As Kody watched the corrupted machines clearing away the troublesome stragglers, he noticed something unexpected.
On several corrupted constructs—and even on some electronic demons—he saw markings that unmistakably belonged to the God of Art.
The familiar sigils made Kody, a fanatical devotee of the God of Art, hesitate in confusion. His expression twisted with conflict as his mind drifted back to an event tens of thousands of years earlier.
Back then, he had once seen the same mark on a Warp-spawned creature known as an Eldrazi. At that time, the Aeldari had never even heard of the God of Art, let alone worshipped Him.
Not long after, those Eldrazi had departed the galaxy entirely. To Kody's knowledge, they had vanished into regions beyond the Milky Way, and few—if any—had been seen since. Even the Aeldari, with their far-reaching influence, had rarely encountered them again.
Later, in some ancient text dating back hundreds of millions of years, Kody found references to something resembling the Deathblossom. That record spoke of a terrible deity known as the Crimson King
Piecing these fragments together, Kody could not help but form a startling suspicion:
'Could the God of Art actually be one of the Chaos Gods?'
It was the only explanation for why His mark appeared on so many Warp demons.
As natural psykers, the Aeldari had only a shallow understanding of the Chaos Gods. They knew them to be rulers of the Warp and the source of all daemonkind, but little else. They were aware the Chaos Gods were vastly stronger than themselves, but not by how much.
Just as Orsaga saw Ra as a frog in a well, so too were the Aeldari deities merely larger frogs in a slightly bigger well. Having never truly suffered under the hand of the Chaos Gods, the Aeldari still clung to the naïve belief that while the Chaos Gods were stronger, the gap could not be infinite.
In such ignorance, Kody could not fully comprehend what it meant if the God of Art truly was a Chaos God. He only thought, with growing awe, that his deity might be far more powerful than anyone suspected.
And so, suspecting that the corrupted machines might in fact be "his own," Kody hesitated briefly before issuing a direct order to his fleet:
"Replace all banners with the sigil of the Deathblossom!"
The Aeldari crews were stunned. Those who also worshipped the God of Art obeyed immediately, while others—followers of different gods—hesitated. Yet Kody's command was absolute. Soon, the entire Fourth Fleet flew the Deathblossom as its standard.
Hidden among the corrupted machines, the electronic demons—originally ready to clash with the Aeldari—paused in shock. Many of those sworn to Orsaga blinked in surprise.
"Are they… allies?"
The demons knew far better than the Aeldari what the sigil meant: a channel of the Lord of Mutation's power. To display it casually was dangerous—often fatal. After brief but heated exchanges, Orsaga's faction of demons decided to test the signal.
Within minutes, both sides confirmed each other's identity.
To the disgust of rival Chaos factions, Orsaga's demons immediately struck an alliance with Kody's fleet. With mercenary efficiency, they helped the Aeldari hunt down other corrupted machines and enemy demons.
Betrayal came swiftly, precise and ruthless. The Orsaga-aligned demons even revealed their rivals' retreat plans to the Aeldari. As a result, in just a few short days, nearly all corrupted machines were wiped out—save for those loyal to Orsaga.
The fallout was catastrophic. Human cyborgs and uncorrupted AIs were forced into a cruel choice: swear allegiance to the Lord of Evolution, or face extermination at the hands of the Aeldari.
Months later.
The victors divided their spoils. The mutation-aligned demons returned to the Warp with rich harvests, delighted with their first profitable venture. They would soon march to the front lines against the Eldrazi and the Tyranids to refine their gains.
The Aeldari, meanwhile, flaunted their strength across the galaxy, eliminating a dangerous emerging threat and further cementing their dominance.
But for others, the cost was ruin. Rival factions of electronic demons had lost a valuable investment, though their true selves in the Warp remained unharmed. The mortal races, however—including humanity—suffered grievously. Many were shattered, some pushed to the brink of extinction.
Before leaving realspace, the mutation demons—at Kody's tacit suggestion—unleashed a final weapon: a virulent data-virus. This corruption erased entire archives, twisted research pathways, and sabotaged entire branches of science.
Civilizations that had once thrived on cybernetics, advanced AI, or hybrid technologies suddenly found their knowledge crippled. Critical breakthroughs were lost, once-mastered fields became alien, and technologies turned unstable or dangerous.
The result was a technological collapse. Humanity and many other advanced species fell into regression, centuries or millennia of progress reduced to ashes. The age of machines faltered, leaving the galaxy weaker and vulnerable.
The winners departed smiling. The losers faced decline, their proud achievements reduced to confusion, chaos, and ruin.
....
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