
As the host of the Hulk, he understood better than anyone that 'power comes with a curse', but the existence of the C'tan had shattered his final line of defense.
"Tony, it's worse than that."
Banner's voice trembled as he pointed to the Necrons who had been converted into soulless machines.
"Look at those Necrons. They sought immortality; they sought to escape the pain of the flesh. This should have been a victory for technology, the end-point of evolution."
"But the result? This so-called 'ascension' was just selling their souls to the Vampires of physical law."
"In our Universe, because of Gamma rays, I became the Hulk. Though it's painful, at least I'm still alive, and the Hulk at least has emotions. But there..."
Banner clutched his head as if he could feel the agonizing pain of a soul being stripped away.
"...Technology is no longer a tool; it's a trap."
"The more you pursue progress, the more you want to use technology to transform yourself, the closer you get to the C'tan's dinner table."
"The'science' of that Universe is itself a giant snare. The C'tan are the hunters hiding behind the formulas."
"The wisdom we take pride in has become the shovel we use to dig our own graves."
Doctor Strange floated in mid-air, the Eye of Agamotto spinning frantically on his chest, as if wanting to reverse time and erase everything he had just seen.
"Dormammu..."
Strange whispered the name of that Dark Dimension lord.
"I once thought Dormammu was the ultimate in greed."
"He wanted to devour Earth and pull it into the Dark Dimension. But he is at least someone who can be 'traded' with, someone who can be bound by rules."
"But these things..."
Strange looked at those C'tan and the Chaos Gods surging within the Warp.
"The Warp has Loki who tortures souls, and the material World has the C'tan who devour souls. It's like a meticulously designed, double-encrypted cage of despair."
"Whether you practice magic and try to ascend spiritually (the Warp), or study technology and try to strengthen your physical body (the material World)—no matter which path you take, standing at the end is a monster with its mouth open, waiting for you to walk right in."
"So in that World, no matter the angle or the method, you will find an existence that holds absolute malice toward life, right?"
Strange shook his head with a bitter smile, and the magic array in his hands dissipated.
"We have the Living Tribunal, Eternity, and Infinity."
"Though they are aloof and high above, they maintain the balance of the Universe. The Universe has 'axioms'."
"But there... the axiom of the Universe is 'malice'."
"That Emperor... I finally understand why he wanted to establish the 'Imperial Truth', why he wanted to deny all gods."
Strange looked at the lonely golden figure on the screen, his eyes showing a trans-dimensional respect for the first time.
"Because in that World, as soon as you acknowledge that a 'God' exists, you've lost. As soon as you pray outward, the only thing that will ever answer you is a demon."
"In a room full of demons, he tried to forcibly use mortal will to hold up even one square meter of pure land called 'Atheism'."
"He wasn't stripping away faith. He was... cutting the phone lines that lead humans to Hell."
"It is simply... the most tragic of doomed-to-fail self-rescues."
In this moment, whether it was the Iron Man who believed in science or the Sorcerer Supreme who believed in magic, they both felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
Facing a Universe where everything from physical constants to spiritual dimensions was written with the words 'Drop Dead'—besides burning oneself like the Emperor or turning into a soulless stone like those Necrons—is there really a third path for life?