Chapter 105 The Collapse of the T'au Empire (2)

Wth guys, we received such low number of Powerstones yesterday that we dropped from Rank 20 to Rank 60.

Did something happen? why did y’all collectively decided to stop giving powerstones?

—

In a crowded public square, a T’au civilian suddenly let out an agonizing screech. Their body violently mutated, limbs twisting and snapping backwards until they were scurrying up the high walls like a rabid spider, completely feral and actively gnawing on other T’au. The sheer body-horror of the spectacle sent the surrounding citizens screaming and fleeing in pure, unadulterated terror.

The bloody chaos only stopped when a squad of fully armored Fire Warriors frantically rushed the scene and gunned the mutant down.

But this wasn’t an isolated incident. The T’au knew absolutely nothing about the Warp, yet they harbored an intense, fatal curiosity about it. This was especially true for the Earth Caste scientists—they were curious about literally everything and wanted to slap everything onto a dissection table.

It didn’t take long for them to set their sights on the Warp itself. They decided they were going to conquer this unknown dimension using sheer intellect and science, fully intent on forcing it to serve the Greater Good.

But for any arrogant fool who tries to rationally understand and conquer the Warp, the ending is always exactly the same. And the T’au Empire’s Earth Caste was no exception.

When the Earth Caste scientists decided to poke their noses into the Warp, it went exactly as poorly as you’d expect. A catastrophic explosion didn’t just blow all the researchers to kingdom come; it also ripped a literal Warp rift right open in the middle of their lab.

Endless hordes of demons poured through the tear and spilled into reality, kicking off a massive slaughterfest. They were hellbent on turning the Kel’Tyr into a full-blown Daemon World.

Shadowsun desperately tried to rally her troops and push the demonic tide back, but the numbers were literally endless. Even the heavily armed Fire Warriors in their high-tech battlesuits were getting ground down and butchered purely by attrition.

Completely backed into a corner, Shadowsun tried to tap into Ethereal Aun’La’s wisdom, begging to know what these Warp demons actually were and how to fight them.

But Aun’La? He was perfectly willing to let the entire Fifth Sphere fleet burn to ash before he leaked a single syllable of the truth.

Utterly desperate and out of options, Shadowsun secretly tracked down Vane.

“I don’t care what it takes,” she pleaded. “You have to let me see the Changer of Ways.”

Vane, naturally, agreed on the spot. He and Big E were fully prepped to scam the absolute hell out of the T’au Empire’s legendary commander.

“Physical bodies can’t cross into the Warp,” Vane explained with absolute faux-seriousness. “Only the soul can enter.”

“We have to use a ritual to detach your soul from your flesh. It’s the only way in.”

Shadowsun weighed her options in agonizing silence for a long moment before finally giving a stiff nod.

She used to mock the Imperium of Man for their blind ignorance and superstition. Who would’ve thought that today, she’d be relying on the exact same voodoo nonsense? But she had no choice. If she didn’t do this, every last T’au citizen in the Chalnath Expanse was going to end up as demon chow for those abominations.

Vane had the Tzeentch cultists set up the ritual, knocking Shadowsun into a deep, trance-like sleep. Once she was under, Vane and Big E hijacked her mindscape. Big E stepped into the role of her old mentor, Commander Puretide, while Vane took on the mantle of the Changer of Ways.

—

Shadowsun opened her eyes. She found herself standing right in the middle of the Fire Caste military academy on the Vior’la Sept world. This was the exact spot where she, the infamous traitor Commander Farsight, and their fellow student Kais had been personally trained by Commander Puretide.

She got to her feet and glanced around. The academy was completely deserted. Not a single soul in sight.

She scoured the entire campus but came up totally empty-handed. Just as she was about to check the outer perimeter, she bumped right into her old mentor at the main gates: Commander Puretide.

“It’s been a long time, O’Shaserra,” Puretide said, looking down at her.

“Master? Aren’t you… dead?” Shadowsun stared in disbelief. “I watched your body get cremated.”

“I am,” Puretide nodded slowly. “You saw exactly what you saw. But my death was actually a blessing in disguise.”

“A blessing?” Shadowsun was completely lost.

“Death delivered me straight into the embrace of the Changer of Ways. Under His divine enlightenment, I finally saw the truth.”

