Ghostly green gauss energy ionized the air, filling it with the scent of rust and bathing everything nearby in an emerald glow.
"Praise the Machine-Father…"
Several similarly green-glowing tech-priests emerged to welcome him, bowing with the utmost respect.
Eden nodded.
He glanced at the Xenarite Archmagos standing among them. The tech-priest had become so obsessed with Necron technology that he had modified himself beyond all recognition.
Without specialized methods of identification, most people would probably mistake him for an actual Necron.
It couldn't be helped. Heavily augmented tech-priests already looked remarkably similar to those mechanical shells, especially the ones who had transplanted Necron limbs onto themselves.
"Now that's professionalism!"
Eden had no objections whatsoever. In fact, he was extremely pleased.
This secret xenos research facility had been built specifically to study the Necrons.
If everyone here looked perfectly ordinary and respectable, that would only prove they weren't committed enough to their work—and they would deserve to be reprimanded for it.
The institute's primary project was the creation of a mechanical clone body for Eden, one he could use to carry out an important strategic operation within the Pariah Nexus.
After all, he intended to penetrate deep into enemy territory. Using a clone would be far safer than going in person. Otherwise, one stroke of bad luck might expose him to the Silent King and bring the full force of a pursuit down upon him.
The Pariah Nexus suppressed the Warp. Without his psychic powers or the ability to exercise his authorities through the Immaterium, Eden would have difficulty contending with endless mechanical legions and ancient technological weapons.
The Silent King could easily lead his forces in ganging up on him, and taking that risk simply wasn't worth it.
Besides, Eden's purpose in entering the Pariah Nexus was to spread an emotional virus, deceive the Necrons, and instigate ideological subversion. He intended to detonate the contradictions within Necron society, then use the resulting chaos to wrest power from the Silent King.
Going there as a human would only work against him. It would be far better to masquerade as a Necron with a mechanical clone body.
Once the conditions were right and internal conflict had weakened the Necrons even further, his true body could lead the expedition and launch an all-out war.
"Machine-Father, the clone body you requested has been fully modified. It can be activated at any time."
Fanaticism colored the Xenarite Archmagos's mechanical voice, along with unmistakable envy.
"Without question, it is the pinnacle of mechanical augmentation—a peerless creation. Never before have I seen such a perfect body."
If the project hadn't been classified at the highest level and tied to the fate of humanity itself, he would have been tempted to skim off a few research materials and use them to upgrade his own body.
To the Adeptus Mechanicus, a research director who didn't siphon off at least a little of the project budget was no true research director.¹
It was one of the famous sayings of Cawl, Supreme Archmagos and Lord of the Black Mechanicus.
Fortunately, the great Savior and Machine-Father had already promised that if they could cultivate and modify a mechanical clone body to his satisfaction, their institute would receive even more Necron research materials.
They might even be granted an intact, high-ranking Tomb World to use as a research base.
Eden and the Xenarite Archmagos boarded a Catacomb Command Barge and traveled deeper into the institute.
It was an advanced Necron personal skimmer that could also function as a command amplifier. Two Necrons were hardwired directly into the barge, responsible for piloting it and carrying out the appropriate commands.
In simple terms, it was the Necron equivalent of a supercar, though this model was only Lord-tier. In Eden's eyes, that made it a low-end product.
As the Catacomb Command Barge advanced, ancient tomb structures gradually appeared along both sides of the passage, along with numerous Necron constructs.
Wave after wave of Canoptek Spyders moved among them, maintaining the systems that kept the entire area operational.
If not for the tech-priests moving back and forth, anyone arriving here would have assumed they had entered a Necron tomb complex.
In truth, this research institute had been built from part of an actual Tomb World. It also possessed vast quantities of advanced Necron constructs and technology, making it wealthier than many ordinary Tomb Worlds.
Eden's Greenskin Tomb-Raiding Fleet had spent years excavating Necron dynastic graves across the galaxy and had dug up quite a few valuable treasures.
In doing so, they had provided the Imperium's Necron technology division with invaluable research materials.
"Archmagos, will this mechanical clone truly allow me to pass as a Necron?" Eden asked. "That will be the key to the entire operation's success."
He was going into the Silent King's domain to play the prophet and persuade the Necrons that he could help them regain their souls. Under no circumstances could his disguise be exposed halfway through.
If the Necrons realized too soon that they had been deceived, their fury and inevitable backlash would destroy the entire plan.
"By the Machine Goddess, there are almost no meaningful differences between this mechanical clone and a true Necron. The body itself was modified using materials taken from Necron specimens.
"Furthermore, we have coated its interior with thick layers of blackstone and installed an anti-detection field. No entity will be able to discern the secrets within unless the mechanical clone is physically dissected."
The Xenarite Archmagos's electronic voice remained perfectly steady. He displayed no emotional reaction to the Savior and Machine-Father questioning his work.
He had absolute confidence in his xenos technology.
The Archmagos asked expectantly, "Machine-Father, when will we depart?"
