Chapter 106 The Collapse of the T'au Empire (3)

Behind the scenes, Vane had Big E temporarily step in for Goddess T’au’va, flexing enough cosmic muscle to scare off the Warp demons and allow the T’au fleet to safely navigate the wormhole again. At the same time, he used statues of Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh to bestow a chaotic blessing upon Shadowsun, granting her the unique power to completely sever the Rangdan’s macro-psychic tether.

Once they used the wormhole to reestablish comms with the T’au homeworlds, Shadowsun received a massive, horrifying data-dump of messages from the core sectors.

It wasn’t just the Chalnath Expanse experiencing mass psyker awakenings; the homeworlds were seeing a massive spike in them too. However, their fate was far more gruesome than anything happening out on the fringe.

The Supreme Ethereal, Aun’Va, had personally handed down a draconian kill order: any T’au citizen who awakened psychic powers was to be executed without hesitation. The sheer ruthlessness of the widespread purges made even the Imperium of Man look tame.

Shadowsun had still harbored a tiny sliver of doubt, but after witnessing the utter bloodbath unfolding across the homeworlds, she completely bought into the truth revealed by the Changer of Ways and her late master.

And so, she decided to rebel against the Ethereals.

First, Shadowsun shared the horrifying truth with her most trusted Fire Warriors. Utilizing her new blessing, she severed their psychic tethers, shattering the rose-tinted filter of absolute loyalty to the Ethereals, and rallied them to her cause.

Next, she cornered Aun’La directly, interrogating him about the true origins of the Ethereals.

That stunt completely crossed Aun’La’s bottom line. The Ethereal, who usually maintained a calm and grandfatherly facade, flew into a violent rage. He immediately ordered his Honour Guard to arrest Shadowsun and throw her in the brig to await execution.

But Shadowsun didn’t just surrender. She fought back with lethal precision. Leaning on her combat skills, she slaughtered the Ethereal Honour Guard and drove her blade straight through Aun’La’s chest.

Aun’La stared down at the sword protruding from his torso, his face contorted in sheer disbelief.

“How… is this possible?”

By all logic, any creature that believed in the Greater Good was physically and mentally incapable of harming an Ethereal.

“Your mind control doesn’t work on me anymore,” Shadowsun stated coldly, slowly wrenching the blade free.

“Is the current reality really that bad? Every species was guaranteed a bright, unified future. Why did you have to ruin it?” the dying Aun’La gasped out, his voice laced with desperate confusion.

Shadowsun was completely unfazed. She just stood there, watching the life drain out of his eyes.

“The current reality seemed perfect, but it was nothing but a lie.”

“I never once thought about betraying the Empire. We fought together to drive out the Imperium’s lapdogs, conquered ignorant worlds side by side, and spread the glory of the Greater Good.”

“But you never actually intended to offer us salvation. You just used the Greater Good as a tool to achieve your own twisted agenda.”

“I absolutely refuse to let you destroy everything we’ve built. I won’t let you mock the blood and sweat of my people.”

“I’m going to start a war. I’ll purge every last one of you and give the T’au a true rebirth. And if I fail, then I’ll let every single world burn.”

After flatlining Aun’La, Shadowsun rapidly rallied her most trusted officers, systematically severing the Rangdan’s macro-psychic link binding them.

Once the T’au officers got their free will back, they looked back at their interactions with Aun’La and realized how wildly unnatural it all was. The Ethereals would do the most mundane things or say basic sentences, yet it had somehow filled the officers with overwhelming, fanatical devotion.

Completely free from the psychic brainwashing, Shadowsun effortlessly raised a massive rebel army determined to overthrow Aun’Va. They took the wormhole straight back to the T’au homeworlds, fully intent on purging the Ethereals and rescuing their brainwashed brethren.

When Warp demons started using newly awakened T’au psykers as meat-portals to pour into realspace and slaughter millions, the core tenets of the Greater Good came under heavy fire. Forced into a corner, the Ethereals had to order brutal, bloody crackdowns and sweeping media blackouts. Faced with the true horrors of the Warp, this newborn species defaulted to the exact same authoritarian playbook as the Imperium of Man. Shadowsun’s grand rebellion was just the final, fatal blow to this xeno empire that once dreamed of replacing humanity.