“The truth? What truth?”

“Words could never do it justice. Seeing is believing. Come with me, Shadowsun. I’ll take you to meet the Changer of Ways.”

Big E, perfectly wearing Puretide’s skin, ripped open a glowing dimensional tear. He led Shadowsun through the rift, stepping out into a sprawling palace carved entirely from shimmering, translucent crystal.

A massive, pulsating mound of flesh covered in countless blinking eyes dominated the very center of the room.

“Behold the Changer of Ways,” Puretide announced. “He holds absolute dominion over all knowledge in existence. Ask Him anything, and He will show you the unvarnished truth.”

Shadowsun stared at the grotesque mass of meat. Her stomach did a hard flip, but she swallowed down the bile and forced herself to ask the burning question.

“I want to know why the Ethereals are completely covering up all knowledge of this dimension.”

That question played perfectly into Big E and Vane’s hands. They had just been trying to figure out an angle to scam her with, and she served it up on a silver platter.

Vane, fully leaning into his eldritch meatball cosplay, didn’t hesitate for a second. He beamed the “truth” directly into her mind.

Shadowsun was violently yanked into a surreal, hyper-realistic illusion, where she finally witnessed the dark origins of the Ethereals.

The vision flashed back eight millennia to the T’au homeworld. Back then, the primitive T’au civilization had only just figured out how to make fire. They were fractured into squabbling tribes, constantly tearing each other apart in endless clan wars.

Then, one fateful day, a meteor plummeted from the sky, crashing down right outside a major T’au settlement.

Drawn by the deafening impact, the tribespeople gathered around the smoking crater. But it wasn’t a meteor. It was a Rangdan psychic control obelisk. As the device’s insidious frequency washed over the tribe, the primitive T’au were instantly reduced to mindless puppets. They became nothing more than brainwashed cattle, entirely repurposed as living incubators and nutrients for the Rangdan larvae.

To rebuild their strength and enact their revenge against humanity, the Rangdan engineered the Ethereals. The Ethereals possessed unnatural charisma and absolute eloquence. By tapping into the fractured, lingering remnants of the Rangdan’s macro-psychic link, they could force other creatures to subconsciously feel deep affection and reverence toward them, effectively mind-controlling them on a biological level.

And that was exactly how the T’au Empire had risen to power.

“That’s impossible. How could the Ethereals just be puppets?”

Breaking free from the illusion, Shadowsun couldn’t process what she had just witnessed. If this truth ever leaked out, the entire T’au Empire would tear itself apart overnight.

“At first, I didn’t believe it either,” Big E, perfectly mimicking Commander Puretide, said reassuringly. “But think about it carefully. There’s always been something deeply unnatural about the Ethereals.”

“They know perfectly well that the Warp contains entities our science can’t explain. So why do they push the Greater Good so fanatically while brutally suppressing all knowledge of the Warp?”

“Think about Commander Farsight’s rebellion, and everything Aun’La has been doing lately. Doesn’t it all scream that something is wrong?”

Shadowsun’s face filled with hesitation. Striking while the iron was hot, Big E pushed further.

“They definitely know about Goddess T’au’va. They also know that the Startide Nexus only allowed our ships to pass safely because of her divine protection.”

“But why have they never mentioned her? Why do they go out of their way to censor any talk of her existence? Because if the T’au Empire officially embraces Goddess T’au’va, their entire master plan goes to waste.”

“Everything they’ve built would belong to Goddess T’au’va, and the T’au race would break completely free from their psychic grip.”

Shadowsun looked at her old master, flashing back to the horrific vision she had just endured. Her eyes hardened with newfound resolve.

“Master, what should I do?”

“O’Shaserra, if you want to save our people, there’s only one way,” Big E said in Puretide’s steady voice.

“You have to break free from the Ethereals’ mind control and secure enough power to fight back against them.”

“It’s the only way you can liberate the T’au, and by extension, the rest of the galaxy.”

“And the Changer of Ways is willing to lend you that power, provided you are willing to expose the truth and walk the path of seeking true knowledge.”

Shadowsun gave a firm nod. “I understand. No matter the cost, I will save the T’au Empire.”

A long while later, Shadowsun woke from her trance and quietly departed, her expression grim but resolute.