Once the strategic operation began, the institute would be able to accompany the great Savior into the Pariah Nexus, conquer its Necron inhabitants, and obtain fresh research materials firsthand.
The region's endless mysteries were waiting for them to explore.
That was why, the moment Eden—the Savior and Machine-Father—summoned them, these arrogant and reclusive tech-priests had hurried out of their tomb chambers to welcome him with almost comical enthusiasm.
"If the mechanical clone can function properly, we'll depart immediately," Eden said. "We don't have much time."
Something occurred to him, and his brow furrowed slightly.
Unfortunately, Zabok, who had been responsible for spreading the emotional virus, had gone missing. Not a single message had reached them.
That left Eden in a somewhat passive position and greatly increased the difficulty of carrying out the strategic plan.
Several years ago, he had recruited the Necron Phaeron Zabok and his dynasty, infected them with the emotional virus, and used them as the foundation for establishing the Sacred Soul Cult.
The Sacred Soul Cult primarily worshiped a new god: Pluto, the God of the Underworld, a false identity assumed by the Sun of Hope.
According to the cult's most fundamental doctrine, when Pluto—the God of the Underworld who governed life and souls—finally awakened, all who worshiped him would have their souls and bodies restored.
For the many Necrons who longed to recover their souls and possess bodies of flesh once again, this was a tremendous and nearly irresistible temptation.
More importantly, once these Necrons began worshiping the Sacred Soul Cult and its new god, the emotional virus would produce the illusion of a stirring soul within them.
That alone was enough to drive some Necrons into fanatical devotion.
According to Eden's current research, most Necron Lords, Overlords, and Phaerons retained basic consciousness and logical reasoning, aside from those high-ranking Necrons who had gone completely insane.
Some still obeyed the codes of honor of the ancient nobility. They were exceedingly civilized and would even issue formal declarations of war, refusing to attack until the other side had acknowledged the challenge.
Other high-ranking Necrons were arrogant racial supremacists. They busied themselves purging "inferior species" from their territories while proclaiming Necron supremacy and insisting that every other form of life should be enslaved.
They were the Silent King's most loyal supporters and yearned to make the Necron Empire great again.
Then there were the disengaged high-ranking Necrons, led by Trazyn the Infinite—the so-called Figurine King—who devoted themselves entirely to their personal interests. Some collected artifacts, some conducted research, and others obsessed over renovating their tomb complexes.
They couldn't have cared less whether the Necron Empire was great.
Finally, there was a vast group of high-ranking Necrons obsessed with finding biological bodies and reversing biotransference. Some of them even protected all forms of life, making them the Necron equivalent of conservationists.
Naturally, the views of these Necron factions overlapped in certain areas, particularly when it came to reversing biotransference.
These differences were why the Necrons remained divided and had failed to reunite into one vast empire.
Their objectives were fundamentally different and sometimes directly opposed. They lacked the cultural consensus needed to work together.
That made true unity almost impossible.
The Silent King had certainly noticed these problems as well. In all likelihood, he was already attempting to resolve them and forge a new consensus.
Once he succeeded, he could establish a new Necron Empire.
Constructing the Pariah Nexus was likely one element of that strategy. The Silent King hoped to use an external war to promote internal unity.
Eden's plan was to use the Sacred Soul Cult to win over as many Necrons as possible who yearned for flesh, souls, and a reversal of biotransference, along with the various neutral factions.
He would unite those forces against the Silent King.
"Hopefully, Zabok has already begun his missionary work and laid the groundwork for me," Eden thought. "It would be troublesome if I had to start from nothing."
Originally, he had been extremely confident in this strategic operation. The Sacred Soul Cult's system was remarkably comprehensive, and its activities were organized around a multilevel faith-distribution model.
Simply put, the more beings who worshiped the new god Pluto, the faster that entity would awaken.
Furthermore, the more gospels a missionary spread and the more believers they recruited, the greater the favor they would receive.
After the new god awakened, the souls and bodies of the most successful missionaries would be restored to a more complete and abundant state. Unbelievers, meanwhile, would not only be denied the restoration of their souls but would instead fall into the Mechanical Abyss.
It was a system perfectly designed for viral expansion.
Yet after the missionary Zabok led the Kalozasa Dynasty into the Pariah Nexus, all contact with him had ceased.
That had shaken Eden's confidence. He was worried that Zabok might have been destroyed by opponents during his missionary work.
After all, that kindhearted and increasingly humanized Phaeron wasn't particularly powerful by the standards of other Necron Phaerons.
Eden considered the problem for a while, then put it aside. He would learn the truth once he reached the Pariah Nexus.
For now, his greatest concern was the condition of his new mechanical clone body.
Bzzzt—
Not long afterward, Eden reached the deepest part of the tomb research facility, where even more intense ghostly gauss energy permeated the air.
At the center of a mechanical altar stood an imposing mechanical clone body more than six meters tall, radiating the aura of something ancient.
It was a mechanical body reconstructed from one of Eden's clones. Every piece of living metal used in its construction had come from the Necrons—and all of it was top-grade material.