As Shadowsun’s blade butchered the Ethereals scattered across the empire, the macro-psychic network they had established completely collapsed. The rosy filter blinding the T’au populace shattered with it. Everyone collectively woke up, realizing just how messed up the whole situation was, and completely bought into Shadowsun’s crusade.

Of course, in the core sectors where the Ethereals still held firm control, the local T’au citizens—despite suffering under brutal purges—still blindly swallowed the propaganda that “Shadowsun is a traitor,” eagerly vowing to shed their last drop of blood in Aun’Va’s name.

Just as the T’au civil war exploded into full swing, Vane received a shiny new system prompt confirming his mission was complete.

[Congratulations on completing the quest: Defeat the T’au Empire and crush their ambitions of challenging Humanity’s galactic dominance. Reward: Conquest Progress +10%. Title Acquired: The Eternal Enemy of the T’au.]

“Looks like my logic was spot on,” Vane mused. “The quest just told me to defeat the T’au Empire. It never said I had to do it with a conventional war.”

It was like Vane had just unlocked a whole new world of possibilities. Maybe speedrunning this universe didn’t require him to just murder everything in his path after all.

“I’ve made up my mind. From now on, I’m ditching Khorne and rolling with Tzeentch. It’s time to be a full-time troll.”

Vane muttered internally as he checked the system.

[New Conquest Quest Acquired: Eradicate the Cancer of the Galaxy – The Ork Menace.]

[The warmongering Orks have become the absolute nightmare of every race in the galaxy. Any civilization attempting to develop in peace must eventually face this horde of battle-crazed lunatics. Please find a way to resolve the Ork threat and restore the galaxy to its former peace.]

[Reward: Conquest Progress +10%. Title Acquired: I am the Strongest, da most WAAAGH! Entity in Existence.]

Just like I thought, Vane noted. The upcoming quests are all about wiping out the galaxy’s major factions.

I bet the final boss quest is going to be an all-out war against the four Chaos Gods.

Vane decided to go deal with the Orks first and check back in on the T’au Empire’s grand finale later. Honestly, knowing how these things usually dragged out, Vane was pretty sure he’d finish conquering the whole galaxy before the T’au civil war even managed to crown a winner.

Let them duke it out for now, he figured. When I get tired of adventuring in other universes later, I can always pop back in with some popcorn and watch the rest of the show.

Vane stared at the quest prompt, wracking his brain on how to actually pull this off.

The Orks were biological weapons engineered by the Old Ones. They had Old One tech literally hardcoded right into their DNA. When Orks gather in massive numbers to fight a powerful foe, the ambient psychic field unlocks deeper, dormant genetic memories. This causes Mekboyz to suddenly “remember” how to build gargants, teleportation devices, and planet-cracking weaponry. Throw in their totally broken fungal reproductive cycle, where a single leftover spore could spawn an entire green tide, and it was a logistical nightmare. Even if the Tyranid Swarm rolled through, they wouldn’t be able to eat them fast enough to wipe them out completely.

Trying to wipe out the Orks through conventional warfare is basically impossible, Vane thought. And even if it was doable, it would take absolutely forever.

Vane definitely didn’t want to waste the next few millennia playing whack-a-mole with greenskins. He’d rather jump into a woodchipper.

“Let’s hit up the Black Library,” Vane decided. “They should definitely have some heavily classified intel on the Orks in there.”

Rumor had it that the Black Library was a creation of the Old Ones. It housed the collected knowledge of the entire universe and was hidden deep within the Webway. It was so insanely well-hidden that normal people had zero chance of ever finding it. Ahriman, the Chief Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, had been hunting for it for thousands of years and still hadn’t even found the front door.

But for Vane, that was basically a non-issue.

He could just have Eldrad Ulthran pull some strings, contact the Harlequin troupes, and get Cegorach—the Laughing God himself—to personally escort them to the Black Library.

If Cegorach refused, Vane would literally dig up the entire Webway, hogtie the Laughing God, and chuck him straight into Slaanesh’s domain. And the moment Slaanesh gave the word, a million daemonettes would swarm him, ensuring Cegorach would be “entertaining guests” until his legs gave out.

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