Of course, very little remained of the clone's original flesh. Only the brain was left, concealed deep within the body and encased in blackstone. Its neural signals would be transmitted through mechanical systems, allowing it to control the body.
In simple terms, the clone's wetware brain would simulate the Necrons' consciousness-transmission signals.
Combined with the disguising effects of numerous technologies and relics, this would make Eden almost indistinguishable from a true Necron.
"Something about it doesn't feel right," Eden said as he studied the towering mechanical clone—or, more accurately, his Necron clone. "It's still missing something."
"Machine-Father, could you tell me precisely where the discrepancy lies?" The nearby Xenarite Magos hurried over and asked nervously. "It would be even better if you could express it in the form of data."
He had no idea which aspect of the project had displeased the Savior.
They had followed every requirement provided by the Savior and Machine-Father, running more than a dozen verification tests and reducing the standard deviation to below 0.1 percent. There shouldn't have been any problems.
"By the Machine Goddess, I have located the discrepancy."
A stream of data flashed across the Xenarite Archmagos's electronic eyes. He had begun rationally analyzing the Machine-Father's recorded personality traits and preferences, and soon reached an answer.
The Archmagos activated an energy device.
Layer upon layer of ghostly green flame immediately erupted across the Necron clone's body. Behind it, streams of gauss energy unfolded like a long, flowing cape.
Its presence became immensely more powerful—and far more dazzling.
The clone had already been modeled after a Necron Phaeron, particularly the Silent King, before its design was further optimized.
Now, with the addition of these high-intensity visual effects, it looked even more intimidating than other Phaerons, like some transcendent being standing far above them all.
After all, the identity Eden had prepared for this Necron clone was that of the Sacred Soul Cult's one and only divine emissary, the sole Chosen of the new god Pluto.
Such an identity demanded an impressive appearance. At the very least, he needed to distinguish himself from ordinary Necrons, especially if he wanted to confront the Silent King head-on.
"Oh, so it was missing special effects…"
Eden gazed at the visually overwhelming Necron clone and nodded in satisfaction.
He finally understood what kind of feeling he had been looking for.
As expected, the Savior and future guide of the Necron race couldn't possibly appear without some spectacular special effects.
Crackle—
Once he was satisfied, Eden immediately submerged his consciousness into the wetware brain inside the Necron clone.
The sensation was strange. He had lost his ordinary awareness of his limbs, yet the consciousness remaining within the brain could still control everything.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Eden began moving the six-meter-tall Necron clone, each step making the ground quake beneath him.
At the same time, he gained a broader field of perception and a much stronger sense of control, as though everything within the tomb facility had fallen under his command.
"So this is the phasic thought-link and its command protocols?"
Eden marveled at the sensation.
Through the decrypted Necron data core and command module, his thoughts gained a transmission speed comparable to communication through the Warp.
Every thought could be transmitted through quantum data at extraordinary speed, conveying his commands to every unit governed by a lower-level protocol.
Aside from their lack of flesh, the Necrons possessed nothing but advantages. They were practically the perfect warrior race!
Perhaps the Silent King and the others hadn't simply been deceived into biotransference. Perhaps they had sacrificed everything to win the war, destroy the Old Ones, and ensure their species' survival.
Only after they had achieved victory did they gradually begin to regret their decision.
But had they refused, the Old Ones might have annihilated their entire species. The Necrons would never have survived until the present day, much less continued causing trouble across the galaxy.
Clack, clack, clack—
At Eden's mental command, large numbers of Canoptek Spyders began moving according to his will with remarkable precision.
He had commanded the Tyranid swarm before, so the sensation wasn't unfamiliar.
Several Immortals with bodies of living metal were activated next and turned to look in his direction.
Immortals were among the Necrons' primary warrior castes. Not only were they equipped with superior weapons, but they also retained a limited degree of thought and self-awareness.
"Hey, my fellow Necrons?"
The Immortals looked confused.
A being with higher-level command authority had just addressed them in that peculiar manner.
"Ahem. Faithful ones, I am the divine emissary of the Sacred Soul Cult—the Wordless One, sole Chosen of the new god Pluto."
After testing the connection, Eden hurriedly adopted a solemn demeanor and uploaded the data concerning his new identity.
Low-ranking units in the Necron hierarchy were not entitled to true self-awareness. Eden could directly transmit information into their systems and force the Immortals to accept and obey it.
"High-level command protocol engraved. Immediate compliance initiated."
In an instant, the Immortals accepted the newly established persona and knelt before the divine emissary.
Eden nodded in satisfaction.
He raised his head and stared in the direction of the Pariah Nexus, ghostly green flames flickering in his eyes.
"It is time for us to depart, Necrontyr. Those lost lambs require the guidance of the new god…"
…
Not long afterward, in a distant region of the Webway…
A colossal Tomb Ship rose into the air, radiating a ghostly green light.
It accelerated to tremendous speed and set a course for its destination—the region known as the Pariah Nexus.
(End of Chapter)
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